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  • A&O Shearman posts USD3.7bn revenue, marking strong first year

    A&O Shearman posts USD3.7bn revenue, marking strong first year

    Landmark client successes 

    •  Liberty Global on its USD3.2bn Sunrise Communications spin-off and dual listing
    • Prosus on its EUR4.1bn acquisition of Just Eat Takeaway.com
    • Exscientia on its combination with US-based biotech company Recursion
    • The lenders on the restructuring of over USD11.5bn in offshore debt for Shimao Group Holdings
    • The underwriters on TD Bank’s USD14.6bn exit from Charles Schwab
    • The underwriters and funders on the EUR5.8bn debt refinancing of XpFibre
    • Uber on a litigation victory in a Securities Exchange Act case against Uber and its officers
    • SAP on a litigation victory in connection with the USD12.5bn sale of Qualtrics to Silver Lake Capital 

    Innovation leadership – pioneering AI and transforming legal delivery through technology 

    The firm continues to advance the boundaries of technology for lawyers. A&O Shearman was the first firm globally to deploy generative AI enterprise-wide when it rolled out Harvey in 2022. ContractMatrix, the firm’s award-winning AI-based contract management platform, is built in collaboration with Harvey and Microsoft. 

    In April 2025, the firm began rolling out a suite of agentic AI agents, built in partnership with Harvey, that tackle complex legal workflows. The initial agents focus on antitrust filing analysis, cybersecurity, fund formation, and loan review – high-value areas requiring deep legal expertise and multi-step reasoning. 

    A&O Shearman brings this understanding of AI technologies (and the infrastructure used to build them) and real-world AI governance to deliver innovative and uniquely pragmatic advice to clients on managing AI legal risk. The firm has dedicated AI experts in every major jurisdiction across the full risk spectrum and every stage of the AI value chain. The firm counsels numerous tech and industry giants, some of the largest AI foundation model developers, three of the five biggest Western banks in the world, and a G20 country on its national AI strategy and AI regulation.

    A&O Shearman has begun FY26 with landmark client wins, including advising Partners Group on its joint acquisition of Techem – the largest M&A transaction in Germany this year; Athora on its GBP5.7bn acquisition of Pension Insurance Corporation Group; Sanmina in its USD3bn acquisition of ZT Systems’ data center business; the lenders on EQT’s USD5.5bn acquisition of Fortnox AB; Froneri on its EUR4.25bn financing; and Sizewell C on its supply chain and contracting strategy for the GBP38bn nuclear project.

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  • UNRWA chief warns many malnourished children will die in Gaza City operation

    UNRWA chief warns many malnourished children will die in Gaza City operation


    GENEVA: Israel’s expanded offensive in the Gaza Strip, aimed at conquering Gaza City and targeting the remaining Hamas strongholds in the besieged Palestinian territory, is “intolerable,” the Red Cross said on Thursday.

    The Israeli military’s plan, which includes the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists, has deepened fears that the campaign will worsen the already catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the blockaded coastal strip.

    “The intensification of hostilities in Gaza means more killing, more displacement, more destruction and more panic,” Christian Cardon, chief spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told AFP.

    “Gaza is a closed space, from which nobody can escape… and where access to health care, food and safe water is dwindling,” said Cardon.

    “Meanwhile, the security of humanitarians is getting worse by the hour,” the spokesman added.

    “This is intolerable.”

    Cardon has taken an active role in the Red Cross’s humanitarian activities on the ground, and has been involved in every exchange of the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas in the Palestinian militant group’s October 7, 2023 attack.

    That attack, which sparked the war in Gaza, resulted in the death of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

    Of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas, 49 are still held captive in Gaza, including 27 who the Israeli military believes are dead.

    Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,122 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the United Nations considers reliable.

    Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency or the Israeli military.

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  • AI Is Already Aiding Clinical Practice Across the Cancer Care Continuum

    AI Is Already Aiding Clinical Practice Across the Cancer Care Continuum

    The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly expanding in oncologic clinical practice, with applications including expediting administrative tasks, risk-stratification testing, research, and assistance with interpreting pathology and imaging results.

    In order to gain a better understanding of how this technology is currently being applied to practice and where it could be heading in the near future, OncLive® spoke with:

    Alicia Morgans, MD, MPH, a genitourinary medical oncologist and the Medical Director of the Survivorship Program at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, as well as an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, both in Boston, Massachusetts.

