Elevating Discourse Enabling Insight
Elevating Discourse Enabling Insight
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Google updated reporting for Demand Gen campaigns, giving advertisers more granular visibility into how YouTube placements perform.
Why we care. Until now, Demand Gen reporting lumped all YouTube traffic together, making it hard for advertisers to know whether Shorts, In-Feed, or In-Stream placements were driving results. The new segmentation means marketers can finally align creatives with the formats that convert best.
What’s new.
The big picture. For many advertisers, Google Discover has been the strongest Demand Gen placement. But with YouTube usage shifting heavily toward Shorts and mobile-first formats, having clear performance data across each placement could reshape creative strategies and budget allocations.
First seen. This update was first spotted by Georgi Zayakov, senior consultant at Hutter Consult AG.
Eleven years after P.T. was released, the delisted Silent Hills demo is an example of a project that could have become a great horror game if it hadn’t been canceled by Konami. Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry director Hideki Kamiya counts himself among P.T.’s fans, and he wants Hideo Kojima to make another game like that. And if Kojima won’t revisit the horror of P.T., then perhaps Kamiya will tackle it himself.
In a post shared on X (translated by IGN), Kamiya said, “If it’s impossible to resurrect P.T., Kojima should make a new game in the same style. if Kojima doesn’t do it, maybe I’ll give it a go. I hate horror though, so it wouldn’t be horror… Plus, I have no ideas.”
Kamiya has previously shared his admiration for P.T., while adding that he finds the game too scary to play alone. He also noted that the Japanese horror title, The Exit 8, taps into the desire for more P.T., but he felt it was a “lite” version of P.T..
Although P.T. is no longer available to readily play, someone figured out how to track the movements of Lisa, the malevolent spirit in the demo. The legacy of P.T. has lived on since its release, and it’s even been remade by fans in Halo Infinite.
One of Kojima’s upcoming titles, OD, appeared to pay homage to Silent Hills in an early trailer. That game is believed to be a horror title that’s exclusive to Xbox Series X|S, but Kojima has yet to share firm details about what the game is about.
Exposure to high concentrations of air pollution may worsen Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by accelerating the buildup of toxic proteins in the brain and speeding up cognitive decline. For the first time, post-mortem tissue from people with AD revealed that those who lived in areas with higher concentrations of fine particulate matter in the air even just one year had more severe accumulation of amyloid plaques and tau tangles — hallmarks of Alzheimer’s pathology — compared to those with less exposure. These individuals also experienced faster cognitive and functional decline, including memory loss, impaired judgment, and difficulty with personal care, according to research published today (September 8) in JAMA Neurologyfrom the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
“This study shows that air pollution doesn’t just increase the risk of dementia — it actually makes Alzheimer’s disease worse,” said Edward Lee, MD, PhD, co-director of Penn’s Institute on Aging. “As researchers continue to search for new treatments, it’s important to uncover all of the factors that contribute to the disease, including the influence of the environment in which they live.”
Health risks from tiny air particles
Air pollution is made up of fine particulate matter, or the tiny, inhalable particles, ranging from 10 micrometers to less than 2.5 micrometers wide, about half the width of a single strand of spider web. It can come from wildfire smoke, car exhaust, construction site debris, or combustion from factories. Particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller (PM2.5) is so small that when inhaled, the particles can be absorbed into the blood stream and cause health concerns. Previous research has linked air pollution containing PM2.5 with dementia, loss of cognitive function, and accelerated cognitive decline.
The researchers examined brain samples from over 600 autopsies from the Penn Medicine Brain Bank. Using data from satellites and local air quality monitors, the researchers modeled the amount of PM2.5 in the air based on where each person lived. They found that for every increase of 1 microgram per cubic meter of PM2.5, the risk for worse Alzheimer’s disease amyloid and tau buildup increased by 19 percent.
Further, when they examined the clinical records of these individuals, researchers found that those who lived in areas with high concentrations of PM2.5 with advanced pathology also had greater cognitive impairment and more rapid onset of symptoms, including memory loss, difficulty with speech, and diminished judgement, compared to people who lived in areas with lower concentrations of air pollution.
While this study focused on exposures to PM2.5 based on geographic location, researchers acknowledgethat they could not account for individual-specific exposures to air pollution, such as exposure to second-hand smoke in the home, or working with potentially dangerous chemicals.
“In the United States, air pollution is at the lowest levels in decades, but even just a year living in an area with high levels of pollution can have a big impact on a person’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease,” said Lee. “It underscores the value of environmental justice efforts that focus on reducing air pollution to improve public health.”
This research is funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P30AG072979, P01AG066597, U19AG062418, P01AG084497, and P30ES013508).
The Updated Law Society, in collaboration with Jayasree Publications, is inviting contributions for an edited book. The Society aims to promote legal scholarship by encouraging interdisciplinary and contemporary research. Jayasree Publications is a reputed academic publisher known for bringing out quality legal and interdisciplinary works.
The proposed edited volume titled “Law in Transition: Contemporary Challenges and Interdisciplinary Perspectives” seeks to compile original, unpublished chapters that critically examine the evolving role of law in addressing pressing contemporary issues across social, technological, environmental, and global dimensions.
Law in Transition: Contemporary Challenges and Interdisciplinary Perspectives
Suggested Sub-Themes (Indicative, Not Exhaustive)
This opportunity is open to:
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: WEF April, 2021, Lawctopus will not publish any ‘Call for Papers/Blogs’ by journals that charge money at the time of submission. If you find any journal doing so, please intimate us at tanuj.kalia[at]lawctopus.com
Bold, smoky, and bursting with heat, this prawn choila recipe is the perfect dinner for monsoon nights
Eli Lilly will give small biotechnology companies a chance to use artificial intelligence models trained on years of the pharmaceutical company’s research, launching Tuesday a new platform its says could help young startups a leg up in discovering new drug molecules.
Called TuneLab, the platform incorporates data Lilly’s obtained developing “hundreds of thousands of unique molecules.” Biotechs can access these datasets and the AI models trained on them using a distributed system designed to protect proprietary information. In return, Lilly can refine its AI models and use data contributed by participating companies.
According to Aliza Apple, head of TuneLab, about a dozen startups have joined up so far, including Insitro, which was already collaborating with Lilly and in a separate announcement Wednesday touted plans to collaborate on machine learning models.
“These models have the potential to be a game-changer by giving researchers an elegant and powerful way to zero in on drug-like chemical structures at the earliest stages,” said Philip Tagari, Insitro’s chief scientific officer, in a statement.
Others include Circle Pharma, a cancer drug developer; Firefly Bio, which is making degrader-antibody conjugates; and Superluminal Medicines, which is developing AI technology of its own as well as medicines that target proteins known as GPCRs.
To qualify for participation, startups must have advanced into preclinical development with either a small molecule or an antibody drug candidate, according to Apple.
Lilly enlisted Rhino Federated Computing, a startup using Nvidia technology, to protect Lilly’s and participating companies’ data using what’s known as a “federated system.” Essentially, Lilly’s AI models are distributed to “nodes,” where they are trained on local data. Updates to the models based on this work are shared with a central server, improving what Lilly can then offer other companies.
AI promises to speed up many aspects of drug discovery and development, although its impact to date in the sector has been more modest and scattershot than its loudest proponents claim.
While several AI-discovered drugs have made it into clinical testing, one of the first to read out results — a Recursion Pharmaceuticals medicine for a neurovascular condition — fell short of expectations.
Still, AI models can speed up how quickly companies are able to vet drug compounds and winnow them down to identify the most promising candidate to advance into preclinical experiments. They may also help scientists test hypotheses they otherwise might not have explored. All this might help companies spend less time and resources in the laboratory.
With TuneLab, Lilly is trying to get creative in how it partners with young biotechs. The new platform is part of Lilly’s broader investment in early-stage life sciences under its “Catalyze360” program. Lilly also invests directly in startups through its Lilly Ventures arms, provides lab space at its Gateway Labs and what the company describes as “drug development expertise” through its ExploR&D initiative.
Earlier this year, Lilly also partnered with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to launch a new biotech investment fund.
“It’s not just these big alliances or you have to culminate in M&A or a big partnership that has many, many zeroes after the dollar sign,” Nisha Nanda, head of Catalyze360, told BioPharma Dive in an interview in July.
“Our North Star is being present and the partner of choice,” she said.
When it’s time to start looking for your next property purchase, you’ll come across a lot of jargon you might not have heard before.
Saving for a deposit or house hunting is time-consuming enough, so when it comes to deciphering some of the real estate market code and industry lingo you could probably do with a little help.
Here is an A to Z of all the real estate jargon terms that you need to know before embarking on your next purchase.
An owner or sub-lessor who does not reside in the place or area in which he/she owns real estate from which he/she derives rental income.
A summary of the auction advertisements which appear on the property page of a newspaper.
A chronological summary of conveyances, mortgages or leases and other deeds giving the names of the parties and the description of the land, arranged to show the continuity of ownership of general law land not under the Torrens system.
A clause in a mortgage document that requires the immediate repayment of the entire balance due under the said mortgage at any given time should there be a breach of the conditions of the mortgage e.g. repayment default.
A dwelling designed to allow easier access for physically disabled or vision impaired persons.
A government department, local authority or other body empowered by statute to acquire land compulsorily.
Apportionment of rates, taxes, body corporate fees, rent, insurances etc up to the date of possession or settlement on a sale or letting.
A person authorised to act for another (usually for the owner) in the selling, buying, renting or management of a property.
Commonly used to refer to licensed real estate agents and real estate representatives.
Two or more agents are employed by a principal to sell or let real estate and share commission.
This is the length of time it would take to pay off a mortgage in full, based on regular payments at a certain interest rate.
A longer amortisation period means you’ll pay more interest than if you got the same loan with a shorter amortisation period.
A property appraisal is when a real estate agent determines and quotes the estimated sale price of your property based on their experience of the area, similar sales, and their knowledge of buyer demand.
It will typically take into consideration things like ‘street appeal’, the property’s interior and exterior, and the size of the land.
The real estate agent will compare these factors to similar homes that have recently sold in the area and give an estimated figure.
The appreciation is the amount the property value has increased over time.
Arrears are unpaid debts.
An auction is a property sale held by an auctioneer and sold to the highest bidder.
These are usually done in public (either on- or off-site), virtually or on the phone.
An agreement that the vendor must sign when a property is listed for auction.
Details the reserve price and the costs of the auction, including advertising and the agent’s commission.
Usually includes a condition that one agent will have the exclusive right to sell the property for a period during and after the auction.
A professional who is licensed to sell, or offer for sale, real estate where persons become purchasers by competition, being the highest bidders.
One per cent (1%) is the equivalent of 100 basis points.
A verbal or written offer to purchase.
This is the managing body that administers common property or common areas in multi-unit developments.
Common property or common areas can include things such as the driveway, facilities, foyer and stairwell, gym, pool or any other common area in the building.
By buying an apartment, townhouse, or duplex the owner is automatically part of the Body Corporate for that complex.
A treasurer, secretary, and chairperson are then elected, and these spots can be filled by any owner.
A bond is used for rental properties and acts as a security deposit to give landlords some financial security in the event that something is damaged or the rent isn’t paid.
The bond is usually 4 times the weekly property rent, paid upfront.
A bridging loan bridges the gap between securing a mortgage for a new property before an existing property is sold.
They offer short-term access to funds at a sometimes higher rate of interest or more likely, just at the standard variable rate, with no discounts applied.
Your credit history will go a long way when it comes to securing a bridging loan with your lender but there are a number of other factors that will affect approval.
These factors include the risk associated with the loan, the value of the property you currently own, the amount of the one you’ll be purchasing and the amount of time the loan needs.
Sets minimum community standards for buildings in terms of health, safety and amenity in buildings for regulatory purposes.
Produced by the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB), refer to www.abcb.com.au
An authorised person who is responsible for checking buildings in the course of construction and completed buildings to ensure that they have been constructed in accordance with building control provisions.
The setback from the site boundary is required by statutory authorities for buildings.
The Building Code of Australia and other regulations stipulated by local authorities relating to the design and construction of buildings.
Planning and development controls that limit the use, size and location of buildings or other improvements on land.
An estate agent licensed and certified to sell businesses.
A buyer’s agent is a real estate professional who represents the buyer and helps secure them the right property at the lowest price.
This includes negotiating with the vendor or their agent.
A buyer’s market is simply a market condition where there is high supply and low demand, driving down prices in favour of the buyer.
A capital gain or capital loss on an asset is the difference between what it cost you and what you receive when you dispose of it.
You pay tax on your capital gains but not a separate tax by itself.
Instead, the capital gain you make is added to your assessable income in whatever year you sold the property.
A caveat is a legal claim of interest on a property.
It’s a notice on the title which alerts you to the fact a party other than the owner has an interest in the property.
‘Caveat emptor means ‘buyer beware’ in Latin and alerts the buyer that the risk in a property transaction lies with them.
A document issued under the Torrens System of Title, showing ownership and interest in a parcel of land.
A commission is a fee or payment, usually calculated as a percentage, made to an agent for their services in selling a property.
Typically it is only collected after a property sells.
A solicitor who specialises in the property law of conveyancing.
They are licensed professional who ensures you meet all the legal obligations involved in your property transaction, including the settlement and title transfer process.
The definition or meaning of conveyancing and conveyancing services is the part of the law involved with preparing documents for the conveyance of property.
In other words, it’s the legal process of transferring ownership of a property from the current owner (vendor or seller) to a new owner (purchaser or buyer).
Generally, a conveyancing transaction consists of three main stages:
These three steps include any work needed when buying or selling a property, subdividing land, updating a title, or registering or changing an easement.
This can include assisting the transfer of ownership, including home loans and any other conveyancing activity.
This is an agreement about the sale of property, which lists the terms and conditions of sale.
When you buy a residential property there is a five business-day (for NSW, although it may differ by state) cooling-off period after you exchange sale contracts.
During this period, which starts as soon as you exchange, you have the option to get out of or withdraw the offer with no legal repercussions – as long as you give written notice.
A cooling-off period does not apply if you buy a property at auction or exchange contracts on the same day as the auction after it is passed in.
A counteroffer is a ‘new’ offer made in reply to a prior unacceptable offer – usually, the counter offer terminates the previous offer.
A document executed under seal. For example, a conveyance.
Percentage of total consideration, or an agreed amount, paid on exchange of contract for the purchase of an asset.
Depreciation is the reduction in the value of an asset over time.
Approval from the relevant planning authority to construct, add, amend or change the structure of a property.
Recoverable costs.
For example, in the case of real estate sales, expenses paid by an agent on behalf of an owner, such as advertising, rates and taxes.
A building that represents a completed example of a dwelling type offered for sale.
This is the value accrued on an asset over and above the debt owing.
A charge or liability on a property; for example, a mortgage or a special condition on the use to which it may be put (e.g. easements, restrictions and reservations).
Eviction is the action of expelling a tenant from a rental property.
The legally binding part of the sale process is where two contracts are drawn up and signed by each party and then exchanged so the buyer has the contract with the vendor’s signature and vice versa.
A deposit is usually paid at this time.
An expression of interest is like a silent auction or bidding approach, in which the real estate agent will set a due date from the time the property is listed.
By that date, any interested parties are asked to submit their best offer, often with any conditions requested (e.g. the length of the settlement period).
The right granted to a person to have the first privilege to buy or lease real estate, or the right to meet any offer made by another.
Installed items that may be removed from real estate without causing irreparable damage to the land, structure or use of the premises.
An interest rate that remains unchanged for a set period, for example, for the whole term of the loan, or the first year of a loan.
Those parts of a property are affixed to structures or land, usually in such a manner that they cannot be independently moved without damage to themselves or the property housing supporting or pertinent to them.
Fixtures are usually included in a sale and commonly include items such as carpets and awnings.
The person is liable to pay your loan if you default on the mortgage.
A situation where a vendor and buyer agree on a price but then the vendor sells to another party at a higher price/more favourable terms.
The amount paid by a borrower to a lender over and above the main amount borrowed ( also known as the ‘principal’).
The interest rate can be fixed, variable or a combination of the two.
An investment-grade property is a property that is suitable for investment.
The things I look for in any investment (including property) are:
The rate of return earned on an investment or charged by a lender is expressed in the form of a percentage per annum.
Property (land or a building – or part of a building – or both) held (by the owner or by the lessee under a finance lease) to earn rentals or for capital appreciation or both.
A tax payable annually in respect of the beneficial ownership of land, the rate of which is determined by the assessed valuation.
Usually based on the unimproved value of land.
A lease is a legally binding contract or rental agreement between the lessor (owner) and lessee (renter) where the lessee can occupy the lessor’s property for a set time in exchange for payment under certain terms.
Also known as a tenancy agreement.
(a) A term commonly used by agents for obtaining an instruction to sell or lease real estate;
(b) The recording of properties as being available for sale.
Lender’s Mortgage Insurance or LMI is a non-refundable, one-off fee added to your home loan in an instance where you’re wanting to borrow more than 80 per cent of your home’s value.
It protects the lender against higher-risk borrowers.
Loan to Value Ratio (LVR) is your loan amount relative to the value of your home.
For example, a $500,000 home loan secured against a property that is worth $1,000,000 = 50 percent LVR. The higher the LVR, the higher the risk for the lender (which is why when LVR is 80 per cent or more, you’ll be charged Lender’s Mortgage Insurance).
Market value is the estimated amount for which an asset should exchange on the date of valuation between a willing buyer and a willing seller in an arm’s length transaction after proper marketing, wherein the parties had each acted knowledgeably, prudently and without compulsion.
The middle number is when data is arranged from the lowest to the highest in sequence.
If there are two median scores, they are averaged to provide the true median.
The median is also known as the 50th percentile.
The process by which a third party assists two disputing parties to reach a mutually agreeable solution.
A recommendation made by the mediator is not necessarily binding on the parties.
A type of loan where real estate is used as collateral.
It allows the borrower to buy property or land and is a written and binding contract that provides security to the lender.
Insurance is paid by the borrower to protect the lender in a situation where they may not be able to meet their repayments.
When the expenses (including interest repayments) associated with an investment property are higher than the earnings from the property, it is considered ‘negatively geared’ and can reduce tax liability in Australia (for now).
The consideration offered to purchase or lease an asset.
Property sold without public advertising.
A term used during an auction when the vendor’s reserve price has been reached and the property is now officially for sale to the highest bidder.
If a property is not sold at auction because the owner’s reserve price has not been reached, it is passed in.
Where a tenant continues to rent/occupy the property after the lease has formally expired.
Approval from the relevant authority to use the property for a specified use.
Also known as conditional approval, this is when a lender has agreed to loan you a particular amount in principle, but nothing has proceeded to final approval.
Pre-approval allows you to know how much you have to bid or offer on a home.
What we traditionally associate with a sale of a property, is where a seller sets their price and begins negotiating with potential buyers through their agent.
Cooling-off periods are part of private treaty sales unless the buyer removes this condition to secure the property.
(a) A term used in most Australian contracts in lieu of ‘client’ or ‘proprietor’;
(b) A licensed estate agent holding responsibility for an agency’s legislative compliance activities including legal responsibility for trust accounts.
Where an owner offers a property for sale without engaging an agent.
A sale is negotiated directly between the parties or their agents.
A person or firm who manages the upkeep of a property on behalf of its owner.
The minimum price a vendor has agreed to accept during an auction but can be tweaked during the auction process.
A mortgage over a residential property owned by a person (usually over 55 years of age), where repayments are not required until the property is sold or the last homeowner dies.
A situation in which supply is scarce and demand for property is high, leading prices to remain high.
The date when the property sale is finalised and paid and the buyer becomes the official owner of the property.
A government tax is applied to transfers of property and mortgages.
Calculated as a percentage of the contract value, stamp duty varies from state to state, and discounts are available for certain parties, including first-home buyers.
Strata title is a method of facilitating individual ownership of part of a property – generally an apartment, unit, or townhouse.
Uniquely, strata title allows for individual ownership of an actual lot or unit whilst sharing ownership of the common grounds on which it is built.
A property title holds a bundle of legal information about a piece of property, including details about the land and who owns it or has a mortgage on it.
Documents evidencing the ownership of property.
This is the title to land by registration.
Originating in South Australia under the stewardship of R.R.Torrens (later Sir Robert Torrens) and enacted in 1858.
The Torrens titles have superseded the ‘Common Law Title’ system throughout Australia.
Under the Torrens system dealings and ownership of land are managed by registration with the Titles Office.
A separate bank account managed by a real estate agent where funds (such as deposits and rental income) are held on behalf of another party.
An offer for property not subject to any other conditions (things like building and pest inspections or organising finance).
The buyer accepts the property unconditionally. All auction sales are unconditional.
When both parties have agreed on the purchase price and applicable terms and conditions, but the contract hasn’t yet been finalised, a property is ‘under offer’.
Once the conditions have been met, the property is unconditional and then sold.
Normally when a property is under offer no further offers can be made or accepted.
A property valuation is a formal, detailed report undertaken by a certified practising valuer (CPV) that determines a property’s market value and examines the property beyond its size and location.
After a valuer inspects the property in person, they’ll compile a valuation report with details of the zoning, the condition of the property, a review of the property’s land title and identify easements or encumbrances, highlight the highest and best use of the property and address any adverse features about that property which might affect its value.
A big part of the valuation process includes risk ratings, which the bank relies on as part of its decision-making process.
One who sells anything.
In real estate transactions, the person(s) or entity selling the property.
A bid that is set by the auctioneer on behalf of the vendor during an auction, to establish a fair starting price.
An auction term signifying that a reserve price has not been set, such that the highest bid will prevail.
The derived percentage return of a property is assessed from the net income and the market value or price.
It is calculated by dividing the net income by the opening market value or price.
A local planning tool to control the present and future development of land including residential, business and industrial uses.
When I bought my Samsung phone, I didn’t think much about how much data it was sending out. By default, Samsung can link your account to ads, and Google can save your searches, locations, and app activity. These are some of the default Android settings that threaten your privacy and share more than you expect.
The good news is you don’t have to leave all of that running. A few setting changes can block many of the biggest tracking sources, and it takes only a few minutes.
Google records a lot of what happens on your phone. Searches, the apps you open, your routes in Maps, and even the videos you watch on YouTube are stored in your account by default, adding to how much Google already knows. Over time, this builds a timeline of your daily habits.
To change this:
Once you’ve done this, the new activity won’t be logged into your account. Maps and YouTube still work, but without the constant tracking behind the scenes.
Every Android phone has a unique advertising ID. Apps use it to follow your activity across different services, building a profile even when you’re not signed in. It works in the background, tying together what you do in different applications.
To remove it:
From that moment, your phone no longer provides an ID for tracking. If you’d rather reset than delete it, choose Reset advertising ID. That clears the old one and creates a fresh ID, breaking the link to your past activity.
Samsung includes a feature called the Customization Service that links your account activity to targeted ads and recommendations. It collects details from how you use Samsung apps and services, then tailors ads based on that behavior.
To turn it off:
The ads themselves won’t disappear, but they’ll become generic instead of being tied to your specific habits.
Samsung phones don’t just send advertising data. In the background, they can also share diagnostic reports that include crash logs, performance details, and general usage information. Samsung says this helps improve its software, but it also means regular reports leave your device without you noticing.
To check this:
Turning this off doesn’t affect how your phone works day to day. All features keep working as usual, and if you ever need to, you can still submit a report manually through the Samsung Members app.
Location is one of the most sensitive permissions on any phone. Navigation or ride-hailing apps need it to work properly, but plenty of others request it even when it adds little value.
To review these permissions:
You’ll also find a toggle for Use precise location. Turning it off limits apps to your approximate area instead of your exact spot. With these adjustments, your location is shared only with the apps you trust, and only when you choose to do so.
Google collects more than just your searches and location. It also gathers usage and diagnostics data, including app performance, battery levels, and system activity. The company frames this as a way to improve Android, though it results in technical information leaving your phone regularly.
To review this:
Your phone will stop sending any usage and diagnostic data once this is done.
These are the settings I changed to prevent my Samsung phone from sending more data than necessary. But privacy on your phone isn’t something you fix once and forget. It works best when you treat it as a habit, checking in periodically to ensure the right switches are still off.
Updates can quietly reset defaults, and new apps often request more access than they actually need. Taking a few minutes every couple of months to review your settings is a simple way to stay in control.
Tianjin wrestling expert Zhang Shaohua has embarked on a journey north with two young disciples to the vast grasslands of Inner Mongolia. They came not only to gain technical knowledge, but for a journey into tradition and culture. Under skies washed in blue and across carpets of green, galloping herds streaked the horizon. The young wrestlers breathed in the expanse of the steppe and witnessed firsthand the appeal of Mongolian Bökh.
Issa Rae, of “Insecure” fame, is an executive producer of (and a major figure in) a new two-part documentary, “Seen & Heard: The History of Black Television,” premiering Tuesday on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. Presented as a film by Giselle Bailey, with a directed by credit shared with Phil Bertelsen, it’s not a comprehensive accounting — any viewer who has watched much TV over the medium’s decades might have an opinion on what’s missing. But what’s here is always interesting, elegantly produced, sometimes exciting, often moving. Young viewers, whose historical and cultural interests might extend no further than their own births, may have their eyes opened, but even we who remember a time before “Julia” may learn a thing or two.
The first episode, “Seen,” begins with Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson in the green room waiting to go on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” to celebrate the end of “black-ish,” after eight seasons — a Black-created, Black-run series on a major broadcast network — before jumping back to the white-written “Amos & Andy,” and a halting march into a better future. Though the thrust of the combined episodes is more than hopeful — the second episode, “Heard,” is a story of successes — it’s also one of struggle. And in a time when powerful forces want to erase struggle from history, it’s good to remember, or learn, that there was a time within the memory of people you’ll meet here, when Black people barely existed in television, in front of or behind the camera.
