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When the earth seized his house and shook it late Friday night, Mohamed Abarada ran outside with his 9-month-old daughter in his arms. Mr. Abarada started digging with his bare hands. He dug by day with the help of neighbors and relatives, and by night with the flashlight on his phone. But on Monday, his daughter Chaima had yet to be found. With Mr. Abarada’s shoulder injured, his fellow searchers urged him to rest while they kept sifting through what had been his house — broken bricks mingled with broken wood, bamboo roofing, couch cushions, a satellite dish and teakettles, all the flotsam of family life.

Persons: Mohamed Abarada, Abarada, Chaima, Abarada’s, — Locations: Douar Tnirt

Others tried to comfort the wounded and grieving. A lack of ambulances and other transportation from Douar Tnirt meant that some people who had been pulled alive from the rubble over the weekend died before they could be taken to Marrakesh for treatment, residents said. Others waited for hours before being driven there by private transport. Some Moroccans expressed frustration with the pace of aid efforts. “Help was extremely late,” said Fouad Abdelmoumni, a Moroccan economist.

Persons: Tnirt, “, ”, Fouad Abdelmoumni, King Mohammed VI Organizations: Moroccan Locations: Casablanca, Marrakesh, Moroccan

“They have nowhere they can go back to,” Mr. Choula said of his family, who spent Saturday night sleeping in a field with several other families. Some are rallying together to send funds and organize shipments of supplies for survivors while others are heading home to help on the ground. But Mr. Dehy said he had received dozens of calls from Moroccans who want to immediately send help home. For Moroccans watching from afar, “the only thing that helps them is knowing that they helped, that they didn’t just stand idly by,” Mr. Dehy said. Mr. Choula, 41, said he was gathering money to send home.

Persons: Youssef Choula, “, ” Mr, Choula, ”, Latif Dehy, Dehy, —, Ella Williams, Talat N’yakoub, It’s, “ I’ve, Williams Organizations: “, French, of, British Moroccan Society Locations: Gloucestershire, England, Marrakesh, Amizmiz, Moroccan, Avignon, France, Morocco, Europe, Britain, ”

Residents fleeing their homes in Moulay Brahim, a village near the epicenter of the quake, outside Marrakesh, Morocco, on Saturday. “The current tectonic stresses are therefore only part of the story,” Dr. Hubbard said. Historical earthquakes offer few answers to that question, according to Dr. Hubbard. Another challenging detail to study is an earthquake’s depth, Dr. Hubbard said. The shaking from a deeper earthquakes may not be as strong, but it can be felt across a wider swath of the surface, Dr. Hubbard said.

Persons: Judith Hubbard, ” Dr, Hubbard, ”, Jascha Polet Organizations: Saturday, Earthquakes, San, Cornell University, Geological, Seismological, California State Polytechnic University Locations: Moulay Brahim, Marrakesh, Morocco, Africa, Africa’s, Pacific

With debris and fallen rock blocking roads to Moroccan villages hit hardest by an earthquake, many residents began burying their dead and foraging for scarce supplies on Sunday as they waited for government aid. That wait may be lengthy. The most powerful quake to hit the region in a century spared neither city apartment dwellers nor those living in the mud-brick homes of the High Atlas Mountains, but many in the remote and rugged areas of Morocco have been left almost entirely to fend for themselves. Survivors, faced with widespread electricity and telephone blackouts, said they were running low on food and water. Some bodies were being buried before they could be washed as Muslim rituals require.

Locations: Morocco

☆ For a Woman Bereaved in Quake, First Came Shock and Then a Wail.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-10 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

First came the news, then shock and then a scream. In the small town of Amizmiz in southern Morocco on Sunday, a woman let out a piercing cry as she absorbed the information that her two brothers had been killed in the devastating earthquake. More than 2,000 people were killed in the quake that hit Morocco on Friday night, according to the authorities. Hardest hit was the province of Al Haouz, which is home to Amizmiz, where a small crowd was growing to comfort the crying woman. Once his aunt heard what had happened to her brothers, he said, she had attempted to get as close as possible to their town.

