LSU’s Travez Moore issues warning after coronavirus experience; virus ‘is real’ – The Advocate

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LSU senior linebacker Travez Moore shared his experience with coronavirus on Twitter on Tuesday morning. He is thought to be the first Tigers football player to speak publicly about his experience with the virus during a pandemic that has shut down large parts of the country and altered the direction of every sport.

The 6-foot-4 Bastrop High graduate said he lost significant weight, dropping from 256 pounds to 229. He said he lost his appetite and had difficulty breathing. He lost senses of taste and smell, both of which are symptoms of the virus.

"Bro coronavirus is real," wrote Moore, who recorded three tackles, a half tackle for loss and half a sack in 2019.

Multiple LSU football players tested positive for coronavirus when the team first reported to campus on June 8. The total number of cases began with a group of five to six players, a source said, andSports Illustrated reportedat least 30 of LSU's 115 players were quarantined because they either tested positive or had contact with a player who tested positive.

Orgeron later said that reported numberwas too high and that the team's case numbers are "way down."At last week's Baton Rouge Rotary Club meeting, Orgeron said "I think we have two guys right now," that have tested positive for the virus.

Health and safety concerns have been addressed by such leadership. The Southeastern Conference announced in mid-July that players who opted to sit out the fall season would not lose their scholarships an action recommended by the league's athletic directors and approved unanimously by the league's presidents and chancellors.

Orgeron said at the Rotary Club meeting that no LSU players have chosen to sit out this season because of health concerns.

"None of our players have talked about that," Orgeron said. "I know that they have the option. Our players are eager to play. These guys are elite. These guys want to win championships. They believe in each other. I don't expect much of that to happen."

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LSU's Travez Moore issues warning after coronavirus experience; virus 'is real' - The Advocate

Texas Widow Blames President Trump, Gov. Abbott In Husbands Obituary For Coronavirus Death: Shame On All Of You – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) The widow of a Texas man who died of COVID-19, blamed President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott in her husbands obituary for his needless death.

David Nagys obituary calls out President Trump and Gov. Abbott in his obituary published in the Jefferson Jimplecute on July 30.

Dave did everything he was supposed to do, but you did not, his widow Stacey Nagy wrote. Shame on all of you, and may Karma find you all!

Houston Chronicle web producer Jordan Ray tweeted an image of the newspaper obituary.

David Nagy was 79 and died in the intensive care unit at Christus Good Shepherd Hospital in Longview, Texas on July 22.

He suffered greatly from the ravages of the COVID-19 virus and the separation from his much loved family who were not allowed at his bedside, the obituary said.

He left being his wife, five children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

David Nagys family members blame his death and the deaths of all other innocent people, on Trump, Abbott and all of the other politicians who did not take this pandemic seriously and were more concerned with their popularity and votes than lives, his widow wrote. Also to blame are the many ignorant, self-centered and selfish people who refused to follow the advice of the medical professionals, believing their right not to wear a mask was more important than killing innocent people.

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Texas Widow Blames President Trump, Gov. Abbott In Husbands Obituary For Coronavirus Death: Shame On All Of You - CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Salvaging the Security Council’s coronavirus response – World – ReliefWeb

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On 1 July, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for a global COVID-19 ceasefire, as the Secretary-General had urged months earlier. Their appeal has fallen flat. Council members should use their August downtime to look at how it might still do some good.

Just over a month ago, on 1 July, the UN Security Council passed a resolution addressing COVID-19 that looked hugely ambitious on paper. Echoing an earlier initiative by UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres, Resolution 2532 centres on a call for all parties to armed conflicts to engage immediately in a durable humanitarian pause lasting 90 days in response to the pandemic. This document will earn a footnote in histories of the UN, as it is the first time the Council has advocated such a global ceasefire. But beyond that, it seems unlikely to be widely remembered, as its practical effects have been all but nil. Only one conflict party Colombias National Liberation Army or ELN has explicitly cited the resolution in offering to suspend hostilities and the Colombian government rejected the overture. Elsewhere, governments and armed groups engaged in fighting have shown no sign of heeding the Councils call.

Resolution 2532s lack of impact to date is disappointing in part because, earlier in the pandemic, it briefly looked like the Council could lend momentum to Secretary-General Guterres aspirational but worthy ceasefire effort, and so play a part in the global response to COVID-19. Guterres first floated the ceasefire idea in late March, and he declared that armed groups in almost a dozen countries had responded positively by early in April. Yet rather than seizing the moment to back the initiative, the Council stumbled into three months of fighting about it, while many of the armed groups that welcomed the UN appeal resumed hostilities.

With Council members looking forward to an August lull in business especially after the tedium of months of online meetings it is time for them to take stock of what the Councils halting reaction to the pandemic reveals about the body, and to consider how the Secretary-General and Council members might still salvage something useful from Resolution 2532.

A Trivial Process

The Councils disarray over the novel coronavirus has certainly been a setback for its aspirations to address non-traditional security threats, as UN officials term a grab bag of challenges including pandemics, climate change and organised crime.

The Council has engaged to some degree with these challenges in the post-Cold War era, first taking up health in the context of HIV/AIDS in 2000 and then climate change starting in 2007. With a handful of exceptions, its work in these areas has been fairly tentative, and some current members of the body would like to see it take a more active role. Belgium and Germany have, for example, prioritised climate change, while Estonia has made cybersecurity its flagship issue. But these members face considerable pushback from China and Russia, which insist that the Council should concentrate on more traditional peace and security issues, and the present U.S. administration, which has a particular dislike for talk of climate change. In July, Germany decided to drop proposals for a resolution focusing on climate security authorising a UN envoy to tackle the subject after the U.S. promised to veto it.

Of these non-traditional threats, pandemic response has often seemed to be the most promising area, aside from organised crime, for Security Council action. In 2014, otherwise a difficult year of UN diplomacy over Syria and Ukraine, the Council united around a resolution endorsing international efforts to stamp out Ebola in West Africa. Through 2019 and 2020, the Council monitored a further Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo where UN peacekeepers worked with health experts to get aid into volatile regions. Prior to COVID-19, Germany clairvoyantly signalled that it wanted to use its Council term to spur discussion of pandemics, a personal priority for Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as climate change.

Yet COVID-19 demonstrated at least two significant weaknesses concerning its policy tools and major power politics in the Councils capacity to deal with global health crises.

First, as a practical matter, the Councils toolkit is still limited. As the pandemic spread, it was not entirely evident what the Security Council could concretely do about it, beyond expressing concern. In 2014, the Councils tools for dealing with Ebola in West Africa were pretty clear. The UN had peacekeepers in Liberia who could assist with logistics and other aspects of the medical response, as well as a significant humanitarian and development presence in the other two countries affected by the disease, Guinea and Sierra Leone. By throwing its weight behind use of these UN assets to counter the disease, and encouraging member states to pledge additional resources to the effort, the Council added urgency to the global response to Ebola, while the U.S. largely coordinated the successful effort to contain the outbreak. (It helped that the U.S. and China worked collaboratively to fight the disease, rather than lobbing political grenades at each other as they have in the COVID-19 era.)

By contrast, COVID-19 presents a threat of a different scale and nature. As of March, there were reported cases on every inhabited continent. In most places where it struck early, like Iran and Italy, there was little if any UN humanitarian or security presence, reducing the Security Councils ability to forge a response. Had a major power launched a global effort to marshal resources to meet the crisis, as the U.S. did with Ebola in 2014, the Council might have lent its political heft to supporting that. But that did not happen: Washington sat on the sidelines and its biggest competitor, Beijing, did not step into its shoes.

Lacking many of the options that had been available to the UN in the Ebola crisis, the Council members spent early April tussling over the scope of any potential resolution. All agreed that the Council should endorse efforts by UN peace operations to help tackle the disease in their areas of deployment a task that the blue helmets undertook even without Council urging, while trying to avoid spreading the disease themselves. But while Tunisia, which led discussions among the ten elected Council (E10) members, initially envisaged a broad resolution with passages calling for international cooperation on public health issues, including training medics and developing a COVID-19 vaccine, the majority of diplomats felt that the Council should not (in the words of one European official) bite off more than it can chew by commenting on non-security-related matters.

It was against this backdrop that both the E10 and the five permanent (P5) Council members, led by France, began to focus on Guterres call for a global ceasefire as a well-defined flagship topic that both served the purposes of pandemic response and clearly fell within the bodys remit of preserving international peace and security. Although some of the P5, including Russia, the UK and the U.S., made it clear that they would not sign onto any text curtailing their conduct of counter-terrorism operations (and indeed Resolution 2532 contains caveats allowing them to fight on), nobody was fundamentally opposed to the ceasefire idea.

The second Council weakness that the episode highlighted is that, even when confronting a true global threat like the virus, policy is often beholden to politics. While everyone could get behind a global ceasefire in theory, it was not anyone's overwhelming priority, and China and the U.S. in particular had bigger point-scoring goals to pursue. The U.S. saw the resolution as a chance to try to assign China responsibility for the disease (at first demanding that any Security Council text refer to Wuhan virus) while refusing to accept even a passing reference to the World Health Organization (WHO) after President Donald Trump suspended funding to that body in April. Chinas immediate priority was to block any implicit or explicit criticism of its handling of the disease, but it also saw an opportunity to embarrass the U.S. for abandoning the WHO and cast Washington as a spoiler on the Council. While Chinese and U.S. officials in New York were ready to compromise on an indirect reference to the WHO in May, Washington nixed this deal, killing off further Council discussions of COVID-19 until late June.