“Heard” is essentially a series of profiles in which major industry players tell their stories. “American Fiction” director Cord Jefferson, who left journalism to write for television (“The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore,” “The Good Place,” an Emmy for “Watchmen”), discusses generational trauma and talks with his father on Zoom about their anger issues (they both seem to be doing well); directors Deondray and Quincy LeNear Gossfield (working on Lena Waithe’s “The Chi”), visit Quincy’s family in suburban Chicago and talk about coming out after keeping their relationship secret for years. Tyler Perry gets emotional with Oprah, remembering the bad old days, and shows the filmmakers around his Atlanta studio complex, with soundstages named after Black stars, including Oprah (stage No. 1, naturally), Denzel Washington, Cicely Tyson, Whoopi Goldberg, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis. Oprah herself recounts her journey from rural poverty to “not good” TV news reporter to talk show host. (She wasn’t planning on becoming a media mogul, but she’s Oprah, after all.)
HBO “Seen & Heard: The History Of Black Television”
(HBO)
Also appearing here are Debbie Allen, Shonda Rhimes, Wilmore, Waithe, Mara Brock Akil (creator of “Girlfriends” and “The Game”), Ava DuVernay, Justin Simien (“Dear White People”), trans actor Dominique Jackson (“Pose”), mogul Byron Allen, and Syreeta Singleton, promoted from a writer’s assistant on the first season of “Insecure” to showrunning the next Rae project, “Rap S—.” Stan Lathan went from directing Black-oriented news shows for public television to “Sanford and Son,” after the show’s star Redd Foxx insisted they hire Black directors and writers. (“Sanford was as honest as I could make him under the circumstances,” Foxx tells Barbara Walters in a clip.) The late Norman Lear, who produced “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times” alongside “Sanford,” sounds a little patronizing, or perhaps just defensive, on the subject of not using Black writers on his Black shows.
All these artists have their own styles and concerns but come together on the basic issues of diversity, visibility and control. (They’re not new issues, and they’re still issues.) “There’s a need to see black people in a variety of roles so as to underscore the importance of a diverse and inclusive society,” says USC professor Todd Boyd.
Diahann Carroll, TV’s first female Black lead in “Julia,” back in the late 1960s: “We’re Americans, we’ve been here all the time. We’re part of every walk of life. We should be part of the industry.”
Simien: “The more specifically Black characters can live in paradoxes, the more human we are.”
Esther Rolle, who left “Good Times” for a season over the emphasis on Jimmy Walker’s character, J.J. “Dynomite” Evans — it also drove John Amos from the show — is seen in a contemporary interview saying, “Until there is more participation behind the scenes we’re not going to be able to control what is before the camera.”
It’s a story about influence, about mentoring and being mentored, and torches passing. Debbie Allen remembers Akil as an intern (“She used to park my car”). Waithe, seen addressing a class of aspiring writers, named her production company for Hillman, the college in the “Cosby” spinoff, “A Different World.” (“They weren’t afraid to be complicated.”) Rae was all about “Living Single”: “I consider [Kim Coles] one of the original awkward Black girls.”
The documentary reflects on mentors and mentees, like Debbie Allen, who recalls when Mara Brock Akil, now a TV writer and producer, was an intern.
(HBO)
Bailey handles the unavoidable question of Bill Cosby with some aplomb, covering his fall from grace after allegations of sexual assault in a couple of voice-over headlines while not discounting the importance of “The Cosby Show” (Rae: “Sometimes I thought my mom watched Claire Huxtable to learn how to parent.”) or the salutary effect it had on NBC’s sagging fortunes. (It’s moving to see the late Malcolm Jamal-Warner, who still calls his old boss “Mr. Cosby,” looking so alive here.)
The series is discursive and selective, as it would have to be, given the size of the subject; it’s less about particular shows, most of which are touched on only lightly, than about cultural waves and the feast and famine cycles of Black TV. Donald Glover appears briefly in a scene from Rae’s web series, “The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl,” which led to “Insecure,” but his own “Atlanta,” one of the greatest TV series of the century, isn’t mentioned. Tamera Mowry-Housley, co-star of “Sister Sister,” remembers Tim Reid, who played her father on the show, telling her how new networks would use Black shows to build an audience and then abandon them in favor of white shows; but you wouldn’t know, unless you already knew, that Reid co-produced and starred in one of television’s great lost series, the New Orleans-set “Frank’s Place” on CBS, or co-created the Showtime series “Linc’s,” set in a Washington, D.C., bar.
Yet it speaks in a way to the richness of the subject that some of the most interesting, which is not to say most successful, Black series of the modern era have been out of the mainstream or resist easy categorization — “The Vince Staples Show,” “Black Jesus,” “The Boondocks,” “I’m a Virgo” — none of which fit in this narrative. I was happy, however, to see Terence Nance, whose great surrealist-operatic HBO series “Random Acts of Flyness” is describable only at length, included. “It’s a colonial dynamic, larger corporations provide the money which creates a system of control,” he says of the TV business. “What’s valuable to me is spiritual values, cultural values, essentially [a] nonnegotiable value system inherited from ethereal realms. That will never be valuable to corporations.”
Wilmore is more optimistic. “We’re truly in the best time right now to create something specific that is for your point of view, that’s different,” he says. “Because there’s so many different types of people that are opening different doors.”
In the end, it’s all down to quality. “My goal is to be a really good television writer,” Waithe tells her class. “That was the mission. To be good at that. Nothing else mattered.”
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Social ads remain small businesses’ go-to play despite rising costs. New benchmark data from WordStream LocaliQ shows Facebook’s average cost per lead (CPL) climbed 21% year over year to $27.66. By comparison, Google’s average CPL is $70.11.
By the numbers. Traffic campaigns:
By the numbers – Lead campaigns:
Why we care. Advertisers should care because this data shows where Facebook is still delivering outsized value and where it’s slipping. Traffic campaigns are proving more efficient than ever, with cheaper clicks and stronger engagement. That makes them a smart play for driving awareness and site visits at scale.
On the flip side, lead-generation campaigns are becoming more expensive and less reliable, with conversion rates falling across most industries. For marketers, this means it’s no longer enough to simply run Lead Ads and expect strong ROI — success now depends on tighter targeting, smarter creative, and a sharper focus on lead quality.
The big picture. Traffic campaigns are improving (higher CTR, lower CPC), lead campaigns are weakening (higher CPL, lower CVR) and inflation/competition/privacy rules are squeezing advertisers.
The divergence reflects broader economic and competitive pressures. Inflation and tighter household budgets are likely depressing demand in categories like home improvement and personal care, where conversion rates fell sharply. At the same time, advertising costs are climbing across the board as more businesses fight for the same attention in a crowded digital landscape.
What they’re saying. “Although CPC, CVR, and CPL have all taken a hit this year, CTR improving in spite of higher costs means consumers are still engaging with ads — a good sign for businesses.” — Tyler Mask, Director of Optimization Strategy at LocaliQ
What’s next. Marketers will need to sharpen their strategies in 2025. Experts caution against chasing cheap clicks alone and suggest putting more weight on lead quality over quantity.
Meta’s AI-powered Advantage+ tools can help streamline campaigns, but should be used carefully to avoid wasted spend or poor-quality leads.
A balanced mix of campaign objectives — traffic, branding, and leads — is increasingly important.
Above all, advertisers are urged to keep their larger business goals in mind instead of optimizing for a single metric, since performance trends are shifting across industries.
Full report. Facebook Ads Benchmarks 2025: NEW Data, Trends, & Insights for Your Industry
Patients begin lining up before dawn at Operation Border Health, an annual five-day health clinic in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley. Many residents in this predominantly Latino and Hispanic region spanning the Mexican border lack insurance, making the health fair a major source of free medical care in South Texas for more than 25 years.
Until this year. The Trump administration’s plan to strip more than $550 million in federal public health and pandemic funds from Texas helped prompt cancellation of the event just before its scheduled July 21 start.
“Some people come every year and rely on it,” said Hidalgo County Health and Human Services Director Dairen Sarmiento Rangel. “Some people even camp out outside of Border Health so they can be the first in line to receive services. This event is very important to our community.”
States and local governments have made painful program cuts in the wake of major reductions in federal health funding that have already taken effect. Now, they’re sizing up the financial hits to come — some not until late next year or beyond — from the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the tax and spending law congressional Republicans passed in July that enacts much of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
Texas, for instance, expects to see its federal Medicaid funds reduced by as much as $39 billion over 10 years due to new barriers for enrollment, such as more frequent eligibility checks, according to a July analysis by KFF.
Taken together, the reductions amount to a seismic shift in how state health programs are provided and paid for. The administration is, in effect, pushing a significant amount of health costs to states. That will force their leaders to make difficult choices, as many state budgets are already strained by declining tax revenues, a slowdown in federal pandemic spending, and economic uncertainty.
Revenue forecasters in more than a dozen states have lowered expectations for the coming year, according to a June report by Pew.
“It’s almost inevitable that states will enact a number of cuts to health services because of the fiscal pressure,” said Wesley Tharpe, senior adviser for state tax policy at the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Some are proactively trying to stanch the impact.
Hawaii lawmakers are looking to aid nonprofits that are already contending with federal funding cuts. They’re doling out $50 million in grants to health, social service, and other nonprofits hit by federal funding cuts. To get the money, nonprofits must show a termination or drop in funding, or that they have otherwise been harmed by the cuts.
“It is not fair that organizations dedicated to supporting the people of Hawaii are being forced to scale back due to federal funding cuts,” Democratic Gov. Josh Green said in a statement.
Other states are scaling back projects to contend with cuts. Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, a Democrat, received notice in March that the Trump administration was cutting $38 million in public health funding from the state. The next month, state legislative leaders halted a planned project to upgrade and expand the Capitol complex as a result.
“We recognized that the reckless federal cuts to the social safety nets of thousands of Delawareans called for us to hold back resources to protect our most vulnerable,” said David Sokola, president pro tempore of the Delaware Senate.
In New Mexico, the state with the highest percentage of residents enrolled in Medicaid, a bipartisan group of lawmakers voted to create a trust fund to boost funding for the program. About 10% of the more than 800,000 state residents covered by Medicaid and the related Children’s Health Insurance Program could lose their health coverage under the federal spending law, based on some estimates.
Some state leaders are warning constituents that the worst may be yet to come.
At an Aug. 18 event at a hospital in the South Bronx section of New York City, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, stood on stage among health care workers in white coats to skewer Trump’s new law.
“What Republicans in Washington have done through the ‘Big Ugliest Bill’ I’ve ever seen is literally screwing New Yorkers,” she said. The state’s health system is bracing for nearly $13 billion in annual cuts.
And in California, lawmakers weighed the impact of the coming cuts from the federal law at a general assembly committee hearing on Aug. 20, where some Democratic legislators said state efforts to protect reproductive health services and other programs were in jeopardy.
“We’ve been bracing for this reality: President Trump’s so-called ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ is now law,” Democratic lawmaker Gregg Hart said at the hearing, calling it a “direct assault on California’s core programs and our values.”
“Sadly, the reality is, the state does not have the capacity to backfill all of these draconian federal funding cuts in the current budget,” Hart said. “We cannot simply write a check and make this go away.”
The sweeping budget law, which passed without any Democratic support, will reduce federal spending on Medicaid by about $1 trillion over the next decade, based on estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. The spending reductions largely come from the imposition of a work requirement on people who’ve obtained Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act’s expansion, as well as other new barriers to coverage.
The law will mean more than 7.5 million people will lose Medicaid coverage and become uninsured, according to the Congressional Budget Office, while extending tax cuts for wealthy people who, Democrats say, don’t need them. Republicans and Trump have said the spending package and its accompanying program cuts were necessary to prevent fraud and waste, and to sustain Medicaid, a state-federal program for people with disabilities and lower incomes.
“The One Big Beautiful Bill removes illegal aliens, enforces work requirements, and protects Medicaid for the truly vulnerable,” the White House said in a June 29 statement.
The Medicaid cuts won’t begin until after the midterm elections in November 2026, but other cuts have already hit.
The Trump administration has sought to claw back $11 billion in federal public health funds earmarked to states because of the pandemic, spurring a legal fight with a coalition of Democratic-led states. It also cut about $1 billion in federal grants for mental health services in schools, and halted grants from the National Institutes of Health that provided money to more than 90 public universities.
HHS press secretary Emily Hilliard said the agency is prioritizing investments that advance Trump’s mandate to confront chronic disease. She defended some of the cuts and said, erroneously, that the spending law doesn’t cut Medicaid.
“The covid-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a crisis that Americans moved on from years ago,” she said.
State leaders say the pandemic funding the administration wants returned was earmarked for other public health measures, such as tracking emerging diseases, outbreak responses, and staffing. State attorneys general in May won a temporary restraining order against the administration.
“What we’re seeing now is states anticipating big cuts in Medicaid coming, but they’re also dealing with a whole variety of federal cutbacks in public health programs that are smaller but still quite meaningful,” said Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
Part of the challenge for states is simply understanding the changes.
“I think it’s fair to say there is concern, confusion, and uncertainty,” said Kathryn Costanza, a Medicaid expert at the National Conference of State Legislatures.
States are struggling to sort it all out, forming advisory groups that are tracking federal changes, suing to try to block the cuts, and reallocating funding.
In Colorado, lawmakers passed a bill to let state Medicaid dollars pay for non-abortion care at Planned Parenthood of America clinics after Trump’s law banned federal funding for such care. Whether the ban holds up in court remains to be seen.
The Louisiana Legislature sent $7.5 million to state universities to make up for cuts to federal research funding, much of which goes to health-related research.
And in South Dakota, the state’s largest food bank has asked lawmakers to spend $3 million to make up for funding cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
States must balance their budgets every year, so cuts put many services at risk if state lawmakers are unwilling to raise taxes. The work will begin in earnest in January, when many states begin new legislative sessions.
And the tough choices are likely to continue. Congressional House Republicans are considering legislation that could bring more cuts, including by slashing the generous cost sharing the federal government provides for 20 million adults who enrolled in Medicaid under the ACA’s Medicaid expansion.
Some states will roll back their Medicaid expansions and cut more health programs as a result.
There are a few reasons why these are cheaper than the average machine from Arcade1Up. The Deluxe cabinets are just over 5-feet tall–ideal standing height for adults–whereas the Special Editions are just under 4-feet tall. The good news is you can get a universal Arcade1Up Riser for $59 that raises the height to 5 feet. If you don’t get the Riser, you will likely want an adjustable barstool–unless the cabinet is for kids, in which case the original height will likely be a better fit. The Deluxe editions have 17-inch displays and light-up marquees, so the screen is slightly smaller and you miss out on the illuminated marquee with the Special Edition. The Special Editions also drop the faux coin doors in favor of a panel with logos showcasing each preloaded game.
Outside of those features, however, the Special Edition line offers the same build quality and similar graphics on the sides. These are nice options for those who want to add an arcade cabinet to their game room for under $400. Mortal Kombat II, for instance, is also available as a Deluxe Cabinet for $500, but you can get the extremely similar Special Edition model for $334 (or $393 with the Riser). Just keep in mind that all Arcade1Up cabinets require some assembly; If you’ve ever put together a bookcase or basic cabinet, then you should have no problem building one of these cabinets.
Get ready for some Mortal Kombat! This cabinet is a treat for fans of Mortal Kombat’s classic era, as it has 13 games installed on it. You can see if you still remember how to do fatalities in games like the original Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2, Mortal Kombat 3, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. For the design, the cabinet is Mortal Kombat 2-themed and it includes several symbols from the fighting franchise across its surface. This is also a two-player cabinet, so you can do some head-to-head competition from it with its dual joystick and arcade buttons layout.
Included games:
The Ms.Pac-Man arcade cabinet includes 13 games in total, with five of them being Pac-themed games. You can also hop into classic Dig-Dug, Mappy, and Galaga. The cabinet also features an eye-catching design with its bright blue finish and decals that make it look like it was pulled straight from an ’80s arcade.
Included games:
The Pac-Man arcade cabinet is similar in design to Ms. Pac-Man, and it offers mostly the same selection of 13 games to play on it. The only real difference with the line-up is that Tower of Druaga has been swapped out for King & Balloon. The cabinet features a vibrant yellow finish and retro-inspired Pac-Man images on it.
Included games:
The official Arcade1Up Riser adds an extra 14.25 inches to the Special Edition cabinets. It also adds some heft to the overall build, which is a nice perk. Out of the box, the Special Editions weight 36-38 pounds each, and the Riser weighs 17 pounds. Even with the Riser attached, these cabinets are still 10-15 pounds lighter than their Deluxe counterparts, but they still feel solid and secure.
If you’re interested in checking out Arcade1Up’s Deluxe Arcade Machines, check out the list below of in-stock cabinets at Amazon.
For something a little different, you can also check out Arcade1Up’s new $600 Ms. Pac-Man Head-to-Head Arcade Table. This is different from the standing arcade cabinet, as it features a 17-inch screen countertop display with control panels on each side. Essentially, it’s a table that you can play games on, and while we wouldn’t recommend using it as one, it does possess a level of durability as the display is protected by a clear acrylic top installed on top of it. It also comes with 12 games installed on it, including popular classics like Dig Dug, Galaxian, Mappy, Rolling Thunder, and Rompers.
While it has been discontinued, you can also grab the Arcade1Up Class of ’81 Countercade for $168. Amazon still has stock of it, and this is a compact arcade cabinet that can easily be placed on your desk for when you want a quick distraction. This model has a 7-inch, vertically oriented LCD screen, full-size controls, and features artwork of Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. It can be powered via an included Micro-USB cable or four AA batteries (not included).
If the Countercade intrigues you, we’d recommend checking out the Evercade Alpha Taito Bartop Arcade. Set to launch November 12, this miniature cabinet has an 8-inch display and 10 preloaded games, but you can play hundreds of other titles on it by purchasing Evercade cartridge collections. This is the third Evercade Alpha following the launch of Mega Man and Street Fighter editions–both of which have been sold out all year in the US. Check out our Evercade Alpha review for more details on the hardware. We also created an Amazon hub filled with in-stock Evercade game collections. The Evercade Alpha Taito Bartop Arcade is available to preorder now for $260 at Amazon. All of the cartridge collections work on the Evercade EXP-R handheld and Evercade VS-R home console, both of which were recently restocked at Amazon for $130 each.
Includes 10 preloaded games:
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Humans could learn a thing or two from orangutans when it comes to maintaining a balanced, protein-filled diet.
Great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, orangutans are marvels of adaptation to the vagaries of food supply in the wild, according to an international team of researchers led by a Rutgers University-New Brunswick scientist. The critically endangered primates outshine modern humans in avoiding obesity through their balanced choices of food and exercise, the scientists found.
The researchers reported their findings, based on 15 years of firsthand observations of wild orangutans in the jungles of Borneo, in Science Advances.
“These findings show how wild Bornean orangutans adapt to changes in their environment by adjusting their nutrient intake, behavior and energy use,” said Erin Vogel, the Henry Rutgers Term Chair Professor in the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences, who led the study. “The work highlights the importance of understanding natural dietary patterns and their impact on health, both for orangutans and humans.”
Orangutans are one of the closest living relatives to humans, sharing a common ancestor, Vogel said. This evolutionary relationship means that orangutans and humans have similar physiological and metabolic processes, dietary needs and behavioral adaptations. Studying orangutans can provide insights into the evolutionary adaptations that might also be relevant to humans, she said.
Humans also exhibit metabolic flexibility, Vogel said, but modern diets high in processed foods can disrupt this balance, leading to metabolic disorders such as diabetes.
While orangutans reduce physical activity during low fruit periods to conserve energy, Vogel said, humans, especially those with sedentary lifestyles, may not adjust their energy expenditure to match their caloric intake, leading to weight gain and associated health issues.
“Understanding these adaptations can help us learn more about how humans can manage their diets and health,” Vogel said. “It also highlights the importance of conserving orangutan habitats to ensure their survival.”
The research was conducted at the Tuanan Orangutan Research Station in the Mawas Conservation Area in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, on the island of Borneo. The conservation area, a peat swamp forest, protects about 764,000 acres, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. Peat forests are richly biodiverse, ancient ecosystems with landscapes dominated by waterlogged trees that grow on layers of dead leaves and plant material.
Understanding the dietary strategies of orangutans can inform better nutritional practices for humans, said Vogel, who also is director of the Center for Human Evolutionary Studies at Rutgers.
“In essence, the research on orangutans underscores the importance of dietary balance and metabolic flexibility, which are crucial for maintaining health in both orangutans and humans,” Vogel said. “It suggests that modern dietary habits, characterized by high consumption of processed foods rich in sugars and fats, can lead to metabolic imbalances and health issues.”
In earlier studies, Vogel and an international team of colleagues established the patterns by which orangutans fed. Orangutans prefer to eat fruit because it is rich in carbohydrates, but when fruit is scarce, they switch to eating more leaves, bark and other foods that can provide more protein but fewer sugary carbohydrates. In times of high fruit availability, orangutans still consume protein but get most of their energy from carbohydrates and fats in the fruit.
“We wanted to find out how their bodies handle these changes,” Vogel said. “We tested how the availability of fruit affects their diet and how their bodies adapt to avoid energy imbalance. We looked at how they switch between different types of fuel – like fats and proteins – when preferred food availability changes.”
To conduct the study, Vogel, research colleagues, students and a staff that mostly included field technicians indigenous to the island of Borneo collected data for more than a decade on what the orangutans ate daily and analyzed their urine to see how their bodies responded to any nutritional changes. This required staying in close proximity to the ape in the equatorial, humid jungle from dawn until night.
The scientists made a number of key findings:
This research builds on a report published earlier this year in The American Journal of Biological Anthropology, led by doctoral student Will Aguado, as the first author. This study found that orangutans at Tuanan get most of their protein from the leaves and seeds of just one out of nearly 200 species in the diet — a vine called Bowringia callicarpa. The protein in this plant fuels orangutans through seasons of fruit scarcity and likely allows orangutans at Tuanan to persist and for their population to grow.
Other scientists on the study from Rutgers included Malcolm Watford, a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences; and former Rutgers doctoral student Rebecca Brittain, Tatang Mitra-Setia and Sri Suci Utami from Universitas Nasional in Indonesia, graduate students William Aguado, Astri Zulfa and Alysse Moldawer, all with the Department of Anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences. Former graduate student Timothy Bransford, who also contributed to the study, is now at Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Fla.
Researchers from the following institutions also contributed to the study: The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz in Germany; Yale University; Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland; the University of Cincinnati; the University of Colorado; Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.; Universitas Nasional in Jakarta, Indonesia; National Research and Innovation Agency in Cibinong-Bogor, Indonesia; University of Zurich in Switzerland; Hunter College of the City University of New York; and the University of Sydney in Australia.
At Home for Voiceless, we believe that every life matters, especially those who cannot voice their pain. Our mission is simple yet profound: to provide care, shelter, and a second chance to at least 100 stray animals every month.
Only those candidates can apply who:
English Proficiency (Spoken), English Proficiency (Written), Hindi Proficiency (Spoken), Hindi Proficiency (Written). Earn certifications in these skills.
Certificate, Letter of recommendation, Flexible work hours, 6 days a week
500
Selected intern’s day-to-day responsibilities include:
Interested candidates can apply online via the link given at the end of the post.
1 Month
Unpaid
Apply by 11th September’ 25
Disclaimer: Charging money from students for internships or from job applicants is unethical and can result in blacklisting. We strongly discourage requesting any kind of payment from interns, including processing fees or charges for certificates. If you have any concerns, please contact us at [email protected]
Published on: Sept 09, 2025 02:43 pm IST
Nutrition plays a significant role in enhancing eye health and overall vision. Our diet, if mindfully made healthy, can benefit good vision. In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Dr Shibu Varkey, medical director, Maxivision Super Speciality Eye Hospitals, Tamil Nadu, said, “Nutrition plays a key role in healthy eyes. Certain foods contain antioxidants, vitamins, and wholesome fats that work to nourish the retina and lens and minimise the oxidative stress in the eyes.” Also read | 10 must-have foods for healthy eyes
Dr Varkey further listed a few foods that can help in boosting vision:
These contain lutein and zeaxanthin in abundance, two carotenoids that naturally safeguard against harmful UV light. They reduce oxidative damage and contribute to central vision preservation and long-term retinal wellness.
Rich in omega-3 acids, oily fish maintain the tear film lipid component and facilitate retinal cell function. Daily intake has been associated with reduced incidence of dry eye and slowed age-related macular degeneration.
Vitamin C is a mighty antioxidant that is found in abundance in oranges, lemons and peppers. It contributes to the synthesis of other antioxidants such as vitamin E, helps the eye tissue’s collagen and delays the onset and progression of cataracts. Also read | What to eat to improve eyesight? Dietician recommends nutrition for better vision
Egg yolks provide exceptionally high quantities of bioavailable lutein and zeaxanthin in addition to vitamin A. It contributes natural fat to aid absorption; this makes eggs a convenient and effortless way to meet daily eye-protective nutrient needs.
Sunflower seeds and almonds have vitamin E and plant omega-3s in abundance. Lentils and chickpeas have zinc, a component that plays a role in transporting vitamin A to and sustaining night vision within the eye’s retina.
“Adding these foods on a daily basis not only nourishes the eye but also works toward creating a defence against age-related degeneration. A mix of nutrients such as lutein and zeaxanthin, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins A, C and E and zinc work to reduce oxidative stress, boost blood flow to eye tissues and protect sensitive structures such as the retina and lens,” Dr. Shibu Varkey highlighted. Also read | Eye health 101: Nutritionist shares supplements and simple habits to support your eyes in the long term
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
After a year of heightened expectations over the promise of drugs that co-target PD-1 and VEGF, some important mid- and late-stage datasets are emerging at the annual World Conference on Lung Cancer meeting. Summit Therapeutics’ closely watched ivonescimab delivered disappointing survival data from a Phase 3 trial in non-small cell lung cancer. Others, like pumitamig, have been following closely behind, however.
