Meta’s Oversight Board will review three Facebook posts that included the phrase “from the river to the sea” that the social media company ruled to keep up on the platform, the boardannounced Tuesday.
The phrase pre-dates the current conflict, but the three posts under review were published on Facebook in November, following the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s military action in Gaza.
The board said it selected the cases in order to consider how Meta should moderate the use of the phrase “given the resurgence in its use after October 7, 2023, and controversies around the phrase’s meaning.”
“On the one hand, the phrase has been used to advocate for the dignity and human rights of Palestinians. On the other hand, it could have antisemitic implications, as claimed by the users who submitted the cases to the Board,” the board said.
Each of the posts included the phrase “from the river to the sea,” and were reported by Meta users for violating the company’s community standards but the platform ruled that they should be left up on Facebook.
Users who reported the content and appealed to the board said the phrase broke Meta’s rules on hate speech, violence and incitement, or dangerous organizations and individuals, according to the board.
In a blog post, Meta said it determined the three pieces of content the board is reviewing did not violate those policies.
A Meta spokesperson said in a statement to The Hill, “we welcome the board’s review of our guidance in this matter.”
“While all of our policies are developed with safety in mind, we know they come with global challenges and we regularly seek input from experts outside Meta, including the Oversight Board. As we’ve said previously, we continually assess our policy guidance to better understand potential impacts on different communities. This work is ongoing, and we look forward to the board’s decision and recommendations,” the spokesperson added.
Facebook must follow the board’s decision even if it overturns the initial ruling Facebook made.
The board, which is run independently from Meta and funded by a grant provided by the company, can also offer non-binding policy recommendations. If adopted, the recomendations could have far reaching impacts on how the phrase is used on Meta’s platforms.
As part of its decision, the board is accepting public comments for 14 days.
Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration and advising schools to ignore the new federal Title IX changes that expand sex discrimination protection to students who identify as the opposite sex, or transgender.
The rule change, published on April 19, formalizes the Department of Education’s redefinition of the meaning of sex to include gender identity.
The changes, which go into effect Aug. 1, give males identifying as female the right to use female restrooms, locker rooms, and join female-only organizations. Under the new rule, “harassment” can include the use of biologically accurate pronouns.
Title IX is a landmark 1972 civil rights law meant to protect females from discrimination based on sex in federally funded educational programs and provide them equal opportunities.
Schools and colleges that fail to comply with Title IX stand to lose federal dollars.
This week, 15 states have filed lawsuits accusing the federal government of overreach and changing the nature of the original law.
“I’m going to be really clear. President Biden deciding to rewrite Title IX is one of the most radical and illegal moves we’ve ever seen from the federal government,” Oklahoma State Superintendent Ryan Walters said at a state board meeting in April.
“It’s an attack on our states. It’s an attack on our families. And it’s an attack on our young women and girls,” he said.
Governors and education chiefs in Texas, Oklahoma, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, and South Carolina have also told their school districts to ignore the new definition.
In a letter to President Biden, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rebuked the president’s “abuse of authority.”
“I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore your illegal dictate,” Mr. Abbott, a Republican, wrote.
“Your rewrite of Title IX not only exceeds your constitutional authority, but it also tramples laws that I signed to protect the integrity of women’s sports by prohibiting men from competing against female athletes.”
Federal vs. State
The Biden administration heralded the rule change as inclusive and a matter of fairness for all students.
“For more than 50 years, Title IX has promised an equal opportunity to learn and thrive in our nation’s schools free from sex discrimination,” Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in an April statement.
High school students line up for their graduation ceremony in Uvalde, Texas, on June 24, 2022. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images)
“These final regulations build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming, and respect their rights,” he said.
The American Civil Liberties Union’s deputy legal director Louise Melling applauded the definition change to include young people who identify as transgender.
“At a critical time, when trans youth are being used by politicians as a punching bag, the final rule issues an important reminder that schools cannot discriminate based on gender identity, transgender status, or sexual orientation,” he said.
On the other hand, the rule changes clash with laws in at least 11 conservative states that prohibit gender-confused males from using female facilities.
Laws requiring students to use the restroom corresponding to their sex are on the books in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Utah’s new bathroom law will go into effect July 1. Idaho’s law was placed on hold by a judge.
Some Republican-led states also require schools to notify parents if their student identifies as transgender and some have banned schools from forcing staff to use pronouns preferred by transgender students.
