Latest news with #UNSPLASH
Straits Times
12-06-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Australian regulator cracks down on 'finfluencers' over unlawful financial advice
ASIC said it is concerned that consumers could be harmed by finfluencers providing unauthorised financial product advice. PHOTO ILLUSTRAION: UNSPLASH Australian regulator cracks down on 'finfluencers' over unlawful financial advice Australia's corporate regulator said on June 12 it had issued warnings to a number of social media 'finfluencers', accusing them of offering misleading financial advice and promoting high-risk investment products to their followers. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) warned that the accounts often provided deceptive information and flagged it had sent notices to 18 social media 'finfluencers' who were not licensed to provide financial advice. The action was taken as part of the Global Week of Action Against Unlawful Finfluencers held last week, which saw regulators from around the world using regulatory and enforcement powers against unlawful financial influencers. Measures against such illegal activity included arrests, warning notices, website takedowns, and alerts to consumers of the risks of unauthorised and misleading finfluencer content. ASIC said it is concerned that consumers could be harmed by finfluencers providing unauthorised financial product advice and promoting high-risk, complex investment products, such as contracts for difference (CFDs) and over the counter (OTC) derivative products. If a finfluencer is not licensed, an authorised representative or exempt, they are legally not permitted to carry on a business of providing investment business in Australia, the regulator said. ASIC along with market regulators from the UK, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Hong Kong and Canada took coordinated actions against such unauthorised finfluencers. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Straits Times
11-06-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
Social media fuelling ‘devastating' kids' mental health crisis: NGO
One in seven children and adolescents aged between 10 and 19 suffered mental health issues. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: UNSPLASH AMSTERDAM - The 'unchecked expansion' of social media platforms is driving an unprecedented global mental health crisis in kids and teens, a children's NGO said on June 11 , calling for urgent coordinated action worldwide. The KidsRights report said one in seven children and adolescents aged between 10 and 19 suffered mental health issues, with the global suicide rate at six per 100,000 for those aged 15 to 19. Even these high rates represent 'the tip of the iceberg' as suicide is widely under-reported due to stigma, according to the Amsterdam-based group. 'This year's report is a wake-up call that we cannot ignore any longer' said Mr Marc Dullaert, KidsRights chairman. 'The mental health... crisis among our children has reached a tipping point, exacerbated by the unchecked expansion of social media platforms that prioritise engagement over child safety,' he added. The report said what it termed 'problematic' social media use was on the rise, with a direct link between heavy internet use and suicide attempts. However, blanket bans are not the answer, the group warned. Australia passed a law to ban social media use for under-16s. 'Such blanket bans may infringe on children's civil and political rights,' including access to information, said the report. The group urged 'comprehensive child rights impact assessments' at a global level for social media platforms, better education for kids, and improved training for mental health professionals. The report seized on the popularity of Netflix sensation 'Adolescence', which highlighted some of the toxic content kids view online. The mini-series 'demonstrated global awareness of these issues, but awareness alone is insufficient', said Mr Dullaert. 'We need concrete action to ensure that the digital revolution serves to enhance, not endanger, the wellbeing of the world's 2.2 billion children,' he said. 'The time for half-measures is over.' AFP Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Mint
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
BECAUSE YOU MATTER
'It's all about falling in love with yourself and sharing that love with someone who appreciates you, rather than looking for love to compensate for a self love deficit.'―Eartha Kitt Credit : UNSPLASH Page 2 Once hunted nearly to extinction for their fur, sea otters had dwindled to just 2,000 by 1911. Thanks to global conservation efforts, their population has now surged to around 100,000. Credit : PINTEREST Page 3 Coral and jellyfish, both Cnidarians, sting enemies and lack brains, with coral often mistaken for a plant but actually an animal. Credit : PINTEREST Page 4
Straits Times
07-06-2025
- Health
- Straits Times
Used in Covid-19 shots, mRNA may help rid the body of HIV
