Suwoong Han, 85, remembers what hunger was like after the Korean War, in the early 1950s. Photo: Yanghae Won
Throughout his 85 years, rice has dominated Suwoong Han’s life.
During bitter March days, when the soil is still hard, the elderly Korean farmer soaks rice seeds so they germinate. Then comes planting and pest control – and the chance to see his paddy morph into a sea of yellow and green. And, finally, harvest time, in October, when Han delivers his crop to a rice processing centre, and can finally bank the profits from his hard work.
“That is when I feel happiest,” says Han, who is also the son of rice farmers from the Republic of Korea’s northwestern Gyeonggi Province.
A forklift loads Republic of Korea rice onto a vessel in the Republic of Korea’s Gunsan Port. The country provides an average of 150,000 tons of the grain for WFP operations in 17 countries. Photo: WFP/Yanghae Won
Han takes pride in his harvest for other reasons. On any given year, it may count among the tens of thousands of metric tonnes of rice his country donates to support World Food Programme (WFP) programmes for hungry people.
“Hunger is one of the most difficult hardships to endure,” Han says, recalling difficult days after the 1950-53 Korean War. As a young man, WFP food aid to his country was a lifeline.
“I remember walking long distances to receive food assistance, including wheat flour, sorghum flour, milk, or powdered milk,” he says. “So, I truly understand what it means to be hungry.”
Rohingya refugee Leila collects WFP food vouchers at Cox’s Bazar’s refugee camps, in Bangladesh. Photo: WFP/Rawful Alam
Nearly 4,000 kilometres away, Rohingya refugee Leila understands it too. The mother of five escaped Myanmar’s Rakhine State in 2017, after her husband was shot and killed in an uptick of violence. After a 15-day walk, she found safety in the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, just across the border in Bangladesh.
“Last year, we received Korean rice. It was very tasty,” Leila remembers. “It was good with lentils and cabbage.”
From aid recipient to top donor
Korean rice arrives at Chittagong Port in Bangladesh, destined for Cox’s Bazar – a testament of Korea’s transformation from food aid recipient to major donor. Photo: WFP/Rawful Alam
Just over a generation ago, the Republic of Korea was one of the world’s poorest countries, and a leading recipient of WFP assistance. Between 1964 and1984, WFP rolled out nearly two dozen projects in the country – from nutrition assistance and water sanitation to flood control and road construction – helping to turn that trajectory around.
Today, the booming East Asian nation counts among WFP’s top donors, earmarking hundreds of millions of dollars for our food assistance every year – including rice grown by famers like Han. This year, Seoul provided a record 150,000 tons of the grain for WFP operations in 17 countries — triple the tonnage it provided in 2018, when it first started donating rice.
“Having transformed from an aid recipient to a donor country, the Republic of Korea is deeply committed to giving back and taking a leading role in global humanitarian efforts,” says Shinjae Kim, Director of Global Agricultural Development Team at the Republic of Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.
Before the Korean rice is exported, different grains are sorted and stored separately. Experts conduct milling tests to improve rice quality for overseas food aid. Photo: WFP/Yanghae Won
This year, Bangladesh has become the first recipient of the Government’s nutrient-packed fortified rice – which aims to go “beyond food assistance, to encompass nutrition support and help narrow the global nutrition gap,” Kim adds.
The rice heads to places like Bangladesh, where the Government of Korea’s contributions help to support more than one million Rohingya refugees like Leila.
“Korean rice is a lifeline for some of the world’s hungriest people,“ says Angie Lee, Director of the WFP Seoul Global Office, noting the rice is expected to reach more than 8 million vulnerable people in 2025. “We are grateful for this vital and predictable contribution, which delivers not just food, but hope.”
Quality and safety
WFP’s Jaspal Oberoi oversees cargo at Korea’s Gunsan Port. What’s key, he says, is cargo safety – and knowing Korean rice reaches people in need. Photo: WFP/Yanghae Won
Farmers like Han cultivate rice under government contracts. Their harvests end up in large warehouses located in the nation’s major production areas. The grains are husked and stored in cold units to ensure they have a long shelf life, and meet strict food quality standards.
Rice heading to Cox’s Bazar is then trucked to Gunsan Port, in the western part of the country, where it is shipped to Bangladesh on WFP-chartered vessels. Seoul’s donation covers the WFP costs of both transporting and processing the rice – which undergoes multiple quality checks by the Government’s quality control agency and WFP.
“The biggest challenge is ensuring everyone remains focused on cargo safety,” says WFP Shipping Officer Jaspal Oberoi. What’s key, he adds, “is knowing the rice we handle, despite all the complexities, ultimately reaches people in need.”
An aerial view of the Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, one of the largest in the world. Photo: WFP/Mehedi Rahman
After roughly two weeks at sea, the rice arrives in Bangladesh’s main Chittagong Port, where it undergoes additional quality checks. It is then trucked to warehouses in Cox’s Bazar for distribution to some of the million-plus Rohingya refugees there – who depend almost entirely on humanitarian aid to survive.
“The Rohingya face multiple, overlapping challenges,” says WFP Bangladesh Programme Officer Mohammad Rokibul Alam, ticking off overcrowded living conditions in Cox’s Bazar, health risks and limited earning and educational opportunities.
Precious grains
Leila inspects grains of rice she is buying with WFP vouchers. WFP support is a lifeline to her family. Photo: WFP
In a place where food is precious, Alam has a message for those who helped to grow it. “Every grain of rice reflects your hard work and kindness,” he says of Korean farmers like Han, “and it is received with deep appreciation by the families in the camps.”
Those families include Leila’s, who lives in in Cox’s Bazar in a small shelter made of bamboo sticks. Meals are based on the staple rice and other items – including fresh vegetables -she buys with a US$12 monthly WFP voucher. In an uncertain global funding environment, that lifeline might be affected after March 2026.
“The food doesn’t last,” Leila says. “My children are growing, especially my eldest son, who needs more food than the rest of us.”
