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☆ CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang plans to 'break open the barrier' facing gene editing after raising $193 million for his secretive new startup
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Feng Zhang, Aera's founder and a CRISPR pioneer, spoke with Insider about his vision for the firm. Aera wants to "break open the barrier" of tech through methods like gene editing, Zhang said. The CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang spoke with Insider about Aera Therapeutics, his Boston-based biotech. "The goal is to break open the barrier that's facing genetic medicine," Zhang told Insider in his first interview about the company. In starting another company, Zhang said he felt it was important to have a dedicated team focused on delivery.

☆ Americans are quitting plant-based meat due to high prices, worse taste, and questionable health benefits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Jacob Zinkula | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

In 2020, retail sales of plant-based meat grew 45%, surpassing the $1 billion mark for the first time. Questionable taste and health benefits are scaring off consumersFirst, it's unclear whether the plant-based meat industry has a growing customer base. On the all-important issue of taste, many Americans say plant-based meat disappoints, and some experts think the industry's efforts to compare plant-based meat to the real thing is a losing battle. Additionally, while plant-based meat has environmental benefits, growing research suggests it may not be much — if at all — healthier than traditional meat, something consumers are beginning to suspect. It's also possible that cultivated meat — meat grown from animal cells in a lab — will prove to be the answer, though this innovation could face some obstacles as well.

☆ A tiny-home village that can house over 30 homeless people is the latest project from a California prefab company that quickly builds homes in factories and trucks them to their destinations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Long Beach, California, made a $2.5 million deal to build tiny homes for people in need. The bathroom in a Connect Homes shelter. From luxury homes to sheltersFor its private customers, Connect Homes builds 15 single-family-home models, ranging from a 460-square-foot home for $220,000 to a 1,960-square-foot four-bedroom home that costs about $700,000. Connect Homes' Shelter 3, a type of tiny home that's set to be built in Long Beach, California. It's now getting inquiries in other states about its tiny homes, Leung said.

☆ UK strikes hit a 30-year high as inflation erodes pay
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Many public sector workers have been offered raises of 4% or 5% for the current financial year, far lower than the 10.5% annual inflation rate in December. Real pay fallsThe UK government has so far refused to grant public sector workers higher pay awards, arguing that doing so risks making the inflation problem worse. For public sector workers, the decline in real pay will have been worse as, without adjusting for inflation, their wages grew a lot less compared with private sector earnings. The ONS said private sector pay growth was at its strongest outside the height of the coronavirus pandemic. “However, median anticipated public sector pay rise expectations of 2% lag those in the private sector at 5%, with the gap providing the context for ongoing discontent and strikes among key public sector workers,” the CIPD said.

☆ UK firms plan biggest pay rises since 2012 to fill staff gaps
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Suban Abdulla | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Expected median annual pay awards in 2023 rose to 5% - the highest since CIPD records began in 2012 - from 4% in the previous three months. The survey also showed the gap between public and private employers' wage expectations widened. Planned pay settlements in the public sector fell to 2% from 3% in the quarter before, compared to 5% in the private sector, the CIPD said. The results highlighted the squeeze on living standards as key workers including nurses, teachers and public transport staff stage a series of strikes over pay and work conditions. BoE Governor Andrew Bailey last week expressed concerns about wage-setting, despite signs that the surge in inflation has turned a corner.

☆ Meta restores Donald Trump's access to Facebook, Instagram
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) has restored former U.S. President Donald Trump's access to Facebook and Instagram, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed on Thursday, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Meta in January said it would lift Trump's suspension "in the coming weeks" and would institute heightened penalties of a suspension between one month and two years if the former president violated its content policies again. Trump now regains access to key platforms for voter outreach and political fundraising ahead of another run for the White House in 2024. He had 23 million followers on Instagram and 34 million on Facebook as of January. Reporting by Rami Ayyub, Kanishka Singh and Sheila Dang; Editing by Mark PorterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Explainer: What we know and don't know about the Chinese balloon
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Here's what we know, and don't know, about the balloon that has triggered a dramatic diplomatic dispute between the two powers:HOW BIG IS IT? WAS IT A WEATHER BALLOON? Other companies that develop stratospheric balloon systems include U.S. space tourism firm World View and French firm CNIM Air Space. AIR is particularly keen on stratospheric balloon technology and has posted several articles on its WeChat account about Aerostar. read moreWhile analysts did not yet know the size of the Chinese balloon fleet, U.S. officials have spoken of dozens of missions since 2018 across five continents, with some targeting Japan, India, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines.

