WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the first messenger RNA-based vaccine for seasonal influenza, clearing Moderna’s mFLUSIVA for use in adults 50 years and older, the company announced this week.

The approval, granted Wednesday, marks a milestone for mRNA technology beyond its established use in COVID-19 vaccines. mFLUSIVA received traditional approval for adults ages 50 to 64 and accelerated approval for those 65 and older. Moderna has committed to a postmarketing study to confirm clinical benefit in the older age group.

“Flu remains a significant public health challenge, and mFLUSIVA provides an important new option for America’s seniors,” Moderna Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “This approval also reflects the ongoing potential of our mRNA platform to help address important public health challenges through continued scientific innovation.”

The decision followed a unanimous recommendation in June from the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee. The panel concluded that the benefits of the vaccine outweighed its risks for adults 50 and older.

Approval for the 50-to-64 age group rests on results from a large Phase 3 trial that enrolled more than 40,000 adults across 11 countries. In that study, known as Fluent, mFLUSIVA demonstrated 26.6 percent relative vaccine efficacy compared with a licensed standard-dose influenza vaccine. Among participants 65 and older in the same trial, relative efficacy was 27.4 percent. Most adverse reactions were mild to moderate and temporary, including injection-site pain, fatigue and headache. Serious adverse event rates were similar between the mRNA vaccine and the comparator.

For adults 65 and older, the accelerated approval was supported by a separate Phase 3 study showing stronger antibody responses than a high-dose influenza vaccine. Confirmation of clinical effectiveness in this group will come from the required follow-up study.

Moderna said it expects supplies of mFLUSIVA to become available at select retailers in the coming weeks, in time for the 2026-2027 respiratory virus season. The vaccine will join the company’s existing U.S. portfolio, which includes Spikevax and mNEXSPIKE for COVID-19 and mRESVIA for respiratory syncytial virus.

Seasonal influenza continues to impose a substantial public health burden. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has estimated tens of thousands of deaths in the United States in recent severe seasons, with older adults facing the highest risk of serious complications, hospitalization and death. Traditional egg-based and recombinant vaccines have long been the mainstay of prevention, but their effectiveness can vary from year to year depending on how well the selected strains match circulating viruses.

mRNA technology offers potential advantages in manufacturing speed and adaptability. Traditional flu vaccine production often begins months in advance based on predictions of circulating strains. mRNA platforms can be updated more rapidly once a new strain is identified, a capability that public health experts have long sought for influenza.

The path to approval was not without complications. Earlier this year the FDA initially declined to review Moderna’s application, citing concerns about the trial design. The agency later reversed that decision and accepted the filing. The subsequent advisory committee review and final approval proceeded on the basis of the submitted clinical data.

mFLUSIVA is a trivalent vaccine targeting influenza A/H1N1, A/H3N2 and B/Victoria strains. It will compete in a crowded market that includes products from Sanofi, GSK, CSL Seqirus and AstraZeneca. Pricing details were not immediately disclosed.

For older adults, who often receive high-dose or adjuvanted formulations to compensate for age-related declines in immune response, the availability of an additional option with demonstrated relative efficacy and immunogenicity data is expected to expand choices for clinicians and patients. Public health authorities continue to recommend annual vaccination for this population as the most effective way to reduce severe disease.

The approval represents Moderna’s fourth product cleared by the FDA and the first mRNA influenza vaccine authorized in the United States. The company has pursued a broader pipeline of mRNA candidates targeting other infectious diseases and has highlighted the platform’s versatility in repeated communications with investors and regulators.

As the 2026-2027 season approaches, attention will turn to uptake among eligible adults, real-world effectiveness data and the results of the confirmatory study in those 65 and older. Health officials and clinicians will also monitor how the new vaccine fits into existing immunization recommendations and whether its manufacturing flexibility translates into improved strain matching in future seasons.

Influenza remains a leading cause of vaccine-preventable illness among older adults. The introduction of an mRNA-based option adds a new tool grounded in clinical evidence of superior relative performance against standard-dose vaccines in the studied population. Moderna has stated that supply will be available for the upcoming season, positioning the product for use alongside other authorized flu vaccines this fall and winter.

The regulatory clearance closes a multiyear development effort and underscores the continued evolution of vaccine platforms more than five years after mRNA technology first entered widespread use during the COVID-19 pandemic. For adults 50 and older, the decision provides a newly authorized choice backed by large-scale trial data and the endorsement of the FDA’s independent advisory committee.