Declining resources collide with escalating needs at the camps. Since early 2024, more than 130,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, amid ongoing fighting in Rakhine State. As the crisis continues, prospects for them returning anytime soon are bleak.
Farmer Han, who founded and chaired the Korean National Farmers’ Association, is glad his harvests help feed hungry people. Photo: WFP/Yanghae Won
“The Rohingya community has been stateless for decades,” says WFP’s Alam. “Despite the rising needs in the camps, international support has been sharply declining. This makes contributions such as the Korean rice that much more critical.”
As she sifts grains of rice through her hands, Leila is grateful for this far-away donation. “I thank the Korean people for the rice,” she says. “I pray for them, and wish them well.”
From his home in Gyeonggi, farmer Han is glad to be making a difference. “Knowing the rice we produce helps people across the sea overcomes their difficulties truly warms my heart,” he says.
Copenhagen, Denmark, 7 November 2025, – Satair, an Airbus company, has entered into an agreement to acquire Unical Aviation Inc. (“Unical”), a global aircraft parts and components supplier of Used Serviceable Material (USM) and its subsidiary ecube, a global expert in aircraft storage, disassembly, and transition services. This strategic acquisition represents a significant milestone in Satair’s strategy in the USM space, and reinforces its commitment to providing comprehensive and integrated aftermarket solutions.
The acquisition includes Unical’s and ecube’s seven operational sites and offices across North America, Spain, and the United Kingdom, with combined 2024 revenue of $298 million and headcount of 413, adding a strategic expansion to Satair’s global footprint.
The transaction is subject to the customary regulatory approvals and is expected to be finalised in early 2026.
Both the expertise and infrastructure of Unical and ecube across will play a key role in enhancing Satair’s capabilities as a reliable provider of USM solutions, complementing its current offering supported by its subsidiary, VAS Aero Services – acquired by Satair in 2022 – and leveraging VAS’s capabilities across engine, multi-fleet USM and end-of-life support.
Richard Stoddart, CEO of Satair and Head of Airbus Material Services, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Unical and ecube to Satair.” He added: “At its core, this acquisition is about enhancing aircraft lifecycle management capabilities in the aerospace aftermarket. Prolonging the lifespan of material resources is essential – not only is it the most effective way to maximise the value of assets, it is also integral to establishing responsible material practices that benefit both our customers and our industry’s long-term future.”
Sharon Green, CEO of Unical, commented: “We are delighted to join forces with Satair. This partnership marks a pivotal moment for Unical, and I have full faith that together we will unlock significant value for our customers, employees, and stakeholders. As a global leader in USM and a premier provider of aircraft storage, disassembly, and transition services, Unical and ecube are a powerful and natural match for Satair’s ambitions in services growth, material availability, and sustainability. We’re proud of what we’ve built—and even more excited for what’s ahead.”
The 2023 IMO GHG Strategy foresees global shipping to be net-zero by or around 2050. Numerous actions are being implemented at the global, regional and national level aimed at achieving that goal.
In 2021 IMO adopted the short-term GHG reduction measure, putting in place mandatory energy efficiency requirements requiring ships to progressively reduce their carbon intensity (EEXI and CII), thereby reducing fuel consumption per tonne/mile transported. Latest fuel consumption data reported to the IMO demonstrate an improvement of carbon intensity between 31 and 38% (depending on the metric used), compared to 2008, thus nearing the 40% target for 2030 as set out in the IMO GHG Strategy.
Further energy efficiency improvements can reduce fuel consumption and boost innovation in all ship segments. Rapid technological development in propeller design, air lubrication systems, wind propulsion, hull coating, and just-in-time operations lowered CAPEX and OPEX costs, and faster payback periods.
Ports continue to pursue partnerships along green maritime corridors, and currently over 60 of these corridors are at different stages of development, nourishing crucial first-mover experience in the use of alternative fuels, safe bunkering, shore-power, and forging demand for zero and near-zero emission fuels and technologies through cooperation in industrial clusters in ports areas.
IMO’s support to countries to develop National Action Plans further reinforces cooperation between the shipping, ports and energy sectors, as well as the financial sector to enhance access to finance for shipbuilding and retrofits.
Shipping plays an important role in the global energy transition, enabling the transport of low-emission fuels from their production locations to high-energy demand centers, also allowing ships to use those fuels for propulsion.
IMO is in the process of developing a next set of regulatory measures that will further chart the course of shipping’s energy transition towards net-zero, facilitating global trade, creating new opportunities for alternative fuel producing countries, supporting related maritime infrastructure development, and safeguarding reliable and affordable shipping for the many States depending on shipping as their lifeline to the world’s markets.
This event will focus on current action; and recommendations on how IMO and other stakeholders can further prompt the energy transition of shipping through
appropriate regulatory measures and broader enabling frameworks; including first-mover action and support mechanisms, notably for developing countries, in particular SIDS and LDCs, to ensure that no one is left behind.
Governments and other public entities, international organizations, industry and civil society representatives are invited to join this dialogue, and share their valuable insights on the necessary next steps in shipping’s energy transition.
Agenda
16:45 – 16:55
Opening
Mr. Arsenio Dominguez, Secretary-General, International Maritime Organization (IMO)
16:55 – 17:05
Key note
H.R.H. Prince Jaime de Bourbon de Parme, Climate Envoy, Netherlands
17:05 – 18:00
Ongoing action in the energy transition of shipping and actions needed to accelerate upscaling and innovation
Moderator:
Ms. Katharine Palmer, Maritime Lead, Climate Champions Team
Panel:
Mr. Rodrigo Bermelho, Global Director of Shipping and Distribution, Vale S.A.
