Elon Musk is partnering with the Dubai government to develop the “Dubai Loop,” an underground high-speed transportation system aimed at connecting the city’s most densely populated areas and reducing congestion.
Omar Sultan al Olama, the United Arab Emirates’s minister of state for artificial intelligence, digital economy, and remote work applications, announced the collaboration during the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Feb. 12.
Al Olama said the project will cover Dubai’s busiest areas and allow people to go from point to point seamlessly.
The Boring Company, owned by Elon Musk and headquartered in Bastrop, Texas, has created a similar underground transportation system called the Vegas Loop in Nevada, which serves the Las Vegas Convention Center.
It took two years to build and has been operational since 2021.
Musk, the world’s richest man, appeared at the Dubai summit via video link and explained that the new transportation system in the UAE would work like a “wormhole.”
“It’s going to be like a wormhole–you just wormhole from one part of the city—boom—and you’re out in another part of the city,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said.
“I think once people try it out, they’ll be like, ‘This is really cool.’ And it’s going to seem so obvious in retrospect, but until you actually do it, you don’t know.”
Details regarding the deal—such as how much it will cost to build or when development might begin—were sparse, but Musk said he was “looking forward” to working with the Dubai government.
Musk’s existing Vegas Loop uses Tesla Model 3 cars to shuttle passengers to four stations between the center complex and other transportation connections in the city.
The eventual plan is for the Vegas Loop to expand to 68 miles of tunnel featuring 104 stations, transporting more than 90,000 passengers per hour, according to The Boring Company’s official website.
While speaking via video at the summit in Dubai, Musk addressed safety concerns regarding the underground tunnels, telling the audience the transportation system would be safe even in the event of earthquakes or extreme weather.
“One of the safest places to be in an earthquake is an underground tunnel,” the tech mogul said.
“Earthquakes are largely a surface phenomenon—so they’re like the waves of a surface [of an ocean]. Being in a tunnel, it’s like being in a submarine, even if there’s a storm above you, the waters are calm as a submarine.”
Musk also joked that the underground tunnels would be safe during global thermonuclear warfare.
“Of course, if there is global thermonuclear warfare, I think you'd really want some tunnels. Underground’s a good place to be in a worst-case scenario for global thermonuclear warfare,” the businessman said.
On a more everyday note, however, building such infrastructure underground is incredibly useful for alleviating traffic and congestion in cities, which is becoming a growing problem, Musk stated.
Former State Department official-turned-truthsayerMike Benz sat down with Joe Rogan for three hours this week, where the two went down the USAID rabbit hole.
To review - over the past several weeks, Elon Musk's team at DOGE have descended on several key levers of power within the US government - including the US Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, and of course, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) - which was quickly revealed as a rogue, unaccountable 'blob' that used its vast funds not only to spread propaganda worldwide, it paid news organizations and 'disinformation' researchers to collude against outlets such as ZeroHedge, The Federalist, and others in order to strip us of ad revenues and damage our reputation. (Fortunately your subscriptions, and generous support of our new store, are keeping the lights on).
Rogan and Benz
"It must have been very exciting to have the vault opened and to get a peek into the machine, because you've been describing this," Rogan told Benz - who's spent the last several years dispensing redpills. "The last time you were on the podcast, you went into depth about usaid, and it's very curious why they chose USAID as the first organization for DOGE to investigate."
"Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, the joke that I tell here is, it's like what they tell you to do your first day of prison is you go in, you walk up to the meanest, baddest SOB and you punch them right in the mouth. I mean, that's basically what's happened here with the White House's first target being USAID," Benz replied.
Benz then went into how USAID funded NGOs, along with the deep state's global propaganda news complex via 'Internews.'
If you have 13 minutes - watch this:
How USAID Targets US Independent Media
Benz explained how USAID leaned on advertisers to boycott independent media outlets.
Benz: "For example, we just played internews and the internews CEO campaigning to governments and corporations and private sector civil society organizations around the world that they need to economically Blacklist news sites that operate on social media and those are U.S. news sites. This is the basis of lawsuits here in the US like Daily Wire and the Federalist suing the State Department. Because U.S. news sites are in these advertiser blacklists. And to that end, I want to note two things. First, if you go to my X feed and you type in the word advertiser or advertisers and if you need to, you can plug in the word USAID or CEPS in this.
