Tag Archives : Build House

US bolsters cyber alliance to counter rising Iran threat

President Biden vowed to expand cyber cooperation with Israel and Saudi Arabia on his trip to the Middle East last week, a move experts see as a direct response to the rising digital threat from Iran. 

The U.S. and Saudi Arabia signed bilateral agreements to strengthen their cybersecurity partnership and share information related to cyber threats and malicious actors, while Israel and the U.S. pledged to ramp up collaboration to combat cybercrime. 

“In both cases, we have to acknowledge that Iran is the primary driver of a lot of what happened during Biden’s trip, and this extends to cyber space as well,” said Jason Blessing, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

Blessing said the common enemy of Iran provides a window for the U.S. to forge stronger alliances between the two middle eastern countries, which have been in secretive talks to possibly establish official relations. 

“I would say the number one geostrategic priority [for the U.S.] is getting both countries on the same page when it comes to Iran,” Blessing said.

And Iran is a formidable foe in cyberspace. 

Though not yet at the level of Israel, Iran has proven capable of launching all types of cyberattacks, ranging from website defacement and distributed denial-of-service attacks to ransomware and cyber espionage.

In June, the FBI said it thwarted a cyberattack last summer that was intended to disrupt the network of the Boston Children’s Hospital. FBI Director Christopher Wray blamed Iranian-backed hackers for the attempted attack, calling it “one of the most despicable cyberattacks” he’s ever seen.

Iran has also been accused of carrying out cyber espionage operations against Western media. A report published last week by cybersecurity firm Proofpoint details how state-sponsored hackers from several countries, including Iran, have regularly spied on U.S.-based journalists to gain access to sensitive information. 

In Iran specifically, researchers uncovered that hackers impersonated journalists to gain access to their networks and reach out to sources that have expertise in Middle Eastern foreign policy. 

Last year, Proofpoint researchers discovered that an Iranian hacking group targeted two dozen senior medical professionals in the U.S. and Israel with phishing emails in an attempt to obtain personal account credentials. 

Israel, in response to the rising Iran threat, announced in June that it plans to build a “cyber dome,” a national defense system intended to fight against digital attacks.

“Iran has become our dominant rival in cyber,” the head of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, Gaby Portnoy, said during a conference in Tel Aviv. “We see them, we know how they work, and we are there.”

Portnoy added that Israel “cannot fight cyber aggression alone,” adding that his country needs to engage with various partners at home and abroad, including the private sector and academia. 

James Lewis, a senior vice president and director with the strategic technologies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Saudis’ cyber capabilities are not as sophisticated as Israel and Iran. 

“The Saudis have been working on improving their [cyber] capabilities for a long time but the rate of progress has been slow,” Lewis said. “If you look at the Middle East, Israel and Iran are the leading cyber powers.”

Still, building up cyber cooperation in the region is part of a broader U.S. strategy to counter Iran. 

“The U.S. is promoting alliances around the world and cyber is a crucial part of those alliances,” Lewis said. “Iran is one of the leading cyber threats…so coming up with ways to push back on Iran is in the interest of all three.”

However, both Israel or Saudi Arabia bring baggage into the cyber agreements. 

Blessing of the American Enterprise Institute said the Saudis are likely to use cyber as a domestic surveillance tool to spy on dissidents, human rights activists, journalists and political opponents. And Israel’s NSO Group has been a leading provider of invasive surveillance tools used by government’s like Saudi Arabia to do just that. 

Blessing said he was disappointed that Biden didn’t mention the use of spyware during his trip, particularly given Israel’s global role as main developers and distributor of the malicious software. 

“The fact that spyware was not on the agenda shows that the administration doesn’t have a positive agenda for asserting U.S. interests and values into the digital space,” Blessing said.

U.S.-based defense contractor L3Harris reportedly ended its bid to buy hacking tools from NSO Group last week, following concerns raised by the Biden administration last month that the acquisition of the spyware would “pose a serious counterintelligence and security risk to U.S. personnel and systems.”

The concerns also prompted the Department of Commerce in November to add NSO Group to its entity list, blacklisting the Israeli company and limiting its ability to use U.S. technology.

Yet the issue was not publicly mentioned when Biden visited last week, despite the U.S. saying that human rights are central to its foreign policy.

“To the administration, spyware seems less of a priority than any initiatives to counter Iranian influence and political presence,” Blessing said. 

Source: TEST FEED1

Paul Pelosi's questionable Wall Street windfall spurs bipartisan calls for stock trading ban

An overwhelming majority of Americans believe Congress is inept, broken and hopelessly addicted to maintaining power while acting far too much like drunken sophomores on Twitter. And most people believe Capitol Hill can’t get the most basic things done even when there’s bipartisan agreement. Hence its 16 percent approval rating.

