The case was jointly filed by the Justice Department, 16 States, and the District of Columbia, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

This isn’t something out of the blue, as we have previously reported, the U.S. Department of Justice has been preparing an antitrust case against the Electronics giant over the past few months. It had held discussions with the company before finalizing the lawsuit.

Apple ran into legal trouble at the end of 2023, when the U.S. International Trade Commission banned the company from importing and selling the Apple Watch Series 9 and Ultra 2 in the U.S. The Commission found Apple guilty of violating patents related to the SpO2 sensor (pulse oximeter), which belonged to Masimo. The ban however was short-lived, as Apple was allowed to sell the wearables once again, with a catch, it had to disable the SpO2 sensor’s functionality, so you couldn’t use it to measure blood oxygen levels, even though the hardware for the feature existed.

The tech mogul’s troubles were just beginning, as it had to open up the iOS ecosystem to third-party app marketplaces in the European Union region. However, the company’s compliance with the Digital Markets Act has come under scrutiny due to several limitations that it has imposed for app developers, and third-party app stores.

US Justice Department sues Apple in antitrust case

Now, the US Govt has claimed that Apple has selectively imposed restrictions that prevent users from switching from its devices. It also says that there are limitations for the functionality of third-party apps, which gives Apple’s own apps an unfair advantage over the competition. The complaint alleges that Apple has undermined messaging across operating systems by excluding its own apps from rival platforms, and that this makes it less secure and less innovative for users.

This is seen as one of the reasons that the company has made it hard for users to leave iPhone, as many iOS apps are not available on Android. The lawsuit alleges that Apple is in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, and users its monopoly power to extract high prices from consumers, developers, etc.

The antitrust case also points out that Apple blocks cloud-streaming apps that allow users to stream apps and games. To be fair to Apple, it did open up the market recently to allow cloud-gaming platforms, so services like Xbox’s Game Pass Ultimate and Nvidia’s GeForce Now can be used on iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s failure to provide tap-to-pay (Apple Pay) functionality for third-party digital wallets is also being scrutinized. The lawsuit points out that Apple’s restrictions also affect web browsers, video communication, location services, advertising and other services.

Another argument made by the Justice department targets Apple’s restrictions for third-party smartwatches. Apple does not allow other OEMs to access the APIs required for a watch to read/write fitness data like the Apple Watch can, third-parties have limited access to the data. This is an unfair restriction that stifles the competition.

The company has reportedly claimed that it tried to make the Apple Watch compatible with Android phones, but failed to find a way to do so. I don’t buy this argument. Apple has an Android app for Apple Music, which as you know is a subscription-based service. It shows that the company can, and will provide an app for Android devices, if there is an incentive for it. So, why didn’t Apple create Android apps for Apple Watch and Health? Well, you could argue that if it had done so, Android users would buy the wearable, but they won’t buy an iPhone. By keeping the Watch exclusively compatible with iPhones, it has created an artificial market for the wearable and the iPhone, which is a monopoly.

Source: ghacks

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“Today, the Commission has opened non-compliance investigations under the Digital Markets Act (DMA) into Alphabet’s rules on steering in Google Play and self-preferencing on Google Search, Apple’s rules on steering in the App Store and the choice screen for Safari and Meta’s ‘pay or consent model,’” the European Commission said in a statement.

The first two probes focus on Alphabet and Apple and relate to so-called anti-steering rules. Under the DMA, tech firms are not allowed to block businesses from telling their users about cheaper options for their products or about subscriptions outside of an app store.

“The way that Apple and Alphabet’s implemented the DMA rules on anti-steering seems to be at odds with the letter of the law. Apple and Alphabet will still charge various recurring fees, and still limit steering,” the E.U.’s competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, said Monday at a news conference.

Apple has already fallen foul of the E.U.’s rules. This month, the company was fined 1.8 billion euros ($1.95 billion) after the European Commission said it found that Apple had applied restrictions on app developers that prevented them from informing iOS users about alternative and cheaper music subscription services available outside of the app.

In a third inquiry, the commission said it is investigating whether Apple has complied with its DMA obligations to ensure that users can easily uninstall apps on iOS and change default settings. The probe also focuses on whether Apple is actively prompting users with choices to allow them to change default services on iOS, such as for the web browser or search engine.

