Target $180
https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=ASND&p=d
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Hoth Positive Data in Treatment of EGFRI-Associated Skin Toxicities
Cancer Patient Ceased Treatment After One Week Due to Rapid Success
In the reported case, the patient, a 59-year-old female undergoing treatment at George Washington University for metastatic breast cancer, experienced significant improvement in symptoms just one week after initiating HT-001 therapy. Due to the swift resolution of lesions and the alleviation of discomfort, the patient was able to discontinue the treatment after just seven days. Over the following three weeks, no new lesions developed, further highlighting the potential of HT-001 as an effective and safe therapy for EGFRI-associated PPEs.
Co-Diagnostics, Inc. Completes Updated Clade Ib Analysis of 2-Gene Mpox RUO Test
Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (Nasdaq-CM: CODX) (the "Company"), a molecular diagnostics company with a unique, patented platform for the development of molecular diagnostic tests, announced today that the Company has performed an in silico analysis of the Co-Dx™ Logix Smart® Mpox (2-Gene) RUO test to evaluate the possible impact of clade Ib mpox on the test. The results of the analysis show that the test should retain full reactivity against mpox strains circulating over the last year, including clade 1b.
On August 13, 2024, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) declared mpox (formerly monkeypox) a Public Health Emergency of Continental Security (PHECS), which was followed the next day by the World Health Organization Director-General declaring the illness a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). On August 27, 2024, the Africa CDC reported that mpox infections in Africa had reached more than 22,800 cases, resulting in 622 deaths. Clade Ib mpox appears to be more transmissible between humans and more severe than clade Ia or clade II, the version responsible for the 2022 mpox outbreak.
In response to the outbreak in 2022, Co-Dx designed and verified two Research Use Only (RUO) tests for mpox* virus on the Company's patented Co-Primers® platform. The version of the test evaluated in the recent in silico analysis (a type of experiment performed by computer to compare the test's primer sequences against known strains of mpox) was the 2-gene version of the Company's mpox test. This test was also included in a study published in the Oxford Academic journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases in December, 2023, which showed that the Co-Dx test performed better at detection of mpox from saliva samples than the other assays surveyed.
Modular Medical: FDA Clears MODD1 Insulin Pump
Modular Medical, Inc. (the "Company" or "Modular Medical") (NASDAQ:MODD), an insulin delivery system technology company preparing to launch a market expansion product with a more accessible, easier to prescribe, and easier to pay for and live with technology, today announced it will hold a conference call and webcast tomorrow, Thursday, September 5, 2024, at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the U. S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") clearance of its MODD1 pump, as well as next steps and milestones.
Conference Call and Webcast Information
Date: September 5, 2024
Time: 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time (5:30 a.m. Pacific Time)
Conference Call Number: 1-888-506-0062
International Call Number: +1-973-528-0011
Passcode: 914895
Webcast: Click Here
For those unable to listen to the live Web broadcast, an archived webcast will be available on the Company's investor relations page at www.modular-medical.com. A replay of the conference call will also be available through September 19, 2024, and can be accessed by calling 1-877-481-4010 and using passcode 51238. International callers should dial 1-919-882-2331 and enter the same passcode at the prompt.
Soy grown illegally on Brazil's tribal lands finds its way to global markets
Farm cooperatives in Brazil that supply some of the world's biggest multinational agricultural firms are buying soybeans grown illegally on Indigenous reservations in the country, according to tribal leaders and court records, despite the companies' public pledges to respect the land rights and resources of Indigenous peoples.
The expansion of commercial farming onto Indigenous lands, which make up about 13% of Brazil's territory, has stirred division and violent conflicts in scores of communities, according to the federal police, the Catholic Church's Indigenous Missionary Council and the Brazilian government agency overseeing Indigenous affairs, FUNAI.
Brazil's constitution set aside lands for the exclusive use of Indigenous communities while a 1973 law outlaws renting these lands or forming partnerships to grow commercial crops.
But the restrictions are not codified in the country's penal code, which makes enforcement difficult, federal police say. And while it is legal for tribal members to grow soybeans themselves, few of them have access to the funds needed to go into commercial-scale farming.