And I want to show you that this is not internews gone wrong. This is not a half a billion dollar year grantee of USAID going rogue and being ideological about this. This is top down US government policy from the White House."
...
"SEPS is a program that is basically a joint baby of USAID and the State Department and is implemented by USAID's key operational arm, the National Endowment for Democracy. But this is a USAID program on countering disinformation. Internet censorship is what they do and we went over last time, remember we played that two minute video where they were openly saying that the plan is to get foreign governments to pass legal reform, pass laws and regulations to stop the spread of misinformation on US social media websites."
Benz discussed how USAID has been used in the past to interfere in domestic politics - similar to how the CIA once targeted anti-Vietnam war activists in the 1960s and 1970s.
"This happened against the left, against the Democrats in the 1960s and 70s when the CIA and its sister orgs like USAID were pumping money into domestic politics to stop the anti-Vietnam War movement," said Benz.
More on how USAID has been influencing international politics.
Benz goes on to describe how every major institution in America, from media to universities, unions, NGOs, and even conceptions of public health, are instrumentalized by this system.
"What people are going to see on this is going to completely reorient their mental map of how they think the world works, how they think American power projects into the institutions."
How Did We Get Here?
Benz delved into the history of how the government 'breached the social contract' with Americans.
Benz: You know, it was really set up in 1948 when George Kennan created this NSC 10 2, this National Security Council. We completely reoriented the structure of the American Empire in 1948, after World War II. In 1947 we passed something called the National Security Act. That's what established the CIA. That's what established the National Security Council, which coordinates all of our foreign, foreign facing empire management work. It renamed the Department of War to the Department of Defense so that it didn't look like we were acquiring territory by military force which had just been banned under international law under the UN Declaration of Human Rights. So we moved from primarily kinetic warfare into what George Kennan called just two months before he created the plausible deniability doctrine that we live under. He called this organized political warfare.
...
So in 1948, when we established the secrecy doctrine, doctrine that we now live under, and all these NGOs work under this cover effectively because of their sponsoring organizations, USAID or CIA or State.
Turned On Our Own People
Benz then goes into a group called the OCCRP (Corruption Reporting Project).
Benz: "This is a group that half of its funding comes from USAID and the US State Department. OCCRP has to the USAID and the State Department have a veto right over the staff that it can hire. This is the largest consortium of investigative journalists on planet Earth. This is the group that broke the Panama Papers. They got all these hacked documents. They got special access to it. I don't have any facts on this. I'm simply noting that it's an oddity that a group funded by a major CIA funding conduit, usaid, while the CIA has the ability to hack any target around the world that's authorized by the National Security Council, they're getting these special access documents that are reportedly either hacked or leaked and they're being sponsored by the group that's connected to something with a hacking power."
...
They've been around for almost 20 years. And they were sponsored in order to do. They do investigative hit piece journalism about corruption. And what they do is they go after all of the State Department and USAID and DOD's opponents in the region.
Ukraine
Benz and Rogan then segued into the topic of Ukraine, where then-Vice President Joe Biden bragged to the Council on Foreign Relations about forcing them to fire prosecutor Victor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma.
Benz: "So Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma. Joe Biden personally weaponized USAID in order to force a foreign country's prosecutor to be fired in order to get that billion..."
Rogan: "Can I stop you for a second? What was the investigation of Burisma? What did it entail?"
