Baltic Dry Index. 1559 +123 Brent Crude 70.80
Spot Gold 2938 US 2 Year Yield 4.01 +0.07
US Federal Debt. 36.589 trillion!!
The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened.
Mark Twain.
In the stock casinos, a weak relief rally.
But with a escalating trade war and Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio predicting a coming USA debt default,” buy the dip” is fast becoming “sell the rally.”
Hopefully Mr. Dalio is 100 percent wrong, but if he is thinking the unthinkable and Warren Buffet is selling out and sitting on close to 350 billion in cash, maybe it’s time for all of us to think the unthinkable and start planning for a Great Global Financial Catastrophe.
Asia-Pacific stocks trade mixed after soft U.S.
inflation report pushes two Wall Street benchmarks up; Seven & i shares
rise as much as 3.6%
Published Wed, Mar 12 2025 7:31 PM EDT
Asia-Pacific markets traded mixed on
Thursday after a soft inflation report in the U.S. helped two of the three
benchmarks on Wall Street reverse course from two days of losses.
The consumer price index — a broad-based
measure of costs across the U.S. economy — increased
0.2% month-on-month in February, putting the annual inflation rate at
2.8%.
The latest reading “is welcome relief,”
said Vishnu Varathan, Mizhuo Bank’s head of macro research in Asia excluding
Japan.
“Crucially, February’s inflation will
almost certainly not entail any tariff impact, which means that the relief,
while welcome, is redemption for Fed [U.S. Federal Reserve] hawks concerned
about price shocks piling on,” he explained in a Thursday note.
Looking ahead, Varathan said it is
“premature for the Fed to let its guard down at this juncture.”
Over in Japan, the benchmark Nikkei 225 was flat, while
the broader Topix index edged up 0.18% in its last hour of trade.
Shares of Seven & i Holdings gained
as much as 3.60%, as Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation
Couche-Tard kicked off its press conference on buying the 7-Eleven operator.
Couche-Tard, which owns the Circle-K
convenience store chain, has been pursuing Seven & i for months and put in
a $47 billion bid for the Japanese retail giant. This would be Japan’s
largest-ever foreign buyout if the deal is completed. However, Couche-Tard has
so far mostly received frosty reception from Seven & i.
Couche-Tard founder and Executive Chairman
Alain Bouchard said the company has had “many discussions” with Seven & i’s
new CEO Stephen Dacus, “but it has always stopped at the regulatory ask,
the thing that we cannot overcome.”
South Korea’s Kospi index fell 0.48% while
the small-cap Kosdaq fell 0.69%, reversing course from gains earlier in
the session.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dipped 1.20%
while mainland China’s CSI 300 fell 0.54% in choppy trade.
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 ended the
day 0.48% lower at 7,749.10. This is the third consecutive day that the index
is ending in negative territory.
Investors are watching Indian stocks
closely after the South Asia giant’s inflation rate cooled to a lower-than-expected
3.61% in February as vegetable prices edged down.
Nomura economists Sonal Varma and Aurodeep
Nandi note that the latest reading “supports higher Q4 FY25 GDP growth, but the
magnitude is still unclear.”
Going forward, they “expect benign
inflation readings to sustain.” They also added that headline inflation should
rise to around 3.8% year-on-year in March, while subdued demand, higher crop
output and low manufacturing costs is likely to keep CPI inflation below 4% in
the first quarter of 2025, they wrote in a Thursday note.
India’s benchmark Nifty 50 was up 0.15% in
early trade, while the BSE Sensex was 0.16% higher.
Overnight in the U.S., the Nasdaq Composite picked up
after the soft inflation report eased concerns about a looming recession and as
investors snapped up technology shares.
The tech-heavy benchmark added 1.22% and
closed at 17,648.45, while the S&P
500 gained 0.49% to end at 5,599.30. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped
82.55 points, or 0.2%, to settle at 41,350.93.
