Category: 3. Business

Soho House Members’ Club Nearing a Deal to Go Private

The company helped spark a wave of private clubs in New York and boasts more than 200,000 members worldwide.

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Air Canada Flight Attendants to Defy Back-to-Work Order

The airline is facing a crisis after its flight attendants walked off the job over the weekend and rejected a government order to return to work.

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Your Wait for a Tesla Robo-Taxi Ride Is Almost Over, Musk Says

Tesla’s robo-taxi offering in Austin, Texas, should expand in September.

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Welcome to the Fast-Food Industry’s Crispy Chicken Summer

The crispy chicken sandwich wars are heating up, with fast-food heavyweights quickly expanding their offerings while upstart chains plot to capture more territory.

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Disney’s Marvel Abandons Georgia, Taking Livelihoods With It

Tax incentives lured studios to help build the ‘Hollywood of the South,’ but now Marvel and others are going overseas for cheaper labor costs.

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Getting to the Moon or Mars? Musk and Bezos Tackle Space Travel’s Refueling Problem

Spacecraft that could fuel up in orbit would be less weighted down at liftoff and fly deeper into space; making those refills happen is a big challenge for SpaceX and Blue Origin.

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Walmart and rivals report earnings, for the clearest look yet at tariffs’ impact on consumers. Will CEOs talk about the elephant in the room?

The nation’s biggest retailer reports results on Thursday as signs emerge that U.S. tariffs could be nudging prices higher.

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A2 Milk Targets Margin Growth, Buys Manufacturing Facility

A2 Milk raised hopes of an expansion in profit margins as it doubled down on Chinese demand for infant formula by buying a manufacturing plant in New Zealand’s North Island.

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NAB Flags Higher Costs as Credit Impairments Hit Profit

National Australia Bank flagged higher annual operating costs due to continued payroll problems, while a steep rise in credit impairment charges sparked a 13% fall in third-quarter profit.

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Shein and Temu Face Tougher Times in the U.S. That’s Good News for Amazon.

Both companies saw a drop in U.S. web traffic and sales after a change in tax and trade policy in the spring. Amazon, Gap, and others are benefiting.

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Big Tech Is Eating Itself in Talent War

The scramble by tech companies for top AI talent is using unorthodox methods that imperil Silicon Valley’s startup culture.

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Six Flags Is Having a Seriously Scary Summer

The theme-park chain is grappling with declining attendance, bad weather, broken rides and construction delays. Plus its hot new ride is going viral for all the wrong reasons.

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The Palantir Mafia Behind Silicon Valley’s Hottest Startups

The network connects founders and venture capitalists with ‘Palantir Pals’ and a Russian River camping trip

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U.S. Steel Plant Explosion May Have Occurred While Flushing Gas Valve

The company said pressure likely built up inside the valve, causing it to fail and leading to coke oven gas filling the area, which then exploded after being ignited.

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Winklevoss Twins’ Crypto Platform Gemini Submits Public IPO Filing

The cryptocurrency exchange plans to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol GEMI, according to a filing with the SEC.

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UnitedHealth Stock Is Having Its Best Day in Years. It Still Needs More to Cure Its Problems.

Even though Warren Buffett seems to think the value of UnitedHealth stock is about right, that doesn’t mean investors should ignore the long list of unresolved issues facing the company.

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Intel’s Move Toward Nationalization Won’t Work-at Least for the Long Haul

Federal support could get the troubled chip maker over some hurdles, but risks great harm to the U.S. tech sector.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  August 17, 2025 23:15 ET (03:15 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

A top-level review of clinical evidence confirms ginger’s broad health benefits, from anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic effects to easing nausea in pregnancy, with potential as a safe, natural therapy.

Review: Pharmacological properties of ginger (Zingiber officinale): what do meta-analyses say? a systematic review. Image Credit: barmalini / Shutterstock

In a recent systematic review published in Frontiers in Pharmacology, researchers at Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine and Mercer University School of Medicine in the United States collated and synthesized five high-quality clinical publications (meta-analyses) to investigate the effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on inflammation, blood sugar, and other physiological metrics, thereby informing its use as a functional food.

