23andMe, Innate Pharma Tap Antibodies to Target NK Cells for Cancer

As their name suggests, natural killer (NK) cells intrinsically recognize and kill stressed cells, such as cancer cells. NK cells are not a new approach to treating cancer, but a novel class of antibodies is giving them a leg up in the fight, and drugmakers, including 23andMe and Innate Pharma, are leveraging this approach to develop cell therapies for a range of cancers.

NK cells have a number of receptors that recognize specific stress ligands present on cancer cells, Lewis Lanier, a professor in microbiology and immunology at the University of California, San Francisco, told BioSpace. Antibody-based therapies promote NK cells’ anti-tumor activity by manipulating the receptor-ligand interactions and help NK cells to infiltrate the tumor site.

While their approaches are different, both 23andMe and Innate are developing such therapies to activate the intrinsic ability of NK cells to recognize and kill tumor cells.

Uncovering a Novel I-O Target

Best known as a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company, 23andMe was founded in April 2006. Since then, the company has developed one of the largest databases of consumer genetic data.

Jennifer Low, head of therapeutics development at 23andMe, told BioSpace that 80% of customers have consented to provide their health data, “including health experiences, family histories, their activities and medical records.”

The company’s genetic database comprises genotypic and phenotypic data from 15 million people, including information about genetic variants, which informs its in-house drug discovery programs as well as programs initiated through collaborations, Low said. Specifically, the database contains information about parts of the genome that might provide insight for the development of novel immuno-oncology therapies, she noted.

“The real problem with developing cancer therapies is that you need a target that’s not expressed on healthy tissues,” Lanier said. “If people can look through these massive datasets and find evidence for the overexpression of certain tumor ligands, that can be exploited therapeutically.”

Earlier this month at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting, 23andMe presented data on its two clinical-stage programs. One, an antibody called 23ME-01473, targets soluble ULBP6, a dominant immunosuppressor shed by tumor cells. The novel target, discovered using the company’s genetic and health survey database, is a ligand for NKG2D, an NK cell surface receptor that recognizes a wide array of stress-associated ligands expressed on tumor cells. Tumor cells shed ULBP6 into the tumor microenvironment to bind NKG2D, bypassing recognition by NK cells. Blocking ULBP6-NKG2D binding may thus restore immune cell recognition and killing of cancers, according to 23andMe.

“There is some data suggesting ULBP6 is overexpressed in some tumors,” Lanier said, adding that using an antibody against ULBP6 is a “good strategy.” In addition to targeting the ULBP6-NKG2D interaction, Low said, 23andMe’s investigational antibody also has an Fc-effector-enhanced region capable of engaging NK cells and further enhancing their function.

23andMe initiated a Phase I clinical trial in March 2024 to evaluate the safety and tolerability of 23ME-01473 in patients with advanced solid tumors that have progressed on standard-of-care treatments.

NK Cell Engagers

Biopharma has long recognized the potential of NK cells. Lately in the cell and gene therapy space, NK cell therapies have captured attention. The global NK cell therapy market stood at $92 million in 2022 and is projected to reach $3.1 billion by 2031.

But even short of infusing these natural killers into cancer patients, several companies are looking to harness NK cell biology to fight cancer. In addition to 23andMe, other players in this space include Dragonfly Therapeutics, D2M Biotherapeutics and Innate Pharma.

“Our therapeutic strategies have two main focuses: Unleashing NK cells or stimulating NK cells via NK cell engagers,” Eric Vivier, president and CEO of Innate, told BioSpace.  

Innate’s lead asset, IPH6101/SAR443579, being developed in partnership with Sanofi, is an antibody-based NK cell engager directed against NK cell receptors NKp46 and CD16 and against the tumor antigen CD123, which is overexpressed in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Vivier explained the rationale behind the selection of the two NK cell receptors. “NKp46 is a stably expressed activating receptor found on NK cells," and CD16 is a receptor for antibodies that also stimulates NK cell function. 