The basic reason that the Security Council underperformed in the face of COVID-19 was, therefore, exactly the reason the Council underperforms on many issues: big power tensions. This fact hardly went unnoticed in New York. Some Council members favoured calling a vote on the COVID-19 resolution in early May, to see if either Beijing or Washington would really veto it. France, which had led P5 discussions of the process, demurred, along with Tunisia. One diplomat observed that the whole process was trivial, as both China and the U.S. placed throwing political punches above securing a resolution, while other Council members did not feel strongly enough about the idea to challenge them.

While France and Tunisia eventually found a formula for referring to the WHO that everyone could accept, the whole episode was discouraging for those who would like to see the Council do more to address non-traditional threats. It left the sense that the Council presently has neither a solid policy framework for dealing with pandemics on the scale of COVID-19 or their security implications nor the collective political will necessary to tackle such challenges.

What Now?

With Resolution 2532 wrapped up, the Council has turned to other matters, although none is a cause for celebration. July saw Russia succeed in pressing to reduce the number of crossing points for humanitarian assistance into rebel-held areas of Syria to just one; by 2021, the number is likely to be zero. The main topic of conversation around the Council these days is the possibility that the U.S. will force a major crisis among the P5 in the coming months by demanding the renewal of sanctions on Iran. New York-based diplomats are aware of the pandemics ongoing challenges, of course. They have heard sobering reports from UN officials on the diseases potential to spark food crises, which could in turn lead to violence. But there is little sign that Council members will use Resolution 2532 as a starting point for initiatives to address particular conflicts or even engage the UN Secretariat on how to follow up.

Can any good still come out of the Secretary-Generals call or out of Resolution 2532? Back in April, when it still seemed possible that the Council could move quickly to a resolution, Crisis Group argued that it could have two main benefits. The first, as noted above, was simply to send a positive political signal about the main UN powers unity in the face of the pandemic. This nod, we argued, might also encourage those conflict parties that signed onto the Secretary-Generals ceasefire idea early to maintain their cessations of hostilities. Whether or not the gambit would have worked and there are, of course, strong reasons to doubt that it would have the Council missed that chance.

But we also suggested in April that a Council resolution could have a second, more procedural, benefit, noting that it could create a formal framework for Guterres to monitor and update the Council on ceasefire implementation. The idea was not so much that the Council would use its enforcement powers such as sanctions to compel states or guerrillas to honour COVID-19 ceasefires. It could, however, offer the Secretary-General a platform to report on where conflict parties were taking real steps to contain the virus and where others were failing to do so.

This idea may still be salvageable: Resolution 2532 does offer Guterres a platform, requesting that he provide updates to the Security Council on the UN efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic in countries in situations of armed conflict or affected by humanitarian crises. This matter is partly technical: the Secretary-General will need to keep the Council up to date on how peacekeeping operations, political missions and other actors are adapting to the virus. But with a bit of creativity, he can also interpret this mandate as permitting him to talk far more generally with Council members about how the pandemic is affecting the international security landscape. After all, it is clear that the coronavirus is not merely a pathogen causing a health crisis but also is a catalyst for economic shocks that can (as we have already seen in Lebanon) lead to political crises and disorder. It is not clear how the disease will play out region by region and so far it has not been quite as destructive in some weak countries as seemed likely in March but it would be a brave ambassador at the UN who would bet that the health, economic and social fallout from COVID-19 will not lead to more political instability.

Secretary-General Guterres should take an expansive view of his mandate to report on COVID-19 to the Council offering Council members early warnings of potential virus-related crises and conflicts based on UN economic and humanitarian analysis as well political reporting. If the Secretary-General feels uncomfortable about calling out specific states in writing, he can also offer these warnings orally in closed meetings.

To date, the Council has proved ill prepared to respond to a global challenge on the scale of COVID-19. Secretary-General Guterres cannot resolve the rifts among the P5 that severely hamper the Council. But he can at least use Resolution 2532 as the basis to warn Council members of the pandemics evolving security implications, in the hope that they will respond a little better to the risks it creates than they have so far.

Contributors

Richard GowanUN Director

Ashish PradhanSenior Analyst, UN Advocacy and Research

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Salvaging the Security Council's coronavirus response - World - ReliefWeb

Stocks in the news: YES Bank, DMart, Infosys, BHEL, Tata Motors and Apollo Hospitals – Economic Times

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Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange traded 42points, or 0.38 per cent higher at 10,953.50, in signs that Dalal Street was headed for a positive start on Tuesday. Here are a few stocks which may buzz the most in today's trade:

YES Bank: Moody's Investors Service has upgraded YES Bank's long-term foreign-currency issuer rating to B3 from Caa1 after the banks equity capital raise of Rs 15,000 crore. The outlook on the private lenders ratings has been changed to stable from positive.

Avenue Supermarts: The company, which runs the DMart retail chain, saw its online sales more than double during FY20 to Rs 354 crore despite operating only in Mumbai. The country's most valuable retailer by market capitalisation, however, widened its net loss by 36 per cent to Rs80 crore in the four-year old e-commerce subsidiary - Avenue E-Commerce.

Infosys: The National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) has chosen Infosys Finacle to digitally transform its transaction banking business, the IT company said on Monday.

Tata Motors: Tata Motors Chairman N Chandrasekaran said to the company's shareholders that the automaker was charting out a disciplined growth path by focussing on generating positive cashflows, reducing inefficiencies and investing in future product development.

BHEL: State-run engineering major BHEL said it is still grappling with uncertainties with regard to resumption of normal business operations as rising COVID-19 infection cases have led to labour shortage and supply chain disruptions.

Apollo Hospitals: Munchener Ruckversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft In Munchen sold its entire 1.72 per cent stake or 2,397,380 shares in Apollo Hospitals at Rs 1,600.43 per share.

Gujarat Gas, PI Industries: Dixon Technologies, Godrej Consumer Products, Gujarat Gas, Marksans Pharma, Hikal, Neuland Laboratories, Tata Consumer Products, PI Industries: These companies are scheduled to announce their June quarter earnings on Tuesday.

JSW Energy: Sajjan Jindal led-JSW Energy, one of the only private power utilities in India which was looking to expand its thermal power capacity through acquisitions has pulled the plug on the plan and aims to focus on renewable energy only, after calling off the deal to buy an asset from GMR.

Bank of India: State-owned Bank of India is planning to raise Rs 7000-8000 crore in combination of equity and bonds to boost capital even as it steps up recovery to improve earnings.

Kirloskar Electric: Kirloskar Electric Company on Monday said uncertainty in its operations on account of COVID-19 pandemic continues due to lockdown in various places.

GMR Infrastructure: The infra firm is working on disinvestment of non-core assets including land and hopes to yield "significant value" even from 50 per cent of land monetization, PTI reported.

Century Plyboards: The company announced the use of nano technology in manufacturing of its plywood and laminate products. The highly activated and energized nanoparticles physically rupture and kill viruses coming in contact with it.

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Stocks in the news: YES Bank, DMart, Infosys, BHEL, Tata Motors and Apollo Hospitals - Economic Times

Stoke Therapeutics to Present at Upcoming Investor Conferences in August – Business Wire

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BEDFORD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Stoke Therapeutics, Inc., (Nasdaq: STOK), a biotechnology company pioneering a new way to treat the underlying cause of genetic diseases by precisely upregulating protein expression, today announced that members of management will present at three upcoming investor conferences in August:

2020 Wedbush PacGrow Healthcare Virtual ConferenceDate: Tuesday, August 11, 2020Time: 11:30 a.m. ET

BTIG Virtual Biotechnology ConferenceDate: Tuesday, August 11, 2020Time: 2:00 p.m. ET

Canaccord Genuity 40th Annual Growth ConferenceDate: Wednesday, August 12, 2020Time: 2:30 p.m. ET

A live audio webcast of each presentation will be available on the Investors & Media section of Stokes website at https://investor.stoketherapeutics.com/. A replay of the webcasts will be available for 30 days following the presentations.

About Stoke Therapeutics

Stoke Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: STOK), is a biotechnology company pioneering a new way to treat the underlying causes of severe genetic diseases by precisely upregulating protein expression to restore target proteins to near normal levels. Stoke aims to develop the first precision medicine platform to target the underlying cause of a broad spectrum of genetic diseases in which the patient has one healthy copy of a gene and one mutated copy that fails to produce a protein essential to health. These diseases, in which loss of approximately 50% of normal protein expression causes disease, are called autosomal dominant haploinsufficiencies. The companys lead investigational new medicine is STK-001, a proprietary antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that has the potential to be the first disease-modifying therapy to address the genetic cause of Dravet syndrome, a severe and progressive genetic epilepsy. Stoke is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts with offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://www.stoketherapeutics.com/ or follow the company on Twitter at @StokeTx.

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Stoke Therapeutics to Present at Upcoming Investor Conferences in August - Business Wire

The global cell and gene therapy market by revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 30.90% during the period 20192025 – GlobeNewswire

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New York, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Cell & Gene Therapy Market - Global Outlook and Forecast 2020-2025" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05827567/?utm_source=GNW 90% during the period 20192025.