Review findings confirm that ginger supplementation significantly reduces key markers of inflammation, lowers blood glucose and glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) in type 2 diabetes (T2D), and improves antioxidant status. It has also been shown to alleviate pregnancy-associated nausea effectively. However, it did not significantly reduce vomiting episodes, and vitamin B6 was significantly more effective at improving overall nausea and vomiting of pregnancy (NVP) symptom scores in some trials. These findings support ginger’s potential as a generally safe and multifaceted therapeutic agent for various common health conditions, though limitations in study quality and consistency remain.

Background

Human history is full of examples of ancient cultures leveraging herbs and spices as more than just flavor enhancers, but also to promote health and treat illness. Ginger, with its characteristic pungent flavor derived from bioactive compounds like gingerols and shogaols, remains one of the most celebrated. Zingiber officinale has been used for millennia to treat everything from digestive upset to inflammation.

Modern science has sought to validate these claims, exploring ginger’s potential to manage conditions like type 2 diabetes (T2D), oxidative stress, and pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting (NVP). While numerous studies have investigated ginger’s health benefits, their results are often inconsistent and confounding, making it difficult for clinicians and consumers to make informed decisions about consumption and dosage.

Meta-analyses, reviews that pool the results of multiple randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and reanalyse this pooled data holistically, address between-study confounds and provide more substantial evidence. The present study takes the next logical step: a systematic review of those meta-analyses, creating a powerful, top-level summary of what we know about the clinical benefits of ginger.

About the review

The present systematic review attempts to address these knowledge gaps by conducting a “review of reviews” designed to consolidate the highest evidence on ginger’s therapeutic effects. Publications for inclusion in the review were identified via a custom keyword search of several credible online scientific repositories (PubMed, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane, and ISI Web of Science) from January 2010 to the end of March 2025. Subsequently, title, abstract, and full text screening were employed to assess study applicability. Only five meta-analyses were ultimately included from more than 2,000 initially identified records.

The review focused on the associations between ginger consumption or supplementation and four key health outcomes: inflammation, T2D, oxidative stress, and NVP. Data extractions comprised crucial quantitative findings and conclusions from each of these papers. These pooled results, dosages used in the underlying trials, and the overall strength of the evidence were examined, providing a robust and comprehensive overview of ginger’s clinically established pharmacological effects.

Findings

The present review established ginger’s physiological benefits across all four areas of focus. A meta-analysis by Morvaridzadeh et al. (2020), which included 16 RCTs, found that ginger supplementation led to significant reductions in key inflammatory markers, including C-reactive protein (CRP; Mean Difference = -5.11), high-sensitivity CRP (MD = -0.88), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) (MD = -0.85). These markers demonstrate validated associations with a wide range of chronic diseases. However, inter-study heterogeneity was very high (I² > 89%), which limits the strength of these conclusions.

The meta-analysis by Zhu et al. (2018) of 10 RCTs revealed ginger’s powerful effect on glycemic control. Supplementation was observed to significantly lower fasting blood glucose (MD = -21.24 mg/dL, P < 0.001) and, significantly, also reduced glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) (MD = -1.00, P < 0.001), a key indicator of long-term blood sugar management. These findings were supported by low heterogeneity, increasing their reliability.

The meta-analysis of 12 RCTs by Sheikhhossein et al. (2021) showed improved antioxidant status following ginger supplementation. The spice significantly reduced levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) (MD = -1.45, P = 0.001), a marker of lipid damage, while simultaneously increasing the activity of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GPx) (MD = 1.93, P = 0.029). However, it did not significantly increase total antioxidant capacity (TAC).

For nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, a meta-analysis by Viljoen et al. (2014) of 12 RCTs found that ginger was significantly more effective than placebo at reducing nausea symptoms (P = 0.0002). However, it did not have a statistically significant effect on the frequency of vomiting. This limitation was not consistently highlighted across all studies. A separate meta-analysis by Gaur et al. (2022) found that while ginger and vitamin B6 had comparable effects on vomiting, vitamin B6 was significantly better at improving total NVP symptom scores. Ginger also increased the risk of belching, a statistically significant side effect.

Notably, the typical ginger supplementation doses used in these trials ranged from 500 to 1,500 mg daily for NVP and 1 to 3 g daily for anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and antidiabetic effects, highlighting a lack of standardization even in clinical research, let alone consumer supply. The authors emphasized substantial heterogeneity in some of the meta-analyses, particularly in inflammation studies, which further strengthens the need for robust public health guidelines and higher-quality trials.

Conclusions

The present systematic review synthesized the results of five meta-analyses and found that ginger is a generally safe and potentially effective therapeutic agent with a moderate to strong evidence base. Review findings robustly support its use as an effective anti-inflammatory, an adjunct therapy for managing T2D, a potent antioxidant, and a safe remedy for pregnancy-related nausea. However, its effects on vomiting are not consistently significant, and vitamin B6 appears more effective overall for NVP symptoms.

While the evidence is substantial, high heterogeneity in several of the underlying meta-analyses, variability in ginger formulation and dosing, and a risk of bias in studies (especially in NVP trials) suggest that further large-scale, high-quality trials are necessary. Future research and public health recommendations are needed to define optimal dosing, delivery formats, and patient populations.

LAHORE:

Financial globalisation has liberalised the financial/capital account of countries. This liberalisation has provided opportunities to financial/money manager capitalists to look for arbitrage across the world.

They borrow in a country where policy rate is low and invest in a country where policy rate is high provided the exchange rate remains stable. In the jargon, this is known as positive carry trade for the money manager capitalist.

Carry trade is a characteristic feature of financial globalisation where differentials in policy rates provide profitable opportunities to investors/money managers. For instance, policy rates in the US, Australia and Europe are 5.5%, 3.9% and 2.25% respectively while policy rate is at 11% in Pakistan.

The exchange rate has been stabilised so foreign money managers invested in Market Treasury Bills (MTBs) and equities in the last 18 months, showing a net positive capital inflow, as reported by the Special Convertible Rupee Account (SCRA). However, there is a net outflow of around $40 million in July 2025 as policy rate differentials have been curtailed.

Foreign money managers pour capital into a country where there is an interest rate differential along with stable exchange rate. The rupee-dollar parity has been hovering around 285 since January 2024, which has given confidence to these investors to park their capital in MTBs and equities.

The business press will appreciate this development and favour net capital inflows. A general view is that these inflows will bring valuable dollars to the country, which will bolster foreign exchange reserves. The reserves held by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have been around $14.4 billion in July 2025. These reserves have been boosted through intervention of the SBP in the inter-bank market.

If the SBP buys dollars from the inter-bank market, it will increase rupee circulation in the banking system. Then it has to perform domestic sterilisation operation, where it will sell government securities to mop up excess liquidity in the banking system. This sterilisation will incur cost and reduce profitability of the SBP.

The costs associated with capital inflows are hardly discussed. These flows are temporary to the extent that certain institutional investors/money managers complete a transaction within a month. They invest and withdraw their funds as soon as possible to realise profits.

Such inflows are costly for developing countries and Pakistan is not an exception in this regard. The SBP will incur a loss as it will use the domestic policy rate to buy dollars while foreign institutional investors/money manager will gain by borrowing at a low policy rate and invest at a high policy rate in Pakistan.

The gain of foreign institutional investors will equalise the loss for the SBP. This loss will further reduce the SBP’s profit, which is booked as non-tax revenue in the fiscal account. In the jargon, this will be called negative carry trade, which will reduce the profitability of the central bank.

Fiscal austerity, tight monetary policy, privatisation and liberalisation of the capital account fall under the aegis of macroeconomic stabilisation policies. These stabilisation policies generate interest rate differentials to attract short-term capital inflows. These capital inflows enhance domestic credit liquidity where the SBP has to perform sterilisation which will, in turn, increase fiscal deficit of the government.

