Migrant families set up camp in Boston airport as Bay State overwhelmed by arrivals

 Dozens of migrant families have set up camp in Boston’s international airport as Massachusetts struggles to find shelter for the booming migrant population.

Nearly 100 people, including many young children, have been sleeping on cots on the floor at Logan International Airport’s international terminal in scenes eerily similar to those at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.

The migrants were huddled in hats and blankets as they lay next to piles of their belongings in footage taken by CBS Boston.

Massachusetts State Police officers are being paid overtime to patrol the area, Gov. Maura Healey said Monday — blaming the Biden administration for the mess.

“We need DC to act. We need Congress to act,” she said when asked about the airport chaos.

“The path is there in terms of what needs to be done to fix the border situation, to change some of the asylum processes and to get much-needed funding to interior states who have had to shoulder the burden for a problem that is geopolitical and is not [of] the state’s making.”

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Nearly 100 migrants have spent several nights sleeping on the floor at Logan International Airport in Boston, Mass.WBZ-TV

Healey is asking President Biden for an additional $250 million to address the crisis — though her office estimates the surge in migrants could cost the state $915 million next year.

She has proposed paying for some of the aid with $700 million in state surplus funds, and has previously declared a state of emergency in the Bay State.

The governor said at the time that 80% more migrants arrived by August than in the previous year.

“It’s exponentially more than our state has ever served in our emergency assistance program,” she said.

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The migrants were seen huddled in hats and blankets as they lay next to their belongings in piles on the floor in footage taken by CBS Boston.WBZ-TV

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The airport is often the first stop for migrants arriving from Haiti and Latin America.WBZ-TV

The images come just months after Massachusetts Port Authority Interim CEO Ed Freni warned that the airport is “not an appropriate place” for migrants to stay, as 20 to 25 were arriving at Logan each day in November.

The airport is often the first stop for migrants arriving from Haiti and Latin America, he explained.

“When they come to Logan, we meet them and we try to assist them, but we have to emphasize that Logan is not an appropriate place to house people,” Freni told CBS News at the time.

The state, however, is running out of options.

It hit its capacity to house 7,500 families in emergency shelters in November, and is now putting families on a waitlist.

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Many of the dozens of families who are sheltering at the airport have young children with them.WBZ-TV

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Massachusetts hit its capacity to house 7,500 families in emergency shelters in November, and is now putting families on a waitlist.WBZ-TV

Some are staying at local churches, while others are being housed in government conference rooms, according to WBUR.

A record-setting 276,000 asylum seekers entered the US from Mexico in December, capping a record-breaking year — and forcing Biden to admit that “massive changes” in immigration policy are necessary.

https://nypost.com/2024/01/24/news/dozens-of-migrant-families-camped-at-boston-airport/

Houthis Launch Fresh Attack On US Maersk Vessel, Ignoring Navy Escort

 Update(11:30ET): As we previously noted, earlier in the morning Sky News reported that Houthi forces fired at least two missiles from Al-Bayda towards the Gulf of Aden. Well, it seems they were targeting a US vessel, even despite it having a US Naval escort. Per the breaking details in Bloomberg:

Two Maersk vessels were targeted in attacks near the Red Sea on Wednesday, ShippingWatch reports, citing the Danish shipping company. The vessels, which belong to Maersk’s US subsidiary Maersk Line Ltd., were headed for the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, escorted by the US Navy, news website says.

ShippingWatch indicated that as a result of the attack, wherein all the crew and ships were unscathed, the ships have turned around. Maersk starting in early January suspended transit for all its ships, but the directive did not apply to its US subsidiary. 

This fresh incident is hugely significant given that after some eight or more rounds of US missile attacks and airstrikes on Houthi positions, the Iran-linked group remains undeterred, even with a US Navy escort seeking to protect an American container vessel. 

* * *

Two months of drone and missile attacks on commercial vessels, as well as hijackings, in the highly contested Red Sea region by Iran-backed Houthi rebels, have yet to abate as economic costs mount for shippers and increased risks of snarled global supply chains. 

The latest evidence that Red Sea disruptions will persist is a notice from the Department of Transportation informing commercial ship operators to avoid the "Southern Red Sea between 12N and 16N." 

There continues to be a high degree of risk to commercial vessels transiting the Southern Red Sea between 12N and 16N. While the decision to transit remains at the discretion of individual vessels and companies, it is recommended that US flag and US-owned commercial vessels remain North of 18N in the Red Sea or East of 46E in the Gulf of Aden until further notice.