Since 2013, the area devoted to soy cultivation across the 14 Indigenous reservations in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul has grown to nearly 28,000 hectares (70,000 acres), a 23% increase over the decade, according to previously unreported satellite data provided to Reuters by MapBiomas, a nonprofit land-use research group.
"The people in charge, the chiefs, are making a lot of money while the rest of the community is dying of hunger," said Aldronei Rodrigues, federal police regional superintendent in Rio Grande do Sul.
For many members of Brazil's Indigenous communities, leasing lands remains one of their best economic options, according to FUNAI. The agency said in a statement to Reuters that government policies do not provide sufficient access to credit or technical support to help tribal members go into commercial farming on their own.
With jobs scarce on the reservations, many people migrate to find work as seasonal laborers or in meatpacking plants for relatively low pay, local residents said.
"The search for better living conditions gave rise to different illicit activities, [including] leasing and cultivation of genetically modified crops[on their lands], notably in the south of the country," FUNAI said.
Brazil is the world's biggest producer and exporter of soybeans, which are used in animal feed, biofuels and processed food. Industry trade data shows two-thirds of Brazil's harvest ultimately ends up in global markets.
In Rio Grande do Sul, which has a population of 10.8 million, almost all of the harvest is sold to farming co-operatives including Cotrijal Cooperativa Agropecuaria e Industrial (Cotrijal) and Cooperativa Triticola Sarandi (Cotrisal), the two biggest in the state, according to two grain brokers.
Reuters spoke to four Indigenous leaders, including the chiefs of the Serrinha and Nonoai reservations, two of the most involved in soy cultivation in the north of Rio Grande do Sul state, who said the commercial crops raised on their lands were sold to Cotrisal and other farming co-operatives.
Three more Indigenous community members in Rio Grande do Sul, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also told Reuters Cotrisal was a major buyer of soy raised by non-Indigenous farmers on leased tribal land.
"We always do this kind of thing - the leasing - against our will because we can't let Indians go hungry," said Jose Oreste do Nascimento, who has led the Nonoai community of about 3,600 people for more than four decades.
About one-third of the 20,000-hectare reservation is given over to soy cultivation, the satellite images showed, almost five times larger than the soy area in 1985, when MapBiomas records began.
Marciano Inacio Claudino, chief of the Serrinha territory, also told Reuters that Cotrisal regularly buys soybeans from non-indigenous farmers leasing on his tribal land. Serrinha's territory is 12,000 hectares, and, according to satellite data, grows soybeans on some 6,000 hectares.
"Cotrisal is the main one," he said.
Helvio Debona, a senior Cotrisal executive, and Enio Schroeder, Cotrijal's vice-president, told Reuters in interviews in April, when Rio Grande do Sul farmers were reaping their 2024 soy, that they sell to large trading companies including ADM, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and COFCO.
'SOYBEANS DON'T COME WITH A BRAND'
When asked about possible sourcing of soy grown illegally on Indigenous land, Cotrisal's Debona said that it is impossible to trace the origin of 100% of its grain purchases.
"We can't guarantee," he said in an interview. "Soybeans don't come with a brand."
Cotrisal did not respond to emailed requests for further comment. Cotrijal said it had not bought grains from farmers leasing lands in Serrinha and that it does not operate in the area.
Over the years, global agricultural companies have made assurances about respecting land rights and human rights, highlighting their attention to Indigenous communities in annual sustainability statements.
ADM made no mention of Indigenous rights or land disputes in its most recent corporate sustainability report last year. In a human rights report in 2022, the company noted the pervasiveness of land disputes in South America and said that it is not directly implicated in any land disputes. The 2022 report did not discuss cultivation on Indigenous reserves.
In an email to Reuters, ADM said it had investigated the news agency's findings and found no evidence that the soy it purchased had been raised on lands leased on the Nonoai and Serrinha reservations.
"We do not source any grains from Indigenous territories in the Rio Grande do Sul region," Jackie Anderson, an ADM spokesperson, said.
However, buying from large farmer cooperatives in southern Brazil can obscure the origin of grains, according to six lawsuits filed between 2008 and 2022 by federal prosecutors on behalf of the tribes. At least two of the cases are ongoing.
