Latest news with #AndrewYang
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Alzheimer's May Start at The Brain's Borders, Scientists Discover
To find a cure for Alzheimer's disease, we need to understand how and where it gets started, and new research suggests we might be looking in the wrong place. Scientists from the US and Germany have linked genetic risk for Alzheimer's and other brain diseases to the blood-brain barrier – the blood vessels and immune cells that surround and protect the brain. While Alzheimer's is closely associated with abnormal clumps and tangles of proteins damaging neurons inside the brain, their findings suggest the initial trigger for the disease could be an outside intruder slipping through a compromised brain boundary. Related: "When studying diseases affecting the brain, most research has focused on its resident neurons," says neuroscientist Andrew Yang, from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease in California. "I hope our findings lead to more interest in the cells forming the brain's borders, which might actually take center stage in diseases like Alzheimer's." Previous genetics studies found variations in DNA sequences linked with neurological conditions often occur not in genes that code for proteins, but in sections outside of them. These flanking sequences often served to fine-tune the expression of nearby genes to help control the cell's activity. Yang and his colleagues developed a new genetic analysis technology called MultiVINE-seq. This method can isolate vascular and immune cells from brain tissue and measure their gene activity and chromatin accessibility (how 'open' DNA is to being used by the cell). Putting the tech to work on 30 postmortem brain tissue samples from people with and without neurological disease, the researchers built up a comprehensive, layered picture of which genetic variations were linked to brain conditions such as Alzheimer's. Many of these genetic variations were found in cells patrolling the borders of the brain, including endothelial cells that help manage access to the brain, and immune system T cells. Certain variants suggested inflammatory immune cells could be triggering or accelerating Alzheimer's. "Before this, we knew these genetic variants increased disease risk, but we didn't know where or how they acted in the context of brain barrier cell types," says neuroscientist Madigan Reid, from the Gladstone Institute. "Our study shows that many of the variants are actually functioning in blood vessels and immune cells in the brain." Neurodegenerative diseases are complex and affected by many factors, so progress in fighting them is slow. However, this latest study gets us another step closer to understanding how diseases like Alzheimer's work. Related: Previous research has already linked Alzheimer's disease to broader issues with the immune system, not just within the brain. We also know that other parts of the body may be involved, via how they message and interact with the brain. The team also found that different genetic risk variants had different effects on the borders of the brain, depending on the disease – another important finding that can teach us more about various diseases, and how to develop treatments. "This work brings the brain's vascular and immune cells into the spotlight," says Yang. "Given their unique location and role in establishing the brain's relationship with the body and outside world, our work could inform new, more accessible drug targets and lifestyle interventions to protect the brain from the outside in." The research has been published in Neuron. Related News What Is Chikungunya? A Guide to The Virus Spreading in China A Disease That Makes You Allergic to Meat And Dairy Is Spreading Around The World These Symptoms Could Be Early Warning Signs of MS, a Decade Before Diagnosis Solve the daily Crossword
CBS News
03-08-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Christine Todd Whitman, former New Jersey governor, says 3rd party needed now more than ever
Christine Todd Whitman, the former Republican governor of New Jersey, says America needs a third political party to challenge the GOP and Democrats now more than ever. Whitman is co-chair of the Forward Party, which was founded by former New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang. It has endorsed dozens of moderate Republicans, Democrats and non-partisan candidates across the country since 2022. "We need a third party because it's clear the duopoly we have now is not responding to the people's needs, and that's why people are so frustrated and angry. If you watch what's happening to the parties, they're actually losing support, that more and more people are becoming independents or unaffiliated because they're saying neither of you are working for me," Whitman said Sunday on CBS News New York's "The Point with Marcia Kramer." Whitman was governor of New Jersey from 1994-2001 and led the Environmental Protection Agency under President George W. Bush during his first term. She said disaffected voters and low turnout helped put more extreme candidates in office over the decades since. "We got lazy about democracy. We kind of assumed, 'It's always gonna be there, I don't have to bother. If it's a rainy day, I don't want to go vote,'" Whitman said. According to the former governor, out of 500,000-plus elected offices in the U.S., about 70% go uncontested in any given year and 5-10% are never filled. "That's just wrong. Every voter should have a choice. They should have at least two people for whom to vote," she said. Whitman also criticized potential