Important Takeaways:
- White House officials are signaling that President Joe Biden will not imminently move to block Nippon Steel’s bid to acquire U.S. Steel amid mounting concerns over the political and economic consequences of nixing the deal, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.
- The White House last week had been preparing to announce that the president would formally block the Japanese company’s proposed $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel on national security grounds.
- White House officials have now indicated that such a decision is unlikely in the short term and may not be made until after the 2024 presidential election
- White House spokeswoman Saloni Sharma disputed that there had been a change of plans, saying an announcement was never imminent and that the president remains committed to waiting for a recommendation from an interagency review board, as the law requires.
- The delay of any announcement, however, comes as investors, Pennsylvania Democrats and some members of the steelworkers’ union warned that the deal’s collapse could spark an economic calamity for Pennsylvania’s beleaguered steel belt.
- The United Steelworkers union, which endorsed Biden for reelection and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in her presidential bid, has opposed the transaction from the outset.
- The proposed corporate acquisition has assumed outsize importance given its potential political impact on the 2024 election.
- Without Nippon Steel’s cash, U.S. Steel has warned that it might close some of its aging facilities in the Mon Valley.
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Important Takeaways:
- The World Health Organization said Friday it has granted its first authorization for use of a vaccine against mpox in adults, calling it an important step toward fighting the disease in Africa.
- The approval of the vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic A/S means that donors like vaccines alliance Gavi and UNICEF can buy it. But supplies are limited because there’s only a single manufacturer.
- WHO also said it was creating an “access and allocation mechanism” to try to fairly distribute mpox tests, treatments and vaccines to the countries who need them most.
- WHO said that while it was not recommending the vaccine for those under 18, the shot may be used in infants, children and adolescents “in outbreak settings where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks.”
- The mpox vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic was previously authorized by numerous rich countries across Europe and North America during the global mpox outbreak in 2022. Millions of doses given to adults showed the vaccine helped slow the virus’ spread, but there is limited evidence of how it works in children.
- Officials at the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that nearly 70% of cases in Congo — the country hardest hit by mpox — are in children younger than 15, who also accounted for 85% of deaths.
- Overall, WHO said over 120 countries have confirmed more than 103,000 cases of mpox since the outbreak began two years ago. Its latest tally, as of Sunday, showed that 723 people in more than a dozen countries in Africa have died of the disease.
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Important Takeaways:
- Gas stoves may soon come with a tobacco-style health warning label in California
- Because a stove’s blue flame releases air pollution into your kitchen, California lawmakers have passed a bill that would require such warning labels on gas stoves for sale in stores and online. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until the end of September to sign the bill into law.
- The legislation comes after a series of lawsuits was filed against stove manufacturers, claiming they should have warned customers about potential health risks.
- Environmental activists are encouraging people to switch to electric stoves, part of a broader campaign to cut climate pollution from buildings
- If Pellerin’s legislation becomes law, it will require a label on gas stoves for sale in stores and online that says, “Gas stoves can release nitrogen dioxide, benzene, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, and other harmful pollutants into the air, which can be toxic to people and pets.” The label would also mention associated risks for breathing problems, suggest using a vent hood and say, “Young children, people with asthma, and people with heart or lung disease are especially vulnerable to the toxic effects of combustion pollutants.”
- Similar bills were introduced in Illinois and New York, but unlike California’s version, lawmakers did not pass them out of the legislature.
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Important Takeaways:
- There were three other ways besides the recent smuggling of weapons through the corridor that were likely responsible for the vast majority of Hamas’s massive weapons buildup, the sources said.
- Although these points were made in a technical and professional context, they could also have significant implications for the ongoing debate within Israel over how crucial it is for the IDF to hold onto the Philadelphi Corridor or whether it can be temporarily given up as part of a deal for the return of dozens of Israeli hostages.
- According to people familiar with the matter, it could take Hamas years to rebuild its cross-border tunnel network, meaning certainly not during the 40-plus days Israel would theoretically leave the area during Phase I of one of the proposed hostage deals.
- Regarding the use of the tunnels for long-range rockets, IDF sources said Rafah, in general, and the corridor, in particular, had turned out to have one of Hamas’s largest long-range rocket arsenals that the military found, compared with any other part of Gaza.
- Hamas’s strategy was to place the long-range rockets and their launchers next to the border with Egypt to deter Israel from striking them and risking an international incident with Cairo, either by accidentally hitting Egyptian soldiers or merely causing explosions so close to another sovereign nation’s territory, the sources said.
- Furthermore, Hamas rocket teams would hide in the large tunnels, which had launchers and inventories of rockets connected to them via their extensive space and storage capabilities, they said.
- The Hamas rocket teams would briefly pop out of the tunnels at selected moments, only meters from the Egyptian border fence, and then either fire the rockets or set timers for them to launch, IDF sources said.
