HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) is one of the AI Stocks In The Spotlight For Investors. On August 14, the company announced the launch of new gaming desktops, headsets and microphones at its Level Reforge event in Los Angeles.
The company introduced its OMEN MAX 45L Gaming Desktop, designed for gamers that desire elite performance, complete control, and effortless upgradability. The desktop has been designed to stay cool under-pressure, maximize air flow, power, and control.
HP also introduced the OMEN 35L Gaming Desktops for gamers, including a Stealth Edition model that serves as the official PC for League of Legends Esports and the VALORANT Champions Tour.
HP Inc. (HPQ) Launches New Gaming Desktops, Headsets & Mics at Level Reforge LA
A gaming enthusiast in front of a widescreen monitor, lost in the game.
Meanwhile, the OMEN AI, its intelligence gaming optimization feature, has expanded its capabilities and now supports top titles like Valorant, League of Legends, Apex Legends, and Fortnite.
The HyperX gaming peripheral lineup includes the Cloud Alpha 2 Wireless headset offers 2x longer battery life than competitors’ gaming headsets and simultaneous wireless connections.
Finally, the HyperX FlipCast is a microphone with both USB and XLR connectivity options.
“Gamers expect more than just raw power. They want gear that aligns with how they play. From AI-enhanced performance to our most powerful OMEN desktops and personalized HyperX gear, this lineup is designed to deliver at every level, including the highest tiers of competitive play.” – Josephine Tan, Senior Vice President and Division President of Personal Systems Gaming Solutions, HP Inc.
While we acknowledge the potential of HPQ as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you’re looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock.
READ NEXT: 10 AI Stocks Analysts Are Watching Closely and 10 Trending AI Stocks in Focus This Week.
Monique Labarre is part of the Battle Buddies, a group of army vets who show support for Afghan refugees at immigration hearings
As a journalist in Afghanistan, Abdul says he helped promote American values like democracy and freedom. That work, he said, resulted in him being tortured by the Taliban after the US withdrew from the country in 2021.
Now he’s in California applying for political asylum, amid the looming threat of deportation.
“We trusted those values,” he said. “We came here for safety, and we don’t have it, unfortunately.”
But when Abdul walked into a San Diego court to plead his case, he wasn’t alone.
Ten veterans showed up for his hearing – unarmed, but dressed in hats and shirts to signify their military credentials as a “show of force”, said Shawn VanDiver, a US Navy vet who founded ‘Battle Buddies’ to support Afghan refugees facing deportation.
“Masked agents of the federal government are snatching up our friends, people who took life in our name and have done nothing wrong,” he said.
Approximately 200,000 Afghans relocated to the US after Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021, as the US left the country in chaos after two decades fighting the war on terror.
Many say they quickly felt embraced by Americans, who recognised the sacrifices they had made to help the US military and fight for human rights.
But since the Trump administration has terminated many of the programmes which protected them from deportation, Afghans now fear they will be deported and returned to their home country, which is now controlled by the Taliban.
Mr VanDiver, who also founded #AfghanEvac in 2021 to help allies escape the Taliban when the US withdrew, said US military veterans owe it to their wartime allies to try and protect them from being swept up in President Trump’s immigration raids.
“This is wrong.”
The Battle Buddies say they have a moral and legal obligation to stand and support Afghans. They now have more than 900 veteran volunteers across the country.
Many of the federal agents working for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are veterans themselves, he said, and the Battle Buddies think their presence alone might help deter agents from detaining a wartime ally.
“Remember, don’t fight ICE,” Mr VanDiver told his fellow Battle Buddies outside court before Abdul’s hearing, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE.
“If somebody does fight ICE, capture it on video. Those are the two rules.”
As Abdul and his lawyer went into court, the veterans stood in the corridor outside in a quiet and tense faceoff with half a dozen masked federal agents. It was the same hallway where an Afghan man, Sayed Naser, a translator who says he worked for the US military, was detained 12 June.
“This individual was an important part of our Company commitment to provide the best possible service for our clients, who were the United States Military in Afghanistan,” says one employment document submitted as part of Naser’s asylum application and reviewed by the BBC’s news partner in the US, CBS News.
