Category: 3. Business

  • HHS Announces Request for Information to Harness Artificial Intelligence to Deflate Health Care Costs and Make America Healthy Again – Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (.gov)

    1. HHS Announces Request for Information to Harness Artificial Intelligence to Deflate Health Care Costs and Make America Healthy Again  Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (.gov)
    2. Experts urge caution as Trump’s big bill incentivizes AI in healthcare  The Guardian
    3. ASTP/ONC Issues an RFI Seeking Input on How HHS Can Accelerate Adoption and Use of AI in Clinical Care  Wilson Sonsini
    4. RFK Jr. Seeks Public Input to Expand AI’s Use in Health Care  Bloomberg Law News
    5. Gist Weekly: December 19, 2025  Kaufman Hall

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  • Savings and investment union: Council agrees position on revitalising the EU’s securitisation market – consilium.europa.eu

    1. Savings and investment union: Council agrees position on revitalising the EU’s securitisation market  consilium.europa.eu
    2. Buy your covered bonds now — they’re going to get dearer  GlobalCapital
    3. EU Securitisation Regulation and Capital Requirements Regulation Reform Proposals – Finalised Council Text to be Endorsed and Parliament Draft Report Published Ahead of Trilogue  JD Supra
    4. EU Lawmakers to Weigh Easing Capital Rules on Safest Bank Bonds  Bloomberg.com
    5. Regulators cook up sweet things for some bank capital layers, sour for others  GlobalCapital

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  • Will the TikTok deal mean the app changes in the US?

    Will the TikTok deal mean the app changes in the US?

    Laura Cress,Technology reporterand

    Lily Jamali,North America technology correspondent, San Francisco

    Getty Images Smartphone displays the logo of TikTok with the national flags of China and the United States in the background.Getty Images

    TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance has signed a deal with investors to run its business in the US.

    But what does this mean for the over 170 million Americans (or so the social media platform claims) who use the app?

    The key may lie in how TikTok’s recommendation algorithm – the powerful system that curates the platform’s For You Page to predict content you might watch – is managed when it changes hands.

    Social media industry expert Matt Navarra told the BBC the question will not be whether TikTok survives, but “what version of TikTok survives”.

    ‘Smoothing out the edges’

    Currently, TikTok’s system depends on huge amounts of global data and feedback loops, which can change recommendations in an instant.

    Under the terms of the deal TikTok’s algorithm, which will be licensed by investor Oracle, is set to be retrained on American user data.

    Mr Navarra said this could leave the app feeling “safer and sturdier” but also leaving it at a risk of “becoming less culturally essential” as a result.

    “TikTok’s power has always come from feeling slightly out of control – weird, niche, uncomfortable, sometimes politically sharp content for anyone else or before it goes anywhere else,” he said.

    “If you start smoothing those edges, you don’t just change moderation. I think you change its relevance.”

    Matching ByteDance’s algorithm

    Whether the US version will differ from the TikTok so many know and use already may also depend on if it gets “all the new features, security updates and platform improvements” as soon as the international version does, tech journalist Will Guyatt told the BBC.

    And computing expert Kokil Jaidka from the National University of Singapore said she expected the things that make the platform popular – such as its short videos and shopping – are likely to “stay intact” as these features are not dependent on the algorithm.

    She said the changes might be more subtle and gradual, depending on if the narrower data inputs of the “siloed” US version can match the app’s global reach.

    “If TikTok is operating with a licensed or partially diluted version of its recommendation algorithm, some of the system’s blind spots may start to matter more,” she said.

    For users, she said this means in practice the US algorithm may “lag in personalisation” and take longer to adapt to viral content.

    To experiment or behave?

    Oracle is TikTok’s longtime cloud computing partner in the United States, and is chaired by Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump.

    Another foreign entity, MGX – an Abu-Dhabi government investment fund – will join it along with private equity firm Silver Lake as the main incoming investors.

    Pressure from these investors may also add to the US app feeling “blander” said Mr Navarra.

    “I think the real test won’t be whether the users leave,” he said.

    “It will be whether TikTok still feels the place the internet goes to experiment – or if it becomes the place it goes to behave.”

    Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins.