Alain Beauvillard, Director of Strategy, Policy and Innovation, Green Climate Fund
Ms. Linden Coppell, Vice President Sustainability & ESG, MSC Cruises
Dr. Andrew Forrest, non-executive chairman, Fortescue
Mr. Hans Olav Ibrekk, Special Envoy, Climate and Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Norway
Ms. Tina Stege, Climate Envoy, Marshall Islands
18:00 – 18:10
Q&A
18:10 – 18:15
Closing remarks
Mr. Igor Paunovic, Senior Economist, Chief of the Climate and Development Strategy Unit, UNCTAD
The HARMONi-A study is the first Phase III trial of an immunotherapy for EGFR-TKI-resistant, EGFR-mutated non-squamous NSCLC to show statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in both progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS)
With a median follow-up of 32.5 months, the ivonescimab combination regimen showed a median OS of 16.8 months, versus 14.1 months for chemotherapy (OS HR=0.74, P=0.019)
The OS benefit of the ivonescimab combination regimen was consistent across all subgroups, showing significant improvement regardless of the presence of brain metastases or EGFR mutations (19Del and L858R)
During the 32.5-month follow-up period, the ivonescimab combination regimen demonstrated excellent safety
These are the final and only formal OS analysis results from the HARMONi-A study
Ivonescimab was approved for market launch in China in May 2024 and was added to the National Reimbursement Drug List (NRDL) in November 2024
HONG KONG, Nov. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Akeso, Inc. (HKEX: 9926.HK) is excited to announce that the final Overall Survival (OS) analysis results from the HARMONi-A study, a Phase III study evaluating ivonescimab combined with chemotherapy for the treatment of EGFR-mutated non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer (nsq-NSCLC) following EGFR-TKI progression, were selected as a “Late-Breaking Abstract” (LBA) for the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), held in National Harbor, Maryland, USA. Professor Xiuning Le from MD Anderson Cancer Center presented these findings to a global audience during an oral presentation session.
HARMONi-A is the first global Phase III clinical trial of an immunotherapy in the EGFR-TKI resistant, EGFR-mutated nsq-NSCLC setting to demonstrate clinically meaningful and statistically significant benefits in both Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS). This final OS analysis, the first from a Phase III trial of ivonescimab, confirms the breakthrough value of ivonescimab-based therapy in improving both PFS and OS. Historically, cancer immunotherapies have largely failed to demonstrate significant breakthroughs in this specific indication. Prior Phase III trials involving other regimens—such as PD-1 inhibitors combined with chemotherapy or immunotherapies combined with anti-angiogenic therapy, failed to show significant OS benefits. The significant positive outcomes in both PFS and OS in the HARMONi-A study underscore the substantial clinical benefit improvement of ivonescimab over PD-1 inhibitors.
Previously, the HARMONi-A study had already met its primary endpoint, demonstrating a statistically significant improvement in PFS at the interim analysis (PFS HR 0.46, P < 0.001). Previously, during the regulatory review for the approval of ivonescimab in first-line PD-L1-positive NSCLC in China, a descriptive analysis of OS from the HARMONi-A study was conducted in May 2024 at the request of the regulatory authorities. The final OS analysis results presented at SITC 2025 represent the final and only pre-specified formal OS analysis for the HARMONi-A study, performed as a sequential test according to the pre-specified statistical analysis plan (SAP).
The final OS analysis, with a median follow-up period of 32.5 months, showed that the ivonescimab plus chemotherapy regimen provided a clinically meaningful and statistically significant improvement in OS compared to chemotherapy alone:
The median OS was 16.8 months in the ivonescimab treatment group compared to 14.1 months in the control group (OS HR=0.74, P=0.019), achieving statistical significance. The OS benefit increased with extended follow-up.
The ivonescimab combination regimen consistently demonstrated OS benefit over the control group across all subgroups:
In patients with brain metastases, OS HR=0.61;
In patients without brain metastases, OS HR=0.77;
In patients with EGFR 19Del mutations, OS HR=0.83;
In patients with EGFR L858R mutations, OS HR=0.60.
With a median follow-up of 32.5 months, the long-term safety profile of the ivonescimab combination therapy remained favorable, with no new safety signals identified. The incidence of common treatment-related adverse events (TRAEs) showed no significant difference between the two groups.
Based on the positive clinical data from the HARMONi-A study, ivonescimab received approval from the China National Medical Products Administration in May 2024 for this indication. In November 2024, Akeso announced that ivonescimab was successfully added to China’s National Reimbursement Drug List, effective January 1, 2025, ensuring widespread patient access to this life-saving treatment.
Additionally, Summit Therapeutics, Akeso’s global partner for ivonescimab, announced in October 2025 that it plans to submit a Biologics License Application (BLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the fourth quarter of 2025, seeking approval for ivonescimab in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of EGFR-mutant, third-generation EGFR-TKI-resistant, non-squamous NSCLC.
Forward-Looking Statement of Akeso, Inc. This announcement by Akeso, Inc. (9926.HK, “Akeso”) contains “forward-looking statements”. These statements reflect the current beliefs and expectations of Akeso’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not intended to form the basis of any investment decision or any decision to purchase securities of Akeso. There can be no assurance that the drug candidate(s) indicated in this announcement or Akeso’s other pipeline candidates will obtain the required regulatory approvals or achieve commercial success. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in P.R.China, the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; Akeso’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the Akeso’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.
Akeso does not undertake any obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, except as required by law.
About Akeso Akeso (HKEX: 9926.HK) is a leading biopharmaceutical company committed to the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of the world’s first or best-in-class innovative biological medicines. Founded in 2012, the company has created a unique integrated R&D innovation system with the comprehensive end-to-end drug development platform (ACE Platform) and bi-specific antibody drug development technology (Tetrabody) as the core, a GMP-compliant manufacturing system and a commercialization system with an advanced operation mode, and has gradually developed into a globally competitive biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative solutions. With fully integrated multi-functional platform, Akeso is internally working on a robust pipeline of over 50 innovative assets in the fields of cancer, autoimmune disease, inflammation, metabolic disease and other major diseases. Among them, 24 candidates have entered clinical trials (including 15 bispecific/multispecific antibodies and bispecific ADCs. Additionally, 7 new drugs are commercially available. Through efficient and breakthrough R&D innovation, Akeso always integrates superior global resources, develops the first-in-class and best-in-class new drugs, provides affordable therapeutic antibodies for patients worldwide, and continuously creates more commercial and social values to become a global leading biopharmaceutical enterprise.
