Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday the U.S. aerospace and defence company Raytheon had expressed an interest in joint production of Patriot interceptors, as Kyiv seeks to bolster air defences against escalating Russian ballistic missile attacks.
"I am grateful for the company's readiness to take our partnership to an even higher level, where Ukraine would co-produce, together with Raytheon, some of the most vital air defense assets – Patriot interceptors," Zelenskiy wrote on X in English after meeting a delegation from the RTX -owned company.
Ukraine has long called for help from its Western partners in building up supplies of interceptors to down Russian ballistic missiles and sought agreement on securing a licence.
U.S. President Donald Trump said during the NATO summit in Turkey this month that Washington would grant Ukraine a licence to manufacture Patriot missile interceptors.
Zelenskiy said discussions with the Raytheon delegation, led by Vice President Joseph DeAntona, also focused on "other areas of partnership regarding non-offensive military equipment."
Zelenskiy met U.S. ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker in Kyiv on Wednesday, with the discussion focusing on licences, and said he wanted "faster action and greater support" from Kyiv's partners.
https://www.aol.com/articles/ukraines-zelenskiy-says-raytheon-wants-173756000.html
Zevra Therapeutics wasn’t always a rare disease contender. Originally known as KemPharm, the company spent years focused on prodrug technology for ADHD and pain management. Recognizing that low-margin, high-volume primary care markets were a grueling battleground, management executed a bold strategic pivot: transforming into a specialized, high-margin rare disease commercial pharma.
President Donald Trump’s headline-grabbing revelation that China has stolen 220 million Americans’ voter records is only the tip of the iceberg.
But what a tip: Chinese Communist Party servers now contain detailed dossiers — names, addresses, phone numbers, party affiliation and more — on you and me and most registered voters in the entire country.
This treasure trove enables everything from covert voter profiling, microtargeting and psy-ops, to overt recruitment, identity theft and fraud.
America woke up to China’s cyber espionage in 2015, when we learned Beijing had hacked Office of Personnel Management computers, stealing detailed security clearance forms for 22 million Americans (including mine).
Cyberattacks on everything from our phone logs to our health records have only accelerated since; China probably now knows more about us than we know about ourselves.
But it gets worse: Beijing is after our kids, too.
Tens of millions of them use TikTok, which is accused of vacuuming up their personal information while simultaneously influencing them: China good, America bad.
If you wonder why your children oppose US actions in Iran, it’s because they’re on TikTok.
And who’d have thought agents of a hostile foreign power would have the chutzpah to become top aides to American governors, as Linda Sun allegedly did for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul?
Or to set up secret police stations on our soil?
We shut down the CCP’s Manhattan station in Chinatown, but other secret police stations — disguised as community centers or cultural associations — continue to operate here.
They’re watching over American citizens and permanent residents of Chinese descent, intimidating and harassing those who criticize Beijing’s might.
Pastor Bob Fu of Midland, Texas, is only one of many Chinese-Americans who have been targeted by China’s agents.
After he spoke out against the persecution of Christians in China, crowds of demonstrators surrounded his house, shouting death threats, until the FBI intervened.
China is unfazed by the loss of a secret police station here, or a highly placed agent there.
It continues to expand its efforts, run mainly through the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Works Department, to weaken and destabilize its chief adversary — the United States.
These efforts include the constant stream of Americans who, at China’s invitation and often on China’s dime, travel to the People’s Republic to be shown the wonders that “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics” has wrought.
Many, including Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have returned from such political pilgrimages gushing praise.
American corporations doing business in China, and American universities taking millions in China-linked funding, are constantly pressured to promote CCP narratives and suppress criticism — and critics themselves.
Richard Gere’s Hollywood career took a major hit when he angered China by supporting Tibet.
And Stanford University parted company with me when my comments on China’s one-child policy so angered Beijing that it demanded I be “severely punished.”
United Front-linked groups operating in the US are so numerous that they specialize.
Some target state and local governments, others local Chinese-American communities, still others business sectors or key professions.
But the CCP is not content to play defense; it’s intent upon sowing societal chaos.
State-linked networks like Spamouflage Dragon impersonate Americans on social media to stoke divisions.