Benz: "I believe it was a similar corruption probe that there was misuse of funding. Other stuff is. Is well documented in Miranda Devine's book, the Big Guy. But if you. So if you open those four screenshots, I don't know if you're able to center it or zoom out a little bit ... Remember when Hunter Biden's permanent blanket pardon goes back to, it goes back to 2014. And so this directs USAID to guarantee loans. So it's loan guarantees for every phase of development of oil and gas in Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia. Now if you go to go to the next screenshot in this, this is from. This is a, you know, a foiaed or legally obtained internal document at the State Department which says despite his ruined name in Ukraine, Zlocheski is actively campaigning for. He's been sending letters to Ambassadors Yannick, Yovanovitch and Pyatt. They note that Hunter Biden and Devon Archer are on the board. And they say even internally at State, USAID does have cooperation with Burisma. Says pre existing small scale, preexisting cooperations. They're formally cooperating with Burisma in the region. They're noting that. And then if you go to the next screenshot now this again is State Department email traffic that's been unearthed. Okay, so they're talking about doing co branding with USAID and Burisma and the public private partnership around USAID and Burisma, but then noting, quote, the very sticky wicket of the Hunter Biden connection on Burisma's board."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Thursday met billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk where he discussed issues including space, mobility, technology and innovation. Modi said in a post on X.
On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Modi was slated to meet Musk during his trip this week to the United States, and Starlink's entry in the South Asian market could come up for discussion in the meeting.
The White House is seeking to renegotiate U.S. CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The people, along with a third source, said the new administration is reviewing the projects awarded under the 2022 law, meant to boost American domestic semiconductor output with $39 billion in subsidies.
Washington plans to renegotiate some of the deals after assessing and changing current requirements, according to the sources. The extent of the possible changes, and how they would affect agreements already finalized, was not immediately clear. It was not known whether any action has yet been taken.
"The CHIPS Program Office has told us that certain conditions that do not align with President (Donald) Trump's executive orders and policies are now under review for all CHIPS Direct Funding Agreements," GlobalWafers spokesperson Leah Peng said in a statement to Reuters.
Taiwan's GlobalWafers, which said it has not been notified directly by Washington of any changes to the conditions or terms of their awards, is set to receive $406 million in U.S. government grants for projects in Texas and Missouri. The company is currently set to receive subsidies only after it achieves specific milestones later in 2025.
Each award recipient has distinct terms and milestones in their agreements.
Four sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters that the White House is concerned about many of the terms underpinning the $39 billion Chips and Science Act industry subsidies.
Those encompass additional clauses, including requirements added into contracts by the administration of President Joe Biden, that recipients must use unionized labor to build factories and help provide affordable childcare for factory workers.
The White House and the U.S. Department of Commerce did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Since taking office, Trump has issued a series of executive orders aimed at dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government and the private sector.
One of the sources said the White House is also frustrated by companies that accepted CHIPS Act subsidies and then announced significant overseas expansion plans, including in China. The law allowed some investments in China.
Intel, for example, announced a $300 million investment in a Chinese assembly and test facility in October, after saying in March that it had won a major award under the CHIPS Act.
Many of the biggest recipients of the CHIPS Act funding - including Intel, TSMC, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix - all have major manufacturing facilities in China.
Intel disclosed it had received two payments totaling $2.2 billion in funding from the CHIPS Act, but declined to comment.
A TSMC spokesperson said the company had received $1.5 billion in CHIPS Act monies before the new administration came in as per the milestone terms of its agreement.
The spokesperson declined comment on any possible changes to its agreement under Trump but said the company is continuing to engage with the Chips Program Office.
Samsung, SK Hynix and Hemlock Semiconductor declined to comment, while Bosch referred Reuters to the Chips Office. Micron and GlobalFoundries did not respond to requests for comment.
A blood test conducted in a prehospital setting may rapidly distinguish between ischemic andhemorrhagic stroke, potentially facilitating more rapid, targeted treatment.
The test measures the levels of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), a protein specific to the brain which is released into the bloodstream when brain cells are damaged or destroyed. It is already used to assess traumatic brain injury.
“Our findings suggest that this blood test may allow some hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke patients to be identified and treated by paramedics in the ambulance without needing a CT scan,” Love-Preet Kalra, MD, RKH Klinikum Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany, told Medscape Medical News.
“This could be very exciting as we know that earlier intervention with specific treatments in both types of strokes can lead to better outcomes. For example, patients with ischemic stroke could be given thrombolysis in the ambulance and those with a more severe stroke could be directed straight to a comprehensive stroke center for thrombectomy. While patients having a hemorrhagic stroke could receive earlier blood pressure reduction,” she added.
For the study, prehospital blood samples were collected from 353 patients with suspected acute stroke, and the levels of plasma GFAP were measured using the handheld i-STAT Alinity (Abbott) device.
