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THE DAILY INDEX

Technology, AI, software, security, crypto and business

Across today’s newsletters

Today’s Index

UBER IN TALKS WITH ITS FOUNDER, TRAVIS KALANICK, TO FUND SELF-DRIVING CAR DEAL

Uber is in talks with Travis Kalanick, the company's co-founder, to help fund his acquisition of the US subsidiary of Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony.ai. Kalanick was forced out of Uber in a boardroom coup eight years ago - after, he founded CloudKitchens, where he will remain if the deal goes through. Pony.ai has permits to operate robot taxis and trucks in the US and China. Kalanick will run Pony.ai if the deal is completed.

UNDERSTANDING REACT RE-RENDERS: WHAT TRIGGERS THEM AND WHY THEY MATTER

React re-renders components when their state changes, triggering a re-render of the component itself and, by default, all its child components. Wrapping components in `React.memo` can prevent re-renders if props haven't changed, but this comes with complexities and isn't always the best solution. A more effective approach is to isolate state and the components that depend on it into smaller, dedicated components.

CRITICAL CISCO ISE VULNERABILITIES ALLOW REMOTE CODE EXECUTION

Cisco announced fixes for two critical (CVSS 10/10) vulnerabilities in its Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ISE Passive Identity Connector, which could allow unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE). The first vulnerability is caused by a lack of input validation, which allows unauthenticated attackers to submit crafted API requests and execute arbitrary code with root privileges. The second vulnerability is caused by a lack of file validation, which could allow an attacker to store malicious files in arbitrary directories on the device.

DINARI BECOMES FIRST TO WIN U.S. APPROVAL FOR TOKENIZED STOCKS

Dinari has become the first platform approved to offer tokenized stocks in the U.S., unlocking access to blockchain-based versions of publicly listed equities. While Coinbase and Kraken are also pursuing similar licenses, tokenized stocks had previously been limited to international users. Dinari's dShares are already tradable abroad. The firm now plans to operationalize its U.S. broker-dealer arm, positioning itself at the forefront of onchain real-world asset (RWA) innovation.

GOOGLE BEGINS ROLLING OUT AI SEARCH ON YOUTUBE

Google has been transforming its web search into a zero-click experience with AI, and now, the same focus is coming to YouTube. Select searches on YouTube will now return a collection of relevant videos with AI-generated summaries. Each summary will extract the information most related to users' search queries, so they may not even have to watch the videos. The AI results carousel is currently being tested with YouTube Premium subscribers and is entirely opt-in.

THE FAILURES AND FUTURES OF CANCER VACCINES

The cancer vaccine field has yet to become a systematic science despite decades of work. This article speculates on why the field has failed and the next-gen approaches worth looking out for. One of the core problems in cancer vaccine development lies in the nature of neoantigens, which are often overwhelmingly similar to normal cellular proteins. The field has had some tentative early successes in pancreatic cancer, kidney cancer, and a range of solid tumors. There is potential for a startup to outcompete incumbents by exploring novel target areas outside of the field's almost singular focus on single nucleotide variants.

THE FIRST NON-OPIOID PAINKILLER

The FDA approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals' Journavx (suzetrigine), the first non-opioid pain reliever suitable for treating post-surgery pain, in January. Clinical trials found that patients didn't show any of the problematic side effects associated with opioids. Unlike opioids, Journavx doesn't meaningfully interact with the brain - it instead targets a specific sodium ion channel found almost exclusively on peripheral nociceptors (pain-sensing neurons), blocking them from sending pain signals to the brain. The drug is a product of 27 years of research and billions of dollars.

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