    Balazs Halmos, MD, a professor in the Departments of Oncology (Medical Oncology) and Medicine (Oncology and Hematology), and the associate director of Clinical Science at the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York, New York.

    Nitin K. Yerram, MD, the codirector of Urologic Oncology and the director of Urologic Research at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.

    Samina Hirani, MBBS, a hematologist/oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

    Alexander Itskovich, MD, the medical director of Oncology Services of the Statesir Cancer Center at Atlantic Health CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, New Jersey.

    Ruben Mesa, MD, FACP, the senior vice president of Atrium Health and the president and executive director of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Comprehensive Cancer Center, as well as the vice dean for Cancer Programs and the Charles L. Spurr, MD, Professor of Internal Medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

    “These tools don’t replace the physician’s judgment—they augment it,” Itskovich said. “AI can rapidly sift through massive amounts of data, but the interpretation, clinical decision-making, and patient communication remain firmly in human hands. Together, these technologies are not just making my work more efficient—they’re helping to ensure that fewer clinically significant findings slip through the cracks.”

    Significant Time Savings Seen With Administrative Tasks and Patient Communication

    Due to its ability to quickly synthesize and organize large datasets, AI is already being used to streamline administrative tasks such as dictation, note taking, and patient monitoring and communication. Examples of these tools include Ambient Voice AI and DAX Copilot.

    “Ambient Voice AI allows conversations between patients and clinicians to be securely captured and transformed into medical notes in real time,” Itskovich said. “This technology dramatically reduces the administrative burden of manual notetaking, allowing me to listen more attentively and focus on the patient, rather than writing the note. It’s not just a timesaver; it improves patient engagement and accuracy of documentation.”

    “Our institution has been piloting the use of DAX Copilot with good success,” Mesa said. “It listens to my discussion with the patient and generates an editable draft of notes. It learns from the style of my prior notes and gets better and better [with additional use].”

    AI Makes a Difference in Risk Stratification and Disease Detection

    Multiple investigators in the field of prostate cancer indicated that they are presently using the ArteraAI Prostate Test in their clinical practice. “ArteraAI is a multimodal AI model for [patients with] intermediate-risk localized prostate cancer to help predict whether a patient is likely to benefit from the addition of androgen deprivation therapy [ADT] to their radiation treatment with curative intent,” Morgans explained.

    In March 2024, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network included ArteraAI in its updated Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Prostate Cancer, making it the first AI-enabled predictive and prognostic test to be included in the prostate cancer guidelines.1 The tool was classified with a Category 2A recommendation and was supported by level 1B evidence from multiple phase 3 clinical trials.

    “We are currently using the ArteraAI Prostate Test to improve the risk-stratification of patients who have been recently diagnosed with prostate cancer,” Yerram added. “This tool helps to better individualize patient care and provides patients with a clear path forward regarding treatment, whether that is through surveillance, surgery, or radiation.”

    During the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting, investigators presented findings from an analysis of the ArteraAI Prostate Test v1.2 for identifying patients who could benefit the most from the addition of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga) with or without prednisolone and/or enzalutamide (Xtandi) to standard-of-care ADT the analysis revealed that patients who were identified by ArteraAI as being in the upper risk quartile of risk derived the greatest benefit with the addition of abiraterone in terms of metastasis-free survival, prostate cancer-specific mortality, and distant metastasis.

    AI tools are also starting to be adopted for the analysis of imaging and pathology reports. “Machine learning is transforming how we detect and manage incidentalomas—unexpected findings on imaging performed for unrelated reasons. These findings can range from benign cysts to potentially malignant tumors. In the past, incidentalomas in radiology reports could be overlooked due to the sheer volume of imaging that is performed. Now, AI algorithms can scan imaging reports, and any abnormal findings are moved into a specialized workflow that serves as a safety net for our patients,” Itskovich said.

    Enhancing and Expediting the Research Processes

    Mesa explained that he uses DAX Copilot to create power point slides based on his published research, perform journal article review, and are working to incorporate AI into the clinical trial matching process. Platforms such as OpenEvidence can be used to create tables and figures, ask clinical questions, perform guideline searches, create exam questions, and conduct literature searches.

    “I use OpenEvidence commonly, that’s my number 1 go-to, but I [also use] Grok AI for research purposes,” Hirani commented.