The commission said that it is “concerned that Apple’s measures, including the design of the web browser choice screen, may be preventing users from truly exercising their choice of services within the Apple ecosystem.”

Apple said it believes it is in compliance with the DMA.

“We’re confident our plan complies with the DMA, and we’ll continue to constructively engage with the European Commission as they conduct their investigations. Teams across Apple have created a wide range of new developer capabilities, features, and tools to comply with the regulation,” an Apple spokesperson told CNBC on Monday.

The fourth probe targets Alphabet, as the European Commission looks into whether the firm’s display of Google search results “may lead to self-preferencing in relation to Google’s,” other services such as Google Shopping, over similar rival offerings.

“To comply with the Digital Markets Act, we have made significant changes to the way our services operate in Europe,” Oliver Bethell, director of competition at Alphabet, said in a statement.

“We have engaged with the European Commission, stakeholders and third parties in dozens of events over the past year to receive and respond to feedback, and to balance conflicting needs within the ecosystem. We will continue to defend our approach in the coming months.”

Alphabet pointed to a blog post from earlier this month, wherein the company outlined some of those changes — including giving Android phone users the option to easily change their default search engine and browser, as well as making it easier for people to see comparison sites in areas like shopping or flights in Google searches.

Meta investigation

The fifth and final investigation focuses on Meta and its so-called pay and consent model. Last year, Meta introduced an ad-free subscription model for Facebook and Instagram in Europe. The commission is looking into whether offering the subscription model without ads or making users consent to terms and conditions for the free service is in violation of the DMA.

“The Commission is concerned that the binary choice imposed by Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model may not provide a real alternative in case users do not consent, thereby not achieving the objective of preventing the accumulation of personal data by gatekeepers.”

Thierry Breton, the E.U.’s internal market commissioner, said during the news conference that there should be “free alternative options” offered by Meta for its services that are “less personalized.”

“Gatekeepers” is a label for large tech firms that are required to comply with the DMA in the E.U.

“We will continue to use all available tools, should any gatekeeper try to circumvent or undermine the obligations of the DMA,” Vestager said.

Meta said subscriptions are a common business model across various industries.

“Subscriptions as an alternative to advertising are a well-established business model across many industries, and we designed Subscription for No Ads to address several overlapping regulatory obligations, including the DMA. We will continue to engage constructively with the Commission,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC on Monday.

Tech giants at risk of fines

The commission said it intends to conclude its probes within 12 months, but Vestager and Breton during the Monday briefing stressed that the DMA does not dictate a hard deadline for the timeline of the inquiry. The regulators will inform the companies of their preliminary findings and explain measures they are taking or the gatekeepers should take in order to address the commission’s concerns.

If any company is found to have infringed the DMA, the commission can impose fines of up to 10% of the tech firms’ total worldwide turnover. These penalties can increase to 20% in case of repeated infringement.

The commission said it is also looking for facts and information to clarify whether Amazon may be preferencing its own brand products on its e-commerce platform over rivals. The commission is further studying Apple’s new fee structure and other terms and conditions for alternative app stores.

This month, the tech giant announced that users in the E.U. would be able to download apps from websites rather than through its proprietary App Store — a change that Apple has resisted for years.

The E.U.’s research into Apple and Amazon does not comprise official investigations.

Source: NBC News

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Phillip Lipscy (Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan), opened the event by welcoming attendees and delivering a land acknowledgment. This was followed by further opening remarks by Meric Gertler (President of the University of Toronto), Madeline Koch (Executive Director of the G7 Research Group), and Phillip Lipscy. 

A keynote address was delivered by Japanese Ambassador to Canada, H.E. Yamanouchi Kanji, who noted the critical role University of Toronto had played 35 years earlier as host of the 1988 G7 meeting in Canada. He observed how much the world had changed between the previous G7 meeting hosted by Japan in 2016 and 2023, including major developments such as the war in Ukraine, COVID-19, rapid technological advancement in areas like artificial intelligence, and the adoption of net-zero commitments by major countries. He argued that the single most important objective of the Hiroshima G7 Summit would be to express solidarity behind the significance of the free and open international order based upon the rule of law. It would also be critical to reach out to countries of the global south and enlist their support. He noted that the location of the summit in Hiroshima would be important in sending a message about aspirations toward nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. He also highlighted the deepening cooperation between Canada and Japan to address global challenges, as reflected in the Canadian Indo-Pacific Strategy and Japan’s National Security Strategy as well as various bilateral initiatives to strengthen collaboration. He closed by expressing hope that universities will continue to foster innovative solutions to global problems through research, communication, and education.

