Rostin Behnam on Trump, Crypto, Regulation
Rostin Behnam, Former Chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, weighs in on Vice President JD Vance speaking at the Bitcoin 2025 Conference and states regulators are very important to the US financial markets. He also talks about President Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency raising red flags. Rostin Behnam speaks with Kailey Leinz and Joe Mathieu on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power."
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Yahoo
32 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Hamas responds to US plan for Gaza ceasefire, says proposal aimed at ‘permanent ceasefire'
Hamas says that it has responded to a ceasefire plan put forward by President Trump's envoy on Gaza, but did not make clear what its exact response was. In a statement Saturday, Hamas said that its 'proposal' to the mediators – Qatar and Egypt — 'aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and ensure the flow of aid to our people and our families in the Gaza Strip.' 'As part of this agreement, ten living Israeli prisoners held by the resistance will be released, in addition to the return of eighteen bodies, in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners,' the statement said. The US-backed and Israel-approved proposal seen by CNN on Friday includes Hamas releasing 10 Israeli hostages and 18 deceased hostages in exchange for 125 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences and 1,111 Gazans detained since the war began. Negotiations toward a permanent ceasefire would begin immediately on the first day of the 60-day truce, according to the proposal. The terms of the agreement would also allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza 'immediately' and be distributed 'through agreed upon channels,' including the United Nations and the Red Crescent, according to the proposal. But the draft agreement contained no intrinsic guarantee of a permanent end to the war, a key Hamas demand, nor assurances that the ceasefire will be extended as long as negotiations continue. Instead, it said that US President Donald Trump is 'committed to working to ensure that good faith negotiations continue until a final agreement is reached.' Hamas had initially signaled reluctance to accept the terms of the deal. Bassem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said on Facebook Thursday that the framework did 'not respond to any of our people's demands' but that discussions were underway, nonetheless. This is a developing story and will be updated. CNN's Dana Karni, Alex Marquardt, Kylie Atwood, Jeremy Diamond and Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.
Forbes
38 minutes ago
- Forbes
A New Documentary Reveals Why America May Need A Birthing Revolution
A movement may be underway that offers a path toward a birthing revolution that works from within ... More the current healthcare system. If the U.S. spends more money on maternal healthcare than most other high-income nations, why does it also have the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality comparatively? More than 80% of maternal deaths in the country are likely preventable, according to the CDC. Racial disparities persist, with Black women being two to three times more likely than white women to die during childbirth. Roughly one in three births in the U.S. are C-sections, yet the World Health Organization deems the ideal rate to be between 10 and 15 percent. While the challenges are multifaceted and there is no single solution, the statistics indicate that America is in need of a birthing revolution. A movement may be underway that offers a path toward a birthing revolution that works from within the current healthcare system. It's being illuminated in a paradigm-shifting documentary called Fear and Now that premiers in June 2025 at Dances With Films festival in Los Angeles. Liat Ron during her second pregnancy reading about the method of hypnobirthing. It begins with film director Liat Ron sharing her unacknowledged traumatic first birth experience. 'It was a cascade of interventions and forced protocols; I had no control over what was happening to me,' says Ron in the film. The documentary also describes her mission to overcome her extreme fear of birth for her second pregnancy. This mission led Ron to discover the transformative power of hypnobirthing, which gives women a myriad of tools including breathing, relaxation, and visualization techniques, and accounts for both the physical and psychological well-being of the mother. The method reduces and even eliminates the fear-tension-pain cycle to help create a more gentle, enjoyable birth process. Director Liat Ron while filming "Fear and Now." The profound impact this particular method had on Ron to release fear and trauma and enable her second birthing experience to be enjoyable sparked her to embark upon a journey across the country to document the stories of parents, medical professionals, and birth workers who are also using hypnobirthing to put women back at the center of their birthing experience. 'I led myself to the dream birth I didn't know was possible, and that we all deserve to have. It changed my life,' says Ron. 'I do believe it is the best kept secret in the birthing world, but it's about time we all know what hypnobirthing really is. It's time we all have access to this birthing choice, if we decide it is for us.' Teneha Smith, DNP, FNP-BC, RNFA, is a mother of three based in Orlando, Florida who shares her story in Fear and Now. I spoke to Smith who recounts how she had a near death experience during her first birth, and it took her 15 years before she could even consider becoming pregnant again. 