'How to financially prepare yourself for a natural disaster'

 All these moves are especially critical for people in or near retirement

Odds are, you know someone who has been a victim of a natural disaster in the past few years or have been one yourself.

I speak from personal experience: My two Los Angeles-area sons, their wives and our baby granddaughter had to evacuate in January due to the horrific wildfires.

Since 2020, we've seen more than 115 weather or climate disaster events with losses over $1 billion apiece. Fires, storms, floods and cyclones have been like a plague. Are you ready if one comes for you?

"It used to be that natural disasters were rare. They're no longer rare; they happen all the time," Mitch Freedman, founder of MFAC Financial Advisors in Westlake Village, Calif., said on a recent episode of the "Friends Talk Money" podcast I co-host.

"In Florida," Freedman added, "we've seen lightning strike twice in the same places a year or two apart. So, everybody really needs to be prepared for the potential."

There are a number of things you can do, however, to prepare yourself financially against the possibility of a natural disaster. And there are other steps to take if one does strike where you live. All these moves are especially critical for people in, or near, retirement with homes, possessions and loved ones to protect.

A recent DLC Law study calls Texas, California and Minnesota the states with the greatest likelihood of future natural disasters - Texas for tornados, California for wildfires and Minnesota for floods.

Jeff George, founder and principal of Tao Financial in Orlando, Fla., said: "I think what we've learned through the last few natural disasters is they're affecting a larger swath of people. And with the inflation we've had, the cost of the damage being produced is growing exponentially."

What to do before a natural disaster hits

If you own a home, the first, and most important, financial step to take in advance of a natural disaster is ensuring you have appropriate homeowners insurance.

"Years ago, it didn't matter which company you went to, but today, a policy can be very different from company to company," said Freedman. "You may even have options within a company as to what you can buy and what kind of endorsements you might be able to buy."

That said, some insurance companies are pulling out of areas they consider high risk, which could make your choices slimmer than in the past. As a result, some people looking for homeowners insurance - especially retirees and preretirees who want coverage for second homes or for houses in areas they'll move to in retirement - wind up purchasing coverage through a state insurance plan.

These plans are often called FAIR plans (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) and are available in popular retirement states like California, Florida, Hawaii, New York and North Carolina. Their protection is generally more limited and more expensive than standard policies.

You could purchase an actual cash-value homeowner's policy, where the insurer subtracts depreciation when determining how much to pay to repair or replace damaged property.

But it's often wiser to buy a replacement cost policy, said Alonso Rodriguez Segarra, a Certified Financial Planner with Advise Financial in Boca Raton, Fla. This type is more expensive but pays an amount you'd need to rebuild or replace what was lost based on its current market value.

The policy should cover at least 80% of your home's replacement cost. "If you're not insuring at least 80%, you're going to be subject to coinsurance and the amount that gets paid out is going to potentially be a lot less than you thought you were going to get," said George.

Take the time to read your policy to see what it does and doesn't cover.

"Most homeowners are going to have an HO3 policy, which effectively excludes certain perils like floods and earthquakes," said George. But you can often add endorsements for these exclusions or buy separate flood insurance or earthquake policies, he noted.

You'll also likely want to have insurance riders to cover valuable possessions such as art, musical instruments, jewelry, collectibles and expensive clothes.

Two provisions George said you'll want your homeowner's policy to have: loss of use and law and ordinance coverage.

A loss of use provision means the insurer will help cover costs if you need to move out due to a disaster. A law and ordinance provision, especially important for older houses, means the insurer will pay to assure your home reconstruction is compliant with local building codes.

"Our property was built in 1969. So, if it burned down, I guarantee it would not be up to code," said George.

You'll also want to have documentation of valuable items in your home. So, take photos of videos of them and keep purchase receipts.

Be sure this documentation is readily accessible if you'll need to flee in a disaster. The same is true for your financial records, online account passwords, contact information for financial advisers, passport, Social Security card, insurance policies, wills and trust documents, advance directives and the like.