The tech sector is off more than 3% week
to date, but bounced back in the session to lead gains In the S&P 500. Top
performers include Nvidia,
which gained 6.4%, and AMD which
added more than 4%. Meanwhile, Meta Platforms advanced 2%
and Tesla jumped more
than 7%.
Asia
markets live: Stocks trade mixed
S&P 500 futures rise after index posts first
winning session in three: Live updates
Updated Wed, Mar 12 2025 7:42 PM EDT
S&P 500 futures ticked
higher Wednesday evening after the index posted a winning session in what has
been a rocky week.
Futures tied to the broad market index
advanced 0.2%, while futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average added
45 points, or 0.1%. Nasdaq
100 futures rose 0.2%.
In extended trading, Intel popped about 10% after
the company said
it had appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO. Adobe slipped roughly 4%
after forecasting weaker-than-expected earnings in the fiscal second quarter.
In Wednesday’s regular trading,
beleaguered tech stocks caught a bid as investors snapped up shares, lifting
the Nasdaq Composite to
a 1.2% gain and carrying the S&P
500 to a 0.5% advance. The tech sector was the top performer in the
session, up nearly 1.6% as Nvidia and Palantir Technologies surged.
The 30-stock Dow was
an outlier, however, notching a third straight losing day and falling 0.2%.
February’s reading of the consumer
price index — a wide-ranging measure of costs across the U.S. economy
— came in softer than expected. Headline inflation rose 0.2% from the
prior month and 2.8% on an annual basis.
The results may have eased traders’
concerns about the direction of the economy and the impact tariffs could have
on inflation. Indeed, President Donald Trump’s steel
and aluminum tariffs went into effect on Wednesday, and Canada slapped
a 25% retaliatory levy on more
than $20 billion of U.S. goods.
Though market strategists have been
watching for a technical bounce after the recent sell off, some say the latest
inflation print likely isn’t enough to lead to a sizable rebound. Concerns over
Trump’s trade policies remain a key hangover on investor sentiment, and they
throw into question how the Federal
Reserve may proceed on interest rates.
“We still believe the next Fed rate move
is lower, but it is hard to have high confidence with the impact of tariffs
still uncertain,” said Scott Helfstein, Global X’s head of investment
strategy. “The key question is whether tariffs will have a greater impact on
growth or prices. In recent weeks, the rates market has signaled that weaker
growth is the bigger concern with three cuts now being priced for this year.”
Week to date, all three major averages are
on pace for steep declines. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are on track for losses
of about 3%. The Dow is off 3.4% in the period, heading for its worst week
since March 2023. The broad market index briefly dipped into correction
territory on Tuesday, down 10% from a record set in February.
More
Stock
market today: Live updates
In USA v Rest of the World trade war news,
the action so far.
E.U. and Canada retaliated after Trump’s latest
tariffs
March 13, 2025
The trade fight widened yesterday as the
E.U. and Canada announced billions of dollars in
retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports, hours after President Trump’s
levies on steel and aluminum imports took effect.
Europe
The E.U. said that tariffs
would take effect on April 1, a response to about $26 billion in tariffs
applied by the U.S. But bloc officials emphasized that they were ready to
strike a deal.
Their response will come in two parts. A
tariff suspension implemented under President Joe Biden will be allowed to
lapse, raising tariffs on billions of euros’ worth of products that include
boats, bourbon and motorcycles. The second step will be to place tariffs on
about 18 billion euros’ worth of additional products, a list of which has yet
to be finalized.
Canada
The Canadian government said that it would
impose new tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. imports. This round is centered
on steel and aluminum but also applies to tools, computers, sporting goods and
cast iron.
Here’s
a breakdown of all the tariffs so far.
Other allies
Britain
has chosen not to retaliate, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer looks to sign a
long-term trade deal with the U.S. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia
said his country would not impose reciprocal tariffs because they would hurt
domestic consumers.