☆ North Carolina Republicans reap reward of judicial wins in redistricting ruling
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

'RAW PARTISANSHIP'In North Carolina, Republican candidates in November won two seats held by Democrats, wresting away the majority. The office of the Republican state Senate leader, Phil Berger, did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling on Monday. That decision led North Carolina Republican lawmakers to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in what has become one of the year's most momentous cases. The North Carolina Supreme Court – whose previous decision gave rise to the U.S. Supreme Court case – could now choose to embrace the notion regardless of what the U.S. Supreme Court eventually rules. "We either get Moore v. Harper and it's the Wild West everywhere, or we get a Republican state Supreme Court to overturn it and it's just the Wild West in North Carolina," Hildebrand said.

☆ Should the wealthy worry about Pres. Biden's call to boost their taxes? Raymond James analyst says no
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Melissa Lee | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailShould the wealthy worry about Pres. Biden's call to boost their taxes? Raymond James analyst says noEd Mills, Raymond James Washington Policy analyst and managing director, discusses Pres. Biden's call to quadruple the buyback tax and institute a billionaire tax. With CNBC's Melissa Lee and the Fast Money traders, Tim Seymour, Bonawyn Eison, Dan Nathan and Guy Adami.

☆ CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang's secretive gene-editing startup has hired ex-Alnylam leaders as CEO and chair
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The gene-editing startup Aera has hired biotech vets Akin Akinc as CEO and John Maraganore as chairman. CRISPR pioneer Feng Zhang's newest gene-editing venture has attracted two longtime leaders of the biotech giant Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, Insider has learned. Former Alnylam CEO John Maraganore is chairman of Aera. The SEND technology could allow gene-editing technology to treat more diseases. Based on Zhang's SEND research, Aera hopes to deliver gene-editing tools to more organs, ultimately expanding the number of diseases CRISPR can impact.

☆ Fact Check-Eight cooler years cannot be extrapolated to draw conclusions on long-term global warming
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

SHORT TERM FLUCTUATIONSGlobal surface temperatures are heavily influenced by annual Pacific Ocean patterns known as El Nino and La Nina, and collectively as ENSO (El Niño–Southern Oscillation). A large El Nino event followed by a La Nina can “lead to a temporary ‘pause’ in global temperatures over timescales of a decade or so”, Hausfather said. This is “what we are now seeing after the 2015/2016 super El Nino event”. Whenever there is a trend with variability like global temperatures, “you can isolate cherry-picked intervals and claim that something has paused or accelerated, but this is not appropriate”, Colose said. Temperature data for the past eight years do not reflect long-term trends, experts say, and longer-term data clearly show a continuing rise in overall global temperatures.

Asked if the United States would provide the jets, Biden told reporters at the White House on Monday, "No." The Russian state news agency TASS quoted him as saying Russian forces were making advances there, but "not clear-cut, that is, here there is a battle for literally every meter." Ukraine still controls Maryinka and Vuhledar, where Russian attacks were less intense on Monday, according to Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov. In central Zaporizhzhia region and in southern Kherson region, Russian forces shelled more than 40 settlements. Zelenskiy is urging the West to hasten delivery of its promised weapons so Ukraine can go on the offensive.

President Joe Biden on Thursday is expected to criticize the fiscal proposals of House Republicans in his first major economic speech of the year, which he will deliver at a steamfitters union hall in Springfield, Virginia. Biden will talk about his goals of growing the U.S. economy with new factories and construction in communities across the country and creating well-paying jobs for the middle class that don’t require a four-year degree, a White House official said. Biden also is expected to announce a new “Invest in America” Cabinet comprised of the secretaries of commerce, labor, transportation, treasury, energy, and health and human services; the EPA administrator; and senior White House advisers, a White House official told NBC News. In his remarks, Biden will contend that the House GOP's economic agenda would pose a threat to the economy and the working class, the official said. Biden is expected to characterize the House GOP’s economic proposals as a “MAGA economic plan,” the White House official said — a reference to former President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” 2016 campaign slogan.