Other Chinese-controlled media, including newspapers and radio stations in the US, routinely post negative content about the United States.
It’s all meant to bend America to China’s will — suppressing criticism, capturing institutions and individuals and shaping perceptions and policies.
And to prepare for war: Why else are China-linked agents buying land next to our most sensitive military bases?
As it is, China regularly engages in out-and-out subversion.
During the Antifa riots of 2020, the Chinese consulate in Houston was shut down by the State Department after Chinese spies there had been caught recruiting agitators.
More recently, China-linked groups have been actively campaigning against data centers to hamstring American artificial intelligence and clear China’s path to AI dominance.
Chinese AI models — often connected to the PLA and trained on stolen American data — are already being used in predatory fashion, enabling China to vastly increase the sophistication, scale and speed of its hacking and cyber-espionage operations.
Allowing Chinese-made electric vehicles into the United States would expose us to rolling data-collection devices that could potentially be shut down, or even remotely controlled, from China.
In the age of AI, Americans are increasingly worried that Big Brother is watching them.
They must instead realize that the Biggest Brother of all is based in Beijing — and that its ultimate goal is not just to influence elections, but to defeat and destroy American democracy itself.
Steven W. Mosher is president of the Population Research Institute and the author of “The Devil and Communist China.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) released updated guidelines and evidence-based recommendations to help people reduce their risk of cognitive decline and dementia.
The guidelines apply to adults with normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment. They are intended primarily for healthcare providers, though they may help policymakers to support population-level interventions, the WHO said.
More than 57 million people have dementia worldwide and nearly 10 million people are diagnosed every year. Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia and is estimated to account for 60% to 70% of cases. In the U.S., the number of people with Alzheimer's disease exceeds 7 million.
Up to 45% of dementia risks can be attributed to modifiable risk factors like smoking, alcohol use, social isolation, physical inactivity, air pollution, or diseases like hypertension and diabetes, according to the WHO report.
"We know more today than ever before about what drives dementia risk, and these guidelines translate that knowledge into action," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, said in a statement.
The document updates previous WHO guidance from 2019. They recommend behaviors and interventions like cognitive training, cognitive stimulation, and engagement in social activities. They include interventions to increase physical activity, stop tobacco use, reduce alcohol consumption, and adopt a healthy diet. They also feature new recommendations to reduce air pollution exposure, to consider dietary restriction interventions for adults with overweight or obesity, and to offer tailored multidomain interventions when needed.
Managing cardiometabolic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol can help reduce dementia risk, the guidance said. Hearing aids may be part of risk-reduction strategies for some people.
The updated advice does not recommend vitamins B and E, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, or multivitamin-mineral supplements to reduce risks of cognitive decline or dementia in the absence of a diagnosed deficiency, based on moderate-certainty evidence, the WHO said.
Menopausal hormone therapy also is not recommended for specifically reducing the risks of cognitive decline or dementia in postmenopausal women ages 65 and older, based on very low-certainty evidence. For women under age 65, there was not enough evidence to make a determination, the group pointed out.
There also was not enough evidence to make recommendations about whether improving sleep or managing depression would influence cognitive decline or dementia risk, the WHO said.
Many risks addressed in the WHO guidelines overlap with those found in the 2024 report of the Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care, which showed that about 45% of dementia cases were potentially preventable by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors at different stages of life.
"The illness which is usually most feared by people is dementia," said Lancet Commission leader Gill Livingston, MD, of University College London.
"Health professionals are in the position to understand and communicate risk factors which each individual has and can change. This gives people choice and empowers them," Livingston told MedPage Today.
"Tackling risk such as physical inactivity or hearing loss improves quality of life immediately," she observed.
"In the longer term, some people will avoid dementia because of this knowledge; others will live longer in health and less long with dementia," Livingston added. "Some will still develop dementia but later. They must be offered care and support."
The new American cholesterol guideline would not make more Americans statin users per se, but instead shift the profile of people who should initiate lipid-lowering therapy to those younger and lower risk, research indicated.
Based on National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) cycles 2017-2023, an estimated 87.5 million (56.6%) nonpregnant U.S. adults age 30-79 years were statin eligible based on the 2026 guideline, including 21.5 million (13.9%) who were newly statin eligible. Newly statin-eligible populations were largely younger and lower risk than populations previously recommended statin therapy from the older guideline (mean estimated 10-year atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk 3.1% vs 6.1%).