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Myanmar’s military-backed leader Min Aung Hlaing made his first official visit to Thailand since the 2021 coup, marking a significant moment in his efforts to break diplomatic isolation. The visit, extensively covered by international media including AP News, BBC, Reuters, and Al Jazeera, represents a calculated push by the junta chief to gain political legitimacy on the international stage. Thailand’s willingness to host him with what several outlets described as a “red-carpet welcome” signals Bangkok’s broader strategy to reopen ASEAN engagement with Myanmar’s controversial government.

Thailand’s Strategic Engagement

Bangkok’s decision to warmly receive Min Aung Hlaing reflects Thailand’s calculated approach to regional diplomacy. According to reports, Thai officials view engagement—rather than continued isolation—as the more pragmatic path forward for addressing Myanmar’s ongoing crisis. This aligns with Thailand’s broader foreign policy initiatives, as the country has been actively pursuing multiple diplomatic and economic tracks, including efforts to seek wider US tariff relief in upcoming August talks.

The visit resulted in concrete bilateral agreements. Thailand and Myanmar signed key agreements on labour, water, and space cooperation, according to Thai government sources. Additionally, discussions covered border security matters, particularly relevant given that displacement along the Thailand-Myanmar border has reportedly approached four million people. The two nations also discussed the Dawei project, a significant infrastructure initiative aimed at strengthening connectivity between the two countries.

Domestic and International Backlash

Despite Thailand’s diplomatic overtures, the visit has sparked significant condemnation from human rights organizations and civil society groups. Amnesty International urged Thailand to prioritize human rights considerations in its talks with Myanmar’s leadership, reflecting broader concerns about legitimizing a government that seized power through a military coup.

Notably, Myanmar nationals residing in Thailand have publicly criticized their host country’s warm reception of the junta leader, highlighting the deep divisions this diplomatic gesture has created among affected populations. This criticism underscores the complex position Thailand occupies—balancing regional stability interests, economic cooperation, and humanitarian concerns simultaneously.

Economic and Trade Dimensions

Beyond the political optics, the visit carries substantive economic implications. Myanmar has expressed interest in targeting growth in trade with Thailand, suggesting both nations see economic cooperation as a pathway toward normalization. This economic dimension is particularly significant given Thailand’s role as a regional trade hub and its own economic priorities, including efforts to strengthen various trade relationships.

The labour cooperation agreement signed during this visit is particularly noteworthy, as Thailand has separately been working on a draft framework for hiring Myanmar workers, indicating the practical economic interdependence between the two nations despite the political controversy surrounding Myanmar’s government. Thailand has also taken steps to grant legal work rights to Myanmar refugees holding “pink cards,” further illustrating the multifaceted nature of the bilateral relationship that extends beyond high-level diplomatic optics.

ASEAN Context and Regional Implications

Thailand’s engagement with Min Aung Hlaing must be understood within the broader context of ASEAN’s approach to the Myanmar crisis. Thailand has reaffirmed its support for Myanmar’s full participation in ASEAN, positioning itself as an advocate for reintegrating Myanmar into regional diplomatic structures despite the international community’s continued concerns about the junta’s human rights record and democratic legitimacy.

This visit occurs against a backdrop of Thailand’s own significant diplomatic calendar, including the Prime Minister’s policy speech at ASEAN Headquarters and Thailand’s preparations to host 191 countries for the 2026 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group. These parallel diplomatic engagements suggest Thailand is positioning itself as a central node for regional and international diplomacy, with the Myanmar relationship serving as one component of a broader strategic vision.

Balancing Competing Interests

The coverage of this visit reveals the inherent tension in Thailand’s foreign policy approach. On one hand, pragmatic considerations—including border security, trade relationships, migrant labor needs, and regional stability—push Thailand toward engagement with Myanmar’s current government. On the other hand, human rights concerns and international pressure create reputational risks for Thailand in extending legitimacy to a regime that came to power through unconstitutional means.

Various news outlets have characterized this dynamic differently: while some frame Thailand’s actions as throwing Myanmar “a diplomatic lifeline,” others describe it more neutrally as part of a broader push to end Myanmar’s isolation. This divergence in framing reflects the genuinely contested nature of the appropriate international response to Myanmar’s post-coup government.

