Target to $13 from $3.50
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
JPMorgan in talks with Apple over Goldman credit card partnership, source says
JPMorgan Chase is in talks with Apple about replacing Goldman Sachs as the tech giant's credit-card partner, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The discussions started earlier this year and have advanced in recent weeks, but any potential deal could still be months away, said the source, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private.
The Wall Street Journal reported the news earlier.
Goldman Sachs declined to comment, while Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Goldman and Apple reportedly pulled the plug last year on their partnership, which included credit cards and savings accounts.
Goldman is facing a costly exit from the partnership that is seen by other lenders as too risky and unprofitable, sources told Reuters in December last year.
After its foray into consumer banking flopped, Goldman has refocused on its traditional mainstays - investment banking and trading. The consumer business that CEO David Solomon championed has lost billions of dollars.
The card, launched in 2019, was one of the hallmarks of Goldman's retail strategy. Apple and Goldman granted cards to customers with lower credit scores in an attempt to boost revenue, a source told Reuters last year.
The card offered perks like "no fees" and cashback. But Goldman had to set aside bigger provisions for bad loans, leading to higher paper losses for its consumer business.
Goldman is also exiting a credit-card partnership with automaker General Motors. Earlier this month, Solomon dismissed the notion that the bank's early exit with GM was messy, saying the bank had anticipated the problems. operations, pushing its stock up nearly 27% so far this year.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/jpmorgan-talks-apple-over-credit-162348300.html
'Google seeks authenticity in the age of AI with new content labeling system'
On Tuesday, Google announced plans to implement content authentication technology across its products to help users distinguish between human-created and AI-generated images. Over several upcoming months, the tech giant will integrate the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) standard, a system designed to track the origin and editing history of digital content, into its search, ads, and potentially YouTube services. However, it's an open question of whether a technological solution can address the ancient social issue of trust in recorded media produced by strangers.
A group of tech companies created the C2PA system beginning in 2019 in an attempt to combat misleading, realistic synthetic media online. As AI-generated content becomes more prevalent and realistic, experts have worried that it may be difficult for users to determine the authenticity of images they encounter. The C2PA standard creates a digital trail for content, backed by an online signing authority, that includes metadata information about where images originate and how they've been modified.
Google will incorporate this C2PA standard into its search results, allowing users to see if an image was created or edited using AI tools. The tech giant's "About this image" feature in Google Search, Lens, and Circle to Search will display this information when available.
In a blog post, Laurie Richardson, Google’s vice president of trust and safety, acknowledged the complexities of establishing content provenance across platforms. She stated, "Establishing and signaling content provenance remains a complex challenge, with a range of considerations based on the product or service. And while we know there's no silver bullet solution for all content online, working with others in the industry is critical to create sustainable and interoperable solutions."
The company plans to use the C2PA's latest technical standard, version 2.1, which reportedly offers improved security against tampering attacks. Its use will extend beyond search since Google intends to incorporate C2PA metadata into its ad systems as a way to "enforce key policies." YouTube may also see integration of C2PA information for camera-captured content in the future.
Google says the new initiative aligns with its other efforts toward AI transparency, including the development of SynthID, an embedded watermarking technology created by Google DeepMind.
Widespread C2PA efficacy remains a dream
Despite having a history that reaches back at least five years now, the road to useful content provenance technology like C2PA is steep. The technology is entirely voluntary, and key authenticating metadata can easily be stripped from images once added.
AI image generators would need to support the standard for C2PA information to be included in each generated file, which will likely preclude open source image synthesis models like Flux. So perhaps, in practice, more "authentic," camera-authored media will be labeled with C2PA than AI-generated images.
Beyond that, maintaining the metadata requires a complete toolchain that supports C2PA every step along the way, including at the source and any software used to edit or retouch the images. Currently, only a handful of camera manufacturers, such as Leica, support the C2PA standard. Nikon and Canon have pledged to adopt it, but The Verge reports that there's still uncertainty about whether Apple and Google will implement C2PA support in their smartphone devices.
Adobe's Photoshop and Lightroom can add and maintain C2PA data, but many other popular editing tools do not yet offer the capability. It only takes one non-compliant image editor in the chain to break the full usefulness of C2PA. And the general lack of standardized viewing methods for C2PA data across online platforms presents another obstacle to making the standard useful for everyday users.
Currently, C2PA could arguably be seen as a technological solution for current trust issues around fake images. In that sense, C2PA may become one of many tools used to authenticate content by determining whether the information came from a credible source—if the C2PA metadata is preserved—but it is unlikely to be a complete solution to AI-generated misinformation on its own.
Rocket Pharma Starts Phase 2 Pivotal Trial of RP-A501 for Danon Disease
Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: RCKT), a fully integrated, late-stage biotechnology company advancing a sustainable pipeline of genetic therapies for rare disorders with high unmet need, today announced that all patients have been enrolled in the global, pivotal Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating RP-A501 to treat male patients with Danon disease.