The global cell and gene therapy market is one of the fastest-growing segments in the regenerative medicine market. The market is expected to grow at a faster pace during the forecast period. The demand can be attributed to the growing prevalence of several chronic diseases such as cancer, cartilage related problems, wounds, diabetic foot ulcer, genetic disorders, and other rare diseases across the globe. The prevalence of cancer and diabetes is increasing in the global population, which is influencing the growth of the market. There is a large unmet need in the treatment available, which is filled by cell and gene therapies. The market is growing due to the increased availability of funding from various public and private institutions. Besides, there is increased support from regulatory bodies for product approval. Several governments are creating awareness of cell and gene therapies in the population.

The following factors are likely to contribute to the growth of the cell and gene therapy market during the forecast period: Increase in Strategic Acquisition Activities Increased Funding for Cell & Gene Therapy Products Expanding Applications of Cell and Gene Therapies Increased in the Patient Pool

The study considers the present scenario of the cell and gene therapy market and its market dynamics for the period 2019?2025. It covers a detailed overview of several market growth enablers, restraints, and trends. The report offers both the demand and supply aspects of the market. It profiles and examines leading companies and other prominent ones operating in the market. Cell And Gene Therapy Market Segmentation The global cell and gene therapy market research report includes a detailed segmentation by product, disease, end-user, and geography. In 2019, the cell therapy segment accounted for a market share of over 53% in the global cell and gene therapy market. The segment is expected to grow at a steady rate during the forecast period due to the increase in the target population and the rise in the number of countries preferring cell therapies in their patients. Increased therapeutic benefits are attracting several countries to invest in this technology and conduct a high number of clinical trials. However, the lack of advanced infrastructure in developing countries is hindering the growth of the segment.

In 2019, the oncology segment accounted for a share of over 40% in the global cell and gene therapy market. Oncology has been one of the targets of intense research for the gene therapy procedures & approach. More than 60% of on-going gene therapy clinical trials are targeting cancer. The segment is expected to grow at a promising rate on account of the high prevalence of cancer diseases, especially in low and middle-come countries. The market is growing at a double-digit CAGR, which is expected to help the segment as many cell and gene therapy for cancer are commercially available.

The dermatology application segment in the cell and gene therapy includes wound care management among patients. Vendors are focusing on the development and commercialization of advanced wound care products for the treatment of chronic and acute wounds, thereby increasing the growth of the wound care market. The increased pervasiveness of diabetics is increasing acute and chronic wounds, including surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and other wounds.

In 2019, the oncology segment accounted for a share of over 40% in the global cell and gene therapy market. Oncology has been one of the targets of intense research for the gene therapy procedures & approach. More than 60% of on-going gene therapy clinical trials are targeting cancer. The segment is expected to grow at a promising rate on account of the high prevalence of cancer diseases, especially in low and middle-come countries. The market is growing at a double-digit CAGR, which is expected to help the segment as many cell and gene therapy for cancer are commercially available.

The dermatology application segment in the cell and gene therapy includes wound care management among patients. Vendors are focusing on the development and commercialization of advanced wound care products for the treatment of chronic and acute wounds, thereby increasing the growth of the wound care market. The increased pervasiveness of diabetics is increasing acute and chronic wounds, including surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, diabetic foot ulcers, and other wounds.

Segmentation by Product Cell Therapy Gene Therapy Segmentation by Disease Dermatology Musculoskeletal Oncology Genetic Disorders Others Segmentation by End-user Hospitality Cancer Care Centers Wound Care Centers Ambulatory Surgical Centers Others

INSIGHTS BY GEOGRAPHY In 2019, North America accounted for a share of over 60% of the global cell and gene therapy market. There are more than 530 regenerative medicine companies, including cell and gene therapy manufacturing developers. The number of products approved in North America grew significantly in 2019, with developers filed for marketing authorization for 10+ regenerative medicines, many of which we expect to be approved in 2020. Within the next 12 years, the number of approved gene therapies is expected to double. The US and Canada are the major contributors to the cell and gene therapy market in North America. Regulatory bodies are supporting several investigational products, fast track approvals, RMAT designation for the faster approval of the product into the market. The alliance for regenerative medicine and Medicare and Medicaid is working together to bring the structured reimbursement channels for cell and gene therapies.

Segmentation by Geography North America o US o Canada Europe o UK o Germany o France o Spain o Italy APAC o China o Japan o South Korea o Australia o India Latin America o Brazil o Mexico Middle East & Africa o Saudi Arabia o Turkey o South Africa o UAE

INSIGHTS BY VENDORS The global cell and gene therapy market is highly dynamic and characterized by the presence of several global, regional, and local vendors offering a wide range of therapies. Dendreon, Gilead Sciences, Novartis, Organogenesis, Osiris Therapeutics, Vericel, Amgen, and Spark Therapeutics are the leading players in the market with significant shares. Vendors such as NuVasive, APAC Biotech, Nipro, Orthocell, bluebird bio, J-TEC, and Terumo are the other prominent players in the market with a presence, especially in the cell therapy market. Most leading players are focusing on implementing strategies such as product launches and approvals, marketing and promotional activities, acquisitions, increased R&D investments, and strengthening their distribution networks to enhance their share and presence in the market.

Prominent Vendors Gilead Sciences Spark Therapeutics Novartis Organogenesis Amgen Osiris Therapeutics Dendreon Vericel

Other Prominent Vendors Anterogen Tego Sciences Japan Tissue Engineering JCR Pharmaceuticals Medipost MolMed AVITA Medical CollPlant Biosolution Stempeutics Research Kolon Tissue Gene Orchard Therapeutics Sibiono GeneTech NuVasive Corestem Pharmicell Shanghai Sunway Biotech RMS Regenerative Medical System Takeda Pharmaceutical Company CHIESI Farmaceutici CO.DON AnGes GC Pharma Human Stem Cells Institute JW CreaGene APAC Biotech Nipro Terumo Orthocell bluebird bio

Key Questions Answered 1. What is the cell and gene therapy market size and growth rate during the forecast period? 2. What are the factors impacting the growth of the cell and gene therapy market share? 3. How is the growth of the healthcare segment affecting the growth of the cell and gene therapy market? 4. Who are the leading vendors in the cell and gene therapy market, and what are their market shares? 5. Which product type/ end-user type/region is generating the largest revenue in the Asia Pacific region?Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05827567/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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The global cell and gene therapy market by revenue is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 30.90% during the period 20192025 - GlobeNewswire

Cochlear implant uses LEDs to tackle hearing loss – Optics.org

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04Aug2020

University of Gttingen device points towards more efficient treatments.

Cochlear implants are an established treatment, using a microphone to detect sound and converting that sound into electrical impulses, split into several channels for different frequency ranges. Electrode contacts, typically 12 to 24 in number, then deliver the electrical impulses to the ganglion neurons of the cochlea.

But these devices can offer poor quality sound encoding, partly due to the large lateral spread of electrical current from each electrode, stimulating too many auditory neurons at the same time. A project at the University of Gttingen has now developed a light-based alternative device, reported in Science Translational Medicine.

"The lateral spread is considered the major bottleneck of electrical implants," said Tobias Moser of the University of Gttingnen. "Despite efforts such as multipolar stimulation and current steering, it seems hard or even impossible to overcome."

Neurons are not typically light sensitive, although the growing field of optogenetics has found elegant ways to induce neurons into expressing light-sensitive proteins through genetic modifications in so-called transgenic animals, and making the neurons react to illumination by laser pulse.

Since light can be better confined in space than electric current, optogenetic techniques could allow cochlea stimulation to be made more efficient. However, light sources for optogenetics have usually been individual GaN-based LEDs and optical fibers coupled to external lasers.

In designing an optical cochlear implant (oCI) for auditory treatment and future clinical translation, the Gttingen project had to develop multichannel devices suitable for this very specific purpose.

The eventual design featured a linear array of 10 LED chips, each 270 by 220 microns and emitting at 457 nanometers, integrated onto microfabricated 15-micron-thick polyimide-based carriers with interconnecting lines to address individual LEDs.

Hearing restored

"The linear array of 10 LEDs at the oCI tip was designed with a pitch of 500 or 350 microns," noted the project in its published paper. "In addition, an array with four LEDs containing a temperature sensor integrated beneath the first LED chip enables a precise resistance measurement, and thus allows monitoring of potential temperature increase inside the implant."

Having optimized the design for rodent ears, the project inserted the device into transgenic rats and characterized the oCI's stimulation of the animals' auditory nerves. Comparing the spatial spread of excitation from the LEDs of the oCI to that from electrodes of a conventional electrical implant by monitoring the animal's midbrain allowed the frequency selectivity of the oCI device to be characterized.

In behavioral experiments, the team began with rats with normal hearing and trained them to perform a behavior driven by sound. After deafening the rats, the team implanted the oCI device and found that the animals could still perform the acoustically trained behavior with the aid of the multichannel implant.

According to the project, results showed that use of gene therapy and the optical implant in conjunction led to an improved frequency selectivity compared with the electrical alternative, and future enhancements to both the size of LEDs and the spread of light from each emitter could enhance this parameter further.

Although further work will be needed before clinical trails using the device can start, including more detailed studies of behavioral analysis connected with the technique, the team has founded a spin-out company, OptoGenTech, to potentially assist translation of the gene therapy and oCI combination into a human clinical trial and, eventually, bring it to market.

"This is the first demonstration and characterization of preclinical hearing restoration by a complete multichannel oCI system based on LEDs," commented Moser.