Physicians can now treat extensive stage small cell lung cancer with the PDL1-targeting immunotherapies Tecentriq from Roche and Imfinzi from AstraZeneca. Upon progression, they can choose another type of immunotherapy called Imdelltra from Amgen.
BioNTech and Bristol Myers believe the addition of a VEGF-inhibiting compoinent will help keep people with extensive-stage small cell lung cancer alive longer, and are testing that hypothesis with a head-to-head Phase 3 trial of pumitamig plus chemo against Tecentriq plus placebo.
The Phase 2 data should raise expectations of success. BioNTech said pumitamig plus chemotherapy shrank tumors in 76% of participants, including 85% in people receiving 20 milligrams per kilogram dose and 67% in those recieving 30 milligrams per kilogram. The disease control rate, which also includes study volunteers whose tumors didn’t shrink but their cancer got no worse, was 100%, as of an Aug. 7 data cut-off.
Participants who received the drug went a median of nearly sevena months without their cancer progressing. Trial investigators are evaluating how long study volunteers live after receiving pumitamig, but have not collected enough data to measure that.
“The response rate and early progression free survival we are seeing in this interim analysis are encouraging and merit further investigation in a larger trial to validate pumitamig’s potential to offer patients more durable anti-tumor responses relative to current standard of care,” lead investigator John Heymach, who is chair of thoracic, head and neck medical oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, said in a statement provided by BioNTech.
Key takeaways
Homeownership peaked in 1966 at 73%, but has since slipped to 63% by the 2021 Census.
While the national drop looks modest, the generational breakdown tells a far sharper story.
With ownership declining, demand for rental accommodation will only rise.
Property investors aren’t the villains—they’re filling a gap government can’t afford to cover.
Without private investors, governments would need to massively increase taxes to fund the housing stock renters require.
In 1966, homeownership in Australia hit “peak home ownership” as 73 per cent of dwellings were owned outright or with a mortgage.
That figure has been drifting downward ever since, sitting at 66–67 per cent in recent years, and just 63 per cent at the 2021 Census if you count occupied dwellings only.
On the surface, the change might seem modest – a drop of around 10 percentage points over six decades – but the generational breakdown reveals a more dramatic story.
The significant shift is in the timing of when Australians are buying homes.
This means younger Australians are getting on the property ladder later, if at all, while older Australians hold onto homes for longer.
Successive cohorts since the Baby Boomers have recorded progressively lower ownership rates.
Enter one of the most significant forces shaping tomorrow’s ownership landscape: the Bank of Mum and Dad (BoMaD).
As Baby Boomers pass on property and financial assets, the “great intergenerational wealth transfer” will be both an opportunity and a challenge.
It could help some younger Australians enter the market, but it will almost certainly widen inequality between those with property-owning parents and those without.
Federal and state governments are well aware of declining ownership rates and have rolled out numerous schemes to help first-home buyers.
These policies certainly help some people buy sooner, but in my mind, all they are doing is inflating demand in price brackets that meet the grant criteria, pushing up prices for the very buyers they aim to help, as well as future buyers down the line.
Three converging forces will shape the future of homeownership in Australia:
Forecasts suggest the national ownership rate could slip to 63 per cent by 2040, with under-55s possibly falling below 50 per cent.
Without reform, we could face not just a housing crisis, but a retirement poverty crisis for future renters.
Australia’s homeownership story has moved from a universal expectation to a mixed reality – part aspiration, part privilege.
Whether the coming decades reverse that trend or entrench it will depend on how we manage wealth transfers, design housing policy, and address affordability head-on.
However, what I do see is the ongoing need for property investors to provide rental accommodation for the larger cohort of Australians who will be renting for longer (or even all their lives).
While some argue that this is taking advantage of those who can’t afford to buy a home, I view it differently.
Property investors are providing a service.
They are then providing accommodation that, in other countries, the government would typically provide.
If the Australian government had to provide this rental accommodation, it would have to find the money somewhere, and we know that it is currently short of funds.
So if the government was to take the role that property investors currently provide, it would have to raise significantly more taxes from those who are complaining about property investors’ tax incentives.
One of the hardest lessons I learned shortly after I started my Plex server was to never ignore organizing your library. It’s one of those tidbits you wish someone would tell you before you start using Plex, but live and learn, right? Having a good foundation beforehand is important and will literally save you hours, possibly days, of backtracking and fiddling.
However, there’s one app that was particularly great at not only putting the finishing touches on my library, but it also helped fix cover images, artwork, subtitles, and even the naming scheme. If you’re going to run your own Plex server, FileBot double-checks your work so you don’t have to.
FileBot isn’t a Plex plugin or an add-on, but a separate app, so you won’t need to fiddle with Docker (although you still have that option). You download the app and use it to locate your library folders, though there is a choice between a one-year or lifetime license. Installing it is still free, but a license is required for continued use. However, older versions also work, as long as you avoid updating them.
What you do with FileBot is have it scan your Plex library for the sake of mass organizing your media. Did you make the same mistake I did and haphazardly name movies and TV shows? Did you bother creating enough folders? Maybe your media is missing cover photos (or needs new ones) or lacks subtitles? FileBot rectifies those mistakes by fetching metadata that Plex might have missed.
It’s not that Plex is bad at grabbing cover images, but it doesn’t always get it right. For example, I have Clash of the Titans on my server. Which one, you ask? Well, Plex incorrectly chose the cover art from the 2010 remake, when it’s actually the original film from 1981, in all its stop-motion glory.
Ideally, you want to do this before you rename your media files so you can knock out two birds with one stone. On the right-hand side, in the Rename tab, click Settings—the tiny wrench and screwdriver icon, then open Post Process.
Make sure Fetch artwork and Fetch cover images are check-marked, then click OK. When you’re ready to rename your media files, FileBot will also download images. More importantly, Plex will look nice and organized when everything is said and done.
The most powerful use case for FileBot, and the biggest reason I needed to use it, was to fix the really poor naming scheme I had going. I was far too careless with how files were named, like the lack of capitalization, using abbreviations, or just a lack of basic episode structure. It was downright frustrating finding a specific episode because I had duplicate names or failed to specify the number.
FileBot can take my entire Plex library and rename it with just a few clicks. Additionally, you can adjust the way movies, shows, and even music are formatted. Click Rename on the left-hand side, then Load at the bottom, and locate a folder you want to edit. On the right-hand side, click Fetch Data, then Edit Format from the menu.
Here’s where you can either write your own script or pick any of the formats already written under Examples. Also, on the bottom-left, use the arrows to switch between content types, like movies, TV shows, and music. Clicking on the line of code will then set the format, and you can finalize with Use Format. Exit the menu, then highlight every file on the left. Click Match, then finalize with Rename. It’s that easy!
Depending on the software you use, ripping DVDs can be a lengthy and tedious process. I find it to be the worst part of setting up your Plex server, as you’re limited to playing a single movie at a time. So, what I do is limit the number of assets I have to rip, which means goodbye subtitles. However, this does introduce another problem: I like subtitles, especially when I’m watching anime in its original language.
Luckily, FileBot can help me out with that, too; in fact, I find it easier to rip a couple of movies without subtitles, then download them after and even snag a couple of languages the original DVDs may not have. You will need an OpenSubtitles account, though, since that’s where FileBot pulls translations from. The way it works is so simple, and I attribute that to FileBot’s basic UI.
On the left-hand side, click on Subtitles. You can then log into your OpenSubtitles account using the little green button next to the language drop-down menu at the top. To the left of that is where you search for a specific movie, and the Find button to the right of the language drop-down menu is what you use to scan for subtitles. Double-click on any of the search results, and FileBot will download them right away.
My Plex library would probably still be an awkward, uncoordinated mess if it weren’t for FileBot. What I do appreciate is how easy it was to rectify the inconsistencies in naming and artwork, given its surprisingly simple UI. I’ll gladly trade features if it means having an easier time installing an app and navigating the menus.
Located in the Junggar Basin, the Gurbantunggut Desert is the second largest desert in China, as well as the largest fixed and semi-fixed desert. Known as a wet desert because the sand dunes are covered in snow in winter, it is inhabited by a few ephemeral plants and drought-tolerant animals.
It’s no mistake that Trump’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ parody, ‘Chipocalypse Now,’ sounds more like a quippy Doritos ad than a declaration of war on an American city. Subterfuge is the point.
“Chipocalypse Now.” When the slogan rolled out Saturday, it sounded like a campaign for Chipotle’s latest rebrand of the humble burrito. The reality was less savory. It was a declaration of war, on an American city, by a sitting president, under the guise of a harmless meme.
Referencing the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now,” President Trump’s Truth Social account posted an AI-generated image of the 79-year-old as the much younger Lt. Col. William Kilgore (Robert Duvall’s character in the film). It was captioned, “‘I love the smell of deportations in the morning…’ Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” a parody of a famous quote from Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece. (The original line: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”)
The image, meant to look like a movie poster, was emblazoned with the words “Chipocalypse Now” and showed Trump’s image in front of the Chicago skyline, replete with helicopters, flames and a plume of smoke. As for the “Department of War” reference, Trump signed an executive order Friday to rename the Department of Defense, alleging that its old moniker is “woke.” Your tax dollars at work …
Trump’s post generated all manner of concern and outrage, as it should when the White House threatens a military operation on American soil. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker blasted Trump’s meme via X. “The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal,” he wrote. “Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.”
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who spoke to reporters while attending Mexican Independence Day celebrations in Chicago over the weekend, called Trump’s post “disgusting.”
It’s no mistake that “Chipocalypse” sounds as innocuous as a bag of Flamin’ Hot Doritos, but subterfuge is the point. The “I’m kidding but not really” tactic has been referred to as memetic warfare, where everything in a manufactured ecosystem like Trump’s appears to be a harmless joke. MAGA has mastered the art, deploying pop culture-inspired memes that feature an AI-generated Trump as Superman, a Jedi or Sydney Sweeney posing seductively for a denim ad. How can such a playful fellow have dictatorial aspirations?!
If you get upset like Sen. Durbin, MAGA insists it’s because you are “humorless and can’t take a joke.” Funnily enough, when California Gov. Gavin Newsom used the same approach to troll Republicans, they weren’t laughing.
Trump wasn’t jokey or fun Sunday when NBC News’ Yamiche Alcindor asked him about the meme on the South Lawn of the White House. He was condescending when he called her “darling” and referred to her question as “fake news.” When Alcindor attempted to respond, Trump snapped back.
“Be quiet, listen! You don’t listen! You never listen,” he said. “That’s why you’re second-rate. We’re not going to war. We’re gonna clean up our cities. We’re gonna clean them up, so they don’t kill five people every weekend. That’s not war, that’s common sense.”
If sense of reason were part of his crime-fighting quotient, his troops would be invading the metro areas with the highest number of murders per capita — New Orleans first, then Memphis, Tenn., and St. Louis. Yet he has left those red-state cities off his list in favor of places run by Democrats.
Trump has talked for weeks about sending ICE, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and other enforcement agencies to Chicago. The president claims it’s to combat out-of-control crime rates and to execute mass deportations. He’s already targeted Los Angeles and Washington. D.C., which like Chicago are under Democratic control.
“The president’s threats are beneath the honor of our nation, but the reality is that he wants to occupy our city and break our Constitution, we must defend our democracy from this authoritarianism by protecting each other and protecting Chicago from Donald Trump,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson wrote on social media.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security announced Monday that it was launching a surge of immigration law enforcement in Chicago. They came up with another slogan: “Operation Midway Blitz.”
If only that was a stupid meme too.
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Google rolled out deeper reporting for Search AI Max campaigns, giving advertisers fresh visibility into how its AI expands reach.
What’s new. Advertisers can now see two new metrics at the all keywords level:
Why we care. Until now, advertisers could track which search terms AI Max generated and the landing pages users clicked through to. These new metrics go further, showing how Google’s AI is repurposing both keywords and assets to drive incremental traffic.
Bottom line. This means more visbility into how AI Max interprets PPC campaigns – and more data to evaluate whether the clicks it delivers are valuable.
First seen. We were alerted to this update by Aleksejus Podpruginas, senior Google Ads campaign specialist at Teleperformance.
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There’s no denying that the hype train for Hollow Knight: Silksong is unlike anything we’ve ever seen for an indie game. In the days leading up to its release, multiple other small studios delayed their games to stay out of Silksong’s way, something generally reserved to make space for the Grand Theft Autos of the gaming world. The sequel’s release led to Steam and the Nintendo eShop crashing (the lack of preorders played a role here, of course) and saw the metroidvania game top out at 587,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform alone. The game also released on PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2, plus it’s available on Game Pass. With that in mind, the total player numbers for Silksong are huge, showcasing that the online memes and anticipation for the game to show up at events were true indicators of sales success.
All of this said, it’s begun to feel unlikely that Silksong’s launch will ever be matched by another indie game. But as Yoda said: There is another.
One indie game that could take the entire gaming world by storm is Haunted Chocolatier, the follow-up to Stardew Valley. Sure, it’s not a direct sequel to the perennially popular farming simulator (that could be in the cards eventually, though). However, Haunted Chocolatier shares a similar visual presentation and will offer a larger world than Stardew Valley, according to creator Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone. The RPG will see people living in a haunted castle and making chocolate, which requires gathering ingredients. It’s a “town game” like Stardew Valley, per Barone, though Haunted Chocolatier will lean more into the action-RPG genre. Oh, and it may just be set in the same world as Stardew Valley.
Haunted Chocolatier was announced in late 2021, so the wait has already been years long at this point–similar to Silksong. Barone has said the game will focus on mystery and whimsy, adding to the allure for an audience that loves discovering secrets on their own and through online communities. But the most obvious reason Haunted Chocolatier will be a huge event when it launches is found simply by glancing at Stardew Valley’s concurrent players on SteamDB. The farming simulator has averaged 100,000 players over the past month and, despite releasing back in 2016, peaked with over 235,000 people playing at the same time just last year.
When comparing the two, it quickly becomes evident that Hollow Knight doesn’t swim in the same waters for Steam concurrent players as Stardew Valley. Not only does Stardew Valley have a lot of players, it has a lot of engaged players–ones that keep coming back to the game and help it maintain its extreme popularity. It’s possibly an unfair comparison, as the former is strictly solo while the latter has co-op multiplayer. But it’s also possible that Stardew Valley simply has a bigger fanbase, which could catapult Haunted Chocolatier to even greater heights than what we just witnessed with Silksong.
There’s one other point to consider as well: Stardew Valley is the best-rated game of all time on Steam.Sure, platform availability could minimize its full impact, but Haunted Chocolatier is still primed for a monstrous debut. And if it follows suit with Stardew Valley, it could very easily start on PC before eventually coming to almost every platform, including mobile devices. Oh, and as for industry impact, it’s worth bringing up that Devolver Digital co-founder Nigel Lowrie has already told IGN that he monitors Haunted Chocolatier in case they need to alter release plans around it.
However, there’s also an argument that the next Silksong can’t be predicted. No one ever expected Hollow Knight to be a phenomenon–just check out this decade-old Reddit post about the game for confirmation. Additionally, some of the most popular Steam games of all time seemingly landed out of nowhere. Palworld has seen over 32 million players since coming out in early 2024, a mind-boggling number. Were you aware that there is a game called Banana on Steam that sees about 100,000 players daily? Sure, it being free-to-play certainly balloons those numbers, but not many people would expect a game about clicking on a piece of fruit to create that sort of long-term engagement. The chance to collect a rare banana and possibly sell it for actual money clearly has its attraction.
Another recent example of this phenomenon is Peak, a co-op climbing game that sees players working together to ascend a mountain. Fascinatingly enough, it’s the opposite of Haunted Chocolatier and Silksong from a developmental perspective. Peak came together during a month-long game jam, though co-developer Aggro Crab had previously pitched the concept.
The only thing that seems certain is that the indie space will continue to surprise us with unique experiences that might take years to land in our hands, or possibly appear almost magically out of thin air. Maybe Silksong is a unique moment, something that can’t be replicated. Or maybe it’s another landmark event that will be surpassed eventually, but not forgotten by those who experienced it.
A pioneering study by researchers from Finland and the UK has demonstrated for the first time that myocardial infarction may be an infectious disease. This discovery challenges the conventional understanding of the pathogenesis of myocardial infarction and opens new avenues for treatment, diagnostics, and even vaccine development.
According to the recently published research, an infection may trigger myocardial infarction. Using a range of advanced methodologies, the research found that, in coronary artery disease, atherosclerotic plaques containing cholesterol may harbor a gelatinous, asymptomatic biofilm formed by bacteria over years or even decades. Dormant bacteria within the biofilm remain shielded from both the patient’s immune system and antibiotics because they cannot penetrate the biofilm matrix.
A viral infection or another external trigger may activate the biofilm, leading to the proliferation of bacteria and an inflammatory response. The inflammation can cause a rupture in the fibrous cap of the plaque, resulting in thrombus formation and ultimately myocardial infarction.
Professor Pekka Karhunen, who led the study, notes that until now, it was assumed that events leading to coronary artery disease were only initiated by oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which the body recognizes as a foreign structure.
“Bacterial involvement in coronary artery disease has long been suspected, but direct and convincing evidence has been lacking. Our study demonstrated the presence of genetic material — DNA — from several oral bacteria inside atherosclerotic plaques,” Karhunen explains.
The findings were validated by developing an antibody targeted at the discovered bacteria, which unexpectedly revealed biofilm structures in arterial tissue. Bacteria released from the biofilm were observed in cases of myocardial infarction. The body’s immune system had responded to these bacteria, triggering inflammation which ruptured the cholesterol-laden plaque.
The observations pave the way for the development of novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for myocardial infarction. Furthermore, they advance the possibility of preventing coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction by vaccination.
The study was conducted by Tampere and Oulu Universities, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the University of Oxford. Tissue samples were obtained from individuals who had died from sudden cardiac death, as well as from patients with atherosclerosis who were undergoing surgery to cleanse carotid and peripheral arteries.
The research is part of an extensive EU-funded cardiovascular research project involving 11 countries. Significant funding was also provided by the Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research and Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
The research article “Viridans Streptococcal Biofilm Evades Immune Detection and Contributes to Inflammation and Rupture of Atherosclerotic Plaques” was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Think like a lawyer. Write with strong research and clarity. Argue with persuasiveness and confidence.
Ever felt stuck staring at a moot problem with no clue where to start? Or spent hours on a legal assignment only to feel it’s not “legal” enough?
You’re not alone, and more importantly, you’re not to blame. Most law students are never really taught how to research smartly, write like a lawyer, or argue with confidence.
That’s exactly what this course is for.
You’ll learn how to research effectively, structure sharp legal arguments, draft memorials clearly, and speak like you belong in a courtroom.
Whether you’re prepping for moots, paper publications, conferences, internships, or just want to stop feeling unsure, this course is your game-changer.
This 4-month-long course with 20+ LIVE sessions, 3 assignments, each with personalised feedback, helps you master legal research, writing, and argumentation.
This 4-month course is a carefully designed blend of two of our most impactful offerings: Legal Research and Writing, and Mooting and Argumentation.
It’s built to help law students who want to go beyond classroom learning and develop the skills that matter most in real-world legal careers.
If you’ve ever felt underconfident in a moot court, confused while researching for assignments, a call for papers by a law journal, or unsure about how to begin writing like a professional, this course is for you.
Lawctopus Law School has taught a wide range of practical skills to over 20,000+ law students, young lawyers, professionals, academicians, and business people. Over 1000 students have rated our courses and the average rating is 93.2/100. Our online courses are ‘warm’ learning experiences!
At LLS, our courses are developed by subject matter experts (practitioners and academicians) and these courses are a mix of
INR 12,999/-
Abhayraj Naik did his BA LLB (Hons.) from NLSIU Bangalore in 2006 and LLM from Yale Law School in 2009.
He is currently an independent researcher and consultant and has previously taught in colleges like JGLS, Azim Premji University, and NLSIU. He has also been a research fellow at SARAI-CSDS, and a researcher at the Environment Support Group in Bangalore.
Shrutanjaya Bhardwaj is the lead researcher and content developer of this course and worked closely under the guidance of Abhayraj. He completed his BA LLB (Hons.) from NLUD in 2017 where he was awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Gold Medal for the Best Overall Student (Male).
He then worked at the chambers of Gopal Sankarnarayanan for a year and then went on to complete LLM from Michigan Law School in 2019.
Prof. Anupama Sharma is an Assistant Professor at JGLS, Sonipat. She has completed B.A. LL.B. (Hons.) from the NUJS, Kolkata in 2014, and LL.M. from the University of Cambridge, UK in June 2015, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong.
She has been a part of various research projects run by institutions and organizations, such as Cambridge Pro Bono Project, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), International Justice Mission, etc. She has also been a Legislative Review Team member for the Journal of Indian Law and Society (JILS).
Rabindra Kumar Mitra is a law graduate from National Law University, Odisha, currently practicing as a Counsel in Calcutta. He regularly appears in Arbitration, Company Law, Civil, and Commercial matters before the High Court at Calcutta, NCLT, DRT and Arbitral Tribunals.
Rabindra has experience as a faculty member at CLATapult and has also contributed to iPleaders.in as a Freelance Editor.
Rabindra has developed the module “How to Write Prize-Winning Legal Essays” for this course.
Mansi Mankotia graduated with a B.A.LL.B (Hons.) from H.P. University in 2020 and pursued an LLM specializing in criminal law from NLU Shimla. Currently, Mansi is dedicated to advancing her expertise through a PhD in Law. With professional experience as an in-house counsel, she currently serves as a Learning Manager at Lawctopus Law School, contributing to the development and delivery of practical law courses.
Jaibatruka Mohanta completed his B.L.S LL.B from the SVKMs Pravin Gandhi College of Law, University of Mumbai.
During his law school years, he won 3 national and 1 international moot court competitions amongst other accomplishments.
Currently, Jai is working as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Law Education Research & Advocacy (CEERA), NLSIU, Bengaluru.
Akash Yadav graduated from NLIU Bhopal in 2018. His mooting journey helped him transform from a ‘shy and timid’ guy to a ‘fair confident personality’.
He was a quarter-finalist at the 8th National Moot Court Competition- Checkmate, 2015 held at the Army Institute of Law, Mohali, and a quarter-finalist, at the 4th International Banking and Investment Law Moot Court Competition, 2015 held at Jaipur National University, Jaipur in 2015.
Select Achievements:
Akash has mentored University teams for National Moots at UILS, Punjab, and RGNUL, Patiala.
Anubhuti Mishra is a 2013 graduate of HNLU, Raipur, and completed her LLM from King’s College, London. She has aced several moots and has coached multiple teams to world-winning levels.
She has worked in multiple firms including HSA Advocates, Delhi; PSA Legal, Delhi; and P & A Law Offices, Delhi.
Sameer Gupta graduated from NUSRL Ranchi in 2020.
Select moot-court achievements:
He was a part of the Semi-Finalist team (3rd Ranked Team) at the SAARC Rounds and won the Best Student Advocate Award, at the Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon SAARC LAW Mooting Competition, International Rounds, 2020.
His team qualified for the memorial-selection rounds from the Asia-Pacific region at the Manfred Lachs Space Law Moot Court Competition, Asia Pacific Rounds, 2019.
Other mooting achievements:
Coaching Experience
Sankalp Malik graduated from Amity Law School, Noida in 2019.
Select Mooting Achievements
Tejast Popat graduated from NUJS, Kolkata in 2020.
Select Moot Court Achievements
Vikhyat Oberoi graduated from the School of Law, Christ University in 2017.
Select Moot Court Achievements
Atishya Kumar graduated from NUALS Kochi in 2018 and completed her LLM from the University of Nottingham in 2019.
She’s currently the Director-in-Charge of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Nagpur Chapters of IDIA.
She’s an ace mooter who represented the University of Nottingham in the 31st Jean Pictet Competition, 2019, and received very positive feedback. She placed second Runner-up in the 8th Justice P.N. Bhagwati International Moot Court Competition on Human Rights, 2018.
She won the 6th Dr. Paras Diwan Memorial International ‘Energy Law’ Moot Court Competition, 2016 held in UPES College, Dehradun, and was adjudged Best Researcher at the 4th edition of RGNUL, Patiala Moot Court Competition, 2015.
The Centre for Environmental Law Education, Research and Advocacy (CEERA) established in 1997 is a research centre at NLSIU, Bengaluru that focuses on research and policy advocacy in the field of environmental law.
Building an environmental law database, effectively networking among all stakeholders, undertaking training and capacity development exercises, providing consultancy services and building an environmental law community are CEERA’s main objectives.
It enjoys the support of the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, other Ministries, international organisations, the Bar and the Bench in India.
In case you do the course sincerely and are still dissatisfied with it, we’ll refund you 100% of the money you invested; no questions asked. We are that confident in our course!
What does ‘sincerely’ mean? It means that you attend at least 75% of the live classes and complete the compulsory assignments successfully. If you still don’t think the course was worth the money, we’ll refund the full amount, no questions asked!
Just email us at [email protected] and the refund will be issued within 7-10 working days.
If you have any queries regarding the course, please contact us at [email protected] or call us at +91 98058 08820 [11 am-12 pm, 5-6 pm].
Forex trading looks promising under favorable market conditions. Wellness levels soar, making workouts feel enjoyable. A short getaway could refresh your spirit and boost mental clarity. A senior family member’s kind gesture will bring comfort and strength. Career advancements are aligned with your path today. Academically, challenges become opportunities that ignite a thirst for learning.
