Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
For many TikTok employees, the days of working from home are numbered.The company has told US staffers across several large divisions that they will need to return to the office five days a week next year, two affected workers told Business Insider.The return-to-office push, which kicks off in September, will affect US employees across a wide set of roles, including staffers who work on advertising sales, marketing, and product, the employees said. A third staffer said they expected that much of TikTok’s US cohort would be back in the office five days a week next year.TikTok and its owner, ByteDance,…
Swedish vibe-coding startup Lovable has more than tripled its valuation in just five months. Stockholm-based Lovable on Thursday said it had raised $330 million in a Series B funding round that was led by CapitalG and Menlo Ventures, at a $6.6 billion valuation. Khosla Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Databricks Ventures also participated, as did other investors. This raise comes mere months after Lovable raised a $200 million Series A round that valued the company at $1.8 billion in July. One of the quickest to capitalize on the AI boom, Lovable has built a “vibe-coding” tool that lets people use text…
Palmer Luckey wants you to know he was right all along.The outspoken billionaire and new-age god of war is making a fortune selling weapons. His reach extends beyond the range of his powerful artillery though, as he has shifted the narrative around what working in defense tech means.Once a somewhat taboo corner of the business world, the success of Luckey’s Anduril Industries, along with his no-holds-barred approach to … just about everything, has made him the poster child for tech’s new love affair with the military, writes BI’s Julia Hornstein.Luckey’s now on a victory lap of sorts as he shepherds…
A week after Martin University announced it would “pause operations” at the end of the semester, the university terminated all staff and is encouraging students to transfer to other local colleges.In a meeting with staff on Monday, interim president Felicia Brokaw told employees the university was terminating them because it could not pay them. She also said the university had not submitted payroll because it did not have the funds to pay staff for hours they had already worked.“The reason why we’re doing a termination letter is so that I’m not digging deeper in debt,” Brokaw told staff, according to…
The baby saved from a rare disease by a first-ever personalized gene fix has reached a big milestone, taking his first steps ahead of Christmas.KJ Muldoon is walking and getting ready to celebrate the holiday season at home with his parents and three siblings.Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – PHOTO: KJ Muldoon was the first patient in the world to receive a personalized gene-editing therapy to treat a rare disease. KJ took his first steps recently.Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia – PHOTO: KJ Muldoon was the first patient in the world to receive a personalized gene-editing therapy to treat a rare disease.…
From beginning to end, 2025 was a year of devastation for scientists in the United States.January saw the abrupt suspension of key operations across the National Institutes of Health, not only disrupting clinical trials and other in-progress studies but stalling grant reviews and other activities necessary to conduct research. Around the same time, the Trump administration issued executive orders declaring there are only two sexes and ending DEI programs. The Trump administration also removed public data and analysis tools related to health disparties, climate change and environmental justice, among other databases.February and March saw a steep undercutting of federal support…
The holiday season is often painted as an idyllic vision of rest, conjuring images of warm beverages and bountiful time with loved ones. But many people have trouble unwinding at this time of year. Why do the December holidays offer the promise of respite but never seem to deliver? And is more restorative rest possible during this busy season?I am a psychologist who studies how rest supports learning, creativity and well-being. Sleep is often the first thing that many people associate with rest, but humans also require restorative downtime when awake. These active rest periods include physical, social and creative…
Amazon is adding a new feature to Alexa+ that adds a conversational AI to Ring doorbells, letting users manage deliveries, turn down sales folks, and let family or friends leave a message when they are not around. Called Greetings, the feature helps Ring determine who is visiting your house based on their apparel, actions, and what they are holding, and responds accordingly. For example, if the system sees a person in a delivery uniform dropping off a package, it will respond based on your instructions. The feature adds settings that let you specify where delivery people can leave packages, and…
Dec 18 (Reuters) – Moderna will get up to $54.3 million in funding from a global coalition to support late-stage development of its experimental bird flu vaccine, the U.S. drugmaker said on Thursday.The vaccine, mRNA-1018, would be the first mRNA-based bird flu vaccine to enter a pivotal trial, Moderna said.In May, the Trump administration had canceled a $700 million contract with Moderna to develop the vaccine.The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, is a global partnership working to accelerate the development of vaccines against epidemic and pandemic threats.As part of the agreement, Moderna will reserve 20% of its production…
Dec 18 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly’s oral pill, orforglipron, helped maintain weight loss in patients switching from injectable versions of GLP-1 drugs, the company said on Thursday, in a boost to deliver a more convenient obesity treatment option.An oral weight-loss pill would help Lilly further widen its lead over Novo Nordisk.Both Lilly and Novo are awaiting U.S. regulatory approvals for their pills, with a decision on Novo’s oral Wegovy expected later this year and on Lilly’s orforglipron early next year.In the late-stage trial, patients who took orforglipron for 52 weeks, after an initial treatment period of 72 weeks with Wegovy…