Tag: #Asia

Just The News: Trump administration formally bans gain-of-function research.

By Misty Severi
Published: July 28, 2026 10:00pm
Updated: July 28, 2026 10:16pm

The State and Health and Human Services departments claim that although biomedical research has produced lifesaving vaccines and medical breakthroughs, it must never come at the expense of public safety or national security.

he Trump administration announced Tuesday it has officially banned gain-of-function research, claiming it has the potential to threaten lives and undermine national security if not properly restricted and controlled.

The State and Health and Human Services departments claim that although biomedical research has produced lifesaving vaccines and medical breakthroughs, it must never come at the expense of public safety or national security.

The policy change comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order last year that banned federal funding for gain-of-function research in countries like China, which is believed to be at the heart of the COVID-19 lab leak in Wuhan.

The two departments said in a joint statement that an “America First approach to scientific research means ensuring that taxpayer dollars are never used to support dangerous gain-of-function research … in the United States or abroad.”

The new policy also prohibits federal support for gain-of-function research, strengthens oversight of other high-risk life sciences research, and restricts funding for research conducted in countries that lack appropriate safety, security, and oversight standards.

“Scientific leadership requires both innovation and responsibility,” the departments said. “The United States will continue to support biomedical research that develops vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other lifesaving medical countermeasures while ensuring that the highest-risk research is subject to rigorous safeguards.

“We encourage our international partners to join us in ending dangerous gain-of-function research and adopting strong biosafety and biosecurity standards that make the world safer, more secure, and better prepared for future biological threats,” they added.

The policy was developed by top officials including Undersecretary of State Tom DiNanno and NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya.
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News Max: Sen. Ron Johnson Expects Little From Fauci Testimony.

Sen. Ron Johnson said he expects little cooperation from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director, when he testifies before the Senate this week, as Republicans prepare to question the longtime public health official about the federal government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Hill reported Sunday.

The Wisconsin Republican told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that “I don’t expect to get much out of him” during Fauci’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Johnson added, “I think [Fauci would] be very forgetful, completely unrepentant, arrogant — I mean, arrogant to the extreme.”

The senator said he intends to use Wednesday’s hearing to highlight what he views as failure in the government’s handling of the pandemic, stressing that “I’m going to try and lay out all the things that he did that were such a miserably failed response to COVID.”

The hearing comes after committee Chairman Rand Paul subpoenaed Fauci to testify as part of the panel’s investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the government’s involvement in research conducted in China.

The Kentucky Republican has alleged that federal officials concealed information about U.S.-funded viral research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where he and other Republicans argue the virus that caused the pandemic may have originated.

U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided over COVID-19’s origins, and no definitive conclusion has been reached about whether the virus emerged from a laboratory incident or through natural animal-to-human transmission.

Paul has repeatedly accused Fauci of misleading Congress regarding research funding and has argued the former NIAID director should face criminal charges.

During a 2021 Senate hearing, Fauci denied that the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded gain-of-function research involving the virus that causes COVID-19 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

In previous interviews, Paul has said he expects Fauci to be untruthful during his upcoming testimony.

“I don’t expect him to be honest; he hasn’t been honest in the last six years,” Paul said recently.

Paul also said negotiations with Fauci over documents and testimony had dragged on for months before the committee issued a subpoena.

“We’ve been negotiating with him for material and for testimony,” Paul told CNBC last month. “This has gone on for some time. He slow-walked us and slow-walked us. Finally agreed to come in voluntarily … then last week he says he’s not coming in. With this subpoena power, we will bring him in, unless he fights this in court.”

Fauci, who retired from government service in 2022 after advising seven presidents dating back to the Reagan administration, received a preemptive pardon from former President Joe Biden before Biden left office amid concerns that the Trump administration could pursue legal action against him.

Wednesday’s hearing is expected to renew congressional scrutiny of the government’s pandemic response, including funding decisions, public health guidance, and investigations into the origins of COVID-19.

EU foreign ministers to discuss Ukraine aid, measures against Moscow on Sunday

Feb 26 (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers will come together for a virtual meeting on Sunday to adopt further measures in support of Ukraine and against “aggression by Russia”, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said late on Saturday.

“I will propose a package of emergency assistance for the Ukrainian armed forces, to support them in their heroic fight,” he said on Twitter, adding that the meeting would start on Sunday at 1800 CET (1700 GMT).

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Endangered rhino born in Czech zoo, named Kyiv March 16, 2022

A newly born critically endangered eastern black rhino stands in its enclosure next to its mother Eva at the zoo in Dvur Kralove, Czech Republic, Wednesday, March 16, 2022. The male rhino calf was born on March 4, 2022 and was named Kyiv. According to the zoo’s director Premysl Rabas the name was chosen as a sign of support to the Ukrainian heroes fighting the war. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

PRAGUE (AP) — A Czech zoo has welcomed a critically endangered eastern black rhinoceros baby that has taken the name of Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in honor of that country’s resistance to invading Russian forces.

The rhino was born early on March 4 in the Dvur Kralove zoo, a rare occurrence for the facility even if it has the most rhinos belonging to the subspecies.

“The name is another expression of our support for the Ukrainian heroes,“ zoo Director Premysl Rabas said.

Kyiv’s mother Eva has been taking care of him in a best possible way, the zoo said, with the baby gaining 1 kilogram (2.20 pounds) a day. It currently weighs about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) .

Poaching has reduced the number of the eastern black rhinos living in the wild to around 800. The Czech park has 14.

Only three other such rhinos have been born in other zoos around the world in the last year.

A total of 47 eastern black rhinos have been born in Dvur Kralove since the park received the first one in 1971.

Many of them are now in various zoos around the globe but nine have been returned to Rwanda and Tanzania to live in the wild.

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China’s Water Crisis Could Trigger Global Catastrophe

China’s water crisis is nothing new, but it’s gotten worse – and is now on the ‘brink of catastrophe‘ and could trigger a global catastrophe, according to Foreign Affairs.

 

Dried-up riverbed of Jialing river, a Yangtze tributary, China, August 2022
Thomas Peter / Reuters

 

Given the country’s overriding importance to the global economy, potential water-driven disruptions beginning in China would rapidly reverberate through food, energy, and materials markets around the world and create economic and political turbulence for years to come. -Foreign Affairs

For starters, there’s no substitute for water – which is essential for food production, electricity generation and sustaining all life on earth.

In China, which consumes ten billion barrels of water per day (approximately 700x its daily oil consumption), decades of economic and population growth have pushed northern China’s water system to unsustainable levels.

According to the report, the per-capita water supply around the North China Plain at the end of 2020 was nearly 50% below the UN’s definition of acute water scarcity at 253 cubic meters. Other major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, are at similar (or lower) levels. 

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