The new study describes the use of mRNA as a tool to flush HIV out of its hiding places. PHOTO: UNSPLASH Used in Covid-19 shots, mRNA may help rid the body of HIV NEW YORK - The technology that powered Covid-19 vaccines may also lead scientists to a cure for HIV. Using mRNA, Australian researchers said they were able to trick the virus to come out of hiding, a crucial step in ridding the body of it entirely. The research, published last week in Nature Communications, is still preliminary and so far has been shown to be successful only in a lab. But it suggests that mRNA has potential far beyond its use in vaccines as a means to deliver therapies against stubborn adversaries. Short for messenger RNA, mRNA is a set of instructions for a gene. In the case of Covid-19 vaccines, the instructions were for a piece of the coronavirus. In the new study, they are for molecules key to targeting HIV. Dr Sharon Lewin, director of the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne, who led the study, called mRNA a 'miraculous' tool 'to deliver things that you want into places that were not possible before.' Vaccines deploying mRNA instruct the body to produce a fragment of the virus, which then sets off the body's immune response. In the United States, the shots were initially hailed for turning back the pandemic, then viewed by some with suspicion and fear. Some officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, have falsely said that they are highly dangerous and even deadly. Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services sought to limit the vaccine's availability to pregnant women, children and healthy younger adults. The administration also cancelled a nearly US$600 million (S$773.72 million) contract with the drugmaker Moderna to develop an mRNA shot for humans against bird flu. 'The fear right now is not rational,' Dr Lewin said, adding that 'mRNA vaccines have been given to millions of people around the world, so we have a very good understanding of their risks.' The new study describes the use of mRNA as a tool to flush HIV out of its hiding places. Other uses could involve providing proteins missing from those with certain diseases or correcting genetic errors. Dr Frauke Muecksch, a virologist at Heidelberg University in Germany who was not involved in the work, called mRNA a 'promising, absolutely powerful technology.' Although most people may have only heard of mRNA's use in science during the pandemic, scientists have been working with it for more than 20 years, she said. 'I think it's not just therapeutically very powerful, but also for basic science, for research, it opens up a lot of avenues,' she added. Potent antiretroviral drugs can now control HIV, suppressing it to undetectable levels. Still, minute amounts of the virus lie dormant in so-called reservoirs, waiting for an opportunity to resurge. A cure for HIV would involve ferreting out all of this virus and destroying it, a strategy that has been called 'shock and kill.' A significant hurdle is that the virus lies dormant in a particular type of immune cell, called a resting CD4 cell. Because these cells are inactive, they tend to be unresponsive to drugs. The few drugs scientists have previously used to rouse the virus in these cells were not specific to HIV and had unwanted side effects. 'It's fair to say the field's been a little bit stuck,' said Dr Brad Jones, a viral immunologist at Weill Cornell Medicine who was not involved in the latest research. In 2022, Dr Jones and his colleagues found that the immune boost from the mRNA vaccines awakened latent HIV in people living with the virus. (Other research has shown that mRNA vaccines also activated dormant viruses including Epstein Barr.) 'You get just a little bit of a gentle nudge with some of these vaccines, and it's enough to coax some of these latent viruses out so they can be killed,' Dr Jones said. Dr Lewin and her colleagues had for years experimented with other ways to activate HIV, but had no luck in resting cells. Seeing the success of the Covid-19 vaccines, which used lipid nanoparticles – tiny spheres of fat – containing mRNA, her team tested similar particles. They used the particles to deliver two different sets of molecules: Tat, which is adept at switching HIV on, and CRISPR, a tool that can 'edit' genes. The researchers showed that in resting immune cells from people living with HIV, the approach coaxed the virus out of dormancy. 'It's very, very hard to deal with these cells, so I think this really targeting the right population of cells is what makes this paper special,' Dr Muecksch said. It's unclear whether the new approach can successfully awaken all of the dormant HIV in the body, and what side effects it might produce. Dr Lewin said that 'mRNA will almost certainly have some adverse effects, as every drug does, but we will investigate that systematically, as we do for any new drug.' In this case, she said, side effects may be more acceptable to people living with HIV than having to take medications for the rest of their lives. The researchers plan to test the method in HIV-infected animals next, before moving into clinical trials. NYTIMES Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Mint
30-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Mint
MYTHICAL ANIMALS
Bulls are revered across cultures as symbols of power, virility, and strength, seen in figures like India's Nandi and the Taurus constellation. Yet, in myths like the Greek Minotaur, they also embody danger and chaos. Credit : UNSPLASH Page 2