David Morrison, Canadian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and G7 Sherpa, followed up the Ambassador’s remarks by offering a Canadian perspective. He noted that although the economic weight of G7 countries has declined, they still retain important agenda setting power on global issues. An important example was Canada’s proposal to create a Gender Equality Advisory Council as hosts of the 2018 G7 meeting, which has now become a permanent feature. He also pointed out that the G7 can play a big coordination role during times of crises, which has been critical in responding to the war in Ukraine. He expressed hope that universities will contribute to the G7 by identifying long-term issues and gaps in the agenda, communicating early with host countries to shape the priorities of future meetings, and helping to compensate for the lack of a G7 secretariat by communicating G7 priorities and values, particularly to countries in the global south. 

The second session of the symposium focused on key issues in G7 global governance. Louis Pauly (J. Stefan Dupré Distinguished Professor of Political Economy at the University of Toronto and former Interim Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Japan), chaired the session. The panelists were Satoshi Ezoe (Director, Global Health Strategy Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Government of Japan), Miranda Schreurs (Chair, Climate and Environmental Policy, Bavarian School of Public Policy, Technical University of Munich), and David Welch (University Research Chair, University of Waterloo and Balsillie School of International Affairs). The panelists discussed issues such as the global health architecture in the aftermath of COVID-19, climate change policy in light of the energy security challenges created by the war in Ukraine, and the future of the world order along with potential flashpoints, such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The third session focused on innovation, education, and human capital as important priorities for the G7 as well as a major area in which universities can make an important contribution. The session was chaired by Rie Kijima (Assistant Professor at University of Toronto and Director, Initiative for Education Policy and Innovation at the Centre for the Study of Global Japan). The panelists were Keiko Honda (former CEO of the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency and Adjunct Professor, Columbia School of International and Public Affairs), Moussa Blimpo (Assistant Professor, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy), and Elizabeth Buckner (Assistant Professor, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, University of Toronto). The panelists covered topics such how education can support diversity and inclusion in the workplace, scaling up the role of G7 universities to overcome education challenges in the global south, and how to reestablish the legitimacy of G7 countries to speak out on global issues.

The second keynote of the symposium was delivered by Ron Daniels, the President of Johns Hopkins University. Drawing on his book, What Universities Owe Democracy, Daniels emphasized the role universities play in sustaining democratic norms during a period of global democratic backsliding. He observed that autocrats sometimes more readily recognize the importance of universities, citing the expulsion of Central European University by Viktor Orbán in Hungary. He observed that both liberal democracies and universities place a premium on freedom of speech and thought, tolerance for dissent, and the free flow of information and ideas. He argued that universities should refocus their attention on educating students in the values, virtues, and philosophical foundations of liberal democracy and presented some of the initiatives he has implemented at Johns Hopkins in support of these objectives.

The fourth session of the symposium focused on how external actors can engage and influence the G7 agenda, with an eye to elevating the role of the U7+ Alliance as a mechanism through which universities can shape the course of future policymaking. The session was chaired by Gwen Burrows (Assistant Vice-President, International Engagement & Impact, University of Toronto) and included the following panelists: Christopher Sands (Director, Wilson Center Canada Institute), Atsuko Miwa (Co-Chair, W7 Japan 2023), Jean-Christophe Martin (Director, Institute of Peace and Development, Université Côte d’Azur; UNESCO Chair: Peace and Development through Law), Jonathan Fried (Senior Advisor with Bennett Jones, LLP and the Albright Stonebridge Group), Joseph Wong (Roz and Ralph Halbert Professor of Innovation, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy; Vice-President, International, University of Toronto), and Motohiro Tsuchiya (Vice-President for Global Engagement, Keio University). The session featured a lively debate on topics such as: How can universities contribute to addressing global challenges through multilateral governance? How can the U7+ become a more influential player in the G7 process? Given the specific priorities and possibilities for 2023, how can universities contribute? Joe Wong concluded the symposium with a summary of his observations and an agenda for the future. 