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Cochlear implant uses LEDs to tackle hearing loss - Optics.org

Mesothelioma Compensation Center Urges the Family of a Power Plant Worker with Recently Diagnosed Mesothelioma to Call Attorney Erik Karst of Karst…

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HOUSTON, July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mesothelioma Compensation Center says, "We are appealing to the family of a power plant worker nationwide who has just been diagnosed with mesothelioma to please call 800-714-0303 for direct access to attorney Erik Karst of the law firm of Karst von Oiste. Erik Karst and his colleagues at Karst von Oiste have been assisting power plant workers for decades and they are responsible for over a billion dollars in financial compensation results for people like this.

"Financial compensation for a power plant worker with this rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure might exceed a million dollars-if the person or family hires an experienced mesothelioma lawyer. Erik Karst is one of the nation's leading mesothelioma attorneys-and he will know how to help you or your loved one."www.karstvonoiste.com

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center is also urging the wife or adult son-daughter of a former power plant worker who had heavy to extreme exposure to asbestos at work to please tell their doctors about his work place exposure to asbestos if he has been hospitalized with pneumonia. Mesothelioma and the Coronavirus have similar symptoms such as pneumonia, high fever, and shortness of breath.

They say, "The average age for a person with mesothelioma in the United States is 72 years old. Mesothelioma could easily be misdiagnosed as the Coronavirus. We do not want a person with mesothelioma to not get compensated in 2020 because they were misdiagnosed with the Coronavirus. If your husband or dad is in the hospital right now with pneumonia and you know for a fact he had significant exposure to asbestos at work-before 1982 please call us at 800-714-0303 so we might try to assist in ensuring a proper diagnosis-if possible."https://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.Com

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center is Extremely Focused on Helping the Following Types of People with Mesothelioma:

For more information about power plants inthe United Statesplease refer to the US Energy Information Agency's website: https://www.eia.gov/ state/maps.php.

The Mesothelioma Compensation Center specializes in assisting specific types of people who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. The Center's top priority is assisting US Navy Veterans, shipyard workers, oil refinery workers, public-utility workers, chemical plant workers, manufacturing workers, power plant workers, plumbers, welders, electricians, millwrights, pipefitters, boiler technicians, machinists, nuclear power plant workers, hydro-electric workers or oil and gas field production workers who have been diagnosed with this rare cancer caused by asbestos exposure. In most instances a diagnosed person with mesothelioma was exposed to asbestos in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, or 1980's.https://MesotheliomaCompensationCenter.Com

According to the CDC the states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon.

However, a power plant or public utility worker with mesothelioma could live in any state including California, New York, Florida, Texas, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, or Alaska.www.karstvonoiste.com/

For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer:https://www.cancer.gov/types/mesothelioma.

Media Contact:Michael Thomas800-714-0303241211@email4pr.com

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SOURCE Mesothelioma Compensation Center

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Mesothelioma Compensation Center Urges the Family of a Power Plant Worker with Recently Diagnosed Mesothelioma to Call Attorney Erik Karst of Karst...

ONCOS-102 and Keytruda: A Pairing That Could Cure Mesothelioma – Mesothelioma Guide

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The mesothelioma study weve been waiting for is finally going to happen.

Targovax, the manufacturer of the complex ONCOS-102, is teaming with the maker of the well-known immunotherapy drug Keytruda for a clinical trial. The phase 2 study is explicitly using ONCOS-102 and Keytruda for people with pleural mesothelioma.

The trial, which will enroll up to 100 patients, tests a combination of Keytruda, ONCOS-102 and standard chemotherapy. Targovax, which is based in Norway, said the study will involve United States locations.

The aim is to start enrolling patients into the trial within 12 months, the companys press release reads.

If youre interested in participating, reach out to our medical staff. Our patient advocate Jenna Campagna can help you apply for this or other clinical trials. There is no fee to reach out and explore your treatment options. Please contact her via email at jenna@mesotheliomaguide.com.

Researchers believe combining ONCOS-102 and Keytruda will make each of them more effective as mesothelioma treatments. Both are used to help the immune system fight mesothelioma. The therapies just go about their aid in different ways.

ONCOS-102 is a combination of virotherapy and immunotherapy. Its an adenovirus that transmits immune-stimulating proteins into the body. The adenovirus breaks up the tumor cells, and the proteins signal for help to the T-cells.

When the tumor cells break apart, they release antigens into the disease environment. These antigens serve as fingerprints, which helps T-cells to locate other tumors.

In a recent mesothelioma study, ONCOS-102 was paired with standard chemotherapy. Researchers compared its effects to just using chemotherapy. ONCOS-102 plus chemotherapy showed across-the-board benefits:

Keytruda, the brand name for the immunotherapy drug pembrolizumab, is an immune checkpoint inhibitor. It blocks cancerous proteins that suppress the immune system. Keytruda stops PD-L1 (cancer protein) from communicating with PD-1 (immune system T-cell protein). Doing so allows the T-cells to attack tumors.

Keytruda recently received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for limited use in treating pleural mesothelioma. The FDA granted permission for cases with a high level of PD-L1 protein expression, as research has shown that Keytruda helps these patients.

The combination of Keytruda and ONCOS-102 makes sense. ONCOS-102s primary goal is to get T-cells into the tumor environment. Keytruda will help those T-cells register mesothelioma cells as dangerous.

Keytruda is the market-leading checkpoint inhibitor and thus our preferred choice of partner, said ystein Soug, the CEO of Targovax. We are hopeful that the combination will lead to improved outcomes for patients with this challenging disease who currently have few treatment alternatives.

Targovax is testing ONCOS-102 with an immunotherapy drug for peritoneal mesothelioma patients as well. The company is hosting a phase 2 clinical trial that combines ONCOS-102 with durvalumab, which is also a PD-L1 inhibitor therapy.

Show Sources & Author

Devin Golden is the content writer for Mesothelioma Guide. He produces mesothelioma-related content on various mediums, including the Mesothelioma Guide website and social media channels. Devin's objective is to translate complex information regarding mesothelioma into informative, easily absorbable content to help patients and their loved ones.

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Alabama US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate Has Endorsed Attorney Erik Karst of Karst von Oiste To Make Certain a Navy Veteran with Mesothelioma in…

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(MENAFN - EIN Presswire)

MONTGOMERY , ALABAMA, USA, August 4, 2020 / EINPresswire.com / -- The Alabama US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate says, "We have endorsed, and we recommend attorney Erik Karst of the law firm of Karst von Oiste if you are a Navy Veteran with recently diagnosed mesothelioma in Alabama or their family. Erik Karst is one of the nation's leading mesothelioma attorneys and he specializes in financial compensation for US Navy Veterans who have this rare form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure. Financial compensation for a Navy Veteran with mesothelioma might exceed a million dollars. If the Navy Veteran spent a career in the navy the compensation might be in the millions. For direct access to attorney Erik Karst of Karst von Oiste please call 800-714-0303 anytime." [To enable links contact MENAFN]

The Advocate is also appealing to the wife, or adult son-daughter of a Navy Veteran with mesothelioma in Alabama to call Erik Karst of Karst von Oiste at 800-714-0303 to assist in building the foundation for the veteran's mesothelioma claim. There are Internet ads that suggest, 'no lawsuits' needed which is a stretch of the truth. In reality-if a Navy Veteran with mesothelioma or their family hires a local car accident attorney the Veteran or their family might get significantly shortchanged-out of hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. Rather than roll the dice on financial compensation for a Navy Veteran with mesothelioma please call 800-714-0303 for direct access to attorney Erik Karst of Karst von Oiste. [To enable links contact MENAFN]

The US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate offers their free services to US Navy Veterans with mesothelioma in Birmingham, Montgomery, Mobile, Huntsville, Tuscaloosa or anywhere in Alabama. [To enable links contact MENAFN]

For the best possible treatment options in Alabama the Alabama US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate strongly recommends the following heath care facility with the offer to help a diagnosed Veteran, or their family get to the right physicians at these hospitals.

The University of Alabama's Comprehensive Cancer Center in Birmingham. [To enable links contact MENAFN] .

About one third of all US citizens diagnosed with mesothelioma each year are Veterans of the US Navy. Before a Navy Veteran with mesothelioma or their family retain the services of a lawyer or law firm, they are urged to call the US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate anytime at 800-714-0303. [To enable links contact MENAFN]

The states with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon.

However, based on the calls the US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma advocate receives a US Navy Veteran diagnosed with mesothelioma could live in any state including New York, Florida, California, Texas, New Hampshire, Vermont, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Idaho, or Alaska. [To enable links contact MENAFN]

For a listing of various classes of US Navy ships or submarines please visit the US Navy website on this topic: [To enable links contact MENAFN] .

For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer: [To enable links contact MENAFN] .

Michael ThomasAlabama US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate+1 800-714-0303email us here

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Alabama US Navy Veterans Mesothelioma Advocate Has Endorsed Attorney Erik Karst of Karst von Oiste To Make Certain a Navy Veteran with Mesothelioma in...

Mesothelioma treatment Market Insight And Key Players With Forecasts Up To 2028 – WOLE TV

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Global Mesothelioma treatment Market presents an in-depth review and technical research, with useful facts and figures, of the current and future state of the mesothelioma treatment market worldwide. mesothelioma treatment market provides information on emerging market opportunities and business factors, developments and evolving technologies that will fuel these growth trends. The report provides a comprehensive overview including Comparison of Definitions, Range, Use, Production and CAGR (percent), Form Segmentation, Share, Revenue Status and Outlook, Capacity, Demand, Market Drivers, Production Status, and Outlook and Opportunities, Export, Import, Growth Rate for Emerging Markets / Countries. The study provides a 360-degree overview of the industrys competitive landscape. The industry study on mesothelioma treatment assesses the main regions (countries) promising a huge market share for the 2016-2028 forecast period.