For more information, please visit https://www.akesobio.com/en/about-us/corporate-profile/ and follow us on Linkedin.
HONG KONG, Nov. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Akeso, Inc. (HKEX: 9926.HK) published the preclinical research data for its novel antagonistic monoclonal antibody targeting IL-1RAP, AK135, at the 40th Annual Meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) held in National Harbor, Maryland.
The results demonstrated that AK135 effectively targets IL-1RAP and blocks three key pro-inflammatory signaling pathways—IL-1, IL-33, and IL-36 at their source, thereby halting the transmission of inflammatory signals. In preclinical models, AK135 provided significant pain relief in neuropathy, exhibiting dose-dependent efficacy, while also showing good tolerability and safety profiles.
In vitro Results:
ELISA, Fortebio molecular interaction technology, and flow cytometry (FACS) results demonstrated that AK135 has high affinity for IL-1RAP, with binding activity comparable to or superior to that of the control antibody CAN04.
Reporter gene assays further confirmed that AK135 effectively inhibits the activation of IL-1, IL-33, and IL-36 signaling pathways, showing excellent half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values in each of the pathways.
In tumor cell models, AK135 significantly reduced the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines (such as IL-6 and IL-8) induced by IL-1, IL-33, and IL-36.
In vivo Results:
The in vitro experiments confirmed the high affinity and potent neutralizing activity of AK135. To further evaluate its in vivo efficacy, the research team established a Chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN) mouse model and assessed the pharmacological effects of AK135 through intermittent low-dose paclitaxel administration.
Following AK135 treatment, the paw withdrawal threshold (PWT) in the CIPN model was significantly increased, indicating that AK135 effectively alleviated mechanical allodynia, with a dose-dependent efficacy.
Throughout the treatment period, mice in all dose groups maintained stable body weight, with no significant signs of toxicity, demonstrating good tolerance.
CIPN is a prevalent and dose-limiting side effect of chemotherapy, affecting 50-90% of treated patients, of which 30-40% progressing to chronic neuropathic pain. Despite its clinical significance, effective treatment options remain limited, and the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Emerging evidence suggests that pro-inflammatory cytokines released by the damaged neurons play a key role in CIPN pathogenesis. IL-1 receptor accessory protein (IL-1RAP/IL-1RAcP) is a critical mediator of inflammatory signaling, amplifying responses through the interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-33 (IL-33), and interleukin-36 (IL-36) pathways. Akeso developed AK135, a novel antagonistic monoclonal antibody targeting IL-1RAP, to alleviate the peripheral neuralgia by inhibiting these proinflammatory signaling pathways.
About AK135 (IL-1RAP Targeting Antibody) AK135 is a novel antagonistic antibody targeting IL-1RAP, internally developed by Akeso, aimed at treating chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). By precisely blocking IL-1RAP, this product simultaneously inhibits the three core inflammatory signaling pathways—IL-1, IL-33, and IL-36, providing relief from neuroinflammatory responses at their source. Preclinical studies have shown that AK135 significantly alleviates neuropathic pain in a dose-dependent manner, while also demonstrating good tolerance. Currently, AK135 is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of CIPN.
Forward-Looking Statement of Akeso, Inc. This announcement by Akeso, Inc. (9926.HK, “Akeso”) contains “forward-looking statements”. These statements reflect the current beliefs and expectations of Akeso’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. These statements are not intended to form the basis of any investment decision or any decision to purchase securities of Akeso. There can be no assurance that the drug candidate(s) indicated in this announcement or Akeso’s other pipeline candidates will obtain the required regulatory approvals or achieve commercial success. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.
Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in P.R.China, the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; Akeso’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the Akeso’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.
Akeso does not undertake any obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof, except as required by law.
About Akeso Akeso (HKEX: 9926.HK) is a leading biopharmaceutical company committed to the research, development, manufacturing and commercialization of the world’s first or best-in-class innovative biological medicines. Founded in 2012, the company has created a unique integrated R&D innovation system with the comprehensive end-to-end drug development platform (ACE Platform) and bi-specific antibody drug development technology (Tetrabody) as the core, a GMP-compliant manufacturing system and a commercialization system with an advanced operation mode, and has gradually developed into a globally competitive biopharmaceutical company focused on innovative solutions. With fully integrated multi-functional platform, Akeso is internally working on a robust pipeline of over 50 innovative assets in the fields of cancer, autoimmune disease, inflammation, metabolic disease and other major diseases. Among them, 24 candidates have entered clinical trials (including 15 bispecific/multispecific antibodies and bispecific ADCs. Additionally, 7 new drugs are commercially available. Through efficient and breakthrough R&D innovation, Akeso always integrates superior global resources, develops the first-in-class and best-in-class new drugs, provides affordable therapeutic antibodies for patients worldwide, and continuously creates more commercial and social values to become a global leading biopharmaceutical enterprise.
For more information, please visit https://www.akesobio.com/en/about-us/corporate-profile/ and follow us on Linkedin.
Sustained visual attention is required in many real-life situations such as driving a vehicle or operating machinery and is characterized by limited capacity; not all information available to the visual system can be processed in-depth. Recent work has suggested that to manage the limited capacity problem, the visual system samples the attended information in a rhythmic fashion, mediated by low-frequency intrinsic brain oscillations (Chota et al., 2022; Dugué et al., 2015; Fiebelkorn et al., 2013; Fiebelkorn et al., 2018; Fiebelkorn and Kastner, 2019; Helfrich et al., 2018; Michel et al., 2022; Re et al., 2019; VanRullen, 2013; Zalta et al., 2020). In this view, the cycle of a low-frequency intrinsic brain oscillation can be divided into two phases: a high excitability phase and a low excitability phase. When a stimulus occurs during the high excitability phase, behavioral performance tends to be better than average; conversely, if the stimulus occurs during the low excitability phase, performance is generally worse than average (Lakatos et al., 2008; VanRullen, 2013). Behavioral performance may thus exhibit rhythmic fluctuations at the frequency of the aforementioned low-frequency intrinsic brain oscillation. One paradigm that has been used to test the idea of rhythmic visual sampling is the cue-target paradigm (Posner, 1980; Posner et al., 1987; Posner et al., 1988). The cue at the beginning of each trial, in addition to providing instructions on how the impending target stimulus should be responded to, helps to reset the phase of the low-frequency intrinsic oscillation such that all the trials start at approximately the same phase. By varying the stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between the cue and the target, one obtains the behavioral response (e.g. accuracy and/or reaction time) as a function of the SOA. The rhythmic nature and the frequency of this function can then be assessed by applying time-domain and/or spectral-domain analysis.
