Venezuela agrees to resume flights of deported migrants from US, says US diplomat

 Venezuela's government has agreed to resume flights of deported migrants who unlawfully entered the United States, a senior U.S. diplomat announced in a post on X on Thursday, after an apparent pause in the repatriation flights that kicked off last month.

U.S. diplomat Richard Grenell added in his post that the flights would start on Friday.

Venezuela's communication ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In late January, Grenell visited the Venezuelan capital of Caracas as an envoy of U.S. President Donald Trump to meet with President Nicolas Maduro and discuss the deportation of migrants, among other issues.

Shortly afterwards, a group of Americans held in Venezuela were released and the repatriation flights commenced.

Venezuelans make up a large portion of migrants who have sought entry into the United States in recent years, with many fleeing their home country due to an extended economic and political crisis.

Last weekend, Maduro indicated that scheduled flights to transport deported Venezuelan migrants had been "affected" by the Trump administration's decision to cancel a key oil license that had allowed U.S.-based oil major Chevron to operate in the country.

The U.S. government cited a lack of progress on electoral reforms in addition to the stalled migrant returns to justify the license cancellation, which the Maduro government had relied on to generate much-needed revenue.

Last year, the government-aligned electoral authority and top court declared Maduro the winner of a disputed presidential election, even though authorities never released ballot box-level vote tallies.

Maduro's political opposition did publish thousands of voting machine receipts showing that its candidate won in a landslide, prompting many governments including in Washington to dismiss the official election result as flawed.

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-03-13/venezuela-agrees-to-resume-flights-of-deported-migrants-from-u-s-says-u-s-diplomat

Rainforest Decimated To Build Mega Road For UN Climate Change Summit

 by Steve Watson via modernity.news,

Tens of thousands of acres of Amazon rainforest is being cleared in order to construct a four lane highway so that global elites can drive to the COP30 Climate Summit after disembarking from their private jets.

Yes, really.

The BBC reports that the huge road is to be built connecting to the Brazilian city of Belém ahead of the UN Conference in November.

The report states that the highway is being green lit in order to alleviate traffic to the city, which is set to host in excess of 50,000 people at the Summit.

The report further notes:

Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side – a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km (8 miles) through the rainforest into Belém.

Diggers and machines carve through the forest floor, paving over wetland to surface the road which will cut through a protected area.

The report explains that highway is one of scores of projects being undertaken to “prepare” and “modernise” the city, with the state government infrastructure secretary saying it will “serve people for COP30 in the best possible way”.

But fret not, ‘animal crossings’ will be placed on the highway, so the critters (who now have no homes) can cross it, and solar lighting will be used.

Of course, the very same world ‘leaders’ who lecture everyday people about their carbon footprints and suggest eating lab grown meat instead of the real thing will fly in on private jets and then hop in their SUVs to travel down the new highway, all in the name of saving the planet.

As we’ve previously highlighted, this seems to be a running theme with this particular summit, despite the fact that everyone attending it could simply do so virtually, preventing thousands of tons of CO2 emissions that they’re always complaining about.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hypocrites-rainforest-decimated-build-mega-road-un-climate-change-summit

FEMA Launches Probe Of NGOs Who Helped Traffic Illegal Migrants

 Via Headline USA,

The Trump administration has launched a review of organizations that provide temporary housing and other aid to migrants, suggesting they may have violated a law prohibiting human trafficking.

Migrants sit in a queue outside of The Roosevelt Hotel that is being used by the city as temporary housing in New York. / PHOTO: AP

The Department of Homeland Security has “significant concerns” that federal grants used to address a surge of migration under former President Joe Biden were used for illegal activities, wrote Cameron Hamilton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

His letter, dated Tuesday and obtained by The Associated Press, asks recipients of grants from FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program to provide names and contact information for migrants served and “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided” within 30 days. The letter says funding will be withheld during the review.

While it doesn’t explicitly threaten criminal prosecution, it raises concerns that recipients may have violated U.S. Criminal Code Section 1324, a felony offense against bringing people across the border illegally or transporting them within the United States. It also says executive officers must sign sworn statements that they have no knowledge or suspicions of anyone in their organizations violating the smuggling law.

FEMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Wednesday.

Hamilton’s letter suggests that the U.S. government is taking action to address a scandal that the House GOP has been chasing for years.

In May 2023, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to DHS Alejandro Mayorkas asking Mayorkas to provide information, communications, and documents related to the agency’s funding awards to NGOs at the southern border.

At the time, Jordan argued that NGOs are likely taking advantage of the administration’s loose funding guidelines to make a financial profit off of the border crisis.

Jordan cited a recent inspector general report that found more than $110 million in federal funds had been fraudulently spent by immigration nonprofits. The nonprofits “did not always provide the required receipts or documentation for claimed reimbursements” and “were unable to provide supporting documentation” for how the money was spent, the Office of the Inspector General reportedly found.