A pivotal moment in Myanmar’s post-coup diplomatic trajectory

Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Thailand represents a pivotal moment in Myanmar’s post-coup diplomatic trajectory. While the junta leader achieved his apparent goal of securing a high-profile international engagement that lends an air of normalcy to his government, the visit simultaneously exposed the deep controversies surrounding any legitimization efforts. Thailand’s calculated engagement—balancing economic pragmatism, regional stability concerns, and mounting human rights criticism—illustrates the complex diplomatic tightrope that regional powers must walk when dealing with Myanmar’s contested leadership. The concrete agreements signed during this visit, spanning labor, security, and infrastructure cooperation, suggest that practical bilateral relations will likely continue deepening regardless of the ongoing legitimacy debates surrounding Myanmar’s government.

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SpaceX announced this week that its planned semiconductor plant that is expected to become the largest building in the world at more than 100 million feet will be built in Grimes, Texas, outside of Houston.

“Terafab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far,” owner Elon Musk wrote X on Thursday. “And it will be stunningly beautiful.”

The factory is a joint effort with Musk’s electric car company Tesla.

“This facility will house the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic and memory devices,” SpaceX said in a Thursday press release. “Terafab will produce chips optimized for edge computing and inference for use in hardware like Tesla’s Optimus robots and self-driving Cybercabs, along with high-power chips designed for operating SpaceX’s space-based data centers.”

MARKET EXPERT MAKES CASE FOR SPACEX DESPITE VOLATILITY

Elon Musk said the building would be “stunningly beautiful.”  (hip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

SpaceX added that its and Tesla’s combined demand for chips is expected to be in excess of the global supply.

“While we are deeply appreciative of our current chip suppliers, and encourage them to expand production whenever possible, this looming gulf between supply and demand is at the core of Terafab’s necessity,” SpaceX explained.

The company said Terafab would employ more than 3,000 people, adding that its initial phase is estimated to cost approximately $16.8 billion 

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT EFFECTIVELY PAUSES NEW DATA CENTER PROJECTS PENDING STATEWIDE GRID AUDIT

Construction is seen north of the Tesla Giga Texas factory in Austin on Wednesday, March 25, 2026. (Jay Janner/The Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“The Terafab is bringing cutting-edge manufacturing to America, creating thousands of high-paying ​ jobs in the Lone Star State, and enabling us to produce AI chips at scale ​ for use on Earth and in space,” Musk said.

SpaceX proposed initially investing $55 billion into Terafab, which could increase to $119 billion, according to a May filing.

The Pentagon is the largest building in the U.S. currently.  ( J. David Ake/Getty Images / Getty Images)

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In April, Tesla broke ​ground on a research facility at the North ​Campus of ⁠its Giga Texas plant, which it called a precursor to Terafab.

Currently, the Pentagon is the largest building in the U.S. at 6.6. million square feet and China’s New Century Global Center in Chengdu, is the world’s largest at 18.9 million square feet. 

Reuters contributed to this report. 

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to Silvaco’s Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2026 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Chris Zegarelli, Silvaco’s CFO. Please proceed.

Chris Zegarelli
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you. Joining me on the call today is Wally Rhines, Silvaco’s CEO and Director. As a reminder, a press release highlighting the company’s results, along with supplemental financial results, are available on the company’s IR site at investors.silvaco.com. An archived replay of the call will be available on this website for a limited time after the call.

Please note that during this call, management will be making remarks regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. These remarks constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements.

It is important to also note that the company undertakes no obligation to update such statements except as required by law. The company cautions you to consider risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained in today’s press release and on this conference call. The risk factors section in Silvaco’s Annual Report on Form 10-K

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, is said to be caught in the middle of growing tension between King Charles III and her husband, Prince William, according to anonymously sourced reports circulating across multiple celebrity outlets this week, which claim the strain stems from Charles’ recent private reunion with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. None of the claims have been confirmed by Buckingham Palace or Kensington Palace.

The reports, traced to Australian outlet Woman’s Day and picked up by several other publications, cite an unnamed “royal source” describing Catherine as increasingly distressed by what the source characterized as a widening divide between Charles and William. According to the source, Catherine previously lost sleep over tension between William and his brother, but has since become even more troubled by the apparent distance growing between William and his father. The source added that while Catherine would not disrespect or undermine her husband, she also holds deep affection for her father-in-law and worries about him given his ongoing health treatment, and has reportedly encouraged William to take a gentler approach even as she understands his frustration with decisions Charles has made regarding Harry and Meghan.