When attending to one object in isolation, the frequency of rhythmic sampling tends to be in the high theta or low alpha frequency range, i.e., around 8 Hz (Fiebelkorn et al., 2013; Senoussi et al., 2019; van der Werf et al., 2023). When attention is directed to multiple objects in the environment, it has been suggested that rather than sampling all the objects simultaneously, the brain samples the objects in a serial fashion (Cohen et al., 1990; Wyart et al., 2012). This would then lead to a slower rhythmic sampling of any given object, in the low range of the theta frequency band, i.e., around 4 Hz (Thigpen et al., 2019). For example, when participants were cued to attend one visual hemifield but were asked to detect the appearance of a weak stimulus in either the cued or the uncued visual hemifield, the rhythmic detection rate for the target appearing in a given visual hemifield decreased from 8 Hz to 4 Hz (Chota et al., 2022; Fiebelkorn et al., 2013; VanRullen, 2013). Interestingly, when the detection rate functions of the cued and uncued targets were compared, a 180-degree relative phase was apparent, suggesting that the visual system indeed sampled the two visual hemifields in a serial, alternating fashion (Fiebelkorn et al., 2013; Jiang et al., 2024). In another example, two spatially overlapping clouds of moving dots, one in red color and the other in blue color, moved in orthogonal directions (Re et al., 2019), and the participant was cued to attend both the red dots and the blue dots and instructed to report the change in either the red dots or the blue dots as soon as it occurred. When there was only one cloud of moving dots, the detection accuracy exhibited rhythmic fluctuations as a function of the SOA at a frequency around 8 Hz. When both clouds of moving dots were present, rhythmic fluctuations in the accuracy of detecting changes in a given cloud of moving dots were again identified, and the sampling frequency was reduced to 4 Hz. In this case, however, no apparent 180-degree relative phase between the rhythmic behavioral response functions to the red and blue dots was found, suggesting that there was no serial, alternating sampling between the two attended objects if they appeared at the same spatial location.
The real world visual environment contains both task-relevant information (target) and task-irrelevant (distractor) information. It is well established that in the presence of a distractor, the processing of the target is negatively impacted, leading to reduced task performance (Lavie, 2005; Murphy et al., 2016). This implies that the distractor, despite the need for it to be suppressed by the brain’s executive control system (Kastner et al., 1998; Kastner et al., 1999; Kastner and Pinsk, 2004; Seidl et al., 2012; Kastner and Ungerleider, 2000), is nevertheless processed in the brain, and the competition between the target and the distractor at the neural representational level causes the detriment in behavioral performance. Does the rhythmic sampling theory extend to the target-distractor scenario? If so, what is the temporal relationship between the rhythmic sampling of attended vs distracting stimuli? These questions have hitherto not been addressed. Part of the reason is that the majority of the studies on rhythmic environmental sampling focuses on behavioral evidence, e.g., rhythmicity in the aforementioned performance-vs-SOA function (Fiebelkorn and Kastner, 2019; Landau and Fries, 2012). Since the distractor is not responded to, its sampling by the visual system cannot be inferred purely on the basis of response behavior, and consequently, it is also not possible to study how the target and the distractor might compete for neural representations purely behaviorally.
In this study, we addressed these limitations by recording neural activities and investigating rhythmic sampling during a target-distractor scenario using steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) frequency tagging. The stimuli were a cloud of randomly moving dots (the target) superimposed on emotional images from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang et al., 1997) (the distractor). The target and the distractor were flickered at two different frequencies for an extended duration of ~12 s. The participants were asked to focus on the randomly moving dots and report the number of times the dots moved coherently. In this paradigm, the onset of the stimulus array is the event that resets the phase of the putative low-frequency brain oscillation underlying rhythmic sampling, and the time from the stimulus array onset, referred to as time-from-onset (TFO), is analogous to the SOA in the traditional cue-target paradigm. It is worth noting that, although this paradigm has been used extensively in studies of target-distractor competition with electroencephalography (EEG) (Hindi Attar and Müller, 2012; Müller et al., 2008), it has not yet been examined in the context of rhythmic sampling. Aided by frequency tagging, from the EEG data, we extracted neural representations of target and distractor processing separately as a function of TFO. By examining the rhythmicity of these representations as functions of TFO and the phase relationship between these functions, we assessed (1) whether the target and the distractor were sampled rhythmically and (2) how their temporal competition for neural representations impacted behavioral performance.
NEW YORK—The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Center for Microeconomic Data today released the October 2025Survey of Consumer Expectations, which shows that households’ inflation expectations decreased at the short-term horizon and remained unchanged at the medium- and longer-term horizons. Unemployment rate and job finding expectations worsened, while job loss expectations slightly improved. Spending and household income growth expectations remained largely unchanged. Perceptions and expectations about credit availability improved, but respondents were somewhat less optimistic about their future household financial situation. The survey was fielded from October 1 through October 31, 2025.
The main findings from the October 2025 Survey are:
Inflation
Median inflation expectations decreased by 0.2 percentage point to 3.2% at the one-year-ahead horizon in October. They were unchanged at the three-year- (3.0%) and five-year-ahead (3.0%) horizons. The survey’s measure of disagreement across respondents (the difference between the 75th and 25th percentiles of inflation expectations) increased at all horizons.