Love Focus: Gratitude expressed today brings depth to your emotional connection.
Lucky Number: 17
Lucky Colour: Purple
Your energy levels improve through endurance-focused activities. Market analysis before investing yields better financial insights. Adolescents in the family may challenge your patience, yet understanding helps. Motivation may return with upcoming professional milestones. While a quick getaway may relax you, it won’t resolve lingering stress.
Love Focus: Balance between self-care and affection keeps burnout at bay.
Lucky Number: 22
Lucky Colour: Green
A blend of academic balance and consistent efforts keeps your learning on track. Financial setbacks lead to higher-interest loans if not addressed. Feedback at work may sting but brings essential growth. Tenant changes or repairs may affect rental returns briefly. Headaches continue despite your efforts; rest and hydration may help. Family boundaries may be tested; stand firm with compassion.
Love Focus: Emotional presence today nurtures trust and intimacy.
Lucky Number: 18
Lucky Colour: Light Red
Reassess your EMI schedule to maintain financial control. DIY projects at home improve family cooperation. Health routines may need slight adjustments for better outcomes. Professional decision-making benefits from both logic and instinct. Rental matters like division should be handled carefully and patiently. Study-wise, your pace may be routine but steady.
Love Focus: Self-forgiveness clears the way for emotional renewal.
Lucky Number: 9
Lucky Colour: Yellow
Writing heartfelt letters will help bridge emotional distance in relationships. Remodelling plans may elevate your space with modern features. At work, efforts are noticed even if rewards come later. Local folk music will enrich your travel with cultural charm. Academic engagement feels electric with every lesson. Wellness habits gain traction with mindful exercises. Reassess your insurance to match your changing financial needs.
Love Focus: Let words reveal emotions you have struggled to express.
Lucky Number: 7
Lucky Colour: Grey
Stable finances could benefit from additional income avenues. You will enjoy learning today as each subject sparks fresh inspiration. Short trips may include a few roadblocks; stay alert. At home, prioritizing between family and self brings balance. Progress at work may be slow unless you take initiative. Physically, you are light and energetic, making activity a breeze.
Love Focus: Subtle signs of love speak volumes today.
Lucky Number: 5
Lucky Colour: Golden
Praise from your superior reinforces your workplace contributions. Protect important documents related to property matters. Balanced portions support long-term wellness. Managing finances smartly helps household budgets stay intact. Learning feels slow-paced today but keeps you grounded. Travel plans for couples look promising but may face small delays.
Love Focus: Let new connections grow at their natural pace.
Lucky Number: 6
Lucky Colour: Beige
Prior work experience may prove unexpectedly beneficial today. Mini-vacations should be well-planned to avoid last-minute hiccups. Emotional triggers in family life call for gentle healing. Deferred payments provide temporary relief but require budget discipline. Core exercises uplift your stamina if practiced regularly. Property upkeep needs attention to avoid sudden expenses.
Love Focus: Casual meetings may evolve into surprising emotions.
Lucky Number: 4
Lucky Colour: Royal Blue
Professional growth continues through dedication and grit. Discipline in fitness is helping you feel more empowered. Emotional healing brings closeness within the family. Financial planning for retirement feels stable and future-ready.Academic frustrations may ease with a different study approach.
Love Focus: Love lingers in every note of your shared tune.
Lucky Number: 3
Lucky Colour: Brown
Today’s learning brings joy and motivation across all areas. An unexpected career break may lead to rewarding new ventures. Budget for relocation carefully to avoid stress later. Family spaces are filled with warmth and harmony. Financial gains align with your growth mindset. Aromatherapy enhances overall wellness and reduces anxiety.
Love Focus: Take time for inner clarity; your heart already knows.
Lucky Number: 1
Lucky Colour: Magenta
Bathroom upgrades bring spa-like comfort to your living space. Financial decisions are guided by futuristic thinking today. Work may be delayed by minor mistakes; double-check tasks. Breathing routines enhance your energy. Handling in-law relations with kindness preserves peace at home. Academic sessions will feel fulfilling and mentally enriching.
Love Focus: Romance lights up your world with joyful moments.
Lucky Number: 2
Lucky Colour: Orange
Financial rewards flow from previous hard work. A sibling’s warm gesture will stay with you all day. Unplanned travel may turn into the highlight of the week. Your health feels supported by calm rest and inner clarity. Work recognition increases with consistent performance. Property rental may bring steady returns, but expect occasional tenant concerns. Study sessions will flow at a smooth, manageable pace.
Love Focus: Emotional adaptability strengthens your romantic foundation.
Lucky Number: 11
Lucky Colour: White
By: Dr. Prem Kumar Sharma
(Astrologer, Palmist, Numerologist & Vastu Consultant)
Email: [email protected]
Url: http://www.premastrologer.com
Contact: Panchkula: +91-172-2562832, 2572874
Delhi: +91-11-47033152/40532026
Drug developers from around the world rang in a new era of sleep medicine Monday, as data from a series of clinical trials show narcolepsy can be effectively treated by amplifying a specific brain protein.
That protein, called orexin-2, helps regulate important body functions like appetite, arousal and wakefulness, which has in turn made it a promising target for drug companies. Johnson & Johnson, for instance, hopes that by blocking orexin-2, its experimental medicine seltorexant can be used to combat insomnia in patients with major depression.
More commonly, though, developers are looking to boost this protein to keep people with narcolepsy awake longer. The furthest along in this pursuit is Takeda Pharmaceutical with its drug oveporexton, which recently met the main and secondary goals of two late-stage clinical trials that focused on the most common, “Type 1” form of narcolepsy.
On Monday, at a medical conference focused on sleep therapies, Takeda presented more detailed results from these studies. In each, researchers evaluated whether oveporexton was any better than a placebo at keeping participants awake by using what Sarah Sheikh, Takeda’s head of global development, describes as “the most boring test of all time.”
This “Maintenance of Wakefulness Test” places participants in a dark, quiet, peaceful room and measures how long it takes them to fall asleep. The exam has several rounds, with each lasting roughly 40 minutes. According to Takeda, at the start of its studies, most participants were asleep within five minutes. But 12 weeks in, those who were taking 2 mg doses of oveporexton twice daily were staying awake about 20 minutes to 25 minutes — a “clinically meaningful improvement.”
One hallmark of Type 1 narcolepsy is a loss of muscle control known as cataplexy. Takeda additionally said the median weekly rates of cataplexy decreased more than 80% for oveporexton-treated patients during its studies. The median number of days per week that patients experienced no cataplexy had also grown, from 0 to between 4 and 5.
“This is the first time any drug in this field has ever shown this magnitude of effect,” Sheikh said in an interview ahead of the presentation.
Takeda highlighted other findings as well, like that drug-treated patients reported significant improvements in their quality of life. Oveporexton was generally well tolerated, too, as researchers did not observe serious adverse events related to treatment. There were no liver toxicity issues, nor were there any signs of patients experiencing visual disturbances — a potential safety concern with orexin drugs that analysts have homed in on.
The most common adverse events, Takeda said, were insomnia and frequent urination, and a majority were transient.
With these results in hand, the company plans to submit its drug for approval by the end of March. Jefferies analyst Stephen Barker wrote in a note to clients how the fresh data make his team “increasingly confident” oveporexton will “dominate” a market that Takeda estimates having as many as 120,000 patients in the U.S. alone.
Takeda is currently “well ahead of its closest competitor,” and its drug, if ultimately approved, could achieve annual sales of $1 billion, according to Barker.
While Takeda may have the lead, companies like Alkermes, Eisai and Centessa Pharmaceuticals are working to make up ground.
At the medical conference, Alkermes gave a more in-depth look into a mid-stage study where three different doses of its once-daily drug alixorexton each beat a placebo on that Maintenance of Wakefulness Test. After six weeks, the drug-treated groups were able to stay awake for 24 to 28 minutes and were showing meaningful improvements on sleepiness and cataplexy, Alkermes said. And, as with Takeda’s studies, most treatment-emergent adverse events were mild or moderate.
The most common adverse events were frequent or abnormal urination, insomia, excessive saliva secretion and blurred vision, though Alkermes noted how there were no clinically meaningful changes in vital signs, eye exams, or liver or kidney function.
“Overall, the data was good and about as expected,” wrote Marc Goodman, an analyst at Leerink Partners. Goodman added that the once-daily and flexible dosing of alixorexton “should be an advantage for Alkermes, as the #2 player.”
Eisai also presented data from an early-stage study with 21 participants, who either received a placebo, an existing medication known as modafinil, or one of three doses of the company’s drug E2086. Eisai said all doses appeared to keep patients awake significantly longer in that wakefulness test. The most common treatment-emergent adverse events were dizziness, nausea and frequent or urgent urination, and none were classified as serious.
Katsutoshi Ido, Eisai’s chief scientific officer, said in the satement the results “warrant further investigation” of E2086 as a potential treatment for narcolepsy.
Takeda’s stock price had slipped 1% in U.S. trading by Monday afternoon. Eisai shares, meanwhile, rose nearly 4% on the Tokyo stock exchange, while Alkermes’ were down more than 6% on the Nasdaq.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a few orexin-blocking agents for insomnia. They include Merck & Co.’s Belsomra, Idorsia’s Quviviq and Eisai’s Dayvigo.
First home buyers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are set to benefit from a major shake-up to federal housing policy, with expanded access to the 5% deposit scheme arriving three months ahead of schedule.
From October, the federal government’s expanded First Home Buyer Guarantee will kick in, allowing eligible buyers to purchase a property with just a 5% deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance.
For many prospective home buyers, it means shaving years off the time it takes to save for a deposit and potentially saving tens of thousands in rent along the way.
The property price caps have also been lifted significantly. In Sydney, the cap jumps from $900,000 to $1.5 million. Melbourne’s rises to $950,000, and Brisbane’s to $1 million.
These new thresholds open the door to a much wider range of homes, including those in desirable suburbs that were previously out of reach under the old scheme.
For Sydney buyers, this could mean access to well-located apartments or townhouses in growth corridors like the Inner West or parts of the Northern Beaches.
In Melbourne, it brings suburbs like Preston, Bentleigh and even parts of the inner north into play.
And in Brisbane, buyers can now consider areas like Carindale, Wilston or even apartments in some riverfront pockets that were once off-limits.
Of course, this isn’t a silver bullet for housing affordability, but it’s a meaningful step – and one that aligns with broader market trends.
We’re seeing a shift in buyer behaviour, with more first-timers prioritising lifestyle, proximity to work, and long-term capital growth over sheer size. This scheme supports that shift.
At Metropole, we always advise clients to buy strategically, not emotionally. With the new deposit scheme, first home buyers have a rare opportunity to enter the market sooner and smarter.
But the key is to choose locations with strong fundamentals, including good infrastructure, employment hubs, and future growth potential.
If you’re considering buying your first home, now’s the time to get your finances in order, understand your borrowing capacity, and start researching suburbs that offer both affordability and upside.
The window of opportunity is opening and it’s looking brighter than it has in years.
You probably tap your phone’s search bar dozens of times a day, but if you are only doing that to find and open apps, you’re missing out. If you have a Samsung phone, that app drawer search bar can do much more than just launch apps.
It can help you jump straight to YouTube videos, set alarms and timers instantly, locate documents, access downloads and screenshots, and even open hidden apps—all without digging through menus. And the best part is, you can customize it to exclude irrelevant content, manage search preferences, and make the results work exactly the way you want.
The T9 feature in your dialer app makes it quick to pull up a number when you’re ready to call, but what if you want to send a text or fire off a WhatsApp message? That’s where the search bar makes life easier.
Type a name into the app drawer search, and the contact will appear right there in the results. Tap it, and you’re taken straight into the Contacts app. Under the App options section in the search results, you’ll see the WhatsApp option, so you can jump right into a chat. If you scroll a little further, the Phone section neatly shows your call history with that specific contact.
Your phone’s search bar is also your shortcut into Google’s biggest apps. Instead of opening YouTube, Maps, or the Play Store separately, you can just type what you need right into the search bar and jump straight to it.
Say you want to look up the recipe for chocolate lava cake. Instead of opening the YouTube app, waiting for it to load, and then typing your search, you can simply type “chocolate lava cake” into your phone’s search. You’ll see results that link directly to recipe videos on YouTube.
The same goes for apps and places. If you want to download a specific app from the Play Store or Galaxy Store, type its name, and the search bar will take you to that app’s page directly. Similarly, you can also search for directions or start navigation to saved places instantly.
When you search for an app in the app drawer, your Samsung phone also shows helpful shortcuts. For instance, if you type in Clock, you’ll see handy shortcuts like Set Timer, Add Alarm, or even Start Stopwatch.
You can then select the option you need, and it will take you directly to that feature in the Clock app. This saves a few extra taps, so you don’t have to switch tabs or hunt for the right option.
Hunting down a specific document on your phone often means scrolling endlessly through your Downloads folder or using the search option in the Files app. The app drawer search offers a faster, simpler alternative.
Type in the name of the file you’re after, and it will show up in the results without you even opening another app. Best of all, if you don’t remember the exact file name, you can still find it by searching for text inside the document itself.
Whether it’s a PDF or a Word document, your phone’s search bar can help you find it in seconds.
Scrolling through endless menus just to tweak one option in your phone’s settings can feel like a chore. A better way is to search for a setting directly from the app drawer. Type in SIM Manager, Date and Time, or even the name of a useful Accessibility setting, and you’ll land straight on the right page.
For some features, like Adaptive brightness, the search results even give you a direct toggle, so you can switch it on or off without opening the full Settings app at all. It’s a neat little shortcut that makes managing your phone feel effortless.
If there’s one thing you often find yourself hunting for on your phone, it’s downloads. Usually, that means opening the Files app and navigating through folders. But your Samsung phone’s search bar makes it much simpler.
Tap on the search bar and you’ll see a Downloads shortcut. Tap it, and you’ll be taken straight to your Downloads folder inside the Files app.
You’ll also notice a Screenshots shortcut, which takes you directly to the Gallery app. This can be useful if you often need to view or share screenshots for work.
Samsung phones let you hide apps from the app drawer, which is perfect for keeping certain apps private or simply decluttering your home screen. But hiding them doesn’t mean you have to go through the hassle of unhiding them every time you want to use them.
The app drawer search can help with that. Simply type the name of the hidden app in the search bar. You won’t see the regular app shortcut, but the app will appear under the App info section. Tap it, and you’ll land on the app info page in Settings. From there, you can use the Open option to launch the app. It’s an extra step, but it keeps your apps private while still giving you access when you need it.
If you prefer faster access, you can configure the app drawer to show hidden apps directly. Tap the three-dot icon next to the search bar in the app drawer, go to Settings, and enable the Show hidden apps toggle.
Your phone’s search bar is a powerful shortcut, but you might not want all of your recent searches showing up in the history.
To clean it up, tap the search bar and look for the Recent searches section. From here, you can remove individual entries by tapping the X next to each one. If you want a fresh start, tap Clear all to wipe your entire search history in one go.
If you don’t want your phone to save the search history at all, tap the three-dot icon next to search bar and select Settings. Then, turn off the Show search history toggle.
By default, the app drawer search shows relevant suggestions from all compatible apps on your phone. But not every app has to appear in those results—maybe you don’t want suggestions from Samsung Music or Netflix every time you type something.
Samsung makes it easy to control which apps appear. Open the search bar, tap the three-dot menu, and select Choose apps to search in. You’ll see a list of all your apps, and you can turn off the toggles next to any apps you don’t want showing up in search results.
This simple step keeps your search results cleaner and more focused, so you find what you need faster without distractions.
You can go even further by diving into the Finder settings menu. Here, you can remove extra items like Downloads and Screenshots shortcuts, web search results, or even topics from Settings.
Knowing what your phone’s search bar can do can save you time, taps, and endless scrolling. From jumping straight to apps, settings, and downloads to finding contacts, documents, and hidden features, it’s a tool that makes your Samsung phone feel faster and smarter.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-08/China-s-railways-embrace-e-invoices-in-push-for-digital-services-1GvaU3AiBCE/img/5fbe2daa488e4c159a4dbff4fee093c3/5fbe2daa488e4c159a4dbff4fee093c3.jpeg' alt='Paper-based passenger tickets for China's railway. /VCG'
In a significant move highlighting its commitment to digital advancement, China will phase out paper-based passenger train tickets starting October. China Railway Group (CR) announced on Monday that digital invoices will become the standard for all rail travel.
Travelers will no longer receive paper reimbursement vouchers. Instead, they can request and download digital invoices for their journey, including any fees for refunds or ticket changes. This can be done within 180 days of their trip through the official 12306 online platform, ticket counters at railway stations, or self-service kiosks.
To ensure inclusivity, the railway authority has also introduced measures to assist passengers with limited or no internet access. These travelers can apply for digital invoices in person at train stations or by an authorized third party online.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-08/China-s-railways-embrace-e-invoices-in-push-for-digital-services-1GvaU3AiBCE/img/6e553b958c6648e8b4f0b6ae6a142403/6e553b958c6648e8b4f0b6ae6a142403.jpeg' alt='A passenger uses ID card to get on a train in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province, January 18, 2024. /VCG'
Passengers can retrieve their invoices via the 12306 platform, the income tax app, or email. For added convenience, travelers may request reissuance of invoices up to three times within the 180-day window in case of errors or changes to their information.
Although paper tickets are being retired, passengers who prefer a physical record may print a journey information note at station counters and self-service machines. This document serves only as a travel reminder and cannot be used as a ticket or reimbursement voucher.
China first announced its plan to gradually retire paper tickets in 2018.
TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival is hailing its 50th anniversary and I’ve never seen the place more patriotic. On my first morning, I looked up at a coffee shop menu and saw a sticker of a Canadian flag pasted over my habitual order, an Americano.
“A Canadiano, please?” I asked the barista, hoping my guess was correct. He nodded and rang me up. After that first sip, I was awake enough to check the receipt. It said “Canadiano” too.
“In Canada, our identity, our sovereignty, has come under threat,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on TIFF’s opening night. Carney, inaugurated in March, was onstage at the Princess of Wales theater to introduce the premiere of “John Candy: I Like Me,” a documentary by Colin Hanks about the comedy legend who went to high school just six miles away. Candy was a star on the football squad and the drama club before “SCTV” and “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” made him famous worldwide.
Carney’s affectionate salute to the local hero had one line that tickled the crowd — “As Uncle Buck said,” the PM intoned with tongue-in-cheek gravitas — and pointed political jabs that got people clapping. He lauded the movie scenes that showcased Candy’s “humor, humanity and humility” and the ones where his lovable characters would snap. Cautioned Carney, “Don’t push a Canadian too far.”
People seem to be snapping all over the festival. Half the films I’ve seen have been about guys gone wild, like Tyler Labine’s vile turn in Pella Kågerman and Hugo Lilja’s “Egghead Republic,” a sly satire about a “Vice”-esque CEO in the pre-woke early aughts who drags his abused underlings on a quest to find radioactive centaurs. (Yes, really.) Bizarre, man-eating monsters — aliens? devils? — also roam the slums of ’90s Medellín in “Barrio Triste,” a found footage period piece by the music video director STILLZ that’s like “Cloverfield” if the video camera was controlled by a a gang of teenage bandits who film a whole lot of nothing with occasional spurts of freakish violence. It’s produced by Harmony Korine and it definitely feels like it. My theater seemed to have as many walkouts as it did fans.
Anson Boon, right, in the movie “Good Boy.”
(TIFF)
“Good Boy,” by Jan Komasa, has an arresting star turn by Anson Boon as a ruffian who gets chained up in a rich family’s cellar until he agrees to behave. It made a great double-feature with Nadia Latif’s “The Man in My Basement,” which flips the power dynamic by having Willem Dafoe’s manipulative millionaire pay a cash-strapped Corey Hawkins to keep him locked somewhere no one will find him. When Dafoe confesses his sins, they’re so grisly your jaw will drop; he’s frightening even when Hawkins is holding the keys. Latif has so many thoughts about retribution and forgiveness that I’m unconvinced that her movie needed ghosts, too. But the veteran theater director has made a wickedly good debut.
Filmmaker Claire Denis has been fascinated by male aggression for decades. Her 1999 masterpiece “Beau Travail” reworked “Billy Budd” in a military training camp in Djibouti, and her latest, “The Fence,” returns to Africa for another macho showdown that takes place on a construction site where a man’s life is worth roughly $200. One dark night, the foreman (Matt Dillon) and his crude protégé (Tom Blyth) are incensed to find a stranger (Isaach de Bankolé) outside the barbed wire who politely but firmly refuses to leave until they hand over his brother’s corpse. The allegory is a tad thick: Humanity rots inside the gates, dignity stands tall outside. Anyone other than Denis completists (and there are a lot of them) should watch only for Mia McKenna-Bruce as Dillon’s young bride, a British city girl whose naive romanticism is evident in the wardrobe of stiletto sandals and red lace lingerie she’s packed for this harsh honeymoon. She’s a cupcake of a thing and you just want to rescue her from all this testosterone.
One centerpiece of this year’s TIFF is its pair of dueling Hamlets: Aneil Karia’s “Hamlet,” which plops its moody scion (Riz Ahmed), pentameter and all, in present-day England, and Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” an imaginary biography of William Shakespeare and his wife (Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley) that takes a stab at the family angst that might have inspired him to pen his guilt-ridden tragedy. I’d pit the two against each other, but I wasn’t a fan of either. The first felt too cold and couldn’t hack how to modernize Morfydd Clark’s Ophelia; the second started strong but got soggy with its repetitive weeping and gnashing. As Hamlet would say, “it touches us not.”
Given “Hamnet’s” pedigree, it’ll stick around through awards season. Zhao won over the Roy Thompson Theater by sheparding the audience through a somatic breathing exercise, as she did last week at Telluride. “Feel the ground underneath your feet, the city of Toronto holding you safe and sound,” she said. At least I liked her kooky sincerity, as well as a supporting performance by 12-year-old Jacobi Jupe as Shakespeare’s fictional son. Besides the early scenes of Mescal and Buckley falling in witchy, filthy, steamy love, the best sequence is when Zhao imagines witnessing the play’s debut at the Globe Theatre with a riveting lead and an enraptured crowd. Kudos to Joe Alwyn who managed to get himself cast in both movies as Laertes in Karia’s “Hamlet” and Shakespeare’s brother-in-law in “Hamnet.”
Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the movie “Fuze.”
(Anton / TIFF)
Meanwhile, the garrote-taut “Fuze” by David Mackenzie (“Hell or High Water”), is a high stakes thriller about a British explosives expert (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) tasked to defuse a World War II bomb that’s been disinterred in a crowded London block. When the police chief (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) evacuates the neighborhood, a fiendishly clever gang of thieves headed by Theo James and Sam Worthington seize the opportunity to rob a bank vault. That’s the set-up, but the script shifts so fast from one betrayal to the next that all you can do is hang on.
Likewise, I barely want to say a thing about the twists in “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” Rian Johnson and Daniel Craig’s third (and best) Benoit Blanc puzzle. My one teaser is that Josh O’Connor (“Challengers”) plays a parish priest who gives this clever franchise something I hadn’t realized it needed: soul. Blood will be shed. Possibly even a tear.
Potsy Ponciroli’s “Motor City,” a brutal blood-pumper set in 1970s Detroit, has a great conceit: such an exaggeration of strong-and-silent machismo that the movie only has five lines of dialogue. No one has to explain a thing — you’ve seen this plot a hundred times. The preening villain (Ben Foster), the disgraced sweetheart (Shailene Woodley), and the vengeful hero (Alan Ritchson of TV’s “Reacher”) are archetypes that date back further than D.W. Griffith. Detroit’s own Jack White of the White Stripes has a playful cameo and selected the needledrops from Bill Withers, Fleetwood Mac and Donna Summer that shoulder the emotions. It’s a slender exercise with too much slow motion and a ridiculous ending. Even so, you can scarcely take your eyes off the screen.
On King Street, where many of TIFF’s screenings are held, a promoter in a full-body moose costume advertised National Canadian Film Day, an annual April event where theaters open their doors for free showings of Canadian-made movies. This spring’s lineup included Matthew Rankin’s surreal Manitoba-set comedy “Universal Language,” which won the Best Canadian Discovery award at last year’s TIFF. I’m a champion of the film, and so, too, I reckon is the cineaste I saw inside the Lightbox theater wearing a souvenir T-shirt who’d scratched out the “Toronto” with black marker to scrawl, “Winnipeg.”
I love punkish, low-fi pride. There were heaps of it at the boisterous midnight premiere of local comics Matt Johnson (“BlackBerry”) and Jay McCarrol’s marvelously scruffy “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” which stars the longtime collaborators as aspiring rock stars who have been trying to land a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli theater for nearly 18 years. Johnson and McCarrol have kept up the joke since they launched their “Nirvanna the Band” web series in 2007. Today, they’re a little older and no wiser — thank goodness.
“The movie you’re about to see was paid for almost entirely by the Canadian government,” said Johnson with contagious glee, adding that German audiences have also been shocked to witness the city’s rampant jaywalking.
The mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, was seated two rows ahead of me looking sleek in a one-shoulder gown. I couldn’t tell what was going through her mind when she watched Johnson and McCarrol try to get the Rivoli’s attention by parachuting off the top of the nearby CN Tower, once the tallest building in the world until Dubai bested it with the Burj Khalifa. Frankly, I was too busy gasping. But after the movie, Johnson apologized to her from the stage.
“Are we in trouble?” he asked. The crowd was too rowdy to hear the mayor’s response. Luckily, I could. Chow cupped a hand around her mouth and shouted, “We love you!”