Although you could keep these things in a home safe, there have been reports that safes burned during the California wildfires.

"Even fireproof safes can melt," said Freedman. "And documents and assets that might be stored there can be demolished or destroyed."

A better idea: store copies and images of these essentials in either the cloud, a bank safe-deposit box or an electronic software program like Quicken's LifeHub (cost: $1.99 a month).

A few strategic steps to take:

-- Plan an escape. This includes knowing where you'd go in a hurry, how you'd get there, who you might call for assistance and how to reach them.

-- Put monthly bills on autopay. This way, you won't miss a payment to a utility company, mortgage provider or others because the bill came in the mail and you couldn't get it.

-- Have a go bag. This should include things like water bottles, nonperishable food, a flashlight with working batteries, a first aid kit, dust masks, a cellphone charger, travel-sized toiletries and enough clothes for a few days. The Federal Emergency Management Agency site has a more detailed list, as does AARP.

Just before you leave with the go bag, throw in your passport and medications (pills for your pet if you have one, too).

What to do after a natural disaster hits

If your home is damaged or destroyed due to a natural disaster, contact your insurance agent immediately.

"The key is to get your claim in so the insurance company has you early in line," said Freedman. "That way, when it comes time to process your claim, you'll be near the top of the list of policyholders to assist."

If you don't have a total loss, you may want to hire an independent adjuster as your advocate getting the appropriate reimbursement from your insurer.

"After our Malibu fire, when our house was damaged severely, I told my kids - one who's a CPA and one who's an attorney - 'I'm going to handle it,'" said Freedman. "My children said, 'Dad, we know you can do it, but this is a second job.'" The three of them worked together to find an adjuster with an excellent track record.

An adjuster's fee (typically 5% to 20% of what the insurer will pay you) comes out of your reimbursement. You can find a list of adjusters at the National Association of Public Insurance Adjusters website.

After a natural disaster, you may qualify for a postponement for filing and even paying your federal and state taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is giving victims of the recent California wildfires until Oct. 15 for their 2024 taxes and the choice of claiming a casualty loss on their 2024 or 2025 returns. North Carolina residents affected by last year's Hurricane Helene have until May 1 to file and pay their 2024 taxes.

The IRS site has a state-by-state list of tax dates for people who've experienced natural disasters.

You'll be able to claim a casualty loss without itemizing deductions if your area was declared a disaster by the president, too.

The Secure 2.0 law lets you take a financial hardship withdrawal of up to $22,000 from an IRA or retirement plan after a natural disaster avoiding the standard 10% penalty if you're under 59 1/2.

You might also be able to take a loan against your 401(k) to cover expenses related to the disaster - up to 50% of your account value or $50,000, whichever is less.

"I would go with a loan over a hardship withdrawal in most cases," said George. "With a loan, you can pay it back without a tax consequence. A hardship withdrawal waives the penalty, but not the taxes."

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250303512/how-to-financially-prepare-yourself-for-a-natural-disaster

Cal. Ranchers Urge State To End Water Restrictions As Floodwaters Swamp Northern County

 by Brad Jones via The Epoch Times,

Cattle ranchers in Siskiyou County who are under a drought emergency order imposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in January now find themselves in the midst of a massive flood.

A torrent of water from heavy rains, called “atmospheric rivers,” in February has inundated the farms and ranches in the Scott River and Shasta River valleys, where the governor’s executive order—which authorizes the California State Water Resources Control Board to enforce emergency regulations and place water-use restrictions—remains in effect.

Newsom has renewed the drought emergency for several years in a row, and the farmers and ranchers say it is high time for the governor to end it.

The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to declare a local flood emergency.

Siskiyou County Supervisor Jess Harris (District 1) told The Epoch Times that Siskiyou is the only county that is still under the drought emergency order, despite raging floodwaters.