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  • Copper ticks higher as supply tightness in focus, heads for weekly gain By Reuters – Investing.com

    1. Copper ticks higher as supply tightness in focus, heads for weekly gain By Reuters  Investing.com
    2. Copper nears record high as supply tightness back in focus  Business Recorder
    3. Copper’s next shortage is structural, not hype: analyst  Mining.com
    4. Nickel Extends Rebound After Indonesia Signals Mine Output Cut  Bloomberg.com
    5. Copper Staging a Comeback in 2026: 3 Stocks to Buy  Nasdaq

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  • Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud Forge Landmark Agreement to Help Customers Securely Accelerate Cloud and AI Initiatives

    Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud Forge Landmark Agreement to Help Customers Securely Accelerate Cloud and AI Initiatives

    SANTA CLARA and SUNNYVALE, Calif., Dec. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — As enterprises race to harness the transformative power of agentic AI and cloud computing, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) and Google Cloud today announced a significant expansion of their strategic partnership to enable the secure development and deployment of AI solutions and provide a trusted foundation that helps organizations harness the full potential of AI with confidence. The collaboration combines Google Cloud’s leading AI and infrastructure capabilities with Prisma® AIRS, Palo Alto Networks comprehensive AI security platform, to secure the next generation of digital business.

    Palo Alto Networks recent State of Cloud Report, released in December 2025, found that customers are dramatically expanding their use of cloud infrastructure to support new AI applications and services, while also noting that 99% of respondents experienced at least one attack on their AI infrastructure over the last year. The agreement announced today aims to tackle these issues head-on through an enhanced go-to-market strategy and by building security into every layer of hybrid multicloud infrastructure, every application development stage and every endpoint, allowing businesses to innovate with the most advanced AI while protecting their IP and data in the cloud.

    This new phase of the partnership will deliver:

    • End-to-end AI security from code to cloud: Customers will be able to protect live AI workloads and data on Google Cloud — including on Vertex AI and Agent Engine — with Palo Alto Networks Prisma AIRS. And by securing key developer tools like the Agent Development Kit (ADK) with Prisma AIRS, this expanded collaboration ensures a secure foundation for the next generation of AI applications built on Google Cloud — including AI Posture Management for visibility, AI Runtime Security for real-time defense, AI Agent Security for autonomous systems, AI Red Teaming for proactive testing and AI Model Security for vulnerability scanning.
    • AI-driven, next-generation software firewall (SWFW): Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls are designed to secure cloud (public, private, hybrid) and virtualized environments by providing deep packet inspection and Threat Prevention in a software form factor. Deep integrations with Google Cloud will now allow customers to maintain robust security policies and accelerate Google Cloud adoption.
    • AI-driven secure access service edge (SASE) platform: Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE is a cloud platform that secures access and networking for remote users, branch offices and mobile devices, along with deeper integration of security solutions into Google Cloud’s native AI services. Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access runs on Google’s network, improving the user experience as users access cloud and AI applications that run on Google Cloud while also leveraging Google Cloud Interconnect to help customers connect their WAN infrastructure across multiple clouds/applications and maintain consistent security policies.
    • Simplified and unified security experience: The deep alignment between the two companies ensures that customer solutions are pre-vetted and engineered to work together, removing the integration challenges and operational friction that can slow down security teams. This allows customers to deploy protection faster, simplify compliance and gain a single, comprehensive view of security across their entire hybrid multicloud environment.

    BJ Jenkins, President, Palo Alto Networks 

    “Every board is asking how to harness AI’s power without exposing the business to new threats. This partnership answers that question. We’re removing the friction between security and development, providing a unified platform where the most advanced security is simply a native part of building what’s next. Together with Google, we are embedding our AI-powered security deep into the Google Cloud fabric, turning the platform itself into a proactive defense system.”

    Matt Renner, President and Chief Revenue Officer, Google Cloud 

    “Enterprises are increasingly turning to Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks to secure their applications and data — together and in a seamless way. This latest expansion of our partnership will ensure that our joint customers have access to the right solutions to secure their most critical AI infrastructure and develop new AI agents with security built in from the start.”

    Building on a history of success that includes more than 75 joint integrations and $2 billion in sales through the Google Cloud Marketplace, Palo Alto Networks is also expanding its commitment to run its security platforms on Google Cloud’s secure, trusted AI infrastructure by migrating key internal workloads to Google Cloud in a new multibillion-dollar agreement. In addition, Palo Alto Networks is now using Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform and Gemini LLMs to power its copilots. Collectively, these initiatives deepen the engineering collaboration and ensure customers who run Palo Alto Networks on Google Cloud benefit from solutions that are natively optimized for performance, scale and reliability.

    Learn more about Palo Alto Networks and Google Cloud here.

    About Palo Alto Networks

    As the global AI and cybersecurity leader, Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ: PANW) is dedicated to protecting our digital way of life via continuous innovation. Trusted by more than 70,000 organizations worldwide, we provide comprehensive AI-powered security solutions across network, cloud, security operations and AI, enhanced by the expertise and threat intelligence of Unit 42®. Our focus on platformization allows enterprises to streamline security at scale, ensuring protection fuels innovation. Explore more at www.paloaltonetworks.com.