    Excitement Is Mounting for the Future of AI in the Clinic

    Looking ahead, investigators are highly optimistic about the future of AI in the clinical and the potential effect it could have on improving treatment for patients with cancer. As AI technology continues to improve and tools are refined, they will be more integrated into clinical practice, saving investigators time and benefiting patients through enhanced disease detection.

    “I believe the future of AI in the clinic is incredibly bright and it will [have an effect] on everything,” Halmos said. “We’re looking at new biomarkers for antibody-drug conjugates aided by AI, as well as its use for lung cancer screening. It could also be used to break down medical jargon for patients and break down language barriers. AI will certainly add an additional tool with utility to our clinics.”

    References

    1. ArteraAI announced as the first-and-only predictive test for therapy personalization in the 2024 NCCN Guidelines for prostate cancer. News release. ArteraAI. March 4, 2024. Accessed August 15, 2025. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240304893588/en/ArteraAI-Announced-as-the-First-and-Only-Predictive-Test-for-Therapy-Personalization-in-the-2024-NCCN-Guidelines-for-Prostate-Cancer
    2. Parker CTA, Liu VYT, Mendes L, et al. Multimodal artificial intelligence (MMAI) model to identify benefit from 2nd-generation androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPI) in high-risk non-metastatic prostate cancer patients from STAMPEDE. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):5001. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.5001

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  • Video Shows Pulsing and Curving Fault Behavior – eos.org

    1. Video Shows Pulsing and Curving Fault Behavior  eos.org
    2. California’s Next ‘Big One’ Might Not Follow the Script  Gizmodo
    3. Hollywood loves quake disaster flicks, but do we know what the real ‘Big One’ will look like?  Los Angeles Times
    4. San Andreas fault could unleash an earthquake unlike any seen before, study of deadly Myanmar quake suggests  Live Science
    5. (PDF) Earthquake Hazard Assessment using Geospatial Multicriteria Analysis in Myanmar  researchgate.net

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  • UK health firms ‘misleading’ parents with claims over milk teeth ‘treatments’ | Stem cells

    UK health firms ‘misleading’ parents with claims over milk teeth ‘treatments’ | Stem cells

    Companies are making thousands of pounds by misleading parents with claims that collecting stem cells from their children’s teeth can be a treatment for diabetes and autism, an investigation has found.

    Tooth stem cell banking, also known as dental pulp cell banking, involves parents collecting and sending lost milk teeth to a laboratory where stem cells are harvested from the dental pulp. Firms that advertise tooth banking services claim these stem cells can be used in treatments for conditions such as diabetes and autism.

    The investigation, by Emma Wilkinson and published in the BMJ, found that three companies in the UK offer tooth stem cell banking – BioEden, Future Health Biobank and Stem Protect. The service costs about £1,900, with a £95 annual storage fee.

    On its website, Future Health Biobank says it has released 26 tooth stem cell samples for treatment, including for autism, type 1 diabetes and knee cartilage regeneration. Stem Protect states on its website that tooth stem cells can be used for cleft palate repair and HIV/Aids among other conditions, and says “medical trials into autism and cerebral palsy involve the pulp found inside teeth and offer hope for hundreds of conditions”.

    BioEden’s website claimed stem cell therapy had been described as the “next frontier” for treating both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and that the company had “already witnessed the remarkable evidence of these ongoing developments” among its customers.

    However, experts have expressed doubts about the medical value of tooth stem cell banking.

    “There is a lack of evidence and a paucity of research using dental pulp stem cells to treat patients,” said Jill Shepherd, a senior lecturer in stem cell biology at the University of Kent. “There’s no evidence to suggest stem cells stored from a child’s milk tooth would ever be needed to treat that child.”

    Sufyan Hussain, an investigator on the UK arm of a global clinical trial evaluating stem cell therapy, said there was not a definitive answer regarding the “optimal source of stem cells for future diabetes therapies”.

    “This highlights how emotive this matter can be, as parents naturally want the best possible outcomes for their children,” Hussain said. “While we remain hopeful about future treatments, there is also a risk that companies might exploit these hopes to generate additional revenue.”

    Tim Nicholls, assistant director of policy, research and strategy at the National Autistic Society in the UK, said it was “outrageous” that tooth stem cell procedures are being advertised to parents with the claim of “treating” autism.

    He added: “Autism is not a disease or illness; it cannot be treated and there is no cure. It is dangerous and morally bankrupt to target potentially vulnerable people with expensive procedures that could, in fact, cause harm.”