Thursday
Briefing: A widening trade war
Carney ready to talk trade with Trump if 'there's
respect for sovereignty'
12 March 2025
Canada's Prime Minister-designate Mark
Carney has said he is ready to negotiate a renewed trade deal with President
Donald Trump, as long as there is "respect for Canadian sovereignty".
Carney made these comments during a visit
to a steel plant in Hamilton, Ontario, as Canada unveiled C$29.8 billion ($20.7
billion) in reciprocal tariffs on US imports.
It comes after Trump slapped 25% tariffs
on all steel and aluminium coming into the country.
Since President Trump took office in
January, the two countries have been involved in an escalating trade war, with
the US president repeatedly threatening to annex its neighbour.
Carney on Wednesday condemned the latest
round of US tariffs as "unjustified".
"We're all going to be better off
when the greatest economic and security partnership in the world is renewed,
relaunched," he said.
Canada, which is the
biggest foreign supplier of steel and aluminium to
the US, is heavily exposed to the tariffs.
Trump has justified the tariffs, claiming
they are necessary for US national security and to boost demand for domestic
producers, which he argues has been "depressed" by foreign
competition.
The US president implemented a blanket 25%
tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico, citing concerns over drugs and migrants
crossing the US border.
The tariffs on steel and aluminium,
effective Wednesday, mark the end of exemptions previously granted to several
countries, including Canada.
In retaliation, Canada announced tariffs
on US goods, including steel and aluminium, with additional measures set to
take effect at 00:01 EST (04:01 GMT) on Thursday.
The new tariffs cover a range of products,
including C$12.6 billion on steel, $3 billion on aluminium, as well as tools,
computer equipment, water heaters, sports equipment, and cast-iron products.
Experts say the growing trade dispute
threatens economic stability for both countries.
On Wednesday, Canada's central bank cut
interest rates to 2.75% from 3% to prepare the
country's economy for disruption.
Canadian Finance Minister Dominic Leblanc
told a news conference that the country was still seeking to de-escalate.
"If you're racing to the basement,
there's no real prize for the first person to get to the basement,"
Leblanc said.
On Thursday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford,
along with federal representatives, will meet US Commerce Secretary Howard
Lutnick.
Lutnick told Fox Business Network that at
the meeting he plans to try to "level set" things between the two
nations.
Mark Carney, who was elected leader of the
governing Liberal Party on Sunday, is set to be sworn in as prime minister,
replacing Justin Trudeau. He has promised to win the trade war against Trump,
following his landslide victory.
Mark Carney says he's ready to negotiate with Trump - BBC News
Montreal, Canada – In his first
speech as Canada’s prime minister-designate, Mark
Carney delivered what observers have described as a stunning
statement.
“I know that these are dark days,” Carney
told a room full of supporters on Sunday after he won the race to lead the
governing Liberal Party. “Dark days brought on by a country we can no longer
trust.”
‘Closest
target’: Why is Donald Trump so focused on Canada? | Donald Trump News | Al
Jazeera
Key Trump advisor blames Aussies for sparking
bitter tariff trade war
13 March 2025
A senior member of Donald
Trump's cabinet has accused Australia of dumping cheap aluminium on the
United States as justification for its 25 per cent import tariffs.
While the US has a trade surplus with
Australia, US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has accused Australia of
flooding the United States with cheap aluminium in a bid to undercut American
manufacturers.
'Look, you've got dumpers in the rest of
the world,' he told Fox Business.
'Japan dumps
steel. China dumps steel. What that means is, they make it,
they overproduce and they sell it dirt cheap, to drive our guys out of
business.
'The President is here to protect American
workers. He's here to protect American industry. We're going to stop that
nonsense and bring steel here.
'So, this concept that, oh, prices are
going to rise … you've got to remember, President Trump is playing for the
strength of America.
'We're not going to stand for China,
dumping, Japan dumping, or Australia does a lot of aluminum below cost.