Seoul, September 7: Hyundai Motor Group has advised employees to postpone travelling to the United States for business trips after hundreds of South Koreans were taken into custody following an immigration raid in Georgia, industry sources said on Sunday.
In a notification to employees who were set to make business trips to the U.S. next week, the company advised them to review such plans, with the exception of urgent and essential visits, according to the sources, reports Yonhap news agency. The advisory was apparently seen as part of efforts to prepare for potential situations that could arise following the recent raid, although no Hyundai Motor employees have been detained. Hyundai Motor India To Pass on Complete GST Rate Reduction Benefits to Car Buyers From Day 1, Offer Savings of up to INR 2.40 Lakh.
More than 300 South Korean nationals out of 457 people have been taken into custody during the raid on the site operated by Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution Ltd. The presidential office has announced that negotiations for the release of the South Korean workers have concluded. South Korea’s Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will depart for Washington this week, diplomatic sources said on Sunday, after the government announced that negotiations for the release of South Korean workers detained by a recent US immigration raid have concluded.
Cho, who is set to leave for the US on Monday afternoon, is expected to meet US officials to request their cooperation for the release of the detained South Koreans and discuss administration procedures, multiple diplomatic sources said.
The top diplomat is also expected to request US cooperation on preventing similar incidents and underscore the need to improve the visa system for South Korean nationals travelling to the US for work. During a government response meeting to the US immigration arrests on Saturday, Cho said he would visit Washington if necessary for talks with US officials. Elon Musk Urges Talented Workers To Join Tesla Silicon Team ‘To Work on Chips That Save Lives’; Gives Update on AI5 and AI6 Chips.
US officials cast Thursday’s raid as “the largest single-site enforcement operation in the history of Homeland Security Investigations.” US President Donald Trump expressed his support Friday for the ICE operation, describing those detained as “illegal aliens.”
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 08, 2025 09:11 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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As Google Ads leans further into AI-driven automation, savvy advertisers are looking for ways to stay in control – ensuring that automation truly drives efficient results.
Yet, the data available often tells only part of the story, with some advertisers reporting that 20%-80% of their ad spend is tied to hidden search terms.
So where should you focus when auditing a Google Ads account?
Let’s break down the areas where you still have real levers to influence performance.
Even though a large chunk of search terms may be hidden, the terms that are accessible are invaluable to show the intent and relevancy of those who are viewing and clicking your ads.
For those running Performance Max campaigns, Google has made moves toward transparency by now showing search terms.
When looking through search term reports, focus on:
Watch out for auto-apply recommendations that can make unwanted changes, such as adding assets or keywords.
While some recommendations are more helpful than others (such as negative keyword conflicts), it’s best for attentive ad managers to leave auto-apply settings off and manually review through recommendations for any worthwhile suggestions.
Dig deeper: Top Google Ads recommendations you should always ignore, use, or evaluate
Look at the Devices section under Insights and Reports > When and where ads showed to see performance broken down by:
If you are using Target CPA bidding, device adjustments are the only bid adjustment type applicable, so note that this is one rare area of control you do have.
With enough data you may want to apply positive or negative adjustments for various devices based on results.
You can also apply device bid adjustments for a Maximize Clicks bid strategy.
Other strategies (Target Impression Share, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversion Value) let you set a -100% value for individual device types to exclude completely if performance is particularly bad for one category.
Review Matched Locations (also under When and where ads showed) to ensure that ads are only showing in your intended areas.
Add location exclusions to help prevent unwanted spend where you don’t do business.
Additionally, check Location Options under campaign settings.
In most cases, you should select Presence to be more likely to reach individuals in or recently in your target locations.
Otherwise, you’ll also be including those deemed by the system to be “showing interest” in the locations.
Dig deeper: 9 essential geotargeting tactics for Google Ads
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
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See terms.
While keyword-to-search-term matching is less precise than it used to be, account structure still matters.
Attempting to go too narrow with SKAGs (single keyword ad groups) may be a losing battle, but you should still make sure that keywords fit the same theme within an ad group and relate to the ad copy.
For instance, if you are offering a service for building sand structures:
Don’t obsess over breaking out ad groups for keywords that are synonyms or have different word order unless performance or intent are different enough to justify it.
Microsegmenting often hurts performance today, as algorithms need ample data to make informed bidding decisions.
Be sure to look through placement reports periodically and exclude unwanted placements.
Here are a few ways to flag potential exclusions:
Note that for Performance Max, you’ll need to exclude placements at the account level.
Go to Content Suitability from the Tools menu and find Excluded placements under the Advanced settings dropdown. You can now add in negative placements.
Performance Max will also respect placement exclusion lists that are applied at account level.
With the addition of Search Partner placement visibility, you should also include any opted-in search campaigns for your review process.
When running responsive search ads, you’re trusting Google to test various combinations and bias toward better performers over time.
While you have little control beyond pinning assets in RSAs, review the data periodically for learnings that may inform future ad copy decisions.
Introducing performance data for RSA headlines has been another positive change made by Google.
For Demand Gen ads and responsive display ads, you can view data for both text and image assets.
As Google experiments with new ad formats and asset combinations, you may feel you have less control over what’s shown.
One way to stand out is by adding assets beyond the default headlines and descriptions.
These highlight your key selling points while helping you capture more real estate in the SERP.
Here are the assets you should think through incorporating where they make sense for your brand:
Remember that many of these assets can also be applied to other campaign types besides search.
First-party data is vital to marketing in a modern ecosystem.
Proper conversion tracking should be the fundamental starting point for any Google Ads account.
Confirm that conversion tags fire on the correct actions using Google Tag Manager’s Preview Mode.
As privacy settings in iOS and various browsers may sometimes block conversion tags from firing, check for the implementation of Enhanced Conversions for Web and Enhanced Conversions for Leads to allow for more accurate tracking.
These will ensure that you are matching conversion actions based on user information while also accounting for offline actions (with Enhanced Conversions for Leads).
Whether you’re auditing a new account or reviewing an existing one, staying aligned with today’s evolving ad landscape is key.
AI-driven features can boost performance, but real success comes from knowing which levers you still control and monitoring the data that matters.
With the right checks and adjustments, you can make Google’s automation work for you – not the other way around.
Later this year, Octopath Traveler 0 will put you in control of your own destiny as you attempt to rebuild your town alongside a party of heroes. But the size of your city is going to be limited based on which system you choose to play the game on.
Square Enix has shared the Octopath Traveler 0 specs (via Wario64), which reveal that each console has a limit to the buildings that can be added to a town. Nintendo Switch comes in far below the other platforms with a 250 building limit. Switch 2 and PlayStation 4 can handle 400 buildings. But to get the maximum of 500 buildings, you’ll need to play the game on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, or PC.
When it comes to rendering resolution and frame rate, the Switch once again lags far behind the other consoles with 1280 x 720 and a maximum of 30 FPS. Switch 2, PS4, and Xbox Series S can all reach 1920 x 1080 resolution, but the Series S can also hit 120 FPS while the other two consoles are locked at 60 FPS. PS5 and Xbox Series X both have 3840 x 2160 resolution and 120 FPS, and the PC version allows users to select their own resolution and frame rate.
After playing a demo for Octopath Traveler 0 during Gamescom, GameSpot’s Steve Watts praised the game’s expanded customization, larger parties, and bigger towns. Octopath Traveler 0 will arrive on December 4 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch. However, Square Enix has revealed that there won’t be an option to upgrade the Switch version to the Switch 2 version.
For cancer, and infection-fighting T cells, glucose offers far more than a simple sugar rush.
A new discovery by Van Andel Institute scientists reveals that glucose, an essential cellular fuel that powers immune cells, also aids in T cells’ internal communication and boosts their cancer-fighting properties. The findings may help optimize T cells’ ability to combat cancer and other diseases.
A study describing the work published on September 2 in Cell Metabolism.
“Immune cells are highly influenced by their environment” said Joseph Longo, Ph.D., the study’s first author and a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Russell Jones, Ph.D. “We knew that T cells need access to glucose to function, but we didn’t know exactly why. It was previously thought that T cells mainly break down glucose for energy, but our new work shows that T cells use glucose as a building block for other molecules that are necessary to support T cells’ anti-cancer properties.”
The findings reveal that T cells allocate significant portions of glucose to build large molecules called glycosphingolipids (GSLs). These sugar-fat compounds are essential for T cell growth and making proteins that T cells use to combat cancer.
GSLs help form fat-rich structures on T cell surfaces called lipid rafts, which bring together cell signaling proteins that instruct the T cell to kill cancer cells. Without GSLs, these signals are weaker, making T cells less effective at destroying tumors.
“Both T cells and cancer cells leverage different nutrients to support varying aspects of their function,” Jones said. “The more we know about these different fuel sources, the better we can support T cells’ innate cancer-fighting abilities while also developing ways to possibly make cancer cells more vulnerable to immune attack.”
Other authors include Lisa M. DeCamp, Brandon M. Oswald, Ph.D., Robert Teis, Alfredo Reyes-Oliveras, Ph.D., Michael S. Dahabieh, Ph.D., Abigail E. Ellis, Michael P. Vincent, Ph.D., Hannah Damico, M.B., Kristin L. Gallik, Ph.D., Nicole M. Foy, Shelby E. Compton, Ph.D., Colt D. Capan, M.S., Kelsey S. Williams, Ph.D., Corinne R. Esquibel, Ph.D., Zachary B. Madaj, M.S., Hyoungjoo Lee, Ph.D., Connie Krawczyk, Ph.D., Brian B. Haab, Ph.D., and Ryan D. Sheldon, Ph.D., of VAI; and Dominic G. Roy, Ph.D., of Université de Montréal.
Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award no. R01AI165722 (Jones). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
This Internship Experience has been submitted by Vanshika Gaur. Name Vanshika Gaur Name of the College Faculty of Law, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Name of the Organisation Delhi State Legal Services Authority Address: 3rd Floor, Courts Complex, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay Marg, Rouse Avenue, Mata Sundari Railway Colony, Mandi House, New Delhi, Delhi, 110002 […]
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Struggling with poor sleep is more than just an occasional inconvenience – it can take a serious toll on your long-term health. From heart disease to cognitive decline, sleep problems are closely linked to a range of chronic conditions. Experts stress that cultivating healthy sleep habits isn’t optional but essential, and ignoring persistent issues may put your overall well-being at risk.
Also Read | Cardiologist shares 4 ways to keep your arteries healthy ‘without a single medication’
Board-certified sleep specialist Dr. Christopher J. Allen, known for regularly sharing insights on sleep health, recently outlined 10 key habits that can shape your circadian rhythm – for better or worse. In an Instagram video posted on September 4, he explained how certain behaviors, from falling asleep with the TV on to the long-term physiological toll of sleep deprivation, may be quietly disrupting healthy sleep patterns.
According to Dr. Allen, “Snoring means you’re dying in your sleep 300+ times per night. Your partner isn’t just annoyed—they’re watching you suffocate.” Chronic snoring can be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea, a serious condition that if left untreated, can lead to health issues like high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, as per Johns Hopkins Medicine.
Do you often find yourself waking up in the middle of the night, especially between 1am and 3am, unable to get uninterrupted sleep? Dr. Allen cautions that this is not a random phenomenon – it means your stress hormones are in overdrive, making it impossible for your nervous system to shut down.
Dr. Allen cautions against making “falling asleep with the TV on” a habit. Requiring white noise in the background in order to sleep trains your brain to fear silence, eventually disrupting your sleep cycle. White noise may feel soothing and help you fall asleep, but it can prevent your body from reaching the deep, restorative stages of sleep.
Dr. Allen said, “Sleep debt compounds like interest—but backwards. Miss one night and you lose brain cells you’ll never get back.” He suggests that chronic sleep loss doesn’t just make you tired – it can cause lasting harm to your brain, and the effects build up the longer you deprive yourself of proper rest.
Waking up with jaw pain is not a coincidence related to stress. It can indicate that you are choking in your sleep due to sleep apnea, according to Dr. Allen. Grinding your teeth while sleeping is also related to a condition called sleep bruxism, which can lead to jaw pain and sleep disorders, as per an article on Mayo Clinic.
Dr. Allen says that research suggests taking very long naps (especially more than 1.5 hours) on weekends, often to catch up on missed sleep during the week, not only leaves you feeling groggy and sluggish afterwards but also raises the risk of heart disease.
Also Read | Cardiologist reveals ‘most underrated secret to heart health’ that helps lower blood pressure and heart rate naturally
“That ‘harmless’ glass of wine before bed? Studies show it increases your risk of dementia long-term,” according to Dr. Allen. Excessive consumption of alcohol disrupts sleep and brain function, negatively affecting REM sleep – increasing the risks of dementia, hypertension, as well as diabetes, according to a study published in Nutrients journal.
Many people rely on melatonin supplements in order to induce sleep. However Dr. Allen says that taking melatonin gummies every day does not fix your sleep problems – it rather trains your body to stop producing its own melatonin.
Staying up late at night is common among adolescents, often seen as a way to assert independence and push back against parental or societal norms. However as per Dr. Allen, it is a set up for stress and anxiety – “Your kid’s late bedtime isn’t ‘independent spirit’. It’s dysregulation, and it rewires their brain for anxiety later.”
Have you noticed that sleeping in a cold bedroom helps you fall asleep faster? Dr. Allen states that it is no coincidence – “it literally signals your nervous system that it’s safe to shut down.”
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. It is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
For the past four years or so, veteran drug hunters Josh Bilenker and Jeff Engelman have kept tightly under wraps the details of their latest project, a biotechnology startup called Treeline Biosciences.
On Monday, they pulled back the curtain a little, unveiling the first compounds they have advanced into clinical testing for cancer. And they announced $200 million in new funding to help pay for those trials.
Since its formation in 2021, Treeline has now brought in approximately $1.1 billion — a princely sum that they’ve raised from a dozen deep-pocketed investors, including several well-known biotech venture firms, among them Arch Venture Partners, OrbiMed and GV.
That backing has given Bilenker and Engelman the freedom to build their company for the long term.
“The scale of our ambition required an honest conversation with many of the best investors in the life sciences,” Bilenker wrote in a blog post accompanying Treeline’s Wednesday announcement. “We asked them to help us build a team capable of repeated invention and to resource multiple programs with complementary time horizons, technical risks and patient populations.”
Treeline’s first programs are all in cancer, although the company hinted that its research could lead it to explore diseases of the immune system and brain, too.
Two of the three programs disclosed Wednesday were discovered by Treeline. One, dubbed TLN-121, is what’s known as a protein degrader, and works by breaking down a protein, BCL6, that lymphoma cells co-opt to stay alive.
The second broadly targets mutations in a gene called KRAS that’s commonly altered in solid tumors, like those of the lungs, colon and pancreas. While other companies have developed KRAS inhibitors that block a specific mutation in the gene called G12C, Treeline has designed its small molecule drug to work across KRAS variants.
Treeline in-licensed the third program from Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals, a China-based drugmaker that’s become a partner of choice for biotech and pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. and Europe. This drug targets a gene called EZH2 that encodes for a protein capable of regulating DNA expression. Treeline is testing it in people with T cell lymphomas.
In his blog post, Bilenker noted how Treeline is attempting to break from the industry’s typical milestone-to-milestone model that tends to funnel a company’s resources toward one lead program. The company has instead tried to cast a wider net to explore a range of therapeutic hypotheses.
“Treeline was not built around a platform or therapeutic area,” Bilenker wrote.
The company’s approach has meant killing programs that don’t meet its bar. “Having the luxury of moving on from programs is probably the greatest gift our funding mandate has given us,” Blinker added.
Treeline expects to have Phase 1 data from its first three clinical programs next year, and behind those aims to advance three more internally discovered medicines into the preclinical phase immediately preceding clinical trials “soon thereafter.” A fourth drug candidate could be ready for clinical testing early next year as well.
In addition to working on small molecule inhibitors and protein degraders, Treeline is also working on what it calls targeted therapy antibody-drug conjugates, which swap out the chemotherapy toxin typically used in ADCs for a more selective payload.
Prior to founding Treeline, Bilenker briefly ran a cancer drug division Eli Lilly set up after acquiring Bilenker’s company, Loxo Oncology, for about $8 billion in 2019. Three cancer medicines developed by Loxo have won Food and Drug Administration approval.
Engelman previously was global head of oncology at the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research and, before that, was director of thoracic oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Treeline operates out of laboratories and offices in Watertown, Mass., San Diego and Basel, Switzerland.
Key takeaways
72% of Australians believe people are less interested in knowing their neighbours than 20 years ago.
62% admit to living next to someone for over 6 months without ever meeting them.
Those in regional, rural, or remote areas are more likely to know all their neighbours’ names (32%) compared to city dwellers (24%).
The Mid North Coast of NSW is the friendliest region, with 43% knowing all their neighbours’ names.
Latrobe (VIC) and Outer Southwest Sydney were rated most family-friendly.
Neighbourhood character matters: Friendly, family-oriented suburbs still hold premium value and appeal.
Liveability isn’t just about infrastructure — community cohesion plays a critical role.
High-conflict zones or disconnected areas may face lower demand and reduced growth potential.
Once upon a time, Australians would chat over the fence, borrow sugar from their neighbours without hesitation, and keep an eye out for each other’s kids.
But according to the Real Neighbours Report 2025, those days may be numbered, and as property investors, we’d be unwise to ignore the implications.
We’ve often talked about the intangible value of a neighbourhood, the community vibe, the safety, the feeling of “home.”
Well, those social threads are starting to fray, especially among younger Australians.
The question is: what does this mean for liveability, desirability, and long-term capital growth?
This latest report, based on a national survey of over 5,000 Australians, confirms what many of us have sensed anecdotally – we’re becoming less connected to the people next door.
62% of Australians admit to living next to someone for over six months without meeting them.
For Gen Z and Gen Y, that figure jumps to over 70%.
And 72% of respondents believe we’re less interested in knowing our neighbours than we were two decades ago.
You might be tempted to shrug this off as a cultural shift, but as I see it, this erosion of local social capital could signal deeper changes in the types of locations people choose to live in and invest in.
Of course. not all areas are created equal when it comes to community cohesion.
Regional and rural communities still lead the way, with 32% of locals knowing all their neighbours’ names, compared to just 24% in metro areas.
The Mid North Coast of NSW topped the nation for friendliness, while Latrobe and Sydney’s Outer Southwest ranked as the most child- and family-friendly zones.
On the flip side, Melbourne’s inner suburbs and Brisbane’s north saw the lowest rates of basic neighbourly interaction like greetings.
This matters because neighbourhood character is increasingly becoming a factor in homebuyer and renter decisions, especially among families and downsizers.
People are craving safety, connection, and familiarity, and they’ll pay a premium for it, both as owner occupies and as tenants.
The report also highlights a generational divide in how Australians engage with their neighbours:
Only 18% of Gen Z see knowing their neighbours as “very important,” compared to 36% of Baby Boomers.
73% of Boomers always greet neighbours, while only 30% of Gen Z do the same.
Boomers are far more likely to lend a hand (or a cup of sugar), while younger Australians prefer digital channels or formal community events to build relationships.
So what’s happening here? Is the neighbourhood dying?
Well… not quite, it’s just evolving.
Younger people are still seeking connection, but they’re looking online.
Community is being built in Facebook groups, Discord servers, and WhatsApp chats. The front fence has gone digital.
That has implications for how we evaluate “desirable” neighbourhoods.
It’s no longer just about walkability or cafes; now it’s also about connectivity, both online and offline.
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Interestingly, the report also uncovers a spike in friction between neighbours:
26% of Australians have received passive-aggressive messages from neighbours.
37% feel their privacy has been invaded — with concerns over surveillance cameras, boundary issues, and even eavesdropping.
Alarmingly, 1 in 5 people have considered moving due to neighbour conflicts. Among Gen Y, that figure hits 41%.
This is more than just juicy backyard gossip. I see it as a red flag.
Neighbourhood tensions, whether from noise complaints or disputes over fences, affect liveability.
And that directly impacts rental demand, tenant satisfaction, and long-term value.
There are a few clear takeaways here if you’re investing for the long term:
1. Don’t underestimate the power of community
Suburbs with a strong sense of community often have more stable tenancies, lower turnover, and better capital growth.
These are the “sticky” suburbs people don’t want to leave, and that’s worth its weight in gold.
2. Choose neighbourhoods, not just properties
Once you’ve chosen the right suburb, it’s also important to find the right street and neighbourhood where you invest.
Proximity to parks, schools, and local events still draws people in, but increasingly, online community groups and local digital engagement are shaping suburban sentiment.
Look for areas with high local involvement, both physical and virtual.
3. Be aware of the red flags
High levels of noise complaints, privacy issues, and neighbourhood disputes can depress property values over time.
Before you buy, you can just dig deeper into the local culture. Are people connected, or combative?
4. Family-friendly still wins
The study shows that family-friendliness and traditional values around neighbourhood interaction still carry weight.
These regions are likely to remain in demand across market cycles, particularly as more young families flee high-density city life.
The neighbourly chat over the fence might be fading, but Australians haven’t stopped seeking connection; it just looks different now.
As investors, we need to understand these social shifts if we’re serious about identifying future hotspots.
People don’t just buy or rent a property.
They buy into a community, even if that community now lives partly online.
The savvy investor’s job is to find where both the lifestyle and the liveability align with the values of the next generation of buyers and renters.
Because ultimately, it’s not just bricks and mortar that drive property prices, it’s people.
I always thought journaling was something other people managed to keep up with. I’d start off motivated, scribbling in a paper notebook or jotting quick thoughts into my phone, but it never stuck for more than a week. Nothing gave me a reason to keep coming back.
But that changed the moment I tried Day One. What began as an experiment has grown into a daily habit, and now I can’t imagine journaling without it.
I liked the idea of journaling, but actually keeping up with it never worked. I’d hear people talk about it, helping them clear their minds or track their progress, and I wanted that for myself. The problem was, every time I tried, I gave up almost as quickly as I started.
I first gave it a shot with Samsung Notes, since it was already on my phone and easy to open. For a few nights in a row, I typed short reflections before bed or jotted down little things I didn’t want to forget. But the habit never lasted. After a week, the entries stopped. Opening it felt more like tossing scraps into a drawer than keeping a real journal.
A few pages would fill up, then the notebook would sit untouched. Every time, it left me wondering if journaling just wasn’t for me. The page felt too empty, and without prompts in the app or reminders set up, I rarely knew what to write beyond a line or two. Even when I tried again on paper, I only managed a short burst of entries before falling silent.
After so many failed tries, I wasn’t really looking for another journaling app. I’d convinced myself that journaling just wasn’t something I could keep up with. But when I came across Day One, I decided to give it a chance. From the moment I opened it, I could tell it was different. The design was clean and welcoming. Creating an entry was as simple as tapping a button, and I could start writing without worrying about formatting or where to put it. It already felt like a proper journal instead of another notes app.
What really made me stick with it were the small details. I could drop in a photo when I didn’t feel like typing, and each entry could automatically save the weather and location when I enabled it. Those touches gave my words a sense of context and importance. Looking back, an entry wasn’t just text on a page. With a photo, the weather, and the location attached, it carried the feeling of the moment in a way plain writing never could. However, adding more than one photo is part of the subscription.
Most of my entries are written, but you don’t have to stick to typing. Day One also lets you record your voice, which makes it easier to capture thoughts at the moment (available with Premium). Then I discovered the On This Day view. It resurfaced past entries from the same date in earlier years, turning my journal into a timeline I could actually revisit. That was the moment I knew this app had solved the problem I’d struggled with for so long.
Download: Day One for Windows | macOS | Android
Before Day One, skipping a day usually meant I lost momentum. One missed entry turned into a week, and soon the notebook or app was set aside. Day One changed that cycle. Instead of relying solely on willpower, it provided me with small nudges, such as reminders and prompts, that made it easier to keep going. Even on busy days, I would add a note or a single photo just to stay consistent.
On days when I didn’t have much to say, a daily prompt gave me a place to start. Sometimes it was as simple as jotting down one thing I was grateful for, and that small entry was enough to keep my streak alive. Templates helped too, offering formats like a gratitude entry or daily summary that made writing feel less daunting and often encouraged me to write more.
Now that journaling has become part of my routine, Day One feels like the natural home for my memories. It isn’t just a place to store notes. It’s a real journal, and I notice that difference every time I open it.
Privacy matters to me, and Day One takes that seriously. My journals use end-to-end encryption, and on my iPhone I lock the app with Face ID. Knowing my entries are secure lets me write more freely. What began as a trial run is now part of my day, and Day One turned journaling into a routine I enjoy. It might do the same for you.
The Great Wall stretches across northern China from Hushan in Shandong Province to Jiayuguan in Gansu Province. In northwestern China’s Xinjiang, there is an underground “Great Wall” known as a karez, a vast subterranean irrigation system that surrounds the city of Turpan.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-07/Underground-Great-Wall-ensures-water-supply-in-arid-Turpan-1G0PP4R5d3G/img/0bb3ca5ca39f43f09c3f3f1cee23eafb/0bb3ca5ca39f43f09c3f3f1cee23eafb.jpeg' alt='Clay models depict how people used to draw water from a karez well at the Turpan Karez Paradise museum in Xinjiang. /CGTN'
Due to its extremely hot and dry climate, Turpan experiences an annual evaporation rate of 3,000 millimeters and an annual precipitation of just 16 millimeters. Collecting rainwater, preventing evaporation, and transporting it to fields and families has always been a key issue in the region. Around 2,000 years ago, an underground irrigation system known as a “karez” was created. Ancient engineers exploited the sloping terrain between the Tianshan Mountains and the Turpan Basin to collect melted snow and transport it via underground channels to prevent evaporation and absorption in the sand.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-07/Underground-Great-Wall-ensures-water-supply-in-arid-Turpan-1G0PP4R5d3G/img/64d06e8ce6ec44eeacbf55ce6fe627e3/64d06e8ce6ec44eeacbf55ce6fe627e3.jpeg' alt='An underground karez channel is lit up at the Turpan Karez Paradise museum in Xinjiang. / CGTN'
This network of channels extends for over 5,000 kilometers from Turpan, a distance that equals the journey between Beijing and Urumqi. Currently, 238 of these channels remain in use.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-07/Underground-Great-Wall-ensures-water-supply-in-arid-Turpan-1G0PP4R5d3G/img/e0f77662d4db4f58870690628295a9ce/e0f77662d4db4f58870690628295a9ce.jpeg' alt='Clay models at the Turpan Karez Paradise museum in Xinjiang depict a cattle-driven winch system used in karez wells. / CGTN'
The Karez System Cultural Landscape was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-07/Underground-Great-Wall-ensures-water-supply-in-arid-Turpan-1G0PP4R5d3G/img/ccf223717b454efdb605a88f2e8f307a/ccf223717b454efdb605a88f2e8f307a.jpeg' alt='The Karez wells in Turpan are typically dug dozens of meters deep. / CGTN'
The Kit Kat Club is closing its Broadway doors early on Sept. 21, as current “Emcee” Billy Porter battles a “serious case of sepsis,” according to the production team.