On the things-that-should-be-done-but-haven’t-for-whatever-reason front, legislation exists that would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks. It’s called the Banning Insider Trading in Congress Act and it would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from trading individual stocks.

For those who live in a sane world wallpapered in logic, this proposal makes perfect sense. Why? Because currently lawmakers can pass legislation that creates favorable conditions for certain companies or industries, and if a lawmaker knows that this legislation will pass, he or she could profit off it.

Banning stocks from being traded on Capitol Hill is something that brings together even the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who couldn’t agree on what time it is even while staring at the same clock.

“We have to be able to assure the American people that they don’t have to worry about if they’re competing with their member of Congress’s stock portfolio in order to be heard,” Ocasio-Cortez said recently. “It’s a pretty simple concept.”

“Year after year, politicians somehow manage to outperform the market, buying and selling millions in stocks of companies they’re supposed to be regulating,” said Hawley. “Here’s something we can do: ban all members of Congress from trading stocks and force those who do to pay their proceeds back to the American people.” 

One very senior lawmaker who seems lukewarm at best about this proposal is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). When first asked about the plan late last year, she was dismissive.

“We are free-market economy. They should be able to participate in [trading stocks],” she declared in December 2021. 

Even after some bipartisan blowback, Pelosi still maintained that she just didn’t “buy into it,” but “if members [of Congress] want to do that, I’m OK with that.” 

That seems like the kind of answer an exhausted parent gives to a child asking for a second dessert. 

The speaker went on to say that she didn’t believe the step was necessary because she trusted her colleagues to do the right thing. “I have great confidence in the integrity of my members,” Pelosi said. Meanwhile, Gallup finds that just 2 percent of voters have a “great deal” of trust in Congress. 

Now more eyes are turning to Paul Pelosi, the House speaker’s husband. From a trading perspective, he’s like the real-life version of Gordon Gekko from the 1987 Oliver Stone classic “Wall Street.” His portfolio has substantially outperformed the S&P 500. In 2020 alone, a year when the stock market was as turbulent as in any year in recent memory thanks to COVID-19 shutdowns, Paul outperformed the S&P 500 by 14.3 percent, according to Hawley’s office. And per a New York Post analysis, the Pelosis have made approximately $30 million from trades involving Big Tech companies the House speaker is responsible for regulating. 

In fact, Paul is so good that there’s an app that allows the public to follow his stock trades. And for good reason: The Pelosi’s reported net worth is more than $114 million, according to OpenSecrets.org. Per a Business Insider report, “a vast majority of the couple’s wealth is derived from stocks, options, and investments made by Paul Pelosi.”

In March 2021, Paul Pelosi exercised options to purchase 25,000 Microsoft shares worth more than $5 million. Less than two weeks later, the U.S. Army disclosed a $21.9 billion deal to buy augmented reality headsets from Microsoft. Shares of the company rose sharply after the deal was announced.

For his latest purchase in June, Paul Pelosi bought up to $5 million in stock options (equal to 20,000 shares) of Nvidia, a leading semiconductor company. The purchase, first reported by The Daily Caller, comes as Congress is set to vote on legislation later this month that would result in $52 billion in subsidies allocated to elevate the chip-production industry as it faces increased competition from China. 

So how does the House speaker explain such a huge buy by her husband so perfectly timed ahead of this vote? 

“These transactions are marked ‘SP’ for Spouse. The Speaker has no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions,” her spokesperson explained recently. 

But if Paul Pelosi makes money in the stock market, wouldn’t his spouse also benefit? The explanation inspires little confidence, but at least these trades are inspiring the House and Senate to act to try to prevent it from happening again. A vote is expected as early as Tuesday on the bipartisan $52 billion bill to boost U.S. semiconductor manufacturing while providing tax credits for production. 

Meanwhile, Paul Pelosi continues to have the magic touch. On June 17, he exercised 200 call options on Nvidia. The stock closed at $158.80 that day. On Friday, July 22, it closed at 173.19.

In the end, members of Congress have access to a lot of sensitive information that can help make them seriously richer. 

“The most valuable commodity I know is information,” Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, once declared. 

Information on laws coming down the pike is what members of Congress certainly have. The questions around whether Paul and Nancy Pelosi are profiting are only going to get louder if Congress fails to act. 

Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats scramble to squeeze priorities into budget bill

The collapse of plans to include climate and tax legislation in a bill Democrats can pass this summer through the Senate with 51 votes has set off a scramble among Democrats to squeeze other priorities into the package.  

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) says she wants money for more COVID-19 vaccines and therapies, which would cost at least $10 billion.  

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is pushing for money to fund international COVID-19 vaccination efforts, which is projected to cost another $5 billion.  

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wants to expand the prescription drug reform language to cover more medications.  

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is still agitating for more money for affordable housing, something that is becoming a more urgent because of rising mortgage and rent costs.

And Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), a close Biden ally, is still pushing for tens of billions of dollars to fund long-term health care for the elderly and disabled.  

The competing priorities will come crashing into each other over the next two weeks as Democrats make a final push to pass a budget reconciliation package before the August recess.  

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is intent on passing it early next month to help stave off raising health care premiums, which is projected to start happening in mid-August. 

In reviving negotiations earlier this summer, Democrats had hoped the reconciliation package would include climate and tax provisions and were negotiating the components with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). But Manchin earlier this month scuttled those hopes and said he’d “unequivocally” support only a narrow package.

Schumer and Manchin have agreed to move a slimmed-down package that includes prescription drug reform and a two-year extension of Affordable Care Act premium subsidies.  

That package would raise a net total of between $240 billion and $260 billion in revenue.  

The influx in new revenue has Democratic senators lining up to get their top priorities funded.  

Murray said she would “love to see” COVID-19 aid in the package.  

“We need to deal with COVID,” she said. “We’re going to have a surge again and we’re not ready. 

“We know the new variants are coming, we know that we’re not prepared. We know that we don’t have the vaccines, the tests and everything else we need. We have to put the funding in,” she added.  

Murray is eager to get the funding in the reconciliation bill because Republicans say there’s little chance of passing another COVID-19 package under regular order, even though Schumer and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) negotiated a $10 billion compromise measure in March.  

The political dynamics have since changed, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), an adviser to the Senate GOP leadership team.  

“I don’t think so,” he said when asked about the prospect of getting 60 votes for any new coronavirus relief bill.  

Manchin has said he wants roughly half of the money raised from the reconciliation package to go toward deficit reduction but that was a demand he made while he and Schumer were still negotiating tax increases to pay for climate-related provisions.  

He declined to say whether Thursday he could support more money for COVID-19 vaccines, therapies and testing in the reconciliation package, telling The Hill: “No comment.”  

Sanders is making a push to expand the prescription drug reform package to give Medicare more negotiating authority to lower the costs of a broader range of drugs.  

The pending compromise legislation would allow Medicare to initially negotiate lower prices for 10 drugs and later expand its authority to 20 drugs. It would also eventually cap out-of-pocket costs for consumers at $2,000.  

“The American people are extremely upset we pay by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, in some cases 10 times more. I think they want to see a bold initiative and we’ll see what we can do to make that happen,” he said.  

Brown said he hasn’t given up on getting more money for affordable housing, which was supposed to be a major component of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda until Manchin steadily whittled it down to just prescription drug reform and a short-term extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.  

“We did a hearing on housing [Thursday.] I don’t know what the chances are but I’m always agitating for it,” he said.  

Rising mortgage rates have made it increasingly difficult for middle- and working-class Americans to buy homes and rental costs have steadily risen along with interest rates.  

Brown pointed out at the Banking Committee hearing that recent cost increases have priced an estimated 4 million families out of homeownership and that median rents topped $2,000 in May.  

“We have underinvested in our housing and communities for decades. Now we’re seeing the consequences,” he said.  

Manchin, however, has been cool toward spending tens of billions of dollars on affordable housing, at least so far.  

Casey, who represents a Senate battleground state that could determine whether Democrats keep the Senate majority, said he still wants to include money for long-term home health care.  

Casey last year argued that Congress would need to spend a minimum of $250 billion to help people trapped at home because of age, illness or infirmity but now he’s scraping to get whatever he can.  

“There are several things I want, especially home- and community-based services. There are some possibilities, some options there we could have that wouldn’t be the $150 billion we had 50 votes for in December but a version of that,” he said.  

“I talked to Sen. Schumer, Sen. Manchin about that,” he added.   

Casey said the prescription drug reform would raise around $300 billion, which could help fund his goals.

“Put me down as hoping there’s an opening,” he said. “We’ll keep working to see and it’s going to be that first week of August when we’re dealing with this.”  

Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a centrist Democratic think thank, said he and his allies are still holding out hope that something, anything can be done to address climate change.  

“I know there are conversations happening but I don’t know if there’s any movement,” he said.  

“For us, our priority, if there’s going to be any extra spending is climate, climate, climate,” he added. “If that’s not going to be included, there are plenty of other pieces. I know there’s housing, I know there’s COVID. There could be other things.” 

Source: TEST FEED1

Democrats’ 2024 chances start with primary reform

After a recent meeting of the Democratic National Committee, it appears the party is poised to end the 50-year tradition of Iowa kicking off the presidential nominating process. It’s about time.

Iowa is a wonderful state, of course. But it does not look like much of the rest of the country, where Americans — and Democrats especially — are increasingly diverse and living in cities and their surrounding areas. Iowa’s largest city, Des Moines, has fewer people than the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which also should not be the first in line to nominate a president (no matter how wisely it might have voted in 2020).