'This has got to end and the President is
on it.'
World Trade Organisation rules only allow
tariffs under limited circumstances, including to stop dumping, where one
country floods another with cheap imports, sold at below cost price.
Dr Naoise McDonagh, a geopolitics and
international trade expert at Edith Cowan University in Perth, said Mr
Lutnick's assertions about Australian aluminium exports had no basis in fact.
'Lutnick's comment that there's been
dumping has been unsubstantiated by any evidence,' he told Daily Mail
Australia.
A dumping complaint with the WTO requires
an American company unfairly affected to make a complaint to the US government
first, which has not even occurred.
'Typically, if you wanted to make an
anti-dumping action, which is allowed WTO law, you would have to do an
investigation and provide evidence that would say an Australian producer of
aluminium is selling that product into the US market at a lower price than it
sells in its home Australian market,' Dr McDonagh said.
'There hasn't been any reports of evidence
of that - there hasn't even been discussion of an investigation.
'This sounds like statement rather than
fact - they've just made a broad-based dumping claim, which is so far
unsubstantiated.'
The Australian government doesn't
subsidise Tomago Aluminium in Newcastle to product the lightweight metal
cheaply to enable it to sell aluminium in the United States below cost
price.
'This sounds like, to me, this is what
we're getting from the Trump Administration, daily, is off-the-cuff remarks
that have no basis in reality,' Dr McDonagh said.
More
Key Trump advisor blames Aussies for sparking bitter tariff trade war
In other news.
Ray Dalio warns that mounting U.S. debt problems
could lead to ‘shocking developments’
Published Tue, Mar 11 2025 10:14 PM EDT
Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio on Wednesday
warned that a significant supply-demand problem regarding U.S. debt could have
a profoundly disruptive impact on the global economy.
It is the latest in a series of stark
warnings about America’s mounting debt from the U.S. hedge fund billionaire,
with the country’s national debt currently standing at more than
$36.2 trillion.
“The first thing is the debt issue, we
have a very severe supply-demand problem,” Dalio told CNBC’s Sara Eisen
at CONVERGE LIVE in
Singapore. ”[The U.S. has] to sell a quantity of debt that the world is not
going to want to buy.”
He said this was imminent and of
“paramount importance.”
The U.S. deficit needs to go from a
projected level of 7.2% of gross domestic product to about 3% of GDP, Dalio
said.
“That’s a big deal. You are going to see
shocking developments in terms of how that’s going to be dealt with,” he added.
Asked whether the U.S. debt problem could
lead to a period of austerity, Dalio said the issue could result in a
restructuring of the debt, the U.S. applying pressure on other countries to buy
the debt, or even cutting off payments to some creditor countries.
“Just as we are seeing political and
geopolitical shifts that seem unimaginable to most people, if you just look at
history, you will see these things repeating over and over again,” Dalio said.
“We will be surprised by some of the developments that will seem equally
shocking as those developments that we have seen.”
His comments, made on the same panel
as Salesforce CEO Marc
Benioff, come amid a tariff roller-coaster
ride for markets in recent days.
Trade policy uncertainty has added to a
sense of unease on Wall Street, with investors concerned about the impact of a
brewing trade war on the global economy.
Trump’s trade policies, which appear
designed to rebalance the economic order in America’s favor, include tariffs
against Canada, Mexico and China.
Tariffs ‘to cause fighting between
countries’
When asked about the potential
consequences of a simmering trade dispute, Dalio described the current state of
affairs as “an extension of the patterns of history” — and singled out 1930s
Germany as one example.
Dalio said there was a writedown of debt
at that time, alongside a hike in tariffs to boost revenue and a buildup of its
domestic base. “Be nationalistic, be protectionistic, be militaristic. That is
the way these things operate,” Dalio said.
“The issue is really the confrontation of
all of this, the fighting of all of this. So, tariffs are going to cause
fighting between countries,” Dalio said, adding that he was not necessarily
talking about a military confrontation.