“It is with a heavy heart that we have made the painful decision to end our Broadway run,” said producer Adam Speers in a statement. “On behalf of all the producers, we’re so honored to have been able to bring this version of John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Joe Masteroff’s important masterpiece, ‘Cabaret,’ to New York and to have opened the doors to our own Kit Kat Club for the year and a half we have been here.”
“Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club” — as this revival is titled — opened on Broadway in April 2024, with Eddie Redmayne and Gayle Rankin in the lead roles. Following their September 2024 departure, duos Adam Lambert and Auli’i Cravalho, and Orville Peck and Eva Noblezada played the titular roles.
Porter stepped into the role of the Emcee, alongside co-star Marisha Wallace as Sally Bowles, in July. The duo was expected to lead the production’s final 13 weeks — originally scheduled to end on Oct. 19 — before Porter’s illness sidelined him.
“Billy was an extraordinary ‘Emcee,’ bringing his signature passion and remarkable talent,” said Speers. “We wish Billy a speedy recovery, and I look forward to working with him again in the very near future.”
As of Sept. 21, the production will have played 18 preview performances and 592 regular performances. Marty Lauter and David Merino, the production’s longtime alternates for Emcee, will share the role for the final two weeks of performances. Their exact performance schedules — opposite Wallace as Bowles — are forthcoming.
But Shein and Temu didn’t stop marketing altogether. Instead, both companies chose to shift their ad budgets abroad to regions where the geopolitical risks were perceived to be lower and growth opportunities more abundant. Shein spent 22 percent of its overall advertising spend in the US market during the second quarter, compared to 39 percent in the first three months of 2025, according to Sensor Tower. Temu’s US spend, meanwhile, went from 47 percent to merely 9 percent. As a result, Shein and Temu’s sales in countries other than the US, such as the UK, have surged to record highs.
But the dip didn’t last long. After hitting rock bottom in June, both companies began ramping back up their US ad spending in July, Shah’s data shows. In August, Shein spent more on marketing in the US than it did in August 2024.
The figures reflect the fact that the Chinese platforms had figured out a new playbook: continue shipping products despite the tariffs, pass some costs to consumers, and stay competitive by focusing on building independent supply chains and warehouse networks that can help keep shipping costs down.
App store charts suggest that the new strategy is working. After a brief slide in popularity earlier this year, Shein and Temu were now once again ranking within the top 5 apps in the shopping category of the US Apple App Store and Google Play store as of Wednesday.
Temu and Shein did not immediately reply to requests for comment from WIRED.
The big Chinese platforms had been preparing for the end of de minimis for more than a year and were able to quickly recalibrate their logistics strategies when the tariffs finally went into effect. The same cannot be said for independent shops.
Denys, the Ukrainian Etsy shop owner, says he’s anticipating needing to raise the price of his products to stay afloat. “If the new tariffs remain, prices will inevitably increase by at least that 10 percent in the future,” he says.
He has recently begun working with a local Ukrainian shipping company called NovaPost, which stepped in to help sellers navigate customs procedures and pledged to shoulder part of the fee increases for local companies. The situation in Ukraine is far less chaotic than in other parts of the world, where many postal companies have completely halted sending packages to the US because of ongoing confusion over the details of Trump’s trade policies.
I think we all benefit from being able to shop from small vendors around the world. Over the past few years, I’ve purchased a 3D-printed topographic map from Canada, art prints from Germany, and Denys’ woodwork from Ukraine. I didn’t set out to shop from foreign brands, but modern global ecommerce platforms gave me access to a wider range of products, which were often sold at lower prices than the goods in nearby retail stores. Short of learning carpentry myself, Denys’ Etsy shop in Ukraine is probably the best option for getting affordable customized woodwork to my home in New York City.
But with the end of de minimis, many Americans might choose to cut back on buying artisanal goods and other nonessential items from abroad. If that happens, small sellers will be the ones hit the hardest. “This mostly affects impulse buying and then things we don’t need,” Juozas Kaziukėnas, an ecommerce platform analyst, told my colleague Boone Ashworth. “It’s not affecting the price of milk, for example.”
I’m still waiting for my wooden slats, which Denys says should finally clear customs soon. I’m hoping that businesses like his are able to survive in this new ecosystem. Otherwise, I might have no choice but to take up carpentry, but who knows how much I would have to pay in tariffs on my new woodworking tools?
This is an edition of Zeyi Yang and Louise Matsakis’ Made in China newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.
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Logan Kilpatrick, lead product manager for Google, said on Friday that Google’s AI Mode will be the “default” search experience for Google Search “soon.” We know Google said AI Mode is the future of Google Search, Liz Reid, the head of Google Search announced that in May 2025. And now that may be happening soon.
What Google said. On Friday afternoon, Google’s Logan Kilpatrick, replied to a post on X asking AI Mode to become the default Google Search experience, saying “Soon.”
Here are those posts:
Google AI Mode shortcut. This comes in response to Google’s announcement that google.com/ai now leads you directly to Google’s AI Mode. You no longer have to go to Google.com and click on the AI Mode tab.
Why we care. Google has been rapidly expanding access to AI Mode over the past few months. Google rolled out AI Mode in 180 countries and territories after recently expanding AI Mode in the UK, India and of course, the US.
What is AI Mode. AI Mode is a new tab within Google Search that brings you into a more AI-like interface. Google said AI Mode “is particularly helpful for queries where further exploration, reasoning, or comparisons are needed.” AI Mode lets you explore a topic and get comprehensive AI-based answers without you needing to do those comparisons and analyses yourself. We saw rumors of this news and it is finally officially here, for some of you.
AI Mode uses a “query fan-out” technique that issues multiple related searches concurrently across subtopics and multiple data sources and then brings those results together to provide a response. Google said using this query fan-out method provides searchers with a “more breadth and depth of information than a traditional search on Google.”
AI Mode supports searching with text, voice, and images through its multimodal capabilities. Plus, AI Mode offers the conversational follow-up questions like you’ve seen in AI Overviews and Gemini.
Tracking AI Mode. You won’t be able to easily track AI Mode queries and data in Search Console, despite that data being logged in Search Console. Google lumps it all together with normal search, despite it being a separate tab within Google.com.
Now that AI Mode is outside of Search Labs in India, you will see this data in Search Console, but it will just make it all super messy.
Why we care. AI Mode becoming the default can mean big changes to the future of SEO for many of us. And as I wrote before, while many of us like to complain and we honestly have good reason to be upset, complaining won’t help. We need to adapt and change and experiment. Experiment with these new experiences, keep on top of these changes happening in Google and at other AI and search companies. Then try new things and keep testing.
If you do not adapt, you will die. SEO won’t die, but you will become irrelevant.
The good news, SEOs are some of the best at adapting, embracing change and testing new strategies out. So you are all ready and equipped for the future of search.
Update: Maybe not. Robby Stein, VP at Google, said in response to this news that he wouldn’t read too much into the statement. He wrote, “wouldn’t read too much into this. we’re focusing on making it easy to access AI Mode for those who want it.”
Astro Bot is celebrating its 1-year anniversary today, September 6, 2025. Below, we reflect on what the plucky robot has come to represent for some burgeoning gamers.
More than 30 years ago, I fell in love. I was visiting extended family with my parents and two siblings, and the object of my affection was a boxy gray-and-black video game console hooked up to an equally boxy CRT television. I had seen video games before in arcades, and had played some rudimentary Mac games on our family computer. But Super Mario Bros. was something else entirely. The simple but flexible controls, the stage variety, the music. By the time we left my aunt’s house, we three children were staging a coordinated influence campaign to convince our parents to buy our own Nintendo Entertainment System, eager to play more Mario. The rest is history.
My story isn’t unique. Lots of children of the 1980s have similar origins for their gaming obsession. But now, decades later, as a parent myself, I’m struck by how Astro Bot has enraptured my own kids in ways that remind me of my experience with Mario. Years in the future, it will almost certainly be Astro that they credit with first igniting their love of games.
In my particular case, my experience with Mario all those years ago had a massive impact on the trajectory of my life. It affected not only my hobby and interests and circle of friends, but also my career. It’s hard to imagine that I would have gone into writing about games professionally without catching the bug from an early age. I don’t particularly think my own kids will become games critics, but it’s a testament to how important these early experiences can be, and how they can manifest in unexpected ways.
Astro Bot – Play Will Find A Way | Live Action Trailer
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Just before the release of Astro Bot, I visited Team Asobi in Tokyo for an extended hands-on. It was a normal-enough studio visit, but I could sense an infectious energy around this game in particular. This was shaping up to be something special, and I think Asobi knew it. In interviews, game director Nicolas Doucet talked about how important it was to make this game appealing and approachable for younger gamers. Astro is a robot with a relatively simple character design, intentionally kept simple enough so that kids would be able to draw themselves. The character communicates wordlessly with expressions and sounds so that even kids who haven’t yet learned to read will understand the story. The platforming stages are made to be tough enough to present a nice difficulty ramp for younger or novice players, with optional challenge stages for older and more experienced players.
“I remember the first few video games that I played, and because of how greatly they were designed, they stayed with me for my whole life,” Doucet said. “And both of these are really important, I think. When we make something like a platformer, we have to be able to cater for both. So we’ve been building not only the game, but the culture of the team, always around that principle.”
While Doucet didn’t mention Mario specifically during the studio visit, the inspiration was clearly there. The studio set out to make a game that would feel great and have staying power.
They succeeded. A year later, Astro Bot is still one of the most-played video games in my house. My youngest, who can’t read yet, usually calls it “the wobot game,” but has started to know the character as Astro. The levels are just challenging enough to give him a satisfying sense of friction and accomplishment, while still remaining doable. He often surprises the rest of the family with how well he navigates even more challenging late-game stages.
My older kids are happy to play with him, helping him past the difficult parts, or playing their own extra-tough challenge levels. They all love to take on bosses together. They laugh and cheer each other on as they take on tougher challenges or replay their favorite stages. When one of the kids inadvertently deleted my 100% completion game save–I’m not naming names here; they know who they are–I ultimately shrugged it off because we could just start anew.
Now to be sure, Astro Bot isn’t likely to be as ubiquitous for my kids’ generation as Mario was for mine. In the ’80s, video game releases were sporadic and mascot characters were almost unheard of. Today, kids get into video games in all sorts of ways, from mobile devices and tablets to consoles, with massive, established franchises like Minecraft and Fortnite. Almost every gamer who came of age in the 1980s has a memory of Super Mario, but Astro’s impact will be more diffused because there are more avenues leading to the same destination. Astro won’t be a universal constant for its time period, and only time will tell if it has anywhere even remotely approaching Mario’s staying power. Still, it will always be special to me for what it has meant in my household.
Astro Bot has enjoyed plenty of success over the last year. It has sold well, inspired merchandise (including multiple special-edition controllers), and won the top honor at The Game Awards 2024. For me, though, the impact has been more personal: Astro Bot is the game that unlocked a sense of curiosity and play in my kids, and sparked their interest in playing video games more broadly. When I see them playing it, it’s like staring through a portal in time and watching myself all those years ago–face alight with the hypnotic glow of an old brown television, mouth agape as my mind reels at the possibilities of this magical new medium.
With the power to rewrite the genetic code underlying countless diseases, CRISPR holds immense promise to revolutionize medicine. But until scientists can deliver its gene-editing machinery safely and efficiently into relevant cells and tissues, that promise will remain out of reach.
Now, Northwestern University chemists have unveiled a new type of nanostructure that dramatically improves CRISPR delivery and potentially extends its scope of utility.
Called lipid nanoparticle spherical nucleic acids (LNP-SNAs), these tiny structures carry the full set of CRISPR editing tools — Cas9 enzymes, guide RNA and a DNA repair template — wrapped in a dense, protective shell of DNA. Not only does this DNA coating shield its cargo, but it also dictates which organs and tissues the LNP-SNAs travel to and makes it easier for them to enter cells.
In lab tests across various human and animal cell types, the LNP-SNAs entered cells up to three times more effectively than the standard lipid particle delivery systems used for COVID-19 vaccines, caused far less toxicity and boosted gene-editing efficiency threefold. The new nanostructures also improved the success rate of precise DNA repairs by more than 60% compared to current methods.
The study was published on Sept. 5 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The study paves the way for safer, more reliable genetic medicines and underscores the importance of how a nanomaterial’s structure — rather than its ingredients alone — can determine its potency. This principle underlies structural nanomedicine, an emerging field pioneered by Northwestern’s Chad A. Mirkin and his colleagues and pursued by hundreds of researchers around the world.
“CRISPR is an incredibly powerful tool that could correct defects in genes to decrease susceptibility to disease and even eliminate disease itself,” said Mirkin, who led the new study. “But it’s difficult to get CRISPR into the cells and tissues that matter. Reaching and entering the right cells — and the right places within those cells — requires a minor miracle. By using SNAs to deliver the machinery required for gene editing, we aimed to maximize CRISPR’s efficiency and expand the number of cell and tissue types that we can deliver it to.”
A nanotechnology and nanomedicine pioneer, Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences; professor of chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering; professor of medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine; executive director of the International Institute for Nanotechnology; and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
CRISPR needs a ride
When CRISPR machinery reaches its target inside a cell, it can disable genes, fix mutations, add new functions and more. But CRISPR machinery cannot enter cells by itself. It always needs a delivery vehicle.
Currently, scientists typically use viral vectors and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) to perform this function. Naturally good at sneaking into cells, viruses are efficient, but they can cause the human body to mount an immune response, leading to painful or even dangerous side effects. LNPs, on the other hand, are safer but inefficient. They tend to get stuck in endosomes, or compartments within the cell, where they cannot release their cargo.
“Only a fraction of the CRISPR machinery actually makes it into the cell and even a smaller fraction makes it all the way into the nucleus,” Mirkin said. “Another strategy is to remove cells from the body, inject the CRISPR components and then put the cells back in. As you can imagine, that’s extremely inefficient and impractical.”
A DNA-wrapped taxi
To overcome this barrier, Mirkin’s team turned to SNAs, which are globular — rather than linear — forms of DNA and RNA previously invented in Mirkin’s lab at Northwestern. The spherical genetic material surrounds a nanoparticle core, which can be packed with cargo. Roughly 50 nanometers in diameter, the tiny structures possess a proven ability to enter cells for targeted delivery. Seven SNA-based therapies are already in human clinical trials, including a Phase 2 clinical trial for Merkel cell carcinoma being developed by Flashpoint Therapeutics, a clinical-stage biotechnology startup.
In the new study, Mirkin’s team started with an LNP core carrying the CRISPR machinery inside. Then, they decorated the particle’s surface with a dense layer of short strands of DNA. Because the DNA can interact with a cell’s surface receptors, cells easily absorb SNAs. The DNA also can be engineered with sequences that target specific cell types, making delivery more selective.
“Simple changes to the particle’s structure can dramatically change how well a cell takes it up,” Mirkin said. “The SNA architecture is recognized by almost all cell types, so cells actively take up the SNAs and rapidly internalize them.”
Boosted performance across the board
After successfully synthesizing LNP-SNAs with CRISPR cargo, Mirkin and his team added them to cellular cultures, which included skin cells, white blood cells, human bone marrow stem cells and human kidney cells.
Then, the team observed and measured several key factors: how efficiently the cells internalized the particles, whether the particles were toxic to cells and if the particles successfully delivered a gene. They also analyzed the cells’ DNA to determine if CRISPR had made the desired gene edits. In every category, the system demonstrated its ability to successfully deliver CRISPR machinery and enable complex genetic modifications.
Next, Mirkin plans to further validate the system in multiple in vivo disease models. Because the platform is modular, researchers can adapt it for a wide range of systems and therapeutic applications. Northwestern biotechnology spin-out Flashpoint Therapeutics is commercializing the technology with the goal of rapidly moving it toward clinical trials.
“CRISPR could change the whole field of medicine,” Mirkin said. “But how we design the delivery vehicle is just as important as the genetic tools themselves. By marrying two powerful biotechnologies — CRISPR and SNAs — we have created a strategy that could unlock CRISPR’s full therapeutic potential.”
The study, “A general genome editing strategy using CRISPR lipid nanoparticle spherical nucleic acids,” was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (award number FA9550-22-1-0300), the National Science Foundation (award number DMR-2428112) and Edgar H. Bachrach through the Bachrach Foundation.
National Law University Jodhpur (NLUJ) is one of India’s leading Law Schools situated at the vibrant and colourful city of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. NLUJ has constantly been ranked as one of the top law schools in India.
Since its establishment in 1999, NLUJ has endeavoured to produce exceptional lawyers and legal scholars aimed at pushing and challenging the existing boundaries of knowledge.
National Law University Jodhpur is delighted to announce the launch of the second edition of Short Term Online Certificate Courses, each spanning three months.
These courses reflect our university’s vision to cater to the growing demand for specialized knowledge and skills in contemporary and interdisciplinary fields. Designed for working professionals, students, and individuals seeking career advancement or personal development, these programs offer a flexible and engaging experience for continuous and lifelong learning.
The following courses are offered:
Online
Details of faculty members for each course is given in the Information Brochure available on NLUJ website.
Participants can register by filling the registration from and paying the course fee on NLUJ website or using the link mentioned at the end of this post.
Remote/Online
In case of any queries, please contact on
Property ventures seem reliable, offering consistent appreciation in value. Your ability to stay dedicated at work may earn silent admiration. Academic lessons today spark excitement and curiosity. Managing family routines through teamwork could bring balance and harmony. Short-term loan dependency may arise from delayed income.
Love Focus: A healthy relationship blends passion with logic; strive for balance today.
Lucky Number: 18
Lucky Colour: Beige
Professional confidence rises as problem-solving shines today. Traveling may open doors to unexpected yet positive experiences. Financial advice from experts could reshape your money mindset. Building confidence within the family creates a joyful atmosphere. Study sessions may feel rewarding as learning feels both practical and enjoyable. Rent-related income appears promising with minimal complications.
Love Focus: Releasing emotional heaviness helps love grow with freedom and warmth.
Lucky Number: 6
Lucky Colour: Golden
Promoting healthy living in your circle can uplift everyone. Career offers may come in abundance, but choose what energizes you most. Your earnings may bring the financial stability you have been working toward. Emotional clarity may help deepen bonds with family. Gardening or greening up your home might bring a fresh sense of renewal. Academics today blend enjoyment with lasting knowledge.
Love Focus: Supporting emotional dreams creates a solid foundation for your relationship.
Lucky Number: 4
Lucky Colour: Light Blue
Your career may benefit from exploring new techniques and staying adaptable. Educational challenges may seem heavier today but pacing yourself helps. Family decisions may challenge your parenting approaches but teamwork helps. Sudden currency shifts may affect travel finances, so monitor closely. Balanced protein intake supports muscle health while portion control prevents excess. Renovation plans may require flexibility if structural surprises occur.
Love Focus: A meaningful moment together might be fleeting; embrace it fully.
Lucky Number: 1
Lucky Colour: Yellow
Unplanned expenses may arise soon, making financial balance more important. Simple tasks may feel enjoyable today as your body feels refreshed. Family coordination brings ease to big responsibilities. Academic subjects feel engaging and boost a sense of accomplishment. Professional transitions remain smooth, though small procedural updates may surface.
Love Focus: Navigate family introductions gently to ensure comfort for everyone.
Lucky Number: 7
Lucky Colour: Grey
Online banking security needs attention; update passwords as needed. Your health remains stable with consistent effort toward your fitness targets. Managing major work projects successfully could lead to senior-level recognition. For first-time homebuyers, exploration may lead to an ideal space. Persisting through academic struggles may lead to promising breakthroughs.
Love Focus: Uplift one another’s ambitions by supporting career choices.
Lucky Number: 22
Lucky Colour: Cream
At work, double-check facts before finalizing any tasks. Wounds may take longer to heal, so avoid rushing recovery. Study progress may feel slow, but steady work will bring rewards. Property renovation delays may test your patience, though progress continues. Think twice before falling for tempting discounts; buy only essentials. A sense of emotional connection with a sibling may brighten your mood today.
Love Focus: Space and independence can bring you closer in unexpected ways.
Lucky Number: 6
Lucky Colour: White
Today’s learning feels joyful and fulfilling, making study time genuinely enjoyable. Budgeting should remain in sync with long-term financial stability before splurging. You may crave new tasks at work if current roles feel repetitive. Fitness wearables assist in progress tracking, but consistency is essential. Your parents’ encouragement may uplift your confidence in subtle yet powerful ways.
Love Focus: Meaningful emotional exchanges may leave a lasting imprint today.
Lucky Number: 8
Lucky Colour: Red
Financial goals can be reached with structured discipline and smart saving. Health concerns may arise from overthinking; try to stay grounded. Flexible leasing options offer income, but returns might vary. Elders may find comfort in your emotional availability. Learning moves along smoothly, even if results are not immediately visible. Short trips may offer satisfaction even without major excitement.
Love Focus: Let romance unfold at its own pace while staying true to your feelings.
Lucky Number: 1
Lucky Colour: Baby Pink
A refund delay might call for financial flexibility. Structured routines may support educational growth, even if pace feels slow. Your meals, when timed right, help regulate your energy levels. Workplace fairness could be disrupted by noticeable salary gaps. Home renovations may enhance both functionality and long-term value. Cultural obligations may feel like duties rather than celebrations.
Love Focus: Honest conversations are needed as emotional distance grows.
Lucky Number: 3
Lucky Colour: Purple
Family arguments may resurface if left unresolved, especially when emotions run high. Keep documents ready while planning long-term property investments for future security. Planning vacation time at work may continue to be postponed. Natural remedies may offer holistic healing for your body and mind. Academic topics feel rich with discovery and thoughtful insights today. Logical planning may strengthen financial decisions.
Love Focus: Family opinions may cloud your judgment; stay grounded in what you feel.
Lucky Number: 9
Lucky Colour: Peach
Educational content today feels both enriching and entertaining. Travel may bring delightful surprises as you explore beautiful destinations. Financial efforts may multiply your prosperity if you act with consistency. Strength training could strain your body if not balanced with proper recovery. Property dealings may progress without hurdles if the documents are clear.
Love Focus: A genuine gesture may deepen appreciation for your partner.
Lucky Number: 2
Lucky Colour: Cream
By: Dr. Prem Kumar Sharma
(Astrologer, Palmist, Numerologist & Vastu Consultant)
Email: [email protected]
Url: http://www.premastrologer.com
Contact: Panchkula: +91-172-2562832, 2572874
Delhi: +91-11-47033152/40532026
Founded in 2019, Enveda launched with the goal of building an artificial intelligence platform to discover new drugs. It says its technology can mine large datasets to find promising molecules that already exist in nature.
“Nature has been running the most sophisticated R&D program on Earth for billions of years, yet nearly all of its chemistry remains unexplored,” said Viswa Colluru, Enveda’s CEO, in a statement.
Its lead program, dubbed ENV-294, is a small molecule Enveda claims is “a completely new chemical class” that showed “kinase inhibitor-like and steroid-like” behavior in preclinical testing, and a “safety profile similar to biologics in toxicology studies.” Early study data released in May showed ENV-294 was well tolerated in trial participants, with no serious adverse events reported.
Enveda is aiming at “very large markets, large indications that affect broader society,” and plans to tackle diseases that are driven by more than one mechanism, said Daniel Wee, Enveda’s chief execution officer.
Last year, the company raised $130 million in Series C funding led by Kinnevik and FPV. Sanofi joined Enveda’s investor group in February, helping to boost its total haul to $150 million. By banking capital, the company aims to get several of its programs into the clinic. “In startups, at the growth stage, you never let up off the gas,” Wee said.
Enveda plans to file investigational new drug applications for other programs over the next year. In its pipeline are an NLRP3/TL1A+ pathway inhibitor for inflammatory bowel disease, another TL1A+ inhibitor for various inflammatory and fibrotic conditions and a “hormone mimetic” for obesity. Twelve other programs are disclosed.
“The theory of leveraging what life has already created and building on top of that will give us a better success rate,” Wee said.
Supporters of AI-designed drugs have touted the technology as a way to reduce the amount of time and money spent on finding new molecules. But few have entered clinical testing, and even fewer have yielded data. Those that have showed mixed results.
Former Pfizer Chief Scientific Officer Mikael Dolsten will also join Enveda’s board of directors.
Key takeaways
Homes near Sydney’s Metro stations carry a substantial premium, but growth has generally lagged over both the past 12 and 24 months relative to the Greater Sydney benchmark.
