Uber Lays Off Another 350 Employees

Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) said Monday that it laid off about 350 employees across several different teams, as part of its final phase of layoffs of the process it began earlier this year.

The Job cuts will affect employees from Uber Eats, performance marketing, the advanced technologies group, recruiting and teams within the global rides and platform departments. Some employees have also been asked to relocate, Uber said.

“Days like today are tough for us all, and the ELT and I will do everything we can to make certain that we won’t need or have another day like this ahead of us. We all have to play a part by establishing a new normal in how we work: identifying and eliminating duplicate work, upholding high standards for performance, giving direct feedback and taking action when expectations aren’t being met, and eliminating the bureaucracy that tends to creep as companies grow,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in an email to employees.

In September, Uber laid off about 435 employees from its product and engineering teams. In July, the company laid off about 400 employees from its marketing division.

PetMed’s stock rockets toward biggest gain in 17 years after earnings beat

Shares of PetMed Express Inc. PETS, +30.81% rocketed 29% toward an 11-month high in active morning trading Monday, after the pet pharmacy reported fiscal second-quarter profit and sales that fell less than expected, as growth in re-order sales offset a decline in new order sales. The stock was on track for the biggest one-day gain since it ran up 30.6% on Oct. 10, 2002. Net income for the quarter to Sept. 30 fell to $6.7 million, or 33 cents a share, from $3.1 million, or 52 cents a share, in the year-ago period, to beat the FactSet earnings-per-share consensus of 26 cents. Sales declined 2.0% to $69.9 million, but topped the FactSet consensus of $69.7 million, as re-order sales grew 1.4% to $61.9 million and new order sales tumbled 22% to $8.1 million. The company added 98,000 new customers during the quarter, down from 117,000 last year, while advertising costs of acquiring a customer rose to $49 from $45. The stock has soared 54.3% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.47% has edged up 0.7%.

A Mumbling Assange Tells Judge That He ‘Can’t Think Properly’

A mumbling Julian Assange told a London judge that he didn’t understand a court proceeding Monday as the WikiLeaks founder complained that his isolation in a British prison made it hard to fight the U.S. extradition case against him.

In rambling, often inaudible comments, the 48-year-old said he wasn’t able to do research from his cell. The American government is seeking to bring him to the U.S. to face charges that he endangered national security by conspiring to obtain and disclose classified information.

Assange has been in Belmarsh prison since he was evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in April. The Australian has been in hiding or in prison for seven years since he first jumped bail to avoid questioning in a Swedish sexual-assault case.

“It’s very hard where I am to do anything,” Assange, dressed in a sweater and jacket, said in court. “This is not equitable, what’s happening here.”

His comments came at the end of a hearing where his lawyers sought extra time to fight the American charges, arguing that political crimes aren’t covered by the U.K.-U.S. extradition treaty.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser set the full hearing for late February.

After Assange said he couldn’t understand, Baraitser told him that his lawyer could explain everything to him.

But Assange continued to ramble.

“I can’t think properly,” he said.

Seattle Genetics stock soars 15% on positive trial of breast cancer treatment

Seattle Genetics Inc. shares SGEN, +14.52% soared 15% Monday, after the company announced positive results in a trial of a treatment for breast cancer. Bothell, Wash.-based Seattle Genetics said the trial of tucatinib in locally advanced or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer met its primary endpoint of progression-free survival. Patients were treated with tucatinib in combination with trastuzumab and capecitabine to trastuzumab and capecitabine alone. The trial also met its secondary endpoints. "Based on these findings, we plan to unblind the trial and offer tucatinib to patients on the control arm," Chief Medical Officer Roger Dansey said in a statement. The company is also planning to submit a New Drug Application to the FDA in the first quarter of 2020, he said. HER2-positive breast cancer is an aggressive form of the disease that affects 15% to 20% of cases worldwide. The trial is expected to enroll about 460 patients in North America, Europe and Asia. Leerink analysts said the trial is another win for Seattle Genetics and a "near best-case scenario." They reiterated their outperform rating on the stock. Shares have gained 76% in 2019, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.48% has gained 19%.

Iran's Ali Sadr Cave 'too commercial' for world heritage list

Villagers in Ali Sadr say over-commercialisation of their cave has cost them a chance of gaining UNESCO world heritage status.

One of the natural wonders of the world is in the hills of northwestern Iran.

Ali Sadr is the world’s largest water-filled cave and attracts thousands of visitors each year.

It once could have been a candidate to become a UNESCO world heritage site but not any more.

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi reports from Ali Sadr village in Hamadan Province, Iran.