The market research study on mesothelioma treatment was collected through comprehensive primary research through interviews, surveys, and findings of experienced analysts and secondary research. The study also provides a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data obtained from industry analysts and market participants from mesothelioma treatment around key points in the value chain of the industry.

The regional analysis of this report covers the following regions- Eli Lilly and Company, AstraZeneca, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Pfizer Inc., Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, Bayer AG, Teva Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd.

Get Sample Copy of The Report @ https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/request-sample-68793?utm_source=Kalpesh&utm_medium=WTV

Useful findings of this research are-

-Study of historical data.

-Analysis of existing scenarios in every domestic and national sector.

-Study of patterns, accessible knowledge and data figures.

-Use of validated project methods for the next five years.

Statistical analysis, figures and prime data included in the report contains-

-Market size (current and projected for the last few years)

-Market share analysis as per different companies)

-Market forecast)

-Demand)

-Price analysis)

-Market contributions (Size, Share according to geographical boundaries)

The report benefits Market Investigators, companies, Vendors, Buyers, Suppliers, Individual professionals and Competitive organizations

Make An Enquiry Before Purchasing Report @ https://www.quincemarketinsights.com/enquiry-before-buying/enquiry-before-buying-68793?utm_source=Kalpesh&utm_medium=WTV

Market Segmentation:

ByTreatment Type:

By Route of Administration:

ByDistribution Channel:

By End User:

By Region:

North AmericaMesothelioma treatment market

EuropeMesothelioma treatment market

Asia PacificMesothelioma treatment market

Middle East & AfricaMesothelioma treatment market

South AmericaMesothelioma treatment market

Contact:Quince Market InsightsOffice No-A109Pune, Maharashtra 411028Phone: +91-9850603687/7972869557Email: sales@quincemarketinsights.comWeb: http://www.quincemarketinsights.com

About :QMI has the most comprehensive collection of market research products and services available on the web. Deliver reports from almost all major publications and update the list on a regular basis with instant online access to the worlds broadest and most up-to-date archive of expert insights on global markets, companies, products and patterns.

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Mesothelioma treatment Market Insight And Key Players With Forecasts Up To 2028 - WOLE TV

Compensation claim after ICI worker’s asbestos-related death – Runcorn and Widnes World

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THE death of a loving grandfather from an asbestos-related lung cancer has led to his family launching a compensation claim.

Sandiway native Christopher Lees worked for ICI in Northwich and Runcorn for close to 40 years, after leaving school in 1955 until his retirement in the early 1990s.

In February, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma an aggressive and terminal lung cancer caused by breathing in asbestos dust and fibres and sadly passed away on May 17 aged 79.

A father of two daughters and grandfather of four, Christopher was also the main carer for his wife, Gillian, who has a lung condition and severe arthritis.

He was a regular and respected church goer, but his family were unable to give him a proper funeral because of coronavirus restrictions.

Despite this and the severely restricted numbers allowed at his burial, that did not stop his family, friends and parishioners from lining the funeral route on the day to send him off.

It is believed that he was exposed to asbestos while working at ICI in Winnington and the companys Castner Kellner site in Runcorn.

Nicola Johnson, Christophers daughter, said: In just six months, dad went from helping me with the school run and being Mums fulltime carer to not being here at all.

He just deteriorated so fast and was in a huge amount of pain constantly at the end.

I remember taking him to get the results of his biopsy. We sat there holding hands, both expecting bad news, as we didnt think wed be lucky enough to get away with it. Devastatingly, we were right.

He was really upset and so scared in the car on the journey home. He told me what his wishes were and how we were going to cope with it."

Christopher receiving his 20-year service award

We were told he could have chemotherapy to extend his life, and for the next two weeks hed pick himself up and push himself to go out for walks to keep himself fit to be ready to face what was coming next.

Then Covid-19 hit, and all bets were off.

Birchall Blackburn Law is helping Christophers family make an industrial disease compensation claim and is seeking the memories and recollections from former ICI employees.

Christopher started in the research and development department and from 1968 to 1975 worked on the development of Monnex, which required him to wear an asbestos suit.

In 1975 Christopher moved to ICIs Castner Kellner site to work as a safety advisor, improving working conditions and reducing the risk of accidents and injuries.

In 1988/89 Christopher returned to work at Winnington and Lostock sites as a safety advisor.

Victoria Roberts, an industrial disease specialist solicitor at Birchall Blackburn Law, said: Mesothelioma is a cruel lung cancer that takes decades to develop after exposure to asbestos dust and fibres.

It can be difficult to find evidence about where exactly the exposure took place, which is why we need the help of former ICI employees who worked in Northwich and Runcorn.

We would be interested to hear from anyone who worked in the research and development department at Winnington and might be able to assist with a description of the fire suits used, as well as anyone who worked at Castner Kellner and can provide information about the maintenance procedure and the use and presence of asbestos on site.

Anyone who knows about the presence of asbestos at ICI in Northwich and Castner Kellner in Runcorn is asked to call Victoria confidentially on 01244 688763 or email varoberts@birchallblackburn.co.uk

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Compensation claim after ICI worker's asbestos-related death - Runcorn and Widnes World

The 5 Possibilities For Life On Mars – Forbes

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While Mars is known as a frozen, red planet today, it has all the evidence we could ask for of a ... [+] watery past, lasting for approximately the first 1.5 billion years of the Solar System. Could it have been Earth-like, even to the point of having had life on it, for the first third of our Solar System's history?

For as long as humanity has been watching the skies, weve been fascinated with the possibility that other worlds much like Earth might contain living organisms. While our visits to the Moon taught us that its completely barren and uninhabited, other worlds within our Solar System remain full of potential. Venus might have life in its cloud-tops. Europa and Enceladus might have life teeming in a sub-surface ocean of liquid water. Even Titans liquid hydrocarbon lakes provide a fascinating place to search for exotic living organisms.

But by far, the most fascinating possibility is the red planet: Mars. This smaller, colder, more distant cousin of Earth most certainly had a wet past, where liquid water clearly flowed on the surface for more than a billion years. Circumstantial evidence has pointed to the plausibility of life on Mars, not only in the ancient past, but possibly still living, and perhaps occasionally active, even today. There are five possibilities for life on Mars. Heres what we know so far.

Oxbow bends only occur in the final stages of a slowly flowing river's life, and this one is found ... [+] on Mars. While many of Mars's channel-like features originate from a glacial past, there is ample evidence of a history of liquid water on the surface, such as this dried-up riverbed.

With the information weve obtained from various orbiters, landers, and rovers, weve made a slew of fascinating discoveries on Mars. We see dried-up riverbeds and evidence of ancient glacial events on the Martian surface. We find tiny hematite spheres on Mars as well as copious evidence for sedimentary rock, both of which only form on Earth in aqueous environments. And weve observed solid sub-surface ice, snows, and even frozen surface water on Mars in real-time.

Weve even observed whats likely to be briny surface water actively flowing down the walls of various craters, although that result is still controversial. All the raw ingredients that are required for life on Earth were abundant on early Mars as well, including a thick atmosphere and liquid water on its surface. Although Mars no longer appears as though its teeming with life today, there are three pieces of evidence that past or even present life might be a possibility.

The hematite spheres (or 'Martian blueberries') as imaged by the Mars Exploration Rover. These are ... [+] almost certainly evidence of past liquid water on Mars, and possibly of past life. NASA scientists must be certain that this site -- and this planet -- are not contaminated by the very act of our observing. As of yet, there is no surefire evidence for either past or present Martian life.

The first compelling piece of evidence came from the instruments on board NASAs Mars Viking landers in 1976. There were three biology experiments performed: a gas exchange experiment, a labeled release experiment, and a pyrolytic release experiment, followed-up by a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer experiment. The labeled release experiment yielded a positive result when performed on both Viking landers, but only the first time the test occurred. All other experiments came back negative.

The second piece of evidence came when a fragment of a Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001 was recovered on December 27, 1984. As it turns out, approximately 3% of all meteorites that fall to Earth originate from Mars, but this one was particularly large: nearly 2 kilograms (over 4 pounds) heavy. It originally formed on Mars some 4 billion years ago, and landed on Earth only some 13,000 years ago. When we looked inside of it in 1996, it appears to contain material that could be the remnants of fossilized organic life forms, although they could have arisen from inorganic processes as well.

Most recently, the Mars Curiosity rover detected Methane vents on Mars, which could have been ... [+] produced either organically or inorganically. If it's organics, the author will lose a bet with physicist Robert Garisto!

And finally, the third piece of evidence came out with NASAs latest Mars rover: Curiosity. As the seasons changed on Mars, Curiosity detected burps of methane emitted from specific underground locations, but only at the end of Martian winter and with the onset of spring. This is, again, an ambiguous signal at best, as inorganic, geochemical processes could be seasonal and result in the release of methane, but organic, biological processes could cause this as well.

