Houthi rebels vow to respond to US, UK strikes in Yemen

 Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Sunday pledged to push forward with their military operations and respond to the latest set of strikes by the United States and Britain over the weekend.

The strikes, conducted by the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Saturday with fighter jets and ships, were aimed at 13 locations associated with the Iran-backed militant group’s weapons storage facilities, missile systems, air defense systems and radars, the Pentagon said Saturday.

The rebel group has launched a series of missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the Red Sea in recent months, disrupting trade routes and destabilizing the region against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group also backed by Iran.

Ameen Hayyan, a spokesman for the group, said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter, that the latest U.S. and U.K. attacks “will not deter us from our moral, religious and humanitarian stance” in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Hayyan added the attacks “will not pass without response and punishment.”

The rebel group is conducting a maritime campaign against Israeli-linked ships in response to Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. Some of their attacks have hit ships with no ties to Israel, however, prompting several shipping companies to detour their routes.

Defense Secretary Llyod Austin confirmed the strikes on Saturday, stating it “sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences,” if they do not halt their attacks in the Red Sea.

Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a Houthi official, echoed Hayyan’s remarks and said the “American-British” aggression against Yemen “will not go unanswered.”

“Our war is moral, and if we had not intervened to support the oppressed in Gaza, humanity would not have existed among humans,” he wrote on X. “The American-British aggression against Yemen will not go unanswered, and we will meet escalation with escalation.”

The weekend strikes came days after the U.S. Navy shot down three Iranian drones and one anti-ship ballast missile launched from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen.

The strikes marked the third time the U.S. and Britain have launched joint operations against Houthi’s assets. Austin said Saturday that the U.S. “will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most critical waterways.”

U.S. officials said last week U.S. troops have come under fire from various Iranian-backed groups over 160 times since last October, including last week’s deadly drone strike in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members and wounded about 40 others.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4447161-houthi-rebels-vow-to-respond-to-us-uk-strikes-in-yemen/

'Haley makes surprise appearance in ‘SNL’ cold open'

 Republican presidential candidate popped into Rockefeller Plaza on Saturday for a surprise appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” where she called out former President Trump’s resistance to debate and ongoing legal battles.

Haley, playing a “concerned South Carolina voter,” stood up in the mock audience during a fake CNN Town Hall with Trump — played by James Austin Johnson — and asked, “My question is why won’t you debate Nikki Haley?”

Her appearance prompted cheers from the audience and a not-so-happy reaction from Johnson.

“Oh, my god, it’s her! The woman who was in charge of security on Jan. 6. It’s Nancy Pelosi!” Johnson responded.

Charles Barkley, played by Kenan Thompson, pointed out Haley is not former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), in reference to Trump’s apparent mix-up of the two political figures last month.

Haley, shortly following the mix-up, renewed her challenge last month to debate Trump, who has declined to attend any of the GOP primary debates, citing his comfortable lead in the polls.

“Are you doing OK, Donald? You might need a mental competency test,” Haley said.

“Trump,” claimed he “aced” that test, telling Haley, “They told me I’m 100% mental and I’m competent because I’m a man, that’s why a woman should never run our economy.”

Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, has long argued for mental competency tests for those over 75. Trump, 77, responded to this argument last month and claimed he would beat her in a cognitive test.

“In fact, a woman I know recently asked me for $83 million,” Johnson said, in reference to Trump’s recent defeat in longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case.

The former president was ordered to pay a whopping $83.3 million last month for defaming the writer when he denied her allegation that he sexually assaulted her in the mid-1990s.

Taking aim at Trump’s mounting legal fees, Haley asked, “And you spent $50 million in your own legal fees. Do you need to borrow some money?”

Federal election filings posted last week showed Trump’s various political committees spent about $29 million on lawyers fees and legal consulting in the final six months of last year, bringing the total to roughly $50 million for the full year.

Johnson responded by listing off nicknames for Haley, a nod to the various nicknames Trump has called her and his other political opponents.

These included  “Nikki-Tikki-Tavi” and “Nikki Don’t Lose that Number” along with a nod to the star of “The Sixth Sense” — Haley Joel Osment.