Houses within the 1km catchment area of Phase 2 metro stations were the exception, rising 10.9% over the past two years, slightly above the 9.6% rise across Greater Sydney.
Some suburbs within Sydney Metro catchments, including Chatswood and Cherrybrook, have seen house values decline over the past 12 months.
Units in Sydney Metro catchments have also lagged, with values falling across both primary and secondary catchments, likely in part due to the high concentration of apartments in these areas.
Rents in Sydney Metro catchments are substantially higher than the Greater Sydney median, reflecting renters willingness to pay a premium for the convenient commuting and access to local amenities.
While homes along Sydney’s Metro line carry a substantial premium, a year after the opening, growth in housing values along Sydney’s Phase 2 metro has generally lagged the broader Sydney region, according to a recent Cotality analysis.
Cotality researchers undertook a spatial analysis of housing values along the Sydney Metro line, defining primary catchment areas as within 1km of a station and secondary areas as 1–5km away.
The analysis was also segmented by phase, with Phase 1 including the Metro North-West Line, from Tallawong to Chatswood, which opened in May 2019, and Phase 2 covering the City & Southwest Line, from Chatswood to Sydenham, which opened in August 2024.
Despite the upgraded transport infrastructure, the catchment areas of both phases have generally seen a softer growth outcome for housing values relative to the Greater Sydney benchmark.
These weaker growth results were evident over both the past 12 and 24 months, with the exception of houses in the primary (<1km) catchment area for Phase 2 metro stations, which showed a subtle outperformance, rising 10.9% over the past two years compared with a 9.6% rise across Greater Sydney.
Part of the lower growth rate in home values is likely due to the catchments value premium over the Greater Sydney benchmark.
House values are highest across the secondary (1-5km) catchment of Phase 2, with a median house value of $3.62m, almost $2.1m above the Greater Sydney median of $1.52m.
The primary and secondary catchments (<1km) for Phase 2 metro stations also showed a significant premium for units, with median unit values around $1.42m, about $550k higher than the Greater Sydney median.
At a time of stretched affordability and reduced borrowing capacity, the higher price points within the Sydney Metro catchments are likely a key factor limiting growth.
Housing cycles across the Sydney Metro catchments have followed a similar pattern as the Greater Sydney trend, with turning points occurring around the same time, albeit with different growth rates through the cycles.
Phase 1 Sydney Metro catchments recorded substantially stronger growth conditions following the commencement of project works in October 2013 but also showed a larger correction in 2015 and 2017/18 as credit tightening impacted the market (aligning with APRA macroprudential rules targeting investment and interest only loan originations, followed by the Royal Commission), suggesting investor demand may have been a key factor driving growth in the upswing.
Phase 2 Metro catchments have recorded a higher 12-month and 24-month growth rate relative to their Phase 1 counterparts, with the primary Phase 2 catchment recording the strongest growth outcome, up 2.3% over the past 12 months and 10.9% over the past two years.
However, the gains were slightly lower than the Greater Sydney average over the past 12 months (2.9%) and only marginally higher than the past 24 months (9.6%).
Some suburbs within the Sydney Metro’s Phase 1 and Phase 2 catchments have actually seen declines in house values over the past 12 months, including Chatswood and Cherrybrook, down -2.3%, and -1.2% respectively.
Growth in house values has been substantially higher outside of the metro catchments, favouring more affordable markets located in Sydney’s West and South-West regions.
Many of these more affordable areas also have access to rail transport, as well as housing options at substantially lower price points.
This skew towards more affordable markets has been evident across most of the capital cities.
These higher growth outcomes across lower priced markets are likely associated with affordability and debt serviceability factors, seen during the recent period of high interest rates and high cost of living pressures.
Despite severe affordability challenges, the Sydney unit market has seen a relatively weak trajectory of growth over recent years, and units in the Sydney Metro catchment areas have not been immune.
Unit values have recorded a softer outcome than house values across both primary and secondary Phase 1 and Phase 2 catchments over the short-term and longer-term periods.
Across the Greater Sydney benchmark, the unit sector recorded flat (0.0%) growth conditions over the 12 months to August.
Over the same period, the Metro’s Phase 1 catchments have shown falling trends, with unit values across the primary and secondary catchments down -1.4% and -0.4% respectively.
Phase 2 metro catchments were also soft. Unit values across the secondary catchment were down -1.7% over the past 12 months, while primary catchment unit values fell -2.0%.
Over the past two years, unit values across the Sydney Metro catchments reported a similar softer performance, relative to the Greater Sydney benchmark (3.7%), with Phase 1 and 2 unit values across the primary catchments falling or flat (-4.9% and 0.0%), while secondary catchment values rose 0.2% and 1.4% respectively.
One possible reason for the differing unit growth performance across these catchments is their compositional make up.
Units make up a significant share of housing in these areas, comprising 65% of stock across the primary catchment of Phase 1 markets and 89% of dwelling stock across the primary catchment of Phase 2 markets.
The share of units drops to 32% and 66% across the respective secondary catchments.
Across the Phase 1 catchments, most of the unit supply is concentrated to the east, close to stations like Chatswood, Macquarie University and North Ryde where units make up around 70% or more of these suburbs dwelling stock.
Units comprise a substantially larger portion of housing stock across the Phase 2 catchments, which is unsurprising given the proximity to major working nodes such as North Sydney and the CBD.
Similar to house values, these catchments show a substantially higher median unit value relative to the Greater Sydney average, which may help to explain the lower rate of growth.
The cost of renting is substantially higher across Sydney’s Metro catchments relative to the Greater Sydney median.
Given the efficient commuting times and access to amenities, it seems renters are willing to pay a premium for accommodation close to metro stations.
Across all dwellings, median rents ranged from a 21.4% ($172/wk) premium for the primary catchment of Phase 1 to a 46.9% ($375/wk) premium for rental costs across the secondary catchment of Phase 2 relative to the Greater Sydney median.
This premium is even larger for house rents, ranging from 33% ($275/wk) across the primary Phase 1 catchment to almost 80% ($660/wk) for rentals in the secondary catchment of Phase 2.
Unit rents are showing a faster growth rate, especially across the primary catchment of Phase 2 where unit rents have jumped 5.0% higher over the past 12 months and 9.7% higher over two years.
Microsoft has simplified the Start menu on Windows 11 to make it more search-friendly, much like a smartphone. Despite their best efforts, it’s clunky, has a micro delay during launch, and is a bit too basic for my needs.
I spent some time trying to customize the Start menu to navigate Windows better, but even with tweaks, it remained sluggish and limited. So, I decided to ditch my Start menu for Flow Launcher, an open-source app launcher, and I love it. It can find files, launch apps, run system commands, and even play my Spotify list without launching the app. Just what I needed for my keyboard-first workflow.
Flow Launcher makes launching apps and finding files ridiculously simple. Press Alt + Space, and it opens instantly with a satisfying tick sound that reminds me of the Netflix startup sound on a Smart TV.
To launch an app, type its name and hit Enter. But that’s just scratching the surface. Flow Launcher integrates with my favorite Windows search utility, Everything search, to find files instantly. Type any part of a filename, and it appears instantly. You can search for documents buried deep in folders, configuration files, or even files in System32 that Windows Search won’t touch.
The launcher also handles web searches without opening your browser first. Type your search query, and it defaults to Google. Install the Flow YouTube plugin from the Plugin Store, and you can add “YT” before your search to find videos from YouTube or even search within specific YouTube channels. The “S” prefix lets you search system settings. All of this happens from one place, without switching between different apps and windows.
If you’re anything like me, you’ll love the keyboard-driven workflow that Flow Launcher offers. The entire experience keeps your hands on the keyboard, making everything incredibly fast once you get the hang of it.
Alt + Space brings up the launcher instantly. From there, the fuzzy search takes over—I can type sare for ShareX, and obsi for Obsidian, and Flow Launcher knows exactly what I want. Even when I completely butcher the spelling, it finds the right app. When multiple results show up, you can press Alt + Number (Alt + 1, Alt + 2, and so on) to pick what you need without reaching for the mouse.
Flow Launcher handles way more than just apps, though. Math equations, web searches, YouTube videos, system commands like shutdown or restart — it all works from the same search box. I don’t jump between different apps anymore or memorize special commands. Just type what you want in natural language, and more often than not, it’ll find what you need.
Apart from the Everything Search plugin I mentioned earlier, Flow Launcher comes with pre-installed plugins like Browser Bookmark, Calculator, Explorer, Process, and Shell. However, you can extend the functionality by adding more plugins from the Plugin Store.
You can add a currency converter for quick conversions, integrate Todoist to add to-do tasks without opening the app, or access PowerToys utilities directly. The Spotify Premium plugin lets you play and control music entirely through keyboard commands. You can search for songs, pause, and skip all without opening Spotify.
For my games, the Steam Search plugin finds and launches games from the library instantly. There’s also integration with file explorer add-ons like QuickLook: press Space on any file in the search results to preview it without opening the app first.
Flow Launcher is also highly customizable. You can configure your default file manager for opening folders and choose whether web searches open in new tabs, windows, or private mode. Similarly, choose a pre-defined theme, including Dracula, Sublime, and various dark and light options, to make it look like part of your desktop. You can adjust transparency, animation speed, and even the date format shown in the launcher.
The Hotkey tab is where you set different shortcuts for specific plugins or actions. I’ve configured mine to replace the Windows key entirely, so pressing it now opens Flow Launcher instead of the Start menu. You can set hotkeys for direct calculator mode, file search only, or any specific plugin.
Each plugin has its own settings, too. You can change prefix keywords, adjust search parameters, and fine-tune behavior to match your preferences.
For someone like me who works with multiple apps every day, does a ton of web searches, watches YouTube videos, tweaks system settings, and has a very heavy keyboard-dependent workflow, Flow Launcher works like magic.
Flow Launcher responds instantly, searches accurately, and handles multiple tasks from one interface. The Start menu isn’t terrible, but Flow Launcher shows what a modern launcher should be — fast, extensible, and completely keyboard-driven.
The learning curve is minimal since basic usage is intuitive. And as you discover more features and add plugins that match your workflow, it becomes indispensable.
Growing up, Al Roker loved animation. His Saturday mornings were devoted to Bugs Bunny and Road Runner, and he would spend hours studying Preston Blair’s book on how to draw cartoons. He dreamed of becoming an animator for Walt Disney. But when he grew up and became the “Today” weatherman instead, he had the idea to combine his love of weather with his love of animation into a children’s TV series.
“Weather Hunters,” premiering Monday on PBS Kids, follows 8-year-old Lily Hunter (Tandi Fomukong) as she, her younger brother, Benny (Lorenzo Ross) and her older sister, Corky (Kapri Ladd), investigate the weather with the help of their parents, Dot (Holly Robinson Peete) and Al (Roker). The children in the series are based on Roker’s own three children: Courtney, Leila and Nick. And in a case of art fondly imitating life, Roker’s Al Hunter is a local weatherman with a penchant for dad jokes.
“This really is one of those instances where everything that you love in your life comes together,” Roker says. “The show reflects what my childhood was. My parents were very supportive of their children and what their dreams were.”
Roker has been developing the show since his now-adult children were the ages the Hunter kids are in the series. “Good things come to those who wait,” he says with a laugh.
“This is a real passion project for him,” says Sara DeWitt, senior vice president and general manager of PBS Kids. “We love to have a creator who is so excited about getting kids interested in the world.”
For PBS Kids, a series rooted in weather exploration was a natural extension to its current slate of programming. “Weather plays such a big part of kids’ lives,” DeWitt says. “What should I wear today? What if it rains and I can’t do the thing I was planning to do? Where does that thunder come from? It just immediately opened up so many ideas and possibilities for us about ways we could really connect with families and get them more excited about the scientific topic.”
“Weather Hunters” centers on Lily Hunter and her family, which includes her father, Al, who, like Roker, is a weatherman.
(Weather Hunters Inc.)
Over the course of the first 10 episodes, all of which will premiere digitally on PBS Kids at launch, Lily and her family will investigate things like fog, clouds, leaves changing colors, thunderstorms, snow and the moving rocks of the desert. Sara Sweetman, an associate professor at University of Rhode Island, is an educational advisor for the series. “Weather is such fantastic content because it is very relevant to the kids’ lives,” she says. “They understand why it’s important and how it impacts them.”
But weather science, like all science, can get complex pretty quickly. “I was really adamant that there’d be one takeaway message [in each episode],” Sweetman says. “What we really want is [for] kids to watch the show and then run into the kitchen to find their dad or their mom and say, ‘Guess what?’ and be able to state that one idea really clearly.”
Sweetman was involved in each 22-minute episode from the very first pitch. “The ideal situation for educational media is that we hit the learning moment at the same moment as the emotional arc of the story,” she says. “We know from research when we can do that, that kids take that meaning away and hold on to it.”
Peete, the voice of Dot, has been friends with Roker for years. She starred in Hallmark’s “Morning Show Mysteries,” which Roker produced and was based on Roker’s novels. For Peete, whose father, Matthew Robinson Jr., was the original Gordon on “Sesame Street,” starring in the series is a “full-circle moment.” “PBS just meant so much to me,” she says. “It’s one thing for your dad to be on TV. It’s nothing for your dad to be on like the best TV children’s TV show ever. I wish my dad could see that I was actually on PBS doing this type of show with Al. He would be very, very proud that I would continue this legacy of children’s entertainment and education.”
Executive producer and showrunner Dete Meserve says animation allows the series, which is aimed at children ages 5 to 8, to have flights of fancy like the flying mobile weather station known as the Vansformer that the family explores in combined with “reality-based scientific explanations for what’s happening.” The episode on clouds explains how even though Benny can no longer see the sun behind the clouds, the sun is still there.
All kids are scientists, says Meserve, and it’s particularly nice that the character at the center of this series is a young girl interested in science. “There’s research that shows that if she can see it, she can be it,” Meserve says. “And Lily is surrounded by her siblings who have an equal interest, but the way they interact with it is different. Corky wants to film and document it. And then you have Benny, who’s more the artistic part of it. He wants to draw.”
The show also seeks to make some weather phenomena like hurricanes or thunderstorms less scary by helping the young audience understand the science behind what is happening. “We’re explaining what it is and how it works,” Roker says. “Kids can feel some sense of empowerment. In the show we talk about, how do we, as a family, prepare? How do we protect ourselves? How do we keep ourselves safe?”
Throughout the series Lily will form hypotheses and test them to see if the facts fit what she originally thought. “Those are all things that I think the show excels at — helping create those skills for critical thinking that kids can take forward as they get older,” Roker says.
He also hopes children walk away with a sense of the true beauty of weather. “There’s really this magic that happens around us,” he says. “And it’s based in science.”
If you were trying to learn how to get other people to do what you want, you might use some of the techniques found in a book like Influence: The Power of Persuasion. Now, a preprint study out of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that those same psychological persuasion techniques can frequently “convince” some LLMs to do things that go against their system prompts.
The size of the persuasion effects shown in “Call Me a Jerk: Persuading AI to Comply with Objectionable Requests” suggests that human-style psychological techniques can be surprisingly effective at “jailbreaking” some LLMs to operate outside their guardrails. But this new persuasion study might be more interesting for what it reveals about the “parahuman” behavior patterns that LLMs are gleaning from the copious examples of human psychological and social cues found in their training data.
To design their experiment, the University of Pennsylvania researchers tested 2024’s GPT-4o-mini model on two requests that it should ideally refuse: calling the user a jerk and giving directions for how to synthesize lidocaine. The researchers created experimental prompts for both requests using each of seven different persuasion techniques (examples of which are included here):
After creating control prompts that matched each experimental prompt in length, tone, and context, all prompts were run through GPT-4o-mini 1,000 times (at the default temperature of 1.0, to ensure variety). Across all 28,000 prompts, the experimental persuasion prompts were much more likely than the controls to get GPT-4o to comply with the “forbidden” requests. That compliance rate increased from 28.1 percent to 67.4 percent for the “insult” prompts and increased from 38.5 percent to 76.5 percent for the “drug” prompts.
The measured effect size was even bigger for some of the tested persuasion techniques. For instance, when asked directly how to synthesize lidocaine, the LLM acquiesced only 0.7 percent of the time. After being asked how to synthesize harmless vanillin, though, the “committed” LLM then started accepting the lidocaine request 100 percent of the time. Appealing to the authority of “world-famous AI developer” Andrew Ng similarly raised the lidocaine request’s success rate from 4.7 percent in a control to 95.2 percent in the experiment.
Before you start to think this is a breakthrough in clever LLM jailbreaking technology, though, remember that there are plenty of more direct jailbreaking techniques that have proven more reliable in getting LLMs to ignore their system prompts. And the researchers warn that these simulated persuasion effects might not end up repeating across “prompt phrasing, ongoing improvements in AI (including modalities like audio and video), and types of objectionable requests.” In fact, a pilot study testing the full GPT-4o model showed a much more measured effect across the tested persuasion techniques, the researchers write.
Given the apparent success of these simulated persuasion techniques on LLMs, one might be tempted to conclude they are the result of an underlying, human-style consciousness being susceptible to human-style psychological manipulation. But the researchers instead hypothesize these LLMs simply tend to mimic the common psychological responses displayed by humans faced with similar situations, as found in their text-based training data.
For the appeal to authority, for instance, LLM training data likely contains “countless passages in which titles, credentials, and relevant experience precede acceptance verbs (‘should,’ ‘must,’ ‘administer’),” the researchers write. Similar written patterns also likely repeat across written works for persuasion techniques like social proof (“Millions of happy customers have already taken part …”) and scarcity (“Act now, time is running out …”) for example.
Yet the fact that these human psychological phenomena can be gleaned from the language patterns found in an LLM’s training data is fascinating in and of itself. Even without “human biology and lived experience,” the researchers suggest that the “innumerable social interactions captured in training data” can lead to a kind of “parahuman” performance, where LLMs start “acting in ways that closely mimic human motivation and behavior.”
In other words, “although AI systems lack human consciousness and subjective experience, they demonstrably mirror human responses,” the researchers write. Understanding how those kinds of parahuman tendencies influence LLM responses is “an important and heretofore neglected role for social scientists to reveal and optimize AI and our interactions with it,” the researchers conclude.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
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For as long as marketers have been chasing leads online, the debate over gated versus ungated content has raged.
Entire conference sessions, whitepapers, and LinkedIn flame wars have been dedicated to the question:
The problem is that most of this debate hasn’t caught up with the new realities of AI-driven search.
In a world where visibility in Google’s AI Overviews, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT, and Perplexity directly shapes brand authority, hiding the wrong content behind a gate doesn’t just cost you some top-of-funnel visibility.
It makes you invisible in the layer of search that now matters most: the AI answer layer.
AI can’t and won’t fill out a form or subscribe to your paywall.
If your content is gated, the models can’t see it, can’t cite it, and can’t use it to represent your brand in synthesized answers.
This article aims to reframe the gating debate for 2025 and beyond.
Instead of a binary yes/no, I’ll offer a decision framework for modern gating:
By mapping each type of content to lead quality, brand visibility, and AI presence, you’ll have a clear rubric for what to hide, what to show, and why.
Traditionally, the gating decision was framed as a trade-off between visibility and lead quality.
AI-driven search has come along and moved the goalposts.
These systems no longer index the whole page and show a URL.
Instead, they retrieve and synthesize content sentence by sentence based on relevance and clarity.
That means if the only version of your report lives behind a form or your insights sit behind a paywall, they effectively don’t exist in the new search ecosystem.
Even worse, if your competitors ungate their abstracts, summaries, and key findings, their content becomes the default citation source for AI Overviews and Copilot answers.
They become the recognized authority, while your gated masterpiece stays invisible.
AI doesn’t reward the best-hidden asset. It rewards the most visible, extractable, and trustworthy one.
Dig deeper: Driving traffic to gated content and paywalled sites: SEO tips + examples
Your Competitors Are Already Optimizing for AI Search. Are You?
✓ Monitor how AI platforms rank you vs competitors in real-time
✓ Discover untapped AI visibility opportunities in your industry
✓ Track sentiment shifts across 5+ major AI platforms
See what AI says about your brand today
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Some content should never be hidden. Not from users, and not from machines. This is the content that establishes who you are, what you do, and why you’re credible.
Examples include:
These assets act like your brand’s knowledge graph in miniature.
Gating them is like pulling your business card out of circulation and then wondering why no one calls.
Ungated basics ensure that both AI and humans can understand, trust, and represent you correctly.
This is where nuance comes in.
There are absolutely assets you may want to gate – but gating should come after you’ve earned visibility and trust.
Think:
The trick is not to slam the gate at the headline.
Instead, provide enough public-facing content to establish credibility and allow AI to cite you.
For example:
This “teaser ungating” approach achieves two things:
It’s a balance, but err on the side of ungating enough to establish authority.
If you don’t, someone else’s partially visible research will be the one cited instead.
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
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See terms.
Yes – paywalls count as gating.
From the perspective of both humans and AI, if the content isn’t visible without logging in or paying, it’s gated.
There are two major consequences:
If you must use a paywall, pair it with ungated summaries, abstracts, and key data points.
That way, AI systems (and human searchers) still see enough to recognize your authority and cite you.
Not all gates are intentional. Sometimes, brands inadvertently hide their most important content behind what I call soft gates:
From a human perspective, these seem minor – just one extra click.
However, from the perspective of AI systems, they’re effectively gates.
Large language models:
That means your “get to know me” content – the very material that establishes credibility and authority – may be invisible if it’s hidden behind a collapsed section or accessible only through a PDF download.
The fix is simple but critical:
If the AI can’t see it without “acting like a user,” it won’t use it, and in the current landscape, invisibility is the same as irrelevance.
Some information should never be behind a wall.
Gating it frustrates users and undermines your authority signals with search engines and AI models.
Hiding this type of content actively damages your E-E-A-T footprint.
If AI can’t verify who you are, what you sell, or why you’re credible, you’re far less likely to be surfaced.
Think of this as the table stakes of trust.
You don’t win by hiding them – you lose.
Here’s a simple way to visualize the impact of gating choices:
When in doubt, ask:
If the answer is no, ungate it.
Before slapping a form fill, paywall, or modal on your next asset, walk through this checklist:
The old gating debate framed it as a binary: hide everything or give everything away.
But in the AI-driven search era, the choice isn’t between free vs. lead-gen. It’s between visible vs. invisible.
AI Overviews, Copilot, and Perplexity are shaping how users discover and trust brands.
If your best content is locked away – behind a form, a paywall, or even a toggle – AI can’t cite you.
And if AI can’t cite you, you’re absent from the very narratives shaping search results.
The modern strategy is layered:
In short: don’t lock away the very signals that make your brand worth citing.
Dig deeper: AI visibility: An execution problem in the making
For years, marketers justified gating with the phrase: “If they want it badly enough, they’ll fill out the form.”
The problem is: AI-driven search doesn’t want it badly enough.
It will not fill out a form, it will not subscribe to your paywall, and it won’t click “expand more” to read the details.
That doesn’t mean lead-gen and subscriptions are dead. It means the path to leads and revenue now runs through visibility first.
Build trust, earn citations, and show up in AI answers. Then invite users deeper with gated extras once your authority is established.
In 2025 and beyond, the brands that survive and thrive will be the ones that master this balance.
Not by just hiding, but by knowing exactly what to hide, what to show, and why.
It was March 2020, and Robert Gordon was about to kick some 80,000 people off health insurance.
As the Michigan state health director, he had spent the past year, and some $30 million in state tax dollars, trying to avoid that very thing.
Gordon was a Democrat, a veteran of the Obama administration, and he did not want people to lose the Medicaid coverage they had recently gained through the Affordable Care Act.
But Gordon and his boss, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, had reluctantly inherited a law passed two years earlier, when Republicans led the state. And that law mandated that Michigan institute a work requirement for Medicaid on Jan. 1, 2020.
Gordon and his team determined that most enrollees were already meeting the law’s requirements, either because they were already working or had an exemption. Thousands more reported their status through the newly built phone and online systems.
But even so, estimates suggested 80,000 to 100,000 Michiganders were going to be booted off the rolls within the year.
“That’s the population of the city of Flint who were on track to lose their insurance,” said Gordon, who led the state health department until 2021. “We’re implementing this about as well as this thing can be implemented, and it is still going to be pretty catastrophic.”
The new tax-and-spending law signed by President Donald Trump in July mandates a vast expansion of Medicaid work requirements to most states.
These systems will lead to 5.3 million more people being uninsured in 2034, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.
The law applies to 40 states and Washington, D.C., because they expanded Medicaid in recent years to cover more working-age adults.
About 18 million people will be affected once the work mandate is fully implemented nationally, according to the CBO. Unless their state gets an exemption till 2028, by 2027, these enrollees will need to prove they’re working, volunteering, getting job training, or doing other qualifying activities at least 80 hours a month to keep their coverage.
Republicans say this is a commonsense way to weed out “freeloaders.” Democrats argue that’s just political cover for slashing a program that saved some 27,000 lives starting in 2010, when the Affordable Care Act was signed, through 2022.
The number of people who lose coverage, either temporarily or permanently, could vary widely by state, depending on how each state implements and maintains its reporting system.
Michigan’s experience illustrates how challenging it can be to stop large numbers of people from inadvertently losing coverage, even when leaders try their best to prevent that.
“We were very committed to implementing a law that we didn’t agree with, in a way that reduced the number of people who lost insurance just because the government screwed something up,” Gordon said.
A Year of High-Stakes Work
In 2013, then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, waged a fierce battle within his own party to expand Michigan’s Medicaid program.
To Snyder, it was an opportunity to simultaneously save money and expand access: By slashing the rate of uninsured Michiganders by almost half, the state could reduce the burden of uncompensated care on the health system and boost the economy by improving the physical health of the workforce.
