Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

If you pay attention to Kalshi and Polymarket, there’s a name you should probably know by now: Michael Selig.Selig, the 36-year-old lawyer selected by President Donald Trump to lead the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is the country’s top federal regulator of prediction markets.And in recent weeks, he’s made clear he’ll be a champion for the burgeoning industry.”It’s something that I think is valuable to society,” Selig said of prediction markets on a recent episode of Bloomberg’s “Odd Lots” podcast.Here’s what to know about Selig and the agency he leads. Who is Mike Selig?Selig graduated from George Washington University Law School…

Rep. Ro Khanna endorsed a billionaire wealth tax. Now, he’s facing a new tech-backed challenge to his reelection bid. Loading audio narration… Ethan Agarwal, a 40-year-old tech entrepreneur, announced earlier this month that he was abandoning a long-shot Democratic gubernatorial bid and would instead run against Khanna in California’s 17th congressional district, which encompasses much of Silicon Valley.And he’s got the backing of some in the tech world who argue that Khanna has lost touch with his district, including Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan and venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya and Ron Conway.”I wouldn’t say it’s central,” Agarwal said of Khanna’s…

The world of fashion has witnessed a consistent pattern for some time now: Big Tech billionaires gradually entering its orbit from the edges until they’ve found themselves at its center.Just last month, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s presence in the front row at the Prada Fall/Winter 2026 collection stirred the fashion world, amid Meta’s ambition to up the luxury factor in its AI glasses.A few glances over prove that this was not an isolated case. Amazon magnate Jeff Bezos and Laura Sánchez-Bezos have long been fashion enthusiasts, with the fashion world courting them and vice versa.There was the Vogue cover.…

Tesla has pushed back the reveal of its long-delayed next-generation Roadster — again. But Elon Musk says it could arrive as soon as late next month.On Tuesday, the Tesla CEO said on X that the company will “hopefully” unveil the electric sports car next month, “probably in late April.”That timeline is already slipping from Musk’s recent guidance. In an October interview with podcaster Joe Rogan, Musk said the car would be released “hopefully before the end of the year.” Then, in November, during Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting, he said that the company was “tentatively aiming” to have the demo event…

Kalshi’s legal battle with states is heating up.Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes on Tuesday filed criminal charges against the online gambling company — a first for the company in its expanding battle with states. Kalshi lets people bet on real-world events, from who will win a pro sports game to the weather.Mayes’s 20-count filing against the prediction market platform includes 16 charges of operating an unlicensed gambling business and four charges of election wagering. All of the charges are misdemeanors and could carry potential fines.”Kalshi may brand itself as a ‘prediction market,’ but what it’s actually doing is running an…

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Amit Jain and Raghav Saraf, cofounders of Bengaluru-based agentic AI startup Zamp. It has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… Raghav Saraf: I joined Zamp four days after my last high school exam ended in 2022. I met Amit at a blockchain hackathon I had participated in, where I built a payment gateway. My product was really similar to what Amit was trying to build at Zamp, and the hackathon organizer introduced us.Amit Jain: Before I founded Zamp, I was a managing director at Sequoia India and Southeast Asia…

Not long ago, a restaurant’s edge was its secret sauce. Now, it might be its source code. Loading audio narration… From McDonald’s “Experience of the Future” initiative, which expanded the rollout of in-restaurant kiosks and app-based ordering, to Chipotle’s Autocado, which automatically cuts and peels avocados, the trend is accelerating across the industry. Even Starbucks, long known for its human-centric “third place” positioning, recently introduced a generative AI tool for baristas called Green Dot to provide real-time support inside stores.Whether they’re selling pretzels, burgers, or lattes, major chains are building internal AI copilots, rearchitecting their data systems, and operating their…

By Danilo Masoni MILAN (Reuters) -Global healthcare stocks have not been this cheap in decades and fund inflows into the sector are picking up, yet the shares remain in the doldrums, highlighting uncertainty over drug pricing policies since Donald Trump returned to the White House. Pharma companies’ earnings outlook is being obscured by concerns over revived “most-favored-nation” drug pricing rules in the lucrative U.S. market and potential 200% tariffs on pharma imports into the U.S. Money flooded into drugmakers’ shares during the COVID-19 pandemic but more recently there has been an exodus as investors shifted into Big Tech, leaving the…

(Reuters) -Swiss drugmaker Novartis has approached U.S. biotech Avidity Biosciences for a potential takeover offer, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Shares of Avidity rose 23% to $47.1. It has a market value of $4.6 billion, according to LSEG data. Novartis has been evaluating a bid for Avidity and expressed interest in an acquisition in recent weeks, the report said, in a move aimed at boosting the drugmaker’s pipeline of medicines targeting rare genetic disorders. The discussions were at an early stage, the report said, adding that the sources had cautioned that another suitor…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Shares of drugmaker Sarepta Therapeutics continued to fall Tuesday after the company said it would comply with a Food and Drug Administration request to pause shipments of its gene therapy following several patient deaths. The decision, announced late Monday, comes just days after the company rebuffed FDA regulators in an extremely unusual decision that alarmed investors and analysts. Sarepta CEO Doug Ingram said the company seeks a “productive and positive” relationship with FDA and that “maintaining that productive working relationship required this temporary suspension.” The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company said it would “ temporarily pause all shipments” of…