☆ Europe could dodge a recession. But the UK economy is in a mess
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Hanna Ziady | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

London CNN —Business activity across the 20 countries that use the euro expanded in January for the first time in six months, according to data published Tuesday, providing fresh evidence that Europe’s economy could confound expectations and dodge a recession this year. The UK survey is conducted in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply. “Weaker-than-expected PMI numbers in January underscore the risk of the UK slipping into recession,” Williamson said. The UK economy lost more working days to strikes between June and November 2022 than in any six-month period over the previous 30 years, according to data published last week by Britain’s Office for National Statistics. Separate data published by the ONS on Tuesday showed that UK government borrowing hit £27.4 billion ($33.7 billion) in December, the highest figure for that month since records began in 1993.

But to reach its ultimate destination - supermarket shelves - cultivated meat faces big obstacles, five executives told Reuters. California-based cultivated meat company GOOD Meat already has an application pending with the FDA, which has not been previously reported. Regulatory approval is just the first hurdle for making cultivated meat accessible to a broad swath of consumers, executives at UPSIDE, Mosa Meat, Believer Meats, and GOOD Meat told Reuters. But it will take hundreds of millions of dollars for GOOD Meat, for example, to build bioreactors of the size needed to make its meat at scale, Tetrick said. But cultivated meat companies have the advantage that they can claim their product is real meat, Tetrick said.

☆ Canada's energy jobs transition bill sparks discord in oil heartland
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-22 | by ( Nia Williams | Steve Scherer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

FILE PHOTO: Pipelines run at the McKay River Suncor oil sands in-situ operations near Fort McMurray, Alberta, September 17, 2014. REUTERS/Todd KorolPrime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government is expected to table its long-awaited workforce transition bill this spring, ahead of economic changes expected as they pursue ambitious goals to slash climate-warming emissions. The government of Alberta, Canada’s main crude-producing province, says the legislation will dismantle the oil and gas industry that makes up 5% of Canada’s GDP. The oil and gas sector employs around 185,000 workers, making the bill a hot topic in Alberta ahead a provincial election in May. Think tank Clean Energy Canada estimates there could be 200,000 clean energy jobs created by 2030.

☆ Fact Check-Online claims about nutritional table lack context
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Food Compass has not been endorsed or promoted by the NHLBI or the government departments responsible for developing nutrition guidelines. TUFTS’ FOOD COMPASSThe Food Compass was developed by researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University (bit.ly/3ZSHEUC). The Tufts team addressed claims about the graphic shared online in the Frequently Asked Questions section of its Food Compass website (here). “These graphs were created by others to show these exceptions, rather than to show the overall performance of Food Compass and the many other foods for which Food Compass works well. But, as objective scientists, we accept constructive criticism and are using this to further improve Food Compass,” the statement added.

☆ Alphabet finally makes the tough call to lay off workers. Here's how its cut of 12,000 jobs compares to the rest of Silicon Valley.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Despite seemingly all of its internet peers announcing job cuts, Google likely hired another 6K employees in 4Q22," Schilsky wrote. The 12,000 figure shared by Pichai on Friday suggests Alphabet layoffs are roughly in line with most of its peers. Meta's layoffs of more than 11,000 employees — announced in November — work out to around 13% of the company's overall workforce. According to filings, 98% of Meta's revenue currently comes from ads, and 87% of Alphabet's revenue comes from advertising. This wouldn't be a problem, he suggests, if Meta's revenue per employee hadn't fallen over the last 12 months $1.6 million per employee to $1.4 million.

WELLINGTON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The shock resignation of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who altered the face of global politics when she was elected the world's youngest female head of state, throws a spotlight on the demands faced by women in power. "We need people like Jacinda Ardern in politics. [1/2] New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during the Australia-New Zealand Leaders' Meeting at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Offices in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, July 8, 2022. "Certainly she really challenges the male stereotype of being a prime minister." Former Prime Minister Helen Clark said Ardern had done an "extraordinary job" in leading New Zealand through major crises.

