Condoms aren’t a fact of life for young Americans. They’re an afterthought

AS IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN

SAFE SEX- 

FORTY FOUR YEARS AFTER AIDS

Fewer young people are having sex, and the teens and young adults who are sexually active aren’t using condoms as regularly. It has some public health experts thinking about how to help young people have safe sex.


 

Condoms and other sexual wellness items are made available to students at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)


OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — It’s hard to miss the overflowing bowl of condoms at the entrance of the gym.


Some University of Mississippi students walking past after their workout snicker and point, and the few who step forward to consider grabbing a condom rethink it when their friends catch up, laughter trailing behind them. Almost no one actually reaches in to take one.


Though officials say they refill the bowl multiple times a day, and condoms are available at multiple places on campus, Ole Miss students say the disinterest is indicative of changing attitudes.


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Fewer young people are having sex, but the teens and young adults who are sexually active aren’t using condoms as regularly, if at all. And people ages 15 to 24 made up half of new chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases in 2022.

The downward trend in condom usage is due to a few things: medical advancements like long-term birth control options and drugs that prevent sexually transmitted infections; a fading fear of contracting HIV; and widely varying degrees of sex education in high schools.

Is this the end of condoms? Not exactly. But it does have some public health experts thinking about how to help younger generations have safe sex, be aware of their options — condoms included — and get tested for STIs regularly.

“Old condom ads were meant to scare you, and all of us were scared for the longest time,” said Dr. Joseph Cherabie, medical director of the St. Louis HIV Prevention Training Center. “Now we’re trying to move away from that and focus more on what works for you.”

Drink protector “condoms” and other sexual wellness items are made available to students at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

A shift in attitudes

Downtown Oxford was thrumming the day before the first football game of the season. The fall semester had just started.

Lines of college students with tequila-soda breath waited to be let in dim bars with loud music. Hands wandered, drifting into back pockets of jeans, and they leaned on one another.

It’s likely that many of those students didn’t use a condom, said Magan Perry, president of the college’s Public Health Student Association.
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“Using a condom is just a big, ‘uh, no,’” the senior said.

Young women often have to initiate using condoms with men, she said, adding that she’s heard of men who tell a sexual partner they’ll just buy emergency contraception the next day instead.

“I’ve had friends who go home with a guy and say they’re not having sex unless they use a condom, and immediately the reaction is either a reluctant, ‘OK, fine,’ or ‘If you don’t trust me, then I shouldn’t even be here,’” Perry said. “They’re like, ‘Well, I’m not dirty, so why would I use them?’”

Women have long had the onus of preventing pregnancy or STIs, Cherabie said, and buying condoms or emergency contraceptives — which are often in a locked cabinet or behind a counter — can be an uncomfortable experience and “inserts a certain amount of shame.”

Annie Loomis, 25, a student at the University of Washington, said dating apps and casual sex are making it hard for people to know what a “healthy sexual relationship” looks like when it comes to intimacy and respect.

“If you say, ‘Hey, I want you to wear a condom’ and they say, ‘no, I don’t,’ you’re not having sex. It should be that simple,” Loomis said. “But it’s not.”

If pregnancy risk has been the driving factor for condom usage among heterosexual couples, the fear of contracting HIV was the motivation for condom use among men who have sex with men.

But as that fear has subsided, so has condom use, according to a recent study that focused on a population of HIV-negative men who have sex with men.

Grindr, a popular gay dating app, even lists condom use under “kinks” instead of “health.” Things like that make Steven Goodreau, an HIV expert at the University of Washington who led the study, worry that the change in attitudes toward condoms is trickling down to younger generations.

Goodreau believes the promotion of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a drug that prevents HIV, is overshadowing condoms as a prevention strategy. A strategic plan for federal HIV research through 2025 doesn’t mention condoms, and neither does the national Ending the HIV Epidemic plan.


Students walk around the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that condoms are still an effective tool that can be used “alongside newer prevention strategies.”

“We know that condom use has declined among some groups, but they still have an important role to play in STI prevention,” said Dr. Bradley Stoner, director of the CDC’s Division of STD Prevention. “Condoms can be accessed without navigating the health care system, can be used on-demand, are generally affordable and most importantly – they are effective at preventing HIV and STIs when used consistently and correctly.”
Medical advances allow for more options

Pleasure — for both men and women — has long been an undeniable factor for the lack of condom use, according to Dr. Cynthia Graham, a member of the Kinsey Institute team that studies condoms.

But more so, advances in medicine have expanded the options for both STI and pregnancy prevention.

Young cisgender women have been turning to contraceptive implants like intrauterine devices and birth control pills to keep from getting pregnant. And researchers say that once women are in committed relationships or have one sexual partner for a significant amount of time, they often switch to longer-term birth control methods.

Ole Miss junior Madeline Webb said she and her partner seem like outliers — they have been seeing each other for four years, but still use condoms. They also share the responsibility of buying condoms.

“People see condoms as an inconvenience … but they do serve a purpose even if you’re on birth control because there is always a chance of an STD,” Webb said.

A new drug on the market could mean even more STI prevention options for men and possibly women.

Doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis, or doxy PEP, can be taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex and can help prevent chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis. It has to be prescribed by a doctor. Trials are still being conducted for women, but the drug is gaining traction among men who have sex with men and transgender women.

With widespread uptake, the drug has the potential to make a significant impact in STI prevention strategies.

“When PrEP came out, everyone was excited because it was one less thing to worry about in terms of HIV acquisition,” Cherabie said. “With another thing on board that can help decrease our likelihood of getting other STIs, on top of not having to worry about HIV, it gives our community and patients a little less anxiety about their sex lives.”



And in just a decade, PrEP has become a main preventive measure against HIV and other STIs for men who have sex with men – though it is disproportionately used by white men.