If Democrats want urban challenges to take center stage in presidential elections — matters such as reducing gun violence, improving public schools, expanding mass transportation, fighting homelessness, and tackling the pollution that falls heaviest on Black, Latino and Indigenous communities — it’s critical that the primary calendar include states where those issues are top priorities for voters.

At the same time, if Democrats hope to continue winning presidential elections, it’s critical that the party elevate purple states during the primary process, ensuring that candidates will spend lots of time there and invest in the work of bringing people to the polls. Up until now, most purple states — including Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have been afterthoughts, lumped into the fourth or fifth wave of voting, or even further behind.

During my 2020 presidential campaign, I spoke about the need for reform. After all, it makes no sense to incentivize candidates to spend their time and money in places that were unlikely to dictate the outcome of the general election.

When I campaigned in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Florida, I was the only candidate there, and the only one investing in organizing and advertising (often against Donald Trump) to those crucial swing state voters. Everyone else spent their time and war chests in Iowa and New Hampshire, neither of which ended up mattering (Joe Biden came in fourth in Iowa and fifth in New Hampshire). And neither general election outcome was a surprise (Democrats lost Iowa and won New Hampshire, as expected).

Instead, it was Democrats and independents in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Philadelphia and Phoenix who played a central role in the general election. Organizing the primary calendar around them would give our party a better chance of winning again in 2024 and beyond.

The problem with Iowa’s first-in-the-nation status isn’t just its lack of diversity and its increasingly rightward tilt. While the Democratic Party has made ballot access a major campaign issue, Iowa holds the most restrictive type of nominating process: a caucus. To vote in a caucus, citizens must spend a weeknight at a polling location, debating their neighbors for hours on end. In theory, this should make caucuses one of the rare settings where Americans have civil conversations about politics. But it has become a highly orchestrated archaic charade in which most voters decline to participate. In 2020, only 176,000 voters participated, in a state with more than 600,000 registered Democrats.

Across the country, switching from caucuses to primaries has proven to produce much higher voter turnout. In 2020, after Minnesota and Maine changed over to primaries, their turnout quadrupled. Colorado’s turnout increased by six times when it made the change. The Democratic Party should ensure that its first-in-the-nation contest reflects its strong support for voting rights and voter turnout.

Many states are jockeying to replace Iowa as an early state, and the party committee will make its selection in August. My hope is that it doesn’t settle for a single switch and otherwise leave the status quo untouched. The party’s best hope for success lies in creating a primary calendar that reflects the importance of cities, diversity, open balloting and swing states.

Iowa is a great state, and its citizens deserve our thanks for putting up with decades of presidential aspirants who have clogged its diners and scarfed its corndogs. But we cannot afford to let tradition harm our chances of winning the White House and Congress, especially when so much is at stake.

Michael R. Bloomberg is the founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies and was the 108th mayor of New York City. He is a United Nations Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, is a Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases with the World Health Organization, and ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020. Follow him on Twitter @MikeBloomberg.

Source: TEST FEED1

Biden keeps his distance from Jan. 6 panel

President Biden has kept his distance from the explosive hearings led by the committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, wary of politicizing the issue as the panel lays out his predecessor’s role in triggering the riots.

Biden has barely commented on the panel’s findings and in some instances has been occupied by foreign or domestic trips when the committee has held public hearings. The effect has been a split-screen of sorts in Washington.

The White House wants to avoid politicizing what it has repeatedly stressed is an independent investigation into the events on Jan. 6, according to a source familiar with the White House’s thinking. 

Doug Jones, who served in the White House to shepherd through Biden’s nomination of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the White House doesn’t want to lend any fuel to efforts by Republicans to portray the investigation as a partisan exercise. 

“Because of that, I think, if the president was to weigh in in any way, it would just kind of add a little fuel to the fire from the other side, and it’s not necessary,” Jones said. 

The fact that the probe could lead to more criminal investigations or charges also weighs on Biden’s decision to avoid discussing the hearings in public.

“I know that the president believes very strongly that he should not weigh in and express opinions about possible criminal violations,” Jones said.

To be sure, West Wing aides are keeping an eye on the hearings. Jones noted, for instance, that officials are likely to be watching closely the developments with respect to the deletion of Secret Service text messages reportedly now subject to a criminal inquiry. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday that Biden, who has been diagnosed with COVID-19, caught parts of Thursday’s hearing. She also said there is no plan for the president to address the hearings, despite an earlier report from NBC News that was the case. 

“The president believes that it was a very dark day,” Jean-Pierre said. “He supports the January 6 committee, he believes that they are doing important work, and he really believes that the American people should be watching and paying attention.”

When the first public hearing took place last month, Jean-Pierre said that Biden would be kept abreast of the developments as he traveled to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas. 

Biden made brief comments at the time reflecting on the work of the committee and describing it as necessary to safeguard democracy.