redistricting in Texas to benefit Republicans and in California and New York to benefit Democrats. "How about giving people the kind of diversity in representation that they want," she said. "Whether it's a Republican state or a Democratic state, one party rule, as it were, is not healthy for anybody. You need competition. You need to have that exchange of ideas." Whitman says the Forward Party is meant to appeal to moderate voters who are more interested in solving problems and reaching a consensus than backing a single platform. "We're not having a set of principles that say, 'You have to believe in abortion, pro- or anti-abortion, that's what you have to be, that's what you have to talk about,'" she said. "We will support Republican, Democrats and independents as long as they sign our pledge." The pledge, Whitman continued, is based on the "principles of decency, democracy and diversity." "I'm almost embarrassed to say we have to have this as a pledge. It's, 'I agree to uphold the rule of law, respect the Constitution, work with anyone to solve problems, create a safe space to discuss controversial issues, and work to ensure that anyone who has a legal right to vote gets to vote,'" she said. Currently, there are 53 Forward Party candidates or affiliated candidates in office, Whitman said. Whitman, a former two-term Republican governor of New Jersey, endorsed Democrat Mikie Sherrill over Republican Jack Ciattarelli in the 2025 election. She believes that Sherrill has a history of working in the middle and Ciattarelli is too aligned with President Donald Trump. "First of all, Jack Ciattarelli has changed so much from the person that I knew before. He would never be this all-in on Trump and he has said there's nothing with which he would disagree with what the president has done," Whitman said. "We're not a state of people who hate each other. We're built on diversity that I had as a motto when I was governor, 'many faces, one family.' We should celebrate that and clearly the president does not." "[Sherrill] has been someone who, in Congress, has really worked to get bills through, get bipartisan legislation enacted. And that's what we need. We need somebody, you gotta be tough in New Jersey, and she's tough," Whitman said. "She's not an extreme and that's what I like about her. She has never taken those extreme stands." Click here to watch the full interview.
Daily Mail
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Top liberal politician quickly edits tribute to Ozzy Osbourne after making VERY embarrassing mistake
A top Democrat quickly had to edit his embarrassing mistake after assuming late musician Ozzy Osbourne was American. Former Democratic presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, 50, took to X to honor Osbourne, who died on Tuesday at the age of 76. Only the lobbyist and founder of the Forward Party mistook the Black Sabbath frontman as an American. Osbourne was born in Marston Green, England in 1948. 'RIP Ozzy Osbourne, a true American original,' Yang wrote on Tuesday at 4:38pm. A minute later, he realized his mistake, changing it to: 'RIP Ozzy Osbourne, a true original and pioneer.' Despite the fast edit, his fans and critics were quick to notice the mistake, with many reiterating to Yang: 'He was British, Andrew.' 'He was British,' another chimed in. Others poked fun at the businessman, sarcastically telling him that he made a 'smooth edit' and that his edit history was still visible to the public. 'We saw the original, bro!' one wrote on the platform. 'Dude, your edit history,' another said. 'It's wild you just left it there instead of deleting and reposting. Did you even know who he was before today?' A third wrote: 'You know that delete and repost is available for the same price, right?' Yang ignored the criticism and made additional posts about the housing crisis and the future of politics on his page. Daily Mail has contacted Yang for comment. Osbourne's family confirmed his death in a statement on Tuesday evening, writing: 'It is with more sadness than mere words can convey that we have to report that our beloved Ozzy Osbourne has passed away this morning. 'He was with his family and surrounded by love. We ask everyone to respect our family privacy at this time. Sharon, Jack, Kelly, Aimee and Louis.' The rocker was able to bid an emotional farewell to his fans on stage this month as he reunited with his original Black Sabbath bandmates Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward for the first time since 2005 while performing at Villa Park in Birmingham. 'You've no idea how I feel - thank you from the bottom of my heart,' Osbourne told the crowd in his final speech. The music legend vowed, however, that it would be his final ever performance due to his health, having opened up about his battle with Parkinson's in 2020. The star was a titan of music who somehow survived controversies that would end the careers of many others, and weathered health problems that would leave most on their backs. Whether it was biting the head off both a bat and a dove, snorting a line of ants or urinating on a US war memorial while wearing one of his wife Sharon's dresses, Osbourne was defined by his controversial antics both on and off stage. The singer, who sold more than 100million records, will forever be synonymous with the heavy metal band he formed in his home city of Birmingham in 1969. With hits that included Iron Man, War Pigs and Paranoid, Black Sabbath's pushing of occult themes proved both hugely popular and controversial, with a future pope even condemning Osbourne for his 'subliminal satanic influence.'