After the two-patient safety run-in, followed by harmonized global site activations, the remaining 10 patients were enrolled across the United States (U.S.) and European Union within three months. Given the prevalence of Danon disease across regions, the Company plans to pursue regulatory filings concomitantly in the U.S. and ex-U.S.
Would-Be Trump Assassin Said In Book That He Looks Forward To World War III
by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,
Ryan Wesley Routh, the 58-year-old man arrested on Sunday for allegedly trying to kill former President Donald Trump, said in a book he published in February 2023 that he looked forward to World War III and hoped he could burn down the Kremlin.
"I do dream of the day that we cross over into Russia and march towards Moscow. That is the part of this third world war that I look forward to. I want to be the one that burns down the Kremlin and all the cruelty that it signifies," Routh wrote in the book titled "Ukraine’s Unwinnable War."
In another part of the book, Routh criticized Trump for pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal and said he must share the blame for voting for the former president.
"I must take part of the blame for the retarded child that we elected for our next president that ended up being brainless, but I am man enough to say that I misjudged and made a terrible mistake and Iran I apologize," Routh wrote.
Routh went on to say that Iran could assassinate both Trump and himself. "You are free to assassinate Trump as well as me for that error in judgment," he wrote.
In the book and in social media posts, Routh repeatedly expressed his wish to fight in Ukraine against the Russian military. In 2022, Routh traveled to Ukraine, but he said in an interview with Newsweek Romania that he was too old to fight.
Routh said his "plan B" was to help recruit people from around the world for Ukraine’s foreign legion. In an interview with Semafor in 2023, Routh complained that Ukraine didn’t want to take Afghan soldiers. "Most of the Ukrainian authorities do not want these soldiers," he said. "I have had partners meeting with [Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense] every week and still have not been able to get them to agree to issue one single visa."
Meanwhile here's the NY Times on alleged would-be assassin Ryan Routh:
In a follow-up article published on Sunday after the arrest, Semafor said that when they interviewed Routh, he was the head of a group he started called the International Volunteer Center. The article cited a Ukrainian involved in foreign recruitment and said that Routh was "even by the standards of that frantic moment, a bit over the top."
But the Ukrainian also said that Routh was authentically involved in the efforts to bring in foreign troops. Since his arrest, Ukraine’s foreign legion has distanced itself from Routh.
“We would like to clarify that Ryan Wesley Routh has never been part of, associated with, or linked to the International Legion in any capacity,” Ukraine’s International Legion told Euronews.
Routh briefly appeared in a propaganda video from May 2022 for the Azov Brigade, a notorious neo-Nazi unit in the Ukrainian National Guard. In response, the Azov Brigade said the event was a demonstration that anyone could attend. “We would like to officially state that Ryan Wesley Routh has no connection to Azov and has never had any connection to Azov,” the military unit said
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/would-be-trump-assassin-said-book-he-looks-forward-world-war-iii
'Age Of Rage: 26 M Americans See Anti-Trump Political Violence Justified'
A poll released by the University of Chicago via the Chicago Project on Security and Threats offers a chilling account of the growing radicalism in America, particularly after the second foiled assassination attempt of former president Donald Trump, the poll found that 26 million Americans believe “the use of force” is justified to keep Trump from regaining the presidency.
As discussed in my book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” we have seen an increasing level of rage rhetoric in our political system. For some, violent language can become violent action. There is a normalization that can occur as extreme actions become more acceptable to more and more citizens:
“We are living in an age of rage. It permeates every aspect of our society and politics. Rage is liberating, even addictive. It allows us to say and do things that we would ordinarily avoid, even denounce in others. Rage is often found at the farthest extreme of reason. For those who agree with the underlying message, it is righteous and passionate. For those who disagree, it is dangerous and destabilizing.”
With the unrelenting claims of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and others that democracy is about to die in America, some now feel a license to commit criminal acts in the name of “saving democracy.”
It is the ultimate form of self-delusion that one saves democracy by committing political violence against those with whom you disagree.
We have seen this radicalism spread in past years from higher education into society at large.
Years ago, many of us were shocked by the conduct of University of Missouri communications professor Melissa Click who directed a mob against a student journalist covering a Black Lives Matter event. Yet, Click was hired by Gonzaga University. Since that time, we have seen a steady stream of professors joining students in shouting down, committing property damage, participating in riots, verbally attacking students, or even taking violent action in protests.
It is now common to hear inflammatory language from professors advocating “detonating white people,” denouncing police, calling for Republicans to suffer, strangling police officers, celebrating the death of conservatives, calling for the killing of Trump supporters, supporting the murder of conservative protesters and other outrageous statements.
At the University of Rhode Island, professor Erik Loomis defended the murder of a conservative protester and said that he saw “nothing wrong” with such acts of violence.
At the University of California Santa Barbara, professors actually rallied around feminist studies associate professor Mireille Miller-Young, who physically assaulted pro-life advocates and tore down their display. Despite pleading guilty to criminal assault, she was not fired and received overwhelming support from the students and faculty. She was later honored as a model for women advocates.