“It’s important that the American people understand what truly happened and to understand that the same forces that led to Jan. 6 remain at work today,” Biden said at the outset of a June 10 speech on inflation and supply chains. 

Biden also used the anniversary of the insurrection to deliver a forceful speech condemning the events of that day and former President Trump’s role in spreading lies about the 2020 election.

But broadly, the White House has chosen not to offer thoughts on day-to-day developments in the hearings, the eighth of which took place in primetime on Thursday. The panel is expected to take a break from public hearings for the month of August and resume in September. 

“When it comes to the Jan. 6 hearings, they are playing their cards pretty close to perfect,” said Jim Manley, a former aide to the late Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). “There is no reason why they need to get in the middle of what are some of the – if not the best run – committee hearings I’ve ever seen.”

But others are hoping the president takes the opportunity to reflect on what the revelations show about the fragility of the U.S. system. 

“Ideally, we would have a president who would be adding to the conversation by talking about this and I think that Biden can still be that president,” said Jeff Hauser, founder of the progressive organization the Revolving Door Project. Hauser acknowledged, however, that Biden’s current weak political standing is a complicating factor. 

“It might make anything he says appear more political and opportunistic than if he were riding higher in the polls,” he said. 

Numerous polls in recent weeks have shown Biden’s approval rating in the high 30 percent range, with his standing largely attributed to frustration among voters about inflation and the economy as a whole.

Should the president and White House officials turn their attention to the Jan. 6 hearings, some voters may perceive it as trying to score political points at a time when most Americans are concerned about high gas prices, the cost of food and the availability of baby formula.

“If you have the long view, this is an opportunity for the Biden administration to continue to sully Trump if Trump is the guy in 2024, so it’s a way to kind of pre-kickoff the campaign,” said John Thomas, a GOP consultant.

“On the other hand, if I were team Biden, I would be looking for the fact that voters today simply don’t give a rip about anything but the economy and gas prices,” Thomas continued. “And to the degree the White House is talking about other things, they’re missing where the electorate is at.”

Polls show that a large slice of the American public is paying attention to the hearings. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released Thursday found that almost six in 10 Americans say they are paying some or a lot of attention to the public hearings, including majorities of Democrats and independents. However, the same survey found that inflation, abortion, guns, and healthcare all outpace the Jan. 6 hearings as a top concern for voters.

To be sure, the Biden White House has helped facilitate the probe by waiving executive privilege over Trump-era documents the committee requested and obtained from the National Archives. A lawsuit brought by Trump failed to block the release of the material. 

“There is no executive privilege to overthrow the U.S. government, there is no executive privilege to plan and launch an insurrection,” White House chief of staff Ron Klain said on MSNBC Thursday. “The committee’s investigation is outside the scope of executive privilege.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland has kept progress of the Jan. 6-related investigation under wraps, despite rampant speculation about potential charges and calls from some progressive groups for more transparency.

“We do not do our investigations in public. This is the most wide-ranging investigation, and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into… We have to get this right,” Garland said Wednesday at an event on firearms trafficking. 

“And for people who are concerned, as every American should be, about protecting democracy, we have to do two things,” Garland continued. “We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Revolutionary brain-computer interface offers hope to paralyzed patients

In recent years, experimental brain-computer interface (BCI) technology has made progress toward giving severely paralyzed patients hand-free control of computers by using only their thoughts. And now for the first time in the U.S., a patient who suffers from ALS has successfully received a permanent BCI implant as part of a landmark study. 

Australian-based startup Synchron was given the green light last year by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to conduct an early feasibility study of its flagship BCI product, the Stentrode, to assess the safety and efficacy of the device in six ALS patients with severe paralysis, meaning no functional use of muscles in their arms or their legs. The trial is being conducted with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Neural Interfaces Program.

Earlier this month, doctors at Mount Sinai West in New York successfully pulled off the procedure and said the patient was able to go home just 48 hours after surgery. The goal is to ensure the device can be safely implemented, as well as to see if patients can carry out simple functions such as point and click with a computer using only their brain signals. 

There have been several iterations of BCIs that have enabled study participants in the U.S. and abroad who lost the use of their limbs due to strokes, accidents or diseases such as multiple sclerosis, to control a mouse cursor, keyboard, mobile device and even a robotic arm that provides sensory feedback to the patient. 

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

But the typical brain-computer interface process is invasive. It requires opening the skull and embedding an implant directly into the brain, a complicated new surgery foreign to most neurosurgeons that comes with its fair share of risks. 

But Synchron’s procedure is unique in the field of BCI. The Stentrode is an endovascular stent that enters the body through the jugular vein and snakes through an area called the transverse sinus into a secondary area called the superior sagittal sinus — a large vein that travels snugly between the two hemispheres of the brain — about halfway between the back and front of the head near the primary motor cortex, the target of the stent and the area of the brain responsible for voluntary movement. 