Persons: Al Haouz, Lacher Anflouss, Anflouss Locations: Amizmiz, Morocco, Al, Atlas

Rescuers in Morocco are racing to dig survivors out of rubble after the country’s worst earthquake in a century flattened homes and buildings, killing at least 2,000 people. The magnitude-6.8 quake struck in the mountains south of Marrakesh, an ancient city that is a popular tourist destination. The quake particularly devastated communities in the Atlas Mountains, where the full extent of the damage is still unknown. Debris has blocked some of the region’s roads, making it difficult for rescue crews to reach remote communities. Frantic rescue effortsIn some remote areas, people sifted through debris with their bare hands to search for survivors.

Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh

The earthquake that struck Morocco on Friday night hit near Marrakesh, a popular tourist destination, sending both residents and visitors scrambling for safety. “We didn’t know if we had to stand up, to sit down, to run,” Mr. Ait Chari said. Ms. Lorang and hundreds of others found refuge in a courtyard, where some brought out rugs and blankets to sleep. “It was very chaotic.”Mr. Ait Chari, the tour guide, said he was supposed to pick up more clients on Sunday but was unsure flights would be maintained. Many people were still in shock, he said, but there had also been “great solidarity,” as residents cleared roads.

Persons: “, Jen Lorang, ” Ms, Lorang, “ I’ve, Mr, Ait, ”, Jean, Baptiste Guinet Organizations: Big, ”, UNESCO, Heritage, Tourism, Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Locations: Morocco, Marrakesh, Ait Chari, Massachusetts, Seattle, San Francisco, ” Morocco, Agadir, ”, Taroudant

As the death toll from the powerful earthquake in Morocco rose on Saturday, questions mounted about the vulnerability of buildings in the seismically active North African country. Moroccan architects said that the hardest-hit areas were rural zones with many earthen houses that were unable to withstand the shaking. “Given the state of the buildings in the country, this death toll was kind of expected,” said Anass Amazirh, an architect in the northern city of Casablanca. Image Rescue workers searching for survivors in a collapsed house in Moulay Brahim, in Morocco’s Al Haouz Province, on Saturday. “These more extreme risks occur regularly in other countries,” the report said, “and Morocco cannot avoid taking them into account.”

Persons: “, ”, Anass Amazirh, Omar Farkhani, Fadel Senna, Mr, Farkhani, Al Hoceima, Al, Haouz, Amazirh Organizations: Morocco’s, of Architects, ., Agence France, Moroccan, Organization for Economic Cooperation, Development Locations: Marrakesh, Morocco, Moroccan, Casablanca, Al Haouz, Moulay Brahim, Morocco’s Al Haouz Province, Al, Al Hoceima, “

Residents of Morocco who experienced the earthquake firsthand said that confusion had quickly turned into chaos when their walls started shaking and objects started crashing to the ground. In Amizmiz, a town about 30 miles southwest of Marrakesh that is near the epicenter, Yasmina Bennani was about to go to sleep on Friday night when she heard a loud noise. “I felt terrorized,” said Ms. Bennani, 38, a journalist who, like many people in the area, lives in a house made of clay bricks. “It didn’t last long but felt like years,” Ms. Bennani said. “The adrenaline took over,” Mr. Kourkouz told BFMTV.

Persons: Bennani, ”, ” Ms, “, “ Mustapha, Hassan, Ilhem, Maftouh, ” Yacine, France’s, Mr, Kourkouz, BFMTV, ” Raja Bouri, Ms, Bouri Locations: Marrakesh, Saturday, Morocco, Moroccan, Agadir

African leaders allied with Russia had grown used to dealing with Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the swaggering, profane mercenary leader who traveled the continent by private jet, offering to prop up shaky regimes with guns and propaganda in return for gold and diamonds. But the Russian delegation that toured three African countries last week was led by a very different figure, the starchy deputy defense minister Yunus-bek Yevkurov. Dressed in a khaki uniform and a “telnyashka” — the horizontally-striped undergarment of Russian armed forces — he signaled conformity and restraint, giving assurances wrapped in polite language. “We will do our best to help you,” he said at a news conference in Burkina Faso. The contrast with the flamboyant Mr. Prigozhin could not have been sharper, and it aligned with the message the Kremlin was delivering: After Mr. Prigozhin’s death in a plane crash last month, Russia’s operations in Africa were coming under new management.

