Latest news with #SGMA
Globe and Mail
21-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
This Tech Stock Ripped Following Merger Announcement
An Illinois-based tech firm found a tremendous amount of success on Wednesday after the company announced that they have entered into a merger agreement with Transom Capital group, LLC, an operationally focused middle-market private equity firm, pursuant to which an affiliate of Transom will acquire the company, according to a press release. Following a trading halt pending this news, traders rushed to snatch up shares of SigmaTron International Inc. (Nasdaq:SGMA), pushing the micro cap to close the day up at $2.97/share (+130.23%). Sigmatron International Inc is an independent provider of electronic manufacturing services (EMS). It provides printed circuit board assemblies and completely assembled electronic products. In addition, it also provides automatic and manual assembly and testing of products; material sourcing and procurement; manufacturing and test engineering support; warehousing and distribution services. The company primarily serves the industrial electronics, consumer electronics, and medical sciences industries. Geographically, it derives a majority of revenue from Mexico and also has a presence in China and Vietnam. Copyright © 2025 All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. View more of this article on About Media, Inc.: Founded in 1999, is one of North America's leading platforms for micro-cap insights. Catering to both Canadian and U.S. markets, we provide a wealth of resources and expert content designed for everyone—from beginner investors to seasoned traders. is rapidly gaining recognition as a leading authority in the micro-cap space, with our insightful content prominently featured across numerous top-tier financial platforms, reaching a broad audience of investors and industry professionals. Want to showcase your company's story to a powerful network of investors? We can help you elevate your message and make a lasting impact. Contact us today. Contact: Media, Inc.
Times of Oman
16-04-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
Syrian doctors leave Germany to work for free at home
The 55-year-old from the Syrian city of Hama had open-heart surgery in April, a procedure that is rarely undertaken in Syria these days because the health system deteriorated so much during the country's 14-year civil war and because it's so expensive. But recently, Syrian doctors visiting from Germany included Qanbat on their list of most-needy patients. "I can't express how happy and grateful I am," Qanbat told DW. "It's beyond words. We have waited so long for our children to come and help us," he said, referring to the fact that many Syrians fled their country during the war. "But they have not forgotten us. They returned to help us." It remains unclear exactly how many Syrian doctors left the country during the war. According to the World Bank, around 30,000 physicians served the Syrian population in 2010, a year before the 2011 uprising that led to war. In 2020, the only year the UN collected data, less than 16,000 remained. Other medical personnel like nurses, pharmacists and dentists also fled. View of the massive destruction in Al-Shifa Hospital of the Syrian-American organization SAMS in the city of Afrin in the countryside of Aleppo, Syria, on June 13, of the massive destruction in Al-Shifa Hospital of the Syrian-American organization SAMS in the city of Afrin in the countryside of Aleppo, Syria, on June 13, 2021. Physicians for Human Rights say over 900 Syrian medical workers lost their lives in Russian and Assad regime attacks on medical facilities in SyriaImage: Muhammad al-Rifai/NurPhoto/IMAGO Many ended up in Germany. Statistics indicate just over 6,000 Syrian doctors work in Germany, mostly in hospitals, but those are just the doctors who hold Syrian passports. In fact, there could be more than 10,000 Syrian doctors in Germany. It's just that many now hold German passports, so they are not counted as foreign staffers. First mission in Syria After the ouster of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad in early December last year, a number of those Syrian doctors came together to found the Syrian German Medical Association, or SGMA. It all started with a small WhatsApp group of doctors wondering how they could help, explains Nour Hazzouri, a senior physician specializing in gastroenterology who works at Helios Hospital in Krefeld, western Germany. He told DW that the WhatsApp group became a Facebook page, and then, in mid-January, SGMA was officially founded. It now has around 500 members. "Even we've been really surprised how quickly it has grown," Hazzouri noted. This month, SGMA members undertook their first mission home. Since early April, around 85 Syrian doctors from SGMA have been in Syria giving educational lectures, assessing the state of Syria's healthcare system and performing surgeries around the country. One challenge has been outdated equipment