Once in the proper place, the stent opens up like a flower and will heal into the walls of the blood vessels over several weeks. The electrodes embedded in the stent can then record brain activity from the motor cortex. A small wire coming from the stent then takes the brain activity to a pacemaker-like unit that sits in the chest that relays signals to an external monitoring unit via Bluetooth, which is plugged into a computer. 

Months of training then take place using algorithms to decode brain signals into practical functions on a computer, such as clicking a mouse. 

“These individuals can’t initiate movements with their own muscles, but when they try to, say, move their ankle up and down, the stent can identify that signal. And because the stent is connected to a computer, it can take that signal and use it for something else, say, a left mouse click,” David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation for the Mount Sinai Health System and principal investigator of the study, said in an interview. 

“And when the patient tries to move their right ankle, same idea. The stent can pick up that signal and decode it and say ‘Ok, the patient is trying to move their right ankle. Let’s make that the right click.’ And so on and so forth as it builds out and identifies more signals over time,” Putrino said. 

The procedure is advantageous for several reasons. Stents have been widely used in medicine for decades. The small mesh tubes are used to hold open passages in the body, such as weak or narrowed arteries. Many neurosurgeons and cardiologists are familiar with the technique so the skillset is transferable. Putrino said this makes a large difference in the risk profile for the procedure and the long-term feasibility of the technology. 

Implants that go directly into the brain also cause scar tissue around the electrodes which makes it hard to record brain activity over time, which is not the case with the Stentrode. 

“Over time as the stent becomes more and more continuous with the blood vessel, it becomes easier for the electrodes on the stent to record brain activity,” Putrino said. 

The first human trials of the technology were carried out in Australia and found the device was generally safe with no serious adverse events after following participants for a year. The Stentrode also stayed in place in patients and the blood vessel in which the device was placed remained open. Participants successfully used a computer to communicate by text and perform tasks such as online shopping and banking. 

In a Ted Talk earlier this year, Synchron CEO Thomas Oxley showcased a study participant who sent a tweet using the device, as well as two others who communicated with him via text. 

“I think brain-computer interface is an example of a type of tool that is going to be used as we unlock the brain and start to treat conditions that were previously untreatable and previously impossible,” Oxley said in an interview. 

“I really feel like we’re in this renaissance period that’s emerging. I think it’s as corollary to what happened with the sequencing of the genome. We first had to figure out how to sequence the genome. There was all this information. Then we started creating tools to engage with the genome, and it spawned the entire industry of new areas of medicine that we can do by manipulating the genome. The same thing is happening in the brain.”

Source: TEST FEED1

Stranded by COVID, Biden loses time on the trail

President Biden’s COVID-19 diagnosis has scuttled his plans for domestic travel, presenting another roadblock to the president’s efforts to get out and sell his accomplishments ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

Biden’s positive case caused the White House to cancel — so far — planned trips to Pennsylvania and Florida, two key battlegrounds. Biden has sought to get out on the road more since the beginning of the year, but his plans for domestic travel have also been limited by foreign trips and his focus on the Russian war in Ukraine.

It’s unclear precisely how long Biden, who is experiencing mild symptoms, will stay isolated. 

The White House said that Biden will remain in isolation for at least five days and stay away from people until receiving a negative coronavirus test. That means he could resume in-person activities as early as Wednesday. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines call for a 10-day quarantine, but they say that individuals can shorten that quarantine to as few as five days if the patient is asymptomatic. Those who come out of isolation early are told to wear face masks. 

“I think that ten days is probably a good estimate to say,” said Anand Parekh, chief medical adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center who served at the Department of Health and Human Services under former President Obama. “I would think that they’re probably being conservative right now.” 

Adding to questions about the length of his quarantine is Biden’s treatment course of Paxlovid, an antiviral used to lessen the severity of COVID-19. Some patients who have used the antiviral treatment, however, have experienced a rebound of symptoms, which could potentially prolong Biden’s isolation. 

Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said that in some cases patients can test negative and then several days later test positive again.

“These cases have posed a great challenge and confusion of what to do,” Osterholm said.

There is also still a chance that Biden’s case could worsen, though experts say it’s unlikely given he is up to date on his boosters and receiving Paxlovid.

“I think we have every reason to be optimistic,” said Osterholm, noting that Biden’s sole risk factor is his age.

The White House will want to get Biden back on the road as soon as possible, while also being careful to protect his health and those around them. 

“When it comes to his schedule. We’ll see how the president does — he’s improving,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday, noting Biden has been active working while in isolation. “He’s still doing the job of the president.”

Biden has tried to traverse the country in an effort to break through to voters about Democrats’ successes on his watch, such as the bipartisan infrastructure law and the American Rescue Plan. He was slated to tout the bipartisan gun reform law in Pennsylvania on Thursday before testing positive.

