fortuner gen 2
In the immediate aftermath of his acquittal on criminal charges Monday, the Marine veteran Daniel Penny and his legal team went to a bar in lower Manhattan, a bar employee told CNN by phone. There, Penny held a drink in one hand while giving a thumbs-up with the other in a posed picture with his attorneys Thomas Kenniff and Steven Raiser, according to a photo from Kenniff . The post-verdict celebration underscores a basic fact about Penny’s future: The 26-year-old who had been accused of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the subway death of Jordan Neely is now a free man . So what’s next for Daniel Penny? His exact plans remain unclear. His attorneys have not responded to a CNN request for comment on his future. While the criminal case against him is over, Penny still faces a civil lawsuit from Neely’s father alleging he caused Neely’s death. As for Penny’s life and career, he previously took college classes in engineering and architecture. Further, the trial and debate over his actions on the subway have made him a recognizable public figure and a political talking point – for better or worse. “Certainly you’ll find people in society who look down upon what he did and his actions, but equally I think you’ll see people who are really favorably inclined to embrace him because of his actions,” CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson said. Legally, the criminal case against him is over. On Monday, a jury found Penny not guilty of criminally negligent homicide. Penny also previously faced a more serious second-degree manslaughter charge, but Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed it at the request of prosecutors after jurors twice told the court they could not come to a verdict on the count. Penny could have faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter. “For over 18 months our client has lived under the weight of a criminal indictment, all the while guilty of nothing more than trying to protect his fellow New Yorkers from a psychotic madman with a history of violence,” Kenniff said in a statement Monday. “Today the Manhattan Jury has spoken, and the misguided prosecution of Daniel Penny will go down as a sad chapter in the history of New York criminal justice.” Penny’s history as a student and Marine The case against Penny stemmed from the death of Neely, a 30-year-old street artist who struggled with homelessness, mental illness and drugs , on a New York City subway car on May 1, 2023. Neely entered the subway car and began acting erratically, throwing down his jacket and yelling that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care whether he died, witnesses said. Penny, a passenger on his way from a college class to the gym, grabbed Neely from behind in a chokehold, forced him to the train floor and restrained him there for several minutes. When Penny let go, Neely was nonresponsive. He was later declared dead. Prosecutors argued at his Manhattan trial Penny acted recklessly and negligently by restraining Neely in a chokehold for so long, even after Neely stopped moving. His defense, meanwhile, said he was acting to protect others from a threat and challenged a medical examiner’s finding that Neely died from the chokehold. After restraining Neely that day, Penny remained on scene when police arrived and later explained his actions to several NYPD officers. In one videotaped interview at the police precinct, he made small talk with a detective about his Marine service and career plans. Penny served four years in the Marines as a sergeant, from 2017 to 2021, with his last duty assignment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to military records. “I’m in school. I’m using that GI Bill,” Penny said, referring to the federal program that offers benefits to veterans for higher education. He said he was studying engineering and architecture at New York City College of Technology. “But we’ll see,” Penny added. “I miss the Marine Corps. I miss the camaraderie.” Penny’s legal and political future Penny still faces a civil lawsuit related to Neely’s death. Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court last week accusing Penny of assault, battery and causing Neely’s death. Zachery, who is listed as the administrator of Neely’s estate, accused Penny of having caused the death due to “negligence, carelessness and recklessness.” The suit does not specify the amount of money the family is seeking. Kenniff, Penny’s defense attorney, did not respond to a request for comment on the suit. Finally, Penny’s fame and notoriety could lead to both challenges and opportunities in the public sphere. Penny’s controversial actions in restraining Neely have made him a target of protests outside court throughout the trial. The not-guilty verdict further sparked emotions Monday: Neely’s father was escorted out of the courtroom after the verdict was read following an audible outburst with expletives, and Hawk Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, yelled “Small world, buddy,” at Penny while being led out. On the other hand, right-wing political figures have praised his actions and elevated him as a hero. Trump previously commented on the case, telling Fox News, “It’s an awfully tough case, I think.” Vice President-elect JD Vance expressed his support for Penny on Monday, saying on X, “thank God justice was done in this case.” Rep. Eli Crane, a Republican from Arizona, introduced a resolution in Congress on Monday to grant Penny a Congressional Gold Medal for his “heroism,” he said in a post on X. “Courage should always prevail over moral cowardice. Thankfully, our justice system got it right yesterday,” Crane said. CNN’s Lauren del Valle, Gloria Pazmino and Celina Tebor contributed to this report.LOS ANGELES — In what could be considered the end of an era, the Industry on Thursday announced that Yuval Sharon will step down as artistic director of the groundbreaking L.A. opera company. The company's executive director, Tim Griffin, who came on board in summer 2023, will expand his title to become both executive and artistic director. The Industry's