“Nikki Haley Joel Osman, we call her,” Johnson said. ”‘Sixth Sense,’ remember that one… ‘I see dead people.’ ”

“Yeah, that’s what voters will say if they see you and Joe [Biden] on the ballot,” Haley quipped back.

The fake town hall was set in Haley’s home state of South Carolina, where she is seeking to see a boost in support following two disappointments in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary last month.

Johnson, as Trump, told Haley he would beat the former South Carolina governor in her state, to which Haley asked, “And did you win your home state in the last election?”

“I won Staten Island,” Johnson responded. “And the parts of Long Island where the fist fights happen, where they get out of the cars if you honk your horn at them.”

Trump lost in his home state of New York in the 2016 and 2020 elections.

Haley was put under the spotlight when an audience member, played by actor Ayo Edeberi, asked the White House hopeful, “I was just curious, what would you say was the main cause of the Civil War, um, and do you think it starts with an ‘s’ and ends with a ‘lavery?’”

“Yep, I probably should have said that at the time,” Haley responded, in reference to the controversy she faced in December after she failed to mention slavery as the cause of the Civil War.

https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4447176-nikki-haley-makes-surprise-appearance-in-snl-cold-open/

Sullivan says US retaliatory strikes in Middle East ‘not the end of it'

 White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday confirmed the United States “intends” to launch additional strikes and action against Iranian-backed groups following its two rounds of strikes over the weekend in Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

The U.S. military began its first round of airstrikes on Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq last Friday in response to an attack on a base in Jordan last week that killed three American troops and injured about 40 others.

The U.S. and Britain launched a separate wave of strikes the next day against Houthi rebels — which are also backed by Iran — in Yemen.

Sullivan, in an interview with NBC News’s “Meet The Press,” said President Biden’s order for a “serious response” is “now underway.”

“It began with strikes on Friday night but that is not the end of it. We intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, or people are killed,” Sullivan told NBC News anchor Kristin Welker.

Asked if the weekend retaliatory strikes successfully hit the intended targets, Sullivan said U.S. forces are still assessing the number of casualties among the militia groups.

“We do believe that the strikes had good effect and degrading capability to these militant groups that attacked us,” he said. “And we do believe that as we continue, we will be able to continue to send a strong message about the United States [and it’s] firm resolve to respond when our forces are attacked.”

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) last Friday said over 85 targets were hit in the first round of strikes in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force “and affiliated militia groups.”

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said the goal of the strikes is to halt attacks and empathized the U.S. is “not looking for a war with Iran.”

The second round of strikes, conducted by the U.S. and the United Kingdom on Saturday with fighter jets and ships, were aimed at 13 locations associated with the Iran-backed Houthis’ weapons storage facilities, missile systems, air defense systems and radars, the Pentagon said.

The rebel group has launched a series of missile or drone attacks against commercial and military ships in the Red Sea in recent months, disrupting trade routes and destabilizing the region against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Palestinian militant group Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group also backed by Iran.

Sullivan declined to say if the U.S. would launch strikes directly in Iran, stating it would “not be wise” for him to discuss what the U.S. is “ruling in and ruling out.”

Houthi rebel officials on Sunday vowed to push forward with their military operations and respond to the latest set of strikes.

Ameen Hayyan, a spokesman for the group, said Sunday on X, formerly Twitter, that the latest U.S. and U.K. attacks “will not deter us from our moral, religious and humanitarian stance” in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. 

The rebel group has claimed it is hitting Israeli-linked ships, but Sullivan said Sunday that the Houthis are attacking shipping “that has absolutely nothing to do with Israel.”

U.S. officials said last week U.S. troops have come under fire from various Iranian-backed groups over 160 times since last October.

https://thehill.com/policy/international/4447212-sullivan-says-u-s-retaliatory-strikes-in-middle-east-not-the-end-of-it/

Chinese turn U.S. embassy post into 'Wailing Wall' for stock plunge

 Many Chinese are venting their frustration at the slowing economy and the weak stock market in an unconventional place: the social media account of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

A post on Friday on protecting wild giraffes by the U.S. embassy on Weibo, a Chinese platform similar to X, has attracted 130,000 comments and 15,000 reposts as of Sunday, many of them unrelated to wildlife conservation.