The Hill
10-07-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Third parties are a fool's errand in America, and Elon Musk is just the latest fool
Like a bad penny, the idea of a third party regularly shows up in American political discourse. It never comes to anything. Seemingly smart people sign up for these doomed efforts. That Elon Musk, Andrew Yang and Mark Cuban are piling in only proves that intelligence in business and engineering is rarely portable into politics. Opportunistically, Yang wants to team up with Musk, but says he wants to know 'what the path looks like.' How about 'dead end?' And it's not because of any conspiracy — although yes, institutions in power do tend to develop a survival instinct. Third parties crash and burn in America because our form of government is structured for a two-party system. To have viable third parties will require changing the Constitution — no easy task. The founding fathers certainly did not anticipate this result. But their creation — first-past-the-post winners elected geographically in states or districts — naturally favors two parties. Third parties tend to become wasted protest votes and inevitably wither away. When they do become a political force, they either replace one of the major parties, have their ideas absorbed by one (or both) of those two parties, or become regional. Of course, third parties have popped up from time to time in America. The Republican Party started as one. As a firmly abolitionist party, the Republican Party swept away the feckless Whigs in the 1850s. In the late 19th century, the Populist Party rose out of the Great Plains. But in 1896, Democrat William Jennings Bryan stole their thunder and their platform, with the Populists mostly drifting into the Democratic Party. Later, the Progressives in the 20th century straddled both parties up to the Great Depression, when they too mostly became Democrats. The last third-party gasp was Ross Perot's Reform Party. Perot had his moment in 1992 but cracked under the pressure. His movement was too dependent on his personality and the national deficit as an issue. When these failed, Reform flamed out. But this experience is not uniquely American. Both Britain and Canada show how this electoral structure pushes political systems to two parties. Britain has been dominated by two parties since the advent of political parties, with third parties occasionally nosing their way into coalitions. At first it was the Conservatives and the Liberals (starting as Whigs). Then, the early 20th century saw the rise of the more left-wing Labour Party. But Labour did not become a third wheel — it replaced the Liberals, who went from leading the government in 1910 with 274 seats to just 59 seats by 1929. While the party now known as the Liberal Democrats have occasionally had bursts of electoral success, they have not been able to maintain momentum. They grabbed 57 seats in 2010 and entered into coalition with the Conservatives, only to collapse to just 8 seats in the next election, wiped out by a geographic party, the Scottish National Party. And it is only these geographically based parties that can gain representation. Despite never gaining more than 5 percent of the British national vote, the SNP has been able to regularly outperform the Liberals. In 2017, with less than half the votes of the Liberals, the SNP gained 35 seats to the Liberals' 12. Canada demonstrates a similar dynamic with the same system as Britain. Again, Conservatives and Liberals have faced off against each other for more than a century. But two other parties have been part of the political story: the New Democratic Party, a leftist national party and Bloc Québécois, a regional party. Like Labour, the New Democratic Party rose up to challenge the Liberals from the left. Unlike Labour, it failed to replace them when it had the chance. In 2011, the NDP outpolled the Liberals and gained 103 seats to the Liberals' 34, but the next election, the party collapsed to just 44 seats. It has only weakened from there, holding just seven seats after the latest election. The Bloc has mostly stayed relevant, despite never gaining more than 10 percent of the vote. It currently has 22 seats, holding the balance of power in the Canadian parliament, with the Liberals (169 seats) just short of a majority. And that is the dynamic that stymies third parties while keeping regional parties relevant. Being a geographic also-ran without proportional representation is a disaster. With voters scattered across the country and thus diluted in each district, third parties cannot win seats, whether parliamentary, congressional or in the Electoral College. Voters don't like wasting their votes and tend to drop out or go to the least objectionable major party. In parliamentary systems, holding the few seats for a coalition