co-artistic directors, Ash Fure and Malik Gaines, who joined forces in an artistic director cooperative with Sharon in 2021, will form a new artistic advisory council. Its goal, the company said, will be to encourage dialogue about opera across the arts and help Griffin select future artists-in-residence. Sharon will need to spend more time in New York City, where earlier this year the Metropolitan Opera announced that Sharon would direct its next "Ring" cycle beginning in 2028. He's set to make his debut with the company next season with a new production of "Tristan und Isolde." In 2012 Sharon landed the Industry on the map with an exuberantly unconventional new opera by Anne LeBaron called "Crescent City." When the show premiered at an experimental art space in Atwater Village, Times Classical Music Critic Mark Swed wrote: "LeBaron's opera is the first project of an industrious, and potentially groundbreaking, new enterprise called The Industry that was founded by Yuval Sharon, a young director with his fingers in many of L.A.'s different and distinctive art pies." The prescient headline to that review? "Industry's remarkable 'Crescent City' reshapes L.A. opera." In the years that followed, the Industry didn't just reshape the city's opera scene, it radically transformed it. Sharon rose to become a major star of a cadre of artists working to disrupt the art form — to make it less refined and restrictive, and more responsive to the changing landscape of the 21st century. Sharon also sought to broaden opera's tent, to welcome in young, diverse audiences and to expand opportunities for women and artists of color. He won a MacArthur genius grant in the process and penned the book "A New Philosophy of Opera," which detailed a thriving future for the changing genre. Among Sharon's most memorable — and mind-bending — accomplishments was his 2015 opera "Hopscotch," which took place in 24 vehicles driving on the roads of L.A. The logistics were staggering, and when naysayers said it couldn't be done, Sharon became fond of asking, "why not?" If "Hopscotch" seemed tailor made for the fast-moving age of social media, 2020's "Sweet Land," staged at Angeles State Historic Park, plunged into deeper water. By exploring themes of immigration, displacement and the genocidal conquest at the heart of the American origin story, the production earned rave reviews before closing early as COVID darkened stages across the country. That same year, Sharon expanded his reach by signing on as artistic director of Detroit Opera and quickly making a splash with a drive-through production of Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" in a parking garage. His contract with the company was recently extended through 2028. Sharon also has worked with Berlin State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Santa Fe Opera. Fans of the Industry will no doubt wonder if last summer's "The Comet/Poppea" was the last show that Sharon directed for the company. The announcement Thursday about Sharon's transition to the title of founder notes that he will "continue supporting The Industry's next steps, attending upcoming performances and conceiving future projects unique to The Industry's identity." Sharon and the Industry will celebrate the company's legacy and future on Jan. 30 at downtown's Bradbury Building with a Decade Party. Tickets can be purchased, at theindustryla.org . ------- ©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
TikTok files legal challenge of federal government’s shutdown orderReader feedbackOGE Energy Corp. appoints Walworth as chief financial officer
NoneNone
Craft, Suter score 18 as Miami (OH) knocks off Siena 70-58
The Rana Daggubati Show Review: Nani And Rana Give Lessons On Cinema And Life To Teja SajjaTravel Tuesday Poised to Outpace Black Friday & Cyber Monday 2024 Travel Purchases
By Dr. Gyan Pathak India is moving fast with its intention of implementing the next phase of labour reforms. Digital bases are being put in place, that may ultimately pave the way for smooth transition to new labour code regime, implementation of which is likely to be announced soon, though it is generally considered to be a minefield that would be very problematic to navigate by both workers and employers. Both the stakeholders are yet not ready to the occasion, though Centre and the majority of States and UTs are ready with their laws required for implementation. The latest few moves of the Centre indicate in this direction. It has already put eShram portal for migrant and informal workers, and directions have already issued to Ministries and Departments to ensure payments of subsidy and incentives to beneficiaries of the welfare schemes through Aadhar Payment Bridge. Under the Aadhar Payment Bridge, Central Government has earlier ordered the ministries and departments to ensure 100 per cent Biometric Aadhar Authentication. Now, it has ordered the Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to ensure employers to complete the first stage of the process of Universal Account Number (UAN) activation through Aadhar-based OTP by November 30, 2024, starting with the latest joinee employees in the current financial year 2024-25. In the second stage of the process, going forward, UAN activation will include the state-of-the-art facility of Biometric authentication, through Face-recognition Technology. Thereafter, the Employers are required to complete the process for all employees working with them. It is part of the EPFO reform that is required to ensure that maximum number of employers and employees benefit from the Employment Linked Incentive (ELI) Scheme announced in the Union Budget 2024-25. It is in this backdrop, the Ministry of Labour & Employment has directed EPFO to work in a campaign mode with Employers and ensure activation of Universal Account Number (UAN) of employees. EPFO, in their turn, will involve their zonal and regional offices for effective outreach. The Union Ministry of Labour& Employment has said that using Aadhar as an identity document simplifies government delivery processes, enhances transparency and efficiency, and ensures