Following the symposium, University of Toronto President Meric Gertler traveled to Tokyo and presented the U7+ Tokyo Statement on Peace and Security to Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, encouraging political leaders to leverage the power of education and research in the global mission to advance peace and security. The Centre for the Study of Global Japan thanks the participants, co-hosts, and audience members that made this event a great success.

Source: Munk School

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A decision to quash a Department of Health policy on paying for care costs in nursing homes has been welcomed by the NI commissioner for older people.

The commissioner, Eddie Lynch, was reacting to a decision by High Court judge Mr Justice Scoffield.

The judge ruled the department failed to properly consider the impact on elderly people who could potentially lose life savings to meet health costs.

He said it had been responsible for a “plain dereliction in its duty”.

The commissioner, Mr Lynch, took a judicial review on behalf of Robin McMinnis.

The 75-year-old, who is quadriplegic and has complex medical needs, has been paying for his care while living in a Belfast nursing home.

The Continuing Healthcare Policy relates to the assessment of whether a person’s needs can be met in a hospital which will not cost anything or is social-care related which could incur costs.

The judicial review highlighted that the criteria and threshold for when a person should pay for their care is unclear and operates differently between each health trust.

All older people with assets worth more than £23,250 have to pay for their social care.

A change to the policy, introduced in February 2021, uses a single criteria question where people are asked: “Can your care needs be met properly in any other setting other than a hospital?”

Those people who are placed in a nursing home have to pay, while others who say they cannot go to a nursing home instead have their care paid for while in hospital.

The judge ruled that Mr McMinnis was unfairly refused the funding and ordered the Belfast Trust to reconsider his application.

He said he also proposed “to quash the decision of the department to adopt the 2021 policy”.

‘A matter of principle’

Mr McMinnis said it had been “a long journey for me personally over the past six years with many setbacks”.

“It has been a matter of principle for me, knowing that many others have been disqualified or were unaware of the Continuing Healthcare Policy,” he continued.

Reacting to the judgement, Mr Lynch said he was delighted for Mr McMinnis.

“This is also a win for the many older people who have contacted my office over the past number of years in relation to issues with continuing healthcare assessments, all of whom will now be entitled to receive the fair assessment they deserve,” he said.

On Tuesday he told BBC’s Good Morning Ulster the ruling shows the system “was not fit for purpose”.

“The bottom line here was older people were being failed by the system,” the commissioner said.

“Older people whose costs should have been picked up by the NHS were paying for their care.

“People were left high and dry, people who were entitled to this [financial] support because the system was not set up properly to give them a fair assessment.”

He said this ruling “overturns and quashes a policy that was ageist”.

Mr Lynch said now that the policy has been quashed, the onus is on the Department of Health to “come up with a policy that treats people fairly”.

The department said it “will be considering the judgement, before deciding on next steps”.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation

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As the temperature rises and attention turns towards holidays, what is the latest picture for the UK economy? Our Deputy Director for Macroeconomic Modelling and Forecasting, Professor Stephen Millard, spoke to Associate Economists Paula Bejarano Carbo and Hailey Low to get their thoughts.

As the Bank of England (and NIESR for that matter) move into their Quarterly Forecast Round, what are the key issues for the UK economy that they need to think hardest about?

HL: The UK economy is under pressure from a number of complex and interconnected issues. These challenges, which include inflation, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and stagnation in living standards, inter alia, have coalesced into a fragile economy which policymakers are finding extremely difficult to manage. The Bank Rate is now at its highest level since 2008, and the MPC has signalled that there could be further rate hikes to come given the persistence of inflation. This all raises a number of key issues that should be considered as we think about the outlook for the UK economy.

Firstly, the MPC needs to strike a balance between their fight against inflation and raising rates too high as doing so might trigger a recession. It will take time for the full impact of the 13 consecutive increases in interest rates to be felt by consumers, given both the delays in the pass-through of changes to the policy rate into other interest rates and the cumulative nature of the change in rates. The economy has seen a cost-of-living crisis and has now been struck by the increased cost of borrowing. Higher rates mean that bad debts are expected to increase amidst the economic downturn as consumers and businesses struggle to repay loans at higher rates. This has negative implications for banks as risks to capital returns and asset quality intensify. Risks to the housing sector are also possible, as higher mortgage rates could mean seeing mortgagers having difficulties in housing repayments.