“But think about U.S., Canada, Mexico,
China, and all of those types of fighting. There will be fighting, and that
will have consequences, and I think that’s the main thing to pay attention to,”
Dalio said.
Dalio said he was sharing those views as a
politically neutral observer, comparing his approach to that of a mechanic or
doctor. “I’m not an ideologue,” he added.
Ray Dalio warns
growing U.S. debt will lead to ‘shocking developments’
Global Inflation/Stagflation/Recession
Watch.
Given
our Magic Money Tree central banksters and our spendthrift politicians,
inflation now needs an entire section of its own.
Inflation
rate hits 2.8% in February, less than expected
Published
Wed, Mar 12 2025 8:30 AM EDT
Prices
for goods and services moved up less than expected in February as consumers and
businesses worry about the impact tariffs might have on inflation, the Bureau
of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday.
The
consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of costs across the U.S. economy,
ticked up a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual
inflation rate at 2.8%, according to the Labor Department agency.
Excluding
food and energy prices, core CPI also rose 0.2% on the month and was at 3.1% on
a 12-month basis.
Economists
surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 0.3% increases on both headline and
core, with respective annual rates of 2.9% and 3.2%, meaning that all of the
rates were 0.1 percentage point less than expected.
---- Shelter costs moved up 0.3%, less than in
January but still responsible for about half the monthly increase in CPI, the
BLS said. The category makes up more than one-third of the total weighting in
the CPI, with particular focus on a measure in which homeowners estimate what
they could get in rent for their properties.
Food
and energy indexes both increased 0.2%. Used vehicle prices jumped 0.9% and
apparel rose 0.6%. Within food, egg prices soared another 10.4%, taking the
12-month increase to 58.8%.
CPI inflation
report February 2025:
J.P.
Morgan economist sees 40% US recession chance and risks to 'exorbitant
privilege'
12
March 2025
SINGAPORE
(Reuters) - There is about a 40% chance of a U.S. recession this year and a
risk of lasting damage to the country's standing as an investment destination
if the administration undermines trust in U.S. governance, according to J.P.
Morgan's chief economist.
"Where
we stand now is with a heightened concern about the U.S. economy," Bruce
Kasman, the U.S. investment bank's chief global economist, told reporters in
Singapore on Wednesday.
He
said he has not yet revised any forecasts, but put a roughly 40% recession risk
into the outlook - up from about a 30% chance he had reckoned on at the start
of the year. J.P. Morgan's current forecast is for 2% U.S. GDP growth this
year.
U.S.
stocks have suffered their sharpest selloff in months over recent days as
investors have grown nervous that President Donald Trump will slow the economy
with import duties.[.N]
Ninety-five
percent of economists polled by Reuters last week across Canada, Mexico and the
U.S. said recession risks in their economies had increased as a result of
Trump's tariffs.
Economists
at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley last week downgraded their U.S. GDP growth
forecasts and now see growth at 1.7% and 1.5% this year, respectively.
Kasman
said the recession risk would rise, probably to 50% or above, if reciprocal
tariffs that Trump has threatened to impose from April were to meaningfully
come in to force.
"If
we would continue down this road of what would be more disruptive,
business-unfriendly policies, I think the risks on that recession front would
go up," Kasman said.
He
also said that discomfort around the administration's style could shake
investor faith in U.S. assets if it challenged trust, built over many years, in
U.S. markets and institutions.
"The
U.S. seems to have established itself as a place where people can be
comfortable about rule of law ... comfortable about the integrity of
information flow, and they can be comfortable that the government isn't going
to be, in unexpected ways, getting involved in the rules of the game," he
said.
The
administration's cutbacks to government agencies, changes to the U.S. role in
the world, and decisions such as a move last week to disband advisory
committees assisting with data collection, may undermine that, Kasman said.