beneficiaries receive their entitlements seamlessly. Aadhar-based verification eliminates the need for producing multiple documents to prove one’s identity. Three schemes A, B, and C were launched in the Union Budget 2024-25 to give Rs10,000 crore subsidies to employers under ELI scheme through EPFO for every new membership, and it was claimed that it would generate 8 million jobs, apart from skilling 10 million youths over the next five years. EPFO has just celebrated its foundation day, and on that occasion, the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment had said, “India’s economy is currently undergoing a transformative shift marked by an increasing trend toward formalization—a process that is redefining job structures, employment security, and social benefits for millions. This change is of profound importance for India’s workforce, as it ensures that a larger segment of the population is covered by social security systems, offering them greater economic stability and a more secure future.” The process of creating a digital base for entire informal and formal workforce in the country is likely to make the transition from the old labour laws regime to the new labour code regime a little smoother. PM Narendra Modi has already labelled the new labour codes as the largest labour reform in India since independence, which according to him would benefit both the employees and employers – employees with better working conditions and employers with ease of doing business. Nevertheless, transition is not likely to be smooth on account of fear of new problems that the implementation of the codes would bring to both the stakeholders – the employees and employers. The joint platform of the 10 Central Trade Unions (CTUs) has been agitating against the four labour codes since PM Modi government had got them passed – Code of Wages in 2019, and Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security, and Occupational Safety, and Health and Working Conditions in 2020. Government supported Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has also reservations on certain provisions of the codes which they say need further discussion before implementation. As for the Employers, navigating from old labour laws regime to the new labour codes regime would not be smooth either, though the new four codes were prepared by subsuming 29 of the 44 labour related laws to make doing business easier. Barring the big Corporate companies, all other companies would have to undergo numerous problems while implementing the new labour codes, since they would require to identify and make arrangements as per the new laws involving funds to deal with the complexities in compliance and the new possible legal pitfalls. The EPFO, ESI, and eShram platforms have already displayed considerable level of problems in implementation of the new direction of the Central government. States and UTs will also be required to make enough arrangements in terms of skilled manpower, digital space for themselves, and effective implementing machinery. Nevertheless, the fast-changing world of work will compel all stakeholder to adopt to the new realities on the ground as far as fast emerging new Employment regime is concerned that heavy relies on technology and Artificial Intelligence. Even the four labour codes are almost five years old during which the world of work has drastically changed, requiring further tweaks in the codes themselves. Foolish implementation of the codes without suitable changes to meet the challenges of the fast changing world of work after COVID-19 crisis of 2020 could be disastrous. The joint platform of CTUs is still threatening strong protest agitation against implementation of the labour codes, including all India strike action. Employers may face pressures from the government to implement the new laws on the one hand and from agitating workers on the other. (IPA Service)
Speaker schedules opposition motions after Tories opt against own non-confidence voteBy ROB GILLIES, Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Donald Trump that Americans would also suffer if the president-elect follows through on a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products , a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Monday. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders with the United States. He said on social media last week that he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders. Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, attended a dinner with Trump and Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Friday. Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico . “The prime minister of course spoke about the importance of protecting the Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with our American friends the negative impact that those tariffs could have on their economy, on affordability in the United States as well,” LeBlanc said in Parliament. If Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, alcohol and other goods. The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last week that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when the countries retaliate. Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on the threat. After his dinner with Trump, Trudeau returned home without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. “The idea that we came back empty handed is completely false,” LeBlanc said. “We had a very productive discussion with Mr. Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. ... The commitment from Mr. Trump to continue to work with us was far from empty handed.” Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood.” Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not the problem when it comes to drugs and migrants. On Monday, Mexico’s president rejected those comments. “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said. She said Canada had its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.” Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs at the two countries’ border are vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.