Median inflation uncertainty—or the uncertainty expressed regarding future inflation outcomes—remained unchanged at the one-year-ahead horizon and declined at the three- and five-year-ahead horizons.
Median home price growth expectations remained unchanged at 3.0% for the fifth consecutive month. This series has been moving in a narrow range between 3.0% and 3.3% since August 2023.
Median year-ahead commodity price change expectations declined by 0.7 percentage point for gas to 3.5% and by 0.1 percentage point for food to 5.7%. The year-ahead price change expectations increased by 1.2 percentage points for the cost of college education to 8.2%, by 0.1 percentage point for the cost of medical care to 9.4% (the highest reading since February 2023), and by 0.2 percentage point for rent to 7.2%.
Labor Market
Median one-year-ahead earnings growth expectations increased by 0.2 percentage point to 2.6% in October, remaining below its 12-month trailing average of 2.7%. The series has been moving within the range between 2.4% and 3.0% since May 2021.
Mean unemployment expectations—or the mean probability that the U.S. unemployment rate will be higher one year from now—increased by 1.4 percentage points to 42.5%. This is the third consecutive increase in the series.
The mean perceived probability of losing one’s job in the next 12 months retreated by 0.9 percentage point to 14.0%. The reading is just below the series’ 12-month trailing average of 14.2%. The mean probability of leaving one’s job voluntarily, or the expected quit rate, in the next 12 months decreased by 1.9 percentage points to 18.8%, falling just below its 12-month trailing average of 19.0%.
The mean perceived probability of finding a job if one’s current job was lost fell by 0.6 percentage point to 46.8%, remaining well below its 12-month trailing average of 50.6%. The decline was driven by respondents below age 60 and those with at least some college education.
Household Finance
The median expected growth in household income declined by 0.1 percentage point to 2.8% in October, after remaining unchanged for three consecutive months at 2.9%.
Median one-year-ahead household spending growth expectations increased by 0.1 percentage point to 4.8%. The series has been moving in a range between 4.7% and 5.2% since February 2025.
Perceptions of credit access compared to a year ago improved with a smaller share of households reporting it is harder to get credit (the lowest since February 2022) and a larger share of households reporting it is easier to get credit (the highest since October 2024). Expectations for future credit availability also improved, with a smaller share of respondents expecting it will be harder to obtain credit and a larger share of respondents expecting it will be easier to obtain credit in the year ahead.
The average perceived probability of missing a minimum debt payment over the next three months increased by 0.5 percentage point to 13.1%, remaining below its 12-month trailing average of 13.3%.
The median expectation regarding a year-ahead change in taxes at current income level decreased by 0.4 percentage point to 3.2%.
Median year-ahead expected growth in government debt declined by 0.3 percentage point to 7.2%.
The mean perceived probability that the average interest rate on saving accounts will be higher in 12 months remained unchanged at 24.9%.
Perceptions about households’ current financial situations compared to a year ago worsened with a larger share of households reporting a worse financial situation. Year-ahead expectations about households’ financial situations also deteriorated. A larger share of households are expecting a worse financial situation, and a smaller share of households are expecting a better financial situation in one year from now.
The mean perceived probability that U.S. stock prices will be higher 12 months from now decreased by 0.9 percentage point to 38.9%.
About the Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) The SCE contains information about how consumers expect overall inflation and prices for food, gas, housing, and education to behave. It also provides insight into Americans’ views about job prospects and earnings growth and their expectations about future spending and access to credit. The SCE also provides measures of uncertainty regarding consumers’ outlooks. Expectations are also available by age, geography, income, education, and numeracy.
The SCE is a nationally representative, internet-based survey of a rotating panel of approximately 1,300 household heads. Respondents participate in the panel for up to 12 months, with a roughly equal number rotating in and out of the panel each month. Unlike comparable surveys based on repeated cross-sections with a different set of respondents in each wave, this panel allows us to observe the changes in expectations and behavior of the same individuals over time. For further information on the SCE, please refer to an overview of the survey methodology here, the FAQs, the interactive chart guide, and the survey questionnaire.
Fluid forms that strike a delicate balance between openness and intimacy: the Kering Pavilion draws inspiration from the natural environment to reflect the Group’s living, evolving force of creativity. Gently curved enclosures define individual spaces where each House reveals its distinctive universe and savoir-faire. Meanwhile, open display tables, accentuated by curvilinear panels, form a landscape that invites exploration. Light filters through the panels, casting shadows and animating the displays with movement and depth.
The construction itself reflects Kering sustainability commitments: modular prefabricated elements reuse 50% of materials from the previous year while, for part of the furniture, traditional leather is replaced with full-plant-life-cycle leather provided by PEELSPHERE, the first-place winner of the 2nd Kering Generation Award China.
A collection of Polaroids from Hidden’s September event. Illustration: Guardian Design/Photos courtesy of Stella Barey
Stella Barey has an hour for lunch. At 1.30pm, she loads her banged-up Tacoma with her three Belgian malinois and drives to a secret Los Angeles hiking trail. There, she gulps down a tapioca pudding and laces up her sneakers. After checking over her shoulder for foot traffic, she pulls down her brown sweatpants and jiggles her bare ass for the camera. Then come the undies. Her coiffed landing strip hovers above the rocks as a rush of urine floods the trail. Every mile she walks, she films another video: a flash, a moon, a finger up the ass.
When Barey decided in 2020 to pursue porn full-time, she did not imagine that at 28 she would spend more time hunched over a desk – not in the fun way – making flow charts, scheduling Zoom calls, and sending pitch decks. “I’m at my happiest when I’m making a video like putting a strawberry in my butt and pushing it out,” she says. “Now I’m on calls all day and I have tech neck.” Known online as the “Anal Princess”, with large, blinking Shelley Duvall eyes and an American Girl doll pout, she will try anything once – even the title “tech founder”.
Barey is looking to disrupt the porn landscape with Hidden, a site designed to alleviate creator burnout and restore the fun in making and consuming adult content – a place where, unlike OnlyFans, she can post public exposure and piss clips from her daily lunch-break hikes.