"Could you spare us some missiles to bomb away the Shanghai Stock Exchange?" one user wrote in an repost of the article.

The Weibo account of the U.S. embassy in China "has become the Wailing Wall of Chinese retail equity investors", another user wrote.

The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

While Weibo users can publish individual posts about the market and the economy, Chinese authorities regularly block what they view as "negative" online comments when they gain traction.

The comments function on posts related to the economy or the markets on social media platforms can also be turned off, or only show selected comments, restricting channels in which people can express their opinions.

China's blue-chip CSI300 Index tumbled 6.3% last month, plumbing five-year lows, after a raft of government support measures failed to prop up confidence dented by multiple economic headwinds, including a multi-year property slump, tepid domestic consumption and deflationary pressures.

In late January, state media reported that China will take more "forceful" measures to support market confidence after a cabinet meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

Chinese authorities have since ramped up efforts to calm investors, sending out positive messages that sometimes produce the opposite effect.

On Friday, the official People's Daily published an article with the headline: "The entire country is filled with optimism".

The headline was soon mocked on Chinese social media.

A Weibo user, in an repost of the U.S. embassy's giraffe protection article, wrote: "The entire giraffe community is filled with optimism."

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/chinese-turn-u-embassy-post-090328994.html

Warning Issued After Researchers Link Energy Drinks To Suicidal Thoughts In Children

 by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

New research revealed that energy drinks could pose a greater risk to children’s and younger people’s brains than previously thought.

Those who consumed energy drinks were shown to have a higher risk of mental health problems such as depression, suicidal thoughts, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and anxiety, according to a study from Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health at Teesside University, and Newcastle University in the UK. It was published in the Public Health journal last month.

Researchers said they looked at data from 57 studies of more than 1.2 million children and younger people from more than 21 countries to come up with their conclusions.

It found that boys consumed more energy drinks than girls, while “many studies” reported an association between energy drink consumption and alcohol use, binge drinking, and smoking, as well as other substance use.

“Additional health effects noted in the updated review included increased risk of suicide, psychological distress, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, depressive and panic behaviors, allergic diseases, insulin resistance, dental caries, and erosive tooth wear,” an abstract of the paper said.

Regarding the impacts on mental health, it found that “frequent” drinking of energy drinks “was associated with suicide attempts and severe stress,” while there “were also higher rates of suicide ideation and attempts with [energy drink] intake greater than once per day.”

“Longitudinal analysis reported that [energy drink] consumption was related to increased ADHD inattention, conduct disorder, depressive,  and panic symptoms,” it continued to say.

A co-author, Shelina Visram, with Newcastle University, said in a news release that she is “deeply concerned about the findings that energy drinks can lead to psychological distress and issues with mental health.”

“These are important public health concerns that need to be addressed,” she added. “There has been policy inaction on this area despite [UK] government concern and public consultations. It is time that we have action on the fastest growing sector of the soft drink market.”

The researchers, who are based in the UK, also called on the government to either ban or restrict the energy drinks for younger people and children.

“This evidence suggests that energy drinks have no place in the diets of children and young people,” author Amelia Lake, professor of public health nutrition at Teesside University, told Fox News on Thursday. “Policymakers should follow the example from countries that have placed age restrictions on their sales to children.”

It’s because, their study shows, the researchers have “found an even greater list of mental and physical health outcomes associated with children and young people consuming energy drinks,” she said.

“We repeated [the review] only to find an ever-growing evident space that suggests the consumption of these drinks is associated with negative health outcomes,” Ms. Lake continued.

Several countries have already tried to regulate energy drinks, including bans on sales to minors in Latvia and Lithuania. Other countries such as Finland and Poland are also reportedly looking to ban the products from being sold to people under the age of 18.

The study, meanwhile, drew a response from UK officials. A spokesperson for the UK Department of Health and Social Care told the BBC that “we consulted on a proposal to end the sale of energy drinks to children under 16 in England, and will set out our full response in due course” and that “in the meantime, many larger retailers and supermarkets have voluntarily introduced a ban on the sale of energy drinks to children under 16.”