“It’s the most asinine thing I’ve ever seen,” Harris said. 

“The state has a drought emergency on us, and we have a flood emergency at the county level.”

The county states in the flood emergency proclamation that heavy rain-induced ground saturation has damaged infrastructure; strained local government resources; “drastically affected” residents and their livelihoods; and caused “daily landslides, rock falls, and roadway undercutting.”

The floodwaters have breached irrigation canals; washed out roads and city streets; and inundated the Shasta, Scott, and Klamath rivers with debris, according to the county, which has also warned of flooding along the tributaries of these rivers with warmer weather and runoff from snowmelt on the way.

The governor’s office did not respond directly to an inquiry, deferring to the state water board.

Drought Emergency?

In May 2021, Newsom declared a drought emergency in several counties throughout California, including the Klamath Basin, citing critical low river flows. He extended emergency regulations to all 58 counties in October 2021, urging all Californians to voluntarily conserve water by reducing consumption by 15 percent, according to the state water board.

Nearly three years later, on Sept. 4, 2024, the governor rescinded many of the order’s provisions because of significant precipitation and improved conditions in several watersheds, particularly in the Sierra Nevada range.

“However, the order specifically found that continued action is needed—including the authority to impose future curtailments—to abate harm to native fish in the Klamath watershed,” the water board said in a Jan. 7 statement. The board declared that the emergency regulations were readopted to set minimum flow levels for both watersheds and authorize water-use restrictions if water flows were to fall below such levels.

Flooding in Scott River Valley saturates ranches and farms in Siskiyou County, Calif., after rains in late December 2024. Courtesy of Mel Fechter

The water board maintains that the emergency regulations are necessary after “years of dry conditions” that are still affecting native fish such as the coho salmon, Chinook salmon, and steelhead trout.

The Scott and Shasta rivers are key tributaries in the Klamath River watershed, crucial water sources for Siskiyou County and habitats for “federally and state-threatened coho salmon” that are of “immense economic, ecological and cultural importance” to Native American tribes and the surrounding communities, the release states.

Precipitation in the Klamath watershed improved significantly in 2023 and 2024 following drought conditions in 2021 and 2022, when flows in the Scott and Shasta rivers dropped below minimum levels set by the board from 2021 to 2024. Although rain and snowfall are above average so far this year, conditions could change, according to the water board.

“Successive years of dry conditions have severely impacted critical fish populations ... requiring us to take measures to protect their very existence,” E. Joaquin Esquivel, state water board chairman, said in the statement. “Continuing the emergency regulation enables us to maintain minimum flows in the Scott and Shasta rivers and to help with the recovery from long-term drought impacts.”

Flooded fields in Scott River Valley in California’s Siskiyou County after heavy rains in late December 2024. Courtesy of Mel Fechter

If the state is wrong, and it turns out that there is ample water for farming and ranching, the governor’s refusal to lift the emergency regulations will needlessly hurt the local economy for another year, Harris said.

“They’re risking the livelihoods of thousands of people,” he said. “A 30 percent water-use curtailment is a 30 percent reduction in income for ranchers because you have 30 percent less acres that you can hay. That’s like asking the government to take a 30 percent pay cut. They have no issue with applying that to the ranchers and saying that the lack of fish is all their fault.”

Without Newsom’s executive order, the water board would not have the authority to impose water-use curtailments, and the state would be violating adjudicated water rights, Harris said.

“They’re using this emergency declaration to trample on those water rights,“ he said. “This is the only way that they can continue to keep their foot on the throat of the rancher.”

It is ironic, he said, that the state removed three dams in Siskiyou County, the only county that is still under a drought emergency declaration during a flood.

A saturated pasture in Shasta River Valley in Siskiyou County, Calif., Feb. 5, 2025. Courtesy of Lisa Mott

Klamath River Dams Removed

The demolition of the hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River last year—the reservoirs of which were not used for irrigation—were supposed to increase flow and reduce water temperatures to save the fish, Harris said.