What Is Actually Confirmed

Separate from these anonymously sourced claims about Catherine’s private feelings, one element of the broader story has more solid grounding: Harry and Meghan did travel to Charles’ Highgrove estate for a private meeting on July 10, bringing their two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, along with them. Vanity Fair royal correspondent Katie Nicholl reported, citing her own sources, that William and Catherine were not informed the meeting was taking place beforehand, and that Charles had asked Harry and Meghan to keep the visit confidential, with only palace aides authorized to confirm afterward that it had occurred. That specific detail, that William was reportedly not consulted or informed in advance, has been echoed across several outlets covering the story, giving it somewhat more credibility than the more elaborate emotional narratives that have followed.

A Recurring Tabloid Narrative

The claim that William feels frustrated or “blindsided” by his father’s outreach to Harry has become a recurring theme across celebrity media coverage in the weeks since the Highgrove meeting, though the specific framing and quoted details vary considerably from outlet to outlet, a pattern common when a single anonymously sourced claim gets picked up and reworked by multiple competing publications. One version of the story, citing a source speaking to a different outlet, claimed William feels sickened that Harry has, in the source’s words, “wormed his way back” into their father’s affections, and suggested William believes the reconciliation effort is calculated rather than genuine. Another version, citing royal commentator Emily Andrews, described William and Catherine as feeling “betrayed and possibly even humiliated” by Charles extending an olive branch to the Sussexes. None of these characterizations have been confirmed on the record by William, Catherine or Buckingham Palace.

A Pattern of Conflicting and Unverifiable Claims

Readers should note that stories built around anonymous “royal sources” or “insiders” in celebrity media have a mixed and often unreliable track record, and are frequently impossible to independently verify given that neither Kensington Palace nor Buckingham Palace routinely comments on this type of speculative reporting. In this instance, multiple outlets have published similar but not identical versions of the same underlying claim, sourced to unnamed individuals, without any of the involved parties, Charles, William, Catherine, Harry or Meghan, offering public confirmation or denial.

Broader Context on the Royal Family Rift

The underlying tension being described traces back to the extended estrangement between Harry and the rest of the royal family that followed his and Meghan’s departure from official royal duties in 2020, a rift that deepened further following Harry’s 2023 memoir “Spare” and the couple’s various television interviews, both of which included pointed criticism of William and other family members. Royal commentators have long suggested that William has taken a more guarded position toward reconciliation than his father, with some reports characterizing William’s stance as driven less by anger than by caution and a desire to protect the institution he is due to eventually lead.

Separately, royal writer Robert Jobson has reported, through on-record comments to Page Six, that there have been genuine differences of opinion between Charles and William over the past several years, while noting that both men understand they ultimately need to work together given the decisions Charles will make that affect William’s future role. That more measured characterization, offered as Jobson’s own assessment rather than through an anonymous “source,” stands in contrast to the more dramatic anonymous claims found in some of the tabloid coverage.

Catherine’s Own Public Focus

Amid the speculation about her private feelings toward the family rift, Catherine has continued to maintain a largely separate public focus this summer, centered on her family and her continued recovery following her cancer treatment, which she announced in March 2024 and confirmed was in remission in January 2025. She was seen in a visibly relaxed and happy setting alongside William and their three children at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on Aug. 1, an appearance royal commentators described as reflecting a family that had moved past its most difficult recent period, a characterization that sits somewhat uneasily alongside this week’s competing reports of Catherine privately losing sleep over renewed family tension.

What Remains Unclear

Ultimately, the claims about Catherine’s private worry over a rift between Charles and William rest entirely on unnamed sources relayed through celebrity gossip outlets, and have not been corroborated by any on-record statement from the royal family or its representatives. What can be said with more confidence is that Harry and Meghan’s July 10 meeting with Charles at Highgrove did take place, that it was kept confidential in advance, and that William and Catherine were reportedly not informed beforehand, details that have been more consistently reported across multiple sources. Beyond that, the specific emotional dynamics described in this week’s reports remain, for now, unverified claims rather than confirmed facts about the royal family’s private relationships.