'During my first [birthing experience], things happened so quickly out of my control,' says Smith. 'It's like I was standing beside myself watching all these things happen to me. It really traumatized me. I love my daughter and I was thankful for her, but after what I had gone through I told myself I would never do this again. I'm a type A personality. I like to be in control. I like to have things organized. And that experience completely broke me down.' Smith said her husband had been talking about wanting to have more children for years, and she kept avoiding it until she got to the point where she did not want to let her first birthing experience overcome her and keep her from having more children. However, since she'd had her first daughter she had gone into the medical field to become a nurse practitioner, and was required to be present for births during her ob-gyn rotations. 'It just made my fear of birthing worse because it is like all the drama that you see on television,' she says. 'I knew there had to be another method, because my mother had all three of her children naturally.' Smith came across the hypnobirthing method in her research, and at first was skeptical. 'It sounded mystical, like a spell was being cast or something,' she says. 'I did my research, and I found it wasn't Voodoo or something crazy, but it was really about the power of the mind.' Teneha Smith shares her birthing story with Liat Ron while filming for the "Fear and Now" ... More documentary. Smith says she appreciated how hypnobirthing also educates about the physical aspects of giving birth, such as how the uterus works and the way endorphins are released. But the focus is on how your mindset controls your body. 'The mind is powerful,' says Smith. 'Think about the placebo effect and how a patient who believes a pill will make them better often does in fact feel better while taking the placebo just from the power of the mind. So I embraced that.' Smith went to the hypnobirthing class two times before she was even pregnant just to get her mind right, and then took the classes a third time once she became pregnant. She credits hypnobirthing with enabling her to have her next two births without an epidural or pain medication and to feel more in control of her birthing experience. 'Hypnobirthing teaches you to go within yourself, and to find your strength, whatever it is,' says Smith. 'For me, it was my faith in God. For other people it might be something else. But that's how I honestly overcame my fear of birth. And my support system.' Some research shows that pregnant people who learn hypnobirthing techniques are less likely to need medical interventions such as C-sections, and their delivery periods are shorter. Other research finds links between hypnobirthing and reduced labor pain and lower rates of postpartum depression. Delisa Skeete Henry, M.D., a board certified obstetrician and gynecologist of more than 20 years and owner of Serene Health OB-GYN & Wellness in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who is also featured in Fear and Now, says she discovered hypnobirthing from a patient during her early years in private practice. Though it was the first time she heard of the method, she did her research and supported her patient's choice to leverage hypnobirthing, along with having a doula, for an unmedicated birth. Since that experience, Dr. Skeete Henry, who does only hospital deliveries except during COVID, has continued to support women who want to use hypnobirthing, as well as other support strategies such as working with a doula and writing a birth plan. She says her practice's goal is to take a more holistic approach to prepare and educate women about what birth is, versus simply measuring the belly and listening to the baby. "Fear and Now" director Liat Ron filming during COVID with Dr. Skeete Henry and her team at Serene ... More Health OB-GYN & Wellness. 'I've seen through hypnobirthing when women are able to accomplish—either intentionally or unintentionally—that euphoria, that joy, that burst of hormones,' says Dr. Skeete Henry. 'It empowers them. I think that an empowered mom who has been able to achieve something so amazing is going to be a better mom, a better partner, just a better person in society. Even if you're planning medication, planning for an epidural, or have to do a C-section, the hypnobirthing philosophy and education in my mind makes the whole process so much easier.' It's important to note that interventions such as C-sections and inductions aren't always unnecessary and they can create positive outcomes and save lives. However, research finds that fewer interventions are needed when women have more autonomy in their birthing experience, such as by feeling they're able to make choices that are best for them in collaboration with their care providers, practice pain and anxiety management methods such as hypnobirthing, and have labor support such as a doula. 'We absolutely need medical professionals, but when it comes to certain things such as giving birth, you'll get a better experience and outcome if you collaborate with your doctor versus giving them full power and full authority over your birth story,' says Kymaletha Brown, LPC, MA, a mother of two based in Detroit, and a clinical mental health counselor, doula, and hypnobirthing educator. 