Persons: Yevgeny V, Yunus, bek Yevkurov, —, ”, Prigozhin, Prigozhin’s Locations: Russia, Burkina Faso, Africa

☆ Analysis: FTC settlement could shelter Amgen from US price cuts, taxes
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

An Amgen sign is seen at the company's office in South San Francisco, California October 21, 2013. With Horizon, Amgen acquires drugs that won't be affected by new U.S. negotiation requirements for blockbuster medications as well as possible tax advantages stemming from Horizon's headquarters in Ireland. Analysts said the Horizon deal could also help Amgen's tax situation. The United States has largely eliminated once-lucrative corporate tax benefits for pharmaceutical manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory. Horizon offers Amgen "potentially a better tax jurisdiction related to Irish manufacturing plants ... Amgen has a new manufacturing process they could potentially move there," Cowen's Werber said.

Persons: Robert Galbraith, Abiel Garcia, John Kness, Donald Trump, Garcia, Evan Seigerman, Lina Khan, Cowen, Biden, Michael Yee, Amgen, Cowen's Werber, Deena Beasley, Peter Henderson, Paul Simao Organizations: REUTERS, U.S . Federal Trade, Horizon Therapeutics, U.S, District, Federal, Activision, Horizon, Amgen, BMO Capital Markets, FTC, Reuters, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, Jefferies, Medicare, Internal Revenue Service, United, Thomson Locations: South San Francisco , California, Amgen, Kesselman, Ireland, U.S, Puerto Rico, United States, Irish

☆ In Push to Modernize Cairo, Cultural Gems and Green Spaces Razed
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-26 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Gardens have vanished, and with them many of Cairo’s trees. Few cities live and breathe antiquity like Cairo, a sun-strafed, traffic-choked desert metropolis jammed with roughly 22 million people. But President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is modernizing this superannuated city, fast. And he considers the construction as one of the major accomplishments of his tenure. “There is not a single place in Egypt that has not been touched by the hand of development,” Mr. el-Sisi proclaimed in a recent speech.

Persons: Abdel Fattah el, Mr, Sisi Locations: Cairo, Egypt

The 44-year-old man was surfing near Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie when a shark launched a “sustained and prolonged attack,” New South Wales (NSW) police said in a statement. Police said a bystander applied a tourniquet before paramedics transferred the surfer to Port Macquarie Hospital in critical condition. “[He is in] a serious condition with life threatening injuries, sustained from the lower leg injuries, and also significant blood loss,” NSW Police Chief Inspector Martin Burke said. Australia ranked behind only the United States in the number of unprovoked shark encounters with humans last year, according to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File. According to the Australian Shark Incident Database, there were 10 shark encounters in New South Wales in 2022, resulting in seven injuries and one death.

Persons: Martin Burke, “ Organizations: CNN, 9News, Police, Port Macquarie Hospital, ” NSW Police, Port Macquarie, Facebook, Department of Primary Industries, Fisheries, Life, NSW, Australia, Florida, Australian, Incident Locations: Lighthouse Beach, Port Macquarie, New South Wales, NSW, United States

☆ I'm PinkyDoll, the most popular NPC creator on TikTok. I don't care about the haters — they're just jealous I'm making money and they're not.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Fortesa Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

"Mm, ice cream so good, yes yes yes. I first made my account last summer, and I started doing the NPC TikTok trend by accident a few months ago. I spend about six hours a day doing livestreams and making content. My other videos bring in a little income, but nowhere near as much as my NPC livestreams. I know what it's like to grow up with nothing, and I'm going to make sure he doesn't.