At Hunter College in New York, Professor Shellyne RodrÃguez was shown trashing a pro-life display of students.
She was captured on a videotape telling the students that “you’re not educating s–t […] This is f–king propaganda. What are you going to do, like, anti-trans next? This is bulls–t. This is violent. You’re triggering my students.”
Unlike the professor, the students remained calm and respectful. One even said “sorry” to the accusation that being pro-life was triggering for her students.
RodrÃguez continued to rave, stating, “No you’re not — because you can’t even have a f–king baby. So you don’t even know what that is. Get this s–t the f–k out of here.” In an Instagram post, she is then shown trashing the table.
Hunter College, however, did not consider this unhinged attack to be sufficient to terminate RodrÃguez.
It was only after she later chased reporters with a machete that the college fired RodrÃguez. She was then hired by another college.
Another recent example comes from the State University of New York at Albany, where sociology professor Renee Overdyke shut down a pro-life display and then resisted arrest. One student is heard screaming, “She’s a [expletive] professor.” That of course is the point.
While Democratic leaders have condemned the second assassination attempt on Trump, they have continued the unhinged rhetoric of how this may be our last election and democracy is about to die in America.
At the same time, some leaders have allied themselves with violent groups.
We have continued to follow the attacks and arrests of Antifa followers across the country, including attacks on journalists.
Some Democrats have played a dangerous game in supporting or excusing the work of Antifa, one of the most violent anti-free speech groups in the world. Former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison, now the Minnesota attorney general, once said Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. This was after Antifa had been involved in numerous acts of violence and its website was banned in Germany.
Ellison’s son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of violent protests. During a prior hearing, Democratic senators refused to clearly denounce Antifa and falsely suggested that the far right was the primary cause of recent violence. Likewise, Joe Biden has dismissed objections to Antifa as just “an idea.”
These politicians are playing a dangerous game in toying with groups like Antifa, which will not stop at threatening their opponents. Politicians like Ellison could easily find themselves the next target as groups seek to “strike fear in the heart” of the establishment.
* * *
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. He is the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage” (Simon & Schuster).
Patients At Last Begin Receiving Vertex-CRISPR and Bluebird Sickle Cell Gene Therapies
Last month, Vertex said sickle cell patients had not yet received infusions of its gene therapy Casgevy. That’s now changed, as the company races with bluebird bio’s Lyfgenia.
As of second-quarter earnings on August 1, no patients had received an infusion of Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics’ sickle cell gene therapy Casgevy. But infusions have since begun, a spokesperson for Vertex confirmed to BioSpace.
Meanwhile, over at peer company bluebird bio, which earned FDA approval of its sickle cell gene therapy Lyfgenia the same day as Casgevy, patients are also beginning to receive infusions of their own edited cells, The New York Times reported on Monday.
These moments mark a breakthrough for sickle cell treatment. Experts expected the uptake of gene therapies to be slow as the process to undergo treatment can take as long as a year. Vertex’s Chief Operating Officer Stuart Arbuckle acknowledged as much in the earnings call last month.
“We have always known that Casgevy offers an enormous advancement for patients. We’ve also consistently communicated that the patient journey, that is the process to go from patient interest all the way to infusion of edited cells, is long and complex. Whilst it’s still early in the launch, we have gained many learnings. Interest level is high among patients, physicians, governments and other stakeholders,” Arbuckle said.
Vertex did not respond to requests for more information as of publication, including on the number of patients receiving Casgevy.
As for bluebird, which was expected to have a faster rollout of Lyfgenia because it already had treatment centers established for its two other FDA-approved gene therapies, the company announced during a second quarter earnings call on August 14 that four patients had undergone cell collection as a first step to Lyfgenia treatment.
When Will Casgevy and Lyfgenia Start Generating Revenue?
At the time of its Q2 earnings call, Vertex had activated 35 centers with a goal of activating 75 around the world. About 20 patients had offered up their cells for collection, putting them “in the funnel” for treatment. Vertex was not specific, but said the patients were coming from all regions where the medicine is approved, which includes the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. Arbuckle noted on the call that the company has also been working to improve reimbursement in all jurisdictions to ensure patients have coverage.
“The treatment process does take time, but we are now even more confident in our view that Casgevy will help large numbers of patients around the world and represents a multibillion-dollar opportunity,” Arbuckle said.
Investors have been eager to know when Casgevy treatments will begin, with analysts peppering executives with questions on the earnings call to try and get any scrap of information. William Blair has estimated that peak sales for the gene therapy could reach $3.6 billion, even with the slow start.
As for Lyfgenia, bluebird bio CFO James Sterling said on the call that investors can expect about two quarters between initial cell collection and revenue recognition. “We are clearly on the right track with accelerating interest in our therapies, and a clear path to translate patient starts into a growing consistent revenue stream over time.”
Sterling noted that patients are scheduling their treatment out many months in advance, often around life events given the time commitment to undergoing gene therapy. “So it’s not a slower start than expected and it’s not a demand issue. Demand is actually strong. It’s simply a timing issue,” he said.
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