When asked if the dams’ demolition has helped to increase water levels, especially with the recent deluge from the winter storms, Ailene Voisin, a spokeswoman for the state water board, told The Epoch Times in an email that the dam removal restored about 400 miles of vital habitat for salmon and other species that are essential to the river’s ecosystem and the communities that depend on them.

But because the dams blocked the natural flow for more than a century, Voisin said, it is “going to take some time for the species to recover,” and “removing the dams did not address the issues impacting its tributary streams.”

Voisin also said in the email that the water board has “no comment” about whether the ranchers and farmers have a legitimate case for eliminating the drought emergency regulations.

Theodora Johnson rides a horse on her ranch near the Scott River on May 8, 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Ranchers Resist Restrictions

Theodora Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Scott Valley Agriculture Water Alliance, and her husband, Dave, told The Epoch Times that ranchers in the Scott and Shasta valleys are calling for an end to the emergency drought proclamation.

As sixth-generation ranchers, the Johnsons said the continuous state-imposed water restrictions for livestock and irrigation are threatening their livelihoods.

“It’s a third good water winter in a row,” Theodora Johnson said. “So if we’re having winters like these and they can’t lift emergency restrictions, then I can’t see there ever being a year when they would lift them.”

Water is running at about 10 cubic feet per second in a “dry gulch” on some leased land near the ranch, Dave Johnson said.

“Everybody that lives here says they never see it run,” he said.

The Scott River and creeks surrounding their ranch are overflowing and many of the hay and alfalfa fields are saturated and submerged, the Johnsons said.

Swollen Shasta River in Siskiyou County, Calif., on Feb. 5, 2025. Courtesy Lisa Mott

Debbie Bacigalupi, who runs a cattle ranch with her parents in Siskiyou County near Yreka, California, told the Epoch Times that the flood has wreaked havoc on the land.

“We have waterfalls in places we’ve never had waterfalls before,” Bacigalupi said.

One pond that has been used for decades will be empty for the first time this summer because a levee broke from all the floodwater, Bacigalupi said.

“There’s so much water, it’s absolutely ridiculous that we are in an emergency drought order still,” she said. “We have so much flooding and erosion. Our ditches—not all but many—are overflowing and breaking. We’ve got dams that are breaking. It’s so bad. It’s thousands of cubic feet going downstream every second.”

Floodwaters erode the banks of a pond at the Bacigalupis’ ranch in February 2025. Courtesy Debbie Bacigalupi

State agencies, including the water board and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, met with local farmers and ranchers to discuss what are known as Local Cooperative Solutions (LCS) on Feb. 25, according to Harris, who attended the packed meeting of about 40 farmers and ranchers in a small room at Etna City Hall.

“The farmers and ranchers are tired of the state water board’s opinions and want to see facts that their curtailment of water is actually helping anything,” he said. “In a year with so much water, it’s hard to fathom being curtailed another year.”

They are “frustrated” at the irony of being asked by the state water board to cut back on water usage during a flood, he said.

The LCS plans are the state’s way of “forcing the farmers and ranchers into doing what they want,” he said.

Signing an LCS can mean ranchers have to put meters on their wells “and jump through a bunch of hoops” to be allotted a certain amount of water up to a certain point or face a possible 95 percent reduction by September, Harris said.

“The state water board has got this down to a science,” he said.

Debbie Bacigalupi and her mother, Donna, tend to cattle at their ranch in May 2024. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

Bacigalupi said her family has not signed an LCS agreement with the state and does not intend to.

“Where’s the evidence so far that any of this stuff has worked?” she said. “These people who aren’t boots on the ground and [don’t] live in the area are coming up with these solutions, and yet they don’t have to live with the consequences of these plans.”

The LCS plans are not truly “local cooperative solutions” because the restrictions are dictated by the state, she said.