    In response to the BMJ article, Future Health Biobank said it was looking at how information on its site is presented in order to ensure “readers can clearly distinguish between client experiences and formally published clinical outcomes”.

    A spokesperson for Stem Protect said: “We have made no unfounded claims, and our website has been reviewed and approved by the Human Tissue Authority (HTA). We remain committed to ensuring stem cell banking is presented as a valuable resource, backed by evidence and transparency.”

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  • Scientists Think the Weird Physics of Blood Could Crack Murder Cases Wide Open

    Scientists Think the Weird Physics of Blood Could Crack Murder Cases Wide Open

    Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

    • A new study analyzes the way that bloodstains behave on cotton fabrics in the hopes of furthering forensic analysis.

    • The shapes and intensities of bloodstains can provide investigators information about the angle and speed at which the blood was moving before it stained.

    • Plain-woven cotton makes it easier to estimate the velocity of blood splatter.

    In film, a splotch of crimson blood hitting a white square of cotton is often visual shorthand for “this is not good.” Obviously, in real life, bloodstains aren’t usually positive omens either, but it turns out that they may at least be helpful.

    In a new study published in the journal Forensic Science International, a team of North Carolina State University researchers analyzed the dynamics of blood droplets falling on three different types of cotton fabrics. The goal was to work backwards from a bloodstain to the splatter of blood that created it, all by better understanding how the blood behaves when it hits fabric. The hope is that the work could be helpful in forensic investigations.

    “When blood strikes fabric, it leaves a stain,” Tiegang Fang, one of the authors of the study, said in a statement. “But it can be difficult to accurately assess things like how quickly blood was traveling when it struck the fabric. Was it going fast? Slow? Did someone just brush up against the blood? It’s hard to tell, because once the blood comes into contact with the fabric, it wicks across the surface of the fibers in the fabric, spreading out.”

    Five fabric surfaces were analyzed throughout the study—plain-woven cotton (which has the same surface characteristics on both the front and back), the front and back of cotton twill, and the front and back of jersey knit. Once the fabrics had been selected, the team applied pig blood (treated to ensure consistent behavior across testing) to the materials at 12 different velocities. High-speed cameras—using a rate of four frames per millisecond—captured the blood strikes and documented how the blood traveled across the fabrics after making contact. By analyzing the images, the team identified patterns in the bloodstains correlating to the velocity of the blood splatter.

    “One key finding relates to the ‘fingers’ of the blood stain,” Fang said. “When you look at a bloodstain on fabric, you will sometimes see thin tendrils that spread out from the center of the stain. Those tendrils are referred to as fingers. We found that the more fingers a bloodstain has, the faster the blood was moving when it struck the fabric. However, over time, these fingers may spread out and run together.”

    Additionally, the faster the blood was traveling when it hit the fabric, the more likely it was that there would be additional tiny stains—known as satellite droplets—surrounding a central stain.

    The study text noted that when blood drops hit a fabric, they spread and form rims. Then, the rim breaks up and retracts, allowing the blood to enter the inter-yarn spaces in the fabric structure and stop acting like an independent droplet. From there, blood starts spreading within the fabric and begins wicking across the surface.

    But not every fabric behaved the same. Researchers concluded that plain-woven cotton provided the most clues regarding estimated velocity, largely because the stains were the biggest. Conversely, twill was the trickiest to understand, and knit offered the smallest stains up for analysis.

    Fang called the results of the study “promising,” and plans additional research with a wider variety of fabrics, weaves, and yarns. “It’s clear,” he said, “that the specific structures of each surface play a critical role in how these bloodstains form and what we can learn from them.”

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  • US Space Force’s X-37B Prepares for Eighth Mission, Future Uncertain

    US Space Force’s X-37B Prepares for Eighth Mission, Future Uncertain

    As the US Space Force’s shadowy spaceplane, the X-37B, prepares for an eighth lengthy orbital mission, its role in the superpower’s fast-expanding space defense efforts such as Golden Dome may be limited — and the future of winged spacecraft is unclear.

    The uncrewed vehicle is slated to take off Thursday atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 11:50 p.m. local time, according to SpaceX.

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  • Watch SpaceX launch US Space Force’s classified X-37B space plane today

    Watch SpaceX launch US Space Force’s classified X-37B space plane today

    In the dark of night, SpaceX will launch the mysterious X-37B space plane for the U.S. Space Force (USSF).