“NGOs simply tell DHS how many illegal aliens they encounter, and funding can be awarded without any documentation or receipts,” Jordan wrote. “Federal funding for migration-related NGOs at the border has increased dramatically at a time when federal resources for border security and immigration enforcement and local resources for emergency response and medical care have been strained to the breaking point.”

Last November, The Center Square revealed that the federal government allocated $159 million in FEMA funding to “provide humanitarian services to noncitizen migrants” in California alone since 2023.

FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program awarded $641 million to dozens of state and local governments and organizations across the country in the 2024 fiscal year to help them deal with large numbers of migrants who crossed the border from Mexico. They include the cities of New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Denver, as well as the United Way of Miami, the San Antonio Food Bank and several branches of Catholic Charities.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/fema-launches-probe-ngos-who-helped-traffic-illegal-migrants

Starmer reveals plan to abolish NHS England

 Just days after announcing sweeping job cuts at NHS England, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said that the government intends to do away with the centre altogether.

The centre – which was established in 2013 under the previous Conservative government to handle the budget and day-to-day running of the commissioning side of the health service in England – will be dismantled to "cut bureaucracy" and bring the service "back into democratic control," said the PM.

The decision – announced during a speech by Starmer on reforms to the civil service and the government operating practices – comes after a string of high-profile departures from NHS England that include chief executive Amanda Pritchard and medical director Sir Stephen Powis.

It has been clear for some time that big changes are coming in the NHS, with reform a key pillar of Labour's manifesto in the build-up to their 2024 election victory, but the abolition of what Starmer called the "arm's length body" goes a lot further than many had expected.

Earlier this week, it was announced that around 6,500 jobs could go at NHS England, around half its total workforce, to avoid "duplication" of roles within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

At the time, the government said that new NHS England CEO Sir James Mackey would set up a transition "to lead the radical reduction and reshaping of the centre" – and few would have guessed that total abolition was on the cards.

The big questions now are exactly how the workload of NHS England will be handled in future, how many staffers will make the transition to the DHSC, and how many will face the chop.

The move "will put the NHS back at the heart of government, where it belongs, freeing it to focus on patients, with less bureaucracy [and] more money for nurses," said Starmer. "An NHS refocused on cutting waiting times at your hospital."

He continued: "I don't see why decisions about £200 billion of taxpayer money on something as fundamental to our security as the NHS should be taken by an arm's length body […] and I can't, in all honesty, explain to the British people why they should spend their money on two layers of bureaucracy."

That money could and should be spent on nurses, doctors, operations, and GP appointments, said the PM.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said that the demise of NHS England is "the final nail in the coffin of the disastrous 2012 reorganisation, which led to the longest waiting times, lowest patient satisfaction, and most expensive NHS in history."

The announcement comes amid a series of others involving the NHS, including that integrated care boards (ICBs) – which are responsible for planning and funding most NHS services within a local area – have to cut their running costs in half by December and that provider trusts will also be asked to make further cuts to their corporate costs.

https://pharmaphorum.com/news/uk-pm-keir-starmer-reveals-plan-abolish-nhs-england

Trump pulls CDC head nomination as FDA, CDC picks advance

 President Donald Trump has withdrawn his nomination of Dave Weldon to lead the CDC, just hours before he was due to appear in front of a Senate confirmation hearing, which has now been cancelled.

Weldon (pictured above) – a former Florida congressman and a medical doctor – has courted controversy in recent years by questioning the safety of vaccines, and has been particularly outspoken on the now-debunked view that vaccines can cause autism. Whilst in office, he tabled a bill to ban mercury-based preservative thimerosal from vaccines.

Weldon's vaccine scepticism does not seem to be far removed from the stance of Trump's Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, who was sworn into the role last month, and he has also been a vocal opponent of abortion rights.

Kennedy has already made decisions that have rattled the vaccines sector – including cancelling two advisory committee meetings and heading up a probe into the safety of vaccines and other medicines – raising fears of anti-vaccine sentiment seeping into the HHS agencies, including the CDC and FDA.

A report on Axios – which broke the news – has suggested that Weldon had been unable to secure the number of votes needed to push his confirmation through, and had not garnered Kennedy's support, who felt he was "not ready" to take on the role.

The CDC has an annual budget of $17.3 billion and employed around 13,000 staffers ahead of sweeping cuts to its workforce imposed by Elon Musk, currently running Trump's department of government efficiency (DOGE).

In a post on X, Democratic senator Patty Murray said: "During one of the worst measles outbreaks in years because of Trump, Weldon should NEVER have even been under consideration to lead CDC. While I have little to no confidence in Trump to do so, he should nominate someone who at bare minimum believes in basic science."

FDA, NIH picks move forward

News that Weldon's nomination had been withdrawn came as Trump's picks for the head of the FDA and NIH – Martin Makary and Jay Bhattacharya, respectively, who have already faced their nomination hearings – were backed by the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions (HELP) committee.

