Results from BRUIN CLL-321 show Lilly's pirtobrutinib reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 46% compared to idelalisib plus rituximab or bendamustine plus rituximab
Pirtobrutinib prolonged the time to next treatment or death by a median of 23.9 months compared to 10.9 months in the control arm
BRUIN CLL-321 is the first randomized Phase 3 study in CLL ever conducted exclusively in patients previously treated with a BTK inhibitor
– ZUMA-5 Analysis Shows Median Progression-Free Survival of 62.2 Months and Median Duration of Response of 60.4 Months After Median Follow-Up of More Than Five Years –
– Over Half of Patients Alive at Time of Analysis, with No Need for Subsequent Therapy and Rare Instances of Late Disease Progression, Indicating Curative Potential –
Emmanuel Macron will bring together a broad group of political parties for a meeting on Tuesday, in an effort to find a new prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, whose government was ousted last week over a budget dispute.
The French president aims to meet with “all political parties who have indicated that they are willing to compromise in order to form a government of general interest, or to make such a government possible,” his office said late Monday.
'It does seem he does have some ill will toward corporate America,' NYPD chief detective said
A man was taken into police custody Monday in Pennsylvania in connection with last week's fatal shooting of a UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive outside a Manhattan hotel, according to New York City Police Department officials. He was later charged with murder in New York.
The murder last Wednesday of Brian Thompson - the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, the health-insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group - sparked a police manhunt, along with a wide and fierce conversation across the country about healthcare coverage and denied claims.
Manhattan prosecutors late Monday filed murder and other charges against Luigi Mangione, 26, according to an online court docket. He remained jailed in Altoona, Pa., where he was charged with possession of an unlicensed firearm, forgery and providing false identification to police.
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch had said Monday afternoon that Magione was "believed to be our person of interest."
Mangione was found with handwritten documents that could speak to his motivation, according to Tisch. Though the investigation is ongoing, "it does seem he does have some ill will toward corporate America," NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said at a press conference.
Mangione appears to come from a life of privilege, with a private-school education and an Ivy League pedigree.
He graduated in 2016 from the Gilman School in Baltimore, according to media reports. Tuition at the all-boys school is approximately $38,000, according to its website.
"Luigi Mangione's suspected involvement in this case is deeply distressing news on top of an already awful situation. Our hearts go out to everyone affected. Here on campus, our focus will remain on caring for and educating our students," the Gilman School said in a statement.
Mangione later earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, according to his LinkedIn page. Those degrees were both in engineering, computer and information science, according to his profile.
Representatives of the Ivy League institution in Philadelphia did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mangione's LinkedIn profile also said he worked as a data engineer at online car-buying platform TrueCar Inc. (TRUE) for approximately four years. A TrueCar spokesperson said that while the company generally does not comment on personnel matters, it could confirm Mangione last worked at the company in 2023.
UnitedHealth Group shares UNH closed Monday up 2.5% after trading around 10% lower in the wake of the attack.
Thompson, 50, was shot once in the back and once in the leg early Wednesday morning, before a scheduled speech at an investor event for shareholders in the insurer.
"Our hope is that today's apprehension brings some relief to Brian's family, friends, colleagues and the many others affected by this unspeakable tragedy," a UnitedHealth Group spokesperson said Monday. "We thank law enforcement and will continue to work with them on this investigation. We ask that everyone respect the family's privacy as they mourn."
A McDonald's (MCD) employee in Altoona recognized Mangione in the widely publicized case and contacted authorities. Mangione is currently facing gun charges in Altoona, in central Pennsylvania, Kenny said, while Manhattan criminal charges were yet undetermined.
Mangione's possessions at the time of his apprehension included what appeared to be a "ghost gun" perhaps created with a 3D printer, Kenny said. The firearm was capable of firing 9-millimeter bullets, he noted, adding that the investigation was ongoing.
Police found the words "deny," "defend" and "depose" on bullet casings outside the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan, where Thompson was shot. That has led to speculation the words were an allusion to a 2010 book titled "Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don't Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It," by Jay M. Feinman, a Rutgers Law School professor who specializes in insurance law.
Mangione was found by authorities with a manifesto, according to the New York Post. "These parasites had it coming," Mangione reportedly wrote in the document, according to CNN, which cited an unnamed police official. "I do apologize for any strife and trauma, but it had to be done," he added.
Nearly a year before his apprehension, he apparently gave a glowing Goodreads review to a book written by Ted Kaczynski, the domestic terrorist known as the "Unabomber."
