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The distinctive dessert was reportedly replaced with a less politically-tinged alternative at the French president’s dinner with his Chinese counterpart

A last-minute change at French President Emmanuel Macron’s dinner with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping caught media attention on Tuesday: the favorite dessert of many a French leader was suddenly dropped from the menu, seemingly over its connection to Russia.

On the second day of the Chinese president’s state visit, the two leaders and their wives dined at the ‘Etape du berger’ restaurant at the Col du Tourmalet ski resort in the Hautes-Pyrenees region. According to La Depeche news outlet, the menu, pre-agreed several weeks in advance, consisted of traditional Pyrenean dishes: black pork ham, lamb shoulder, porcini mushrooms and local cheeses.

The dinner was to end with a dessert called ‘Russian cake’ (Gateau Russe), a local specialty with a recipe dating back to the 1920s, which at that time included almonds harvested in Crimea.

“I proposed the menu at the Elysee a few weeks ago,” the owner of the restaurant Eric Abadie told the news outlet.

However, according to the report, “given the sensitive geopolitical context” the ‘Russian cake’ was replaced at the last minute with a less politically-tied alternative: blueberry tart.

According to the Artigarrede house, a family pastry shop which has held the secret recipe to ‘Russian cake’ for over a century, Francois Mitterrand was the first French leader to favor the pastry and introduced it to dining tables at the Elysee Palace. His successors Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy also appreciated the dessert and served it often at official receptions. Both Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron are also known to love it.

Xi visited France amid a tense geopolitical situation surrounding the Ukraine conflict, which was reportedly one of the main topics of discussion between the two leaders. Unlike France, which condemned Russia for the hostilities and slapped it with economic restrictions, China refused to join in sanctions and instead boosted trade with Moscow. China’s stance has drawn criticism from the West, which has warned Beijing that it could also face sanctions if it continues to cooperate with Russia.

READ MORE: Xi refuses to back Zelensky’s unilateral ‘peace conference’

During talks with Xi this week, the French president once again urged the Chinese leader to make sure his nation does not provide any aid to Moscow that could be used against Kiev. At the leaders’ joint press-conference on Monday, Xi urged France and other Western nations not to “cast blame” on third countries for the Ukraine conflict and instead focus on ways to find a peaceful solution.

The company found itself in hot water following allegations that the jab can cause blood clots in rare cases

AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company has announced the withdrawal of its Covid-19 vaccine from global markets, claiming the drug has been sidelined by alternatives.

The development comes after the drug manufacturer recently admitted that the vaccine can cause potentially fatal blood clots in rare cases.

In a statement on Wednesday, cited by multiple media outlets, a spokesperson for AstraZeneca said multiple variants of the vaccine had been developed since the start of the pandemic, leading to a decline in demand for Vaxzevria, which is no longer being manufactured or developed. A spokesman also cited independent estimates claiming that “over 6.5 million lives were saved in the first year of use alone and over 3 billion doses were supplied globally.”

The AstraZeneca vaccine was rolled out in early 2021, shortly after the Covid-19 outbreak was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. AstraZeneca voluntarily withdrew its market authorization for the vaccine in the EU last March, with the European Medicines Agency confirm.

Shortly after the rollout, AstraZeneca found itself at the center of controversy after numerous Western countries suspended the use of its vaccine over fears that it may have caused some patients to develop blood clots. However, EU health officials at the time insisted that the benefits of the inoculation still outweighed the risks.

In recent months, the drugmaker has been fighting an uphill legal battle, with a class-action lawsuit claiming that the AstraZeneca vaccine is “defective” and less safe than expected. The company has denied the allegation.

Plaintiffs have insisted that the vaccine has caused Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), a rare condition in which a person has blood clots, which can reduce blood flow, combined with a low platelet count, which can cause difficulties in stopping the bleeding. TTS caused by the vaccine is believed to be linked to several dozen deaths in the UK alone, with hundreds of others suffering serious injuries.

While the company initially denied a link between the condition and the use of the product, it admitted in court documents submitted to the UK High Court last February that “the AZ vaccine can, in very rare cases, cause TTS,” adding that “the causal mechanism is not known.” It also claimed that the vaccine has “an acceptable safety profile.”

