Spanish actress Ana Obregón welcomes her late son’s child through surrogate

Despite setbacks in her native Spain, where surrogacy is forbidden by law, Ana – who chose to have a surrogate in the US – knows the process has been worthwhile, according to Reuters.

“I’m happy!” she gushed. “Surrounded by diapers, bottles, all pink, covered in bows and smelling of perfume, how wonderful! Also, Aless Lequio loved babies and would go insane every time he saw one. He told me, ‘I’m going to call my first daughter Ana, like you mommy.'”

Can Ana imagine welcoming more of Aless’ children one day? Never say Never.

“My son wanted five kids,” she told the outlet. “Maybe one day we’ll have a boy.”

And Ana kept thinking about what it means for her to fulfill Aless’ last wish.

“I failed my son and I couldn’t save him, but what I swore to him with my life I did and no one can take that from me,” she continued. “And I don’t think there’s anyone in the world who sees this beautiful girl, who is so desired by her Father in Heaven and by me on earth and by all who love me, won’t think the same way. “

She added, “It’s something only a father or mother who has lost a child will fully understand.”

Airways are responding to crowded airports and rising prices with bigger plane

A United Airlines plane taxis at Newark International Airport on January 11, 2023 in Newark, New Jersey.

Kena Betancur AFP | Getty Images

NEWARK, New Jersey — With airport congestion, rising costs, a pilot shortage and a rebound in travel demand, airlines are increasingly turning to the same tool: larger planes that can accommodate more passengers.

Flights operated by the 11 largest US airlines averaged more than 153 seats on domestic routes last year, up from an average of nearly 141 seats in 2017, according to aeronautical data company Cirium. In April, US airlines have 0.6% more seats on their domestic schedules compared to the same month in 2019, despite operating 10.6% fewer flights.

The trend toward larger aircraft, part of a strategy known in the industry as “upgauging,” means airlines can sell more seats on each flight and make do with fewer planes that are in short supply. While more passengers per plane lowers an airline’s unit cost, it means fewer flight options for consumers.

For example, United Airlines said its flights across its network have 20 more seats per departure than in 2019.

Rodney Cox, United’s vice president of airport operations at the airline’s hub at Newark Liberty International Airport, told CNBC last month that increasing the number of flights to and from the airport, one of the national ones, is difficult most overloaded.

“The way we continue to build our model and grow the business is to improve our flights,” he said.

Last month, United said it would fly about 3,600 domestic routes on widebody aircraft. The airline also dedicated 777, the largest aircraft in its fleet at 364 seats, to fly between major hubs and Orlando, Fla., during spring break, a spokeswoman said.

At the start of the Covid pandemic, US airlines reallocated their largest jets to domestic routes as international travel was hampered by the crisis and travel restrictions. Now that international travel is picking up again, competition for these planes has become fiercer.

And Cox noted that there is a limit to the number of flights the airline can increase, particularly on its largest planes.

“Not every goal is the same,” he said. “You can’t use a widebody [airplane] at every single goal.”

avoid interference

The trend towards larger aircraft becomes increasingly important in a busy spring and summer with shortages of pilots, air traffic controllers and new aircraft.

Keeping operations running smoothly in crowded Newark is critical, said United Vice President Cox. If planes don’t take off fast enough due to the limited number of gates, “you’ll see it turn into a parking lot,” he said.

Airlines and federal officials have agreed to cut flights in hopes of avoiding a repeat of flight cuts and schedule delays this summer at busy airports serving New York and Washington, DC

Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration said it would allow airlines to cut flights at airports serving New York City and Washington’s Reagan National Airport to avoid disruption.

American Airlines said it will temporarily reduce frequencies on select routes from LaGuardia Airport and Newark in response to the FAA’s slot waiver this summer.

“We are proactively reaching out to affected customers to offer alternative travel arrangements,” said a spokeswoman. The airline plans to reallocate aircraft from reduced frequencies to routes at its hubs at Dallas Fort/Worth International Airport, Chicago O’Hare and Philadelphia International Airport.