Secondly, as the NHS celebrates its 75th anniversary, the government needs to increase investment in the NHS so as to enable access to timely and proper healthcare. I cannot emphasise this enough as the labour market is suffering from a severe labour shortage and long-term sick are driving the high economic inactivity rate. Enabling this large group of people to return to the workforce would alleviate some pressure in the hot labour market, a point NIESR made in our Spring Budget Response.

CPI Inflation failed to fall in May, remaining at 8.7 per cent. What is driving this high inflation? What are we expecting inflation to be in June and over the next few months?

PBC: The annual rate of CPI inflation in May largely reflects energy price decreases being offset by price increases in both food as well as services such as travel, and recreational and cultural goods and services. This latest figure of 8.7 per cent represents a positive surprise in that many expected energy price decreases to drive a significant decrease in inflation in the second quarter of 2023. What we’ve seen, however, is that price rises in food (which makes up around 10 per cent of the consumer expenditure basket which the CPI inflation rate is based on) and services have contributed heavily to keeping the CPI inflation rate elevated.

The annual rate of food inflation was 18.3 per cent in May. This elevated figure is partly a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, since Ukraine is a big exporter of essential food like sunflower oil and wheat. For example, in May, the annual rate of inflation for flours and cereals was 23.6 per cent, whereas prior to the invasion (January 2021), the inflation rate for this sub-category was -3.3 per cent. At the same time, survey data, such as the S&P Global/CIPS UK Services Purchasing Manager’s Index tell us that price rises in the services sector partially reflect businesses passing on rising input costs like increased wages and still-high energy prices onto customers.

Looking at measures of underlying inflation can give us an idea of the nature of current inflation and where it may be headed. Core inflation rose to 7.1 per cent in May, its highest rate since March 1992. This measure indicates that, as a result of the original shock to energy and food prices caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, inflationary pressures have permeated indirectly (sometimes referred to as ‘second round inflation effects’) to other areas of the economy, such as services via increased input costs (like wages). At the same time, NIESR’s measure of underlying inflation, which excludes 5 per cent of the highest and lowest price changes, fell to 9.9 per cent from 10.2 per cent in April. Trimmed-mean inflation being higher than headline inflation indicates that the energy price fall which has driven headline CPI down is a rather volatile price movement.

Taken together, the latest data suggest that, though inflation will fall gradually over the coming months, this may be slower than expected and we can expect inflation to exhibit persistence in the third quarter of 2023.

The Bank of England recently raised rates to 5 per cent. Should we be bracing for further increases and where do we see interest rates heading over the medium term?

PBC: Against a backdrop of 8.7 per cent inflation, the MPC opted to raise interest rates at its June meeting. The MPC now expects that, given the available data, this interest rate level is sufficiently high to bring inflation back to its target rate of 2 per cent.

That said, as I mentioned earlier, the data indicate that inflation may continue to be stubbornly high in the coming months. Thus, it is possible that the next CPI data release contains another positive surprise. If that is the case, the MPC might deem it necessary to raise interest rates further to return to an inflation path that gets us back target in the medium term.

But, it’s not all about the CPI data. Interest rates at 5 per cent are quite high, and the effects of this on the economy (like households having to cut spending in order to afford elevated mortgage repayments) are definitely being felt and will continue to be felt over the coming months. With the consequences of higher borrowing rates being passed on slowly throughout the economy, it’s true that the MPC has already done much of the ‘heavy lifting’ needed to bring inflation back down. In fact, two members of the MPC felt that no further rate rises were needed at its June meeting.

So, while it’s possible that there may be one or two more rate rises as a result of CPI data surprises, interest rates are probably close to peak. So, over the coming months, we can expect the MPC to reach a peak interest rate and to hold it there for some time until it deems that the economy is ready for it to begin unwinding interest rates.

A key issue for a long while has been the fall in labour supply. Where is the UK labour market currently in terms of employment, unemployment and vacancies, participation, and wage growth and where do you see it going?

HL: The current state of the labour market: febrile and tight. Since NIESR published our Spring Outlook, the employment rate increased by 0.2 per cent to 76 per cent while the unemployment rate remained unchanged 3.8 per cent. It is notable that both indicators are still below the pre-pandemic rate.