“I have all the documents,” Mr Naser told the agents as he was handcuffed and taken away, which a bystander captured on video. “I worked with the US military. Just tell them.”
Mr Naser has been in detention since that day, fighting for political asylum from behind bars.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the BBC that there is nothing in his immigration records “indicating that he assisted the US government in any capacity”.
Whichever way Mr Naser’s case is decided, his detention is what inspired veterans to form the Battle Buddies. They say abandoning their wartime allies will hurt US national security because the US will struggle to recruit allies in the future.
“It’s short sighted to think we can do this and not lose our credibility,” said Monique Labarre, a US Army veteran who showed up for Abdul’s hearing. “These people are vetted. They put themselves at substantial risk by supporting the US government.”
EPA
Afghans attempting to flee the country in August 2021 gathered outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul
President Trump has repeatedly blamed President Biden for a “disgraceful” and “humiliating” retreat from the country.
But the US’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was initially brokered by President Trump during his first term.
In their wake, American troops left behind a power vacuum that was swiftly and easily filled by the Taliban, who took control of the capital city, Kabul, in August 2021. Afghans, many who worked with the US military and NGOs, frantically swarmed the airport, desperate to get on flights along with thousands of US citizens.
Over the ensuing years, almost 200,000 Afghans would relocate to the US – some under special programmes designed for those most at risk of Taliban retribution.
The Trump administration has since ended this programme, called Operation Enduring Welcome. It also ended the temporary protections which shielded some Afghans, as well as asylum seekers from several other countries, from deportation because of security concerns back home.
“Afghanistan has had an improved security situation, and its stabilising economy no longer prevent them from returning to their home country,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement about terminating Temporary Protected Status for Afghans.
She added that some Afghans brought in under these programmes “have been under investigation for fraud and threatening our public safety and national security”.
Afghans in the United States scoff at the suggestion that they’d be safe going back, saying their lives would be in danger.
“I couldn’t work,” said Sofia, an Afghan woman living in Virginia. “My daughters couldn’t go to school.”
With the removal of temporary protected status, the Trump administration could deport people back to Afghanistan. Although that is so far rare, some Afghans have already begun to be deported to third countries, including Panama and Costa Rica.
Sofia and other members of her family were among the thousands of Afghans who received emails in April from the Department of Homeland Security saying: “It is time for you to leave the United States.”
The email, which was sent to people with a variety of different kinds of visas, said their parole would expire in 7 days.
Sofia panicked. Where would she go? She did not leave the United States, and her asylum case is still pending. But the letter sent shockwaves of fear throughout the Afghan community.
When asked about protecting Afghan wartime allies on 30 July, President Trump said: “We know the good ones and we know the ones that maybe aren’t so good, you know some came over that aren’t so good. And we’re going to take care of those people – the ones that did a job.”
Advocates have urged the Trump administration to restore temporary protected status for Afghans, saying women and children could face particular harm under the Taliban-led government.
Advocates are hopeful that Naser will soon be released. They say he passed a “credible fear” screening while in detention, which can allow him to pursue political asylum because he fears persecution or torture if returned to Afghanistan.
The Battle Buddies say they plan to keep showing up for wartime allies at court. It’s not clear if their presence made a difference at Abdul’s hearing – but he wasn’t detained and is now a step closer to the political asylum he says he was promised.
“It’s a relief,” he said outside court while thanking the US veterans for standing with him. But he said he still fears being detained by ICE, and he worries that the US values he believed in, and was tortured for, might be eroded.
“In Afghanistan, we were scared of the Taliban,” he said. “We have the same feeling here from ICE detention.”
A TV advert for Sanex shower gel which showed black skin as cracked and white skin as smooth has been banned for reinforcing a racial stereotype.
The ad shows two models with dark skin – one has itchy skin and the other has dry skin – followed by a white woman with no skin problems.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld two complaints which said the depiction of dark skin as dry, cracked and itchy “could be interpreted as suggesting that white skin was superior to black skin”.