Baltimore quarterback Lamar Jackson, the reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, leads fan balloting for the 2025 NFL Pro Bowl Games after one week of voting, the league announced on Monday. Ravens superstar Jackson set the overall pace with 44,681 votes followed by teammate Derrick Henry, the running back leader, in second overall at 40,729 votes. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.None
As part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. “And in fact I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.” The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using “novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,” according to a news release announcing the funding. The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness. Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple “shots on goal” to ensure progress. “In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,” said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research. He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged. If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss. To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees. A team at New York University performed a full eye transplant on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure — while a “remarkable achievement,” Pelaez said — did not restore the patient’s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants. Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure — albeit without vision restoration — in rats. The CU team will next work on large animals to advance “optic nerve regenerative strategies,” the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients’ immune systems don’t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials. Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they’ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish. His team’s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process. InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and “micro-tunneled scaffolds” that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, ARPA-H said. ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams’ work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from the National Eye Institute . The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research. The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams’ success. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H’s funding under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was “biblical” in its enormity — a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago. If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said. “We have launched,” she said, “and we are on our trajectory.”The Rana Daggubati Show Review: Nani And Rana Give Lessons On Cinema And Life To Teja Sajja
As part of a national “moonshot” to cure blindness, researchers at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus will receive as much as $46 million in federal funding over the next five years to pursue a first-of-its-kind full eye transplantation. “This is no easy undertaking, but I believe we can achieve this together,” said Dr. Kia Washington, the lead researcher for the University of Colorado-led team, during a press conference Monday. “And in fact I’ve never been more hopeful that a cure for blindness is within reach.” The CU team was one of four in the United States that received funding awards from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health , or ARPA-H. The CU-based group will focus on achieving the first-ever vision-restoring eye transplant by using “novel stem cell and bioelectronic technologies,” according to a news release announcing the funding. The work will be interdisciplinary, Washington and others said, and will link together researchers at institutions across the country. The four teams that received the funding will work alongside each other on distinct approaches, though officials said the teams would likely collaborate and eventually may merge depending on which research avenues show the most promise toward achieving the ultimate goal of transplanting an eye and curing blindness. Dr. Calvin Roberts, who will oversee the broader project for ARPA-H, said the agency wanted to take multiple “shots on goal” to ensure progress. “In the broader picture, achieving this would be probably the most monumental task in medicine within the last several decades,” said Dr. Daniel Pelaez of the University of Miami’s Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, which also received ARPA-H funding. Pelaez is the lead investigator for that team, which has pursued new procedures to successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors, amid other research. He told The Denver Post that only four organ systems have not been successfully transplanted: the inner ear, the brain, the spinal cord and the eye. All four are part of the central nervous system, which does not repair itself when damaged. If researchers can successfully transplant the human eye and restore vision to the patient, it might help unlock deeper discoveries about repairing damage to the brain and spine, Pelaez said, as well as addressing hearing loss. To succeed, researchers must successfully remove and preserve eyes from donors and then successfully connect and repair the optical nerve, which takes information from the eye and tells the brain what the eye sees. A team at New York University performed a full eye transplant on a human patient in November 2023, though the procedure — while a “remarkable achievement,” Pelaez said — did not restore the patient’s vision. It was also part of a partial face transplant; other approaches pursued via the ARPA-H funding will involve eye-specific transplants. Washington, the lead CU researcher, said she and her colleagues have already completed the eye transplant procedure — albeit without vision restoration — in rats. The CU team will next work on large animals to advance “optic nerve regenerative strategies,” the school said, as well as to study immunosuppression, which is critical to ensuring that patients’ immune systems don’t reject a donated organ. The goal is to eventually advance to human trials. Pelaez and his colleagues have completed their eye-removal procedure in cadavers, he said, and they’ve also studied regeneration in several animals that are capable of regenerating parts of their eyes, like salamanders or zebra fish. His team’s funding will focus in part on a life-support machine for the eye to keep it healthy and viable during the removal process. InGel Therapeutics, a Massachusetts-based Harvard spinoff and the lead of a third team, will pursue research on 3-D printed technology and “micro-tunneled scaffolds” that carry certain types of stem cells as part of a focus on optical nerve regeneration and repair, ARPA-H said. ARPH-A, created two years ago, will oversee the teams’ work. Researchers at 52 institutions nationwide will also contribute to the teams. The CU-led group will include researchers from the University of Southern California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as from the National Eye Institute . The teams will simultaneously compete and collaborate: Pelaez said his team has communicated with researchers at CU and at Stanford, another award recipient, about their eye-removal research. The total funding available for the teams is $125 million, ARPA-H officials said Monday, and it will be distributed in phases, in part dependent on teams’ success. U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, a Democrat who represents Denver in Congress, acknowledged the recent election results at the press conference Monday and pledged to continue fighting to preserve ARPA-H’s funding under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The effort to cure blindness, Washington joked, was “biblical” in its enormity — a reference to the Bible story in which Jesus cures a blind man. She and others also likened it to a moonshot, meaning the effort to successfully put Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the moon nearly 50 years ago. If curing blindness is similar to landing on the moon, then the space shuttle has already left the launchpad, Washington said. “We have launched,” she said, “and we are on our trajectory.”Mexico's lower house approves labor reform for app workers