His trip there was also an opportunity for the president to push for more measures to support police, curb crime and strengthen gun violence prevention efforts, which Democrats and advocates have called for.

Biden also had been scheduled to travel to Florida on Monday to headline a conference organized by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. 

In both cases, his diagnosis disrupted plans for Biden to appear at in-person Democratic National Committee events — viewed by donors as critical for the party as it looks to raise more money ahead of the midterms. Jean-Pierre on Friday said the president is “not concerned” about missing such political events.

“I am sure he’d rather be out in the country discussing his administration’s successes, but like any responsible person, he’ll do what he needs to do to quickly and safely recover, without endangering others,” said former Rep. Chris Carney (D-Pa.), a Biden ally.

“It seems almost impossible for a public figure to avoid COVID nowadays, particularly a public figure as active as President Biden,” Carney added.

White House officials have acknowledged that Biden’s COVID-19 diagnosis was always a possibility, given the large in-person events he has been attending in Washington and on the road. 

“This is something that we were preparing for,” Jean-Pierre said Friday.

The administration has stressed that Biden can do his job from anywhere and that isolation at home won’t prevent him from working. Officials have grown accustomed to working remotely during the two-and-a-half-year pandemic; Biden phoned into at least three meetings on Friday to hear updates on national security matters, gas prices and legislative priorities. 

“He was elected during a pandemic in which Republicans tried to make a mockery of him wanting to be COVID safe from his ‘basement’ and he still was able to communicate effectively a message to the American people. So I think this sort of break for him, away from domestic travel, does not change that his viewpoints … are still strong,” said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright.

Others though argue the president’s trips haven’t been particularly effective in helping promote his successes anyway. His COVID-19 diagnosis comes as his approval rating hit a record low for his presidency and surpassed the lowest ratings of the previous two presidents this week. A recent poll put Biden’s economic approval rating at 30 percent, 11 points below the low for former President Trump and 7 points below the lowest for former Obama.

“Based on his persistently falling polling, there’s no evidence the president has been especially effective on the road selling his accomplishments or breaking through,” said Bruce Mehlman, former assistant secretary at the Commerce Department under President George W. Bush.

Instead, Mehlman pointed out that Biden’s coronavirus diagnosis does put the spotlight on the president’s age. Biden, 79, has faced persistent questions over if he will run for president again in 2024, though he insists that is his intention.

“The bigger risk of his testing positive is reinforcement of the ‘he’s old and weak’ narrative that critics regularly assert,” Mehlman said.

Still, the president’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, reported Friday that Biden’s mild symptoms were “improving.”

While Biden stays in Washington, first lady Jill Biden and Vice President Harris have been on the road. Harris will travel to Richmond, Va., on Saturday and to Indianapolis, Ind., on Monday to meet with state legislators and leaders on reproductive rights. On Thursday, the first lady went to Michigan and Georgia to visit schools with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

Seawright argued that members of the administration traveling while the president can’t is the best move to keep voters engaged and to tout the White House’s successes.

“This is an opportunity for the White House and administration to give other voices and to give other folks their political deployment papers,” Seawright said. “With the diversity of his cabinet, with the many, many friends and extended family that comes with President Joe Biden, there’s no shortage of talent or voices to go out and talk about the good work this president has done.”

Source: TEST FEED1

White House says WHO declaration on monkeypox is ‘a call to action’ to stop its spread

The White House Pandemic Office coordinator released a statement calling the World Health Organization’s (WHO) declaration of the monkeypox virus as an international public health emergency “a call to action” to stop the spread of the disease.

“Today’s decision by the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare the current monkeypox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern is a call to action for the world community to stop the spread of this virus. A coordinated, international response is essential to stop the spread of monkeypox, protect communities at greatest risk of contracting the disease, and combat the current outbreak,” Raj Panjabi said in a statement on Saturday. 

Panjabi’s statement came hours after WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced he made the decision to consider monkeypox a public health emergency, weighing five factors in making the declaration.

More than 16,000 cases have been reported in 75 countries and territories.

“WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region where we assess the risk as high,” Tedros said during a news conference on Saturday.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of Friday, there are close to 2,900 cases of monkeypox that have been reported in the U.S. The states with the highest case counts are in New York, California, Florida, Illinois and Georgia.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced earlier this month another 144,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine would be distributed in addition to the more than 41,000 doses given out already to combat the virus, which is generally spread through contact directly with body fluids, rashes and scabs and prolonged face-to-face contact.

Source: TEST FEED1

FDA must meet the urgency of the moment and embrace needed reform

Shockwaves reverberated across the country when baby formula disappeared from supermarket and drugstore shelves, leaving Americans to wonder how the supply challenges of such a vital product — with so few viable alternatives — could be missed by FDA. No one expects FDA to be a supply chain expert, nor should it compromise safety. Further, the agency didn’t create the supply chain issues that led to initial formula shortages. But we must ask, would a modernized, restructured FDA have been in better position to handle the situation?  