'You know what's going on in your body. You're the one who's experiencing it. So it's important to get in tune with what you're experiencing, and take that power and align yourself mentally and physically. This will help you be more likely to have a safe, comfortable, and informed birth.' One of a myriad of reasons birthing women in America may experience higher intervention rates, such as inductions and C-sections, is that doctors may feel more in control of the outcome or perceive lower risks by performing an intervention. Dr. Lorne Campbell, M.D., who practiced family medicine in Johnson City, New York tells Ron in Fear and Now that doctors have developed a culture of fear of birthing, because we live in a litigious society and they're afraid of lawsuits. He also shares in the film how hypnobirthing changes the paradigm because the doctor's role becomes more of a support person rather than the driver. 'It's a completely mind-altering experience to be there with a woman and realize that if I put her in control, I get better outcomes than if I do it myself.' The beauty of hypnobirthing is that it is a method that all birthing people can use, regardless of whether a woman is having a home or hospital birth, a medication-free birth or an epidural. 'The goal of hypnobirthing is not to grunt or power through labor so you can say, 'I did it without an epidural.' The idea is to labor with the least amount of intervention so that mom and baby are safe, and it's as pleasant an experience as possible,' says Smith. Hypnobirthing teaches people mindset techniques, but it's also a holistic method that addresses everything from nutrition to having the right support system. 'It takes everything in you to give birth,' says Smith. 'You're in a vulnerable position. If you're not surrounded with the correct team that shares the same understanding and belief system that you do, you will bend to what others tell you to do no matter how strong you are.' Smith says using hypnobirthing for her second and third deliveries helped her move from labor being traumatic to being a very empowering experience. 'It wouldn't have happened that way if my husband wasn't on board, or if my doula wasn't on board, and if I had not spoken to my midwife and let her know this is the way I wanted things to go,' Smith says. A challenge is that in American medical culture rather than viewing birth as a natural process to stay out of unless there's a need for an intervention, it's viewed as a medicalized process. Fear and Now reveals how hypnobirthing is one method that can take something that's medicalized and scary, and turn it into an empowering experience. 'It can turn labor into something that you can look back on with pleasure and share it with your children versus it being like every other birth horror story that we always hear about,' says Smith. 'I really want birthing to be a positive, life-changing experience for women, and not what it has become in America today.' While Fear and Now focuses specifically on hypnobirthing as a cornerstone of the maternal healthcare revolution, the heart of the documentary's message is about women being in the driver's seat of their birthing experience. If women are able to experience birthing from a place of empowerment rather than a place of fear, it could have a ripple effect of impacting how they show up across other areas of their life—and be a gift they give to the next generation. It's about tapping into inner strength, resilience, and ultimately, joy. 'I hope the film brings to light that there are options for birth,' says Dr. Skeete Henry. 'I hope more women are able to at least explore hypnobirthing, and I hope more women are empowered to speak up for themselves."
Business Insider
44 minutes ago
- Business Insider
Oppenheimer Predicts Up to ~550% Jump for These 2 ‘Strong Buy' Stocks
After a rocky start to the spring, Wall Street came roaring back in May. President Trump's softened tariff stance reignited demand for risk assets, triggering the market's biggest monthly rally since November 2023. The S&P 500 rose ~6%, nudging back into positive territory for the year. Confident Investing Starts Here: Encouraged by this rebound, John Stoltzfus, chief investment strategist at Oppenheimer, has taken the measure of the markets and holds a positive outlook for the near- to mid-term. 'The effects of the stock market rally from the lows seen on April 8 appear to us to augur positively for investors practicing diversification and patience notwithstanding near-term uncertainties… We remain overweight US equities and do not ascribe to the view that US exceptionalism is fading,' Stoltzfus noted. Against this backdrop, Oppenheimer analyst Jay Olson has picked out his winners for the months ahead, zeroing in on two stocks in particular – including one with the potential to jump ~550% by this time next year. We checked in with the TipRanks database to see how the rest of Wall Street views these names. The verdict? Both picks carry Strong Buy consensus ratings across the board, with substantial upside potential. Let's take a closer look at the details. Voyager Therapeutics (VYGR) One company Oppenheimer is especially bullish on is Voyager Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotech developing treatments for serious neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Friedreich's ataxia – both of which have limited therapeutic options. Voyager's lead clinical candidate is VY7523, a monoclonal antibody designed to target pathological tau (pTAU), a protein closely associated with the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Intended for early-stage intervention, the therapy has shown encouraging preclinical results. In mouse models, its murine surrogate demonstrated high selectivity for abnormal tau while sparing healthy tau and delivered strong efficacy in the P301S seeding model, a benchmark in Alzheimer's research. Voyager recently completed a Phase 1 single ascending dose (SAD) trial in healthy volunteers and has since launched a multiple ascending dose (MAD) trial in patients with early-stage AD. Topline SAD results were positive, showing that