Government watchdog study finds some problems – and much uncertainty – in offshore wind

 A study on offshore wind development by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) – one that’s been nearly two years in the making – was at last released today, and it identifies a number of potential problems with the industry but few concrete answers.

The 68-page report acknowledges that building massive wind turbines off America’s coastline, including along the Jersey Shore, could have a variety of impacts on commercial fishing, marine ecosystems, defense radar systems, and local communities. But it also stresses how much is still uncertain about what’s still a relatively new industry.

“Development and operation of offshore wind energy facilities could affect marine life and ecosystems, including through acoustic disturbance and changes to marine habitats,” the GAO report declares in its introduction. “Wind development could bring jobs and investment to communities. At the same time, it could disrupt commercial fishing to varying degrees. Turbines could also affect radar system performance, alter search and rescue methods, and alter historic and cultural landscapes.”

“Because technology and implementation are still developing, the extent of some impacts is unknown,” it later states. “In addition, uncertainty exists about long-term and cumulative effects, but research and monitoring activities are ongoing to better understand potential impacts.”

The report was first commissioned in 2023, at a time when offshore wind was commanding headlines in New Jersey. That year, a number of dead whales washing up along the Jersey Shore prompted calls from local and national Republican politicians to halt offshore wind development, though federal scientific agencies said at the time that the deaths did not appear to be connected to the construction of wind turbines (something that the GAO reiterated in its study today).

Two of New Jersey’s most consistent anti-offshore wind voices, coastal Reps. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), made repeated efforts in Congress to get the GAO, a watchdog agency led by the U.S. Comptroller, to initiate a study of offshore wind’s impacts. In July 2023, the GAO agreed to conduct such a study.

In the 21 months since then, quite a bit has changed in the offshore wind industry. New President Donald Trump, a fierce opponent of wind development, paused federal permits for offshore wind farms and initiated a review of the industry on his first day in office. And even before Trump took office, New Jersey’s local wind industry had been struggling, with several major companies withdrawing from planned wind projects.

But as the GAO noted in its report today, the industry isn’t necessarily dead; one wind farm in the Atlantic Ocean (off the coastline of Rhode Island) is operational, and another 15, including Atlantic Shores South near Atlantic City, are in some phase of construction or permitting.

Smith said that he hopes today’s GAO report will change that, and bring offshore wind to even more of a screeching halt.

“[The report should] be yet another wake up call to stop this dangerous initiative,” Smith said. “The offshore wind industrialization approval process has left unaddressed and unanswered numerous serious questions concerning the potentially harmful environmental impact on marine life and the ecosystems that currently allow all sea creatures great and small including whales to thrive. The GAO report confirms that there are still many, many unaddressed and unanswered questions.”

The report indeed references a number of potential (though not always definitive) deleterious impacts offshore wind construction could have on marine life, fisheries, maritime navigation, defense radar systems, and quality of life in coastal communities. It also faults the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for not doing enough to engage with local residents, fisheries, and Native American tribes, the last of which has not been a focus for New Jersey politicians but occupies a large portion of the report.

However, the GAO does note that the proliferation of offshore wind could lead to greater economic development and lower carbon footprints, two of the chief arguments put forward by the industry’s proponents. And it lists a number of steps the BOEM could take, or in some cases has already taken, to reduce any negative impacts and coordinate better with stakeholders like the commercial fishing industry and tribal leaders.

The GAO said that its study involved speaking with offshore wind developers, fisheries, scientific research organizations, Native American tribes, state government officials, and representatives from other industries that could be affected by offshore wind; visiting two offshore wind development sites in Virginia and Massachusetts; reviewing existing documentation on the industry; and creating a panel of 23 experts on various topics associated with the industry to advise on the report.

https://newjerseyglobe.com/climate/government-watchdog-study-finds-some-problems-and-much-uncertainty-in-offshore-wind-industry/

Chinese soldier says TikTok videos convinced him to join Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

 One of the Chinese soldiers caught fighting for Moscow in Ukraine said he was inspired to join the Russian military after being fed propaganda on TikTok, only to find himself at the frontlines of the Kremlin’s meat grinder.

Wang Guangjun, 34, told reporters during a two-hour press conference on Monday that he was a rehab therapist who had dreams of grandeur by joining the “flashy and cool” Russian soldiers invading Ukraine, Business Insider reported.

