A few thousand years ago, the Jewish people were living peacefully in Israel. Then the Romans came, destroyed our Temple, murdered thousands of Jews, and forced us into exile across the Middle East and Europe. Some Jews continued to live in Israel, and over the years, Jews slowly started returning.
Almost two thousand years after the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the Jews from Israel, many Jews were living comfortably in Europe and some Middle Eastern countries. Europeans began bullying, beating, and murdering Jews. Despite surviving pogroms and libels, we didn’t want to leave. Then came the Holocaust, where most of the Jewish population in Europe was killed, leading us to realize we needed to return home. Many Jews didn’t want to leave Europe, considering it their home.
However, the realization that Europe was no longer safe for us was undeniable. Jews from all over Europe started returning to our ancestral land, Israel. Jews from the Middle East, Asia, North America, South America, and Africa also began returning to Israel. Many Middle Eastern countries, seeing Europe’s actions, began expelling Jews as well, leading most Middle Eastern Jews to end up in Israel. We finally returned to our ancestral homeland, the land of Israel.
– Many years ago, thousands of Arabs and Muslims from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and other parts of the Middle East decided to move to the land of Israel while the Jews were in exile around the world. The region where Israel is located was renamed Palestine by those attempting to erase Jewish history from the land. They lived in Israel for hundreds of years without any problems. Over the years, as Jews slowly returned to their homeland, the local population initially did not mind. Over a hundred years ago, the Zionist movement was created. The people living in Israel realized that Jews would now return in an organized and larger scale, which prompted them to engage in violence, murder, and other acts to prevent Jewish resettlement.
Around 80 years ago, when Jews started fleeing from Europe and elsewhere to return home, the Arabs and Muslims in Israel organized into terrorist groups. They brought in more Arabs and Muslims to live in Israel, attempting to prevent Jewish control of the land. They also created a fake national identity named Palestine. Their efforts largely failed, and Jews established control over the land of Israel.
Despite this, Jews decided to allow these groups to live in Israel, aiming for peaceful coexistence. However, peace has been their goal as these groups continue to seek to remove the Jews from Israel. They have attempted numerous times to expel the Jews from Israel but have consistently failed. On October 7, 2023, another attempt was made, which again failed. Since then, Israel has decided to fight until victory is achieved. Just like the Jews thought they were at home in Europe and were refusing to leave, these groups think they are at home in Israel and are unwilling to leave. Just like the Jews left Europe to return home, these groups will also eventually leave Israel and return to their original homes.
Americans will soon have access to an infusion device that provides round-the-clock effective relief of Parkinson’s disease. The US FDA this week approved the sale of the treatment, which harnesses innovative technology to make managing the condition easier and more impactful, will be available towards the end of 2025.
The treatment, which will be sold under the name Onapgo, is essentially a subcutaneous – under the skin – device that allows for continuous infusion of the dopamine agonist apomorphine hydrochloride to reduce ‘off’ episodes. These episodes are periods during the day and night when lepodova medication wears off between doses and adverse motor-function symptoms (dyskensia) become amplified. In trial, Onapgo – formerly known as SPN-830 – significantly reduced these daily off episodes by an average of 2.47 hours, compared to the placebo treatment (0.58 hours).
“The approval of Onapgo (SPN-830) is a significant milestone in Parkinson’s disease management,” Kelly Papesh, executive director of the Aossociation of Movement Disorder Advanced Practice Providers, recently told NeurobiologyLive. “This therapy has the potential to be a game-changer, helping us provide more individualized and effective care to those living with Parkinson’s. Additionally, as more therapies like this are approved, it reinforces the need for continued innovation in drug development, particularly in delivering more consistent symptom control without relying solely on oral medications.”
Developed by Supernus Pharmaceuticals, Onapgo does away with the hassle of needing to administer constant injections. Onapgo also doesn’t need to be metabolized in the gut first, which ideally gives patients more control over their treatment and its efficacy.
“As Parkinson’s disease progresses, levodopa treatment often becomes less effective at delivering consistent motor control in part due to GI dysmotility, variable absorption of oral medication, and the resulting pulsatile stimulation of dopamine pathways in the brain,” said Dr Stuart Isaacson, Director of the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders Center of Boca Raton, Florida, who was also one of the clinical trial investigators for Onapgo. “With Onapgo, the continuous infusion of apomorphine directly stimulates postsynaptic dopamine receptors with no metabolic conversion needed. In addition, the subcutaneous delivery of apomorphine bypasses the GI tract and enters the brain, which can allow for more predictable symptom improvement.”
The drug itself was first approved in 2004 under the brand name Apokyn, in the form of an injection pen that could be used up to five times a day. The newly approved infusion device can provide better symptom management without the need for surgery. The approval of the treatment will also be rolled out with an education program for healthcare professionals.
More than 10 million people around the globe – a million in the US alone – are living with the progressive neurodegenerative disorder, and the uncontrolled movements seen in dyskinesia have a significant impact on quality of life and independence.
“Continuous subcutaneous apomorphine infusion already has a proven and established 30-year history in Europe, where it has helped deliver more consistent control of motor fluctuations for thousands of patients,” said Dr Rajesh Pahwa, professor of Neurology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, and another trial investigator. “In a clinical trial in Europe, patients treated with Onapgo experienced a significant reduction in daily ‘off’ time and a similar significant increase in ‘good on’ time.