Besides Houthi attacks on Western vessels, the US and allies have ramped up attacks on the rebels in Yemen with repeated airstrikes. 

Bloomberg reported early Wednesday that one of the world's largest shippers, Maersk, told clients in a notice to prepare for supply line disruptions as containerized vessels are rerouted to the Cape of Good Hope, which takes an extra 1-2 weeks for Asia to Europe shipping lanes.

"While we continue to hope for a sustainable resolution in the near-future and do all we can to contribute towards it, the situation currently remains untenable," Maersk said. 

According to Flexport data, more than 500 container ships that would have sailed through the Red Sea have been rerouted to the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa. This is about a quarter of all the container shipping capacity in the world. 

Meanwhile, a new report from the Financial Times, citing "American officials," says the US has asked China to help rein in Houthi rebels. 

Officials have repeatedly raised the matter with top Chinese officials in the past three months, asking them to convey a warning to Iran not to inflame tensions in the Middle East after Hamas's October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war. 

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Jon Finer, discussed the issue in meetings this month in Washington with Liu Jianchao, head of the Chinese Communist party's international department, according to US officials. Secretary of state Antony Blinken also raised it, said a state department official. -FT

In recent weeks, Red Sea diversions have tightened capacity and resulted in soaring container prices:

"We haven't seen costs increase this quickly since the last crunch in the pandemic," said Vincent Iacopella, a logistics expert at Alba Wheels Up, who spoke with Bloomberg. 

Iacopella said, "Many of the underlying bottlenecks in supply chains remain, even though prices dropped last year as the Covid-19 disruptions faded. 

The cost of shipping containers from China to the Mediterranean Sea has quadrupled since late November. 

We pointed out last week that executives and investors are becoming concerned about Red Sea disruptions in earnings calls. 

Using the Document Search function on Bloomberg, earnings-call mentions of "Red Sea" topped 41 last week, a record high. As the earning season progresses, the mentions will likely increase. 

And as of writing this note, Sky News reports Houthi forces "fire a second missile from Al-Bayda towards the Gulf of Aden." 

President Biden's Operation Prosperity Guardian faces severe hurdles as the West's move to secure the critical waterway has failed so far. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/high-degree-risk-us-maersk-warn-shippers-steer-clear-red-sea-crisis

Moleculin: Prelim Data, 2024 Expectations for Data Readouts, Transition to Pivotal Phase 2B/3

 

– MB-106 AML Phase 1B/2 trial (MB-106) preliminary data readout: Reached 67% recruitment – MB-106 preliminary results: Intent to Treat CR rate of 40% plus a CR/ CRi rate of 47% (N=15); Dosed Per Protocol CR rate of 46% plus a CR/CRi rate of 54% (N=13) – First 1st line AML subject treated and resulted in a CR in MB-106 – No CR/CRi's in MB-106 have relapsed to date – MB-107 STS Lung Mets Phase 1B/2 trial preliminary data readout: Phase 1B median extended overall survival of 11 months for heavily pre-treated subjects (N=15); Phase 2 data continues to develop – 100% of Annamycin subjects in multiple studies (N=62) continue to show no signs of cardiotoxicity during study as evidenced by an independent expert's reports – Company provides 2024 business outlook and updates its upcoming milestones https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/moleculin-announces-2023-year-end-annamycin-clinical-trials-preliminary-data-and-2024-expectations-for-multiple-data-readouts-and-transition-to-pivotal-phase-2b-3/

Tech Euphoria Sparked By ASML Surge To All-Time High On Flood Of Chinese Orders...Just 1 Problem

 Tech stocks are soaring again today in a repeat of last Wednesday's action, only instead of a stellar outlook from Taiwan Semi which was the catalyst for last week's tech reversal, today it was Dutch chip giant ASML - Europe’s most valuable technology company said in a statement on Wednesday - which sparked the buying frenzy. And on the surface, the results were stellar: according to its earnings release this morning, ASML Holding NV said orders more than tripled last quarter from the previous three months, as the order backlog rose to a record €9.19 billion ($9.98 billion) in the fourth quarter from €2.6 billion in July to September, driven by demand for its most sophisticated machines which use deep-ultraviolet lithography (EUV) needed to make the most sophisticated semiconductors, where orders hit a record €5.6 billion.