Innate and Sanofi kicked off a Phase II dose expansion trial of IPH6101/SAR443579 last week. The companies plan to recruit 126 patients with AML, B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and high-risk myelodysplasia, among other cancers.

Vivier said NK cell engagers have a possible advantage over T cell engagers as they do not induce a cytokine storm—a severe immune response leading to the excessive release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, organ damage and mortality—common to the latter.

Another candidate, IPH6501 is an NK cell engager that also targets NKp46 and CD16, plus the tumor antigen CD20, and is armed with a variant of interleukin 2 (IL-2). Adding cytokines such as IL-2 to the NK cell engager induces cell proliferation pathways and boosts immune response, Vivier explained.

Lanier agreed. While NK cell engagers draw NK cells from the blood to the tumor, NK cells that make it into tumors get shut down by the immunosuppressive microenvironment, he noted. “Introducing cytokines wakes up NK cells and restores their functionality.”

In preclinical studies, IPH6501 showed “massive infiltration” of NK cells to the tumor and good tumor growth control, Vivier said. Safety and tolerability of the asset is currently being evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial for patients with relapsed/refractory non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, with initial data expected in 2025. 

A 2023 article published in the Journal of Hematology & Oncology posits that T-cell engagers “will likely revolutionize the treatment of hematological malignancies in the short term, as they are considerably more potent than conventional monoclonal antibodies recognizing the same tumor antigens.” Bispecific NK cell engagers offer similar efficacy with milder side effects, the authors note, and trispecific antibodies “raise the game even further.”

“Altogether, these engineered molecules may change the paradigm of treatment for relapsed or refractory hematological malignancies,” the authors write.

https://www.biospace.com/article/23andme-innate-pharma-tap-antibodies-to-target-nk-cells-for-cancer-/

Fed’s Forecasting Method Looks Increasingly Outdated as Bernanke Pitches an Alternative

 The Federal Reserve is stuck in a mode of forecasting and public communication that looks increasingly limited, especially as the economy keeps delivering surprises.

The issue is not the forecasts themselves, though they’ve frequently been wrong. Rather, it’s that the focus on a central projection — such as three interest-rate cuts in 2024 — in an economy still undergoing post-pandemic tremors fails to communicate much about the plausible range of outcomes. The outlook for rates presented just last month now appears outdated amid a fresh wave of inflation.

An alternative method starting to gain steam is called scenario analysis, which involves emphasizing a range of credible risks to the baseline and how a central bank might respond. It’s a tactic that becomes especially useful in times of high economic uncertainty.

“The Fed urgently needs to incorporate scenario analysis into its public communications,” said Dartmouth College professor Andrew Levin, who was a top adviser to former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke. Levin describes it as “stress tests for monetary policy.”

Bernanke himself is currently making a similar case across the Atlantic. He recommended the Bank of England adopt such an approach in a report published this month for the UK central bank. It wouldn’t be the first to do so: Sweden’s Riksbank, for example, already uses scenarios to think about alternative policy paths.

Publishing both central and alternative scenarios means “the public will be able to draw sharper inferences about the reaction function and thus better anticipate future policy actions,” Bernanke wrote in his review of the BOE’s forecasting methods.

A sizzling economy continues to surprise Fed officials. From December to March, they revised up their outlook for growth in 2024 by a substantial 0.7 percentage point and projected three rate cuts this year, according to their median estimate.

Higher-than-expected inflation data quickly rendered that call obsolete, at least in financial markets: Investors have dialed back the number of cuts expected this year, while options markets say the probability of one cut or less is about a coin toss.

The projections represent a compilation of the views of 19 policymakers about the likely trajectory for growth, unemployment, inflation and interest rates. By design and intention, the Fed trains the eyes of investors and analysts on the median estimates. But at times like the present, when the economy is highly unpredictable, the full range of views acquires more importance.