But several years ago, Christopher Snowdon, the head of Lifestyle Economics at the UK-based Institute of Economic Affairs, found that such bans unfairly target teenagers and said there is a lack of evidence to link the drinks to negative behaviors.

“The current scientific evidence alone is not sufficient to justify a measure as prohibitive as a statutory ban on the sale of energy drinks to children,” he wrote in an article published in 2020.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/warning-issued-after-researchers-link-energy-drinks-suicidal-thoughts-children

Best- (And Worst-) Performing IPOs Of 2023

 In 2023, there were 154 IPOs on the U.S. stock market.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu, highlights the best U.S. Initial Public Offerings, ranked by their percentage return as of December 29, 2023, based on data from Stock Analysis.

Healthcare Dominates Top IPOs

Jin Medical emerged as the highest-performing IPO in 2023, despite facing delisting from the Nasdaq for failing to meet a listing rule requiring the firm to have at least 300 public holders.

According to an article from Benzinga, Jin Medical is a Cayman Islands holding company that owns Chinese manufacturers of wheelchairs.

Other top-performing IPOs in 2023 included healthcare names like RayzeBio, a clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical therapeutics company, and Structure Therapeutics, which focuses on “small molecule medicines”.

While four of the top 10 IPOs were in the healthcare sector, three were in financial services, two in technology, one in food and beverage, and the other in the energy sector.

IPOs That Bombed in 2023

Similarly, the majority of companies on the list of worst IPOs are from the healthcare sector. However, the list is led by the Chinese EV battery producer U Power. The company experienced highs of 1,100% at one point during its Nasdaq-listed IPO before plummeting due to regulatory restrictions in China.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu, highlights the worst U.S. Initial Public Offerings, ranked by their percentage return as of December 29, 2023, based on data from Stock Analysis.

Companies That Tanked the Hardest in 2023

The list of worst IPOs is led by U Power. The Chinese EV battery company experienced highs of 1,100% at one point during its Nasdaq-listed IPO before plummeting due to regulatory restrictions in China.

The list of worst performing IPOs in 2023 also includes:

• Lucy Scientific Discovery, an early-stage psychotropics company

• Mangoceuticals, an online retailer of erectile dysfunction treatments

• Surf Air, an electric aviation company focused on regional air travel

• Hanryu Holdings, which owns “Fantoo”, an online platform designed for fandom communities

The 154 IPOs on the US stock market in 2023 represented a 15% decrease compared to the 181 IPOs in 2022, and an 85% decline from the record number of 1,035 IPOs in 2021.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/these-were-best-and-worst-performing-ipos-2023

Final Title IX ed ruling sent to White House for approval after delay

 A final ruling on updates to Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination at federally funded schools, was sent to the White House Friday for review.

Potential updates to the law could determine how schools respond to sexual misconduct and codify protections for transgender students.

The Education Department sent the regulation to the Office of Management and Budget on Friday, and if approved, could unravel policies put in place under former Education Secretary Betsy Devos — who narrowly tailored the definition of sexual misconduct, and made sure schools performed live hearings during investigations related to the matter. 

The development comes after the Biden administration said in December that it would finalize the updates related to Title IX by March this year, almost a year after blowing past the first proposed deadline. 

A separate proposal regarding transgender student-athletes is also expected to be unveiled by March, according to an Education Department

Even if passed, implementation of any changes will hinge on the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. According to its website, the period for the review is 90 days. It could get extended, but there is no minimum period for review. 

The delay in crystalizing the rule has sparked criticism from Democrats in Congress and advocacy groups. In a late November letter directed to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, over 60 Democrats in the lower chamber urged the department to finalize the update. 

The finalization of the rule could assist President Biden in his quest to be reelected to the Oval Office come November.

Biden, who is likely to square up against former President Trump, the current GOP front-runner, promised to quickly alter the Trump administration’s Title IX regulations during his 2020 campaign.

https://thehill.com/homenews/education/4446672-final-title-ix-ruling-sent-to-white-house/