However, there is some evidence the labour market is on the turn as vacancies fell by 0.05 million to 1.05 million suggesting that global economic uncertainty is still impacting businesses and firms are adjusting their hiring plans in response to weaker activity. The economic inactivity rate also decreased by 0.1 percentage point but remained 0.7 percentage points above its pre-pandemic level. The long-term sick remain the largest group within the inactive population and the number of long-term sick has reached its highest level since the start of the pandemic – this is a serious cause for concern amidst the hot labour market.

This shrunken workforce will lead to increased competition for staff and thus continue to drive rapid wage growth (especially in the private sector), which shows little signs of slackening, and this could keep price pressures elevated for some time. With near record-low unemployment, more than a million job vacancies and wage growth of 7.2 per cent – we expect that the job market will remain tight for a long period.

Source: National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has signed a bill that expressly prohibits sober living facilities from allowing residents to possess or use medical marijuana, even if the patient is certified by a doctor to legally use cannabis therapeutically in accordance with state law. All other doctor-prescribed pharmaceutical medications may be permitted, however.

The governor signed the legislation, SB 210, on Tuesday—and he separately gave final approval to a hemp regulations measure that bans the sale of legal smokeless hemp products to people under 21.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has signed a bill that expressly prohibits sober living facilities from allowing residents to possess or use medical marijuana, even if the patient is certified by a doctor to legally use cannabis therapeutically in accordance with state law. All other doctor-prescribed pharmaceutical medications may be permitted, however.

The governor signed the legislation, SB 210, on Tuesday—and he separately gave final approval to a hemp regulations measure that bans the sale of legal smokeless hemp products to people under 21.

Under the newly enacted SB 210, applicants who are seeking licensing to operate recovery residences under the state Department of Children and Families will need to affirm that they do not permit the use of cannabis, which “includes marijuana that has been certified by a qualified physician for medical use.”

But residents may continue to use other pharmaceutical drugs prescribed by doctors, so the law explicitly singles out medical marijuana.

In order to receive certification, a prospective recovery residence will need to provide documentation, including a policy and procedures manual. The new law will amend that requirement to specifically mandate that the manual includes a prohibition on marijuana, regardless of a person’s status as a medical cannabis patient.

DeSantis also signed SB 1676, a bill that revises hemp regulations in the state and includes a new provision that bars the sale of smokeless hemp products such as “snuff, chewing gum, and other smokeless products” to people under 21. The law previously only set the age restriction on smokable hemp items.

The governor further vetoed two criminal justice reform bills that aren’t specifically about cannabis. They would have revised expungements and sentencing statutes.

Source: Marijuana Moment

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Dr. Morrison studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate stem cell function and the role these mechanisms play in cancer. His laboratory pioneered methods to purify stem cells from multiple tissues and discovered mechanisms that allow stem cells to persist throughout life to regenerate tissues after injury. His laboratory discovered key mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal as well as the location and cellular composition of specialized microenvironments that promote the maintenance of hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) in adult blood-forming tissues.

Fiona Watt, EMBO Director, said of the newly elected members who reside in more than 20 countries: “These remarkable scientists have unraveled molecular secrets of life, deepened our understanding of health and disease, and are paving the way for further discoveries and innovations. Their achievements reinforce the critical role that life science research plays in the lives of citizens across Europe and the world.”

Dr. Morrison, one of 26 members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and one of 19 members of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, joins the EMBO community of more than 2,000 leading life science experts, including 91 Nobel laureates who have been elected to EMBO Membership. New EMBO members are elected by existing EMBO members. The new members will be formally welcomed to EMBO at the annual Members’ Meeting in Heidelberg, Germany, on October 25-27, 2023.

The Morrison Lab studies the intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms that regulate stem cell self-renewal and the role these mechanisms play in cancer. Self-renewal is the process by which stem cells divide to make more stem cells, perpetuating stem cells throughout life to regenerate tissues.

Dr. Morrison’s team discovered a series of key regulators that distinguish stem cell self-renewal from the proliferation of restricted progenitors in the same tissues. He also identified ways in which self-renewal mechanisms change with age, conferring temporal changes in stem cell properties that match the changing growth and regeneration demands of tissues.

In terms of cell-extrinsic mechanisms, Dr. Morrison identified the location and cellular composition of HSC niches in adult bone marrow and spleen and discovered the Leptin Receptor+ perivascular stromal cells that are the major source of factors required for HSC maintenance in the bone marrow. Researchers demonstrated that HSCs are metabolically distinct from restricted progenitors in vivo and depend upon metabolic regulation for epigenetic control and leukemia suppression.