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot, who has advised Newsom since 2019, said in a video interview at an Agri-Pulse Food & Ag event in Sacramento on July 11, 2022, that voluntary plans were needed to break out of “the endless cycle of regulation and litigation” over water rights adjudicated in federal courts.

He said Newsom wanted to create “more of a shared approach to managing water” to protect fish and water quality and avoid litigation.

“So we came up with these voluntary agreements,” Crowfoot said. “And they’re enforceable but they’re called voluntary because they’re bringing everyone together.”

Flooded ranchlands in the Shasta River Valley in Siskiyou County, Calif., on Feb. 5, 2025. Courtesy of Lisa Mott

Surveying the Flood

Lisa Mott, a Montague resident who grew up on a ranch in the Shasta Valley region and has photographed the swollen Shasta River, told The Epoch Times that she has not seen this much flooding since 1997.

“The Shasta River is well beyond the flood stage in these two storms that we had,” she said.

The first storm hit in late December more than a week before the governor renewed the drought emergency order, and the most recent one hit in the first week in February, Mott said.

“Even the Klamath River was flooding,” she said. “The last storm definitely raised the river quite a bit because we were already saturated from that December storm.”

The Shasta and Scott rivers have been targeted because the state is going to need more water flow for the Klamath River now that the dams and the reservoirs are gone, Mott said.

Mel Fechter, a photographer in Scott Valley, said “it was storming like crazy” the day before the meeting in Etna.

“I feel so sorry for these farmers and ranchers,” Fechter, who has talked to many of them about the state water restrictions, said.

“I just don’t understand where these people are coming from,” he said of the state agencies.

“I’ve lived here almost 50 years now, and this is the most standing water I can remember seeing all throughout the valley—not just the flood, but the standing water,” he said.

Submerged ranchland in the Scott River Valley in Siskiyou County, Calif., on Feb. 24, 2025, after heavy rains and snowmelt. Courtesy Mel Fechter

Competing Bills

Meanwhile, competing legislative bills—Assembly Bill 430 and Assembly Bill 263—dealing with water restrictions were introduced in the state Legislature this year.

AB 263, introduced by Assemblyman Chris Rogers (D-San Francisco) on Jan. 16, would keep the emergency regulations in place in the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds “until permanent rules establishing and implementing long-term instream flow requirements are adopted for those watersheds,” according to the bill text. It would also make “legislative findings and declarations as to the necessity of a special statute” for these watersheds.

AB 430, introduced on Feb. 5 by Assemblyman Juan Alanis (R-Modesto), would require the state to conduct a comprehensive study to reassess the economic effects of the emergency regulations each year in these two watersheds before a governor could renew them. It would also require the state water board to make the study available to the public on its website no later than 30 days before the date of the renewal.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-ranchers-urge-state-end-water-restrictions-floodwaters-swamp-northern-county

Thiel: DOGE Exposed the Left's Secret Playbook

 Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel argued that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) recent exposure of rampant overspending at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reveals a fundamental truth: the left routinely employs projection to avoid scrutiny and smear its right-wing opponents. 

During a candid sit-down with Dave Rubin, Thiel - founder of Founders Fund - addressed concerns from critics about Silicon Valley's influence over the Trump administration.

 "So many of these things - I always thought our projections were similar to the critiques the left had of President Trump, suggesting maybe he didn't have all his marbles - and I thought, 'This was no projection; it turned out for the person who came after Trump,’” Thiel told Rubin. “There were all these ways in which he was portrayed as a fascist threatening democracy, and so much of what has emerged from USAID, as well as the actions of the central left establishment, is doing the exact opposite of what they accused the other side of doing." 

The Trump administration has imposed an almost complete freeze on foreign aid and announced plans to slash USAID’s workforce from about 10,000 to just 290 employees, while Elon Musk - tasked with executing Trump’s cost-cutting agenda with DOGE - revealed plans to shutter USAID entirely. 