In a nutshell, carry trade is a distinct feature of financial globalisation. The macroeconomic stabilisation policies create differentials in policy rates which, in turn, promote carry trade. Considering the costs associated with this carry trade, there is a need to learn from the earlier experience.

The accumulation of foreign exchange reserves either through the SBP’s inter-bank intervention or capital inflows requires sterilisation, which will increase fiscal deficit in the coming years. Hence, macroeconomic stabilisation polices could be destabilising for the economy in the medium term.

The writer is an independent economist

Iron ore edged up after a three-day drop on speculation that steel demand in China may rebound seasonally, aiding demand and prices.

Futures of the steel-making staple hit a high of $103 a ton in early trading, after slumping more than 2% in the final three sessions of last week. That losing run came as Beijing reported steel output fell below 80 million tons to post its weakest performance for the month of July since 2017.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive subtype lacking targeted therapies, making immunotherapy a promising yet unpredictable option. Current biomarkers, such as PD-L1 expression or tumor mutational burden, often fail to reliably predict treatment success due to the complexity of immune responses. Moreover, invasive tumor biopsies are impractical for frequent monitoring. Plasma proteomics, which analyzes blood-based proteins, offers a non-invasive alternative but remains underexplored in TNBC. Previous studies have linked certain plasma proteins to immune activity, but none have systematically mapped their dynamics during immunotherapy or tied them to clinical outcomes. Based on these challenges, there is a pressing need to identify reliable, non-invasive biomarkers to optimize immunotherapy for TNBC patients.

Published (DOI: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2025.0038)on July 4, 2025, in Cancer Biology & Medicine, researchers from Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies unveiled a plasma proteomics study of 195 TNBC patients. Using high-sensitivity assays, the team tracked 92 immune-related proteins before, during, and after immunotherapy. They identified ARG1, NOS3 and CD28 as key predictors of response and developed the PIPscore, a model with 85.8% accuracy. The study integrates single-cell RNA sequencing to correlate blood-based findings with tumor microenvironment changes, offering a holistic view of immunotherapy dynamics.

The study revealed dramatic shifts in plasma protein levels post-immunotherapy, with immune-activating proteins like CXCL9 and IFN-γ rising in responders. Notably, patients achieving pathologic complete response(pCR) had higher ARG1 and CD28 but lower NOS3 levels, suggesting these proteins regulate immune activation and tumor suppression. The PIPscore, combining six proteins (e.g., ARG1, NOS3, IL-18), stratified patients into high- and low-response groups with striking precision (AUC 0.858). High PIPscores correlated with better outcomes, while low scores indicated resistance.Single-cell RNA sequencing further linked plasma proteins to tumor microenvironment changes. For example, elevated NOS3 levels associated with fewer CD8+ T cells in tumors, hinting at immunosuppressive effects. Conversely, ARG1‘s role in arginine metabolism may enhance T-cell function. The team validated findings via ELISA, confirming the reliability of their proteomic platform.A standout highlight was the PIPscore’s prognostic power: it predicted 12-month progression-free survival with 96% accuracy. This tool could streamline clinical decision-making, identifying ideal candidates for immunotherapy upfront.

This study transforms how we approach TNBC immunotherapy. By translating complex plasma proteomics into a practical score, we’ve bridged the gap between research and clinical utility. The PIPscore not only predicts response but also opens doors to targeting metabolic pathways like arginine deprivation to overcome resistance. These findings underscore that systemic immunity, not just the tumor microenvironment, dictates treatment success.”

Dr. Yizhou Jiang, co-corresponding author

The PIPscore could soon guide oncologists in selecting TNBC patients for immunotherapy, reducing unnecessary side effects and costs. Its non-invasive nature allows repeated monitoring, enabling real-time adjustments to treatment plans. Beyond TNBC, this approach might apply to other cancers where immunotherapy efficacy varies widely.