“When you are in China and have no chance of being a soldier, and you see this kind of opportunity, you feel a stirring of the heart,” Wang told reporters. “And I came from that kind of motivation.”

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Chinese national Wang Guangjun said he became inspired to fight with the Russian army after watching video on TikTok and social media.Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

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Chinese national Zhang Renbo claimed he only wanted to earn some money during his Russian vacation before being tricked to fight in the frontlines.Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

After losing his job last summer, Wang said he fell down a rabbit hole of pro-Russian videos on TikTok, with one video advertising a position for a rehab therapist in the military to help wounded soldiers returning from war.

Wang stressed that the position promised him only a supporting role in the military rather than that of an active combatant, with a Russian recruiter assuring him he’d earn $2,000-$3,000 a month.

Instead, Wang claimed he lost all agency once he arrived in Moscow earlier this year, with the Chinese national stripped of his bank card and phone and hauled off to a training camp for a few days.

By February, Wang was sent to border regions before being officially deployed to fight for Moscow in Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast, where he was captured by Kyiv’s forces on April 4.

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The Chinese nationals were captured in the Donetsk region, with neither man reportedly having any combat experience.Telegram / @Volodymyr Zelensky/AFP via Getty Images

Wang, who had no combat experience, lamented that “real war is completely different from what we have seen in movies and on TV.”

Meanwhile, Zhang Renbo, the other Chinese national, claimed he was tricked into fighting for Russia after his vacation was upended in December.

The Shanghai firefighter said he was looking to “earn a bit of money” while on holiday and took a construction job from the state, only to learn that it was located in the active warzone.

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Zhang said he chose to trust what the Russian military was telling him because Moscow-Beijing relations are always touted in China.via REUTERS

Zhang, however, chose to take the job because he believed the “friendship” with Russia that was always promoted in Chinese state media.

Instead, the Chinese national found himself deployed to Donetsk, where he spent nearly all of March in the trenches until he and Wang were ordered to the frontlines, where they were subsequently captured.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky slammed the presence of the Chinese soldiers in the front lines as unacceptable, with Kyiv estimating that more than 150 Chinese citizens are fighting for the Russian military.

Beijing claims that all its nationals are warned to stay away from armed conflict and to avoid participating in any military operation outside of China.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/15/world-news/chinese-soldier-says-tiktok-made-him-join-ukraine-war-for-russia/

China’s chokehold on US medicine puts American lives in danger

China’s playing hardball, and it’s not just about tariffs and the global economy: Our lives could be on the line.


Soon after President Donald Trump announced his first round of tariffs on Chinese goods this month, China hit back by totally suspending its exports of rare-earth minerals and magnets, a key strategic monopoly.

Those materials are essential to manufacture automobiles and electric vehicles, as well as America’s fighter jets, drones, robots — basically the next generation of war-fighting weaponry.

China’s move puts a stranglehold on these industries, and threatens our national defense.

Its next logical step is to cut off our medical supplies.


China has a death grip on America’s generic-drug market, as well as on basic medical equipment that every hospital and doctor’s office relies on.


And Beijing has already threatened to weaponize this control to throw our hospitals into chaos, put us on our deathbeds and watch us suffer.

Five years ago, soon after the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, the state-run Xinhua media agency warned that China could retaliate against Trump’s US travel restrictions by banning the export of all medical products.

“The United States will fall into the hell of a new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic,” the outlet proclaimed.

When your enemy issues a threat like that, believe it.

Unlike the ongoing tit-for-tat dance between the US and its friendly trading partners over tariff levels, China’s halt of minerals exports is an act of raw economic warfare.

China is blocking the ability of the US to get essential goods at any price.

Today it’s rare-earth minerals.

Tomorrow, it could be medicines and medical supplies.

China is the sole manufacturer of 100 of our most commonly used medications — including many that keep American patients alive, like antibiotics and blood thinners.

It’s also our largest supplier of nitrate gloves, masks, syringes and other medical equipment essential to perform surgeries and other procedures.

India, America’s other chief supplier of generic drugs, now relies largely on China for those medications’ basic ingredients, according to the Global Trade Research Initiative.