When we look at the full suite of evidence at everything weve learned about Mars there are five possibilities for the history of life on the Red Planet. It could be an eternally barren world; it could be a world where life thrived for a time but then hit a dead-end; it could have extant life on it today; it could have been seeded by Earth life early on; or it could only have Earth-based organisms that made their way there since the dawn of the space age.

Heres what each possibility would mean.

Mars, along with its thin atmosphere, as photographed from the Viking orbiter. From afar as well as ... [+] up close, there are no obvious, compelling signs of past or present life on the planet, although there are some ambiguous points that could either favor or disfavor life.

1.) Mars never had life on it. Despite having the same raw ingredients as early Earth and similar, watery conditions, the necessary circumstances that enable life to form simply never occurred on Mars. All the geological and chemical processes that occur inorganically still happened, but nothing organic. Then, a little more than three billion years ago, Marss atmosphere was stripped away by the Sun, drying up any liquid surface water and leading to Marss current appearance.

This is the most conservative stance, and would require that all three of the purported positive tests have either an inorganic or contamination-based resolution. This is eminently possible, and remains in the mind of many the default assumption. Until some very compelling evidence comes along that robustly points to either past or present life on Mars, this will likely remain the leading hypothesis.

Seasonal frozen lakes appear throughout Mars, showing evidence of (not liquid) water on the surface. ... [+] These are just a few of the many lines of evidence that point to a watery past on Mars. Whether water indicates life or not has not yet been determined.

2.) Mars had life early on, but it died out. This scenario, in many ways, is just as compelling as the prior one. Its very easy to imagine that a world with:

could lead to life. To many, its virtually impossible to imagine that these conditions after more than a billion years wouldnt lead to life, considering that life arose on Earth no more than a few hundred million years after its formation.

However, the loss of the Martian atmosphere had a profound effect on the planet, and could have resulted in the extinction of all life on Mars. Drilling down into the sedimentary rock of Mars and searching for fossilized life forms, or even metamorphosed carbon-rich inclusions, could potentially reveal the evidence necessary to validate this scenario.

Recurring slope lineae, like this one on the south-facing slope of a crater on the floor of Melas ... [+] Chasma, have not only been shown to grow over time and then fade away as the martian landscape fills them in with dust, but are known to be caused by the flowing of briny, liquid water. Perhaps, in those flows, life processes are occurring.

3.) Mars had early life, and it still persists in a mostly-dormant form beneath the surface. This is the most optimistic, but still scientifically viable, view of life on Mars. Perhaps life took hold early on, and when Mars lost its atmosphere, a few extremophiles remained in a sort of frozen, suspended-animation state. When the right conditions emerged perhaps underground, where liquid water can occasionally flow that life wakes up and begins performing its critical biological functions.

If this is the case, then there are still organisms to be found beneath the Martian surface, perhaps in the shallow sands just a few feet or even mere inches below our spacecraft. Were likely only talking about single-celled life, perhaps not even reaching the complexity of a eukaryotic cell, but life on any world other than Earth would still be a revolution for science. NASAs Perseverance rover, which launched successfully on July 30, 2020, will collect critical soil samples to attempt to test this hypothetical scenario.

A planetoid colliding with Earth, larger than even the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, ... [+] could easily kick up sufficient amounts of material that some of it would make it to Mars, possibly contaminating the ancient Red Planet with Earth-like material, as well as Earth-based biological organisms.

4.) Mars didnt have life until Earth seeded it, naturally. 65 million years ago, a very large, fast-moving body impacted Earth, creating Chixulub crater and kicking up enough material to blanket the Earth in a cloud of debris, leading to the fifth great mass extinction in Earths history. And, like many massive impacts, this one likely kicked up small pieces of Earth all the way into space, the same way that impactors on the Moon or Mars send meteors throughout the Solar System, where some of them eventually land on Earth.

Well, a few impacts likely go the other way as well: sending Earth-borne material to other worlds, including Mars. It seems unreasonable that the material in Earths crust, rich in organic life, wouldnt make it to Mars at all. Instead, its eminently plausible that Earth-based organisms made it to Mars and began reproducing there, whether they thrived or not. Perhaps someday, well be able to know the full history of life on Mars, and determine whether any of it has the same common ancestor that all extant Earth life is descended from. Its a fascinating possibility that isnt easy to dismiss.

The first truly successful landers, Viking 1 and 2, returned data and images for years, including ... [+] providing a controversial signal that may have indicated life's presence on the red planet.

5.) Our modern space program spread Earth-based life to Mars. And, finally, perhaps Mars truly was a barren, lifeless planet at least for billions of years until the dawn of the space age. Perhaps spaceborne materials that werent 100% decontaminated or sterilized landed on the Martian surface, bringing modern Earth organisms with them as stowaways.

Its the ultimate nightmare of astrobiologists: that theres a fascinating history of life to uncover on another world, but well contaminate it with our own organisms before we ever learn the true history of life on that world. In the worst case scenario, it could be the case that was surviving simple life on Mars of Martian origin, but that Earth life arrived and out-competed it, driving it to a rapid extinction. This very real, healthy fear is why were frequently so conservative, from a biological perspective, when we explore other planets and foreign worlds.

An Atlas V rocket with NASA's Perseverance Mars rover launches from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral Air ... [+] Force Station. The Mars 2020 mission plans to land the Perseverance rover on the Red Planet in February 2021, where it will seek signs of ancient life and collect rock and soil samples for possible return to Earth. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

There is a tremendous hope that current and future generations of Mars rovers and orbiters will help us finally puzzle out whether Mars either now or at any point in its past has ever harbored life. If the answer to that question is affirmative, then it leads to an important follow-up question: is that life related to or independent of life on Earth? It is possible that life originated on Earth and seeded Mars with life; its possible that life originated on Mars and then seeded Earth; its even possible that life predated both Earth and Mars, and early forms of it took hold on both planets.

But at this point in time, we have no overwhelming evidence that life ever existed on Mars at all. We have a few hints that could be indicators of past or present life there, but entirely inorganic processes could explain each and every one of those observed results.

As always, the only way well find out the truth is by conducting more and better science with superior instruments and techniques. As NASAs Perseverance rover moves ahead to collect a variety of soil samples, the next step will be returning them to Earth for laboratory analysis. If we succeed at that, we could know for certain, within the next decade, which of these five possibilities is most consistent with the truth about Mars.

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The 5 Possibilities For Life On Mars - Forbes

As three probes head for Mars, Curiosity nears eighth anniversary on red planet – Astronomy Now Online

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With three probes on their way to Mars, NASAs Curiosity rover will celebrate its eighth year on Mars 6 August as it continues to explore the lower regions of Mount Sharp in Gale Crater. This frame from a panorama captured on 13 October 2019 shows Mount Sharp in morning sunlight. Click on the image to view the entire panorama and click again for the full high-resolution view, scrolling as needed to take it all in. Curiosity landed on Mars in 2012 and has collected data showing the environment in Gale Crater, at least, was habitable in the distant past. NASAs Perseverance rover will land in Jezero Crater next February to search for signs of past microbial life. The Hope orbiter, built by the United Arab Emirates and currently on its way to Mars, will slip into orbit that same month as will Chinas Tianwen-1 probe. The Chinese mission features an orbiter and a rover, which is expected to descend to the surface a few months after arrival.

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As three probes head for Mars, Curiosity nears eighth anniversary on red planet - Astronomy Now Online

Teijin Aramid on the way to Mars – EPPM

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Teijin Aramid, a world leader in aramid, announces that, with the successful launch of NASAs Mars Perseverance Rover from Cape Canaveral in Florida, its Technora high-performance fibre is again enabling space exploration.

The premium para-aramid Technora plays a critical role in the structure of the Rovers landing parachute, developed by Airborne Systems and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will be deployed during descent to Mars in February 2021.

On a mission to seek signs of past microscopic Martian life, the Mars Perseverance Rover is carrying the heaviest payload of any mission to the Red Planet.

The parachute system has undergone an extensive set of demanding tests, proving it can support an inflation load of 31,751kg.

To ensure the unique parachute system performs under the extreme conditions, 60kg of Technora are incorporated into the suspension cords. Technora is also used in the parachute riser. This mission builds on the proven technologies and systems of previous Mars Rover expeditions which also carried Technora including on the Mars Curiosity Rover in 2012.

Charles Lowry, Lead Project Engineer for Airborne Systems North America, Mars 2020 Parachute System Subcontractor, said: When designing and building the parachute system for the Mars Perseverance Rover, it was very important to utilise the volume that we were allocated to its fullest potential. Thanks to its outstanding strength-to-weight ratio, Technora allows us to do just that and increases the overall safety of the mission by providing more volume for stronger parachute cloth. There are many unknowns involved in any mission to space, but the tried and proven performance of Technora is not one of them.

Peter ter Horst, CEO Teijin Aramid, added: Today is a proud day for everyone at Teijin Aramid. Our journey into space has taken another exciting step. Our partners throughout the space industry have long recognised the unique potential of incorporating Technora into their products to unlock new levels of performance. The launch of the Mars Perseverance Rover shows that were again the partner of choice when strength and reliability are of unprecedented importance.

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Teijin Aramid on the way to Mars - EPPM

Destiny 2 is getting rid of Mars this fall, so one player recreated it in Garry’s Mod – GamesRadar+

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With Destiny 2 moving Mars along with four other destinations to the Destiny Content Vault on November 10 with the release of Beyond Light, one player has taken it upon themselves to preserve the red planet in the Garry's Mod Hammer Editor.

