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ALFT Packaging, a pioneering manufacturer of flexible packaging solutions in Sri Lanka, hosted a senior delegation from Nestlé Lanka, led by Managing Director Bernhard Stefan, offering an exclusive tour of its state-of-the-art facility and showcasing the range of industry-leading, world-class flexible packaging solutions. The visit highlighted the growing partnership between the two companies and demonstrated ALFT’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and excellence in the flexible packaging technology. During the comprehensive facility tour, the Nestlé team gained first-hand insights into ALFT’s advanced manufacturing processes, with particular focus on food safety protocols, sustainability initiatives, and innovative flexible packaging solutions. The delegation expressed strong appreciation for ALFT’s technological capabilities and dedication to maintaining the highest standards of quality and hygiene. Nestlé Lanka Ltd. Managing Director Bernhard Stefan said, “Food safety is our number one priority, making it absolutely critical that we have safety in our packaging materials. It is exciting to see how dynamic and flexible ALFT Packaging is, offering unique solutions for our packaging needs. We were particularly impressed with ALFT’s implementation of sustainability standards in their manufacturing processes.” ALFT’s innovative approach to creating unique and consumer-focused flexible packaging solutions emerged as another vital aspect of the partnership, showcasing the ability to enhance the overall consumer experience. Additionally, the company’s dedicated focus on sustainability impressed the visitors, particularly initiatives in minimising manufacturing waste and developing recyclable flexible packaging materials, aligning perfectly with current environmental priorities and future industry demands. ALFT Packaging Chairman Lakshman De Fonseka, added, “The visit by Nestlé Lanka’s senior team emphasises the strength of our partnership and mutual commitment to excellence in flexible packaging solutions. At ALFT, we are proud to demonstrate how investments in technology, sustainability, and innovation are helping global brands meet their flexible packaging needs while maintaining the highest standards of food safety and quality. We are committed to pushing boundaries in flexible packaging, positioning Sri Lanka as a hub for world-class manufacturing capabilities.” Being the only BRC- “AA” certified flexible packaging plant in Sri Lanka, this visit reinforced ALFT’s position as a leading flexible packaging solutions provider in the region and highlights the commitment to meeting the evolving needs of global brands while maintaining the highest standards of quality and sustainability.
Cowboys WR CeeDee Lamb (shoulder) done for yearThe team that President-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration includes a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. In line to lead the Department of Health and Human Services secretary is environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's choices don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: Dave Weldon , the pick for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget, employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials, and effect Americans' daily lives: The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , 71, who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products, as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic included questioning the need for masking and giving young kids COVID-19 vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
A look at how some of Trump's picks to lead health agencies could help carry out Kennedy's overhaul
CrowdStrike ( NASDAQ:CRWD – Free Report ) had its target price hoisted by Stifel Nicolaus from $300.00 to $375.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the stock. A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CRWD. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of CrowdStrike from $350.00 to $275.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, August 26th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $335.00 to $315.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $400.00 to $295.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $350.00 to $325.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of CrowdStrike from $345.00 to $335.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and four have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CrowdStrike presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $335.62. Read Our Latest Stock Report on CrowdStrike CrowdStrike Stock Performance CrowdStrike ( NASDAQ:CRWD – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The company reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $963.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $958.27 million. CrowdStrike had a net margin of 4.84% and a return on equity of 8.44%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 31.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.06 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that CrowdStrike will post 0.49 earnings per share for the current year. Insider Buying and Selling at CrowdStrike In other news, CAO Anurag Saha sold 1,683 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $297.28, for a total transaction of $500,322.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 38,962 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,582,623.36. This represents a 4.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website . Also, insider Shawn Henry sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.44, for a total transaction of $1,361,760.