Colgate-Palmolive, which owns Sanex, said it used models with different skin colours as part of its commitment to diversity.
The brand said it made products for all skin types and the use of different models was to show a “before and after” scenario, not to compare different skin colours or ethnicities.
The ad, which was broadcast on TV in June, shows a model with dark skin scratching their body, making bright orange, paint-like stripes with their fingertips.
A voiceover says: “To those who might scratch day and night”.
Another dark-skinned model is then seen covered in cracked, clay-like material, and the voiceover continues “to those whose skin will feel dried out even by water”.
A white model is seen showering with water and foam moving over her skin which has no visible problems or graphics to suggest any.
The voiceover says: “Try to take a shower with the new Sanex skin therapy and its patented amino acid complex. For 24-hour hydration feel.”
The tagline for the ad was: “Relief could be as simple as a shower.”
The ASA ruled the ad breached its broadcast code and banned it from being shown again in the same format.
“The white skin, depicted as smoother and clean after using the product, was shown successfully changed and resolved,” the ruling said.
“We considered that could be interpreted as suggesting that white skin was superior to black skin.”
The ASA said it accepted that this message was not intentional but warned Colgate-Palmolive to “ensure they avoided causing serious offence on the grounds of race” in future.
Clearcast, which approves or rejects ads for broadcast on television, said the advert did not perpetuate negative racial stereotypes.
One model with darker skin was depicted in a “stylised and unrealistic way” to demonstrate dryness, but their skin tone was otherwise not a focal point, the agency said.
A second model, also with darker skin, was shown with itchy skin, but this was portrayed through scratching visibly healthy skin and the resulting marks, and was therefore more about sensation than any visible skin condition, it added.
Sanex told BBC News: “We take note of the ASA Council’s ruling. Our advert was intended to highlight how our Skin Therapy range supports healthy skin across a variety of skin types.
“At Sanex, our mission is to champion skin health for all, which is portrayed across our brand communications.”
Alien: Earth seems to have hit the ground running with the premiere episode raking in 9.2M views globally across FX, Hulu and Disney+ in its first six days, Disney revealed Tuesday.
This seems to be a very strong premiere outing for Noah Hawley‘s continuation of the iconic Alien franchise. However, it is not often that Disney reports viewership on its titles, particularly those at FX, making direct comparisons quite difficult. Like Netflix, Disney measures views as hours watched divided by the title’s runtime.
For context, some of the more recent performances that Disney has touted include the first episode of Agatha All Along‘s 9.3M views in the first seven days of availability. The Acolyte hit 11.1M views in five days, and Zombies 4 reached 9.3M views in 10 days.
Last year, the company said that the Season 3 premiere of The Bear amassed 5.4M views in its first four days. FX did not release any numbers for the Season 4 premiere.
Things are made even trickier by the fact that Alien: Earth is also airing on FX’s linear channel. The titles listed above were streaming-only, which would likely impact viewership, though typically most of the television audience comes from streaming regardless nowadays.
If FX reports further viewership numbers as the season progresses, that will help orient the premiere audience, as will Nielsen’s streaming data once it’s released for Alien: Earth‘s debut week in about a month.
When the mysterious deep space research vessel USCSS Maginot crash-lands on Earth, “Wendy” (Sydney Chandler) and a ragtag group of tactical soldiers make a fateful discovery that puts them face-to-face with the planet’s greatest threat in FX’s Alien: Earth.
In the year 2120, the Earth is governed by five corporations: Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, and Threshold. In this Corporate Era, cyborgs (humans with both biological and artificial parts) and synthetics (humanoid robots with artificial intelligence) exist alongside humans. But the game is changed when the wunderkind Founder and CEO of Prodigy Corporation unlocks a new technological advancement: hybrids (humanoid robots infused with human consciousness).
The first hybrid prototype, named Wendy (Chandler), marks a new dawn in the race for immortality. After Weyland-Yutani’s spaceship collides with Prodigy City, Wendy and the other hybrids encounter mysterious life forms more terrifying than anyone could have ever imagined.