Condom use now is “pretty much a thing of the past” for men who have sex with men compared to the 1980s and early 1990s during the AIDS epidemic, said Andres Acosta Ardilla, a community outreach director at an Orlando-based nonprofit primary care clinic that focuses on Latinos with HIV.

“Part of what we have to talk about is that there is something enticing about having condomless sex,” Acosta Ardilla said. “And we have to, as people who are working in public health, plan for the fact that people will choose to have condomless sex.”

Condoms and other sexual wellness items are stored at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

The fight over sex ed

Despite the relentless Southern sun, a handful of people representing various student organizations sat at tables in the heart of Ole Miss’ campus. Students walked past and grabbed buttons, wristbands and fidget toys. One table offered gold-packaged condoms – for cups to prevent drinks from being spiked.

Actual condoms are noticeably absent. They’re also absent in the state’s public schools.

Condom demonstrations are banned in Mississippi classrooms, and school districts can provide abstinence-only or “abstinence-plus” sexual education — both of which can involve discussing condoms and contraceptives.

Focus on the Family, a Christian organization that advocates for teaching abstinence until marriage, is concerned that comprehensive sex education “exposes students to explicit materials.” Abstinence-centered education is “age-appropriate” and keeps students safe and healthy, Focus on the Family analyst Jeff Johnston said in an emailed statement.

But Josh McCawley, deputy director of Teen Health Mississippi, an organization that works with youth to increase access to health resources, said the effects are clear.

“The obvious consequence is the rise of sexually transmitted infections, which is what we’re seeing right now, which can be a burden on the health care system,” he said, “but also there could be long-term consequences for young people in terms of thinking about what it means to be healthy and how to protect themselves, and that goes beyond a person’s sexual health.”

The latest CDC data from 2022 shows Mississippi has the highest teen birth rate in the country.

Scott Clements, who oversees health information for the state education department, was hesitant to criticize Mississippi’s sex education standards because they’re “legislatively mandated.”

“If the legislature wants to make changes to this, we will certainly follow their lead,” he added — though attempts to pass more advanced sexual education standards have died repeatedly in the Mississippi statehouse over the past eight years.

Nationally, there is no set standard for sex education, according to Michelle Slaybaugh, the director of social impact and strategic communication for the Sexuality Information and Education Council for the United States, which advocates for comprehensive sex ed.

Not every state mandates sex education. Some states emphasize abstinence. Less than half of states require information on contraception.

“There is no definitive way to describe what sex ed looks like from classroom to classroom, even in the same state, even in the same district,” Slaybaugh said, “because it will really be determined by who teaches it.”



Compare Mississippi to Oregon, which has extensive state standards that require all public school districts to teach medically accurate and comprehensive sexual education. Students in Portland are shown how to put on a condom on a wooden model of a penis starting in middle school and have access to free condoms at most high schools.



Lori Kuykendall of Dallas, who helped write abstinence-focused standards, said condom demonstrations like those in Portland “normalize sexual activity in a classroom full of young people who the majority of are not sexually active.” She also points to increasingly easy access to pornography — in which people typically do not wear condoms — is a contributing factor to the decline in condom use among young people.

Jenny Withycombe, the assistant director for health and physical education at Portland Public Schools, acknowledged the standards see pushback in the more conservative and rural parts of Oregon. But the idea is to prepare students for future interactions.

“Our job is to hopefully build the skills so that even if it’s been a while since the (condom) demo ... the person has the skills to go seek out that information, whether it’s from the health center or other reliable and reputable resources,” Withycombe said.

Those standards seem to contribute to a more progressive view of condoms and sex in young adults, said Gavin Leonard, a senior at Reed College in Portland and a former peer advocate for the school’s sexual health and relationship program.

Leonard, who grew up in Memphis – not far from Oxford, Mississippi, said his peers at Reed may not consistently use condoms, but, in his experience, better understand the consequences of not doing so. They know their options, and they know how to access them.

Slaybaugh wants that level of education for Mississippi students — and the rest of the country.

“We would never send a soldier into war without training or the resources they need to keep themselves safe,” she said. “We would not send them into a battle without a helmet or a bulletproof vest. So why is it OK for us to send young people off to college without the information that they need to protect themselves?”

This story has been corrected to show that Michelle Slaybaugh’s title is director of social impact and strategic communication for the Sexuality Information and Education Council for the United States.


___



Associated Press videojournalist Manuel Valdes in Seattle contributed to this report.


___




The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

SEX ED AT OLD MIS

A couple holds hands at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)


Condoms and other sexual wellness items are stored at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

Condoms and other sexual wellness items are made available to students at the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Miss., Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

DEVNA BOSE
Bose is a public health reporter for The Associated Press, based in Jackson, Mississippi. She covers hospitals, rural health access and disparities, public health funding and other topics that broadly intersect with the health of communities.
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In Philadelphia, Chinatown activists rally again to stop development. This time, it’s a 76ers arena

Activists fought against the proposal for a Phillies stadium in the early 2000s. They are now experiencing déjà vu as they try to stop a planned $1.3 billion arena at the edge of Chinatown. 

Supporters and Chinatown community leaders gathered during a “No Sixers arena rally” on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, outside Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Supporters and Chinatown community leaders gather during a “No Sixers arena rally” on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, outside Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia. (Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

Supporters and Chinatown community leaders gathered during a “no Sixers arena rally” on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024, outside Philadelphia City Hall in Philadelphia. 

(Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)

BY MARYCLAIRE DALE
October 5, 2024

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Vivian Chang works on a narrow Philadelphia street that would have been consumed by a Phillies stadium had Chinatown activists not rallied to defeat the plan in the early 2000s. Instead of 40,000 cheering fans, the squeals of young children now fill the playground at Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School, which opened in 2007.

“We’re standing right where the baseball stadium would have been,” Chang said in late September. “And now it’s 480 students — a lot of immigrants, a lot of students of color from across the city.”