"The 2026 dyslipidemia guideline substantially expands the U.S. population recommended for primary prevention statin therapy, predominantly in lower-risk individuals," reported a trio led by Timothy Anderson, MD, MAS, of the University of Pittsburgh, in JAMA.
"The shift to a longer view of cardiovascular disease risk is a sea change for doctors in counseling patients," Anderson said in a press release. "Before the new guidelines, people who were flagged with high cholesterol in their 30s and 40s tended to be recommended to focus on diet and exercise and were not recommended medication -- unless the patient already had heart disease or other factors that made them particularly high-risk, like diabetes."
Two accompanying studies similarly backed the finding that a large percentage of U.S. adults age 30 or older should be candidates for guideline-directed lipid-lowering therapy based on new guideline criteria.
This year's updated lipid guideline is notable for introducing the PREVENT equations as a guide for lipid-lowering therapy in primary prevention. The switch to PREVENT, known to yield risk estimates that are substantially lower than those from the older pooled cohort equations, has it that lipid-lowering therapy can now be considered with a 10-year PREVENT-ASCVD risk estimate of 3% to <5% (borderline) and should be considered for those at 5% to <10% (intermediate) 10-year risk.
One group projected that the new guideline reclassifies over one in five adults based on the PREVENT equations: two-thirds of those reassigned to lower-risk categories and one-third reassigned to higher-risk categories. Men (24.2%), Black individuals (29.6%), and current smokers (27.7%) were most frequently reassigned downward in risk, whereas women (11.1%) and individuals with diabetes (20.4%) were more often reassigned upward.
This second NHANES analysis, also in JAMA, found that the overall pool of older statin candidates would neither shrink nor grow after adoption of the PREVENT-based guideline. Using data from 1999-2020 and limited to adults age 40-79 years, investigators found that the proportion of individuals who may be recommended lipid-lowering therapy was 49.6% with the 2026 guideline versus 49.4% before the guideline, according to Allison Peng, MD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and colleagues.
"Notably, there was no significant net change in statin recommendation, suggesting that risk recalibration with PREVENT-ASCVD does not translate into fewer people recommended for evidence-based preventive therapy at the population level," the authors wrote.
Nonetheless, while the pool of overall statin candidates would stay about the same -- perhaps shifting more lower-risk -- the higher-risk cohorts were in fact the ones still furthest away from their LDL cholesterol goals, related to underuse of lipid-lowering therapy.
A third JAMA study took NHANES cycles 2021-2023 and found larger gaps in LDL cholesterol control with higher cardiovascular risk: among people age 30-79 in the primary prevention cohort, the proportion of people above the LDL cholesterol goal was an estimated 9.9% among PREVENT-estimated low-risk adults, 63.6% among borderline/intermediate-risk adults, and 82.7% among high-risk adults.
"These findings provide a contemporary population-level benchmark for the updated guideline framework," wrote Shady Abohashem, MD, MPH, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, and colleagues.
Altogether, the three studies "confirm the long-standing observation that a large percentage of U.S. adults aged 30 years or older are candidates for guideline-directed LLT [lipid-lowering therapy], and many who are currently taking LLT are not reaching new (or previous) LDL-C goals," observed JAMA editors Philip Greenland, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and Karen Lasser, MD, MPH, of Boston Medical Center.
"This is a huge public health burden for the U.S. population for a medical condition that should be highly treatable," they wrote in an editorial. "Given the large numbers of people who would be recommended for treatment following a risk-based discussion, these reports signify a major challenge, and so far, a missed opportunity, for the U.S. healthcare system."
Efforts to improve lipid treatment and control will require several fronts, they said, citing approaches such as multidisciplinary teams, patient education regarding statins and the new guidelines, and the policy of universal health insurance.
For one, statins remain key medications for high cholesterol, given their long history and accessibility. A growing number of nonstatin alternatives are available now, however, including the first oral PCSK9 inhibitor enlicitide (Lipfendra) for lowering LDL cholesterol, approved just a few days ago by the FDA.