The federal rule revision appears to allow parental notification, stating that “nothing in these final regulations prevents a recipient from disclosing information about a minor child to their parent who has the legal right to receive disclosures on behalf of their child.”
Florida, Kentucky, Montana, and North Dakota have laws protecting teachers and students from disciplinary action if they don’t use the pronouns preferred by those identifying as transgender.
‘Nowhere Near Legal’
Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, and Indiana, sued the Biden administration April 30, making them the latest to fight back.
“The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, said in a statement on the lawsuit.
“In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms,” he said.
Demonstrators supporting female-only althetics and sports in schools gather at the Texas State Capitol in Austin on Sept. 20, 2021. (Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images)
A day earlier, on April 29, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, along with the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, sued the administration, accusing it of overreach.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, accused Biden’s Education Department of illegally forcing an ideology onto America’s youth.
It called the rule change “a naked attempt to strongarm our schools into molding our children into the current federal government’s preferred image of how a child should think, act, and speak.”
“The final rule is an affront to the dignity of families and school administrators everywhere, and it is nowhere near legal,” the lawsuit stated.
Texas, which passed laws against transgender athletes participating in female sports, filed a joint lawsuit with America First Legal Foundation.
Another quiet macro day (although an ugly picture was painted late on by theunexpectedly weak revolving credit increase- potentially signaling a US consumer who really has hit their limit).
Some FedSpeak wiped a little lipstick off the early pig's squeeze higher as Kashkari seemed to offer both sides some hope (but it spoiled the fun with the 'we could hike' line):
“It’s a little too soon to declare that we’re definitely stalled out [on disininflation],” Kashkari says on Bloomberg Television.
“The most likely scenario is we sit here for an extended period of time,” he added later at the Milken Institute Global Conference.
“If inflation starts to tick back down or we saw some marked weakening in the labor market then that might cause us to cut back on interest rates.”
“Or if we get convinced eventually that inflation is embedded or entrenched now at 3% and that we need to go higher [in rates], we would do that if we needed to,” he added.
Stocks reversed their gains (leaving only squeezable Small Caps higher). Selling pressure in the last few minutes really took the shine off...
Goldman's trading desk highlighted the fact that their buyback desk was running at 1.4x ytd daily avg notional executed (Equating to $5.5b of US equities purchased street wide on daily basis). They also added that ETF and Swaps desks are much more active than cash and dominated by HF activity (short hedges getting scaled back).
The post-Powell resurgence of Mag7 stocks stalled today...
Source: Bloomberg
...and 'most shorted' stocks flatlined as algos could not ignite any momentum...
Source: Bloomberg
Treasury bonds also reversed on Kashkari's comments (yields reversing higher to almost erase earlier declines)...
Source: Bloomberg
While stocks and bonds reversed on that, rate-cut expectations were stoic...
Source: Bloomberg
The dollar rallied for the first time in 5 days (but only modestly)...
Source: Bloomberg
...and the dollar's gains were gold's losses...
Source: Bloomberg
Bitcoin was quiet... too quiet.. today, hovering just above $63,000...
Source: Bloomberg
...after a second day in a row of net inflows...
Source: Bloomberg
Oil prices were flat on the day, recovering from losses during the EU session...
After several months of wild swings in US consumer debt, culminating with lastmonth's jump in credit card debt to a new all time high despite record high credit card rates, inMarch households finally hit a brick wall because according to the latestconsumer credit data published by the Federal Reserve moments ago, in the last month of Q1, total consumer debt rose by a paltry $6.274 billion, which was not only nearly a more than60% miss to consensus estimates of $15.0 billion...
... but also a dramatic slowdown from February, tumbling by almost $9BN, the biggest monthly drop in the rate of change in 2024.
But it was when looking into the details of the report, we find something remarkable: while non-revolving credit rose a modest $6.1BN, up a bit from February's $4.3BN, and exactly half the $12.2BN average monthly increase in nonrevolving credit over the past decade...
... which is to be expected in a time when student debt continues to shrink due to illegal debt discharges by the Biden admin (which is defying SCOTUS and continues to forgive billions in student loans) while auto loans are barely rising due to record interest rates...
... what was the biggest shock in today's data was the absolute collapse in revolving credit growth, i.e., credit card debt, which plunged from a $10.7BN increase in February - one of the biggest monthly prints on record - to barely positive, or $152 million, the smallest monthly increase since the covid crash!