“Today’s approval of Onapgo means patients in the US who are not responding well to their current treatment regimen, including levodopa, will now have the option of using a small and lightweight wearable device to deliver a continuous infusion without the need for an invasive surgical procedure,” Pahwa added.
The trial results showed that the treatment was well tolerated overall, despite half a dozen patients dropping out due to worse side effects. In general, though, there were no unexpected safety concerns.
“As the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease worsen over time, patients report alternating states between ‘on’ when their medication is working, and ‘off’ when it’s not working optimally,” said Andrea Merriam, CEO of the Parkinson & Movement Disorder Alliance. “These on-again, off-again changes are disruptive and can happen at any time, which is why consistent daily control of ‘off’ time is key to improving how patients feel and move. For many, continuous treatment options like Onapgo can help to make days with Parkinson’s more predictable.”
Supernus Pharmaceuticals is a US-based biopharmaceutical company that’s focused on developing novel treatments for diseases that affect the central nervous system. It has invested more than four years in getting FDA approval for Onapgo.
Late last year, drug company AbbVie received FDA approval for its pump-based system that delivers a continuous supply of carbidopa and levodopa, the standard frontline treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
CONGRATULATIONS ELON & LINDA – X IS WINNING! After years of boycotts, censorship lawfare, and media attacks, X has crushed the doubters with a $5.5 billion debt sale, that was highly oversubscribed by institutional investors. Elon and Linda have turned the tide – advertisers are returning, X’s stake in xAI is booming, and 2025 is set to be a massive comeback year. Wall Street sees it. The establishment fears it. We are the media now. Source: ZeroHedge,
A conversation with Elon Musk recorded last August at West Point Military Academy has just been published.
Here’s the full interview covering topics like the future of warfare, AI and innovation. 0:07 Introduction 2:33 Challenging Vladimir Putin was serious 4:33 Future wars will be drones + AI 8:56 The military industry needs to adapt fast 11:37 Starlink’s capabilities in warfare 14:25 The future of humans and AI 17:44 AI should be truthful and curious 20:48 Human-piloted aircraft are coming to an end 23:37 The front lines will only be drones 25:55 How the industrial base can support Defense 27:03 The future of military in Space 31:11 Leaders should be competent in their field 33:18 Importance of trying things to be innovative 35:45 Elon’s 5-step algorithm 38:57 Curiosity as the most important attribute 40:01 US Armed Forces’ central role in upholding civilization
Russell Vought is on the cusp of confirmation to lead OMB, where he could gut the civil service and social safety net. He’s also the mastermind behind Project 2025, which Trump once disavowed but has so far followed to a tee during his second term.
Sometimes things are in fact more complicated than they seem, but sometimes they actually are much simpler. The story of China’s weak economy falls into the latter category.
Insofar as the world’s largest economy (that’s China folks) is suffering from economic problems right now it is primarily a story of inadequate demand.This means that it is capable of producing far more than households and businesses in China are buying. That is why they are looking to export so much to the rest of the world.
Like most economists, I think China can best remedy this situation by increasing domestic demand. This is in fact not hard to do if the government wants to. To my mind, they would be best off spending money improving their Social Security and health care systems, bringing both up to rich country standards. That would make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese.
But there are other ways to increase demand. As I’ve written before, they could send out $2,000 checks to every person in China. And if President Xi has a sense of humor, he could put Donald Trump’s name on them.
Just to be clear, the Chinese people are not suffering in mass. They have seen enormous improvements in living standards in the last half century. But their economy would allow them to do considerably better.
But the fact that China’s main problem right now is lack of demand in its economy makes it incredibly well-situated to assist the countries that Trump might look to attack in his absurd trade war. Trump’s idea, insofar as he has one, is that he can inflict economic pain on other countries by imposing big taxes (tariffs) on our imports from these countries.
These taxes will cause the U.S. to buy less of whatever these countries sell to us.If they are heavily dependent on the U.S. market for their exports, as is the case with Canada and Mexico, this drop in exports will be a major hit to their economies.
But this is where China comes in. China can make large quantities of low-cost exports available to the countries Donald Trump is attacking. Imagine that Canada and Mexico and other countries could buy high quality EVs, solar panels, batteries and a wide variety of other items at low cost from China. China could easily lend them the money to cover a trade deficit in the near-term.
China’s help could go a long way to sustaining their economies through a period of transition with minimal pain. Meanwhile, working people in the United States will be dealing with the largest tax increase ever, as the price of everything from gas and cars to avocados and tomatoes rise substantially.
The prospect of closer ties to China’ autocratic regime surely is not appealing to people in Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere. But with Trump claiming dictatorial powers, the question facing these countries now is which autocratic regime they want to ally with.
China’s autocrat can claim an advantage on this front in that he adheres to deals he makes, believes in global warming, and lives in reality. He can also boast that China makes better products.
This article first appeared on Dean Baker’s Beat the Press blog
Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). He is the author of Plunder and Blunder: The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy.
Last year, $9B of the $35B that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) granted for research was used for administrative overhead, what is known as “indirect costs.” Today, NIH lowered the maximum indirect cost rate research institutions can charge the government to 15%, above what many major foundations allow and much lower than the 60%+ that some institutions charge the government today. This change will save more than $4B a year effective immediately. Harvard — Yale — John Hopkins