- After a brief time of being exposed and in an area in which Israel would be very worried about attacking, even if it had much time to calculate a precision strike carefully, the rocket teams would rapidly disappear back into the cross-border tunnels, they said.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia’s move to expel British diplomats ratchets up tensions between Moscow and London, hours before Starmer lands in Washington to advance talks on getting the green light from U.S. President Joe Biden for Kyiv to use Britain’s Storm Shadow missiles, which have a range of more than 250 km (155 miles), inside Russia.
- President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that the West would be directly fighting with Russia if it allowed Ukraine to strike Russian territory with Western-made long-range missiles, a move he said would alter the nature and scope of the conflict.
- The Kremlin said on Friday that Putin had delivered what it described as a clear and unambiguous message to the West which it was sure had been heard.
- Washington and London see Iran’s delivery of ballistic missiles to Russia to use against Ukraine, announced by Washington this week, as a dramatic escalation and it had sped up talks on Ukraine’s long-range missile use, three Western sources said. Russia and Iran have denied any such deliveries.
- Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the activities of the British embassy in Moscow had gone well beyond the Vienna diplomatic conventions.
- “More importantly, it is not just a question of formality and non-compliance with declared activities, but of subversive actions aimed at damaging our people,” Zakharova said on Telegram.
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Important Takeaways:
- North Korea released images of its uranium enrichment facility on Friday, showing leader Kim Jong Un touring the site.
- Kim urged the facility to “push forward the introduction of a new-type centrifuge… so as to further strengthen the foundation for producing weapon-grade nuclear materials”.
- The country, which conducted its first nuclear test in 2006 and is under rafts of UN sanctions for its banned weapons programs, has never publicly disclosed details of its uranium enrichment facility.
- Such facilities produce highly enriched uranium — which is needed to produce nuclear warheads — by spinning the original material in centrifuges at high speeds.
- North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs are banned by UN sanctions, but the country has long flouted the restrictions, thanks in part to support from allies Russia and China.
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Important Takeaways:
- The state is not one of the 14 others that have reported outbreaks in dairy cattle
- Disease investigators have not been able to determine how a person in Missouri with no known exposures to animals or poultry became infected with an H5 bird flu virus, the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
- But Nirav Shah said the ongoing investigation has turned up no evidence of onward spread of the virus, suggesting this case may turn out to be a one-off infection that defies explanation.
- “Here’s the bottom line: Our influenza surveillance system is designed to find needles in haystacks,” Shah said at a news briefing. “Here in this case, we found such a needle, but we don’t know how it got there. Our investigation continues, and we will keep everyone updated as we learn more.”
- It isn’t unheard of to have cases in which investigators fail to be able to trace a human infection with novel flu viruses back to a source of infection, Shah said, noting that of the more than 500 swine flu infections that have been detected in the U.S. since 2010, about 8% have been in people with no traceable contact with pigs or other infected people.
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Important Takeaways:
- The commissioner of the biggest police department in the country resigned Thursday, days after having his phone seized by federal agents as part of one of multiple, ongoing criminal investigations into New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
- At a hastily arranged press conference, Adams said he accepted Caban’s decision to resign and appointed Tom Donlon, a retired FBI official who previously served as New York’s director of Homeland Security, as interim police commissioner.
- The development comes amid at least four ongoing federal investigations into the Adams administration — and have ensnared several of his top officials.
- Adams has denied any wrongdoing. At Thursday’s press conference, the mayor said he was “surprised as you to learn of these inquiries,” and added: “I take them extremely seriously.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Blinken stated “I can tell you that as we go forward, we will do exactly what we have already done, which is we will adjust, we’ll adapt as necessary – including with regard to the means that are at Ukraine’s disposal.”
- The question of permission for Ukraine to use long-range weapons inside of Russia is also likely to be discussed at a meeting between British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and US President Joe Biden in Washington on Friday.
- So far, the US has only given Kiev permission to use its munitions to strike inside Russian territory if the targets are just across the border from the embattled eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
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Important Takeaways:
- The raid on Sunday was the first ground operation the IDF has conducted in recent years against Iranian targets in Syria.
- The destruction of the factory appears to be a significant blow to an effort by Iran and Hezbollah to produce precision medium-range missiles on Syrian soil.
- Two sources said Israel briefed the Biden administration in advance of the sensitive operation and the U.S. didn’t oppose it.
- Two sources with direct knowledge told Axios the Iranians began building the underground facility in coordination with Hezbollah and Syria in 2018 after a series of Israeli airstrikes destroyed most of the Iranian missile production infrastructure in Syria.
- According to the sources, the Iranians decided to build an underground factory deep inside a mountain in Masyaf because it would be impenetrable to Israeli air strikes.
- The sources claimed the Iranian plan was to produce the precision missiles in this protected facility near the border with Lebanon so that the delivery process to Hezbollah in Lebanon could take place quickly and with less risk of Israeli airstrikes.
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