In March, for example, nine of 19 officials wrote down two rate cuts or fewer for 2024, a view that has suddenly become more plausible with the arrival of the latest inflation figures. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s constant refrain is that what the central bank ultimately decides on rates will depend on the data, though he has leaned into the rate-cut narrative this year.

Without a sense of how officials might revise their path for rates in a “hot economy” scenario, “any shift in these outlooks creates more volatility,” said Ira Jersey, chief US interest-rate strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. “Understanding how the Fed is handicapping such potential outcomes could provide valuable information,” he said.

Fed staff economists do run scenarios for policymakers. But they are model-driven, don’t reflect an agreed-upon anticipated reaction of the rate-setting committee and are irrelevant for communications purposes since they are made public only with a five-year lag.

Historical Record

There are several ways Fed officials could begin to communicate the risk of alternative paths. The New York Fed already asks Wall Street dealers to assign probabilities for different outcomes of the year-end policy rate. If policymakers did the same, investors would have likely seen a greater-than-zero chance of no rate cuts in 2024.

“From their perspective, it may be tidier to communicate about baseline outcomes. The question is, ‘What is the most helpful thing to do?’” said Kris Dawsey, the head of economic research at the investment firm D.E. Shaw Group. “There is a sense that it is costly to change the way they communicate on the rate path too abruptly.”

After what has been a volatile couple of years for the economy, Dawsey’s analysis shows that economic forecasts collected from market participants and published by the New York Fed also show a tighter range of outcomes than the historical record suggests, going back to World War II.

Dawsey said in his own view, another year of economic growth above 3% is slightly less than a coin toss, based on historical patterns. That’s a risk that both investors and central bankers have to take on board and talk about.

The information value of the Fed’s quarterly projections is something officials have been concerned about for years. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, when she was Fed vice chair in 2012, tried to get the committee to agree on publishing a consensus forecast. That effort was unsuccessful.

“There is no getting away from the fact that policymakers are laying out a single policy path and they need a modal outlook,” said Ellen Meade, a Duke University professor and former Fed board staff member. Once they have that, “scenarios can be good for discussing with the public about the fact that the modal path is not 100% or set in stone and what the most prominent risks are.”

At least some current Fed officials do seem amenable to that kind of approach. Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester, who has in the past served on the central bank’s subcommittee for communications, calls herself “a fan” of scenario analysis. Her Minneapolis counterpart Neel Kashkari published an essay last year outlining two competing economic outlooks and their hypothetical implications for interest rates.

The Fed tends to move slowly when it comes to innovations in public communications practices. But Bernanke’s BOE review could spur more thinking on how to talk more about rate-path probabilities and alternative scenarios, said JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief US economist Michael Feroli.

And the timing may also be fortuitous: Fed officials later this year will launch another policy framework review after undertaking the first of its kind at the central bank in 2019 and 2020.

“I think it will come back to these shores,” Feroli said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fed-forecasting-method-looks-increasingly-124255699.html

Greedy hand of government goes wild in Mass.: 'Basically, we're going after everyone who has money'

By Monica Showalter

Want another reason to flee Massachusetts?

Here's another reason, meet its state Transportation Secretary, Monica Tibbits-Nutt, telling her state's residents what she plans to do to them:

According to the Commonwealth Beacon:

STATE TRANSPORTATION Secretary Monica Tibbits-Nutt promised an “unfiltered me” in an address to the advocacy group Walk Massachusetts last week – and she followed through on her pledge.

Using frank language rarely heard on Beacon Hill, Tibbits-Nutt weighed in on a series of major policy issues. She talked about how she would raise more money for transportation, with one option being the installation of toll gantries at the state’s borders with neighboring states. She promised to do more to address traffic fatalities by urging law enforcement to issue more speeding citations. And she said she would not support a layover facility for commuter rail trains as part of the I-90 Allston multimodal project, handing neighborhood activists a major victory.