in Syrian hospitals, Ayman Sodah, a senior physician and cardiologist at the Rhön Klinikum in Bad Neustadt, Bavaria, told Al Jazeera as he emerged the operating theatre in Hama. "It's clear that during [the past] 15 years, nothing has been renewed," he said. "Before the war, Syria was a middle-income country with relatively good health indicators," the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank, previously reported. But during the war, the Assad regime and its Russian ally regularly targeted health facilities. The health system then deteriorated further due to sanctions and an ailing economy. Nobody was talking about that last Sunday in a hall in Syria's capital, Damascus. Around 300 people, including curious medical students, local authorities and civil society organizations, gathered to hear an SGMA delegation talk, the mood hopeful and optimistic. "I'm feeling pretty excited," Mustafa Fahham, a senior doctor in the nephrology and dialysis department at Bremerhaven Hospital, northern Germany, told DW in Damascus. "Every Syrian had, at the back of their minds, a fear that was connected with Assad. Now that fear is gone. So I'm feeling good, and I am happy to be here in Damascus, where I'm able to finally help support the Syrian health system." "The idea for this recent mission during the [Easter and Ramadan] holidays came about because many doctors wanted to visit their families in Syria, some of whom they hadn't seen for 14 years," Hazzouri, the Krefeld physician, explains. "This then sparked the idea of using this time to provide medical assistance, too." The mission began with an online questionnaire, and within a week, over 80 volunteers had signed up. Hazzouri conceded that security is still an issue in some parts of Syria, so the doctors couldn't work everywhere. "But the biggest challenge really was the cost of materials," he said. Doctor Mustafa Fahham at a SGMA meeting in Damascus on April 13. Helpful partnerships The Syrian volunteers funded most of the trip themselves, paying for travel and raising money for medical equipment, Hazzouri told DW. "Many brought donations from their clinics. At the same time, we launched an online fundraising campaign, through which we were able to raise almost €100,000 within a month, mostly from Syrian doctors in Germany. Local Syrian NGOs also supported us with donations of materials." So far, there's been no official support from the German government. However, SGMA members did attend the German Ministry of Development's mid-February conference on German-Syrian hospital alliances, which Hazzouri described as "an important step in the direction of a potential partnership." The Ministry of Health in Syria has also been helpful, providing permits for SGMA doctors to work. Syria's new health minister, neurosurgeon Musab al-Ali, also previously worked in Germany and was involved with the Syrian Community in Germany (SGD), an advocacy organization. He also previously volunteered on trips home. Doctor Moataz Hamsho giving a lecture in Aleppo on April Moataz Hamsho giving a lecture in Aleppo on April 9. Syrian doctor Moataz Hamsho, who works in Eisenach, Germany, held a lecture at Aleppo University in April as part of a SGMA series of expert talks on surgical developmentsImage: Courtesy SGMA Another medical aid campaign that also launched this month in Syria, "Shifa, Hand in Hand for Syria," is more directly linked to the SGD and the Syrian Ministry of Health. Around 100 Syrian doctors are involved with this too. At home in Syria or Germany? Most of SGMA's medical volunteers will return to their jobs in Germany. However, a recent survey by the Syrian Association for Doctors and Pharmacists in Germany found that 76% of their members were considering returning home permanently. In recent interviews with German media, Syrian doctors regularly express concerns about increased far-right and anti-immigration attitudes, as well as how difficult some have found it to be fully accepted in Germany. Their departures would have a detrimental impact on Germany's health services. Even though Syrian doctors only emake up 2% of all doctors in Germany, they play a far bigger role in understaffed hospitals and clinics in eastern Germany. "We do consider Germany, and of course, not all the doctors would leave at once," Fahham, the Bremerhaven Hospital doctor, told DW in Damascus. "On the other hand, we also feel loyalty to Syria. But I believe we can come up with some sort of plan where we can help here, and German healthcare is also covered." In fact, SGMA's lectures in Syria were not just on medical updates. Some were also to advise medical students or doctors who might want to work in Germany, said Muaz al-Moarawi, a doctor working in Gelsenkirchen who was in Damascus for the SGMA. "Syria needs a lot of help right now to rebuild its healthcare. But Germany also needs Syrian doctors and medical personnel," al-Moarawi told DW. "What we want is to be a bridge between Syria and Germany, a bridge both sides can profit from."