Chang, 33, leads Asian Americans United, which flexed its political muscle during the stadium fight and is now experiencing déjà vu as it tries to stop a planned $1.3 billion basketball arena for the Philadelphia 76ers at the other edge of Chinatown.

Mayor Cherelle Parker hopes a glitzy, 18,500-seat arena can be the catalyst to revive a distressed retail corridor called Market East, which runs for eight blocks, from City Hall to the Liberty Bell. The plan now moves to city council for debate this fall. Team owners say they need the council’s approval for 76 Place by year’s end so they can move into their new home by 2031.

“I wholeheartedly believe this is the right deal for the people of Philadelphia,” Parker said in announcing her support in September, while pledging to protect what she called “the best Chinatown in the United States.”

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Few would deny that Market East needs a savior. But some are less sure it should be the Sixers. Critics fear gridlock on game days and a dark arena at other times, along with gentrification, homogenization and rising rents. Chinatown sits just above Market East and the LGBTQ+ friendly “Gayborhood” a few blocks below it.

“The arena is a uniquely bad use for that land,” said local activist Jackson Morgan, who fears the Gayborhood could lose its identity. “It would make Center City virtually unlivable for hours at a time.”

Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross who studies stadium issues, said arenas can bring an economic bounce to downtown business districts, but only a limited one.

“They don’t have much of an effect once you get beyond a couple of blocks,” he said.

Market East, a once-bustling stretch of historic Market Street, has withered over the last half-century amid a series of cultural shifts: the growth of suburban shopping malls in the 1960s and ‘70s, the financial crises that crippled U.S. cities in the 1980s, and, more recently, the twin blows of online shopping and the pandemic.

And while much of Philadelphia is thriving as more young people settle downtown, Market East has resisted renewal efforts. All but one of its fabled department stores are long gone.

Enter the 76ers, owned by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, who want to shed their Wells Fargo Center lease with Comcast Spectacor and move from the city’s South Philadelphia sports complex to their own facility.

The partners, who also own the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and have a controlling interest in the NFL’s Washington Commanders, say the project will be privately financed and bring thousands of jobs and more than $2 billion in economic growth to downtown. They also hope to build an adjacent $250 million apartment tower.

“I think the arena is a good thing,” said Dante Sisofo, 28, who lives nearby. “I could see a lot of families gathering and getting a nice bowl of Vietnamese pho — my favorite dish — and then heading to the game.”

Parker shares his optimism, and has tried to address concerns by noting the $50 million in local benefits the team has promised, a sum that includes a $3 million loan fund for Chinatown businesses.

But others wonder if sports fans would really patronize mom and pop stores. Arenas, they say, are designed to keep fans inside, spending their money on increasingly upscale dining and entertainment.

“The Sixers’ owners, they don’t make money by people going to the quaint little sports bar across the street. They make money by having people buy those $14 beers inside the stadium,” Matheson said.

The owners have pledged not to ask the city for any construction funding, although they are free to seek state and federal funds. Instead of property taxes, they would pay about $6 million in annual Payments in Lieu of Taxes. Over the 30-year agreement, the potential savings to the team — and loss to the city and its cash-strapped schools — could be tens of millions of dollars or more, by some economists’ measure.

“Historically, city officials have been extremely poor poker players when it comes to staring down and bluffing billionaire sports owners,” Matheson said.

“And of course, that’s the exact reason why you have them playing footsie with Camden,” he said, referring to a last-minute flirtation from New Jersey to have the Sixers move across the Delaware River, where the team already has a practice facility, for $400 million in tax breaks.

Still, Parker called the deal the best ever struck with a city sports team, given that the three venues in South Philadelphia — the Wells Fargo Center, Citizens Bank Park and Lincoln Financial Field — were all built with huge public subsidies.

Back in Center City, rising rents already are a reality for Debbie Law’s family.

It ran a variety store in the heart of Chinatown for 35 years until the landlord tripled the rent in 2022, when the arena plan surfaced. The family reluctantly moved around the block to a smaller, less visible location that faces the hulking back side of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, another economic development project that hems in Chinatown.

“I grew up in that shop. It was a community center of sorts,” said Law, 42, as her aunt tended the register at the new store one recent day. Local residents, she said, rely on them for Chinese-language magazines, newspapers and cultural items they would struggle to find if the store is displaced again.

The Chinatown community, which dates to 1871, has worked to fend off sometimes dubious development since at least the 1960s: casinos, a prison, the stadium, a highway. They have won some fights and lost others. The six-lane, sunken Vine Street Expressway opened in 1991, cutting off the top of Chinatown, where the charter school sits. Only now are pedestrian overpasses being built to try to stitch the neighborhood back together.

“Every single time that Chinatown has been targeted for a project like this, people say Chinatown will survive,” Chang said. “But is that really how we should be treated as a community?”
___

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MARYCLAIRE DALE
Dale covers national legal issues for The Associated Press, often focusing on the federal judiciary, gender law, #MeToo and NFL player concussions. Her work unsealing Bill Cosby’s testimony in a decade-old deposition led to his arrest and sexual assault trials.

 

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DEEP STATE REVEAL

Collapse of national security elites’ cyber firm leaves bitter wake


 Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, speaks at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

IronNet co-CEOs William Welch, center left, and Keith Alexander, center right, ring the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange, to celebrate their company’s listing, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Partially obscured behind Alexander is Andre Pienaar. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

National Security Agency Director Gen. Keith Alexander approaches the witness table on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 18, 2013, to testify before the House Intelligence Committee hearing regarding NSA surveillance. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

BY ALAN SUDERMAN
October 3, 2024


WASHINGTON (AP) — The future was once dazzling for IronNet.

Founded by a former director of the National Security Agency and stacked with elite members of the U.S. intelligence establishment, IronNet promised it was going to revolutionize the way governments and corporations combat cyberattacks.