The secretary promised to be aggressive in pursuing change even in the face of strong opposition. To buttress that point, she said she will not spend any time making decisions with the goal of hanging on to her job. She also said Gov. Maura Healey has her back. “This governor likes fights. She does. She loves to fight,” Tibbits-Nutt said, according to a video of her talk on the Walk Massachusetts website.

“This [task force] is actually different because we’re not censoring it,” she said. “I’m going to talk about tolling. I’m going to talk about charging TNCs [transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft] more. I’m going to talk about potentially charging more for package deliveries, charging more for payroll tax — basically going after everybody who has money. And when I’m talking tolling, I’m talking at the borders. I’m not talking within Massachusetts.”

She added: “We’re going after all the people who should be giving us money to make our transportation better and our communities better.”

She's talking about separating anyone "who has money" from their money. Because it's her money, see, and those who earned that money better hand it over "to make our communities better."

Obviously, she revels in her calls to raise taxes and tolls, much the way Walter Mondale once did when he challenged the great Ronald Reagan in the election of 1984. Mondale, a dour Scandinavian type from Minnesota, though, didn't quite project the glee at taking from others that Tibbits-Nutt does. But we all know how voters responded to him.

Howie Carr says she has a history of this:

Here are some of the cabinet secretary’s fondest dreams:

 

• Increasing the state payroll tax.
• Jacking up local excise taxes.
• New tolls on all highways leading into Massachusetts.
• Forcing working-class drivers out of their pick-up trucks, which she claimed are “basically” 18-wheelers.
• Charging more for Uber/Lyft rides, and for package-delivery services.
• Writing more speeding tickets, and suspending more drivers’ licenses, and forcing motorists to appeal the loss of their licenses at the state’s kangaroo-court hearings.
• Using state policy to bludgeon citizens into submission to the Deep State — “I’ll 100 percent use it as a weapon.”

Remember, among other things, Tibbits-Nutt is suggesting cracking down on law-abiding motorists in a state where criminal illegal aliens with no licenses are allowed to drive at will, in unregistered, uninsured, uninspected low riders with absolutely no consequences whatsoever.

But for taxpaying American motorists, here’s what the Democrats have in store for you:

“We’re getting really, really aggressive. We are pushing for less warnings, more citations. I’m telling you, nothing slows down someone real quick like getting your license suspended.”

She continued:

“The beauty is we can be in charge of that too ‘cause we will 100 percent take your license. We have absolutely no problem doing that. Feel free to appeal this in a hearing.”

Sound like the kind of state you'd like to live in?

A lot of people in Massachusetts don't think so. They're fleeing "in droves," as the Boston Globe put it, in one of the highest blue-exodus states in the country.

According to the Globe in a piece dated April 18:

Now, a new report has shed some light on who, exactly, these runaways are. And it probably does not bode well for the state’s long-term economic competitiveness.

Boston Indicators, the research arm of the Boston Foundation, published an analysis exploring trends in so-called domestic outmigration in Massachusetts, or people leaving for elsewhere in the United States. Looking at a two-year average across 2021 and 2022, the analysis found that the people moving out of Massachusetts were predominantly white, middle- and high-income earners, and college-educated.

Particularly dire: Working-age adults are leaving in droves. On net, Massachusetts lost an average of 22,631 people ages 25 to 44 across 2021 and 2022 — the largest number of any age group and a marked increase over previous years, according to the report. For perspective, that’s about the size of the population of Winchester.

Working age people with education are the ones who want out, the actual taxpayers.

The actual loss in the last year is in the neighborhood of 300,000 and 400,000 people (all of their numbers are divvied up by demographics, so some could overlap), with net "international" migration (read: illegals) making up for about 50,000 of the losses, according to their charts.