Of course with the Fed refusing to cut rates - for good reason - the brutal slowdown in new credit card debt is hardly a surprise since as the Fed also reported that in Q1, the average rate across all commercial banks on all credit card amounts just hit a new record high of 21.59%, which is a vivid reminders that while banks are happy to hike credit card rates, they rarely if ever cut them, and it's also one of the main reasons why Goldman's trading desk just went bearish on US consumers.
Yet with consumers ever more strapped for actual cash and equity, as the personal savings rate in the US has collapsed from over 5% to 3.2% - the lowest since 2022 - in just a few months...
... there is only so much more credit card maxing out that can take place before reality finally sets in, as can be seen in the next and perhaps most striking chart yet: total credit card debt is record high while the personal savings rate is record low!
Then again, with an election on the horizon - one which ensures that any credit-card fueled spending must be encouraged - don't be surprised if the White House instructs banks to just ignore soaring delinquency and charge-off rates...
Stock in Pfizer dropped on Tuesday after a young boy receiving experimental gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy died during the trial.
According to STAT News, Pfizer has yet to determine exactly what happened or how the boy died, however it is pausing crossing over patients in its randomized phase 3 trial of the treatment in older boys, according to the report. The company will, for now, stop dosing patients who initially received a placebo with the gene therapy after a year.
Pfizer is expected to announce data from the study in the upcoming weeks.
Of note, in 1999 Jesse Gelsinger was the first person publicly identified as having died during a clinical trial for gene therapy - which caused the FDA to shutter human genetic research at Penn's Institute for Gene Therapy.
Shares in the pharmaceutical giant took an immediate hit on the news.
Vanda Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ("Vanda" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: VNDA) today confirmed that it has received a revised unsolicited proposal from Future Pak, LLC ("Future Pak") to acquire the Company. The revised proposal consists of a $7.25 to $7.75 per share in cash plus certain Contingent Value Rights ("CVRs"). The amended proposal follows Vanda's review and rejection of a prior unsolicited proposal from Future Pak to acquire the Company for $7.25-$7.75 per share.
Consistent with its fiduciary duties, and in consultation with its independent financial and legal advisors, Vanda's Board of Directors will carefully review and evaluate the revised unsolicited proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interests of Vanda and its shareholders.
Vanda does not intend to comment further on the revised, unsolicited proposal before the Board has completed its review.
There is no action for shareholders to take at this time.
ADC Therapeuticson Mondayreleased topline Phase II datafor its anti-CD19 antibody drug conjugate Zynlonta (loncastuximab tesirine-lpyl), which elicited high rates of treatment response in patients with relapsed or refractory marginal zone lymphoma.
Monday’s early data come from 15 evaluable patients out of the total 50 enrolled participants in ADC Therapeutics’ single-arm, open-label mid-stage study. Thirteen of these patients showed complete response (CR) to Zynlonta, while one other patient demonstrated partial response. All treatment responses were maintained until the time of data cut-off.
As for safety, Zynlonta was generally well-tolerated and its adverse event profile was consistent with what had been established in prior studies. Two patients dropped out of the study due to toxicities, though these “full resolved” once Zynlonta treatment was discontinued, according to the biotech’s news release. Both of those patients remain in CR.
With these data in hand, and as long as readouts continue to be positive, ADC Therapeutics plans to “potentially pursue a regulatory pathway and compendia in parallel,” CMO Mohamed Zaki said in a statement.
Concurrent with Monday’s readout, the biotech announced that it was putting up for sale more than 13.4 million of its common shares at $4.90 apiece. The company is offering pre-funded warrants to purchase over 8.1 million common shares at $4.812 per pre-funded warrant. In total, ADC Therapeutics is looking to make around $105 million in gross proceeds.
Zynlonta is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) designed to target the CD19 surface protein, which is typically found on B cells and is a well-validated target in related malignancies. Once bound to its target, Zynlonta is internalized by the cancer cell and releases its toxic pyrrolobenzodiazepine payload, which in turn targets the DNA and ultimately triggers cell death.
The ADC won the FDA’s accelerated approval in April 2021 for the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma who had undergone at least two prior lines of systemic therapy. The approval also includes certain types of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
In July 2023, ADC Therapeutics discontinued the Phase II LOTIS-9 trial of Zynlonta in previously untreated, difficult-to-treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma after seven patient deaths.
Sales for Zynlonta have been largely disappointing. In 2023, the ADC brought in $69.1 million, down from $75 million in 2022. The biotech also reported its first-quarter earnings on Monday, posting that Zynlonta’s sales dropped to $17.85 million from nearly $19 million during the same period in 2023.