Hidden arrives during an uncertain time for porn, especially for gen Z. They are skeptical of it, raised on it and increasingly behind the camera themselves. The platform reflects the DIY sensibility that Barey’s generation grew up with, and its mission speaks to their conflicted relationship with big tech, sex work and making a living online. “At the end of the day, Hidden is more than porn,” Barey says. “It’s a political statement” – and one of the only sex worker-founded sex-tech companies hosting adult content today.
Born in San Juan Capistrano, California and raised by a gynaecologist mother, Barey cannot remember a time when she was not insatiably curious about her body. At NYU, she invented her own major – ethical healthcare systems and policy – then finished med school prerequisites for gynaecology at University of California, Los Angeles, where she gravitated to the city’s X-rated underbelly: sex parties, industry mixers, late-night friendships with porn girls. Trapped in her apartment during the first wave of Covid, grinding through schoolwork, she started experimenting with anal sex with her then boyfriend – and sharing her sexploits via dirty story times on TikTok. “This is when TikTok still felt like this hidden little piece of the internet,” she recalls.
Her third video went viral. Men in the comments wanted her OnlyFans. Women wanted more story times. By 2021, Barey had given them both. OnlyFans bikini shots and nude selfies pulled in more than $40,000 a month – enough to make medical school look optional. She dropped out, figuring the white coat would wait for her. On TikTok, she became the horny professor to a cult following of gen Z women, quoting Michel Foucault, Sigmund Freud and Marquis de Sade as she spoke about the color of her vagina, STD checks, treating bacterial vaginosis (BV) and inserting a menstrual sponge – and the delights of anal sex.
“I was making the sacrifice of potentially ruining my reputation to speak about sexual health and sexual topics, things 99% of the girls my age are also thinking about, in a non-stigmatized way,” Barey says. (Having a gynaecologist mom on speed dial helped.) By 2022, she had hit 750,000 TikTok followers and a $285,000 month on OnlyFans.
It didn’t last. Four years prior, in 2018, federal law made websites legally liable for hosting material linked to sex trafficking. Spooked by the law as well as mounting pressure from banks, advertisers and religious lobbying groups, Instagram and TikTok began issuing “community violations” for even the hint of sexual content. The word obscenity, long the legal standard for what counts as “too sexual”, remained deliberately undefined, giving them carte blanche to remove anything that made them nervous. Adult creators were shadowbanned, deleted and demonetized without warning. But they could not afford to leave the mainstream platforms altogether – that’s where they advertised their content and built fanbases.
Stella Barey. Photograph: Courtesy of Stella Barey
To survive, they developed their own internet survival codes, resorting to “algospeak” to circumvent obscenity guidances (“corn” for porn, “seggs” for sex, “accountant” for sex worker), VPNs and burner accounts to evade detection, and private Discords to swap intel. “We became outlaws,” Barey says. “You have no clue what is allowed or not allowed until you get hit with a violation. It’s all word of mouth.”
By the end of 2022, Barey had gone through 22 TikTok accounts, many with more than 600,000 followers, buying burner phones to start from scratch each time she got booted from the platform.
Severely limited by mainstream sites, sex workers sought out new havens for posting adult content, the most popular of which is OnlyFans. Whereas Pornhub and its peers monetize traffic through ads and streaming, OnlyFans monetizes relationships, letting creators sell directly to fans. By 2024, more than 4.6 million creators were pulling in $7.2bn from subscribers. But OnlyFans comes with its own set of problems. The platform is notorious for lacking creator-friendly tools. Unlike Instagram or TikTok, there is no “explore” page or discovery feed; the burden of finding an audience falls entirely on the performer, which means relentless self-promotion on the very sites that are so hostile to them. “People don’t realize that most of these girls don’t want to be doing social media – they just want to make porn,” Barey says.
Once fans do make it to a creator’s page, monthly subscriptions account for only a fraction of potential earnings. The real money comes from time-consuming manual engagement, such as selling custom videos, sexts and one-to-one messaging. At one point, 70% of Barey’s income came from these direct messages. “You can’t be spending your entire day making content, promoting it on socials, and also be on your account selling to fans 24/7,” she says. “It’s unsustainable.”
The idea for Hidden began in 2023, when a high school friend and Wharton business school grad approached Barey about co-founding a porn site. Barey set the terms: a platform designed by and for sex workers, built to promote passive income in an industry where constant performance is often the price of survival. The platform launched on 12 April with a sleek black interface and artful branding. Focused on amateur content, it recalls the Tumblr-era cam girl aesthetic – a period many creators look back on with fondness. (“Hidden” is a reference to the phone folder in which normies keep their nudes.)
After clicking “18+”, users land on a TikTok-style “For You” page that serves clips tailored to their taste. Scrolling through videos and photos, one can find anything from a girl-next-door-type smiling in her pyjamas to a performer gyrating on a lubed-up dildo. See someone you like? A quick swipe to that creator’s profile is usually where the first paywall appears: a small fee to unlock their feed, view explicit posts or send a message.
Barey is most excited about the ways Hidden, unlike OnlyFans, helps creators keep earning without constantly filming or messaging. The site’s algorithm promotes old videos as much as new ones, and each profile includes a built-in store where fans can buy clips and pay-per-view posts – content that creators have already made, now working for them in the background.
None of Hidden’s features are brand new, Barey admits. The scrolling feed is lifted from RedGifs; the store from ManyVids; and the chargeback protections, popular among creators for making it harder for customers to dispute charges and get refunds, from SextPanther. But they are consolidated on Hidden, which also takes the smallest cut in the industry (18% of creators’ earnings, compared with OnlyFans’ 20%).
For Leila Lewis, 28, a Philadelphia-based creator making over $30,000 a month on OnlyFans, the appeal was immediate. “Everyone is getting sick of the OnlyFans model. We’re exhausted and burnt out,” she says. After a consultation with Barey, she said Hidden felt like a return to the golden days – something that finally made her excited about the work again. “You can’t do fisting or pee content on OnlyFans,” which is the content her fans like best but is prohibited on the more skittish platform, Lewis explains. “That’s why I love Hidden, because they just let you do pretty much anything.”