On the heels of Apple’s latest earnings report, the Wall Street Journal shared an article discussing how Apple became such an oversized investment of Warren Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway. Given their success with Apple shares we think it is worth understanding the logic that drove Buffett to accumulate such a large position in Apple.

Unbeknownst to most, Todd Combs, a member of the Berkshire portfolio management team, is responsible for bringing Apple to Buffett’s attention. However, not all credit goes to Combs. Buffett presented Combs with a challenge that ultimately highlighted Apple’s value proposition. With this same challenge, we will take a stab at finding the next Apple.

The inspiration for our challenge and a few quotes in this article come from a Wall Street Journal article entitled Apple is Buffett’s Best Investment.

Berkshires Massive Stake Of Apple

Before finding the next Apple stock, it’s worth visualizing how Berkshire’s investment in Apple has grown over time as a percentage of Berkshire Hathaway and of Apple’s total shares outstanding.

The bar graph below compares Berkshire’s percentage ownership of Apple to that of the four largest mutual fund and ETF complexes. Berkshire had no position in Apple in 2015 and now holds over 5% of the company. Only Vanguard has a more significant position.

The following graphs plot the surge in the number of shares owned by Berkshire and the value of its shares.

The pie chart below shows that Apple comprises almost half of Berkshire’s portfolio. The next largest holding is Bank of America at 10%.

Buffett Doesn’t Like Tech

Ironically, when Berkshire started buying Apple shares, Warren Buffett had an aversion to technology stocks. When asked why, he said he didn’t invest in companies he didn’t understand. He now admits that was a mistake.

While it may have been a mistake not to buy more technology companies in the mid twenty-teens, Buffett was able to appreciate what Apple truly was. While it is classified as and widely considered a technology company, Buffett got his head around Apple by likening it to a consumer goods company. Per the aforementioned Wall Street Journal article:

Considering the stock, though, Buffett began to see it as a consumer-goods company with enviable, latent pricing power, rather than as a tech or an electronic-device maker, according to people who have spoken to him. The loyalty consumers had for Apple products, especially the iPhone, suggested to Buffett that they would be willing to pay much more for upgraded versions of the phone in the years ahead, a sure way to boost profits.

Todd Combs- The Unknown Mastermind

The Wall Street Journal article introduces Todd Combs, one of Berkshire Hathaway’s lesser-known portfolio managers. According to the article, around 2016, Buffett challenged Combs to find a stock that met specific criteria.

Among the stocks Combs found meeting the fundamental criteria and large enough for Berkshire to purchase was Apple. The rest is history. Since they started accumulating Apple in 2015, it has gained 650%, more than four times the S&P 500 over the same period.

Given Combs’ success, we thought it would be interesting to use the logic Buffett challenged Combs with and produce a similar scan. Let’s see if we can find the next Apple.  

Buffett’s Logic

The following paragraph from the WSJ article is the logic Buffett imparted to Combs, leading to their ownership of Apple.

This time, Buffett asked Combs to identify a stock in the S&P 500 that met three criteria. The first: a reasonably cheap price/earnings multiple of no more than 15, based on the next 12 months’ projected earnings. The stock also had to be one the managers were at least 90% sure would enjoy higher earnings over the next five years. And they had to be at least 50% confident that the company’s earnings would grow by at least 7% annually for five years or longer.

What made the search a little more difficult was that the companies that met the criteria also had to have a market cap large enough so Berkshire could buy enough of to move the needle of its portfolio but not overly impact the demand for the stock.

The Combs Scan

In addition to the criteria in Buffett’s challenge, we added sales growth of at least 5% over the last five years. This helps us thin the list of companies to those already exhibiting strong top-line growth. We also removed financial, limited partnerships, REITs, and real estate stocks as their valuations and growth rates are not as easily comparable using traditional valuation metrics. Lastly, we disqualified Chinese companies due to the potential for political implications.

The following are the factors we used to screen for the next Apple.

• Market cap > $50 billion
• Price to Forward Earnings <15
• Five-year expected earnings growth >5%
• Sales growth in last five years > 5%
• No financial, limited partnerships, REITs, real estate, or Chinese companies.