"It's easy to quickly and thoughtless to write this off as the manifesto of a lunatic, in order to avoid facing some of the uncomfortable problems it identifies. But it's simply impossible to ignore how prescient many of his predictions about modern society turned out," according to a review written by an account featuring Mangione's face.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the former Al-Qaeda affiliate that has just assumed control over Syria, has appointed Mohammad Bashir as the head of a new Syrian transitional authority. Bashir was the prime minister of the HTS-led Salvation Government, which was formed in 2017 and ruled Syria's northern province of Idlib – where HTS was based before the massive Turkish-backed assault against Syria that began late last month.
According to reports on Monday, Bashir has been chosen as the new prime minister of Syria, and is coordinating with outgoing Syrian premier Mohammad al-Jalali, who announced on Sunday that he is ready for a "smooth transition" and will cooperate with "any leadership chosen by the Syrian people."
HTS – formerly known as Al-Qaeda's branch in Syria, the Nusra Front – has been implicated in numerous atrocities, including kidnapping, public executions, indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas, and other war crimes.
In 2016, the Nusra Front was rebranded and expanded into Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a coalition of armed factions with support from Qatar. The following year, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham became HTS in another Qatari-sponsored rebranding initiative aimed at legitimizing the group.
HTS has been a proscribed terrorist organization by the UN, US, UK, and EU. Despite a large US bounty on the head of HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the extremist leader sat with CNN for an interview last week.
Officials in Washington are considering removing HTS from the US terror list, The Washington Post reported on 9 December. "US officials are in contact with all the groups involved in fighting in Syria, including the main group that ousted Assad, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which was once affiliated with Al-Qaeda and remains on a US terrorist list," the newspaper wrote.
A US official told the outlet that the US government has not ruled out removing the terror designation from HTS to enable deeper US contact and cooperation with the group.
"We have to be smart … and also very mindful and pragmatic about the realities on the ground," the official said.
Another US official said the White House is in the process of conducting a "real-time assessment" about HTS, which took control of Damascus on Saturday after a lightning two-week offensive launched from its stronghold in Syria's northwest Idlib governorate.
Meanwhile Syrian embassies around the world are hoisting a new flag:
The UK government is also considering removing HTS from the list of banned terrorist groups.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hts-extremists-appoint-new-prime-minister-syria
Italy plans to begin tests as early as January to see if the satellite-based connectivity offered by Elon Musk's Starlink is a viable solution to boosting the rollout of high-speed internet in the country, two sources close to the matter said.
Officials in Giorgia Meloni's right wing government are increasingly worried about missing broadband network targets set under the European Union-funded Recovery Plan.
The tests are part of a pilot project, with the results expected as early as March, and will be open to several companies including Starlink, the people said.
They aim to verify whether the standards required by the internet plan can also be met by a combination of satellite and fibre connections, they added.
State-backed fibre-optic firms Open Fiber and its rival FiberCop have cabled around a third of the 3.4 million buildings targeted by the 3.4 billion euro ($3.60 billion) Italian plan, which is due to be completed by June 2026.
The risk of delays are partly linked to difficulties in connecting some 450,000 buildings spread across small settlements outside more populated areas.
Starlink, part of Musk's SpaceX aerospace business, has 6,700 active satellites orbiting Earth, providing low-latency broadband to more than four million customers across the globe, of which about 55,000 are in Italy.
Under the view of Cabinet Undersecretary Alessio Butti, operators in charge of Italy's high-speed internet rollout programme could also consider satellite-based internet systems in the mix to meet coverage goals, the sources said.
Under such a scheme, so-called Starlink community gateways could be deployed in some of the most remote areas to provide wholesale capacity and possibly enabling fibre operators to only cable the last-mile of fibre to homes, the people said.
Italy's high-speed coverage plan aims to guarantee 1 gigabit per second download speeds during peak hours, which Starlink was unable to meet in Italy when the 2021 coverage plan tender was designed, a third person said.
It remains to be seen whether the operators in charge of the rollout would assess any alternative option as an effective and affordable backup solution to fill any gap in their coverage plan and save time.
Plans to involve Musk in broadband rollout triggered criticism from the opposition parties, who fear putting Italy's cybersecurity in the hands of a foreign, non-EU group.
Antonio Nicita, of the opposition Democratic Party (PD), tabled an amendment in parliament to prevent Musk from playing a role in the internet plan.
The proposed legislation states that groups controlling online platforms such as Musk's X cannot provide wholesale and retail connectivity services, including satellite connectivity, on Italian territory.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/italy-test-starlink-january-bid-152913554.html
A New Jersey law regulating the state’s cannabis marketplace, which prohibits employers from discriminating against users, doesn’t allow workers to bring their own lawsuits, a split appeals panel said. The law’s lack of any express remedy is “better understood as a deliberate choice” than an “oversight,” the court said.