United Airlines said in a statement Thursday that in response to the FAA plan, it would reduce daily peak departures in New York and Newark from 438 to 408 and reduce service from the New York area to Washington DC. The airline said it still plans to operate 5% more seats at those airports than in the same month of 2019 and that less than 2% of customers would be affected.

Delta AirlinesThe operations manager has also told the FAA that the airline intends to seek waivers that would allow it to reduce flights.

The FAA expects that “airlines will take steps to minimize the impact on passengers, including operating larger aircraft to carry more passengers and ensuring passengers are fully aware of potential disruptions.”

However, some airlines face the challenge of migrating to larger aircraft. JetBlue Airwaysoperates all narrow-body jets, for example.

“We don’t have a 70 seater that we could turn into a 150[-seater]JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes told CNBC last week.

Also, the airline doesn’t contract with regional carriers for many of its flights like larger U.S. carriers do.

“This will have a significant financial impact on JetBlue and our customers,” Hayes said of the reduced capacity. “It’s always the smaller municipalities that are hit disproportionately hard.”

Reduce regionally

To increase the number of passengers per plane, United and other network airlines are also reducing their reliance on regional feeder airlines where pilot shortages are most acute and unit costs are high.

Delta said 70% of its domestic flights will be operated by the main carrier this year, up from 55% in 2019. Seats per departure are up 15 from 2019, a spokesman told CNBC.

Delta has also switched from regional jets to commercial airliners like the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 on traditional business routes like Boston to Chicago, Seattle to San Francisco, and Los Angeles to Las Vegas. It has completely eliminated regional jets in Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and San Antonio, Texas and replaced them with larger planes, a spokesman said.

Some major airlines have suspended flights to some small airports, citing a shortage of pilots on regional airlines. American left cities like Dubuque, Iowa last year, and United last said it would stop flying to Erie, Pennsylvania in June. Delta also said it would temporarily suspend service to State College, Pennsylvania, and to La Crosse, Wisconsin this month.

Reducing regional instead of long-distance flights “could cut traveler departure options in half, meaning long layovers and increased travel times and cost burdens, but it could also mean a previously served city becomes unavailable,” said Faye Malarkey Black, President and CEO of the Regional Airline Association.

“This is further damage to small communities that don’t have the passengers to fill larger planes,” she said.

— CNBC’s Gabriel Cortes contributed to this article.

Alzheimer’s sufferers see the advantages of Leqembi even when it’s stopped

Research at Biogen

Source: Biogenic

New research from Eisai shows that Alzheimer’s patients taking Leqembi retain the benefits of the treatment even after they stop taking it.

The Japanese drugmaker and its partner Biogen last week released an additional analysis of clinical trials of the monoclonal antibody drug, also known as lecanemab. Alzheimer’s disease progressed more slowly in patients taking Leqembi, even after they had stopped treatment for an average of two years, the analysis found.

The results come as drugmakers await a decision on full approval of Leqembi. The Food and Drug Administration accelerated approval of the treatment in January and is scheduled to make its final decision on July 6. The findings also come as Eisai and Biogen try to regain a foothold after last year’s polarizing approval and disastrous launch of its other therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, Aduhelm.

About 6.7 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. This group is projected to grow to nearly 13 million by 2050.

One in three seniors will die of Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, which kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined, the association said. The neurodegenerative disease begins with mild memory loss but eventually affects a person’s ability to think and perform day-to-day activities.

There is a wealth of research on Alzheimer’s, but treating it is notoriously difficult. Several drugs targeting the disease have failed in trials. The sheer cost and length of this research further hampers drug development. And in recent years, scientists have sparked a debate about the true cause of the disease and the goal of the drugs.

In the analysis, Alzheimer’s patients stopped taking Leqembi after 18 months in a phase II clinical trial and later resumed treatment in an extension study. Patients stopped Leqembi for a gap period of nine to 59 months before restarting it.