Mass mailings have terminated over 90% of USAID’s humanitarian and $60 billion in development contracts worldwide. Recently, the officials informed most USAID employees that they were either being placed on leave or terminated. Staffers at the Washington, D.C., headquarters were allotted 15-minute slots to clear their desks under federal officer supervision. 

Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have rallied before efforts to clash spending at federal agencies, including USAID. 

"There's a lot of the spending that goes on through USAID that does not appear to be consistent with U.S. policy, and so I'm all for a review to make sure that taxpayer dollars are going to programs and people that are consistent with our government's policies," Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said of the cuts. 

"USAID is a corrupt governmental organization run by unelected bureaucrats created to shovel taxpayer dollars to Democrats' pet projects overseas," Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told Fox News. 

"At nearly $37 trillion in national debt – and a $1.8 trillion annual deficit – we can't afford to continue giving money to countries that hate America and everything we stand for," he added. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), chair of the House’s Government Efficiency Subcommittee, said last week that she will consider recommending "criminal referrals" to individuals she believes have misused U.S. foreign aid. “Maybe we should consider investigating whether USAID funding has made it back to Democrat campaigns,” said Greene, according to Politico. 

“This committee, based on this hearing and witness testimonies, will consider recommending investigations and criminal referrals,” the Georgia Republican added.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/peter-thiel-doge-exposed-lefts-secret-playbook

Novel drug selectively targets senescent cells, offering hope for liver disease and cancer

 San Antonio has one of the highest rates of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in the United States, largely driven by high rates of obesity and diabetes in the region. This chronic liver condition can lead to serious health conditions including severe liver fibrosis or cirrhosis and liver cancer, posing a significant public health challenge. Therapy that can slow the progression of MASLD and inhibit the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer remains an urgently unmet medical need.

A study published January 31, 2025, in Nature Aging highlights a promising new drug candidate that may safely and effectively eliminate harmful cells termed senescent cells from the liver to slow the progression of MASLD and inhibit the development of cirrhosis and liver cancer.

"Liver disease, particularly MASLD and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), disproportionately affects communities in San Antonio, where obesity and diabetes rates are high. Our study provides a promising path toward safer and more effective treatments for these diseases," said Zhou, tenured professor of biochemistry and structural biology, associate director for drug development at the Mays Cancer Center at UT Health San Antonio and director of the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery.

Senescent cells and liver disease

Senescent cells, sometimes called "zombie cells," are older cells that have stopped dividing but remain alive and secrete harmful toxins in the body. Accumulation of these cells has been linked to the onset and progression of MASLD, a chronic condition in which fat builds up in the liver that can lead to inflammation and damage. People with metabolic conditions like obesity and diabetes are more likely to develop MASLD.

Senolytics, a class of potential drugs designed to selectively remove senescent cells, may be an effective therapeutic for MASLD to reduce liver cancers. While senolytic therapies show promise, none are currently approved by the Federal Drug Administration for human use. This study highlights a senolytic developed in Zhou's lab and his collaborator Zheng that proved to be safer and more effective than many of the senolytics discovered previously.

A new approach

Zhou and his collaborators developed a drug candidate that works by degrading two proteins, BCL-xl and BCL-2, that help senescent cells avoid death and promote MASLD progression. Without these proteins, senescent cells self-destruct. These proteins also promote growth and survival of some tumors and without them, cancers that rely on them are weakened and often die.

The new drug candidate successfully depleted both BCL-xl and BCL-2, leading to fewer senescent cells in the liver and a decline in MASLD progression and liver cancer development, all while avoiding toxic side effects of previous senolytics targeting these proteins.

Testing the drug candidate in cell culture and in a mouse model for MASLD developed by Pi demonstrated that it was a more powerful senolytic than predecessors and was able to target senescent cells more selectively in the liver. Notably, by targeting senescent liver cells it reduced fat buildup in the liver and scar tissue formation due to liver damage in the mouse model.