His lab further discovered that distant metastasis by melanoma cells is limited by oxidative stress and that successfully metastasizing melanoma cells undergo reversible metabolic changes to cope with oxidative stress. They are working to test whether “pro-oxidant” therapies that exacerbate oxidative stress in cancer cells can be used to inhibit cancer progression.

Dr. Morrison served as president of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (2015-2016) and has been active in public policy issues surrounding stem cell research. He is also a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar in Cancer Research and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Morrison holds the Kathryne and Gene Bishop Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Research at Children’s Research Institute at UT Southwestern at CRI and the Mary McDermott Cook Chair in Pediatric Genetics. Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Dr. Morrison completed a B.Sc. in biology and chemistry at Dalhousie University in 1991, a Ph.D. in immunology at Stanford University in 1996, and a postdoctoral fellowship in neurobiology at Caltech in 1999.

About CRI

Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) is a joint venture of UT Southwestern Medical Center and Children’s Medical Center Dallas, the flagship hospital of Children’s Health. CRI’s mission is to perform transformative biomedical research to better understand the biological basis of disease. Located in Dallas, Texas, CRI is home to interdisciplinary groups of scientists and physicians pursuing research at the interface of regenerative medicine, cancer biology and metabolism. For more information, visit: cri.utsw.edu. To support CRI, visit: give.childrens.com/about-us/why-help/cri/.

Source: UT South Western

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The latest updates to Google’s privacy policy reveal that Google may use any public information available to train its various AI products and services.

Google has made updates to its privacy policy that now allow it to take any publicly available data and use it for artificial intelligence (AI) training purposes.

The update to the company’s privacy policy came on July 1 and can be compared to previous versions of the policy via a link published on the site’s update page.

In the latest version, changes can be seen that include the addition of Google’s AI models, Bard and Cloud AI capabilities, to the services it may train by using “information that’s publicly available online” or from “other public sources.”

The updated Google policy conditions (in green) as of July 1, 2023. Source: screenshot 

The policy update infers that Google is now making it clear to the public and its users that anything that is publicly uploaded online could be used in its training processes with the current and future AI systems it develops. 

This update from Google comes shortly after OpenAI, the developer of the popular AI chatbot ChatGPT, was charged with a class-action lawsuit in California over allegedly scraping private information from users via the internet.

The suit claims that OpenAI used data from millions of comments on social media, blogs, Wikipedia and other personal information from users to train ChatGPT without first getting consent to do so. The lawsuit concludes that this, therefore, violated the copyrights and privacy rights of millions of users on the internet.

Twitter’s recent change in the number of tweets users are able to access depending on their account verification status has caused rumors across the internet that it was imposed partially due to AI data scraping.

The documents of Twitter’s developers read that rate limits were imposed as a method to manage the volume of requests made to Twitter’s application program interface.

Elon Musk, the owner and former CEO of Twitter, recently tweeted about the platform “getting data pillaged so much that it was degrading service for normal users.”

Source: Coin Telegraph

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Amanda Pritchard also raises concerns over children and adults being “bombarded” with gambling adverts as she announced the health service was increasing its support for people with gambling problems as a result of soaring demand.

The boss of NHS England has warned about the dangers of “touch of a button” bets after a record number of people sought help for gambling addiction in England.

Amanda Pritchard also raised concerns over children and adults being “bombarded” with gambling adverts as she announced the health service is increasing its support for people with gambling problems as a result of soaring demand.

A record 1,389 patients were referred for help last year, compared with 1,013 in the previous 12 months and 775 two years ago.

As a result, the NHS is launching seven more specialist gambling clinics to support those who are struggling.

The announcement comes two days after a coroner ruled a gambling disorder contributed to the death of a father of two.

Luke Ashton had lost thousands of pounds gambling on Betfair’s exchange before he died by suicide aged 40 on 22 April 2021, and had previously racked up debts of £18,000.

At the conclusion of a three-day inquest into his death at Leicester Coroner’s Court on Thursday, area coroner Ivan Cartwright said the betting company could have done more to help him before he took his own life.

The new NHS clinics will be set up in Milton Keynes, Thurrock, Bristol, Derby, Liverpool, Blackpool and Sheffield.

They will operate in addition to clinics already running in London, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent and Telford – as well as a national clinic in London, which treats both gambling and gaming addiction in children and young people.