The analysis compared these patients to a group receiving a placebo.

Leqembi reduced amyloid plaques in patients at 12 and 18 months during the clinical trial, the analysis said. Amyloid is a protein that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients and disrupts cell function.

The analysis said the reduction in amyloid plaques was accompanied by a “consequent reduction in clinical regression” compared to patients receiving the placebo. This means that Alzheimer’s disease progressed more slowly in patients who received Leqembi than in those who took placebo during the clinical trial.

According to the analysis, the difference in disease progression rate between the Leqembi and placebo groups remained the same throughout the gap between treatments. In other words, the disease progressed more slowly in patients taking Leqembi than in the placebo group, even during the time they were not taking the drug.

“The benefit that was obtained from the treatment continued,” said Dr. David Russell, director of clinical research at the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, told CNBC.

“The disease has been put on hold for a period of time,” he added. “People have another year before they reach a more moderate stage of the disease compared to people who have not received treatment.”

The research institute is involved in clinical trials for Leqembi and other investigational Alzheimer’s drugs, including Eli Lilly’s donanemab and Genentech and AC Immune’s semorinemab.

Patients taking Leqembi also maintained low amyloid plaque levels during the gap period, the analysis found. The protein replenished only slightly after patients stopped taking the drug, with an average increase of about six centiloids. A centiloid is a unit used to measure amyloid in the brain.

This aligns with previous research from the National Institutes of Health showing that amyloid gradually builds up in the brain.

“It takes many decades for enough plaque to build up to damage the brain,” Russell said.

Other biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease are still deteriorating

Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi can be seen in this undated handout picture obtained by Reuters on January 20, 2023.

Eisai | via Reuters

However, Russell emphasized that lower amyloid plaque levels in people taking Leqembi does not mean that the disease has stopped progressing. Leqembi and other Alzheimer’s drugs have shown an ability to slow cognitive decline, not stop the disease entirely.

“You don’t have to bring the plaque back to the level you had before treatment to start disease progression,” Russell said.

dr Lynn Kramer, Eisai’s chief clinical officer for Alzheimer’s and brain health, added that “plaque is just one component of the whole story and disease process.”

Blood tests in the analysis showed that other biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease worsened when treatment was stopped, Kramer noted. For example, another protein called p-tau181 accumulated in the brain, a trend linked to cognitive decline.

“These biomarkers are indicative of ongoing brain injury and dysfunction,” Kramer said.

“Our data show that if you stop therapy after plaque removal, everyone will experience cognitive decline and biomarker disruption [monoclonal antibody] unless therapy continues,” he added.

Specifically, the analysis found that these disease biomarkers improved after patients resumed Leqembi during the extension study. Amyloid plaque also began to decrease just three months after restarting the drug.

These improvements were associated with a “greater slowdown” in cognitive decline after restarting treatment, the analysis said.

Democracy ‘lynched’ in Tennessee as Republicans expel Rep. Justin Jones for supporting gun protests

Tennessee House Republicans launched an unprecedented assault on democracy by expelling Rep. Justin Jones from the country for supporting a gun protest.

wpln reports:

Republicans hold a supermajority of 75 seats in the House of Representatives and only need 66 votes to rule out the Democrats.

“The world is watching Tennessee,” Jones said in his opening statement, before speaking almost on the party line for his sacking, 72-25. “What is happening today is a farce of democracy.”

Jones argued the trial was a lynching – “not of me, but of the democratic process.”

Jones pointed out that Republicans are keeping a licensed child molester and a sexual assaulter in the House of Representatives and have not expelled them:

Wow: Tennessee State Assemblyman Justin Jones, one of the Democrats the GOP is trying to oust from the state legislature to protest gun violence, calls his peers to the ground

“One of your colleagues, a known child molester, sat in this chamber for years – no deportation” pic.twitter.com/KNDrhX3gl1

— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 6, 2023

What is unfolding in the Tennessee home is an assault on democracy the likes of which the United States has never seen. Jones was elected by his district’s voters, but he was expelled for breaking etiquette by supporting a gun protest after a shooting at a Nashville elementary school killed three nine-year-old children and three adults.