The surging backlog reversed a trend of 4 quarters in declines, meanwhile the historical orderbook led to a surge in sales which rose 30% YoY to €27.6 billion in 2023, the company said.

“2023 was our top year,” Wennink said. “We won’t see another 30% growth in 2024.” ASML has previously forecast flat growth this year before a banner year in 2025.

That may well be, but one has doubts.

It is true that ASML is the only company that produces equipment needed to make the most sophisticated semiconductors, and demand for its products is a bellwether for the industry’s health. Record orders for its top-of-the-line extreme ultraviolet lithography machines show optimism among the biggest customers for the technology, including Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor. It's also why the Biden admin has been explicitly targeting ASML exports to China, realizing that these are a backdoor way for Beijing to build it own latest generation of chips and bypass current chip sanctions.

The company was also happy to piggyback on all the AI euphoria that has gripped the market in the past year, and as CEO Peter Wennink told Bloomberg, Artificial intelligence, which requires massive amounts of computing power, is going to be a “big driver for our business and the business of our customers.” Unless, of course, it all proves to be a giant bubble.

But nobody is paid to worry - or think for that matter - when you have a historic bubble on your hands, which is what AI is, and analyst commentary took the results in stride to extrapolate the surge in backlog as virtually unlimited AI-driven demand. Indeed, in its commentary, Bloomberg said that the ASML results were "a sign that the semiconductor industry may be recovering" adding that "chipmakers are increasingly optimistic the sector’s outlook following a slump that dates back to the Covid-19 pandemic, with TSMC last week projecting strong revenue growth in 2024."

Only, that's not true as anyone who look at Texas Instruments' dismal results last night realized (TXN shares tumbled after it gave a disappointing quarterly forecast, indicating that sales of chips for industrial and automotive uses haven’t recovered).  

Instead, what is happening as we explained in "Behind The Tech Meltup: A One-Time Chinese Chip Buying Frenzy To Frontrun Export Curbs", is that China has been flooding the market with chip purchase orders, knowing that the door is closing amid a barrage of sanctions limiting exports of high tech chips - and chipmaking devices - and that it needs to buy today what it may need for the next few years, if not indefinitely.

And buy it did: China accounted for 39% of ASML’s sales in the fourth quarter and became the Veldhoven-based company’s largest market in 2023! Before speculation of chip sanctions, China accounted for only 8% in January to March.

The company was not shy about its biggest customer: “The business in 2023 with China was very, very strong,” said CFO Roger Dassen said.

Unfortunately, for ASML, that's as good as it gets. As reported previously, ASML has been targeted by the US effort to curb exports of cutting-edge technology to China. Last year, US President Joe Biden’s administration urged the Dutch government to prevent ASML from shipping some immersion deep ultraviolet lithography machines, its second-most capable machinery, to China without a license. 

Then, a few weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that ASML exports to China have now effectively been halted, vaporizing whatever portion of the order backlog is thanks to China. ASML had licenses to ship three top-of-the-line DUV lithography machines to Chinese firms before this month, when the new restrictions took full effect. However, US officials reached out to ASML late last year to ask them to immediately halt scheduled shipments of some of the machines to Chinese customers, Bloomberg News reported previously, citing people familiar with the matter.

And so with China now scrubbed from the list of ASML clients - forget being its top customer - the question is who will fill the void. Luckily, demand for AI is keeping the chip sector afloat... or so the experts say, the same experts who fawned over ASML's result today which sparked a buying frenzy in the shares, which soared over 9% today, the biggest increase since November 2022, and hitting an all time high.

Good luck keeping that all time high with your largest customer now barred from future purchases by the State Department. As for "record AI chip demand", this quarter will prove very informative how much is real and how much is vapor once the volatility from China's erratic orderflow is finally removed.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tech-euphoria-sparked-asml-surge-all-time-high-flood-chinese-orders-theres-just-one-problem

Ukraine Hints It Shot Down Large Russian Transport Plane, Possibly With Own POWs On Board

 Update(12:10ET): The Kremlin is accusing Ukraine of shooting down the Russian Il-76 military transport plane that crashed in a border region near Ukraine. All 74 people aboard have been reported killed, including the 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war who were allegedly on board being transported.

The Kharkiv and Belgorod regions in particular have for months witnessed a huge uptick in aggressive Ukrainian military cross-border action, which has included use of missiles, mortars, and drones.