Its pitch — combining the prowess of ex-government hackers with cutting-edge software – was initially a hit. Shortly after going public in 2021, the company’s value shot past $3 billion.

Yet, as blazing as IronNet started, it burned out.

Last September the never-profitable company announced it was shutting down and firing its employees after running out of money, providing yet another example of a tech firm that faltered after failing to deliver on overhyped promises.

The firm’s crash has left behind a trail of bitter investors and former employees who remain angry at the company and believe it misled them about its financial health.

IronNet’s rise and fall also raises questions about the judgment of its well-credentialed leaders, a who’s who of the national security establishment. National security experts, former employees and analysts told The Associated Press that the firm collapsed, in part, because it engaged in questionable business practices, produced subpar products and services, and entered into associations that could have left the firm vulnerable to meddling by the Kremlin.

“I’m honestly ashamed that I was ever an executive at that company,” said Mark Berly, a former IronNet vice president. He said the company’s top leaders cultivated a culture of deceit “just like Theranos,” the once highly touted blood-testing firm that became a symbol of corporate fraud.

IronNet’s collapse ranks as one of the most high-profile flameouts in the history of cybersecurity, said Richard Stiennon, a longtime industry analyst. The main reason for its fall, he said: “hubris.”

“The company got what was coming to” it, Stiennon said.

IronNet and top former company officials either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

The general

IronNet’s founder and former CEO Keith Alexander is a West Point graduate who retired as a four-star Army general and was once one of the most powerful figures in U.S. intelligence. He oversaw an unprecedented expansion of the NSA’s digital spying around the world when he led the U.S.’s largest intelligence agency for nearly a decade.

Alexander, who retired from the government in 2014, remains a prominent voice on cybersecurity and intelligence matters and sits on the board of the tech giant Amazon. Alexander did not respond to requests for comment.

IronNet’s board has included Mike McConnell, a former director of both the NSA and national intelligence; Jack Keane, a retired four-star general and Army vice chief of staff, and Mike Rogers, the former Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who is running for the U.S. Senate in Michigan. One of IronNet’s first presidents and co-founders was Matt Olsen, who left the company in 2018 and leads the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

Alexander’s reputation and the company’s all-star lineup ensured IronNet stood out in a competitive market as it sought contracts in the finance and energy sectors, as well as with the U.S. government and others in Asia and the Middle East.

IronNet marketed itself as a kind of private version of the NSA. By scanning the networks of multiple customers, the company claimed, IronNet’s advanced software and skilled staff could spot signals and patterns of sophisticated hackers that a single company couldn’t do alone. The company dubbed the approach the “Collective Defense Platform.”
The South African

Venture capital firms were eager to invest. Among IronNet’s biggest early boosters was C5 Capital, an investment firm started and run by Andre Pienaar, a South African who had spent years serving the needs of the ultra-rich while cultivating business relationships with former top national security officials.

C5’s operating partners – essentially expert advisers — include former Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen and Sir Iain Lobban, who used to lead the U.K.’s signals intelligence agency equivalent to the NSA. Former C5 operating partners include National Cyber Director Harry Coker Jr. and Ronald Moultrie, who resigned earlier this year as undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security.

Prior to going into venture capital, Pienaar was a private investigator and started a firm called G3 Good Governance Group whose clients included blue chip companies, wealthy individuals and the British royal family. Pienaar also worked at the time to help Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg cement relationships with London’s rich and famous, according to William Lofgren, a former CIA officer and G3 co-founder.

“The relationship was steady and frequent because both Andre and Vekselberg saw merit in it,” said Lofgren.
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Pienaar also helped Vekselberg win a share of a South African manganese mine in 2005 and then later served as one of the oligarch’s representatives on the mine’s board of directors until early 2018, internal G3 records and South African business records show.

Vekselberg has been sanctioned twice by the U.S. government, first in April 2018 and again in March 2022. The U.S. Treasury Department has accused him of taking part in “soft power activities on behalf of the Kremlin.”

In 2014, the FBI publicly warned in an op-ed that a Vekselberg-led foundation may be “a means for the Russian government to access our nation’s sensitive or classified research.”

Pienaar’s long association with Vekselberg should have disqualified him from investing in IronNet, which was seeking highly sensitive U.S. defense contracts, former intelligence officials said.

The company’s leaders “absolutely should have known better,” said Bob Baer, a former CIA officer.

He added that Russian intelligence services would have had a strong interest in a company like IronNet and have a history of using oligarchs like Vekselberg to do their bidding, either directly or through witting or unwitting proxies.

Pienaar also sponsored a swanky Russian music festival that Vekselberg and a close associate, Vladimir Kuznetsov, put on in Switzerland. Kuznetsov, who served as a key investment adviser to Vekselberg, was also an investor in Pienaar’s investment firm.

Alexander and others at IronNet either did not know the details of Pienaar’s relationships with Vekselberg or did not find them troubling: A month after Vekselberg was first sanctioned in 2018, Pienaar joined IronNet’s board and C5 announced it was putting in a $35 million investment.

C5’s investment would grow to $60 million by the time IronNet went public, giving the investment firm around a 7% stake in the company.

Vekselberg did not respond to requests for comment. Kuznetsov told the AP he stopped speaking to Pienaar about five years ago but did not say why.

“I’m not commenting on that,” Kuznetsov said.

Pienaar’s attorneys said he has never had a relationship with Vekselberg. The lawyers said the mine’s filings with the South African government’s regulatory agency that listed Pienaar as a director were incorrect and should be “viewed as suspect” because news reports indicated the agency has been hacked.

Pienaar filed a defamation lawsuit last year against an Associated Press reporter who sought interviews with Pienaar’s former associates. The AP said the suit, which remains pending, was meritless and an attempt to stifle legitimate reporting.
The fall

Not long after Alexander rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange in September 2021, IronNet’s stock price soared, making its founders and early investors extremely wealthy on paper.