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Jones has done nothing worthy of deportation other than speaking out against gun violence. It is a certainty that he would never have been deported if he had instead broken the rules of propriety by denouncing the arrest and indictment of Donald Trump.

Democracies do not disfellowship members of the minority party for expressing views with which the majority disagrees.

Republican authoritarianism has come to Tennessee, and here it is hoped that Rep. Jones will win back his special election seat because the Tennessee Constitution prohibits members from being expelled twice.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association

Prohibits adults from serving to minors cross state traces

Brad Little, Governor of Idaho speaks on Day 2 of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Conference in Washington, DC at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort & Convention.

Lev Radin | Light Rocket | Getty Images

Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little has signed legislation prohibiting adults from helping a minor cross state lines to obtain an abortion without parental consent.

Under the law, any adult who helps a minor obtain an abortion pill or surgical procedure in Idaho or across state lines is “human trafficking,” punishable by up to five years in prison.

Abortion remains legal in Idaho’s neighboring states such as Washington, Oregon, Nevada and Montana.

The Idaho law, signed into law Wednesday, is the first to restrict interstate travel for an abortion since the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade lifted last June. The decision returned control of the procedure to the federal states.

Reproductive rights activists immediately condemned the law as a threat to the safety of young people.

“We have a responsibility to protect young people, and this law only puts them at risk,” Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement.

“This is a clear and dangerous escalation in the push by anti-choice extremists to block all abortion treatment in every state, and our families will continue to suffer the consequences. Our children deserve better,” said Timmaraju.

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Idaho already has some of the toughest abortion laws in the United States. The state has outlawed performing an abortion as a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. Idaho law allows a doctor to perform an abortion if the person’s life is in danger or if they have been the victim of rape or incest.

But the doctor must present a “preponderance of evidence” that the abortion under the ban’s limited exceptions was necessary to avoid prosecution. In the case of rape or incest, the woman must provide the doctor with a police report.

After Roe’s ouster, one of the few options left for women and girls living in states with abortion bans is to cross state lines to places where the procedure is legal. But Idaho law would largely bar even that underage access, potentially putting children at risk in crisis situations.

In June, a 10-year-old girl who became pregnant after being raped by a 27-year-old man crossed the state lines from Ohio to Indiana to receive an abortion after her home state banned the procedure after six weeks. Gerson Fuentes was charged with double rape in July and allegedly confessed to sexually abusing the girl.

Indiana Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita asked the state medical licensing board to discipline the doctor who performed the abortion, claiming that they failed to report the girl’s abuse to authorities. The doctor, dr. Caitlin Bernard said she had complied with all reporting requirements.

In July, President Joe Biden condemned laws that force victims of sexual assault to cross state lines to obtain abortions as “horror.”

“A 10-year-old should be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child? I can’t think of anything more extreme,” said the President.

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler denies allegations within the sexual assault case

Steven Tyler denies allegations made in a recent lawsuit. As The Shade Room previously reported, the suit accuses him of sexually assaulting a minor in the 1970s.

RELATED: Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler is accused of sexually molesting minors in the mid-1970s, a new lawsuit alleges

Last week, the Aerosmith frontman, 75, responded to the lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Tyler has extensively defended himself against Julia Misley’s claims against him.

Also, Misley’s attorney claims the rocker “set her on fire.”

Aerosmith frontman claims the then minor consented to a sexual relationship with him

Tyler states that Misley, formerly Julia Holcomb, consented to a sexual relationship with him, adding that he had immunity as her legal guardian at the time of the alleged incidents.

He went on to seek the outright dismissal of the lawsuit, according to court documents obtained by PEOPLE.