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Farming consolidation worries ag industry leaders
Federal data illustrating recent consolidation of California farming has raised concern in the industry about Sacramento's approach to regulation and the future of ag production in the state. Industry leaders are pointing to U.S. Department of Agriculture figures that show the number of farms in California fell 10% between 2017 and 2022, while the average size of those farms increased by about the same proportion. Both trends were seen nationally during the same period but not to such an extent. President Shannon Douglass of the California Farm Bureau Federation said the numbers are not surprising given how hard it is to do business in the state as compared with other farming regions around the world. She voiced particular concern about water availability and how costs disproportionately hit small farmers. The head of the Kern County Farm Bureau, Jenny Holtermann, added that consolidation is always a concern as farmers shrink their farmland holdings or sell out altogether. She said implementation of California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, designed to bring pumping of underground aquifers into balance, is likely to leave some farmers unable to produce food. "With increasing regulations, SGMA and the costs of inputs rising, farmers can only stay afloat for so long," she said by email Tuesday. "We need our elected officials and policymakers to start to address our over-regulation and how they are pushing business out of California," she added. "Agriculture is vital to California and our food security for our country." The USDA data doesn't just shine a light on consolidations between 2017 and 2022, the most recent year for which figures are available. It also provides insights on the industry's mixed profitability. It shows the number of farms in the state reporting a profit dropped significantly during that five-year period but that those who reported a net gain made much more money than before. Additionally, the numbers demonstrated that fewer California farms lost money in 2022 as compared with 2017, but those who did saw significantly bigger losses. Also, average profits in the Golden State were considerably higher than those in the country as a whole. The federal numbers being highlighted by the California Farm Bureau Federation are available online at The organization plans to host a news conference on the consolidation-related findings today just outside the state Capitol building in downtown Sacramento. According to the USDA, California's total farm count dropped to 63,134 in 2022. Nationally, it reported, the decline between 2017 and 2022 was about 7%. The average size of California farms increased by 10% during that five-year period to reach 383 acres. Across the country, the size increase was just 5%, though the U.S. average finished the period higher, at 463 acres. USDA data showed the number of Californian farms reporting a profit dropped about 18%, while the size of those net gains rose 76% to hit an average of $665,459 per year. By comparison, the number of farms nationwide that made a profit shrank only 9%, according to the USDA, which noted the average size of those profits rose 78% to reach $224,025 per year. In California, the number of farms reporting a net financial loss declined 5% between 2017 and 2022, the USDA reported. It noted the average size of those losses increased 87% to finish the year with a profit averaging $104,258. The number of U.S. farms reporting a net loss also declined during the period, by 6%. But as happened in California, their losses rose — by 36% to reach $28,597 per year. Douglass, the state farm bureau president, did not bring up the industry challenge presented by the Trump administration's threat to deport undocumented residents. But she acknowledged that mass deportations could present problems for farmers. "I think that anytime we're talking about threats to our workforce, those are definitely challenges that impact our farms," she said.
Politico
08-03-2025
- Politics
- Politico
This farmer is taking the long view on Trump
Presented by With help from Alex Nieves, David Ferris, Annie Snider and Ben Lefebvre POUR ONE OUT: Stuart Woolf likes the extra water President Donald Trump is promising Central Valley farmers — but he doesn't think it'll be enough to change their fate. Woolf, the president and CEO of Woolf Farming and Processing and the current chair of the board for the trade group Western Growers Association, grows almonds and tomatoes in one of the most arid regions of the Central Valley. He's also been an early champion of agave, the drought-tolerant crop used in tequila and mezcal, which he sees as key to sustaining the region's agriculture in an era of limited water supplies, and the development of solar panels on fallowed farmland. A self-described independent, Woolf isn't backing away from his vision. POLITICO caught up with him after a panel at the Kern County Water Summit in Bakersfield on Thursday, where he talked about alternatives to thirsty crops and the long-term sustainability of agriculture on some of California's most productive acres (and got away with applause, not boos). This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. Has your vision for the Valley changed at all with the federal administration's promises on water? The issues of water in California, these are long-term issues, right? Right now, Trump, at least, has talked about trying to improve water supply, in particular to farmers. Maybe he has a positive impact during his administration, but I would suspect, ultimately, long term, a lot of it will be driven by California policies and issues. Are you talking about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act? Yeah. Things like SGMA aren't going away. Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth was here talking about the Delta conveyance project and leaning into changes to environmental limits to pumping in the Delta. Do you not see a change of course? I think we're a long, long way from getting the tunnel moving or approved. We're a long, long way from getting Shasta. It's great to hear she's optimistic about some of these things, but one of the things I was going to ask her was like, Well, how do you define long-term success? Is it the reduction of 500,000 acres? We're figuring out how to exchange, market, do all these other things, but at the end of the day, we're still going backwards, by my metric, which is total acres under production. Have you seen anything from the state or the federal government right now that would help transition farmland, or are they just talking about water? I don't think this federal administration is going to set aside money for anything relative to environmental mitigation and climate change and what have you. We recently in our small, fledgling agave industry got a couple grants. It's all about climate change, and we want bilingual education. We realize now with the Trump administration, they're looking at these grants and whether or not they fulfill them. All the words and all the things that we were advocating for are all the words that I think they don't necessarily like. So I'm wondering, if you got a grant for climate-friendly cropping, do you go