Top officials were prohibited from unloading their stock for several months, but Alexander was allowed to sell a small amount of his shares. He made about $5 million in early stock sales and bought a Florida mansion worth the same amount.

IronNet was projecting exponential growth that required the company to land a handful of major contracts, according to confidential board documents obtained by the AP.

Those prospective deals included one valued at up to $10 million to provide cybersecurity for the U.S. Navy’s contractors and a more than $22 million deal with the government of Kuwait.

It did not take long for IronNet’s promises to slam into a tough reality as it failed to land large deals and meet revenue projections. Its products simply didn’t live up to the hype, according to former employees, experts and analysts.

Stiennon, the cybersecurity investing expert, said IronNet’s ideas about gathering threat data from multiple clients were not unique and the company’s biggest draw was Alexander’s “aura” as a former NSA director.

The AP interviewed several former IronNet employees who said the company hired well-qualified technicians to design products that showed promise, but executives did not invest the time or resources to fully develop the technology.

When IronNet tried to land contracts with the NSA, officials dismissed the company’s offerings as unserious, according to a former member of U.S. Cyber Command who was at the meeting but not authorized to discuss government procurement proceedings publicly.

The failure to win large contracts quickly derailed IronNet’s growth plans. In December 2021, just a few months after going public, IronNet downgraded its annual recurring revenue projections by 60%.

Another sign that things were not well: IronNet and C5 were engaging in a questionable business practice in an apparent effort to juice the cybersecurity firm’s revenues, according to C5 records and interviews with former employees at both firms.

In addition to being a major investor, C5 was also one of IronNet’s biggest customers, accounting for a significant part of the cybersecurity firm’s revenue when it went public.

C5 had signed two multi-year customer contracts with IronNet for $5.2 million, according to internal C5 records.

Contracts of that size were typical for large clients with thousands of employees, not a small investment firm like C5 that had a couple dozen employees and partners, former IronNet employees said.

“That’s an inflated number,” said Eddie Potter, a former top sales executive at IronNet, when told by the AP of the size of C5’s contracts with IronNet. He added there was “no way” that C5 required services “worth $5 million.”

Indeed, one C5 internal record obtained by the AP shows it budgeted only about $50,000 a year for IronNet’s services.

Pienaar’s attorneys said C5’s contracts with IronNet were to help protect the U.K. government’s hospitals and other entities against “escalating cyberattacks during the COVID-19 pandemic.” His attorneys said the work was coordinated through a charity Pienaar and C5 created in 2020.

Securities and Exchange Commission filings and C5 records show C5’s contracts with IronNet were signed in the summer and fall of 2019 — several months before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Pienaar’s attorneys said Alexander and Pienaar were “briefed on the shocking scale of hostile nation-state cyberattacks on hospitals” in 2019, which created the “foundation” for IronNet’s work with C5.

Pienaar’s charity never registered with the IRS, as one of Pienaar’s companies claimed in U.K. business filings, and former C5 and IronNet officials said they did not see it do any substantive work.

“It was marketing, fluffy crap,” said Rob Mathieson, a former IronNet vice president.

Pienaar’s attorneys said his charity was successful but there was “insufficient time” for it to register with the IRS.

After reporting millions in revenue from C5 from 2020 to 2023, IronNet wrote off $1.3 million from C5 in what the cybersecurity firm claimed was “bad debt,” IronNet’s filings with the SEC show. Pienaar’s attorneys said the write-off represented a reduction in the cost of providing services to his charity and denied that C5 had not fulfilled its financial obligations to IronNet.

IronNet was not alone in having trouble getting money from Pienaar and his firms.

A group of nuns sued C5 in 2022, court records show, alleging it failed to return their $2.5 million investment in a tech incubator that Pienaar had promoted as a way to boost socially conscious start-ups. C5 agreed to refund the nuns’ investment, plus attorney fees and expenses, to settle the lawsuit, records show. The nuns’ financial adviser, Carolyn LaRocco, told the AP that Pienaar used the nuns’ investment to pay expenses she believed were unwarranted.

An affiliate of the United States Institute of Peace, a nonprofit established by Congress, sued Pienaar in 2020 after he failed to pay a promised $1.5 million personal donation, federal court records show. The nonprofit’s affiliate then took Pienaar back to court after he failed to make payments on time as part of a settlement. Pienaar used $500,000 from a C5 bank account to meet a court-ordered deadline for payment, court records show. C5 staff were concerned about Pienaar’s use of the firm’s funds to cover his personal debt, according to C5 records.

In the last year, Pienaar-controlled entities have been sued by a top former CIA executive who alleged C5 owed him back wages and a Washington landlord who accused Pienaar’s firms of failing to pay more than $140,000 in rent and associated costs. The suits were dismissed soon after they were filed, indicating the parties likely settled, court records show. A lawsuit recently filed by a financial services firm alleges C5 owes it more than $1 million in unpaid debts.
The crash

After slashing revenue projections in December 2021, Alexander tried to project confidence and said IronNet was still on track to see its revenue rise.

It didn’t work. IronNet’s stock went into a prolonged skid and the company underwent multiple rounds of layoffs.

In April 2022, the company was hit with a class-action lawsuit from investors who alleged IronNet had fraudulently inflated its revenue projections to boost its stock price.

The company has denied any wrongdoing but recently agreed to pay $6.6 million to settle the lawsuit, according to a proposed settlement filed in federal court. Alexander told Bloomberg News this past January that IronNet’s troubles stemmed in part from his naivety about how the business world worked.

C5 began loaning money to IronNet to keep it afloat starting at the end of 2022 while Pienaar continued to try and boost the company’s brand.

In September of last year, IronNet announced it had run out of money and was closing its doors.

A Pienaar-controlled entity stepped in shortly afterwards with $10 million in loans to allow the company to restructure via bankruptcy.