The Wicked Witch of the West-style glee of this kakistocrat who is coming for the residents' glass slippers isn't going to keep anyone staying in that state. In fact, it's going to drive more of them out. When someone can't be thrown out of power for getting powermad in a one-party state, the only solution is to vote with one's feet.

https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/04/greedy_hand_of_government_goes_wild_in_massachusetts_basically_we_re_going_after_everyone_who_has_money.html

Chicago is the DNC’s Kind of Town?

 By Clarice Feldman

I’m old enough to remember the 1968 DNC convention in Chicago, and smart enough to see that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is no Richard J. Daley. So, as food prices rise with no end in sight, I advise you to stock up on popcorn before the August 19 convention in Chicago this year. As for the Democrats, I cannot imagine a scenario where there is anything but downsides for picking this site, this year.

In case you forgot, the 1968 convention began with ominous foreboding. True, the mayor had done everything he could to prettify the city, including screening the stockyards with redwood fences, but he knew the anti-Vietnam protestors would target the convention and mobilized the National Guard with orders to shoot if necessary. 

What followed was worse than even the direst pessimist could have envisioned. Written in 2008, this author described the scene and aftermath: 

The 1968 Chicago convention became a lacerating event, a distillation of a year of heartbreak, assassinations, riots and a breakdown in law and order that made it seem as if the country were coming apart. In its psychic impact, and its long-term political consequences, it eclipsed any other such convention in American history, destroying faith in politicians, in the political system, in the country and in its institutions. No one who was there, or who watched it on television, could escape the memory of what took place before their eyes.

Include me in that group, for I was an eyewitness to those scenes: inside the convention hall, with daily shouting matches between red-faced delegates and party leaders often lasting until 3 o'clock in the morning; outside in the violence that descended after Chicago police officers took off their badges and waded into the chanting crowds of protesters to club them to the ground. I can still recall the choking feeling from the tear gas hurled by police amid throngs of protesters gathering in parks and hotel lobbies.

 For Democrats in particular, Chicago was a disaster. It left the party with scars that last to this day, when they meet in a national convention amid evidence of internal divisions unmatched since 1968. [snip]

The violence that rent the convention throughout that week, much of it captured live on television, confirmed both the Democrats' pessimism and the country's judgment of a political party torn by dissension and disunity. In November the party would lose the White House to Nixon's law-and-order campaign. In the nine presidential elections since, Democrats have won only three, and only once -- in 1976, after the Watergate scandal forced Nixon to resign in disgrace -- did they take, barely, more than 50 percent of the votes. This year, it’s not just the pro-Hamas wing that will be protesting, but Black Chicagoans opposed to the Democrats’ open-border policies.

Olivia Reingold and Eli Lake detail on Free Press how far-left activists are already plotting to disrupt the DNC Convention. According to the Free Press essay, in just one day 75 organizations discussed how they would participate on the “March on DNC 2024” to disrupt the convention. They plan to so flood the streets that they could avoid arrest, they taught how to avoid the Secret Service and how to say “Death to America” in Farsi. A representative of the left’s legal arm, the National Lawyers Guild, told attendees how to spot police carrying “mass arrest kits.”

The likelihood of violence appears substantial:

The event attracted some unsavory characters. Four speakers have had their homes raided by the FBI for their alleged ties to terrorist groups, and one attendee, Jesse Nevel, was federally charged for “working on behalf of the Russian government.” One “anarchist” distributed his homemade magazine that included drawings of machetes and the essay “In Defense of Looting.”

The prospect that the convention could devolve into the kind of anarchy actively being plotted at this conference has Chicago Democrats worried, several party insiders told The Free Press. Four politicians said they fear the city—and especially the administration of Mayor Brandon Johnson -- aren’t prepared for the protests.

Alderman Gilbert Villegas, also a Democrat, said these anti-DNC groups are “like January 6th” in their mission to obstruct a key part of the American political process. “They are looking to recruit veterans to resist the quote, unquote empire,” he said of the groups aiming to, in his words, “create chaos” this summer.