Individual decision making will involve considering side effects, costs, and patient preferences, Anderson suggested.
"Many of my younger patients wonder why they can't put off starting treatment -- which is understandable, given they might have low risk of a cardiovascular event 10 years out -- and some likely can with a strong focus on healthy diet, exercise, and weight. But for patients seeking to fully minimize risks of heart attacks and strokes, early statin therapy may be a good choice," he said.
Disclosures
Anderson reported receiving grants from the National Institute on Aging during the conduct of the study; grants from the American Heart Association, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, CDC, and Arnold Ventures; personal fees from the American Medical Association for being an associate editor at JAMA Internal Medicine; and being a member of the 2026 dyslipidemia guideline writing committee, representing the American Geriatrics Society. Co-authors had no disclosures.
Peng disclosed receipt of grants from NewAmsterdam Pharma. Peng's co-authors disclosed relationships with Rubrum Advising, Artis Ventures, Amgen, HeartFlow, Novartis, Merck, Regeneron, Kaneka, American Heart Association, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the NIH, the Family Heart Foundation, Corrie Health, Prevent Medical, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Idorsia, NewAmsterdam, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Bayer.
Abohashem reported receiving the American Heart Association Second Century Early Faculty Independence Award. Co-authors reported relationships with industry and other entities.
Greenland disclosed receipt of NIH grants. Lasser had no disclosures.
A bill to make healthcare facilities' prices more transparent passed the Senate health committee Wednesday by a vote of 21-1, clearing the way for a vote by the full Senate.
One hundred million Americans have a combined $220 billion in medical debt, according to Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), a cosponsor of the bill.
"People go into a hospital, get what they think is a simple procedure, and they come out impoverished," he said at a Wednesday press conference. "These are people whose lives are being twisted and diminished because they've got the anxiety and the reality of insufficient healthcare."
Where all that money goes is unclear, said Hickenlooper. "It's a completely blind system. Our bill lets patients know before they go in the hospital what it's going to cost," he added.
Hickenlooper was referring to the Patients Deserve Price Tags Act, which would require public reporting of negotiated rates, costs, and cash prices for services provided at hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, imaging centers, and clinical labs.
"Put simply, we require the actual price to be shown, not just kind of how you get there," said Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD (R-La.), a cosponsor of the bill. "That's powerful for the patient."
The bill also ensures group health plans have access to claims data and prevents third-party administrators from restricting data access, according to a press release issued by Hickenlooper and Sen. Roger Marshall, MD (R-Kan.), the bill's chief sponsor. "Providers or facilities will also be required to include a detailed itemized bill of each distinct item or service, or an all-in total price for bundled items if offered to the patient as an option," according to the release.
And unlike previous executive orders on this topic issued by President Trump and President Biden, this one has teeth, said Hickenlooper. "There will be civil penalties for non-compliance. Hospitals won't be able to go out and collect debts if they are out of compliance," he said.
In addition, hospitals that are willfully noncompliant with the transparency law at least twice during a 1-year period will face penalties ranging from $500,000 to $10 million depending on their size.
The bill could make a difference on Americans' cost of living, saving families as much as $1,000 per month, according to Marshall. "Our bill forces transparency. It forces competition," he said.
"It's critical not to make this too abstract," said Cassidy, chair of the Senate health committee.
For example, a Louisiana family taking their child for an x-ray may not realize there's a facility fee associated with the x-ray.
"There's $500 on that healthcare bill that they didn't know was going to be there, and the family doesn't know how to pay for it," Cassidy said. "That's what this is about. Let's bring relief to that family who, at the end of the month, doesn't have the money to pay their bills."
Over in the House, a similar bill known as the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act passed out of the Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee last month and was referred on to the full Energy & Commerce Committee. However, Marshall called that bill a "base" bill, adding, "It's something that we included in our bill, and then we closed all the loopholes." Hickenlooper agreed, saying the Senate bill was "a little more rigorous."
"Our version is more fundamental, period," said Cassidy. "It gives employers full access to their data while maintaining strong patient protection." For instance, if a patient whose employer is self-insured goes to an out-of-network provider and the insurer pays the provider $20,000 but bills the employer $60,000, "that's exposed. The employer now knows exactly what the insurance paid for that out-of-network doctor."
https://www.medpagetoday.com/practicemanagement/reimbursement/122314
The Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) evaluated on Thursday that the maritime threat risk for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait and Southern Red Sea had increased, raising the security threat level to "substantial" amid recent attacks.