Reddit user Quantum086 recently shared their recreation after a month of work (and roughly 200 hours) in the map maker. "When I heard Mars was going away, I knew I had to save my favorite destination somehow," they said, "so I built the main Braytech Futurescape area, from the rail system to where the lost sector starts."

You can view and download the full map over on the Steam Workshop. Quantum originally wanted to remake all of Mars, but ended up focusing on the northern half due to object limitations in the map maker itself. They also had to cut a lot of the Hive corruption around the Braytech facility due to asset restraints. Even so, the sheer size of the map is staggering, to say nothing of the commitment to detail.

As the build's Steam screenshots show, Quantum included everything from large construction equipment to tiny light fixtures. Their recreation is covered in boxes, machinery, pipes, tanks, and countless other odds and ends that really sell the Mars landscape.

For fun, I hopped into Destiny 2 to frame some side-by-side comparisons of Quantum's recreation, and this makes the map look even more amazing:

Head here for more on the content going into and coming out of the Destiny Content Vault.

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Destiny 2 is getting rid of Mars this fall, so one player recreated it in Garry's Mod - GamesRadar+

The GOP Needs to Hit Rock Bottom – The Bulwark

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The last thing I want to do is offend my friend David French, who is one of the most admirable voices in America today. Nor, finding myself in the highly unusual position of disagreeing with him, do I want to pile on, since my colleague Charlie Sykes has already penned a response that is characteristically robust. But the question of how conservatives should vote in Novemberwhether to punish the entire Republican party by voting straight-ticket Democrat, or merely vote against Trumpis important and needs further airing.

David argues that conservatives need not vote against Republican Senate candidates in order to send a message:

A rage, fury, and a burn it all down mentality is one of the maladies that brought us to the present moment. Repeating that same impulse, but with an entire party in the crosshairs, will only compound our political dysfunction.

This assumes that the reason some plan to evict Republican senators is simply a matter of anger. French uses the word vengeance. But voting against a candidate or even a whole party is not nihilism. Its not burning it all down. Its the legal, constitutional way to express approval or disapproval. The current Republican party has itself chosen to become the arsonist party. It has decided to go along with undermining faith in institutions, shredding norms, elevating conspiracy theories, disregarding laws, and tossing aside truth whenever the leader dictates. The most demoralizing aspect of the past four years has not been that a boob conman was elected president but that one of the two great political parties surrendered to him utterly.

David suggests that voting against Republican senators is completely devoid of grace. It ignores the monumental pressures that Donald Trump has placed on the entire GOP and the lack of good options that so many GOP officeholders faced.

Its certainly true that Republicans perceived their options to be limited. How many times have they confided, behind closed doors, that they deplore Trumps conduct, but explain that their hands are tied? If they speak up, they say, they will flush their careers down the drain. Look at what happened to Jeff Flake, Mark Sanford, and Bob Corker!

But this overstates things. A number of Republicans have stood up to Trump and maintained their electoral viabilityespecially when they challenged him on matters that he has shown little interest in, namely public policy. Sen. Pat Toomey for example, voted against the presidents USMCA trade agreement and (gasp) wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal explaining his reasoning.

It is the only trade pact ever meant to diminish trade. Since Naftas implementation, American exports to Mexico have grown more than fivefold. But imports grew even more, widening the trade deficit. The Trump administration finds this unacceptable, even though the trade deficit is mostly meaningless. Hence USMCA has a myriad of provisions to warm the hearts of protectionists.

When the president abruptly announced, following a phone call with Turkish leader Recep Erdoan, that he was withdrawing American troops forthwith from Syria, a number of Republicans voiced horror. Sen. Ben Sasse said it would lead to a slaughter. Sen. Ted Cruz said it would be DISGRACEFUL if we sat idly by while Turkey slaughters the Kurds, as public reports suggest that Turkish leader Erdogan explicitly told President Trump he intends to do. Rep. Liz Cheney called it a catastrophic mistake that puts our gains against ISIS at risk and threatens Americas national security. Sens. Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, and Marco Rubio, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, and others weighed in as well.

When the president suggested lifting sanctions on Russia, Sen. Rob Portman said it would be horrible for the United States. And after Gen. James Mattis wrote an op-ed saying that Donald Trump was making a mockery of the U.S. Constitution, Sen. Lisa Murkowski said, I was really thankful. I thought General Mattiss words were true, and honest and necessary and overdue.

So, it is possible to speak up about this president and survive. I use that word advisedly, because these Republican office holders often use words like kill or destroy or annihilate when contemplating what Trump would do to them if they raise their heads too far above the parapet. In fact, all that actually threatened them was the possibility of nasty tweets and the chance that they might lose their seats.

David French writes:

If you think its obvious what they should have done, how many readers have faced such a choice: take a tough stand and likely lose your lifes work or muddle through and hope to emerge on the other side with your dignity and conscience intact? If you faced such a choice, did you take the stand and bear the cost?

David is right that very few people in any walk of life display courage on anything, though craven Republicans holding House and Senate posts might want to pause from time to time to contemplate the extraordinary valor of protesters in Hong Kong, Iran, and Egypt who continue to put their freedom and sometimes their lives at risk by taking to the streets. And before we extend too much grace to Republican office holders, we need to ask: Should being an elected official really be ones life work? And must one cling to it even when it requires delegitimizing the very ideas that brought you into politics?

As noted above, Republicans have criticized the president on policy matters, sometimes even harshly. Where they have shrunk into their shells was on matters that are even more critical to the health of our republic. They have, by their silence, given assent to his cruelty, his assaults on truth, his dangerous flirtations with political violence, and his consistent demolition of institutions.

Institutions are like scaffolding. When a societys institutions are weakened, the whole edifice can come crashing down. This often happens to countries as a consequence of war or natural disasters. In our case, it was self-inflicted before the natural disaster (coronavirus) struck, and now, as masonry hits the pavement and floors sag, we are seeing the results.

Donald Trump undermined the institution of the free press, urging his followers to disbelieve everything except what came from the leader. And Republicans were silent. He weakened respect for law enforcement and the courts, suggesting that he was the victim of a deep state and that so-called judges need not be respected. And Republicans were silent. He enriched himself and his family. And Republicans were silent. He introduced doubt about accepting the results of elections. He scorned allies and toadied to dictators. And Republicans were silent. He ran the executive branch like a gangster, demanding personal loyalty and abusing officials, like the hapless Jeff Sessions, who merely followed ethics rules. He ignored the law to get his way on the border wall. Silence again. He violated the most sacred norms of a multi-ethnic society by encouraging racial hatred. Crickets. He made the United States guilty of separating babies from their mothers. And Republicans were silent. He undercut the credibility and honor of the Republican party by failing to dissociate it from kooks and criminals. And Republicans were silent.

Elected officials, terrified of their own constituents, have cowered and temporized in the face of a truly unprecedented assault on democratic values. They believed that they were powerless and acted accordingly. Since they were powerless when it counted, what difference would it make if voters were to make it official?

Consider something else that Sen. Murkowski said in response to Gen. Mattis. When I saw General Mattis comments yesterday I felt like perhaps we are getting to a point where we can be more honest with the concerns that we might hold internally and have the courage of our own convictions to speak up.

When one person shows courage, others are emboldened. If more Republicans had shown a willingness to stand for basic political hygiene, for elemental human decency earlier in this awful era, it might have become contagious.

But since that did not happen, the only thing that will send a message to the Republican party commensurate with its moral abdication over the past four years is to lose in a landslide. Not just Trump, but his silent enablers too.

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The GOP Needs to Hit Rock Bottom - The Bulwark

Nifty-Fifty All Over Again? Why Investors Should Fear Big Tech Rally – CCN.com

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Following the U.S. stock market crash of March, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Apple (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) combined have added $2.7 trillion to their market cap.

Meanwhile, the stock markets disconnect with the real economy has gotten worse.

While U.S. GDP has lost $2 trillion, the stock market has added $4 trillion to the total market cap of companies in the S&P 500.

Of course, the Federal Reserves balance sheet explosion has aided the stock market rally since March.

The Feds balance sheet expansion has been a common factor in the tech giants rallies since March. These tech companies, along with Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), have carried the stock market higher over the past four months.

As the economy suffered under government lockdown orders, the big tech giants were in prime position to smash earnings expectations in Q2.

Apple shares rallied more than 10% to make new all-time highs after reporting sales growth of 11% in Q2 2020 results. Last weeks rally allowed Apple to overtake Saudi Aramco as the worlds most valuable company.

Amazons second-quarter saw the companys sales take off despite the coronavirus pandemic-induced slowdown. Its shares rallied post-earnings before undergoing a bit of profit booking.

Meanwhile, Facebook reported revenue growth of 11% despite an ad boycott from various companies. Its shares gapped up almost 7% post-earnings before a mild selloff.

Alphabet rallied 38% from the March low. After reporting an unprecedented revenue decline, its shares declined post-earnings.

High expectations from Microsoft made the stock rally 25% from the March lows. After reporting spectacular earnings, the stock continued its uptrend.

While Facebook, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple have returned 35% in 2020, the remaining 495 stocks in the S&P 500 are in the red.

These giants have carried the stock market on their shoulders; if any one of them drops abruptly, the whole market could enter a downward spiral.

Because of this, analysts at Morgan Stanley have predicted a 10% selloff in the U.S. stock market.