[1/4] Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Central Bank Governor Sahap Kavcioglu are pictured during a signing ceremony in Ankara, Turkey, June 8, 2022. But his drastic transformation of the economy and financial markets means such a change would bring its own uncertainties. The election will also determine what role regional military power and NATO member Turkey plays in conflicts in Ukraine, where Erdogan has helped broker talks, and in neighbour Syria. In the short-term it seems to have worked however, halting a years-long rise in Turks converting lira into dollars. Last week, Turkey had no problem borrowing $2.75 billion from international capital markets.

☆ Moving species emerges as last resort as climate warms
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

Moving species to save them — once considered taboo — is quickly gaining traction as climate change upends habitats. Concerns persist that the novel practice could cause unintended harm the same way invasive plants and animals have wreaked havoc on native species. “Climate change is causing a greater need for this — for taking a species outside its known historical range.”A pending change to the U.S. “In the future, some species’ ranges may shift due to climate change, or their current habitats might become unsuitable due to invasive species encroachment,” Armstrong said in an email. Humanity has been moving species around for centuries, often inadvertently and sometimes causing great harm.

☆ New Zealand business confidence at lowest since 1974
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Lucy Craymer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

WELLINGTON, Jan 17 (Reuters) - New Zealand's business confidence in the fourth quarter of last year hit its lowest level since 1974 as companies grapple with higher interest rates, cost pressures and soft demand, a private think tank said on Tuesday. A net 70% of firms surveyed expected general business conditions to deteriorate compared with 42% pessimism in the previous quarter, the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research's (NZIER) quarterly survey of business opinion (QSBO) showed. It added that business confidence is now at its lowest level since 1974, while on a seasonally adjusted basis it is the weakest since the survey started in 1970. On a seasonally adjusted basis, 73% expected business conditions to worsen, versus 43% pessimism recorded in the previous period. NZIER said the survey was undertaken following the more hawkish than expected central bank meeting in November and this was weighing on sentiment.

President Joe Biden lambasted House Republicans’ tax agenda on Monday, targeting the new majority’s push to revoke new Internal Revenue Service funding, abolish the federal tax agency and replace the income tax with a federal tax on consumption. Speaking at the National Action Network’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast in Washington, D.C., Biden referred to Republicans as "fiscally demented" and pledged to veto their tax legislation, which is all but certain to fail in the Democratic-controlled Senate. President Joe Biden speaks at the National Action Network's Martin Luther King, Jr., Day breakfast, in Washington, DC., on Monday. They didn’t say if elected their plan was to make inflation worse.”The other tax bill in Biden’s crosshairs was introduced last week by Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., and would abolish the IRS, eliminate income taxes and institute a federal consumption tax.

Together with Moscow, Minsk has also been bolstering the drills with weaponry and military equipment. The Belarusian defence ministry said only that "units" of Russia's air forces have been arriving in Belarus. Ukraine's Air Force said the apartment block was struck by a Russian Kh-22 missile, which is known to be inaccurate and that Ukraine lacks the air defences to shoot down. SOLEDARIn Ukraine's eastern Donbas region - the focal point of Russia's drive to capture more territory - Ukraine's forces were battling around the small salt-mining town of Soledar. Russian forces claimed to have taken control of the town, but Ukraine insisted on Sunday that its forces were battling to hold the town, with street fighting raging and Russian forces advancing from various directions.

☆ Germany falls to bottom rung of investment ranking on energy costs, labour shortage
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Jan 15 (Reuters) - Germany's attractiveness as an investment location has fallen four places to 18th of 21 in a ranking of industrial economies by economic research institute ZEW, newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine reported on Monday. Rising energy costs and ongoing labour shortages have compounded existing problems of high taxes, complex bureaucracy and slow pace of innovation, the study said, bumping Germany down the list with only Hungary, Spain and Italy below it. The Mannheim-based institute ranked the United States, Canada, Sweden and Switzerland for reasons from cheaper energy in the U.S. and Sweden to access to capital and a well-functioning state in Switzerland. Reporting by Victoria WalderseeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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