The levels of GFAP were correlated to the final diagnosis at hospital discharge categorized as intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), ischemic stroke, or stroke mimic.
Results showed that GFAP concentrations were strongly elevated in patients with ICH (median, 208 pg/mL) compared with those with ischemic stroke (median, 30 pg/mL) and stroke mimic (median, 48 pg/mL).
“We found that in patients with moderate or severe neurologic deficit strokes (NIHSS [The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale] > 6), a GFAP value of below 30 pg/mL could be used to exclude ICH. In future it might be possible to treat these patients with thrombolysis in the ambulance, and those with a suspected large vessel occlusion stroke could be taken straight to a thrombectomy capable center,” Kalra noted.
Results showed that 64 patients had a GFAP level < 30 pg/mL, of whom 60 patients were confirmed to have an ischemic stroke. Two patients had a stroke mimic, and two patients had a very small ICH and did not have a moderate or severe neurologic deficit.
The GFAP values defining an upper threshold indicating a hemorrhagic stroke differed by age as GFAP levels tend to be higher in older people, Kalra explained. In this study, the levels of GFAP > 57 pg/mL correlated to a diagnosis of hemorrhagic stroke in patients younger than 72 years compared with the levels > 150-160 pg/mL in those older than 72 years.
In addition, patients who had an ICH associated with the use of anticoagulants had the highest levels of GFAP, an observation which could lead to identification of patients for the early administration of anticoagulant antidote medication.
Kalra explained that in the current study, the blood samples were taken in the prehospital setting, but the analysis was conducted in the hospital laboratory. Part of the reason for this was that the samples need to undergo centrifugation to allow GFAP testing in the plasma. Going forward, new technology will allow the test to be conducted in whole blood, which should allow point of care tests to be developed suitable for use in the ambulance.
She noted that further studies are needed to confirm and build on these preliminary results, with larger multicenter trials planned with the whole blood point of care tests.
Commenting on the study, American Heart Association expert volunteer Louise D. McCullough, MD, chief of neurology at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and co-director of UTHealth Neurosciences, both in Houston, said she found the study results “incredibly interesting.”
“It was really surprising to me that a point-of-care test could differentiate ischemic stroke from hemorrhagic stroke. This is very important because the treatment for these two diseases is very different.”
The study was funded by AstraZeneca. Kalra and McCullough reported no disclosures.
How long will vaccine protection last? A simple blood test may have the answer. Researchers at Stanford School of Medicine, Stanford, California, have identified a molecular signature in the blood that appears days after vaccination and predicts the durability of the immune response. Published inNature Immunologyin January, this discovery could transform vaccine development, testing, and personalization of vaccines. The study also offers insights into why some vaccines provide lifelong immunity while others lose effectiveness within months.
Vaccine Durability
A major challenge in vaccinology is ensuring long-lasting, protective immunity. Vaccine protection varies depending on the vaccine and individual. Accurately determining the duration of immunity is essential for designing effective public health strategies. Scientists have long wondered why some vaccines enable the body to produce antibodies for decades or even a lifetime, whereas other vaccines offer protection for only a few months.
Live attenuated viral vaccines, such as smallpox and yellow fever vaccines, induce lifelong antibody responses. The measles-mumps-rubella vaccine also provides long-term protection, although boosters are recommended. In contrast, waning antibody responses have been observed with vaccines such as the inactivated seasonal influenza subunit vaccine and those against Bordetella pertussis, Salmonella typhi, and Neisseria meningitidis. The same holds true for malaria RTS,S and candidate HIV vaccines.
Adjuvants are vaccine components that enhance the strength and longevity of immune responses. For those aged > 70 years, insoluble aluminum salts (alum) have been the only adjuvants approved for human use. However, in the past three decades, several adjuvants have been introduced, including:
Oil-in-water emulsions (MF59 and AS03) used in influenza vaccines
TLR4 agonist adjuvants (eg, 3-O-desacyl-4’-monophosphoryl lipid A) used in vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, herpes zoster, and human papillomavirus
Oligonucleotide adjuvants used in hepatitis B vaccines
Saponin-based adjuvants (eg, Matrix-M) in the recombinant COVID-19 vaccine and the R217 malaria vaccine.