He added he’s “concerned about the safety” of the more than 50,000 visitors expected to visit Chicago for the convention, which will be held at the United Center from August 19–22. The Department of Homeland Security is monitoring the threat, according to ABC News, which obtained a bulletin warning that foreign and domestic subversives “may view these events as an opportunity to influence or disrupt the U.S. political process.”

Alderman Anthony Beale says these anti-Israel activists already pose a threat -- and have since October 7, when they started showing up to City Hall in droves, often shouting over legislators and refusing to leave the building. 

“They are yelling and screaming,” said Beale, who represents the city’s far South Side. “Some of my colleagues have been spit on. This is outrageous and it’s being tolerated.”

Minority opposition to open borders is substantial and growing in Chicago. Black voters are threatening to turn the city red and do away with Chicago’s far-left policies which created a migrant crisis that’s straining the city’s resources which impact most those at the middle and bottom rungs of the city.

In August, we can expect a significant Democrat base -- urban Black voters angry at the surge of illegal aliens and the Free Palestine movement which Democrat congressman Ritchie Torres correctly claims will endanger both the DNC and Biden’s reelection chances, focusing on the convention in Chicago. ABC has reported that the Department of Homeland Security is monitoring the threat. Its record does not inspire confidence.

Neither does Mayor Johnson’s, whose bright ideas include creating city-owned and -operated grocery stores in “underserved areas.” These areas are “underserved" because they have been “overrobbed” and city-owned and -operated grocery stores will also be, along with Chicago’s penchant for graft and corruption. If you can’t protect vital businesses from crime, you can hardly be expected to forestall or limit a coming large wave of political violence directed at the DNC and the tens of thousands of visitors to the convention.

Maybe the Democrats can create another “pandemic,” order another lockdown, and conduct the convention online.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/04/chicago_is_the_dnc_s_kind_of_town.html

 

Israel launches fund to entice institutional investment in tech firms

 Israel's government has launched a new fund to encourage institutional investors to boost investments in high-tech companies, the Israel Innovation Authority said on Sunday.

The tech sector is a key driver of Israel's economy, accounting for close to 20% of output, 12% of jobs, more than 50% of exports and 25% of tax income.

"The high-tech sector is a central and significant pillar of the Israeli economy, and we must ensure diversity in its sources of funding," said Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

"We are in a period where we need to plan a strategy for transitioning from war to growth, and smart investment in Israeli high-tech is one of the first steps we are advancing," he said, referring to Israel's six-month-old war with Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

Traditionally most investment has come from venture capital funds rather than institutional investors. The new Yozma 2.0 fund aims to change that, offering insurance companies, pension funds and other institutional investors a mechanism to enhance returns on their investments in tech-focused Israeli venture capital funds over the next 20 months.

The fund is being launched by both the innovation authority and finance ministry and will direct $160 million in public money to venture capital funds supporting Israeli tech companies.

The Israel Innovation Authority said it would contribute 30 cents for every dollar of institutional investment as part of the program. It will also waive its relative share of returns from these investments, either fully or partially, with the aim of enhancing returns for the institutions involved.

Alon Stopel, chairman of the authority, said the move is designed to support early-stage Israeli tech companies, particularly those in deep technology sectors, and ensure a "robust funding environment" for Israeli startups in the coming years. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/israel-launches-fund-entice-institutional-125906906.html

Haiti's capital under gang attacks ahead of government transition

 Armed gangs launched fresh attacks on parts of Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince ahead of the installation of a transitional council set to usher in a new government, local media said on Sunday, reporting arson and heavy gunfire in the city centre.

The Lower Delmas area is turning into "a battlefield between police and armed gangs," Radio Tele Galaxie said on X, saying loud blasts were heard as far as the neighborhood's city hall, as well as automatic gunfire near the National Palace.