Potential to inhibit liver cancer

Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common form of liver cancer with about 42,000 people diagnosed each year in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. The study found that this novel drug candidate reduced the number and size of liver tumors in mice with MASLD, suggesting it could help inhibit liver cancer development.

Importantly, they showed that the treatment was effective in mice even after the mice developed substantial MASLD and liver fibrosis but before cancer had fully developed via reducing senescent cell accumulation. Unfortunately, once cancer was established, the drug candidate did not stop tumor progression unless it was a BCL-xl/BCL-2-dependent tumor.

Advantages over existing treatments

Unlike broad-spectrum senolytics, which indiscriminately kill senescent cells (some of which may be beneficial for tissue repair), this new senolytic can selectively clear harmful senescent cells harming an organ, such as those in the liver. This selectivity is important, as indiscriminate removal of all senescent cells could disrupt wound healing and organ function, especially in older individuals.

Zhou said this senolytic's ability to selectively clear harmful senescent liver cells with reduced toxicity to platelets suggests it may offer a safer and more effective alternative to other senolytic therapies for MASLD.

"This breakthrough in targeted senolytic therapy opens the door to developing even more selective and less toxic drugs. Moving forward, we aim to refine these treatments to tackle a wider range of liver diseases and potentially other age-related conditions, ensuring broader clinical impact," said Zhou.

More information: Yang Yang et al, A BCL-xL/BCL-2 PROTAC effectively clears senescent cells in the liver and reduces MASH-driven hepatocellular carcinoma in mice, Nature Aging (2025). DOI: 10.1038/s43587-025-00811-7

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-drug-senescent-cells-liver-disease.html

Amneal’s BLA Submissions for Two Denosumab Biosimilars Accepted for Review by U.S. FDA

 Denosumab biosimilar candidates reference Prolia® and XGEVA®

Amneal looks to expand portfolio to six biosimilars across eight product presentations by 2027

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRX) ("Amneal" or the "Company"), a global biopharmaceutical company, and mAbxience ("mAbxience") today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review its Biologics Licensing Application (BLA) for two proposed denosumab biosimilars referencing Prolia® and XGEVA®. mAbxience is a Fresenius Kabi majority-owned group with partial ownership from Insud Pharma. Fresenius Kabi is an operating company of Fresenius.

The FDA has assigned a target action date in the fourth quarter of 2025. Currently, Amneal commercializes three biosimilars in the U.S., with the two denosumab biosimilar candidates representing its next potential biosimilar launches. Additionally, three more biosimilars are in development, positioning Amneal to have a portfolio of six biosimilars across eight product presentations by 2027.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amneal-bla-submissions-two-denosumab-210500377.html

American Airlines asks US Supreme Court to reverse ruling barring JetBlue alliance

 American Airlines has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a lower-court decision that found its now-scrapped U.S. Northeast partnership with JetBlue Airways violated federal antitrust law.

American Airlines in a petition made public on Monday asked the justices to review a decision in November by a Boston-based federal appeals court that upheld a trial judge's ruling blocking the airlines' "Northeast Alliance," which had allowed the two carriers to coordinate flights and pool revenue.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2025-03-03/american-airlines-asks-us-supreme-court-to-reverse-ruling-barring-jetblue-alliance

Attitude Adjustment

 by James Howard Kunstler,

"A secularized, atheist leaning Europe that has forgotten its roots, has demonstrated that it will NOT protect the personal freedoms of its citizenry.” 

- Jim Shea

See if you can get this straight: So, Kier Starmer says: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland wants to “put boots on the ground and planes in the air” in Ukraine so as to lead a “coalition of the willing” (NATO) against Russia. Sounds a little like the British PM is holding seances at No. Ten Downing Street to channel the spirits of bygone European leaders who launched doomed bear hunts into the vast and mysterious Eurasian east. (Who comes to mind?)