spend that money believing you're going to receive it, or do you not, because you don't have confidence that they'll actually give it to you, even though it was awarded to you earlier? I would rather try to figure out what I can have control over. On tariffs: Pretty unpredictable so far. What's the impact on you? For the business community, the worst thing is to create a lot of uncertainty and risk. And I think he's creating a lot of uncertainty and risk. I've got loads of agave coming from Mexico that I'm going to be planting, and I'm bringing over loads for other growers to do this. For me, I'm really thrilled about this whole agave thing, because I think it's part of a solution in California to address water demand. I really think it's part of a story of adaptation. And now I'm going to be paying like 25 percent more for this product coming over. It's a really challenging period. The almond industry, for example, is just beginning to come out of four or five years of really tough times. If we have countervailing duties on the stuff that we're exporting, it is going to be really damaging to California. Do you have any big meetings coming up in D.C. or in Sacramento? What are you trying to advocate for these days? Industry groups are trying to figure out who they align with in the Trump bubble or world. Some of our key issues are going to be, we want fair and free trade. We don't want any of our members being harmed by tariffs that are best of intentions, but they come back to really harm our industries. Clearly, immigration is going to be front and center for us. And I think we will be advocates for funding of ag research and the farm bill. Those are three big things, and water isn't even on the list. Water's on that list. I just didn't mention it, but it's on that list. I'm fearful for California agriculture during this administration. We may be able to get more water, but if we lose our markets and prices go in the toilet, that's not a very good trade-off. And if we continue to lose our workforce, and we lose funding for research programs, I think there are more negatives in the process. That's why agave is the only solution. Because people can just drink their worries away? Well, people drink in the best of times and the worst of times. — CvK NEW NEWSLETTER: Are you an energy guru who wants to know more about the impact of data centers on the grid? A scientist interested in the potential of AI? Or just a friendly POLITICO fan? You'll love our new sister newsletter, POLITICO Pro Technology: California Decoded. You can subscribe here. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! POORER PORTS: The Trump administration's freeze on clean-energy programs has put more than $1 billion to electrify the Port of Los Angeles — and Southern California's clean air ambitions — at risk. In question are three grants totaling more than $1.1 billion that Biden's EPA awarded the port to kick-start a migration to electric heavy-duty trucks, David Ferris reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Nationwide, dozens of ports are experiencing the same uncertainty with their own grant money. Experts say losing that funding would set back Los Angeles' and California's move to EV trucks by five years — an interval in which more Angelenos will get cancer and asthma, and in which China's industry lead will grow. 'People have projects and jobs counting on these funds, and they don't know what they should be doing right now,' said Jason Mathers, who heads zero-emission truck program at the Environmental Defense Fund. 'It's massively disruptive and it's confusing.' Trump railed against vehicle electrification on the campaign trail, saying at an October rally in New Mexico that trucks fifty years ago were better than electric models today. The EPA and its Los Angeles grant recipients are offering conflicting accounts of the current state of play. EPA in a statement said it 'worked expeditiously to enable payment accounts for ... grant recipients, so funding is now accessible to all recipients.' The recipients say they are having different experiences. The Port of LA says it's received no communications from EPA and that online portals through which it would receive funds are shut. Another, the South Coast Air Quality Management district, says it has communicated with EPA and that its access goes online and offline without notice. — DF, AN AND ANOTHER ONE: Democrats are getting antsy in another state that follows California car and truck emissions standards. Maryland Delegate Dana Stein introduced a bill last week that would delay enforcement of Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks, electrification rules congressional Republicans are threatening to revoke. The bill, HB 1556, will have its first hearing in the House Environment and Transportation Committee on Wednesday. Two Democrats in upstate New York also introduced a bill this week to pause enforcement of ACT, which requires manufacturers to sell an increasing number of zero-emission trucks. And New Jersey Democrats introduced a similar proposal to delay clean truck regulations last year, though that effort has stalled. Car and truck manufacturers are increasingly pushing states to slow down their emissions rules ahead of implementation, warning that consumer demand and charging infrastructure are lagging behind expectations. A dozen states follow ACCII, while 11 have adopted ACT. The California Air Resources Board — which developed the standards — has defended the rules, arguing they include flexibility and credit markets that can keep companies in compliance. — AN DOGE TO INTERIOR: The Department of Government Efficiency staffer who visited the Bureau of Reclamation's Northern California pumping plant in January is taking over as the Interior Department's main budget official, POLITICO's Ben Lefebvre and Annie Snider report. Tyler Hassen, the head of oilfield services company Basin Energy, who has been one of DOGE's representatives embedded at Interior, will be delegated that authority as the acting assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, according to people who were granted anonymity to discuss a politically sensitive subject. Hassen will take over for Charlie Dankert, who had been doing that job, the people added. RECLAIMING THEIR JOBS: Five previously fired Reclamation employees are coming back to the agency's California office and more planned terminations are on hold, Annie reports. The office has lost about 100 employees — 10 percent of its workforce — due to buyouts and orders by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to fire employees who have been in their positions for less than a year or two. Some of the reinstated staffers were associated with a power plant undergoing upgrades near Shasta Dam, while some of the others who were given a reprieve worked at a fish collection facility that is essential to Reclamation's ability to pump water out of the state's main water hub, according to sources POLITICO granted anonymity due to fear of reprisals. — The Army Corps of Engineers knew Trump's dam-opening plans would waste water, an internal memo shows. — U.S. EPA told its staff that spending on items over $50,000 will now need approval from DOGE. — AI bots at UC San Diego have already detected more than 1,200 fires.