Barey speaks at a Hidden event for creators in September. Photograph: Stella Barey
Barey oversees a 40-person software team, a product designer and six content moderators, and more features are on the way. Barey and her team are building a takedown bot to scan the internet for leaks and stolen content with a single click. She is experimenting with AI tools that would let fans request personalized clips generated from a performer’s likeness (for instance, “me in a red dress on a plane”), while safeguarding ownership of their likeness from sites that are already selling nonconsensual AI versions of them. Barey even wants Hidden to handle its own payments instead of relying on third-party payment processors – an unheard-of move in the adult industry that would cut out the middlemen that drive up fees. (If she could buy a bank outright, she says, creators might one day keep nearly all of what they earn.)
Ultimately, she insists it’s sex workers who will decide what comes next for Hidden. “I have a list of thousands of things, but if I’m hearing from the girls that they really want live streaming, I’m going to put that up at the top.” Meanwhile, her core crew of gen Z assistants – Drew, Chloe and Naomi, who once ran her OnlyFans and now act as her “angels” – weigh in on everything from marketing strategy to her sex tape’s final cut. Years of navigating porn sites and the minefield of social media have given them an instinct for what will resonate.
So far, Hidden has registered over 113,000 users who have spent on average $53 each, and has enrolled more than 2,100 active creators – most of them gen Z women.
At this moment public sentiment toward porn is souring. That’s in part due to the rise of “rage bait” porn, the kind of deliberately provocative content that first launched Barey into viral fame, when her TikTok about sleeping with her father’s fiftysomething best friend broke the internet. Gen Z creators such as Bonnie Blue and Lily Phillips, whose exhibitionist gangbang spectacles were engineered to be detested, thrive in an ecosystem warped by burnout, censorship, algorithmic whiplash, “slop” churn, and audiences with ever-shortening attention spans. For critics, they are proof the industry has lost its grip.
The backlash also mirrors cultural anxieties about sex, gender and power among gen Z. By age 13, most US teens have already encountered pornography, often by accident. Gen Z is the first cohort to grow up with porn not just available but ambient, algorithmically unavoidable.
The American Survey Center’s 2025 report found that nearly two-thirds of men under 25 now support making online pornography harder to access – a sharp increase from previous generations. This shift could be tied to growing discomfort with porn’s ubiquity, as well as a broader conservative turn among young people (as you can see in the “NoFap” and abstinence trends spreading across TikTok). At the same time, feminist critics, gen Z or otherwise, are calling out the damaging effects of some porn, from normalized choking to transactional “porn-script” sex bleeding into dating culture.
Interestingly, survey data shows gen Z reports less sexual activity than earlier generations, suggesting a more cautious cohort. And yet, new Kinsey Institute research finds gen Z to be the most kink-friendly generation on record.
Internet porn historian Noelle Perdue argues that the contradictions themselves are the story. “There is among younger generations this resentment towards the concept of mainstream pornography,” she says, “but they are also genuinely curious about their sexuality.” What gen Z is open to, she adds, is ethically produced porn that matches their sensitivities and desires. Recent Pornhub data also shows a broader cultural shift toward authenticity in porn: searches for “ethical porn” rose 92% in 2024, while “authentic sex” climbed 43%, meaning viewers are increasingly drawn to user-generated and amateur content over scripted, studio productions that can feel unrealistic.
“Ethical porn”, a recent buzzword in the industry, generally refers to erotic content that is transparently and legally produced, fairly paid and filmed with mutual pleasure in mind; feminist porn filmmakers such as Erika Lust are often held up as the gold standard. Hidden is, in that sense, as ethical as a platform can reasonably claim to be: its content is self-filmed by age-verified performers who own their work and keep most of what they earn. However, one can never be entirely sure what is or is not ethical without being in the room where the sex is happening.
Between her time on TikTok and an in-person erotic philosophy reading series she started last February, Barey has drawn in a wide circle of college-aged women. “I know there’s a rise in conservatism amongst gen Z, but I see this generation as the most accepting of porn of any generation yet,” she says. “They’re so supportive of sex work and understanding it as a legitimate job.”
By the time young people have worked out what they want – or do not want – from porn, it might be a moot point. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 went so far as to openly call for pornography to be outlawed and its producers imprisoned, indicating a rightwing thirst for a national ban on the industry. A less existential but more immediate threat are new age-verification laws across the US and UK that require users to upload government IDs or biometric data before accessing porn. Lawmakers frame these bills as child-protection measures, but in practice they penalize the very platforms trying to comply and slash the income of sex workers – especially queer and trans creators already working on razor-thin margins. When Louisiana’s Act 440 went into effect in 2023, Pornhub reported an 80% drop in traffic from the state, while VPN searches spiked. As Perdue notes, minors will always find adult content; what these laws actually do is punish compliant platforms like Hidden, OnlyFans and Pornhub, and funnel users toward sketchier sites rife with pirated or nonconsensual material.
As of now, porn still accounts for more than a third of internet data transfers. Its future could depend on creators finally taking control of the industry they built. “Tech companies have a long history of establishing financial sustainability by hosting explicit content and then suddenly abandoning it,” Perdue says. “It would be amazing to have this pattern disrupted by a company that is truly aligned with sex workers, instead of just seeing adult content as a means to a financial end.”
Three dogs pant out of open windows as Barey’s pickup barrels down the freeway, away from the hiking trail. She will miss the beginning of her 2.30pm call, a meeting with her chief technology officer to review Hidden’s next software update. There is no signal on this stretch, so for a few more minutes she can remain in her favorite role – just another horny girl on the internet with a camera roll filled with nudes.
“Even though porn has been around forever, this version of online sex work is so brand new,” Barey says. In this way, Hidden may be less a product than a provocation – an argument that an industry dismissed as slop can still be reinvented.