Ireland’s growing pharmaceutical industry focuses on the priciest name-brand drugs, not the generics that form the backbone of American medical care.

With almost no other foreign sources for generic medications and supplies, the United States has no alternative: We must start producing these goods here at home.

Top aides in Trump’s first administration understood that necessity. “If you’re the Chinese and you really want to destroy us, just stop sending us antibiotics,” National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn said back then.

In 2020, Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to push US manufacturers into producing up to a third of the nation’s gloves and similar supplies domestically.

But the Biden administration botched the execution: By 2022, the government had spent roughly $1 billion on half-finished factories to produce nitrate gloves — without a single glove to show for it.


When the funding expired in early 2022, Biden didn’t bother to authorize a renewal.

US dependence on China for surgical gloves actually increased after 2020 — even though their quality is so poor that double-gloving is now routine to compensate for frequent tearing.

Similarly, US imports of finished Chinese pharmaceuticals and active drug ingredients soared after 2020, despite Biden’s lip service to reducing our dependence.

Trump’s Strategic Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients Reserve, set up in 2020 in case China cut off its exports, was only 1% filled as of November 2024, the American Compass think tank found.

That’s shocking negligence.

China’s clampdown on rare-earth minerals is a wake-up call.

Congress needs to act, and fast, to invest public funds or offer tax incentives to build American medical manufacturing capacity.

Last week Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a bill that would do just this.

The measure would also bar US sales of drugs made in China or with Chinese ingredients after 2030.

Trump should also slap hefty tariffs on China’s medications.

Generic drug manufacturers here are more likely to invest in expansion if they know they won’t be blown away by cheap Chinese competitors.

And we must shift the conversation in Washington, DC, away from shaving drug costs toward ensuring drug access.

Domestic drug manufacturing will necessarily cost more, but the key to improving Americans’ health is the ability to get the drug you need to prevent a heart attack or dissolve a blood clot — whether China is on the warpath or not.

China’s President Xi Jinping claims, “there are no winners in a trade war, or a tariff war.”

That’s untrue.

The United States appears poised to win reciprocal tariffs, or no tariffs, with its friendly trading partners.

Trump should take those wins.

Meanwhile, China has shown its true colors as an adversary bent on bringing its trading partners to their knees.

We have been warned.

Time to take action.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of the Committee to Save Our City.

https://nypost.com/2025/04/15/opinion/chinas-chokehold-on-us-medicine-is-risking-american-lives/

Five Below has stopped imports from China, its largest source of merchandise

 Five Below, the 1,800-store chain based in Center City that grew rapidly by selling cheap sunglasses, LED watches, and many other brightly colored Chinese-made items, has paused its Chinese imports, citing the rapid rise in U.S. tariffs that have more than doubled costs on new inventory.

“In order to ensure maximum flexibility, we proactively paused orders from China, given the escalation in the tariffs, as we evaluate all options” to find “trend-right products” at attractive prices, Five Below said in a statement.

Shipping giant Moller-Maersk A/S told Five Below’s China factories to take back all shipping containers sent to ports since April 10 and not send any more, Bloomberg LP reported.

Sourcing merchandise elsewhere

The stock fell Friday on the news but rallied Monday, closing up 5% at $63.56 as the stock market rose. The stock had fallen by more than two-thirds over the past year as Five Below reported disappointing sales and slowed store openings and replaced top managers.

“We are utilizing several tools to help mitigate tariffs and swiftly assessing the best of many available options,” the company added in its statement.

In a filing last month with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Five Below anticipated that “tariffs imposed by the U.S. government could increase the cost to us of certain products, lower our margins, increase our import related expenses, cause us to increase our prices to consumers and reduce consumer spending,” hurting Five Below sales and profits.

“A significant majority of our merchandise is manufactured outside of the United States, with China as the single largest source of merchandise we import and source from domestic vendors,” the report said.

Five Below said it would try to fight back by negotiating lower supplier prices, finding products from any countries that don’t face U.S. tariffs, boost its own retail prices, or find new U.S. product sources.

Besides the direct impact on Five Below imports, higher tariffs by the U.S. and “retaliatory” tariffs by other countries are likely to inflate U.S. prices, causing consumers to buy less and further hurting retail sales and profits, the company said.