If baby formula were a prescription drug, this may not have happened. On the drug side of the agency, regulatory requirements offer detailed visibility into pharmaceutical supply chains, providing FDA with information to proactively prevent product shortages. When there are problems at a pharmaceutical manufacturer, the inspection arm of the agency and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research can easily work with the industry to locate and launch alternative production. But the food program’s disjointed structure and governance doesn’t allow as efficient coordination in similar situations related to food products, making it more difficult to prevent potential shortages when recalls of specialty products, such as infant formula, occur. 

Shortages are one potential consequence of the agency’s siloed oversight of food and cosmetics. The time to consider streamlining and modernizing the agency has long since run out. The FDA can and must make critical changes now or risk leaving more essential products short and consumers in the lurch. 

Looming largest among the FDA’s ongoing issues is the disjointed leadership that begets a breakdown in communication across the agency without a single, full-time, fully empowered, expert leader. There are two heads of food, each with varying responsibilities, driving a trickle-down effect of disorganization across the major food programs. The consequences of inaction at FDA are not hypothetical, but real issues the team at Consumer Brands hears about from the 2,000 brands it represents every day. The dominant themes that have emerged from countless conversations are: 
 

• The split and siloed food program undercuts communication and collaboration at the expense of efficiency and responsiveness. 
• Inefficient decision-making slows reviews, hinders progress and even renders innovation obsolete.  
• Inspector turnover and retirements makes it difficult to keep a well-trained, experienced FDA workforce. 

The importance of FDA’s mission cannot be overstated. The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry wants and needs FDA to be successful, and Consumer Brands believes four key reforms will enable the agency’s success: unify under a single leader for food; place meaningful focus on the food program; move at the speed of consumers; take lessons from the pandemic and adapt them to permanent changes. 

Unify under a single food leader: The first step toward making real change at FDA requires unifying the food program under a single deputy commissioner for foods. Today, there are two heads who each report to Commissioner Robert Califf — constructing an organizational chart that is designed to, at best, ensure communication failures and, at worst, result in conflict with one another. A single head would have accountability to the commissioner and direct line authority over each of FDA’s major food program units — the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Center for Veterinary Medicine and the food-related components and operations of the Office of Regulatory Affairs — offering immediate efficiency and collaborative potential. 

Place meaningful focus on the food program: A recent investigative piece on FDA quipped, “There’s a long-running joke among FDA officials that the ‘F’ in FDA is silent.” And commissioners have leaned heavily on the drug expertise side, making it imperative that this appointee have relevant and appropriate food credentials to quickly implement modifications. A streamlined structure and a full-time senior leader translate into results that unite consumers, companies and policymakers: focused leadership, accountability and effective dialogue with myriad stakeholders. 

Move at the speed of consumers: Modernizing FDA is tantamount to unifying its leadership. The agency does not move at the speed of business and does not approach the speed of the consumer. The pandemic made clear FDA must evolve to meet consumers’ rapidly changing needs. This should be a business-critical priority for the agency as well, as reforms stand to position FDA as a leader and subject matter expert in facilitating innovation, furthering companies’ efforts to debut more sustainable packaging and better nutritional offerings that can be tied up for 18 months awaiting FDA review. 

Take lessons from the pandemic: During the pandemic, significant, lasting shifts in consumer behavior and hurdles faced by the consumer packaged goods industry forced a new nimbleness to manufacturing processes. Temporary regulatory changes to ensure continued production to meet demand ultimately proved just as safe and more efficient and should be considered for permanent adoption. Further, the pandemic proved regulators like FDA and industry can work harmoniously to improve the regulatory environment, like the implementation of remote assessments and allowing for labeling flexibility to give stretched supply chains a little slack and consumers more reliably stocked shelves. 

FDA can meet the urgency of the moment and act right away. The creation of a deputy commissioner for foods does not require an act of Congress or rulemaking. In fact, the position existed during the Obama administration and worked to ensure programs and oversight work at optimal levels. Further, FDA underwent an aggressive modernization of its medical products program several years ago and should look to that overhaul as a model and imperative for the food side of the house.  

The potential, and most of the pieces, are within FDA’s reach to implement significant and lasting change.  

Sarah Gallo is vice president of product policy  for the Consumer Brands Association, which represents nearly 2,000 iconic brands. From household and personal care to food and beverage products, the consumer packaged goods industry plays a vital role in powering the U.S. economy, contributing $2 trillion to U.S. GDP and supporting more than 20 million American jobs.  

Source: TEST FEED1

Watch Live: Trump speaks at TPUSA student conference

Former President Trump will speak at the TPUSA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Fla., as rumors he will announce a 2024 presidential bid continue to swirl.

The event is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. EST.

Watch the live video above.

Source: TEST FEED1