Many stocks meet the size, earnings, and sales growth criteria. But only two companies have cheap enough valuations to make the cut as shown below. 

Currently, Berkshire has 5.242 million shares of T-Mobile, which is .20% of the portfolio. T-Mobile met our criteria, but its 5-year expected earnings growth is slightly below Buffett’s 7% bogey.

Berkshire does not hold EOG but has other oil and gas exploration companies, including Occidental Petroleum and Chevron.

Summary

Warren Buffett is an investing legend and one of the wealthiest people in the world. He takes a value orientation with a long-term investment horizon.

The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, which also owns private companies, has done exceptionally well versus the market, as shown below. However, he goes through prolonged periods of poor relative performance versus the market.

The graph shows that over the last 30 years, Berkshire’s price return has tripled that of the S&P 500. However, there are four notable extended periods where he grossly underperformed the market. Also of note is that Berkshire handily beat the market in the recession and drawdowns of the dot com bubble and financial crisis. Such attests to his value orientation.

The post Finding The Next Apple Using Buffetts Logic appeared first on RIA.

The AfD in Hamburg intends to kick out a lawmaker who recently served as an election observer in Russia

A Siberian-born German politician is being punished by her party for allegedly deceiving fellow members about her intention to serve as an election observer in Russia.

Olga Petersen, who is an Alternative for Germany (AfD) member of the Hamburg State Parliament, went to Russia in March to observe the presidential election and shared her impressions about the process in interviews with local media at the time.

The right-wing party's Hamburg branch announced on Tuesday that she had been removed from its faction in the parliament and that a legal process for her ouster from the party had been launched.

The statement listed several reasons for the disciplinary action, most related to Petersen's alleged disruptive impact on internal party politics. The AfD also accused her of deceiving fellow members by telling them she was going to Russia in a personal capacity and acting otherwise during the trip.

The German government has denounced the Russian election, claiming it was neither free nor fair, and declined to send a representative to the inauguration of Vladimir Putin on Tuesday. The Russian president won in a landslide in March, securing a fifth term in office.

READ MORE: Relations with West, national resilience and forging victory: Key takeaways from Putin’s inauguration

According to German media, earlier this year, the AfD’s federal leadership reprimanded three members of its Bavarian branch who defied its warnings not to observe the Russian election. In general, however, the party is critical of the government’s handling of the Ukraine crisis and advocates for improving relations with Moscow.

Petersen was the only woman in the AfD’s faction in the Hamburg Parliament. Now that she is independent, the group has shrunk to six members. She told NDR radio that her loyalties remain with the party and that she is preparing for a legal battle against the motion to expel her.

Some Republicans are reportedly hoping to dissuade the international court from issuing arrest warrants for the Israeli leadership

A group of Republican lawmakers in the US House of Representatives is devising sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) in a bid to protect Israeli leaders, Axios has reported.

The measures are aimed at deterring the international body from issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several other senior officials over the ongoing military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Launched following the incursion by the militant group on October 7, which claimed the lives of around 1,200 Israelis, the offensive has resulted in the deaths of nearly 35,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Hamas-controlled health authorities.

The campaign has widely been regarded as a disproportionate and heavy-handed response by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and has attracted increasing criticism in recent months, including from countries that traditionally back Israel, such as the US and some Western European nations.

In January, the United Nations International Court of Justice (ICJ) said in a ruling that it was “plausible” that the Israeli military had committed genocide in the densely populated Palestinian enclave.

Over the past few weeks, several media outlets have claimed that the ICC could charge the Israeli leadership with war crimes.

In an article on Tuesday, Axios quoted House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul as saying that he and his colleagues had been in contact with ICC prosecutor Karim Khan.

“We’re not sure if the arrest warrants are imminent, but it’s sort of a precaution to let them know that, if they do, we have this legislation ready to go,” he revealed.

Late last month, Republican and Democrat US representatives issued a statement warning the ICC of “consequences” in the event that it pursued the Israeli prime minister and other officials.

Their colleagues in the US Senate held a virtual meeting with ICC representatives last week to convey their concerns, Axios reported.

Khan said in a statement released last Friday that threats to “retaliate against the court or against court personnel” undermine the international body’s independence and impartiality.