Tyler’s response to Misley’s lawsuit includes 24 affirmative defenses, all of which dismiss her allegations against him. One alleges that Misley “suffered no injury or damage as a result of any action by the defendant.” Furthermore, “if it is determined that the plaintiff was harmed, then such harm was not caused by the defendant.”

Is it just me, or is it weird that so many people are alright that a 25-year-old Steven Tyler became the legal guardian of a 16-year-old kid so he could take her on tour to have sex with him? Why isn’t it cancelled? pic.twitter.com/c6zkXqRUmi

– @amuse (@amuse) April 6, 2023

Misley, who was sexually involved with Tyler in the 1970s when she was a teenager, filed the lawsuit against Tyler three months ago alleging sexual assault, sexual violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

She managed to file the lawsuit days before the Dec. 31 deadline for California’s Child Victims Act, which lifted the statute of limitations on reporting child sex abuse crimes.

Tyler previously revealed that he had convinced the girl’s mother to grant him guardianship

PEOPLE reportedly received a copy of the complaint. While the document does not identify Tyler by name, the allegations are consistent with comments the musician published in his 2011 memoir. Does the noise in my head bother you?

In the memoir, Tyler discusses his relationship with an unnamed 16-year-old girl. Misley later named Tyler directly in a statement released after the complaint was filed.

Misley “directly quotes” Tyler’s memoir in the complaint and claims he convinced her mother to give him guardianship of her back when she was just 16.

Steven Tyler, 1976. Photo by Fin Costello. pic.twitter.com/hNFwBlnPpZ

— Classic Rock In Pics (@crockpics) April 6, 2023

This allowed Tyler to develop a sexual relationship with her, something she was “powerless to resist” given Tyler’s “power, fame, and considerable financial opportunity.”

Tyler characterized the situation differently, claiming in his memoir that he “almost took a teenage bride” because “her parents fell in love with me, signed a custody paper for me so I wouldn’t be arrested if I didn’t take her.” in the country. I took her on tour.”

The alleged victim’s attorney says Tyler Misley, who became pregnant with his child in 1975, “gaslights.”

Misley became pregnant in 1975 and claimed Tyler talked her into having an abortion. After the procedure, she eventually left Tyler and returned home to Portland. Misley went on to marry and became a devout Catholic.

Misley’s attorney, Jeff Anderson, called Tyler’s response “gaslighting” and said the rock star “used feigned legal guardianship to avoid prosecution for sex crimes.”

A rep for Tyler did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

Mattress Bathtub & Past is going through chapter and looking for a reverse inventory cut up

A customer exits a Bed, Bath and Beyond store in Oakland, California on August 31, 2022.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

bed bath beyond wants shareholders to approve a reverse stock split at an upcoming special meeting as the retailer continues to work to avoid filing for bankruptcy, according to a securities filing late Wednesday.

The retailer’s board of directors is asking shareholders to approve the reverse stock split at the May 9 meeting so that enough shares are available to raise up to $300 million in equity from a stock offering announced last week.

Bed Bath’s fundraising efforts have been hampered by the plummeting share price, which has posted a steep decline to trade below $1 for the past few weeks. Bed Bath’s shares were trading around 30 cents Thursday morning, giving the company a market value of about $132 million.

The company is concerned that if the plan doesn’t go through, it likely won’t have enough equity to pay off its debt and keep its doors open, the company said in the filing.

“The company may not be able to avoid bankruptcy if the reverse split proposal does not receive shareholder approval. We need to raise equity to have the necessary cash to fund operations and service obligations under our loan agreement,” the filing reads.

The struggling retailer said the reverse stock split would be at a ratio of 1-for-10 to 1-for-20, to be determined by the board. If approved, the split would significantly reduce the number of outstanding common shares available, allowing the Company to issue enough shares to satisfy the terms of the offering.

The reverse split could also increase Bed Bath’s price per share, which the company believes could improve perceptions of its stock and attract more investors.

“We believe that a higher stock price could make our common stock more attractive to a broader range of investors, as we believe the current market price of our common stock could affect their acceptance by certain professional investors and other members of the investing public,” the filing says.