Persons: PinkyDoll, Sinon, livestreaming, They're, I'm, Timbaland, Haters, they're, It's, —, who's Organizations: Service, Fashion, Nova Locations: Wall, Silicon, Montreal, Québec, TikTok

☆ I'm PinkyDoll, the most popular NPC creator on TikTok. I don't care about the haters — what's important is my son is going to have a beautiful life.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-24 | by ( Fortesa Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Oil powers Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members of the BRICS group of developing nations in its first expansion in over a decade. Total bilateral trade between Saudi Arabia and BRICS nations exceeded $160 billion in 2022, the Saudi foreign minister said. It also means Russia and Saudi Arabia — both members of OPEC+, a group of major oil producers — will join each other in a new economic bloc. The BRICS countries have also been talking about a common currency, an idea analysts have described as unworkable and “unlikely” in the near future. Existing BRICS members have “had enough difficulty trying to agree just between the five of them,” he added.

Persons: Cyril Ramaphosa, ” Ramaphosa, Vladimir Putin, ” Putin, Xi Jinping, ” Jinping, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Narendra Modi, Saudi Arabia —, —, Putin, Goldman Sachs, Jim O’Neill, ” O’Neill, “, ”, I’m, ” BRICS, Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, Abdel Fattah el, Sisi, — Manveena Suri, Mostafa Salem, Lizzy Yee, Mengchen Zhang, Nadeen Ebrahim Organizations: CNN, Oil, United Arab, Saudi Foreign, Indian, OPEC, West, Western, Bloomberg, New Development Bank, United Arab Emirates, BRICS Locations: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Argentina, South, Johannesburg, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Russian, BRICS, Saudi, United States, UAE

Dozens of countries have expressed interest in joining BRICS, a group encompassing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa that views itself as a counterweight to the West, and is meeting this week in Johannesburg. Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are thought to be among those most likely to be admitted. But Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India is said to be concerned about adding nations close to Beijing; India and China have border disputes and tend to consider each other potential adversaries. Here is a look at some of the nations vying to join. Saudi ArabiaThe addition to BRICS of Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s leading oil producers, would add economic clout to the group and bolster its chances of positioning itself as a rival to the U.S.-led financial order.

Persons: Xi Jinping, Narendra Modi Locations: BRICS, Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Johannesburg, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Beijing, U.S

☆ Covid is going to be a problem for the stocks of vaccine makers, says Jefferies' Michael Yee
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCovid is going to be a problem for the stocks of vaccine makers, says Jefferies' Michael YeeMichael Yee, Jefferies senior biotech analyst, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the market performance of Covid vaccine stocks, as companies prepare to roll out new modified boosters to combat new variants, and more.

Persons: Jefferies, Michael Yee Michael Yee Organizations: Jefferies

Australians Steph Weisse, Will Teagle, Jordan Short and Elliot Foote, and two unnamed Indonesian nationals were found floating on their surfboards on Tuesday morning. They had gone missing Sunday off the Sumatran coast in western Indonesia, after their boat was struck by a storm. Courtesy Vessa PlayfairAccording to their families, the four Australians were on a surf trip in Indonesia to celebrate Foote’s 30th birthday. He praised the other surfers for being “so strong,” describing their time lost in the open ocean as efficient with no arguments between the members. The group offered their thoughts to the Indonesian crew member still missing, and to his friends and family.

Persons: Steph Weisse, Will Teagle, Jordan Short, Elliot Foote, “ We’re, ”, Foote, ” Foote, “, Short, they’d Organizations: CNN, Four, Indonesian Locations: Indonesia, Sumatra, Nias, Pinang

☆ New Covid vaccines are on the way as 'Eris' variant rises
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Michael Erman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Some public health experts hope that Americans will welcome the new shot as they would a flu jab. In the fall of 2022, by which time most people had either had the COVID virus or the vaccine, fewer than 50 million people got the shots. Its biggest rival, Moderna, conceded demand could be as few as 50 million shots. POST PANDEMIC VACCINEThe COVID public health emergency ended in May and the government has handed much of the duty of vaccinating America to the private sector. As with the flu, Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), Moderna (MRNA.O) and Novavax (NVAX.O), have created versions of the COVID vaccine to try to match the variant they believe will be circulating this fall.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Ashley Kirzinger, Kirzinger, BioNTech, Jefferies, Michael Yee, " Yee, Mandy Cohen, William Schaffner, Schaffner, David Boulware, Michael Erman, Caroline Humer, Diane Craft Organizations: REUTERS, CVS Health, Family, Reuters, Pfizer –, Moderna, Pfizer, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Prevention, CDC, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, EG, Vanderbilt University, University of Minnesota, Thomson Locations: U.S, America, United States, COVID, CDC's