The NHS plans to treat up to 3,000 patients a year across the 15 clinics.

Patients with serious addiction will be helped through cognitive behavioural therapy, family therapy, support groups and aftercare.

Psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists, mental health nurses and peer support workers will staff the clinics, offering support to patients as well as their family members, partners and carers.

‘Now people can gamble at the touch of a button’

“Ahead of the NHS’s 75th birthday on Wednesday, this expansion shows the NHS once again adapting to the new healthcare needs that have emerged over the last 75 years,” Ms Pritchard said.

“In 1948 when the NHS was founded, you had to go to a bookies to place a bet, but now people can gamble on their phone at the touch of a button and everyone, young and old, is bombarded with adverts encouraging them to take part.

“Record numbers of people are coming to the NHS for help to treat their gambling addiction, a cruel disease which has the power to destroy people’s lives, with referrals up by more than a third compared to last year.

“As it has done since 1948, the NHS is responding at speed and rolling out seven new gambling harms clinics across England, so that even more people can be supported by the NHS in their time of need.”

Source: Sky News

The post NHS Boss Issues Warning Over ‘cruel’ Gambling Addiction as Record Numbers Seek Help appeared first on Policy Print.

Cancer patients said they felt relieved they could continue taking life-saving drugs after a policy change.

Doctors were not allowed to automatically prescribe two bowel cancer drugs on the NHS in England if patients had taken a break from them.

Steven Marsland, 38, from Brantham, Suffolk, said the decision meant he now had “one less thing to worry about”.

The policy affected the drugs cetuximab and panitumumab.

Before the rule change, if a patient took a treatment break for longer than six weeks they would have to reapply for NHS funding, with no guarantee it would be approved.

Mr Marsland, who has incurable cancer, needed to pause his treatment for a hernia operation last year. He had to take a shorter break due to the policy and was left worrying he might have to fund cetuximab himself in the future.

The father-of-two, who works as a principal technologist for BT, has been through 93 rounds of chemotherapy and 28 lots of radiotherapy since he was diagnosed in 2018.

“This decision means I no longer need to live with the anxiety of losing a line of treatment,” he said.

“It will open up many options for people to have skin recovery breaks, holidays and minor surgeries. I won’t have to cover up illnesses in the fear of having the rug pulled out.”

Jane Ashford, from Bristol, described the development as “amazing”, saying she had lived in “constant fear” of her treatment being taken away.

The 50-year-old, who is now in remission from bowel cancer, said her oncologist was keen for her to have a break “as the toxicity of the drugs was leading to serious health issues” but she had “no choice but to continue with no breaks under the arbitrary rule”.

“I had to leave my job as an NHS lead nurse specialist because of the physical, emotional and psychological side effects,” she said.

What is bowel cancer?

• Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK and the second biggest cancer killer
• Also called colorectal cancer, it affects the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum
• Nearly 43,000 people are diagnosed with bowel cancer every year in the UK
• Bowel cancer is treatable and curable especially if diagnosed early
• Symptoms to look our for include bleeding from your bottom, blood in your poo, a change in bowel habit, unexplained weight loss, extreme tiredness and pain or lump in your tummy

Source: Bowel Cancer UK

The rule change has come too late for some patients. Roy Davison, a father-of-three from Preston, was told he could not go back on panitumumab on the NHS after taking a break for liver surgery.

The engineer, diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014, was making good progress and the drug had shrunk his tumours enough to make them operable, his wife Carolyn said.

“Then the doctors told us the rules had changed and suddenly the drug was snatched away. It seemed so wrong and so cruel.

“It was like a prescription was written but he was only allowed to have half of it. We sought second opinions from oncologists who all said they would like to put him back on panitumumab if they could,” she said.

They wrote to their MP and the drug company explaining his situation, but Mr Davison was forced on to other drugs and his cancer spread. He died aged 59 in 2017.

Genevieve Edwards, chief executive at Bowel Cancer UK, which has spent five years campaigning on the issue, said: “Patients with advanced bowel cancer have very few treatment options and these drugs are often their only lifeline.

“This decision by NHS England will bring new hope for advanced bowel cancer patients to have a better quality of life, spend more time with loved ones and, for some, even the chance of full remission.”

NHS England has been contacted for a comment.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation

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