A dramatically scaled-down version of IronNet led by Pienaar’s allies went private in February and announced Alexander had stepped down as chairman of the board.

Pienaar remains bullish on the company, which he said continues to successfully protect clients in the U.S. and Europe from cyber threats. IronNet’s more recent activities have included looking to partner with the government of Ukraine.

“Any accusation that IronNet has been anything other than successful is categorically false,” his attorneys told the AP.

Many of C5’s investors and former employees are baffled by Pienaar’s continued heavy bets on IronNet after it has been soundly rejected by the market.

During bankruptcy proceedings earlier this year, an investment bank approached 114 prospective buyers for IronNet, federal court records show. None of them made an offer.

ALAN SUDERMAN
Suderman is an Associated Press investigative reporter interested in national security, cybersecurity and other related topics.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

WHO approves emergency use of first mpox test


Oct. 4, 2024 / UPI

The World Health Organization said Thursday it approved the first mpox invitro diagnostic test for emergency use. The Affinity m MPXV assay, made by Abbott Molecular, will expand global diagnostic capacity.

 FIle Photo by Chris Milosi/EPA-EFE

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization said Thursday it approved the first mpox invitro diagnostic test for emergency use.

The Alinity m MPXV assay, made by Abbott Molecular, will expand diagnostic capacity for nations dealing with mpox outbreaks, the WHO said.

In Africa, WHO said, limited testing capacity and delays in confirming cases contribute to the continuing mpox spread. Approval of this test is an important step in expanding global access to mpox testing.

"This first mpox diagnostic test listed under the Emergency Use Listing procedure represents a significant milestone in expanding testing availability in affected countries," said the WHO's Dr. Yukiko Nakatani in a statement. "Increasing access to quality-assured medical products is central to our efforts in assisting countries to contain the spread of the virus and protect their people, especially in underserved regions."

According to WHO, in 2024 more than 30,000 suspected mpox cases have been reported across Africa. The highest numbers were in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Nigeria.

The Alinity m MPXV assay is a real-time PCR test using swabs of skin lesions. It is approved under WHO's Emergency Use Listing procedure.
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EUL is used for vaccines, tests, and medical treatments.

"The EUL process assesses the quality, safety, and performance of essential health products, such as diagnostic tests, to guide procurement agencies and WHO Member States in making informed decisions for time-limited emergency procurement," the WHO said in a statement.

Congo finally beginsmpox vaccinations in a drive to slow outbreaks


 A health worker attends to a mpox patient, at a treatment centre in Munigi, eastern Congo, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)

 A health worker attends to an mpox patient, at a treatment center in Munigi, eastern Congo, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa, File)

A man receives a vaccination against mpox, at the General hospital, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

A man receives a vaccination against mpox, at the General hospital, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)


BY RUTH ALONGA
October 5, 2024

GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congolese authorities Saturday began vaccinations against mpox, nearly two months after the disease outbreak that spread from Congo to several African countries and beyond was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization.

The 265,000 doses donated to Congo by the European Union and the U.S. were rolled out in the eastern city of Goma in North Kivu province, where hospitals and health workers have been overstretched, struggling to contain the new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox.

Congo, with about 30,000 suspected mpox cases and 859 deaths, accounts for more than 80% of all the cases and 99% of all the deaths reported in Africa this year. All of the Central African nation’s 26 provinces have recorded mpox cases.

Although most mpox infections and deaths recorded in Congo are in children under age 15, the doses being administered are only meant for adults and will be given to at-risk populations and front-line workers, Health Minister Roger Kamba said this week.

“Strategies have been put in place by the services in order to vaccinate all targeted personnel,” Muboyayi ChikayaI, the minister’s chief of staff, said as he kicked off the vaccination.


Rwanda begins vaccinations against mpox amid a call for more doses for Africa

WHO and Africa CDC launch a response plan to the mpox outbreak

At least 3 million doses of the vaccine approved for use in children are expected from Japan in the coming days, Kamba said.

Mpox, also known as monkeypox, had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africabefore the disease prompted the 2022 global outbreak that saw wealthy countries quickly respond with vaccines from their stockpiles while Africa received only a few doses despite pleas from its governments.

However, unlike the global outbreak in 2022 that was overwhelmingly focused in gay and bisexual men, mpox in Africa is now being spread via sexual transmission as well as through close contact among children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, Dr. Dimie Ogoina, the chair of WHO’s mpox emergency committee, recently told reporters.

More than 34,000 suspected cases and 866 deaths from the virus have been recorded across 16 countries in Africa this year. That is a 200% increase compared to the same period last year, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

But access to vaccines remains a challenge.

The continent of 1.4 billion people has only secured commitment for 5.9 million doses of mpox vaccines, expected to be available from October through December, Dr. Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa CDC, told reporters last week. Congo remains a priority, he said.

At the vaccination drive in Goma, Dr. Jean Bruno Ngenze, the WHO representative in the province, warned that North Kivu is at a risk of a major outbreak due to the “promiscuity observed in the camps” for displaced people, as one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crisis caused by armed violence unfolds there.

The news of the vaccination program brought relief among many in Congo, especially in hospitals that had been struggling to manage the outbreak.

“If everyone could be vaccinated, it would be even better to stop the spread of the disease,” said Dr. Musole Mulambamunva Robert, the medical director of Kavumu Hospital, one of the mpox treatment centers in eastern Congo.

Eastern Congo has been beset by conflict for years, with more than 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich area near the border with Rwanda. Some have been accused of carrying out mass killings.
___

Associated Press writers Jean-Yves Kamale in Kinshasa, Congo and Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria contributed to this report.
___


The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org


by TaboolaSuggested For You

Supreme Court won't issue stay against Biden administration's methane rule

FINALLY DID  THE RIGHT THING


Methane emissions generated by the oil and gas industry are targeted by a new Biden administration regulation that is under legal challenge. The Supreme Court on Friday declined to issue a stay against its implementation.

