Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

PARIS (Reuters) -France has confirmed an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, on a farm in the north of the country, authorities said, as Europe faces a seasonal upturn in the deadly disease.The virus was detected at a pheasant and partridge breeding farm in the village of Pihen-Les-Guines, near the port town of Calais, the local prefecture said in a statement. The farm’s entire flock will be culled while poultry within 10 km of the affected farm are to be kept indoors, it said.The spread of bird flu worldwide in recent years has disrupted poultry production and…

GENEVA (Reuters) -One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections are resistant to antibiotic treatments, the World Health Organization said on Monday, calling for the medicines to be used more responsibly.Resistance to antibiotics rose in around 40% of samples monitored, the U.N. health agency said in a report based on data from more than 100 countries between 2016-2023.“Antimicrobial resistance is outpacing advances in modern medicine, threatening the health of families worldwide,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement accompanying the report. “We must use antibiotics responsibly, and make sure everyone has access to the right medicines, quality-assured diagnostics, and vaccines.”Globally,…

(Reuters) -South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare said on Monday it had secured regulatory approval to market Eli Lilly’s blockbuster diabetes and obesity drug, Mounjaro, for chronic weight management in the country.The greenlight follows Aspen’s earlier approval and launch of the drug, chemically called tirzepatide, in South Africa last December as a treatment for Type 2 diabetes.Aspen, a sales agent for Lilly, will launch Mounjaro for weight management in South Africa as an easy-to-use KwikPen injector device.The company has been betting on Mounjaro’s imminent launch to compete against Novo Nordisk’s rival product, Wegovy, which the Danish drugmaker had debuted in South Africa…

As investors scramble to find the next big AI startup to fund, one VC firm got rid of its analysts and is instead using AI to help run deals.Four-year-old Davidovs Venture Collective (DVC) — cofounded by married duo and general partners Marina Davidova and Nick Davidov — has launched a $75 million fund for Series A and B AI startups.They say they fired their analysts, who typically help source and vet deals. Instead, DVC is tapping a network of 170 limited partners (LPs) — including founders and engineers from OpenAI, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Tesla, SpaceX, and Perplexity — to source…

Electric vehicle sales in the US reached a new milestone in the third quarter of 2025. Beyond that, the future is uncertain for almost every player in this market, except one.With federal incentives for EVs falling away, the US market must survive on its own merits. Who wins and who survives will depend largely on who has the scale and sales volume to make their businesses profitable.Tesla has already reached scale and is comfortably profitable. Most other operators in the US EV market aren’t there yet.”In the volume-driven business of automotive manufacturing, low volume is the enemy; EV profitability remains…

You know the saying: Keep your friends close, and your trillion-dollar AI enemies closer.The artificial intelligence explosion has sparked an intensity of competition in Silicon Valley not seen since the smartphone boom, as tech companies spend billions of dollars to sprint ahead with the most advanced models, access to the most compute power, and the best researchers.The AI race has also brought some of these rivals closer together than ever. In some cases, uncomfortably close.Just look at what’s happened in the last few weeks. OpenAI signed a $300 billion deal to access Oracle’s compute power — despite being majority-backed by…

(Reuters) -Several pharmaceutical companies have said they will sell drugs direct to patients in the U.S. and offered discounts following President Donald Trump’s calls to bring down drug prices and cut out “middlemen” like pharmacies, insurers and pharmacy benefit managers.The Trump administration announced in September plans to launch a government-run website called TrumpRx.gov in early 2026, offering reduced prices for prescription drugs.U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations. Trump sent letters to 17 major companies in July demanding they slash U.S. prescription drug prices.Below is an…

The college football season has hit the halfway point with 11 teams still undefeated. Only two of them, UNLV and Navy, are not in The Associated Press Top 25 poll this week.UNLV has flown under the radar while starting 6-0 in Dan Mullen’s first season. A road win this week against Mountain West standard bearer Boise State would change that.No. 19 South Florida, No. 22 Memphis, Tulane and, until last week, North Texas — all from the American Conference — have generated most of the discussion about Group of Five candidates for the 12-team College Football Playoff. UNLV and Navy…

One founder has ditched long pitch decks and presentations for AI.”Famously, the Series A was the only time I made a pitch deck,” Aravind Srinivas, the cofounder and CEO of Perplexity, said in an interview with Berkeley Haas released on Saturday.Perplexity announced its $25.6 million Series A round in March 2023.Pitch decks are slide shows that give investors and customers key details about a company’s founders, its product, and its financial performance.”I just write a memo and I tell them you can do a Q&A and ask whatever you want,” Srinivas said, referring to potential investors. “And anything else that…

All the talk about the decline of the Kansas City Chiefs was premature.With Patrick Mahomes doing his magic and a stout defense, the Chiefs can beat anybody.A convincing 30-17 victory over the Detroit Lions in front of a national audience on Sunday night lifted the Chiefs to 3-3.They’ve got a long way to go but they’re a much better team than the one that started 0-2. Critics were wondering if it was the end of Kansas City’s dynasty.But the Chiefs just need to get healthy and work out some kinks.Mahomes and the offense have regained their mojo and will get…