Bunge, Cargill, COFCO and Louis Dreyfus did not respond to requests for comment and referred questions to the national soy industry group Abiove.
"Cotrijal and Cotrisal declared to us they don't buy grains produced on the reservations of Nonoai and Serrinha," Abiove said in an email.
Abiove said its members are pushing the cooperatives to ensure their supply chains conform with laws and contractual obligations against buying grains from protected territories.
Andre Nassar, president of Abiove, said in a separate statement that traders can "stop all purchases" from a cooperative if it becomes clear that it is sourcing soy from reservations.
Nassar said traders can also ask cooperatives for assurances that the soybeans were raised by members of the Indigenous community – and not leased to third parties.
Abiove did not respond to Reuters' questions on whether its members ever turned down a purchase from Cotrisal or Cotrijal, and did not provide further evidence of its efforts to remove grain from indigenous lands from its supply chain.
'A NEFARIOUS PRACTICE'
Reuters reviewed court records including a November 2018 Cotrisal invoice for herbicide purchases against future delivery of grains issued to a farmer being sued by federal prosecutors for leasing land to plant soy in Serrinha.
Court rulings in 2017 and 2018, reviewed by the news agency, ordered the seizure of tons of soy grown on Indigenous lands from silos operated by Cotrisal, Cotrijal and other cooperatives.
Cotrisal and Cotrijal did not respond to requests for comment on the seizures.
In a July 2022 decision ordering measures to stop the practice, Federal Judge Diogo Edele Pimentel said private leasing of lands in the Nonoai territory was a major source of division.
"It is a nefarious practice of private appropriation of a public good, completely disfiguring its collective nature and deepening inequality in these communities," he wrote.
Nascimento, the Nonoai chief, as well as his son and a former FUNAI official, were fined a total of around 4.5 million reais (nearly $800,000) for embezzling profits from the illegal leases, according to a July 2019 ruling seen by Reuters.
Nascimento said an appeal is pending, and that "all is back to normal," with non-Indigenous farmers delivering their harvests to the same coops, including Cotrisal.
"The soy is sold on the local market. There are farm cooperatives all around the Indigenous territories. There is Cotrisal... and other large cooperatives which buy any quantity of soy, corn, everything," he said.
Reuters could not independently verify whether the lawsuit remains active.
In 2021, 11 members of the Serrinha community filed a civil lawsuit in the federal court of Carazinho, Rio Grande do Sul, accusing their chief Claudino of controlling the territory's soy trade to enrich his family.
The 2021 lawsuit reviewed by Reuters said Claudino has crushed dissent with "violence, oppression and human rights violations."
In a telephone interview, Claudino said his opponents spread lies about his leadership and that most of the community supports him. The lawsuit is ongoing.
Claudino remains under investigation - but has not been charged - in connection with a double homicide in Serrinha in 2021, which police and local community members link to land and power disputes fueled by the soy trade. He denies involvement in the killings.
At least 30 families who objected publicly to Claudino's involvement in the soy trade have left the reservation since October 2021. Several had their homes looted and ransacked, according to three of the victims and a 2022 report by the federal human rights commission, which connected the violence to the land leases.
Claudino said only a dozen families left the reservation in recent years, some of whom have returned.
"Some are back already. I allowed it. But I'm not going to let people come here and make trouble for me again," he said.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/soy-grown-illegally-brazils-tribal-101856103.html
Hunter Biden's US tax trial to begin in Los Angeles federal court
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is set to stand trial in Los Angeles on Thursday in a criminal case accusing him of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes while spending lavishly on drugs, sex workers and luxury items.
Biden has pleaded not guilty. He was charged in December as part of a wide-ranging probe of his finances and business dealings, becoming the first child of a sitting president to face criminal charges.
The trial in Los Angeles federal court follows the younger Biden’s June trial conviction in Delaware for illegally buying a gun while using drugs, which he is appealing.
That conviction means he could face a stiffer sentence if convicted in the tax case because he would be a repeat offender.
The tax evasion trial before Judge Mark Scarsi will begin with jury selection on Thursday and is expected to last two to three weeks.
Biden is charged with three felony and six misdemeanor counts for allegedly failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019 while spending huge sums "on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature,” according to an indictment.