VY7523 was well tolerated across dose levels and achieved expected central nervous system exposure. Alongside its antibody-based approach, Voyager is also advancing a gene therapy pipeline powered by its proprietary TRACER capsid technology. These engineered capsids are designed to deliver therapeutic payloads directly to brain cells while minimizing off-target exposure in tissues such as the liver. Among these programs is VY1706, a tau-silencing gene therapy intended to suppress pTAU production in neurons for the treatment of Alzheimer's. At the 2025 AD/PD conference, Voyager presented encouraging non-human primate data showing that a single intravenous dose of VY1706 achieved dose-dependent, robust reductions in MAPT mRNA and tau protein across critical brain regions. An Investigational New Drug (IND) filing remains on track for 2026. The promise of Voyager's TRACER platform has attracted major pharmaceutical partners. Through deals with Neurocrine Biosciences, Novartis, and Alexion (a subsidiary of AstraZeneca), the company could earn up to $7.4 billion in milestone payments. The Neurocrine collaboration is already advancing gene therapy programs for Friedreich's ataxia and GBA1-related disorders, with IND filings expected in 2025 and clinical trials slated to begin in 2026. Voyager could receive up to $35 million in milestone payments tied to these near-term milestones. Currently trading at $2.74 per share, VYGR may be flying under the radar – but Oppenheimer's Jay Olson sees it as a compelling entry point. 'We remain enthusiastic about VYGR's unique platform and optionality, and believe VYGR is well-positioned to pursue tau-targeting with different approaches. VYGR's strong balance sheet with a cash runway into mid-2027 should offer stability… Additionally, we are encouraged by the positive preclinical data, external validation of the platform technology through multiple collaborations with industry leaders, a strong management team, and our optimistic long-term view on the gene therapy and CNS therapeutic area,' Olson said. To this end, Olson rates VYGR an Outperform (i.e., Buy), and his $18 price target implies room for a stunning 556% upside potential in the next 12 months. (To watch Olson's track record, click here) Tvardi Therapeutics (TVRD) The second name catching Oppenheimer's attention is Tvardi Therapeutics, another biopharmaceutical firm – but a newcomer to the public markets. The TVRD ticker began trading on the NASDAQ on April 16 of this year, following the completion of a merger between Tvardi Therapeutics and Cara Therapeutics. Following its public debut, Tvardi is now focused on developing breakthrough therapies for fibrosis-driven diseases. Its approach centers on targeting STAT3 (signal transducer and activator of transcription 3), a key protein in the STAT family, known for its pivotal role in numerous cellular processes. At the center of Tvardi's clinical efforts is TTI-101, an oral small-molecule STAT3 inhibitor that selectively targets pY-STAT3 within the SH2 domain. Tvardi is advancing TTI-101 as a treatment for both hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), two diseases marked by high unmet need and limited effective therapies. Early clinical results have been encouraging. In a first-in-human Phase 1 trial involving patients with advanced solid tumors, including HCC, TTI-101 was well tolerated with no dose-limiting toxicities. Pharmacodynamic data confirmed target engagement, with biopsies showing reduced levels of activated STAT3. Tvardi expects topline data from its ongoing Phase 1b/2 REVERT Liver Cancer clinical trial in HCC to be available in the first half of 2026. Meanwhile, building on insights from the same trial, Tvardi is also advancing the REVERT IPF Phase 2 study – a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial evaluating TTI-101, both as a monotherapy and in combination with nintedanib, in patients diagnosed with IPF within the past seven years. On May 27, 2025, the company announced that enrollment was complete, with topline results expected in the fourth quarter of this year. The potential of TTI-101, based on its earlier clinical trial results and optimistic forecasts for the current trials, has not gone unnoticed by Oppenheimer's Olson. The analyst is encouraged by the possible long-term returns, assuming success in both the trial and regulatory process. 'We see an underappreciated opportunity for lead asset TTI-101 as we forecast ~$1.2B peak risk-adjusted sales in 2040. Blinded Ph2a interim data suggest that TTI-101 could reverse IPF progression, thus supporting favorable differentiation from key competitors, with detailed Ph2a results expected in 2H25 serving as a potential valuable inflection point. In HCC, we believe TTI-101 offers a novel, mechanistically distinct approach, with interim Ph1b/2 data suggesting synergy in combination with SoC ahead of topline results in 1H26. We leverage our expertise in IPF and HCC to inform our analysis, and view TVRD as well-capitalized through key catalysts… Based on our DCF valuation of TVRD, we believe that its shares remain underappreciated,' Olson stated. With that backdrop, Olson rates TVRD an Outperform (i.e., Buy), alongside a $65 price target, suggesting a potential upside of 129% from current levels. Overall, this new stock has picked up 4 analyst reviews since it went public, and all are positive – making the Strong Buy consensus rating unanimous. TVRD is currently trading for $28.34, and its $50.75 average price target suggests that the shares have a 79% upside lying in wait for the year ahead. (See TVRD stock forecast) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks' Best Stocks to Buy, a tool that unites all of TipRanks' equity insights.