“The Office insists that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials cease immediately,” he wrote.

Netanyahu has accused the judicial body of seeking to “paralyze Israel’s very ability to defend itself,” while fanning the “fires of anti-Semitism.”

In late April, Axios, citing two anonymous Israeli officials, claimed that the Israeli prime minister had asked US President Joe Biden to stop the ICC from issuing arrest warrants.

Once whispered in hushed tones and brushed aside as mere tales for the tinfoil-hatted, the narrative of vaccine injuries has pirouetted into the spotlight of undeniable existence. It is uncommon to encounter individuals without at least one acquaintance who has experienced vaccine-related side effects. But Big Pharma and the WHO are not stopping anytime soon. Instead, they’ve upped the ante.

Source

As the reality of the Second World War slowly recedes from living memory, its symbolic value continues to expand. However, it is the surrender of the German armed forces on 8 May 1945 rather than the end of hostilities on 2 September that has come to signify the dawn of a new era.1 Like the […]

The post Europe after the war appeared first on Voice of the Family.

Garth Brooks may have friends in low places, but this Saturday he will perform at a high-level Vatican event with Nobel Peace Prize winners, business leaders, and professional athletes, including former NFL quarterback Tom Brady. Brady, Brooks, and other celebrity guests will meet Pope Francis in an audience at the Apostolic Palace on the morning of May 11 as participants in the Vatican’s World Meeting on Human Fraternity.
 

The post Tom Brady, Garth Brooks, and Pope Francis appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

These houres, and that which hovers o’re my End,
Into thy hands, and hart, lord, I commend.

Take Both to Thine Account, that I and mine
In that Hour, and in these, may be all thine.

That as I dedicate my devoutest Breath
To make a kind of Life for my lord’s Death,

So from his living, and life-giving Death,
My dying Life may draw a new, and never fleeting Breath.

The post The Recommendation appeared first on The Catholic Thing.

Reprinted from The Nation with permission from the authors. Last week’s passage of the Ukraine aid package by both the House and the Senate showed if nothing else that bipartisanship – at least on matters of foreign policy – remains alive and well in Washington, with leading Democratic progressives joining Republican hawks to pass the … Continue reading "The Ukraine Aid Package Heightens the Risk of Escalation"

The post The Ukraine Aid Package Heightens the Risk of Escalation appeared first on Antiwar.com.

Dear Antiwar.com Reader, There are two problems in the United States these days and they are closely related. The first problem is that the Biden Administration is in deep trouble on the foreign policy front and the trouble is almost certainly going to get worse. The Ukraine war is going badly for both Ukraine and … Continue reading "Biden’s Foreign Policy Has the US in Deep Trouble"

The post Biden’s Foreign Policy Has the US in Deep Trouble appeared first on Antiwar.com.

Emergency responders from the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAST) have received recognition for saving the lives of a mother and premature baby in Chelmsford, Essex.

Paramedic Rachel Watts was the first to arrive at the scene after being assigned to the call by Chelmsford Emergency Operations Centre. She found a woman who had just given birth and a baby who was still in the amniotic sac. The baby’s size made it clear that he was very premature, and his mother was bleeding heavily.

Emergency medical technicians Henry Quick and Taylor Robinson arrived in an ambulance shortly afterwards and provided newborn life support for the baby.

Following the arrival of further support in the form of a senior paramedic and emergency medical technician, as well as an apprentice emergency medical technician, the baby was taken to the hospital emergency department. Later, the baby was transferred to a specialist unit for extremely pre-term babies. He is believed to have been born at 26 weeks gestation.

The baby’s mother was taken to the same local hospital in a second ambulance, and was able to be discharged a few days later.

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Both mother and baby are doing well

EEAST CEO Tom Abell awarded commendations to the six staff members who attended the call.

He said “It was a privilege to present the CEO commendations and hear first-hand the team’s experiences of a very challenging and emotive job. Their remarkable actions led to an excellent outcome for baby and mother and they are well deserving of the commendations”.

Clinical lead for maternity at EEAST, Daimon Wheddon, said “The decision making and clinical management of mother and baby was exemplary and led to an excellent outcome. This is why the clinical team for maternity wanted all involved to receive CEO commendation as recognition”.