The JMIC stated in an advisory note that Yemen's Houthis' recent declarations "continue to assert that the Bab el Mandeb is closed to Saudi-affiliated vessels, reinforcing hostile intent toward vessels perceived as linked to Saudi interests," and noted that "forward-deployed missile and drone systems near Bab el Mandeb remain in place, and regional reporting indicates the group has been instructed to remain prepared to disrupt the Red Sea oil route should broader escalation occur."
It was also stressed that additional attacks in the area are "assessed as a strong possibility."
https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Bab-el-Mandeb-threat-level-raised-to-'substantial'/66763129
The Department of Energy (DOE) issued an emergency order authorizing Southwest Power Pool Inc. to use certain energy resources to reduce the risk of potential blackouts, according to a July 21 statement from the department.
The order, issued on July 20 and signed by Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, stated that Southwest Power Pool (SPP) had asked the DOE to temporarily permit certain resources to operate beyond their normal limits to help ensure grid reliability.
SPP, the regional grid operator serving 17 states in the central United States, also sought authorization to access and deploy backup generation resources at data centers and other large industrial and commercial customer sites.
On July 20, SPP issued multiple warnings about the possibility of rolling blackouts across its service area as high temperatures drove electricity demand to record levels. One alert said SPP had been forced to rely on some or all of its operating reserves after several power plants unexpectedly went offline.
According to the order, Wright determined that additional power dispatch was necessary and that backup generation resources might be needed to address the energy emergency created by the expected strain on the grid.
The determination was based on several factors, including an anticipated electricity shortage and the potential loss of power to homes and local businesses, which could threaten public health and safety.
Wright authorized SPP to use the necessary resources to meet electricity demand. He also permitted the grid operator to deploy backup generation resources as a last resort before issuing an Energy Emergency Alert.
In its statement, the DOE said that the order took effect on July 20 and expired on July 21. The department said the measure helped reduce the risk of power outages across the regions served by SPP.
"The Trump Administration is tapping into an abundant supply of unused backup generation to maintain affordable, reliable, and secure power for hardworking American families and businesses," Wright said in the statement.
The DOE estimates that more than 35 gigawatts of backup generation capacity remains unused nationwide.
Wright said the previous administration's policies weakened the U.S. power grid, leaving Americans vulnerable during emergency events.
"Thanks to President Trump's leadership, we are reversing those failures and using every available tool to ensure Americans have continued access to affordable, reliable, and secure energy to power and cool their homes," Wright said.
As the Epoch Times notes further, On July 15, PJM Interconnection, the nation's largest electric grid operator that serves 13 states, announced a hot weather alert for its service region through at least July 17.
Such an alert is issued ahead of expected hot weather or high humidity to prepare power generation facilities and personnel to meet a surge in electricity demand.
The Midcontinent Independent System Operator, which serves 15 states, also issued an alert on July 15, citing above-normal temperatures, higher-than-forecasted loads, and power generation outages. The alert ended the same day.
The emergency alerts issued by power grid operators came amid intense heat in parts of the United States.
According to a July 22 forecast by the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center, "hazardous heat" is expected to continue this week over the southern United States before expanding through the Great Basin and across the Northern and Central Plains.
"Forecast highs range in the mid-90s to mid-100s with heat indices exceeding 105-115 degrees for some locations," the center said.
"Widespread major to locally extreme HeatRisk (levels 3 and 4/4) is expected, which indicates a level of heat dangerous to anyone without adequate cooling or hydration."
Amid the high heat, more emergency alerts may be issued by various power grid operators, and the DOE may issue additional emergency orders to address the situation.
Elevated temperatures for the current summer season are a continuation of last year's trend. In a Jan. 13 post, nonprofit organization Climate Central said that 2025 was the fourth-hottest year on record for the contiguous United States. The nine warmest years in the country have all been recorded since 2012.
According to data from Injury Facts, an online resource run by nonprofit safety advocacy organization National Safety Council, high heat was responsible for 253 deaths in the United States last year.