"All
of those things are part of the uncertainties that have moved into U.S. policy,
and that part of the risk in the outlook this year I don't think has been
appreciated," he said.
"The
term which has been in place for a very long time is that we have 'exorbitant
privilege'. That we end up paying a much lower cost for financing our deficits
and debt, we have much greater capital flows and attractiveness of the dollar
and assets, because of these things," he said.
"The
risk that that stuff starts to come under pressure and becomes a structural
issue in the markets is not something I would, by any means, underplay."
J.P. Morgan
economist sees 40% US recession chance and risks to 'exorbitant privilege'
Larry Summers says there is a real possibility of a recession, which he calls the result of a ‘self-inflicted wound’
March
12, 2025
·
On Jan. 1, no one thought there was a chance of a
recession,
former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said, but that’s changed in the midst
of all the policy uncertainty, namely ever-changing tariffs. He sees the
recession risk near 50%.
President
Donald Trump’s fluctuating tariff policy has throttled the stock market and
stoked recession fears—so much so that Goldman Sachs’chief economist on
Tuesday downgraded the entire
U.S. economy. And former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers is chiming in.
In an
interview with CNN on
Monday, Summers said there is a “real possibility” of a recession, something he
would not have suspected a couple months ago. He blamed “counterproductive”
economic policies, mainly tariffs. Summers said he doesn’t think any economist
would recommend on-again, off-again tariffs.
The
current administration’s emphasis on tariffs has chilled demand, but fueled
fear spending, Summers explained. Basically, businesses and people are
investing less. But on the other hand, some are purchasing supplies in fear
that they either won’t be able to later on, or would have to pay taxes on them.
It’s the worst of both worlds, Summers said. “This is pretty much a
self-inflicted wound,” he said.
He
continued: “On January 1, no one thought that a recession was a substantial
likelihood, and today, market prices and consensus opinions of economists
suggest a very real risk of recession.”
On
Tuesday, Summers appeared in another interview, this time with Bloomberg TV, Summers said when
Trump was inaugurated, many expected a strong economy and with a strong
undercurrent of American exceptionalism. But there’s been a sea change because
of all the uncertainty, and now he sees a recession chance near 50%.
It
isn’t only the stock market—which saw shares tumble again on Tuesday after it
had its worst day of the year on Monday—or Wall Street, or distraught
analysts.
Chief executives are more pessimistic about the
economy than they have been since the pandemic.
Trump
did not rule out a recession in a recent interview. He instead said
there would be a “period of transition.” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had
also said there would
be a “detox period” for the economy that Trump inherited. Summers appeared to
call their bluff in his interview with CNN, pointing to the time
not long ago when people were calling inflation transitory.
“That
didn’t work out very well as a policy idea, and I don’t think this is going to
work out very well,” Summers said, later adding: “I’m pretty worried about the
whole situation.”
Summers
did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment. The White
House referred Fortune to Press Secretary Karoline
Leavitt’s briefing on Tuesday,
where she defended tariffs and echoed the president in claiming the economy is
in a period of transition.
Covid-19
Corner
This section will continue until it becomes unneeded
Next-generation,
inhaled COVID-19 vaccine enters phase-2 clinical trial
March
10, 2025
Researchers
at McMaster University have started a phase-2 clinical trial on a
next-generation, inhaled COVID-19 vaccine.
The
AeroVax study, supported by $8M in funding from the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research (CIHR), will test needle-free vaccines developed to provide
protection from SARS-CoV-2.
Led
by Fiona Smaill and Zhou Xing, members of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for
Infectious Disease Research (IIDR) at McMaster, the multi-centre trial will
evaluate the new vaccine in a broad study group, while also confirming safety.
Findings
from pre-clinical studies and the soon-to-be-published data from the phase-1
trial indicate that McMaster's inhaled vaccine is more effective at inducing
immune responses than traditional injected vaccines are, because it directly
targets the lungs and upper airways — where the virus first enters the body.