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File PhotoAug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. drug regulator's approval of Biogen (BIIB.O) and Sage Therapeutics' (SAGE.O) first-of-its-kind postpartum depression (PPD) pill is unlikely to allay the drugmakers' growth concerns, analysts said on Monday. Adverse commentary after their PPD drug was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday sent Sage shares tumbling 40%, while Biogen dropped 3% in premarket trading. Zurzuvae's use as a clinical depression treatment represents a more than $1 billion sales opportunity compared with $250 million to $500 million potential for postpartum depression, said Jefferies analyst Michael Yee. "Postpartum depression is not necessarily where a big commercial opportunity is," Biogen CEO Christopher Viehbacher said last month. The U.S. FDA said last week that additional studies might be required to support the drug's approval for major depressive disorder (MDD), or clinical depression.

Persons: Andrew Kelly, Sage, Biogen, Baird, Brian Skorney, Skorney, Zurzuvae, Jefferies, Michael Yee, Christopher Viehbacher, Yee, Mariam Sunny, Bhanvi, Manas Mishra, Vinay Dwivedi Organizations: Food and Drug Administration, FDA, REUTERS, Sage Therapeutics, U.S . Food, Drug Administration, U.S, Thomson Locations: White Oak , Maryland, U.S, Bengaluru

☆ Sage Therapeutics stock plunges more than 50% after FDA denies wider use of postpartum depression drug
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Annika Kim Constantino | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

In this photo illustration, the Sage Therapeutics logo of a biopharmaceutical company seen on a smartphone and on a pc screen. Shares of Sage Therapeutics fell more than 50% on Monday after the Food and Drug Administration approved the biotech company's oral drug zuranolone for postpartum depression, but not for major depressive disorder, a bigger potential market. The two companies also applied for approval of zuranolone for major depressive disorder, also known as clinical depression. Zuranolone had the potential for $1 billion in peak sales, compared with $250 million to $500 million for postpartum depression, Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a research note Sunday. He said clinical depression "was really the big upside driver here" for the companies, while postpartum depression is "much smaller and may not be hugely profitable."

Persons: Sage, Zuranolone, Jefferies, Michael Yee Organizations: Sage Therapeutics, Food and Drug Administration

☆ In Egypt, Public Classrooms Are Empty as Private Tutors Get Rich
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Vivian Yee | More About Vivian Yee | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Asked what classes were like in her last year of high school, the fateful period when students across the country cram for Egypt’s life-defining national exams, Nermin Abouzeid looked blank for a second. “We don’t actually know because she never went to high school,” explained her mother, Manal Abouzeid, 47. A child of the dusty alleyways of a lower-middle-class neighborhood of Cairo, she was determined, by middle school, to become a cardiologist. But medical schools accept only the top scorers on the national exams. She abandoned Egypt’s chronically overcrowded and underfunded schools midway through middle school, joining millions of other students in private tutoring, where the same teachers who were paid too little at school to bother teaching could make multiples of their day-job salaries on exam-prep classes.

Persons: Nermin Abouzeid, ”, Manal Abouzeid Locations: Cairo

When the government in Iran ordered the nation to shut down for two days starting on Wednesday to conserve energy and protect public health because of “unprecedented” broiling summer heat, Iranians and experts alike quickly discerned another, unspoken reason for the enforced holiday. Iran simply does not have enough natural gas, or a strong enough power grid, to keep all the lights on despite sitting on the second-largest reserves of natural gas in the world. And, as skeptical residents pointed out, much of Iran experiences blistering heat every year, especially in the south, which has already endured debilitating temperatures this summer. “I don’t feel any temperature difference at all,” said a 42-year-old bookstore worker named Nima in Tehran, the capital. “This is not unprecedented at all.”

Persons: ”, Nima Locations: Iran, Tehran, “

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