Episode 3debuts Tuesday night, following the team as they return home with unexpected cargo. An unsettling experiment occurs, and a new talent is discovered. The episode is written by Noah Hawley and Bob DeLaurentis and is directed by Dana Gonzales.
Future episodes of the eight-episode season will premiere on Tuesdays on Hulu and Disney+ beginning at 8 p.m. ET and on FX at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Earl Sweatshirt has announced the release date for his upcoming sixth album Live LaughLove and revealed the cover art and track list.
Earl took to Instagram to post a snippet along with the release date, album art and a LeBron James meme of the NBA legend smiling through it all in disbelief of the life he’s currently living, which may explain the album title as Earl and his wife, comedian and actress Aida Osman, have recently welcomed a baby girl into their lives.
Osman posted maternity pics the couple took on her Instagram to coincide with the album announcement and included the caption that reads: “We never made it to a studio to take maternity photos but right before I got induced Thebe suggested we do self-timer in the backyard. It’s always perfect because it’s ours! Live Laugh Love everyone.”
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The track list doesn’t have any features, but it does include a footnote acknowledging the producers: Theravada, Navy Blue, Black Noi$e, Child Actor and Earl himself.
Last week, according to Complex, the West Coast rapper held a listening party where he didn’t attend, but trotted out an imposter to perform some of his songs and those in attendance were given zines that included a long list of contributors that included names like actor Steven Yeun, singer Liv.e, his mother Cheryl Harris, The Alchemist, Sage Elsesser aka Navy Blue, BKTHERULA, Dave Chappelle, Donald Glover, Vince Staples, director Hiro Murai and his wife.
The last project Earl released was The Alchemist-produced Voir Dire in 2023.
Check out the track list and the release date below.
“gsw vs sac” “FORGE” “INFATUATION” “Gamma (need the <3)” “WELL DONE!” “Live” “Static” “CRISCO” “TOURMALINE” “Heavy Metal aka ejecto seato!” “exhaust”
Among the biggest concerns of parents whose kids own a smartphone must surely be the knowledge that there’s a whole bunch of nude content out there on the internet for them to stumble across. Likely more worrying still is the thought that their precious offspring may be tempted to make such content themselves.
Finnish phone-maker HMD has been on a mission for the past few years to make phone ownership a safer prospect for children via its Better Phones Project — and it might have come up with a solution to calm the nerves of concerned parents.
On Wednesday, the company unveiled the HMD Fuse phone, which comes with built-in AI-powered technology to prevent children from filming and sending nude content, as well as from seeing and saving sexual images — even from within a livestream.
“This is more than a product,” said James Robinson, vice president of HMD Family. “It’s a safety net, a statement of intent and a response.”
The AI (called HarmBlock Plus) was created by cybersecurity SafeToNet and is embedded into the phone (including the camera), which, according to HMD, makes it impossible to bypass. It’s apparently been ethically trained on 22 million harmful nude images and works offline.
“HarmBlock Plus can’t be removed, tricked, or worked around,” said SafeToNet founder Richard Pursey. “It doesn’t collect personal data. It just protects every time, across every app, including VPNs, with zero loopholes.”
Parental controls, similar to those available on the Fusion X1, which HMD introduced at MWC in March, will also allow for supervision and management of a child’s phone use. This can be scaled back as a kid grows older and requires more independence.
The phone is launching exclusively on Vodafone in the UK, where the recent introduction of the Online Safety Act means strict age verification rules are now required to prevent minors from accessing harmful content online.
It will cost £33 per month, with a £30 up-front fee and is set to launch in other countries in the coming months, starting with Australia. There’s no indication the Fuse will be headed to the US, where the company has, in the past few months, scaled back its operations.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
An advert for Sanex shower gel, owned by Colgate-Palmolive, has been banned after the UK’s advertising watchdog found it perpetuated racial stereotypes.
The television advert, which showed scenes of a black woman with irritated, dry skin, followed by scenes of a white woman with smooth skin, “could be interpreted as suggesting that white skin was superior to black skin”, according to the Advertising Standards Authority.
The watchdog told the company to withdraw the ad after concluding that it was in breach of rules banning harmful or offensive advertising.