Struggling before tariffs

Even before President Donald Trump’s election last fall and his move to boost China tariffs — which now total 145%, or a $1.45 import tax for every dollar an item is worth — Five Below has struggled.

The chain was one of the few that kept expanding during the retail store consolidation of the late 2010s and the COVID shutdowns of the early 2020s. Last year cofounder Thomas Vellios stepped back into an executive role on the company’s board as CEO Joel D. Anderson and other senior officers departed.

Vellios slowed Five Below’s planned growth from a former target of 260 stores this year to around 150 and announced a return to offering simpler, cheaper items, reversing Anderson’s trend toward larger stores and more expensive merchandise.

Five Below appointed Winnie Park to the chief executive role in December. Park previously served in the top job at PaperSource and Forever21.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/philly-based-five-below-has-stopped-imports-from-china-its-largest-source-of-merchandise/ar-AA1CXjzm

Sanofi's high hopes for $1.1B Kymab anti-inflammatory drug dented after phase 2 asthma fail

 Sanofi’s blockbuster ambitions for amlitelimab hit a bump in the road this morning with the news that the highest dose of the anti-OX40-ligand monoclonal antibody missed the main goal of a phase 2 asthma study.

The French pharma has been evaluating three doses of the drugs an add-on therapy in the Tide-Asthma trial of 437 patients with moderate to severe asthma. The primary endpoint of the study was the annualized rate of severe asthma exacerbations at Week 48.

As part of a broader update of Sanofi’s respiratory portfolio, the company revealed that the highest dose of amlitelimab had missed this key endpoint. The Big Pharma mined the results for positive signals, arguing that the medium dose “led to nominally significant and clinically meaningful reductions” in exacerbations compared with placebo, while a “numerically greater reduction in exacerbations” had been seen in the high-dose cohort by Week 60.

Drilling down into subgroups of patients, Sanofi also claimed that amlitelimab demonstrated “compelling efficacy” in patients with heterogeneous inflammatory asthma. This would “potentially represent a breakthrough for this underserved patient population if observed in later studies,” the company said.

Sanofi didn’t divulge much hard data, but it did say that among a subgroup of patients defined by eosinophil and neutrophil biomarkers, amlitelimab showed a “nominally significant and clinically meaningful” reduction in exacerbations of more than 70% at Week 60.

Seemingly undeterred by the headline failure, Sanofi said it would push ahead with plans for a phase 3 asthma trial for amlitelimab.

“In asthma, amlitelimab shows potential as an effective, long-acting medicine, including in patients with moderate-to-severe heterogenous inflammation,” Sanofi’s head of R&D Houman Ashrafian, Ph.D., said in the April 15 release.

“If the preliminary effect we have seen is confirmed in phase 3 studies, amlitelimab could become a differentiated treatment option in asthma,” Ashrafian added. “These data validate our strategy to advance innovative science and provide new solutions for patients with challenging-to-treat respiratory diseases.”

Even if amlitelimab falls short in asthma, Sanofi is also evaluating the drug across a range of immune-mediated diseases and inflammatory disorders. The company is running a phase 3 study of the candidate in atopic dermatitis and phase 2 trials in hidradenitis suppurativa, systemic sclerosis, celiac disease and alopecia.

The strategy echoes Sanofi’s approach to Dupixent, development of which expanded quickly beyond its initial focus on eczema and asthma.

Sanofi secured amlitelimab as part of its $1.1 billion acquisition of Kymab back in 2021. By 2023, the drug had proven its worth in a phase 2 atopic dermatitis trial, leading the pharma to list the anti-OX40 antibody alongside the multiple sclerosis drug frexalimab and the psoriasis pill SAR441566 as candidates with potential peak sales of more than 5 billion euros.

Sanofi sees targeting OX40-ligand as a way to restore immune homeostasis between pro-inflammatory and regulatory T cells. Hitting OX40-ligand rather than OX40 should, in theory, increase the antibody’s effect on T-cell stimulation while maintaining regulatory T cells, according to the company.

On a full-year earnings call in January, Ashrafian told analysts that 2025 was an “exciting time for amlitelimab, as we continue the quickening drumbeat, particularly in disorders like asthma and hidradenitis suppurativa.”

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/sanofis-high-hopes-11b-kymab-anti-inflammatory-drug-dented-after-phase-2-asthma-failure