----The
new vaccine is entirely Canadian, from design and biomanufacturing at
McMaster's Robert E. Fitzhenry Vector Laboratory to pre-clinical and clinical
testing conducted by a team of Canadian experts, with Canadian participants, at
Canadian research sites.
For
the new trial, researchers hope to include 350 participants from across Canada
at clinical trial sites in Hamilton, Ottawa, and Halifax. Those eligible for
participation must:
·
Have
at least three doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine
·
Have
never received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine
·
Have
not had a COVID-19 infection or COVID-19 vaccination within three months prior
to enrollment
·
Have
no diagnosis of lung disease
·
Be
available to attend trial visits in-person
·
Be
age 18-65
Smaill
says that the study is a randomized placebo-controlled trial, noting that
two-thirds of the study's participants will receive the vaccine, while the
other third will receive a
placebo.
Participants won't know which group they belong to, but the researchers argue
that both groups are equally integral to the study.
"Clinical
trials, like this one, are the only way to firmly establish the efficacy and safety
of novel health products," Smaill says. "Randomization allows for
objective comparison between those who received the vaccine and those who
didn't, which can tell us a lot about the level of protection the vaccine could
provide and its side effects."
"Every
medicine or vaccine that we use and trust today has at one point gone through
similar clinical trials processes," adds Matthew Miller, director of both
the IIDR and Global Nexus at McMaster, and part of the trial study team.
"This is a highly regulated process with extensive oversight that ensures
the safety of participants and will generate critical data to inform the next
steps in development."
Following
the study, researchers will move the vaccine into phase-3 clinical trials which
will test efficacy in a larger population group and ultimately position the
vaccine for market approval.
Next-generation,
inhaled COVID-19 vaccine enters phase-2 clinical trial
Technology
Update.
With events happening fast in the
development of solar power and graphene, among other things, I’ve added this
section. Updates as they get reported.
Today, a problem that will only get
worse in the years ahead.
Warning issued
over dangerous battery that caused Surrey fire
11
March 2025
Firefighters
have issued a warning over a dangerous e-bike battery that caused a house fire
in Surrey. A
blaze was started in the home by an unsafe Unit Pack Power battery pack from a
converted e-bike while it was being charged.
Firefighters
and Trading Standards teams are now taking steps to ensure that no one else is
hurt by the product. The teams have also issued warnings around lithium-ion
batteries, especially cheap or unbranded batteries available online that could
pose a serious fire risk.
Following
the blaze, Surrey
Fire and Rescue Service’s Fire Investigation team
worked closely with Surrey Trading Standards to assess the safety of the
battery pack. Their findings led to Amazon removing the product from sale,
helping to prevent further incidents.
Matt
Perry, fire investigation officer at Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, said:
“This fire serves as a stark reminder of the dangers associated with unsafe
e-bike batteries.
"We
are committed to keeping Surrey residents safe, and I am pleased that our
partnership with Trading Standards has resulted in the removal of this
hazardous product from the market. We strongly urge the public to be vigilant
when purchasing batteries and always choose reputable retailers and
manufacturers.”
Surrey
Trading Standards has also warned consumers about the risks of purchasing
unregulated or non-compliant lithium-ion batteries online.
Amanda
Poole, Assistant Director for Trading Standards at Surrey
County Council, added: “Unsafe lithium-ion batteries pose a serious fire risk,
and we are pleased to have taken swift action alongside Surrey Fire and Rescue
Service to have this product removed from sale.
“Consumers
should always check that batteries and chargers meet UK safety standards and be
cautious of cheap or unbranded products sold online.”
Warning issued
over dangerous battery that caused Surrey fire
Next, the
world global debt clock. Nations debts to GDP compared.
World Debt
Clocks (usdebtclock.org)
Nothing
spoils a good story like the arrival of an eyewitness.
Mark
Twain.
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