Medical advancements have led to an increased understanding of life before birth

By 24 weeks gestation, the current gestational limit for abortion, the baby has already been fully formed for 12 weeks.

At 12 weeks gestation (the most common abortion time limit among countries in the EU), the NHS outlines that the unborn baby is fully formed. All the organs, muscles, limbs and bones are in place, and the sex organs are well developed. From then on, the baby just has to grow and mature.

At around 15 weeks gestation, the unborn baby will start to hear – they may hear muted sounds from the outside world, as well as the sound of their mother’s voice and heart. At 16 weeks gestation, the muscles of the unborn baby’s face can now move and the beginnings of facial expressions appear.

At 18 weeks gestation, the unborn baby may respond to loud noises from the outside world, such as music. At 22 weeks gestation, the unborn baby is beginning to get into a pattern of sleeping and waking. At 23 weeks gestation, the unborn baby’s lungs are practising breathing movements to prepare for life outside the womb.

It is legal to abort a baby at any of the above stages of development, right through to 24 weeks gestation, under the current conditions set out in section 1(1)(a) of the Abortion Act. If the Gestational Time Limit Reduction amendment is successful, it will provide additional protection at least for babies towards the very end of the above gestational timeline.

Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “This amazing story goes to show how crucial the swift actions of well-trained healthcare professionals are in saving the lives of newborn babies and their mothers. Hopefully the premature baby boy will continue to do well in hospital and be able to return home soon”.

LifeNews Note: Republished with permission from Right to Life UK. File photo.

The post Paramedics Save 26 Week Premature Baby Still in His Amniotic Sac appeared first on LifeNews.com.

Before I get into a typically excellent column by Guy Benson, a quick but important note from Fox News. The topic is Catholic support for pro-abortion President Joe Biden and for pro-life former President Donald Trump.

The latest is that according to Pew Research [www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/30/voters-views-of-trump-and-biden-differ-sharply-by-religion], “if the election were held today,” 55% of Catholics would vote for former President Donald Trump. Conversely 43% of Catholics would vote for President Biden.

“The 12% margin of support in favor of Trump marks a significant shift from 2020, when he held an extremely narrow lead — 50% to 49%,” according to Timothy H.J. Nerozzi of Fox News.

But the uptick for Mr. Trump among Hispanics is even more pronounced.

“Biden currently leads among Hispanic Catholics with a narrow 49%-47% split, but the close contest marks a major shift rightward for the demographic. In 2020, a similar poll from Pew Research found Hispanic Catholics preferred Biden to Trump with a staggering 67%-26% split.

Over at Townhall, Benson writes about a recent analysis by the Brookings Institute that

demonstrates significant erosion within Joe Biden’s 2020 victory coalition, across multiple key demographics.  It cites “major shifts away from Biden have occurred among Black, Hispanic, and Asian voters. Surprisingly, Trump appears to have gained more ground among college-educated Black and Hispanic voters than with less educated members of these groups.  Equally surprising: Up to now, Trump has increased his support more among women than men.”

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Benson adds a very telling chart that hold even worse news for Biden:

Take a look at that chart.  Trump is eating into Biden’s margin among quite a few groups, including dramatic improvements within communities of color.  Based on these numbers, Trump has closed the gap by double-digit percentages among black voters (25 percentage points), Hispanics (13 points), and Asian-Americans (21 points).  Looking at the far right column, the two “best” numbers for Bidens are typos.  The chart shows a 13-point move toward Biden among 30-49 year olds (roughly Millennials) and a seven-point blue shift among Hispanics without college degrees.  In fact, the actual data shows each of those two cohorts moving Trump’s way by those margins.  In other words, there should be two more red bars on the graphic.  The Brookings analysis even flags Biden’s decreased standing among this second-to-youngest voting group:

Benson is right to add important caveats. Among them is that “Biden leads among the likeliest voters, while Trump will likely need unreliable and unregistered potential voters to participate in substantial numbers to erase that Biden advantage.”

LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.

The post Donald Trump is Winning the Catholic Vote Over Nominally “Catholic” Joe Biden appeared first on LifeNews.com.