If the prediction comes true, the selloff would be reminiscent ofwhat happened to the Nifty-Fifty stocks back in the 1970s. Nifty-Fifty refers to the group of 50 stocks that led the markets toall-time highs in the early 1970s, followed by a 46% crash.

While these stocks had led the rallies to the top, they also led the nosedive that followed.

Back then, Forbes wrote,

The Nifty-Fifty were taken out and shot one by one.

Could the same happen to the tech giants driving the market rally in 2020?

Disclaimer: This article represents the authors opinion and should not be considered investment or trading advice from CCN.com. Unless otherwise noted, the author holds no investment position in the above-mentioned securities.

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Nifty-Fifty All Over Again? Why Investors Should Fear Big Tech Rally - CCN.com

Why Big Tech Is Colliding With Washington – Foreign Policy

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Here is todays Foreign Policy brief: The U.S.House Judiciary Committee plans to grill Big Tech leaders on antitrust, Taliban leaders announce a three-day cease-fire, and working level U.S.-Russian nuclear talks begin in Vienna.

If you would like to receive Morning Brief in your inbox every weekday, please sign up here.

Big Techs (Virtual) Showdown

At noon today in Washington, four of the worlds most powerful tech leaders will testify before a U.S. Congressional committee investigating whether their companies have become too dominant in their respective markets. The CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will all testify via video conference. It will be Amazon CEO Jeff Bezoss first time appearing before Congress.

The hearing has been called by the antitrust panel of the House Judiciary Committee and is part of a year-long investigation into possible monopolistic practices of the tech giants as Chairman David Cicilline, a Democrat, attempts to build a case for updating current U.S. antitrust laws.

Appitol Hill. All four companies are immensely profitable, and any effort to break them up or impose onerous regulations will be fought aggressively by a sector becoming more and more at home in Washington. Since 2014, the amount Amazon has spent lobbying the U.S. government has more than tripled and overtook the spending of AlphabetGoogles parent companyin 2019.

What theyll say. Despite user bases in the billions, expect each tech leader to play down their companys dominance (and in Mark Zuckerbergs case, talk up TikToks competitor status). Although the hearing is ostensibly about antitrust, expect Republican lawmakers to bring up perceived censorshipofconservativeviews on web platforms and Democrats to raise concerns about disinformation headed into the U.S. presidential election.

What Were Following Today

Taliban calls cease-fire. The Taliban has announced a three-day cease-fire during the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, with the suspension of hostilities scheduled to begin this Friday. Separately, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has suggested peace talks are imminent, based on his government nearing an agreed number of prisoner releases. With this action, we look forward to the start of direct negotiations with the Taliban in a weeks time, Ghani said. The decision comes as U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is due to visit Afghanistan this week.

Russian and U.S. officials meet for nuclear talks. Working groups of government experts from Russia and the United States meet in Vienna today to begin three days of talks on the topic of nuclear arms control ahead of the expiry of the New START agreement. The meetings follow negotiations between U.S. arms control envoy Marshall Billingslea and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov in June.

U.S. admits to killing civilian in Somalia. U.S. Africa Command (Africom) has admitted to killing one civilian and injuring three others in a February 2 airstrike in Somalia. It is only the second time Africom has admitted to killing civilians in its Africa operations since it began reporting. The strike took place near Jilib, an area south of Somalias capital Mogadishu. The Feb. 2 killing had been highlighted in a report by Amnesty International in March, and at the time U.S. officials maintained that only terrorists had been killed in the operation. Africoms commander, Gen. Stephen Townsend said the military did not intend to target civilians in their operations against al-Shabab. We work hard to prevent civilians from getting hurt or killed during these operations designed to bring increased security and stability to Somalia, Townsend said.

Powells view on economy. The monthly meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserves Federal Open Market Committee, which sets U.S. interest rates, takes place today in Washington. Although rates are expected to remain unchanged, Fed chief Jerome Powells subsequent press conference should give an insight into the direction central bankers see the U.S. economy going in the coming months and whether more intervention is needed.

Australia to increase cooperation with U.S. Australia has agreed to increased and regularized maritime cooperation with the United States in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean following a meeting between the countries top defense and foreign-policy officials. The declaration does not mean Australia will join U.S. freedom of navigation operations in the disputed sea, a practice that Beijing deems provocative. Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne told reporters that Australia has no intention of injuringits relationship with China, its number one trade partner. A joint statement also announced the formation of a U.S.-Australian working group to respond to disinformation efforts in the region.

Biden to announce running mate. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic party nominee for president told reporters on Tuesday that he will announce his choice of running mate by next week. Biden has promised to choose a woman for the role, although there is not yet a clear frontrunner. On Tuesday, Biden was photographed with handwritten notes with a list of positive talking points about California Senator Kamala Harris. Politico also accidentally published a page on its website which named Harris as Bidens running mate, before it was swiftly updated and the claim was removed.

In a development that may have been more welcome in the earliest stage of lockdown, when bread-baking and gardening were in vogue, residents in more than a dozen U.S. states have reported receiving suspicious packages of seeds, apparently from China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investigating the mystery, and has advised anyone who has received the seeds to refrain from planting them. It is speculated that the seeds may have been part of a brushing scam, whereby products are shipped to unwitting addressees in order to create a fraudulent (but authentic-looking) review online in order to drive sales. At this point in time, we dont have enough information to know if this is a hoax, a prank, an internet scam or an act of agricultural bio-terrorism, Ryan Quarles, the Kentucky agriculture commissioner, said.

Thats it for today.

For more from FP, visit foreignpolicy.com, subscribe here, or sign up for our other newsletters. Send your tips, comments, questions, or corrections to morningbrief@foreignpolicy.com.

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Why Big Tech Is Colliding With Washington - Foreign Policy

Republicans Are Mad At Big Tech For All The Wrong Reasons – Vanity Fair

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Wednesdays House Judiciary Committee hearing represents a rare opportunity for Congress: to hold the leaders of the biggest technology companies feet to the fire, with an eye toward reining in their expansive and largely unchecked power. But a memo obtained by Politico Tuesday on the eve of the hearing suggests Republicans plan to squander that chance, with GOP members of the panel preparing to set aside the very real antitrust issues raised by Facebook, Google, Apple, and Amazonand, instead, to use their time to probe the Big Four on the very not real issue of anti-conservative bias at the companies.

Political bias in big tech should be decried, the memo reads, but antitrust wont solve it.

Amazons Jeff Bezos, Apples Tim Cook, Google-parent Alphabets Sundar Pichai, and Facebooks Mark Zuckerberg are all due on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a highly-anticipated clash between the countrys most powerful tech leaders and the Congressional committee aiming to curb them. But while distrust of the Big Four is bipartisan, Republicans are attacking the companies for all the wrong reasons. Democrats are concerned about what seems to be monopolistic behavior, as well as the role of Facebook and other social media platforms in the spread of false and misleading information and in foreign election interference. These platforms have been allowed to run wild and free from really any constraints, David Cicilline, chair of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, told the Wall Street Journal. The responsibility we have is to make clear what the impacts are of the lack of competition in the digital marketplace.

But Republicans seem less concerned with the potential antitrust abuses that have led to calls from Elizabeth Warren and others on the left to break up big tech. Conservatives, instead, have based their Silicon Valley attacks on the notion that these firms and their leaders have it in for theman idea that simply isnt rooted in reality. Donald Trump and his allies have long belly-ached that social media companies are working to undermine him; just this week, he whined, ludicrously, that Twitters trending topics about him are ridiculous, illegal, and, of course, very unfair! So disgusting to watch Twitters so-called Trending, where sooo many trends are about me, and never a good one, the president wrote, in the middle of a pandemic thats killed more than 150,000 Americans. They look for anything they can find, make it as bad as possible, and blow it up, trying to make it trend. Thats not quite how it works, of course, and while Twitter chief Jack Dorsey has shown some spine recently in labeling or removing Trumps tweets that are dangerous or false, the president remains the sites most prominent user, and he continues to reap massive benefit from the megaphone it has provided him.

Of course, Zuckerberg has resisted even the kind of careful measures Dorsey has implemented to police hate and misinformation on his platform. On the contrary, Zuckerberg has courted the president and other conservatives in recent months, and his company has become a home to the right, which has used the platform as a dumping ground for conservative views and conspiracy theoriesmuch to the chagrin of rank-and-file employees, who have been increasingly open about their frustrations with Zuck, Sheryl Sandberg, and other company leaders.

Republicans are likely to point to some high-profile episodes, like Donald Trump Jr. and other Republicans having their Twitter accounts suspended and videos removed from Facebook after recklessly posting disinformation about a disproven COVID-19 therapy promoted by the president, as evidence they are being censored. Big Tech is intent on killing free expression online, Trump Jr. spokesman Andy Surabian told the Washington Post after the presidents son had his Twitter account suspended. But the president's son didnt have his account temporarily restricted over partisan speech; he got a time-out for blasting false and irresponsible claims about a public health crisis.

That these platforms, with broad and mostly unbridled power, have the potential to disseminate such dangerous lies and conspiracy theories is a far more pressing issue. Lawmakers on Wednesday have a real opportunity to challenge Americas most prominent tech leaders on their anti-competitive behavior and its impact on both democracy and everyday Americans but itll be wasted if Republicans spend their time stunting about nonexistent anti-conservative censorship and prosecuting Trumps petty crusade against Bezos.

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Republicans Are Mad At Big Tech For All The Wrong Reasons - Vanity Fair