“Specifically, we believe that an increased share price would allow us to attract additional institutional investors and mutual funds that may not consider purchasing our common stock due to our low trading price.”

But even if the reverse split temporarily boosts Bed Bath’s stock price, the stock offering will ultimately dilute it, which happened after the company announced another stock offering in February.

The housewares retailer has been warning of bankruptcy since January after a series of dismal quarters drained the company’s cash and kept it alive.

On Wednesday, the company announced a $120 million lifeline being provided by bankruptcy trustee Hilco Global so it can get inventory back on its shelves in a last-ditch effort to boost sales.

– CNBC’s Jesse Pound contributed to this report.

Kevin McCarthy meets with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen amid Chinese language threats

US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (R) speaks with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen as he arrives at…

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and a bipartisan congressional delegation met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in California’s Simi Valley on Wednesday to escalate simmering tensions between the US and China.

The Speaker of the Republican House of Representatives called Tsai “a great friend of America” ​​and said they would “find ways for the people of America and Taiwan to work together to advance economic freedom, democracy, peace and stability in Asia.”

Neither McCarthy nor Tsai mentioned China by name on a joint appearance, but the looming threat from Beijing was never far away.

“Today is the peace we have maintained and the democracy we have worked hard to face unprecedented challenges,” Tsai said.

She thanked members of Congress for “enhancing Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities,” a reference to the billions of dollars in annual US arms sales to Taiwan that Congress authorizes.

U.S. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R) and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen address the press after a bipartisan meeting at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California April 5, 2023.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

McCarthy later spoke at a one-on-one press conference, saying the United States should speed up its arms shipments to Taiwan.

He compared the island territory to Ukraine, which has been defending itself against a brutal Russian invasion for the past year. If the United States had shipped more arms to Ukraine over the past decade, McCarthy said, that might have changed Moscow’s calculus.

Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy followed private sessions she held with small groups of US lawmakers last week. On Friday, she met with three members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in New York City: Sens. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

Also on Friday, Tsai met with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries in his home state of New York.

In contrast to these low-key meetings, however, McCarthy’s scheduled afternoon events with Tsai included a group of House members and several joint appearances, which were reported by the international media.

Even portions of Wednesday’s meetings billed as private became public when McCarthy tweeted a photo of him and Tsai speaking one-on-one.

The meeting enraged Chinese Communist Party leaders and sparked veiled threats from Beijing towards congressmen attending the events. China’s government said it plans to take “decisive action” to respond to the “provocation.”

In Los Angeles, the Chinese consulate Monday warned McCarthy not to “repeat past catastrophic mistakes and further damage Sino-US relations.” The Consulate was referring to a visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. to Taiwan last August.

That visit sparked furious condemnation from Beijing, which launched Chinese military exercises involving live fire in the Taiwan Strait just hours after Pelosi left the self-governing island.

In a statement Wednesday, Pelosi said the McCarthy-Tsai meeting was “commendable for its leadership, bipartisan participation, and prestigious and historic venue.”

China regards Taiwan as a province of mainland China and regards any attempt by the Taiwanese leadership to act independently of Beijing as a threat to Chinese sovereignty.

Tsai’s week-long trip to the United States is actually unofficial and is described as a “transit” rather than a visit. But in reality, Tsai’s busy schedule of high-level meetings with US lawmakers would rival any official visit by a world leader.

The trip added new tension to already fragile US-China relations, which have been weakened in recent years by Beijing’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea and its aggressive efforts to control Taiwan.

Taiwanese supporters hold signs during a rally in front of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, where Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will spend the night before her meeting with Kevin McCarthy April 4, 2023 in Los Angeles.

Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

In February, a Chinese reconnaissance balloon flying over the US sparked public outcry until it was shot down by American fighter jets off the east coast.

The following month, a US ban on government devices using the social media app TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, drew a furious rebuke from Beijing.