Their nominations will now advance to a full Senate vote, where the Republican majority will likely mean their positions will be confirmed. The panel voted 14 to nine in support of Makary, with two Democrats swapping sides to support Republican lawmakers, while Bhattacharaya's vote was split 12 to 11 on party lines.

https://pharmaphorum.com/news/trump-pulls-cdc-head-nomination-fda-cdc-picks-advance

Amgen’s Uplizna Deepens Response Against Myasthenia Gravis at 1 Year

 

With what analysts are calling “strong” data, Amgen plans to file a regulatory submission for Uplizna, currently approved for a rare ocular autoimmune disorder, in myasthenia gravis, in the first half of 2025.

Amgen’s anti-CD19 antibody Uplizna maintains and improves treatment response in patients with generalized myasthenia gravis through 52 weeks of follow-up, according to a Phase III readout posted Wednesday.

These findings, revealed in an abstract for the upcoming meeting of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), “do look strong,” William Blair analysts wrote in an investor note on Wednesday evening, noting that they “solidify a meaningful role for Uplizna in the treatment of myasthenia gravis,” a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes muscle weakness.

Amgen said it will seek myasthenia gravis approval for Uplizna, with a filing planned for the first half of 2025.

Wednesday’s data come from a subpopulation analysis of the Phase III MINT trial, which enrolled 238 patients with myasthenia gravis, of whom 190 were positive for acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibodies, which attack the receptors critical in nerve-to-muscle signaling. The results showed that Uplizna significantly eased the impact of the disease on daily living in AChR+ patients as compared with placebo. Over 52 weeks of observation, AChR+ patients in the Uplizna group saw significantly stronger reductions in disease severity versus placebo.

Along with a previous 26-week readout in September 2024, Wednesday’s results from MINT underscore Uplizna’s “strong efficacy with impressive durability,” the William Blair analysts said, adding that the drug’s “infrequent every-six-month dosing interval” will also give it an edge over other therapies, which are dosed weekly, monthly or once every other month.

William Blair expects Amgen to share full 52-week MINT data at the company’s AAN presentation in April.

Uplizna, approved in June 2020 for the treatment of a rare ocular autoimmune condition called neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder, is a humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody that works by targeting the CD19 cell surface antigen, typically found on immature and mature B cells. In myasthenia gravis, Uplizna’s mechanism of action could help deplete the cells that produce the disease-causing auto-antibodies.

In addition to myasthenia gravis, Amgen is also seeking to expand Uplizna into IgG4-related disease, for which an FDA review is currently ongoing with a target action date of Apr. 3, according to a company presentation last month.

https://www.biospace.com/drug-development/amgens-uplizna-deepens-response-against-myasthenia-gravis-at-1-year

Dollar General CEO warns consumers are cash-strapped, and says 2025 won't be better

 

• Dollar General's CEO said customers' financial situations have worsened over the past year due to inflation.
• CEO Todd Vasos said the company doesn't expect the macro environment to improve in 2025.
• Tariffs and potential changes to government entitlement programs present potential further headwinds for core customers, according to Vasos.

Dollar General CEO Todd Vasos said on Thursday that inflation continues to hurt the discounter's customers and that the macroeconomic environment won't improve this year.

On the company's fourth-quarter earnings call, Vasos said customers are expecting value and convenience "more than ever" from the dollar-store chain.

"Our customers continue to report that their financial situation has worsened over the last year, as they have been negatively impacted by ongoing inflation. Many of our customers report they only have enough money for basic essentials, with some noting that they have had to sacrifice even on the necessities," Vasos said. "As we enter 2025, we are not anticipating improvement in the macro environment, particularly for our core customer."

Dollar General's core consumer is "always strained" due to their economic status, but also resourceful, Vasos said.

"We've started to see where [our customer is] getting her sea legs, if you will, on the additional inflation that's been very sticky out there, and she's starting to understand her budgets even more," Vasos said.

Part of the uncertainty, Vasos said, stems from the potential impact of President Donald Trump's tariffs on the consumer.

When Trump imposed tariffs during his first term in office in 2018 and 2019, Dollar General had to raise some prices in line with others in the industry, Vasos said. But the general store was able to mitigate the impact back then and is "well positioned" to do so again this year, he said.

"Given the already stressed financial condition of our core customer, we are closely monitoring these and any other potential economic headwinds, including any changes to government entitlement programs," Vasos said.

CFO Kelly Dilts said the company's 2025 guidance factors in continued economic pressure on the consumer, but does not account for further changes to tariff policy or government initiatives like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which subsidizes food for low-income Americans.

For the fourth-quarter, Dollar General said same-store sales growth of 1.2% was driven entirely by 2.3% growth in average transaction. Customer traffic fell 1.1% during the period, "impacted by ongoing financial pressures of our core consumer," Vasos said.

Alongside its fourth-quarter earnings, Dollar General said Thursday it would close 96 Dollar General stores and 45 Popshelf stores and will convert six other Popshelf stores into flagship banner locations this year. Popshelf primarily serves higher-income shoppers with lower-priced products.

Shares of Dollar General rose 5% Thursday morning.

https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/money-report/dollar-general-ceo-warns-consumers-only-have-enough-money-for-basic-essentials/4133568/