    A Falcon 9 rocket will launch the mission, USSF-36, from Pad 39A, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC), in Florida, carrying the Boeing-built X-37B on the orbital transfer vehicle’s eighth flight (OTV-8). Launch is scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 21, at 11:50 p.m. EDT (0350 GMT, Aug. 22).

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  • ADOR Appoints New CEO Lee Do-kyung Amid NewJeans Contract Dispute

    ADOR Appoints New CEO Lee Do-kyung Amid NewJeans Contract Dispute

    ADOR, the HYBE-owned label behind K-pop powerhouse NewJeans, has appointed Lee Do-kyung as its new CEO.

    The appointment comes just a year after Kim Ju-young, formerly HYBE’s chief personnel officer, took over as ADOR CEO following the departure of Min Hee-jin in August last year.

    ADOR’s board stated that under Kim Ju-young’s leadership, the company successfully stabilized its organizational and management structure. With that milestone reached, the board appointed a new CEO to transition into a more agile operating model — one designed to better support artist activities and accelerate business initiatives.

    Lee Do-kyung, ADOR’s newly appointed CEO, joined the company in 2019, when HYBE was still operating under its former name, Big Hit Entertainment. Since then, she has spearheaded a range of new business ventures and most recently served as Vice President of the IPX Business Division, which oversees artist IP-driven projects such as merchandise and pop-up stores.

    Related

    The leadership change comes amid ongoing tensions between ADOR and NewJeans regarding their exclusive contract. With a second round of mediation set for early September, industry observers are closely watching to see whether the appointment of a new CEO could help bridge the gap between the two sides. Reflecting the heightened public interest, nearly 100 domestic media outlets reported on the CEO transition within 24 hours of ADOR’s press release on August 20.

    Meanwhile, ADOR has also announced plans to launch a new boy group and is currently holding auditions.

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  • Hundreds of thousands of Grok chats exposed in Google results

    Hundreds of thousands of Grok chats exposed in Google results

    Liv McMahon

    Technology reporter

    Getty Images Grok logo displayed on a smartphone, with it's logo shown on a blurred, larger backdrop behind it. Getty Images

    Hundreds of thousands of user conversations with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok have been exposed in search engine results – seemingly without users’ knowledge.

    Unique links are created when Grok users press a button to share a transcript of their conversation – but as well as sharing the chat with the intended recipient, the button also appears to have made the chats searchable online.

    A Google search on Thursday revealed it had indexed nearly 300,000 Grok conversations.

    It has led one expert to describe AI chatbots as a “privacy disaster in progress”.

    The BBC has approached X for comment.

    The appearance of Grok chats in search engine results was first reported by tech industry publication Forbes, which counted more than 370,000 user conversations on Google.

    Among chat transcripts seen by the BBC were examples of Musk’s chatbot being asked to create a secure password, provide meal plans for weight loss and answer detailed questions about medical conditions.

    Some indexed transcripts also showed users’ attempts to test the limits on what Grok would say or do.

    In one example seen by the BBC, the chatbot provided detailed instructions on how to make a Class A drug in a lab.

    It is not the first time that peoples’ conversations with AI chatbots have appeared more widely than they perhaps initially realised when using “share” functions.

    OpenAI recently rowed back an “experiment” which saw ChatGPT conversations appear in search engine results when shared by users.

    A spokesperson told BBC News at the time it had been “testing ways to make it easier to share helpful conversations, while keeping users in control”.

    They said user chats were private by default and users had to explicitly opt-in to sharing them.

    Earlier this year, Meta faced criticism after shared users conversations with its chatbot Meta AI appeared in a public “discover” feed on its app.

    ‘Privacy disaster’

    While users’ account details may be anonymised or obscured in shared chatbot transcripts, their prompts may still contain – and risk revealing – personal, sensitive information about someone.

    Experts say this highlights mounting concerns over users’ privacy.

    “AI chatbots are a privacy disaster in progress,” Prof Luc Rocher, associate professor at the Oxford Internet Institute, told the BBC.

    They said “leaked conversations” from chatbots have divulged user information ranging from full names and location, to sensitive details about their mental health, business operations or relationships.

    “Once leaked online, these conversations will stay there forever,” they added.

    Meanwhile Carissa Veliz, associate professor in philosophy at Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics in AI, said users not being told shared chats would appear in search results is “problematic”.

    “Our technology doesn’t even tell us what it’s doing with our data, and that’s a problem,” she said.

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