House passes Trump's 'big, beautiful bill'
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Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Australia to reduce US beef import restrictions denounced by Trump as a ban
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australia will reduce restrictions on U.S. beef imports after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized what he described as an Australian ban on the meat, Agriculture Minister Julie Collins said. Collins said Thursday that relaxing the restrictions designed to keep Australia free of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, among its cattle herds would not compromise biosecurity. 'Australia stands for open and free trade — our cattle industry has significantly benefited from this,' Collins said in a statement. Australia has allowed imports of beef grown in the United States since 2019. But Australia has not allowed imports from the U.S. of beef sourced from Canada or Mexico because of the disease risk. But the U.S. has recently introduced additional movement controls that identify and trace all cattle from Mexico and Canada to their farms of origin. US cattle import controls satisfy Australian authorities Australian authorities were 'satisfied the strengthened control measures put in place by the U.S. effectively manage biosecurity risks,' Collins said. The timing of the new, reduced restrictions has not been finalized. Trump attacked Australian import restrictions on U.S. beef when he announced in April that tariffs of at least 10% would be placed on Australian imports, with steel and aluminum facing a 50% tariff. 'Australia bans — and they're wonderful people, and wonderful everything — but they ban American beef,' Trump told reporters then. 'Yet we imported $3 billion of Australian beef from them just last year alone. They won't take any of our beef. They don't want it because they don't want it to affect their farmers and, you know, I don't blame them, but we're doing the same thing right now,' Trump added. Lawmaker fears appeasing Trump endangers Australian cattle industry Opposition lawmaker David Littleproud suspected the government was endangering Australia's cattle industry to appease Trump. 'I want to see the science and it should be predicated on science. I'm suspicious of the speed at which this has been done,' Littleproud told reporters. 'We need to give confidence to the industry, but also to you (the public): this is not just about animal welfare, this is about human welfare, this is about BSE potentially coming into this country and having a human impact, so I think it's important the government's very transparent about the science and I don't think it's even beyond the question to have an independent panel review that science to give confidence to everybody,' he added. Around 70% of Australian beef is exported. Producers fear that export market would vanish overnight if diseases including mad cow or foot-and-mouth disease infected Australian cattle. Will Evans, chief executive of Cattle Australia who represents more than 52,000 grass-fed beef producers across the nation, said he was confident the agriculture department had taken a cautious approach toward U.S. imports. 'The department's undertaken a technical scientific assessment and we have to put faith in them. They've made this assessment themselves. They've said: 'We've looked at this, we've looked at the best science, this is a decision that we feel comfortable with,'' Evans told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. 'When you have a 75 billion (Australian dollar, $50 billion) industry relying on them not making this mistake, I'm sure they've been very cautious in their decision-making,' he added. US beef prices rise because of drought and a domestic cattle shortage Beef prices have been rising in the U.S. due to factors that include drought and shrinking domestic herd numbers. The average price of a pound of ground beef in the U.S. rose to $6.12 in June, up nearly 12% from a year ago, according to U.S. government data. The average price of all uncooked beef steaks rose 8% to $11.49 per pound. Australia's opposition to any U.S. tariffs will be high on the agenda when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese secures his first face-to-face meeting with Trump. Albanese and Trump were to hold a one-on-one meeting on the sidelines of a Group of Seven summit in Canada last month, but the U.S. president left early. Albanese expects the pair will meet this year, although no date has been announced. The two countries have had a bilateral free trade deal for 20 years and the U.S. has maintained a trade surplus with Australia for decades. Rod Mcguirk, The Associated Press
Medscape
22 minutes ago
- Medscape
FDA Declines to Approve New Melanoma Therapy
The FDA has declined to approve a new oncolytic immunotherapy, vusolimogene oderparepvec (RP1), to treat advanced melanoma. The agency recently issued a complete response letter to the company, Replimune Group, rejecting its biologics license application that sought approval for the new agent in combination with nivolumab (Opdivo) to treat adults with advanced melanoma. In the complete response letter, the FDA indicated that it can't approve the biologics license application for vusolimogene oderparepvec because the company's IGNYTE trial 'is not considered to be an adequate and well-controlled clinical investigation that provides substantial evidence of effectiveness,' Replimune explained in a press release. According to Replimune, the complete response letter also noted that the trial data 'cannot be adequately interpreted due to the heterogeneity of the patient population,' and that 'there are items related to the confirmatory trial study design which need to be addressed.' 'We are surprised by the FDA decision and disappointed for advanced melanoma patients who have limited treatment options, as highlighted by the granting of breakthrough status at the time we provided the IGNYTE primary data,' stated Sushil Patel, PhD, Replimune's chief executive officer. Vusolimogene oderparepvec is the lead product candidate for the biotech company. Patel further noted that the issues raised in the complete response letter were not 'raised by the agency in mid- and late-cycle reviews.' Additionally, he said, 'we had also aligned on the design of the confirmatory study.' The FDA's response to the biologics license application for the new agent, along with its recently announced policy requiring randomized, controlled trials for approval of COVID vaccines in healthy Americans younger than 65 years, may signal that the agency is taking a tougher stance on new drug approvals. Replimune plans to 'urgently interact with the FDA to find a path forward for the timely accelerated approval of RP1,' according to its statement. Sharon Worcester, MA, is an award-winning medical journalist based in Birmingham, Alabama, writing for Medscape Medical News, MDedge, and other affiliate sites. She currently covers oncology, but she has also written on a variety of other medical specialties and healthcare topics. She can be reached at sworcester@ or on X @SW_MedReporter.
Bloomberg
24 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
BNP Paribas Beats as Fixed-Income Traders Offset Equities Slump
BNP Paribas SA reported better-than-expected profit as the French lender got a boost from its fixed-income traders while equities slumped in the volatility triggered by the US tariff announcements. Revenue from trading debt securities and currencies jumped 27% from a year earlier, BNP Paribas said in a statement Thursday, beating estimates as well as Wall Street. Equities income declined 15%, a stark contrast with double-digit gains at the biggest US firms.
