Category: z-Exclude

Sage Therapeutics stock plunges more than 50% after FDA denies wider use of postpartum depression drug

Shares of Sage Therapeutics fell more than 50% Monday after the Food and Drug Administration approved the biotech company’s oral drug zuranolone for postpartum depression, but not for major depressive disorder, a bigger potential market. Shares of Biogen, which jointly developed the treatment with Sage, were up modestly. Who is Sage Therapeutics? Biogen Inc owns more than 10% of Sage Therapeutics, while FMR LLC owns almost 10%. Fidelity Management & Research Co. LLC  owns almost 12% and Wellington Management Co….

Shakespeare and penguin book get caught in Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ laws

ORLANDO, Fla. — Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” laws. The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new laws prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get…

US Supreme Court reinstates rule cracking down on firearms without serial numbers

The US Supreme Court has temporarily reinstated a rule cracking down on the proliferation of firearms without serial numbers, known as “ghost guns”, reversing a ruling by a lower court. In a narrow 5-4 decision on Tuesday, the nation’s highest judicial body ruled to keep in place regulations introduced by the administration of President Joe Biden to restrict “ghost guns”, which can be constructed from separate parts or put together using 3D printers. The ruling is only temporary, though, while…

Interpol takes down 16shop phishing-as-a-service platform

A joint operation between Interpol and cybersecurity firms has led to an arrest and shutdown of the notorious 16shop phishing-as-a-service (PhaaS) platform. Phishing-as-a-service platforms offer cybercriminals a one-stop-shop to conduct phishing attacks. These platforms typically include everything you need, including email distribution, ready-made phishing kits for well-known brands, hosting, data proxying, victim overview dashboards, and other tools that help increase the success of their operations. These platforms are a significant risk as they lower the bar of entry for inexperienced…

Sanctions, airspace closures hamper UN humanitarian efforts in Niger

United Nations agencies scramble to replace depleting aid stocks as regional sanctions start to kick in. Niger’s military coup is disrupting humanitarian efforts by the United Nations as border and airspace closures threaten to cut off supplies of medicine and food, says a UN official. UN aid agencies are scrambling to replenish depleting stocks just as regional sanctions potentially increase the number of people in need, its humanitarian chief in Niger, Louise Aubin, warned on Tuesday. “The risk is that…

New Inception attack leaks sensitive data from all AMD Zen CPUs

Researchers have discovered a new and powerful transient execution attack called ‘Inception’ that can leak privileged secrets and data using unprivileged processes on all AMD Zen CPUs, including the latest models. Transient execution attacks exploit a feature present on all modern processors named speculative execution, which dramatically increases the performance of CPUs by guessing what will be executed next before a slower operation if completed. If the guess is correct, the CPU has increased performance by not waiting for an…

Kadlec Throws Fauci Under the Bus

On July 28, 2023, Weekend Australian Magazine published a bombshell report based on an exclusive interview with Dr. Robert (Bob) Kadlec, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) who served under Donald Trump. To many readers this may seem like just more Washington, DC Kabuki theater with a side order of limited hangout (much like the prior Vanity Fair article in which Kadlec provided a generous scoop of spin with a topping of CYA). Personally, I find this whole “inside…

Europe confirms in-depth probe for Adobe’s $20B Figma acquisition

The European Commission (EC) has confirmed that it’s opening an in-depth investigation into Adobe’s proposed $20 billion bid for digital design software rival Figma. The Commission said that the acquisition “may reduce competition in the global markets for the supply of interactive product design software and for digital asset creation tools.” First announced last September, Adobe’s megabucks bid for one of its biggest competitors was always likely to attract scrutiny from regulators around the globe. The U.S. Department of Justice…

SoftBank posts loss, with a cumulative loss of $6.3B in its Vision Fund business

As SoftBank prepares to dive deeper into AI investments, the group posted an unexpected consecutive quarterly overall loss, as well as a continued loss in its existing investment business. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 1 and 2 and its Latin American fund together posted a quarterly investment loss of 13 billion yen ($91 million). That is significantly less than the 2,919 billion yen loss a year ago ($20 billion) but cumulatively, the company said that investments across the three funds, as of…

GIC, Carlyle said to skip Ant’s share buyback after valuation slumps 70%

HONG KONG – A number of global investors including Warburg Pincus and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board are opting out of Ant Group’s proposed share buyback after the Chinese fintech’s valuation was slashed by more than 70 per cent, according to people familiar with the matter. Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Carlyle Group are also among top foreign shareholders that are not participating in the buyback, the people said. A few money managers, including Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe…

China’s draft measures demand ‘individual consent’ for facial recognition use

The pervasive use of facial recognition technology across all facets of life in China has elicited both praise for its convenience and backlash around privacy concerns. The widespread adoption has also fueled the exponential growth of valuations in companies specializing in the field, such as AI giants SenseTime and Megvii. Now the industry is facing some potentially significant changes as Beijing steps up efforts to establish more defined boundaries for the technology’s usage. The move is building upon the implementation…

ASIC bans Sydney mortgage broker for six years

ASIC has banned a Sydney mortgage and finance broker for six years from engaging in credit activities after allegedly making false disclosures and mishandling home loan applications among other offences. The broker, Qingshan Yu, was also banned from controlling a credit business and performing any function in relation to carrying on a credit business while the regulator cancelled the Australian credit licence of Yu’s company, Actif Pty Ltd (Actif). Actif held a credit licence from November 9, 2010, and provided…

Moody’s cuts credit rating of some US banks on mounting funding costs, office exposure

SAN FRANCISCO – Moody’s Investors Service lowered the credit rating of 10 small and mid-sized US banks and said it may downgrade major lenders including US Bancorp, Bank of New York Mellon, State Street, and Truist Financial as part of a sweeping look at mounting pressures on the industry. Higher funding costs, potential regulatory capital weaknesses and rising risks tied to commercial real estate (CRE) loans amid weakening demand for office space are among strains prompting the review, Moody’s said…

Lendlease Global Commercial Reit’s second half DPU down 8%

SINGAPORE – The manager of Lendlease Global Commercial Reit (Lendlease Reit) posted a distribution per unit (DPU) of 2.25 cents for the second half of financial year 2023 ended June, down 8 per cent from 2.45 cents in the corresponding period a year earlier. Distributable income rose 21.6 per cent to $52.2 million, from $42.9 million a year earlier, while gross revenue climbed 65.1 per cent to $103.1 million over the same period. In a bourse filing on Monday, the…

LA Magazine Meltdown Turns Into a ‘Mole Hunt’

This reporting is featured in this week’s edition of Confider, the newsletter pulling back the curtain on the media. Subscribe here and send your questions, tips, and complaints here. The meltdown over at Los Angeles continues as the once-esteemed magazine’s new owners cook up creative ways to stiff writers past and present, Confider has learned. Since taking over the storied publication earlier this year, celebrity attorneys Mark Geragos and Ben Meiselas and their publisher Chris Gialanella have refused to pay…

Fraud Scheme: Christopher A. Slaga, Q4 Capital, LLC, J4 Capital Advisors LLC, and Hayden F. Greene

SEC Charges Recidivist and Others in Offering Fraud Scheme Lit. Release No. 25804 / August 7, 2023 Securities and Exchange Commission v. Christopher A. Slaga a/k/a Keith Renko, Q4 Capital, LLC, J4 Capital Advisors LLC, and Hayden F. Greene, No. 8:23-cv-01425 (C.D. Cal. filed August 7, 2023) The Securities and Exchange Commission filed today a complaint in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California charging Christopher Slaga and two entities he controlled, Q4 Capital, LLC and J4 Capital…