Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said at a news conference in Cairo that Beijing has called for an end to attacks and harassment of civilian vessels in the Red Sea. The call came after Yi held a meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and without specifically mentioning the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Sunday, January 14, 2024
White House: Secretary Austin's doctors think he may need additional care
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said on Sunday Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin's doctor's think he may still need some additional care.
"We'll see, you know, when he can be released, but obviously they still feel like he may need some additional care...part of that is just physical therapy," Kirby told CBS's 'Face the Nation.'
Kirby said "there is routine regular communication" between President Joe Biden and Austin and that the secretary remains "actively involved and engaged" from the hospital.
Austin remains hospitalized and is in good condition, the Pentagon said on Saturday, adding that it did not yet have a specific date for his release.
Austin, 70, was admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Maryland on Dec. 22 to treat prostate cancer. He returned to the hospital on Jan. 1 due to complications including a urinary tract infection and has remained there ever since.
President Joe Biden said on Friday that he has confidence in Austin despite what Biden agreed was a lapse in judgment by the Pentagon chief over his secret hospitalization.
Austin's failure to tell Biden he was hospitalized drew criticism from lawmakers and caught the White House by surprise.
China's BYD in talks with Brazil's Sigma Lithium on supply deal
Chinese electric car-maker BYD has held talks with Brazil's Sigma Lithium over a possible supply agreement, joint venture or acquisition, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
BYD met Sigma Chief Executive Ana Cabral Gardner in Sao Paulo last month, BYD's Brazilian chair, Alexandre Baldy, told the newspaper, but did not give details, citing a confidentiality agreement.
BYD and Sigma did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Sigma said in January it had initiated a primary listing of Sigma Brazil on Nasdaq and the Singapore stock exchange.
BYD, backed by Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway, said in July it would invest 3 billion reais ($600 million) in a new industrial complex in northeastern Brazil, with operations expected to start in mid-2024.
Davos will not yield constructive Ukraine peace talks, Russian tycoon Deripaska says
There is unlikely to be peace in Ukraine until at least May 2025 and constructive discussion at Davos on ending the conflict will not be possible because no Russian delegation will attend, Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska said on Sunday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between the West and Moscow since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French President Emmanuel Macron and key Middle East leaders are slated to attend next week's World Economic Forum, putting talks to end wars in Gaza and Ukraine at the top of the agenda for the global elite.
"It is a pity that a constructive talk about the situation in Ukraine will not happen -- there will be no Russian delegation," Deripaska said in a post on the Telegram app.
"Don't await peace before May of '25," Deripaska said.
Deripaska, who studied physics at Moscow University, branched out into metals trading as the Soviet Union crumbled, making a fortune by buying up stakes in aluminium factories.
He founded RUSAL, which united the jewels of the Soviet aluminium industry into one holding, in 2000. He was ranked by the Russian version of Forbes last year as Russia's 54th richest man with a worth of $2.5 billion.
Ukraine says it will not rest until every Russian soldier is ejected from its territory and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has decreed that any talks with Russia are illegal.
Russia, which controls a little under a fifth of Ukrainian territory, has dismissed Zelenskiy's peace plan, known as his "peace formula", as absurd as it aims to find peace without Russian participation.
Zelenskiy's 10-point peace plan calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities and the restoration of Ukraine's state borders with Russia.
Putin casts the war in Ukraine as part of a much broader global struggle with the West - which he says aims to split Russia apart and steal its resources. The West denies it wants to destroy Russia.
Since the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Deripaska himself has been sanctioned by Britain for his alleged ties to Putin. He has mounted a legal challenge against the sanctions.
Pro-Palestinians chant ‘f–k Joe Biden,’ damage fence outside White House, no arrests
A swarm of Pro-Palestinian supporters shouted “f–k Joe Biden” slogans as they nearly ripped down a reinforced fence outside the White House during a charged protest Saturday night.
Non-essential personnel were evacuated from the area as a precaution as the aggressive demonstration ramped up, the Secret Service confirmed.
Video shows the crowd shaking the fence so viciously that a section of it became partially dislodged while a horde of Secret Service police pushed back to keep the ralliers from entering the grounds.
Some protesters hurled water bottles and the sticks broken off their Palestinian flags at the officers, while others tried to climb the fence.
“F–k Joe Biden!” the ralliers screamed.
“Break it down! You support the murder of children!”
The anti-scale fencing sustained some “temporary damage,” but the actual White House fence and adjacent buildings were left untouched, a Secret Service spokesperson told The Post.
“The issues were promptly repaired on site by U.S. Secret Service support teams,” said Lt. Paul Mayhair.
“As a precaution, some members of the media and staff in proximity to Pennsylvania Avenue were temporarily relocated while the issue was being addressed.”
No arrests were made.
The Secret Service had erected the fencing hours earlier in anticipation of the demonstration opposite the White House, which was the planned culmination to a march through Washington DC calling for the end to Israeli military action in Gaza.
Thousands of protesters participated in the rally, some carrying signs that read: “No votes for Genocide Joe,” “Biden has blood on his hands” and “Let Gaza live.”