The trial could shed light on Biden’s work with a Ukrainian natural gas company and his other business dealings while his father was vice president, which the president's Republican foes have claimed were corrupt.
The indictment says Hunter Biden "earned handsomely" while serving on the boards of Burisma, a Ukrainian industrial conglomerate, and a Chinese private equity fund.
The younger Biden has denied any improper business dealings, and Republican-led investigations in Congress have not directly implicated his father in any wrongdoing.
Biden is set to be sentenced in the gun case on Nov. 13. President Biden has said he will not pardon his son.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/hunter-bidens-us-tax-trial-100201166.html
Backed by Supreme Court, California turns to police in homeless crisis
Palm Springs, long known as a desert playground for the rich and famous of Los Angeles, has enacted a number of progressive measures to address homelessness.
Then in July, the all-Democratic city council passed a ban on sleeping on public property that will expand police authority to arrest the unhoused, underscoring how even liberal cities have lost patience as the homeless crisis persists.
Other cities have grown even more emboldened by a June 28 ruling from the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court that camping bans are constitutional.
Since then, 12 California cities or counties have passed camping bans while another nine are considering them or have already given initial approval, according to the National Homelessness Law Center.
Many of those cities cited the Supreme Court decision as they passed new ordinances to evict unhoused people from public view.
With soaring rents and an acute housing shortage, California has an estimated 180,000 homeless people even though it has spent more than $20 billion on housing and homelessness programs since the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Margot Kushel, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and co-author of a 2023 report on the state's homelessness, calls the police crackdowns counterproductive.
Having a criminal record impedes a homeless person's chance at getting a job, and the distrust it generates reduces homeless cooperation with police, Kushel said. Scattering them strains their access to outreach workers.
"We need housing. We need subsidies. We need not just affordable housing, but we need deeply affordable housing," Kushel said.
CAMPING BANS
Palm Springs, a city of 45,000 about 100 miles (160 km) east of Los Angeles, stopped just short of exercising all the authority granted to cities in Grants Pass v. Johnson. The new ordinance instead complies with a previous federal court ruling and will prevent law enforcement from enforcing the ban when emergency shelter space is full.
Its new law won't take effect until 85 temporary housing units are completed later this year.
With a homeless population that advocates estimate at 500, Palm Springs previously enacted rental assistance for people in danger of losing their homes, set aside a quarter of tax revenue from vacation rentals for affordable housing, and opened a 50-bed shelter in March.
California jurisdictions received further guidance when Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom on July 25 issued an executive order directing state agencies to urgently address homeless encampments and urged cities to adopt a similar posture.
Meanwhile five local entities, including the city and county of Los Angeles, have passed measures or issued statements resisting police crackdowns or have approved sanctioned camping spaces, the National Homelessness Law Center said.
Outside California another 25 cities in 15 states have passed or are considering camping bans, the center said.
'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH'
Palm Springs Police Chief Andrew Mills shares the perspective that police cannot solve the problem and says he advocates for compassion.
But "we have to be able to say enough is enough as a community and as a country," Mills said from the streets on a recent day when the high temperature reached 110 Fahrenheit (43 Celsius). "We needed some kind of leverage to say you're not going to do this in our city."
Mills said police will give homeless people three options: take help by entering a shelter; accept the city's offer of a free bus, train or plane ticket home where family can take them in; or go to jail.
At the United Methodist Church, where the social services group Well in the Desert serves 250 free meals a day, one homeless man said homeless people are routinely harassed and he has been arrested for pushing a shopping cart and loitering.
"They want us out of sight. That's the end point," said Travis Rogers, 60, who said he became homeless after experiencing extreme grief at the death of his only son from brain cancer five years ago. "I just wish the city council or this new chief of police would actually talk to us instead of just passing all these ordinances."
Eve Garrow, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, says cities rushing to pass laws are in a "race to the bottom."
"They're not controlling the fact that wages have stagnated over the last 20 or 30 years and housing prices have skyrocketed," Garrow said.
Tina Allgood, 53, another person at the church, said he lives in fear of the police while he continues to look for a job and permanent housing.
"Don't be so hard on us," Allgood said. "You know, don't make us run from you. Make us run to you."
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/emboldened-supreme-court-california-turns-100801007.html
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