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 120,298 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,954,251.12. This represents a 3.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders sold a total of 108,248 shares of company stock worth $32,465,110 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.34% of the company’s stock. Hedge Funds Weigh In On CrowdStrike Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Beacon Financial Advisory LLC bought a new stake in CrowdStrike during the third quarter worth approximately $955,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of CrowdStrike by 10.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 846,189 shares of the company’s stock worth $237,331,000 after buying an additional 78,305 shares in the last quarter. Burney Co. acquired a new stake in shares of CrowdStrike in the first quarter valued at $1,342,000. Doliver Advisors LP boosted its stake in CrowdStrike by 223.2% during the third quarter. Doliver Advisors LP now owns 6,754 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,894,000 after buying an additional 4,664 shares in the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in CrowdStrike by 0.7% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 439,865 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,644,000 after acquiring an additional 2,863 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 71.16% of the company’s stock. About CrowdStrike ( Get Free Report ) CrowdStrike Holdings, Inc provides cybersecurity solutions in the United States and internationally. Its unified platform offers cloud-delivered protection of endpoints, cloud workloads, identity, and data. The company offers corporate endpoint and cloud workload security, managed security, security and vulnerability management, IT operations management, identity protection, SIEM and log management, threat intelligence, data protection, security orchestration, automation and response and AI powered workflow automation, and securing generative AI workload services. 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Seahawks waive Laviska Shenault Jr. after fumble vs. JetsAgricultural land in Central Asia and the Caucasus is degrading at an alarming rate. Officials did a lot of handwringing about the issue during a roundtable at the recently completed COP29 environmental conclave. But in highlighting urgent needs, participants didn’t proffer many ideas about how to mitigate the myriad challenges. Globally, about 40 percent of agricultural land is vulnerable to degradation, Azerbaijan’s agriculture minister, Majnun Mammadov, stated in his opening remarks at the roundtable, adding as much as 12 million acres of arable land around the world becomes unproductive every year. Conditions are particularly acute in Tajikistan, where almost one-third of the country’s agricultural land is in “critical condition,” according to a published by the Asia-Plus news agency. But such challenges as deforestation, soil salinization and over-grazing are threatening other Central Asian states too, especially Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Citing UN data, the Asia-Plus report stated that 39 percent of Central Asia’s landmass is experiencing drought. In presenting a plan to introduce water-conserving and soil-monitoring technologies in Uzbekistan, the country’s ecology minister, Aziz Abdukhakimov, exuded a sense of urgency. “We must act quickly and decisively, otherwise we will leave only deserts for future generations,” he stated. Participants agreed that a multilateral approach was needed to address soil degradation, but no specific initiatives to promote joint action were discussed. Even if plans had been worked out to address problems, Central Asian states lack the funds to fully implement them on their own. And that situation doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon. Developing nations say substantive climate action will take over $1 trillion per year in funding from wealthy nations. Yet, after prolonged and, at times, bitter negotiations at COP29 in Baku, wealthy nations agreed to commit $300 billion annually to address global-warming related issues, including soil degradation. That figure marks a substantial increase over the $100 billion that wealthy nations had previously pledged to commit to help developing countries adapt to global warming conditions. But somehow everyone departed Baku full of hard feelings. Developing nations accused the globally rich of being cheap. At the same time, many wealthy nations, especially the United States and European Union members, were angry that economically advanced states, such as China and Saudi Arabia, claimed to still be developing countries not obligated to make any contribution to the COP climate action fund. The causes of soil degradation are not new, with many linked to global warming. A published by the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in 2022 also identified several man-made factors contributing to the loss of farmland and pasture across Central Asia, including an overreliance on cotton cultivation and inefficient irrigation practices. The cumulative effects of soil degradation are heightening social challenges across the region, acting as a “significant trigger” for migration from the countryside to cities, resulting in increases in air pollution, according to the UN report. It also cautioned that a vicious cycle of social harm, fueling a decline in living standards in Central Asia, is taking hold. “Land degradation, combined with increasing anthropogenic pressure caused by population growth and density, leads to a decrease in the availability of productive land and water resources, a drop in crop yields and livestock productivity,” UN study states. By