 Photo by Guy WF Loftus/Wikimedia Commons

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court on Friday refused to issue a temporary halt to the implementation of new Biden administration rules limiting the release of methane from oil and gas production sites.

In an unsigned order and without further comment, the high court turned down a request from a coalition of Republican-led states and fossil fuel companies seeking a temporary stay to block the Environmental Protection Agency from rolling out the methane rule, as well as another new rule requiring fossil fuel-fired power plants to reduce their emissions of metallic toxins such as mercury.

The matter now goes back to lower courts, where the rules' legality will be the subject of further arguments.

The proposed methane rule was announced by the Biden administration in January. The EPA describes methane as a "super pollutant" more potent than carbon dioxide and responsible for approximately one-third of the climate warming from greenhouse gases occurring today and identifies the oil and natural gas sector as the largest industrial source of methane emissions in the United States.

The rule sets out how companies would be charged for emissions above the levels set by Congress in the Inflation Reduction Act. That law calls for fines, or "waste emissions charges," of $900 per metric ton in 2024, increasing to $1,200 for 2025, and $1,500 for 2026 and beyond.


Meanwhile, the EPA's suite of new coal-fired power plant rules was finalized in April. Among its provisions are a requirement for existing coal-fired and new natural gas-fired power plants to control 90% of their carbon pollution and a 70% reduction in the existing emissions standards for mercury from existing lignite-fired sources.

The methane rule, however, was quickly opposed by the American Petroleum Institute, which called on Congress to repeal it as an "incoherent, confusing regulatory regime that will only stifle innovation and undermine our ability to meet rising energy demand."

Also joining in opposition was a group of 24 Republican state attorneys general, who filed suit in March.

Led by Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond, they called the proposed EPA rule a "blatant attack on America's oil and gas industry, adding that if the regulation went into effect, it would "cost Oklahoma countless jobs, devastate the oil and gas industry, and force us to pay significantly higher energy prices."

They argued the Clean Air Act never was meant to favor one type of energy over another, in this case, promoting clean energy sources over fossil fuels.

Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, however, dismissed that interpretation in court filings, maintaining that states' rights were not being overridden by the EPA rules.

Watchdog says Trump-appointed DHS inspector general abused power

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The White House has received a confidential watchdog report alleging that Trump-appointed Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari abused his authority and committed substantial misconduct. It recommended punishment up to and including firing him.

The report recommended "appropriate action, up to and including dismissal."

The Council of the Inspectors General On Integrity and Efficiency, known as the Integrity Committee, wrote the report

A redacted version was released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.

The report stated, "After thoroughly reviewing the evidence and carefully considering the subject responses, the IC finds by a preponderance of the evidence that IG Cuffari engaged in conduct undermining the independence or integrity reasonably expected of his position."

The IC report alleges that Cuffari abused his authority and "engaged in substantial misconduct in the form of a gross waste of funds" when he spent $$1.393 million of taxpayer funds to hire a private law firm to investigate three former senior members of his staff.

The IC found that was most likely done for his "personal" interest and to retaliate against them. One of the staffers got a $1.17 million settlement paid with additional taxpayer funds, according to the IC report.

The IC alleges that Cuffari provided inaccurate and misleading answers to questions regarding possible misconduct in his federal employment history as a sworn law enforcement officer, and as an IG, misrepresented his reasons for hiring a private law firm to investigate three former DHS OIG senior executives and his influence over that investigation.

In a partially redacted paragraph, the IC report said Cuffari personally attempted to influence that independent investigation.

The IC report also found that former Chief Operating Officer/Acting Inspector General Jennifer Costello "abused her authority in the exercise of her official duties when she wrongfully resisted newly confirmed IG Cuffari's leadership through a series of divisive words and actions."

Related

Democratic lawmakers call for DHS inspector general to resign after he deletes texts
House Reps accuse Homeland Security chief of obstruction
DHS inspector general nixed warning of deleted Jan. 6 Secret Service texts

| Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari (speaking at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C., in 2023) is accused of misconduct. The White House has received a confidential watchdog report alleging that the Trump-appointed official has abused his authority, as well. File Photo by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE

Republicans on Capitol Hill have praised Cuffari over the years for being highly critical of the Biden administration and are likely to oppose Cuffari's removal.

Top Democrats including House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., issued a joint statement calling for Biden to remove Cuffari.

"In the wake of the independent and nonpartisan CIGIE Integrity Committee's report documenting IG Cuffari's misconduct, we call on President Biden to remove him as inspector general of DHS," they wrote.


They added, "General Cuffari's extensive and shocking record of misconduct and obstruction is evidence that he has seriously compromised the public's trust and is plainly not fit to serve in a position that requires him to guard the public interest and act beyond reproach."

Zuckerberg passes Bezos to become world's second-richest billionaire


CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg participates in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis" at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 31 and recently became the world's second-richest individual. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Meta founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg bypassed Amazon's Jeff Bezos to become the world's second-richest billionaire with a fortune of about $211 billion.

Zuckerberg's fortune grew by $78.1 billion in 2024, which enabled him to pass Bezos and Bernard Arnault, who have fortunes valued at $209 billion and $193 billion, respectively, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The growth in value of Meta shares, which increased in value by 72% this year and closed at an all-time high of $595.94 on Friday, grew Zuckerberg's fortune.

Meta owns and operates the Facebook, Instagram and Threads social media platforms and the mobile messaging app WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg on Sept. 25 said a more recent Meta AI venture likely will become the world's most-used artificial intelligence platform and currently has about 500 million monthly users.

He said an anticipated launch in the European Union should make it the world's most used AI platform.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk remains the world's wealthiest individual with a fortune valued at $263 billion, which is up some$33.8 billion from a year ago.




Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos are the only individuals with fortunes exceeding $200 billion.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison rounds out the top-five wealthiest individuals with a fortune totaling $183 billion, which is up $59.6 billion from a year ago.

 

SPACE/COSMOS

Sky watchers expecting weekend aurora borealis show following huge solar flares



 NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of a massive X9.0 solar flare, as seen in the bright flash in the center, on Thursday. Sky watchers were anticipating an intense aurora borealis display over the weekend as a result of the eruption. Photo by NASA/SDO

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Sky watchers across North America are anxiously anticipating what could be the most intense display of aurora borealis in decades this weekend in the wake of two major solar flares.

The aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights, "may put on an exceptional display both Friday and Saturday nights, which could be visible across all of Canada and the northern United States," predicted The Weather Network, adding the weekend's display "could rival the best shows the northern lights have put on in decades."

That enthusiasm is based on a forecast issued Friday by NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center calling for strong geomagnetic activity levels beginning early Friday evening and lasting until shortly before 12 a.m. EDT Saturday.

Then, following a brief lull, moderate geomagnetic activity levels will kick in throughout much of Saturday, during which auroras likely will be visible across Canada and as far south as Oregon, Nebraska, Illinois and Pennsylvania in the United States

"G1-G3 (Minor-Strong) geomagnetic storms likely over the next three days due to influences from the halo CMEs (coronal mass ejections) that left the Sun late on 01 Oct and midday on 03 Oct," space forecasters wrote, referring to a massive X9.0-class solar flare that erupted from the sun's surface on Thursday.

That colossal flare, which peaked at 8:18 a.m. EDT, was the biggest seen in seven years and the most powerful CME in the current 11-year sunspot cycle. It came from the same sunspot group as a smaller but still powerful flare on Tuesday, which measured X7.1.

Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy which can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts.

The charged ions they emit also are responsible for creating the aurora borealis when they interact with gases upon reaching Earth's magnetosphere, releasing energy in the form of light.

Artemis Student Challenges: NASA selects teams for launch, payload competitions

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- NASA announced the selection of 71 student teams that will build and launch amateur rockets and scientific payloads in a competition they hope will inspire the next generation of space explorers.

The 71 teams are divided into a college division and high-school/middle-school division.
The final on-site events will start April 30 with the final launches on May 3 at Bragg Farms in Toney, Ala., just north of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville.

The 25th annual Student Launch Challenge is one of NASA's Artemis Student Challenges, meant to encourage students in the science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, fields.

"Each year, NASA updates the university payload challenge to reflect current scientific and exploration missions," NASA said in a statement. "For the 2025 season, the payload challenge will again take inspiration from the Artemis missions, which seeks to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon and pave the way for future human exploration of Mars."

NASA also selected 75 student teams to start an engineering design challenge to build rovers that will compete next spring in the U.S. Space and Rocket Center near the Marshall Space Flight Center. It is also part of the Artemis Student Challenges.

Students from the 75 teams will present their engineering designs next year for piloting an astronaut-driven vehicle on the lunar surface while overcoming various obstacles.

Biden presses Congress for hurricane aid as Helene death toll rises

UPI

OCT.5, 2024

Hurricane Helene caused extensive damage in Asheville, North Carolina. 

Photo by Madeleine Cook/FEMA/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 5 (UPI) -- The death toll from Hurricane Helene has topped 220 with hundreds still missing and about a million without power, prompting President Joe Biden to urge Congress to approve emergency funding.

The death toll is expected to rise as local communities continue recovery efforts, including locating missing persons, obtaining supplies and restoring power to the about 1 million who lack it.

Hurricane Helene disaster relief can't wait until the nation's lawmakers get back to work in November, Biden said in a letter to congressional leaders Friday.

Biden addressed the letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Friday.

Related

Tropical depression forms in Gulf; Florida threatened
Dolly Parton, Morgan Wallen step up for Hurricane Helene victims
New Jersey search and rescue joins in Helene search; death toll reaches 215

The House and Senate are recessed through the Nov. 5 election and aren't scheduled to reconvene until Nov. 12.

"As communities across the Southeast devastated by Hurricane Helene assess the extent of the damage, they are expecting their federal government to stand behind them in their most urgent time of need," Biden said.

"We have a responsibility to ensure that everyone in communities ravaged by natural disasters will have the federal resources they need and deserve to respond to and recover from deadly storms and other natural disasters," he added.

Biden said the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Defense and other federal agencies "have quickly mobilized to support impacted citizens and communities in the six states where major disasters have been declared."

Those six states are Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

"They are performing critical life-saving and life-sustaining missions and will continue to do so withing present funding levels," Biden said.

Biden said FEMA has the necessary resources for implementing its emergency response, but other agencies do not.

He said the Small Business Administration's disaster loan program will run out of money in a "matter of weeks" and before Congress is scheduled to reconvene in November.

"I warned the Congress of this potential shortfall even before Hurricane Helene landed on America's shores," Biden said.




Biden said he asked Congress to allocate more funding for the SBA several times in recent months, including as part of the recent resolution to fund the federal government and prevent a shutdown.

"Now the need is even more urgent," Biden said. "Small businesses and individuals in affected areas depend on disaster loans as a critical lifeline during difficult times."

Biden also said the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund faces a possible shortfall by the end of the year and would have to forgo long-term recovery activities without additional funding resources.

"Congress should provide FEMA additional resources to avoid forcing that kind of unnecessary trade-off," Biden said.

Biden's call for more FEMA funding comes amid criticism that Congress this year allocated $650 million for the federal Shelter and Services Program to help migrant support groups, communities, non-profits and state and local governments provide shelter, food and medical care for migrants.

Those funds don't come from FEMA's budget, but the agency distributes them.

Moody's Analytics estimates insurers and Congress will have to cover $34 billion in damages from the storm.