In its response to the assessment that the advert “included a racial stereotype and was therefore likely to cause serious offence,” Colgate-Palmolive told the ASA it had employed a “before and after” scenario to show their product was suitable for everyone, not to make a comparison based on ethnicity.
The US consumer goods group added that as part of its commitment to diversity, it had chosen to feature models with different skin tones and ethnicities, the ASA said.
The watchdog said that while it understood that such a message was “not the one intended,” it had concluded that the ad “was likely to reinforce the negative and offensive racial stereotype that black skin was problematic and that white skin was superior”.
Colgate-Palmolive, which also makes consumer goods like cleaning brand Ajax, Colgate toothpaste and Speed Stick deodorant, has had several adverts banned by the ASA over the past decade.
In 2018 it pulled a toothpaste ad the UK watchdog deemed misleading for claiming that a Colgate product could “instantly” repair teeth. Another Sanex advert that appeared in 2015 was also banned for making misleading claims about the product’s moisturising capabilities, after competitors Beiersdorf and Unilever lodged complaints.
Colgate-Palmolive did not respond to a request for comment.
The group is among a number of companies recently forced to pull adverts following complaints that they perpetuated racial stereotypes.
Swiss watchmaker Swatch last week removed an advert in which a model was pulling his eyes into a slanting gesture, after Chinese social media users denounced the image as racist, prompting a drop in its share price.
In a statement posted on Instagram on August 16, Swatch apologised for “any distress or misunderstanding” caused by the ad, which it said had been immediately removed, along with all related materials.
Meanwhile last year, US packaged food giant Kraft Heinz apologised for a billboard in London depicting a newly married couple after it was criticised online for promoting stereotypes about black fathers. Kraft Heinz said at the time it would “continue to listen, learn and improve to avoid this happening again”.
In an interview with Targeted Oncology, Jason Luke, MD, FACP, associate director for clinical research at the Hillman Cancer Center at the University of Pittsburgh, discusses the phase 1 study assessing IMA203, an autologous TCR-T (T-cell receptor-engineered T-cell) therapy, in patients with relapsed unresected or metastatic melanoma.
IMA203 demonstrated an overall favorable tolerability profile. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were chemotherapy-related cytopenias (100% of patients), which are expected due to the lymphodepletion. Mild to moderate cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was observed in 83% (grade 1–2) and 11% (grade 3) of patients. Infrequent cases of immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS) were reported (6% grade 1, 4% grade 2, 4% grade 3). Importantly, no grade 5 events were observed.
Objective responses were observed in several solid tumor types, including melanoma, ovarian cancer, and synovial sarcoma. In heavily pretreated patients with melanoma (median 2 prior systemic therapies) at the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D), the confirmed objective response rate (cORR) was 54% (n = 14/26), with tumor shrinkage observed in 88% (n = 23/26). The median duration of response (DOR) was 12.1 months, with 7 of 14 confirmed responses still ongoing for over 2 years. The median -progression-free survival (PFS) was 6 months, and the median overall survival (OS) was not reached at 8.6 months of median follow-up. Higher doses of IMA203 were associated with a higher rate of confirmed responses, and higher concentrations of IMA203 TCR-T cells in the periphery correlated with improved clinical efficacy.
Successful trafficking of IMA203 cells to various organs was observed. This was evidenced by their ability to shrink metastatic tumor lesions in a wide range of locations, including the lung, liver, pleura, peritoneum, skin, lymph nodes, adrenal gland, bladder, kidney, spleen, and muscle.
Given its promising risk/benefit profile and the high prevalence of PRAME in melanoma, a registration-directed phase 3 trial, named SUPRAME (NCT06743126), is currently underway. This trial will further evaluate the efficacy of IMA203 in patients with previously treated (second-line) advanced cutaneous melanoma, aiming for potential regulatory approval.
REFERENCE:
Wermke M, Alsdorf W, Araujo DJM, et al. Phase 1 clinical update of IMA203, an autologous TCR-T targeting PRAME in patients with PD1 refractory metastatic melanoma. J Clin Oncol. Volume 43, Number 16_suppl. doi:1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.250