Molecular Signature
Advances in immune system analysis now allow scientists to identify molecular signatures that predict the efficacy and duration of vaccine action. Previous studies on vaccines against yellow fever, seasonal influenza, and other diseases have shown that molecular markers in blood correlate with vaccine response.
A recent meta-analysis of over 3000 blood samples from 820 adults across 28 studies on 13 vaccines revealed a plasma cell signature that could predict antibody responses to many vaccines.
However, no study to date has identified a cellular or molecular signature capable of predicting the duration of an immune response.
Researchers at Stanford sought to identify the factors influencing both the magnitude and duration of vaccine-induced immunity. They discovered a molecular signature in the blood that appears a few days after vaccination and predicts the duration of the immune response. According to the authors, this provides “important insights into the mechanisms by which vaccines induce durable immunity.”
Predicting Response Longevity
The researchers conducted a systems vaccinology analysis to investigate immune responses in humans to the H5N1 influenza vaccine, with and without the AS03 adjuvant. Fifty healthy individuals were randomly assigned to receive two doses of the avian influenza vaccine with or without an adjuvant.
Blood samples taken within 100 days of vaccination revealed a molecular signature linked to long-lasting antibody responses. This signature consists of RNA fragments from bone marrow megakaryocytes that are carried into the bloodstream by platelets.
The link between this molecular signature and megakaryocytes was first demonstrated in mice vaccinated with the avian influenza vaccine. Activation of megakaryocytes by thrombopoietin enhanced the durability of vaccine-induced antibody responses. This activation also promoted the survival of human bone marrow plasma cells through β1/β2 integrin-mediated cell interactions, leading to the production of molecules that increase plasma cell survival.
Building on this, a machine-learning model based on this platelet-associated signature was developed to predict the longevity of vaccine-induced immunity. Researchers analyzed antibody response data from 244 participants who had received seven different vaccines, including seasonal influenza, yellow fever, malaria, and COVID-19. Across these vaccines, the same platelet RNA molecules, indicating megakaryocyte activation, were consistently associated with more durable antibody production.
The ultimate goal is to develop a simple blood test based on platelet-associated markers to estimate vaccine durability using this molecular signature. Researchers also aim to validate these tests across different vaccines and populations globally. This could accelerate vaccine clinical trials and lead to the development of personalized vaccination strategies.
This story was translated fromJIM using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) AdministratorLee Zeldin says he will try to recoup billions of dollars issued by theBiden administration under its “green bank” program.
Under the program, the Biden administration gave a total of $20 billion to eight institutions that are in charge of doling out the cash to projects aimed at mitigating climate change.
The program was funded by the Inflation Reduction Act, which made $20 billion available for institutions that can provide financial assistance to help deploy climate-friendly products.
Zeldin’s efforts to take the money back mark the latest attempt from the Trump administration to freeze funds for federal programs — despite court rulings calling for the freeze to be lifted.
However, Zeldin’s effort has one notable distinction from other such attempts by the administration: The money in question appears to have already left the government’s hands.
In a video posted online, Zeldin called out one institution in particular, the Climate United Fund, which received nearly $7 billion, and said he would terminate its contract.
“The financial agent agreement with the bank needs to be instantly terminated and the bank must immediately return all of the gold bars that the Biden administration tossed off the Titanic,” he said.
“EPA needs to reassume responsibility for all of these funds. We will review every penny that has gone out the door,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to the Climate United Fund for comment.
The announcement raises legal and practical questions, including how the money could be taken back, as it’s possible that some of it has already been further distributed.
The Climate United Fund, for example, has already announced about $32 million to help finance solar energy development in Arkansas and a $250 million electric truck leasing program.
The EPA declined to provide additional details.
“The days of irresponsibly shoveling boatloads of cash to far-left activist groups in the name of environmental justice and climate equity are over,” Zeldin said.
While Zeldin’s actions are new, the green bank has long been in Republican crosshairs. As the GOP puts together its legislative agenda under the current Republican trifecta in the House, Senate and White House, lawmakers may try to repeal the program.