Biden has been a supporter of Israel and approved an “emergency sale” that sent nearly 14000 rounds of tank ammunition worth $106M to the Jewish State last month.
The rally heavily focused on the substantial death toll in Gaza that has accumulated in the 100 days since Israel retaliated for Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on its civilians.
More than 23,800 people in Gaza — nearly two-thirds of whom are women and children — have been killed during Israel’s counterattack campaign, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
Israel declared war in response to Hamas’ unprecedented cross-border attack on Oct. 7 in which the Islamic militant group killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 250 others hostage
An estimated 132 hostages are still being held in Gaza.
CDC Ordered To Disclose Crucial Information From COVID-19 Vaccine Surveillance System
by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The top U.S. public health agency must disclose information provided by people who experienced problems following COVID-19 vaccination, a federal court has ruled.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is being ordered to produce 7.8 million free-text entries from V-safe, one of its vaccine surveillance systems.
Data from the system released under court order in 2022 showed that 25 percent of V-safe participants missed school, work, or other normal activities due to post-vaccination issues, and nearly 8 percent of participants reported seeking medical attention, such as hospitalization after receiving a shot. That data, from boxes checked by users, came through an order in a case that started as a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
But the CDC resisted releasing the free-text entries, arguing that many of them include information that should remain private.
“CDC determined that many of these responses contain personally identifiable information, the disclosure of which would publicly link participants to highly sensitive health information,” government lawyers representing the agency said in one brief. “And because it would take tens of thousands of workhours to manually review and redact millions of free-text responses, CDC determined that segregating the non-exempt information within these responses would be unreasonably burdensome and was therefore beyond its FOIA obligations.”
The CDC said it would take one worker 59 years to complete the work if it were ordered.
The government’s arguments were rejected by U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, in response to a fresh lawsuit.
“While the burden to produce the requested free-text responses may be heavy, this court does not find that it is unreasonable,” he said in the new ruling.
The CDC can go through the records and redact personally identifiable information as allowed by FOIA but must do the work and produce the records with the redactions, he added later. Evidence produced in the case indicates that about 93 percent of the records will require no redactions.
The materials will be important for people who experienced problems following vaccination, the judge said.
“Production of the free-text data will permit independent researchers to put the government agencies to their proof by considering all of the available data,” he said. He noted that CDC studies on v-safe data only covered data from the first week or two after vaccination but that the surveys collected data for up to one year after receipt of a shot.
The CDC must produce at least 390,000 free-text entries by Feb. 15. Freedom Coalition of Doctors for Choice, which brought the case in 2023, said the entries would be posted to its website.
The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.
V-safe is a system run by the CDC. Introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, it features people inputting information through a phone application. Participants are asked to provide basic information such as their name and check boxes that answer various questions, such as whether they missed school or work after vaccination. They can add additional information in a free-text area.
The portion where participants checked boxes did not include many adverse events the CDC thought the COVID-19 vaccines might end up causing, according to previously released documents.
Lawyers say the free-text entries will provide crucial details on those health issues and others.
The Informed Consent Action Network, which brought the case that resulted in the disclosure of some of the V-safe data, obtained a free-text entry from a V-safe user that showed her writing, at one point, “Help me!” She said she suffered from a number of symptoms, including nausea and vomiting, and went to the emergency department. Six months later, she wrote, “Still no response from CDC, no help from public health.”
“This ruling,” the network said in a statement, “sends a clear message to our federal agencies: we are not moving on and forgetting about the pandemic or the actions they took.”
Eying Ginkgo Bioworks' Positioning Amid Revenue Surge, Program Adjustments
Wednesday, Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings Inc
released preliminary FY23 sales of $250 million-$260 million, compared to the consensus of $258.65 million.
Preliminary cell engineering and biosecurity revenue are expected to be within the disclosed guidance range of $145 million-$150 million and up to $110 million in 2023, respectively.
New Cell Programs are expected to be within the previously disclosed guidance range of 80-85 new Cell Programs added to the platform in 2023.
William Blair sees Ginkgo's recent update as positive despite reducing its full-year program target from 100.
The accelerated pace of program announcements is linked to a new success-based pricing model and operational enhancements.
Ginkgo also completed the program's pilot phase with Novo Nordisk A/S NVO and completed a gene therapy collaboration with Biogen Inc BIIB.
Ginkgo's ability to combine automated data generation at scale with AI models targeted toward customer program areas is expected to be the foundation for additional pharmaceutical partnerships in 2024.
Ginkgo ended 2023 with nearly $950 million of cash and cash equivalents.
Ginkgo reported over 50% growth in cell engineering revenue from biopharma clients in 2023, reflecting market strength despite uncertain macro conditions.
The current valuation of Ginkgo's shares is at 10.3 times their projected 2024 cell engineering sales target.
This valuation is a premium compared to other high-growth life science tools peers.
William Blair believes Ginkgo is establishing itself as a leading horizontal platform in synthetic biology, aiming to democratize cell programming access.
However, concerns persist regarding the feasibility of growth expectations and the path toward a more robust financial model. Consequently, William Blair keeps the Market Perform.
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