Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Pre-Series A founders, this is your reminder! Nominations for Startup Battlefield 200 are still open, and the arena is already filling up. If you’ve been planning to apply, now’s the time to move. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, hand-selected startups won’t just pitch. They’ll step onto the stage and go head-to-head in front of world-class VCs and the full TechCrunch audience. This is where startups are tested, challenged, and pushed into the spotlight. Nominate your startup or put forward one that’s ready to step into the arena and prove it belongs. Submit here. Image Credits:TechCrunch Why nominate for Startup Battlefield Global exposure and $100,000 in equity-free funding are on the line. So is direct access to leading…

The Merabi Professional Medical Plaza, a three-story, 32,000 square foot stucco and glass office building in Los Angeles, is home to a salon, a law office, a modeling agency, a realty corporation and, also, 89 licensed hospice companies.Patient advocate Sheila Clark, who has worked to expose allegations of widespread Medicare fraud in the hospice industry, calls this building “ground zero” for the issue.”This particular building I noticed, I’m like, ‘dang, how can there be that many licensed and certified hospices in this tiny little building?,'” Clark said.The building is among the most extreme cases of what’s known as “clustering” to…

In October 1948, a thick haze rolled into Donora, Pennsylvania, a steel town in the Monongahela Valley, south of Pittsburgh. For five days, toxic fumes from a zinc smelter – a plant that turns zinc ore into pure zinc metal – poured out of the factory’s stacks, became trapped in the valley and thus blanketed Donora. The air was filled with sulfur oxides, heavy metal dust and airborne particulates.Firefighters carried 60-pound oxygen tanks door to door to relieve elderly and asthmatic victims. Nurses attended to mill workers in the infirmary, laying patients on the floor as hospital beds filled to…

In the Trump administration’s campaign to promote healthy eating, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has not stopped at his slogan urging people to “eat real food” to prevent disease.In recent speeches and podcast appearances, the nation’s health secretary also has claimed that diet can “cure” schizophrenia and diabetes and allow people to rid themselves of bipolar disorder diagnoses. Researchers say the comments overstate current evidence about the real and promising role that food can play in managing illness.“Food is medicine, and you can heal yourself with a good diet,” Kennedy said on comedian Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” podcast in February.The…

Amazon is bringing its new AI-powered conversational assistant, Alexa+, to the U.K., the first country to get the AI assistant outside of North America. The company is currently letting users in the U.K. try out Alexa+ for free via an early access program. Users who buy the new Amazon Echo will receive an invite for the early access program, and the company says it plans to enable Alexa+ for “hundreds of thousands” of customers in the coming weeks. Once the early access program ends, Prime subscribers will get to use Alexa+ for free, and non-Prime users will need to pay…

Uber is striking robotaxi deals left and right, and Rivian is the latest automaker to join its roster. Loading audio narration… The two companies announced a deal on Thursday that would see Uber buy 10,000 fully autonomous Rivian robotaxis and invest up to $1.25 billion in the Tesla rival through to 2031.The fleet of autonomous R2 electric robotaxis would enter commercial service in San Francisco and Miami in 2028 before scaling to 25 US cities by 2031. The two companies said Uber would have the option to purchase up to 40,000 more Rivian robotaxis in 2030.The partnership comes as both…

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia’s richest man, Michael Bambang Hartono, who helped turn the Djarum cigarette company into one of the country’s largest business empires and later became a controlling shareholder of Bank Central Asia, Indonesia’s biggest private lender, died Thursday. He was 86.Hartono died at a hospital in Singapore on Thursday afternoon, the Djarum Group said in a statement.“With deep sorrow, the extended family of PT Djarum announces the passing of one of our company’s leaders, Michael Bambang Hartono,” the statement said. “We extend our gratitude for his dedication and service.”The family has not revealed the cause of his…

Doctor ordered modified bed rest, work from homeA jury in Ohio said a firm must pay $22.5 million after an employee who was having complications with her pregnancy was not allowed to work from home − despite her doctors’ orders – and gave birth prematurely to a baby who died.The Cincinnati-area Hamilton County jury of five women and three men found that Total Quality Logistics was negligent for the 2021 death of Magnolia Walsh. She was delivered after 20 weeks and died after only a few hours of life.Total Quality Logistics’ headquarters in Union Township.The jury’s verdict was announced March…

Are you an entrepreneur? Miro may want to hire you. Loading audio narration… In the last two and a half years, CEO Andrey Khusid said that the company, which makes a visual collaboration tool, has made a “big shift” in its hiring strategy.To get ahead in the AI era, “we decided to add more entrepreneurs,” Khusid told Business Insider.The CEO said that when he speaks about entrepreneurs, he’s not referring to people with side hustles or solo projects. He’s referring to founders with a focus on a specific area.Khusid estimated that in the past two and a half years, the…

When Jessica Chamberlain went to sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for 2026, she not prepared for the sticker shock.Last year, Chamberlain was paying $59.67 in monthly premiums. This year, she would be paying nearly $100.The 43-year-old mother of two from Illinois said she was floored to see her monthly premiums were nearly doubling.1.4 million fewer people enrolled in ACA plans as premiums spike, tax credits expire”I can’t afford that as a single mom with two kids,” she told ABC News.After carefully weighing her options, Chamberlain decide to forego health insurance and is currently…