    Palo Alto Networks, Prisma, Prisma AIRS, and the Palo Alto Networks logo are trademarks of Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other trademarks, trade names, or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

    About Google Cloud 

    Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner.

     

    Cision View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/palo-alto-networks-and-google-cloud-forge-landmark-agreement-to-help-customers-securely-accelerate-cloud-and-ai-initiatives-302646754.html

    SOURCE Palo Alto Networks, Inc.

    Taryn Dawson, Palo Alto Networks, tdawson@paloaltonetworks.com; Ryan Styrk, Google Cloud, styrk@google.com

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  • Vertex Pharmaceuticals | Our Science

    Vertex Pharmaceuticals | Our Science

    At Vertex, we are committed to discovering and developing new medicines that can have a transformative impact on patients’ lives. Fundamentally, we’re a disease-first company: We select diseases in which we understand and believe we can address causal human biology, with validated targets, and then we choose the best tool (or tools) for the job.  

    Learn about the serious diseases in our pipeline, including sickle cell disease, pain and kidney diseases, and how we aim to address them by watching our animated videos.

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  • Copper Prices Near Peaks While Metals Markets Shift

    Copper Prices Near Peaks While Metals Markets Shift

    egic moves in other metals are shaking up markets too: nickel bounced after Indonesia announced possible big output cuts, aluminium spiked to its highest since May 2022 after South32 said it would close its Mozal smelter, tin soared to a two-year high, while zinc and lead moved only slightly.

    Why should I care?

    For markets: Metals rally faces new headwinds.

    Copper’s rapid rise has set it apart in the commodities world, rewarding investors riding growing demand and constrained supply. But a strong US dollar and a fresh wave of mining activity could start to put a ceiling on those gains. Meanwhile, the market’s staying jumpy as nickel and aluminium prices react to shifting production plans, hinting at more volatility ahead for metals as a whole.

    The bigger picture: Resource powerhouses hold sway over industry.

    Copper’s record highs—and moves in tin and aluminium—are squeezing manufacturers worldwide, especially those in technology and clean energy. China is already scaling up aluminium production to safeguard its industries, while Indonesia’s influence on nickel supply is reshaping global pricing. These shifts show just how much the clean energy transition and supply chain shocks are rewriting the rules for critical resources.

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  • FCA stops Verus Financial Services Limited from carrying out regulated activities and tightens asset restrictions

    The action follows concerns that the firm has repeatedly breached an existing asset restriction, which prevented it from selling, transferring or diminishing its assets without our approval. It also failed to comply with a Financial Ombudsman Service decision. Following a review of the firm’s representations, we issued a First Supervisory Notice (PDF) on 27 October 2025, which outlines further details about our concerns and the basis for imposing the restrictions:

    • Asset restriction breach – the firm has, by its own admission, repeatedly and deliberately breached an asset restriction the firm agreed to on 7 September 2023.
    • Unpaid Financial Ombudsman Award – the firm has failed to comply with a decision by the Financial Ombudsman made against the firm and in favour of a customer contrary to DISP 3.7.12.1R, and Principle 6 (Customer’s interest).
    • Uncooperative – the firm has not been open and cooperative with us.

    The firm must not conduct regulated activity and can no longer act as an independent financial adviser or provide financial advice. Customers should seek to find a new financial adviser – there is information on finding an adviser on the MoneyHelper website. There is no direct correlation between the restrictions imposed on the firm and the performance of underlying investments arranged by the firm.

    The FCA has also issued a consumer warning about a connected unauthorised firm, Verus Estates Limited.

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  • BioMarin to Acquire Amicus Therapeutics for $4.8 Billion, Expanding Position as a Leader in Rare Diseases, Accelerating Revenue Growth and Strengthening Financial Outlook – BioMarin Pharmaceutical

    1. BioMarin to Acquire Amicus Therapeutics for $4.8 Billion, Expanding Position as a Leader in Rare Diseases, Accelerating Revenue Growth and Strengthening Financial Outlook  BioMarin Pharmaceutical
    2. BioMarin to acquire Amicus Therapeutics for $4.8 billion  Investing.com India
    3. BioMarin Pharmaceutical : Business Update  marketscreener.com

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  • Indian Rupee soars past 90 per dollar as central bank reprises heavy-handed defence – Business Recorder

    1. Indian Rupee soars past 90 per dollar as central bank reprises heavy-handed defence  Business Recorder
    2. Like a fiddle: rupee  The Express Tribune
    3. Indian central bank intervened heavily to shore up rupee, traders say  Business Recorder
    4. Graphic of the day: Rupee’s Fastest Fall  Forbes India
    5. INDIA RUPEE-Soft US inflation adds to RBI support in tentative rupee recovery  marketscreener.com

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