Why is Europe so avid for war?

After eighty-odd years of serving as the world’s tourism theme park, languishing in their cafes, maybe they forgot what war is like. The New York Times reports: Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union would fortify Ukraine with economic and military aid, aiming to turn it into “a steel porcupine that is indigestible for potential invaders.” This requires you to fall for the fake idea that Russia seeks to invade western Europe. Notice how much the EU acts like America’s Democratic Party — projecting its own hostile fantasies on its adversaries.

Also, like our Democratic Party, Europe is sinking into oblivion. The animating ethos of the ruling parties in Germany and France is to punish their own citizens with censorship, tyranny, and sponsoring an alien invasion that aims to demolish European culture. Their economic wizards are taking the continent medieval, to a global backwater of defeated peasants eating bugs. I will boldly predict that the likes of Starmer, von der Leyen, and Friedrich Merz will be swept out of power by angry mobs before next Christmas.

In the meantime, Europe has made itself preposterous. Europe does not have the mojo to do a darned thing about Ukraine or Russia. The British army has 74,296 active-duty troops, comparable to Algeria. The UK’s North Sea oil production has declined by approximately 73-percent since 2000. Germany produces around 23,000 barrels-a-day, enough to meet two percent of its domestic oil demand. Anyway, exactly a year ago, Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared, “There will be no ground troops, no soldiers on Ukrainian soil sent there by European countries or NATO states.” So, who’s kidding whom?

Circumstances are driving the USA and Russia into an alliance of necessity. The immediate goal is to stop the insane war provoked by previous non-Trump administrations (and the EU) going back to George W. Bush, that repeatedly promoted “color revolutions” (regime change) in Ukraine so as to drag it into NATO — putting a hostile forward base on Russia’s “front porch.” The idea all along among the most fervidly delusional neocons has been to bust-up Russia in order to seize its oil and mineral assets.

That project never panned out because after a decade of post-Soviet chaos, Mr. Putin put his country back in order, turned it into what used to be the definition of a normal European nation and — too ironically even for Russian literature — made it a bastion for defending Western Civ while the other nations of Europe launched their campaign of collective suicide. History is ever a trickster and the zeitgeist is its consigliere.

Mr. Trump and his wingmen apparently recognize the obvious: that Ukraine is exactly what its name signifies in its Slavic root, Украина" (Ukraina): frontier, borderland, periphery, outskirts. Ukraine is on the edge of Russia. Most of all, it is geopolitically within Russia’s sphere-of-influence in the same way that Mexico is in ours, with similar implications for national defense as laid out explicitly in our Monroe Doctrine. Because Ukraine is mostly a flat plain, it has served historically as the doormat for invasions into Russia, so you may see why Russia was not comfortable with the prospect of NATO perched there, especially in a new age of drones and missiles.

As Europe now flounders impotently and wrecks itself, America and Russia are motivated to avoid being snookered into an unnecessary world war over Ukraine. Mr. Zelenskyy is but an anachronistic artifact of the color revolutions that finally sputtered out with “Joe Biden,” who was himself in the vanguard of a colossal money-grubbing operation in that sad-sack country. While much is already known about how that worked, a whole lot more is waiting to be revealed, including the degree of actual treason it entailed. People around “Joe Biden” will be going to jail over this, or worse.

I’d also venture to predict that W. Zelenskyy will before much longer get removed from his position by his own generals. Ukraine will return to its long-standing status as a borderland that poses no danger to the rest of the world. America and Russia will be poised to defend what remains of Western Civ from ambitious China. And Gawd help Europe if its insane national leaders revert to fighting among each other as they did for two thousand years before 1945, making a slaughterhouse of the region again.

Mr. Trump is correct to avoid getting dragged into that. We have enough on our own agenda for repairing the damage done to ourselves the past thirty years. The good news is that we’re beginning to get that done.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/attitude-adjustment