Two voice recordings circulated on social media which users attributed to gang leader Jimmy "Barbeque" Cherizier apparently ordering his soldiers to burn houses down in Lower Delmas, an impoverished part of the capital where he grew up.

"Continue burning the houses. Make everybody leave," a man says in the first audio recording. In another, he says he has sent jugs of gasoline: "No need to know which house. Burn every house you find. Set the fire," he says.

Reuters was unable to verify the recording, but a resident from the area told Reuters she had seen houses on fire.

The State University of Haiti's medical facility was also looted by gangs overnight, Radio RFM reported, while attacks were also reported in the hillside Petion-Ville suburb.

This comes as the country prepares for the installation of a nine-member council to take over from Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who pledged to step down on March 11 while stranded outside the country and under pressure from the United States.

Haiti's gangs, many of which have grouped together under an alliance known as "Viv Ansanm" (Living Together), have said their siege on the capital is a battle to oust Henry, but since his announcements attacks on the capital have increased.

Rights groups estimate some 90% of the capital is now under gang control.

Henry had traveled abroad at the end of February to secure Kenya's leadership of a planned security support force he requested in 2022. Though Kenya offered to lead the force it ran into local legal issues prompting Henry to sign a reciprocal security deal with the East African nation.

Though the United Nations ratified the force late last year, progress continued to lag and was finally put on hold when Henry announced his resignation, pending a new government.

Under government decrees confirming a transition plan mediated by the Caribbean Community, the members of the transition council, required to deliver documents proving their eligibility, should be sworn in at the National Palace.

The palace, however, alongside other public buildings and key infrastructure such as the capital's airport, have come under repeated attacks over recent weeks. No official date has been set for the installation.

Meanwhile, Haiti's civil protection agency warned of possible flooding over southern parts of the country, including the capital, due to heavy rains, further complicating conditions for those forced to flee their homes due to the violence.

The U.N. estimates that over 360,000 people are internally displaced and millions are going hungry as key ports and supply routes remain blocked.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/haitis-capital-under-gang-attacks-000949698.html

'US commerce secretary downplays chip in advanced Huawei phone'

 The chip powering the Mate 60 Pro phone of sanctioned Chinese company Huawei is not as advanced as American chips, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Sunday, arguing that it shows U.S. curbs on shipments to the telecoms equipment giant are working.

Huawei, which has been on a trade restriction list since 2019, surprised the industry and the U.S. government when it released a new phone powered by a sophisticated chip last August. The Huawei Mate 60 Pro was seen as a symbol of China's technological resurgence despite Washington's ongoing efforts to cripple its capacity to produce advanced semiconductors.

It was also seen by many as a slight for Raimondo, who was visiting China when it was released. But in an interview with CBS News' "60 Minutes," Raimondo pushed back against that view.

"What it tells me is the export controls are working because that chip is not nearly as good, ... it's years behind what we have in the United States, she said. "We have the most sophisticated semiconductors in the world. China doesn't."

Washington has been locked in a years-long effort to deprive Beijing of advanced semiconductor chips and the tools needed to make them over concerns they would be used to strengthen China's military capabilities.

Huawei, a symbol of that tech war, was added to the so-called entity-list in 2019 amid fears it could spy on Americans, forcing its U.S. suppliers to seek a difficult-to-obtain license to ship to it.

But its suppliers, including Intel, have received licenses worth billions of dollars to keep selling to the company. Huawei's revelation of its first AI-enabled laptop powered by an Intel chip this month has fueled anger among Republican China hardliners.

When asked if she was tough enough on big business, Raimondo was emphatic.

"I hold businesses accountable as much as anyone," she told Lesley Stahl on "60 Minutes." "When I tell them they can’t sell their semiconductors to China, they don’t love that, but I do that," she added.

The Huawei phone also prompted a review by the Biden administration to learn the details behind the chip that powers it, the most advanced semiconductor China has so far produced. But details of the review have been scant.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-commerce-secretary-downplays-chip-230249123.html