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FTC Grail Order Illumina invocation is ‘an virtually unattainable battle’

Carl Icahn, Chairman of Icahn Enterprises Holdings

Scott Eelis | Bloomberg | Getty Images

That’s what Carl Icahn said on Wednesday EnlightenmentEfforts by to appeal a Federal Trade Commission order to divest the highly controversial Grail acquisition “is a nearly impossible battle.”

Illumina told CNBC Monday that it intends to appeal the FTC’s order in federal court and seek an expedited decision. This objection will come with “high costs” for the DNA sequencing company, the activist investor argued in his recent open letter to shareholders.

“Our biggest concern as a major shareholder is that this multi-year struggle will consume copious amounts of cash and drag on for years, luxury Illumina doesn’t have,” wrote Icahn, who owns a 1.4% stake in Illumina.

The company’s market value has already fallen to about $36 billion from about $75 billion in August 2021, the month it completed its acquisition of cancer test developer Grail.

Icahn launched a proxy battle over the Grail deal last month, seeking seats on Illumina’s board of directors and urging the company to reverse the deal. He shares common ground with the FTC, which argued in its order that the $7.1 billion deal would stifle competition and innovation.

The FTC’s order overturns an administrative judge’s September ruling that dismissed the commission’s initial challenge to the Grail deal.

In his letter, Icahn highlighted Illumina’s “long history” of filing regulatory challenges for the acquisition.

The company appealed a similar order from EU regulators last year to scrap the Grail deal. The EU’s executive body, the European Commission, blocked the acquisition of Illumina in September over concerns it would hurt consumer choice and innovation.

San Diego-based Illumina expects a decision on its appeal against the European Commission and FTC orders in late 2023 or early 2024.

The company said in a statement to CNBC on Wednesday that it had “strong grounds for appeal” against the FTC’s order. It pointed to how it had prevailed over the Commission last year.

Illumina also pushed back the last order.

“The FTC’s decision breaks precedent and goes against the overwhelming evidence that Illumina and GRAIL reunification will promote competition and save lives,” Illumina told CNBC.

Illumina shares ended relatively unchanged on Wednesday afternoon.

More beatings on the Illumina CEO

Icahn fired more shots at Illumina CEO Francis deSouza on Wednesday after criticizing the executive — and his raise — last week.

The investor claimed deSouza “allowed our potentially great company to deteriorate.

“His shareholder-funded GRAIL adventure is a desperate ‘Hail Mary’ power grab to try and reverse Illumina’s demise,” Icahn wrote.

He added that the Grail deal is deSouza’s “second major M&A failure” since he took over as CEO in 2016. In 2020, Illumina canceled a $1.2 billion merger with Pacific Biosciences of California after the FTC challenged the acquisition.

Icahn reiterated his call for Illumina to replace deSouza with the company’s former CEO, Jay Flatley, or “someone else at his level.”

Last week, Icahn said the company needs “someone who knows what they’re doing to fix the situation.”

BDSY’s Daisy Talks Colin Hookup & Gary’s “Annoying” Response

That romance below deck on a sailing yacht definitely rocks the boat.

Daisy Kelher reveals the story behind her season four boatmanance with a longtime friend and colleague Colin McRae. As the Bravo series’ dramatic trailer teased, the Chief Stew enjoys more than a steamy smooch with Parsifal III’s chief engineer – and her former love interest, First Mate Gary KingShe’s not very happy about that.

“I think there was always a little bit like that, but he always had a girlfriend,” Daisy told E! News from Colin, who adds their chemistry “happened naturally” this season.

But Daisy had no plans to pursue her crewmate this season.

“Obviously Colin is a handsome guy,” the reality star continued, “but for me it’s always been a friendship and when you’ve been friends with someone for that long and they have a partner, you kind of put them in the friend zone.” So I didn’t exactly anticipate it, but I kinda make out with people I’m friends with. I find people’s personalities attractive. So if I’m friends with you, I probably find your demeanor attractive in some way.”