government means a third party can bargain for some executive power. But in the American federal system, third parties have no power in the executive branch and can only, at best, trade votes in Congress, if needed. The independents who do get elected to the House and Senate are from small states with an independent voting streak. Alaska, Maine and Vermont — out-of-the-way states with small electorates — have a record of electing independents. However, in their current iteration, it's worth noting that the two independents, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) are independents in name only. They caucus with the Democrats and vote lockstep with them on everything. When former Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin ( and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) tried to broker centrist compromises, King and Sanders were nowhere to be found. If Musk, Yang and Cuban are as smart as they think they are, they would either plot to replace or take over one of the two major parties. Barring that, they could put together an advocacy group that would involve itself in Republican and Democratic primaries, supporting candidates who circle around a coherent platform. Their group would be a real nonpartisan organization, not the fake 'unbiased' PACs that grow like weeds in Washington. The bottom line is that Musk's America Party will eventually go the same way as No Labels and the Forward Party if it follows the same failed playbook — forward to nowhere. Keith Naughton, a longtime Republican political consultant, is co-founder of Silent Majority Strategies, a public and regulatory affairs consulting firm, and a former Pennsylvania political campaign consultant.
Fox News
08-07-2025
- Business
- Fox News
Elon Musk connects with indie Andrew Yang on billionaire former Trump ally's third party push
As Elon Musk moves forward with forming a third party in hopes of rocking the nation's longstanding two-party system, the world's richest person is reaching out to a one-time presidential candidate who has started his own independent party. Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who spent the first four months of President Donald Trump's second administration as a special White House advisor steering the recently created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), spoke with Andrew Yang, Fox News has confirmed. A source familiar with the conversation said that the two discussed Musk's push to create the "America Party," which Musk aims to field some candidates in next year's midterm elections. "I'm excited for anyone who wants to move on from the duopoly," Yang said in a statement to Fox News. "And I'm happy to help give someone a sense of what the path looks like." News of the conversation was first reported by Politico. Yang grabbed national attention in the 2020 election cycle, as the entrepreneur went from an extreme longshot to briefly being a contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Yang soured on the two-party system after an unsuccessful 2021 run for New York City mayor. He then formed the independent Forward Party, which has been recognized in a handful of states and aims to eventually gain ballot access from coast to coast. Yang and Musk are far from strangers. Musk in 2019 supported Yang's unsuccessful presidential bid. Musk became the top donor of the 2024 election cycle, dishing out nearly $300 million in support of Trump's bid through America PAC, a mostly Musk-funded super PAC aligned with Trump. Trump named Musk to steer DOGE soon after the November election, and the president repeatedly praised Musk during his headline-making and controversial tenure at the cost-cutting effort. But a feud between Musk and Trump broke out days after Musk left the White House in late May, as Musk dubbed the administration's massive landmark spending bill - which Trump called his "big, beautiful bill" - a "disgusting abomination," which he said would sink the nation into unsustainable debt. Musk also argued that Trump would not have won last year's presidential election without all of his support. Musk announced the launch of the "America Party" on his social media platform X on Saturday, a day after Trump signed the sweeping domestic policy package into law. The measure narrowly passed the Senate and House last week along near party-line votes in the Republican-controlled chambers. Trump on Sunday ridiculed Musk's move. "I think it's ridiculous to start a third party," Trump told reporters. "It's always been a two-party system, and I think starting a third party just adds to confusion. The president added that "third parties have never worked. So, he can have fun with it, but I think it's ridiculous." Starting an independent or third party, and gaining ballot access in states across the country, is extremely difficult.