New reporting in The Associated Press suggests that Kiev has made an indirect admission of guilt, but there was no mention of Ukrainian POWs dying. "Hours after the crash, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made no mention of the crash in a statement," writes AP. "But it added that Ukraine targets Russian military transport planes believed to be delivering missiles, especially near the border."

This major incident not only points to more severe Russian escalation and retaliation on the horizon, but puts in peril any future Russia-Ukraine prisoner swaps, after a large recent one was successfully accomplished.

"Ukrainian military intelligence confirmed a swap was due to take place but said it had no information about who was on the crashed Russian plane," the AP notes further. "Moscow did not ask for specific airspace to be kept safe for a certain length of time, as has happened in past exchanges, it said in a statement."

Moments before the crash, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov issued an emergency notification on his Telegram channel saying a "missile alert" had been triggered in the region. According to more from Russia's direct accusation against Kiev:

The Russian Defense Ministry accused Ukrainian forces of shooting the plane down with air-defense missiles. “By committing this terrorist act, the Ukrainian leadership showed its true face, disregarding the lives of its citizens,” the ministry said.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry initially refused to comment on the incident. Ukrainskaya Pravda, a Ukrainian newspaper, initially reported that the plane was indeed shot down by the country’s military, but edited its article on the incident shortly afterwards to remove this information.

Likely Ukrainian cities are bracing for more Russian drone and missile attacks, given this has typically followed any major event where Ukraine's military strikes Russian territory or large military assets.

* * *

Update (0759 ET): The Russian Ministry of Defence claims Russian radar systems detected two Ukrainian missiles in the area before the Russian transport plane full of Ukrainian prisoners crashed. 

*   *   * 

A Russian military plane transporting dozens of Ukrainian prisoners, as well as nine crew and guards, crashed in the Belgorod region near the border with Ukraine. 

The Russian Ministry of Defence released a statement about the incident:

"An Il-76 plane crashed in the Belgorod region at around 11 a.m. on January 24 while on a scheduled flight. It was transporting 65 captive servicemen of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to the Belgorod region for an exchange, in addition to six crewmembers and three accompanying persons." 

Bloomberg cited Andrey Kartapolov, head of the Defence Committee of the State Duma of Russia, who told the lower house of parliament that Ukraine downed the transport plane using either the US Patriot system or German-made IRIS-T.

The ministry also said the Russian Aerospace Forces is responding and has been sent to the incident area to investigate the cause of the crash. 

Russain news agency Interfax said President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, declined to comment on the crash, telling journalists that the information was still "too fresh."

This comes as Ukraine and Russia exchanged nearly 500 prisoners earlier this month, the largest swap since the early days of the war. 

There have also been reports Western allies have secretly met with Ukraine on a peace plan with Russia as the US presidential election cycle gears up. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/russian-plane-65-prisoners-crashes-near-belgorod

Capricor: Collaboration with NIH Trial of Exosome-Based Multivalent Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2

 Capricor Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CAPR), a biotechnology company developing transformative cell and exosome-based therapeutics for the treatment and prevention of rare diseases, today announced that Capricor’s proprietary StealthX™ exosome-based multivalent vaccine (StealthX™ vaccine) for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 has been selected to be part of Project NextGen, an initiative by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to advance a pipeline of new, innovative vaccines providing broader and more durable protection for COVID-19. As part of Project NextGen, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, will conduct a Phase 1 clinical study with Capricor’s StealthX™ vaccine, subject to regulatory approval. NIAID's Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (DMID) would oversee the study.

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/capricor-therapeutics-announces-collaboration-with-the-national-institutes-of-health-for-clinical-trial-of-novel-exosome-based-multivalent-vaccine-for-sars-cov-2/

CytomX OKd on applications for antibody drug conjugates

  Initiation of CX-2051 Phase 1 clinical study in EpCAM positive tumors including colorectal cancer anticipated in 1H 2024 -

- Initiation of CX-801 Phase 1 clinical study in solid tumors including melanoma, renal, and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma also anticipated in 1H 2024 -

https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/cytomx-therapeutics-announces-fda-clearance-of-ind-applications-for-cx-2051-a-probody-antibody-drug-conjugate-adc-targeting-epcam-and-cx-801-a-conditionally-activated-interferon-alpha-2b/