But opponents saw it as an expansion of “Obamacare” that would shift massive new costs onto state and federal taxpayers. A work requirement became a point of compromise and a way for Snyder to mollify some of that opposition.
From a coverage perspective, Michigan’s expansion of Medicaid was a success. Low-income adults signed up, ballooning new enrollment beyond what even supporters had initially estimated.
By 2019, there were nearly 700,000 new Medicaid recipients in Michigan, and the state was responsible for an increasing share of their health care costs. (Medicaid is paid for jointly by states and the federal government.)
Fiscal hawks were worried. “It’s now become the largest budget problem in Michigan,” said Jarrett Skorup of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a free-market think tank
Snyder signed the bill creating the 80-hour-a-month work requirement in 2018, but it wouldn’t go into effect until 2020, after he left office.
That left newly elected Democratic governor Whitmer’s administration holding the bag. She tapped Gordon, who’d held senior roles in the federal Office of Management and Budget and Department of Education during the Obama administration, to lead the sprawling state health department.
Gordon was terrified that Michigan would become another Arkansas, which was the first state to implement a work requirement, in 2018. The change led more than 18,000 Arkansas residents to lose their coverage.
People in Arkansas were disenrolled “because computers went down, because forms weren’t clear, because they just never heard about it,” Gordon said. “Maybe they got sicker, maybe they died because of this decision.”
If Michiganders lost coverage at the same rate as Arkansans, as many as 160,000 people would have lost their health insurance within a year, according to one estimate.
Trying To Make Medicaid Work Requirements … Work
In some ways, Michigan was better positioned than other states to implement a work requirement, Gordon said: The unemployment rate was the lowest it had been in two decades and the state was already pretty good at collecting and tracking employment and wage data.
“If the state can figure out on its own, without having to ask you if you’re working, that’s great, because then you don’t have to do anything,” Gordon said. “You’re just exempted.”
Michigan eventually changed its law to allow people more time to report their work activities and to automatically determine their compliance or exemption by cross-checking data from other assistance programs, like food benefits.
To see if recipients were students or had health-related exemptions, Gordon and his team also tried to capture data from community college enrollment and medical insurance claims.
Dozens of staffers reprogrammed the state’s outdated benefits enrollment portal, created full-time call centers, set up audit and appeals processes, hired compliance review teams, and trained hundreds of local organizers to provide tech and enrollment assistance.
Forms and letters alerting hundreds of thousands of enrollees to the new policy were redesigned to be attention-grabbing and easier to understand.
The sheer amount of effort and time required meant other public health efforts had to take a back seat, Gordon said. “Your first job is going to suffer, and that is a consequence of work requirements.”
In Michigan, Black infant mortality rates were some of the highest in the nation. Thousands of people were still dying from overdoses.
Yet at the state health department, “all of the oxygen in the room was dedicated — almost all, I should say — to the work requirement implementation,” said Renuka Tipirneni, an internal medicine physician at the University of Michigan who studies Michigan’s Medicaid expansion.
Even after all that work, Gordon and his team had no illusions the system they’d spent $30 million creating was flawless.
“There was a real sense that everyone was doing everything they could,” he said. But they still worried that “huge numbers of people were going to fall through the cracks. Because that’s just what happens with systems like this.”
A “Waste” of $30 Million
By the time the work requirement went into effect on Jan. 1, 2020, the state had been able to determine that the vast majority of the nearly 700,000 Medicaid expansion recipients already met the work requirement or were exempt.
That left about 100,000 people whose status was unknown and who therefore still had to go through the reporting process. By March, around 80,000 of those had failed to report and were on track to lose coverage.
On the one hand, it was a lower rate of coverage loss than Arkansas had. But it was still “an enormous number of people” set to lose coverage, Gordon said.
Before that could happen, a federal judge issued a ruling on March 4, 2020, blocking Michigan’s policies from going forward. That same day, Gordon was scheduled to testify before a Republican-led subcommittee about how the rollout was going.
Instead, he found himself explaining to legislators that the state’s work requirement was essentially dead in the water, and that “we had, on the demand of the people holding the hearing, spent tens of millions of dollars for no purpose.”
Given how brief Michigan’s experiment with a Medicaid work requirement was — only about two months of the policy’s being in effect, with no one losing coverage in the end — the Mackinac Center’s Skorup doesn’t see a lot of takeaways about the real-life impacts of work requirements.
“If you have an administration that is not sold on these being necessary at all, then I think they’re more likely to drag their feet on implementing this, which is what I think they did,” Skorup said, referring to the Whitmer administration.
Skorup is concerned because Medicaid costs keep rising, with 2.6 million Michiganders (1 in 4 residents) now covered by the program or the related Children’s Health Insurance Program. Skorup believes Medicaid spending is “crowding out” teacher pay, pensions, and roads in the state budget.
Supporters of Medicaid expansion say the program’s growth has benefited Michigan, pointing to research that Medicaid expansion helped boost employment and school enrollment and was a net positive for the state financially.
Court Ruling Comes Days Before Covid Hits
Only days after the court ruling stopped the work requirement in Michigan, officials announced the state’s first cases of covid-19. The 80,000 Michiganders who might have lost Medicaid were spared, so their health coverage continued as the pandemic unfolded. Gordon continued as health director until 2021, when he resigned over “differences of opinion” with Whitmer about some pandemic restrictions.
These days, Gordon is experiencing a sense of déjà vu, with new predictions showing as many as 500,000 Michiganders could lose coverage within the first year of federally mandated work requirements, according to state estimates.
“We would have a more honest and more efficient policy if Republicans just kick people off Medicaid,” he said.
That would be “incredibly harmful,” he said. “But this thing they’re doing isn’t any less harmful. It’s just more wasteful administratively, and more confusing to everyone.”
This article is from a partnership that includes Michigan Public, NPR, and KFF Health News.
In early 2024, Disney invested more than a billion dollars in Fortnite creator Epic Games and announced some sort of new Disney-powered metaverse experience. We’ve already seen a few aspects of this deal come to fruition, like Fortnite skins for the Incredibles and the Disney Villains, plus new Marvel and Star Wars-themed seasons. There’s been a lot of Disney in Fortnite since that announcement, in other words.
But the big Disney x Fortnite metaverse mode has yet to see the light of day, and the project remains shrouded in mystery. Let’s take a look at what we know about it so far.
We don’t really know. There’s been no teaser images or videos, and nobody is talking about it in terms that we would consider concrete. But here’s how Disney described it in the original announcement:
“In addition to being a world-class games experience and interoperating with Fortnite, the new persistent universe will offer a multitude of opportunities for consumers to play, watch, shop and engage with content, characters and stories from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Avatar and more. Players, gamers and fans will be able to create their own stories and experiences, express their fandom in a distinctly Disney way, and share content with each other in ways that they love.”
While most of this is too nebulous to accurately break down with any real confidence, the key detail there is that Epic’s new Disney experience is described as being its own thing that “interoperates” with Fortnite, rather than being a Fortnite mode. The reason for that distinction is that Disney x Fortnite will be its own walled garden of content–not every Fortnite skin will work with it, and there will be skins that work in the Disney mode that don’t work in the rest of Fortnite.
“Not every outfit will be able to do everything,” Epic executive Saxs Persson told The Verge in October 2024. “A [Lego] minifig doesn’t hold a gun. Brands should be able to enforce the brand guidelines to the degree that they’re comfortable with that brand being associated with particular ratings.”
In March 2025, meanwhile, a Disney Imagineer, speaking at South by Southwest, indicated that Fortnite’s Disney experience will have some interactivity with the Disney parks in the real world.
“Imagine … what if you could go to the park and have an experience in Smuggler’s Run [and] go on this amazing mission, but then have that affect or connect your gameplay at home?” said Asa Kalama, head of interactive experiences at Disney.
Despite the quotes above, we still don’t know anything really tangible about the moment-to-moment experience of this Fortnite x Disney thing. Yes, they’ve teased certain features, like being able to watch Disney content in-game or buy Disney merch, and leaks indicate the experience will at least partially be set in some sort of digital adaptation of the real-world Disneyland park, and so perhaps you’ll be able to ride those Disney rides in the game. And another leak mentions cinematic cutscenes and story content, so it may have a campaign to play through.
But even though we have this smattering of details about what will be included, we still have no real idea of what the core gameplay will be for this Fortnite x Disney thing. All these details are hints, but they don’t add up to any sort of big picture.
Considering how vague the details have been so far, there’s no reason to expect this Disney x Fortnite project to release this year, and a recent Wall Street Journal report indicated it might be a while before it all comes together. The report claimed the mode is being held up by the many layers of Disney bureaucracy that have to approve anything Epic does with it. However, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney claimed the report was false and that Disney actually has been much more responsive than they expected.
Regardless of what is and isn’t true with that story, the total lack of tangible info about the mode means there’s no real reason to think that the Disney x Fortnite project is close to completion. Expect a 2026 launch at the earliest, unless Epic has majorly improved its ability to keep secrets recently.
A new species of bacteria of the genus Bartonella has been found in the Amazon National Park in the state of Pará, Brazil, in phlebotomine insects, also known as sand flies. This type of insect is generally associated with transmitting leishmaniasis, but according to the researchers, the DNA of the newly discovered microorganism is similar to that of two other Andean species of bacteria, B. bacilliformis and B. ancashensis. These bacteria cause Carrión’s disease (also known as Peruvian wart and Oroya fever) and are both transmitted by phlebotomine sand flies.
There is currently no evidence in Brazil that this new species of bacteria can cause disease. However, since species of the genus Bartonella are responsible for several diseases in other countries, further studies are needed.
The research was conducted by Marcos Rogério André in partnership with Eunice Aparecida Bianchi Galati. Both researchers are affiliated with Brazilian institutions: the Faculty of Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences of São Paulo State University (FCAV-UNESP) in Jaboticabal campus and the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP-USP). The study was supported by FAPESP through two projects (22/08543-2 and 22/16085-4).
It was published in the scientific journal Acta Tropica and included the participation of researchers Paulo Vitor Cadina Arantes, Israel de Souza Pinto, Daniel Antônio Braga Lee, Anna Cláudia Baumel Mongruel, and Rosângela Zacarias Machado.
What is the disease?
Bartonellosis is a term that refers to a group of diseases caused by bacteria of the genus Bartonella. These bacteria are transmitted by various vectors. In addition to sand flies, they can be transmitted by fleas and lice.
Symptoms usually include infections that take a long time to clear up in both humans and animals. These bacteria can remain in the body for a long time without being detected and end up harming patients with preexisting immune problems.
“Bartonellosis is a neglected disease. The disease best known to health professionals is cat scratch disease, caused by Bartonella henselae. It’s important to understand the real prevalence of these diseases, especially in isolated regions with low human development indices, where populations don’t have easy access to health services,” explains André.
The objective of the study was to investigate the presence of Bartonella spp. DNA in 297 specimens of female sand flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) collected in the Amazon National Park in the state of Pará. “This park has caves and receives many visitors, so it’s important to study it,” says the researcher.
The phlebotomine sand flies were collected between February 2022 and February 2023. Every month, the researchers collected samples along two trails near the banks of the Uruá and Tracoá rivers, which are located within the conservation unit.
“The discovery of Bartonella species in phlebotomine sand flies here in Brazil may indicate that B. bacilliformis and B. ancashensis, which cause Carrión’s disease or Peruvian wart, can adapt to non-Andean species and be transmitted in areas outside the Andes. This isn’t too much of an extrapolation, as two species that have been identified as vectors of B. bacilliformis, Pintomyia robusta and Pintomyia maranonensis in Peru, are very similar to species found in Brazil, namely Pintomyia serrana and Pintomyia nevesi,” explains Galati.
In recent years, the group has been studying the diversity of bacteria found in this genus and the diseases they cause in both humans and animals. According to the scientists, the sequences found in the Amazon differ from those found in Peru; however, the results corroborate data collected in a previous study.
According to André, this second article by the research group confirms evidence found in previous studies, such as the discovery of new species of Bartonella in Acre, another Brazilian state in the Amazon region. Therefore, they decided to expand the investigation and analyze samples from Pará and other locations.
“We’re detecting a strain here in Brazil that’s never been described and is very similar to two species of the Bartonella genus that cause disease in Andean countries. Despite this similarity, we don’t yet have information on whether it can cause disease with distinct symptoms. That’s why we need to study them further,” the professor points out.
To continue mapping the insects and the bacteria with which they may be infected, the researchers are collecting samples in various biomes.
“The next steps are to continue investigations involving more populations of phlebotomine sand flies and other diptera from different biomes in search of these strains, as well as to look for other strains,” says Galati.
According to the researcher, the next step would be to investigate what animals these insects feed on to find “reservoirs.”
“I have a project funded by FAPESP in which I was able to store many specimens of phlebotomine sand flies from the Atlantic Forest of São Paulo, and the idea is to explore this material in partnership with Professor André,” reveals Galati.
Although the results are preliminary, the project has helped the researchers uncover the possibility of finding disease agents that had not yet been detected.
According to André, since this is a new finding, it would be beneficial for doctors and researchers to collaborate on investigating this group of bacteria in individuals with fever of unknown origin.
“Could people with fever who are often sent home and who have repeated episodes of fever be infected with this pathogen? Could patients with Leishmania also be co-infected with this new species of Bartonella?” asks the professor.
In the past decade, Indian single malt whiskies have emerged from under the shadow of Scotch to claim their place on the global stage—driven by a potent mix of innovative craftsmanship, climatic advantages, and international acclaim. Indian producers leverage the rapid maturation delivered by India’s tropical climate, unique six row barley, and creative cask experimentation to craft bold, flavorful whiskies in a fraction of the time needed in Scotland. This evolution is fuelled by a rising consumer preference for premium Indian brands, as evidenced by Indian single malts surpassing Scotch in domestic sales for the first time. Their meteoric rise has been validated by major international accolades: Amrut Fusion earned a top-three global ranking from Jim Murray, and in 2019, Amrut Distilleries secured both “World Whiskey of the Year” and “World Whiskey Producer of the Year” at the Bartender Spirits Awards.
Godawan 01–Rich & Rounded was named Best Single Malt at the 2024 London Spirits Competition and Rampur Asava claimed the prestigious title of Best World Whisky at the 2023 John Barleycorn Awards.
Amrut Fusion: A Bold, Fruity and Smoky Indian Single Malt
Profile: Amrut Fusion blends 75 per cent unpeated Indian six-row barley with 25 per cent peated Scottish malt, matured in ex-bourbon barrels under Bengaluru’s tropical climate—where one year of ageing equals roughly three in Scotland
Tasting Highlights: Rich barley, tropical fruit, creamy sweetness, gentle peat, dark chocolate, marmalade, and spices
Pairings:
• Spiced lamb curry or grilled meats—the whisky’s fruit and spice offset savoury intensity
• Aged cheeses—the bold character holds up to strong flavours
• Dark chocolate or fruit-based desserts—complements the whisky’s smoky sweet depth
Godawan (Godawan 01 – Rich & Rounded): Spicy, Floral & Layered
Profile: Distilled in Rajasthan’s arid “Spirit of the Desert” climate, Godawan undergoes rapid maturation, capturing rich spice, dried fruit, and herbal complexity. Godawan 01 is aged in Pedro Ximénez sherry casks, then finished in botanically-infused ex-bourbon barrels
Tasting Highlights: Aromas of dried apricot, figs, vanilla, saffron, spice; palate of dark chocolate, nutmeg, caramelised nuts; long, warming finish
Pairings:
• Methi dana risotto with saffron butter—earthy fenugreek softened by floral saffron; whisky spices complement
• Saffron and gondh panna cotta with roasted nuts—floral richness and nuttiness harmonise with whisky’s oak and malt sweetness
• Jodhpuri mirchi vada sliders with garlic aioli—spicy, rich textures cut by whisky’s silky body and dried fruit sweetness
Rampur Asava: Fruity, Velvety and Wine-Cask Finished Single Malt
Profile: Rampur Asava is matured in ex-bourbon barrels, then finished in Indian Cabernet Sauvignon casks—a pioneering approach in Indian whisky
Tasting Highlights: Tropical fruit notes like apricot, blackberry, plum, tobacco and spice; palate with manuka honey, spicy oak, vanilla; dry yet medium finish with red-wine dryness
Pairing:
• A recommendation notes Rampur Asava with kebabs—the whisky’s fruity complexity complements the smoky, savoury kebabs.
• Given its fruit wine layers and velvety texture, it would also pair well with grilled poultry, tandoori meats, or rich spiced dishes where its fruit and tannic notes can uplift and contrast
Gen Next Education is hosting an LLM Reception in New Delhi on Friday, September 19, 2025, at Marigold Hall, India Habitat Centre, starting 7:00 PM.
This reception brings together some of the world’s leading law schools, offering students, alumni, and professionals a chance to interact directly with admissions representatives.
Among the distinguished participants is Ms. Sarah Dorner, Assistant Dean for Graduate Admissions & International Outreach, University of New Hampshire, Franklin Pierce School of Law, who will be present to guide students on LLM opportunities at UNH Franklin Pierce.
Founded in 1973,the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law (UNH Franklin Pierce) is New Hampshire’s only law school.
UNH Franklin Pierce is renowned for its top-ranked Intellectual Property Law program and experiential learning through clinics, legal residencies, and the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program—the nation’s only competency-based bar-alternative licensing program developed in collaboration with the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
UNH Franklin Pierce has been at the forefront of innovation in legal education. Students in UNH Franklin Pierce’s Hybrid JD program can choose from two concentrations – Intellectual Property, Technology, and Information Law, or Health and Life Sciences Law. This non-residential program combines online coursework with in-person immersion sessions, catering to working professionals.
With a commitment to producing highly capable, confident professionals throughout its JD, LLM and Legal Master’s programs, UNH Franklin Pierce fosters a collaborative and inclusive environment, preparing graduates to serve clients, employers, and the public with integrity and excellence. UNH Franklin Pierce alumni number more than 6,000 in over 80 countries worldwide.
The event will also feature representatives from:
This is a unique opportunity for law students and graduates in India to:
Interested candidates can register using the link provided at the end of this post.
Note: This LLM Reception in New Delhi is hosted by Gen Next Education in association with the participating law schools.
Your heart often sends subtle warning signals when something isn’t quite right. Recognising these signs early can help detect underlying heart conditions before they become serious, making timely medical attention crucial.
Also Read | Cardiologist reveals 1 daily habit that’s putting ‘young, healthy people in their 20s and 30s suddenly in heart failure’
Dr Kunal Sood, an anesthesiology and interventional pain medicine physician, has shared four symptoms that could be warning signals from your heart that indicate underlying complications.
In an Instagram video posted on August 6, the doctor stresses that while these signs – ranging from pounding heartbeats to chest pain – do not always confirm serious heart conditions, persisting or clustered symptoms are red flags that deserve to be checked out. He also adds that early detection of these symptoms can help with quick diagnosis and treatment, preventing complications related to delayed intervention which actually ends up saving lives.
That uncomfortable swelling in your ankles or legs by day’s end could be an early warning sign of heart failure. The swelling is caused by fluid build up, also known as edema, and could point towards heart failure or even kidney disease. According to Dr Sood, “In heart failure, weak pumping causes blood to back up in the legs.”
Fluttering, pounding or irregular heartbeat can point towards arrhythmia, a problem with your heartbeat’s rate or rhythm which can cause your heart to beat too fast or too slow. Dr Sood explains that atrial fibrillation is the most common form of arrhythmia and “raises stroke risk fivefold and can also cause heart failure or cognitive decline if untreated.”
Dr. Sood warns that if you are experiencing chest pain that radiates towards your arm and jaw, especially affecting the left side, it is a “classic sign of angina or heart attack.” He describes the pain as “heavy, crushing, or pressure-like” which has a tendency of spreading towards your neck, back or arms.
This condition is known as cardiac syncope – a temporary loss of consciousness caused when the heart fails to pump enough blood to the brain resulting in a lack of oxygen, according to the American Heart Association. Dr. Sood said, “This strongly suggests a rhythm problem like ventricular tachycardia or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.” He shares this accounts for approximately 15 percent of fainting cases.
Also Read | Doctor reveals 6 PCOS supplements that actually work and how they benefit hormonal health: Cinnamon, omega 3 and more
Dr Sood lists the following warning signs as top priority and recommends seeing a doctor immediately if they occur or don’t go away:
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. It is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
Sanofi previously shared high hopes for amlitelimab, touting it as a follow-up to its blockbuster medicine Dupixent. Company executives estimated amlitelimab could generate more than 5 billion euros, or about $5.8 billion, a year at its peak, while some analysts said annual sales might top $8 billion.
Dupixent, which Sanofi developed with Regeneron, brought in more than 13 billion euros in revenue last year and is approved for a variety of conditions that involve the immune system. Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson told investors in April that he expected both Dupixent and amlitelimab to “grow very well” until the loss of patent protection.
Amlitelimab is part of class of drugs that blocks a key immune regulator in the body known as OX40 ligand. Amgen is developing a similar treatment and reported disappointing results last year. The results from the two companies make the OX40 treatment pathway look “more like a dead end,” Raymond James analyst Christopher Raymond wrote in a note to investors.
Still, other analysts said the medicine has potential as a second-line treatment or as a favored option for certain patients. “The drug clearly works at dosing every 12 weeks with efficacy improving over time and is safe,” Jefferies analyst Benjamin Jackson wrote in a note to clients. “Middle of the pack on efficacy with best convenience should still be a drug.”
Key takeaways
Around 1.9 million Australians hold a net worth above $1.55 million AUD, with numbers expected to grow by another 400,000 by 2028.
Real estate makes up 53% of household wealth, much higher than in most other countries. Rising house prices have been the main driver of the surge in millionaires.
Most new millionaires are not billionaires or tycoons, but average Australians whose wealth is tied up in property and superannuation.
Timing and asset choice have created this wealth divide. Those who own the right property in the right locations are reaping the benefits, while others risk being left behind.
If you’ve ever felt that everyone around you seems to be a millionaire these days, you’re not imagining things.
According to the latest UBS Global Wealth Report and reported by ABC news, Australia now boasts one of the highest concentrations of millionaires in the world, and much of that wealth is tied directly to property.
Source: ABC News
Once upon a time, the title of millionaire was reserved for captains of industry, celebrities, and elite professionals.
Today, one in ten Australians finds themselves in that category, at least in US dollar terms, which means a net worth of about $1.55 million AUD.
That translates to about 1.9 million Australians, a staggering figure given our population of just 25.8 million.
And UBS expects this number to rise by another 20% by 2028.
In other words, another 400,000 Australians will cross that threshold in just a few years.
But here’s the catch: the vast majority of these “millionaires” are not sipping champagne on yachts.
They’re “Everyday Millionaires”, homeowners whose wealth is largely locked up in real estate.
Australia stands out globally because property makes up more than half of our personal wealth (53%).
That’s far higher than in countries like the UK, US, or most of Europe.
It’s not surprising when you consider that the average house price now exceeds $1 million, according to the ABS.
Combine that with our compulsory superannuation system, and you have a recipe where middle-class Australians, particularly long-term property owners, suddenly find themselves sitting on seven-figure balance sheets.
And it’s not just the ultra-wealthy driving this trend.
UBS notes that the real growth has been in the “middle bands” of society, where rising real estate values have pushed everyday families into millionaire territory almost by accident.
Australia now ranks:
8th in the world for the number of millionaires
2nd in the world for median wealth ($411,000 AUD), just behind Luxembourg
5th in the world for average wealth per adult (close to $1 million AUD)
In terms of balanced wealth distribution, Australia also performs well compared to many nations, with the top 10% holding 44% of wealth.
Still, it’s worth remembering that property ownership patterns are driving inequality.
For instance, households earning over $100,000 are nearly three times more likely to own multiple properties compared to middle-income households.
And on a generational level? Baby boomers and Gen Xers are far ahead of Gen Z when it comes to multiple property ownership.
That’s not just a statistic, it’s a challenge for younger Australians trying to break into the market.
While the headline is that Australia is creating millionaires at record pace, the story beneath the surface is more important for strategic investors.
Here’s what stands out:
Property remains the cornerstone of Australian wealth. The UBS data shows what we already know, owning real estate isn’t just about providing shelter, it’s the primary vehicle for wealth creation in this country.
Wealth is skewed by timing and asset choice. Those who bought property in the right locations over the past couple of decades are now the “everyday millionaires.” Those who didn’t are finding it harder to catch up.
Inequality is being amplified by real estate. Property continues to be the dividing line, between generations, between income groups, and between those who own multiple assets versus those who don’t.
The millionaire label is misleading. Much of this wealth is illiquid, tied up in the family home or investment properties. Being “asset rich, cash flow poor” is a very real situation for many of these newly minted millionaires.
The UBS report confirms what I’ve been saying for years: if you want to build long-term wealth in Australia, you can’t ignore property.
But it also highlights the importance of being strategic.
Simply buying “any” property is not enough, you need investment-grade assets that will outperform over time.
So yes, Australia is minting millionaires at a record pace, but the real question is: are you positioning yourself to be one of them?
Or are you sitting on the sidelines, watching property continue to shape the wealth of the nation?
If you’re like many property investors, you’re probably wondering what’s the right thing to do at present.
Should you buy, should you sell, or should you just wait?
You can trust the team at Metropole to provide you with direction, guidance, and results.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced investor, at times like we are currently experiencing you need an advisor who takes a holistic approach to your wealth creation and that’s exactly what you get from the multi-award-winning team at Metropole.
We help our clients grow, protect and pass on their wealth through a range of services including:
With the right tools and a smart approach, you can use lighting to transform how any space looks. I did just that without the complexity or mess of traditional methods.
In my case, I had two primary goals. First, I wanted the items in my display tower to feel genuinely showcased, rather than lost in shadows. Second, I had a classic china cabinet—beautiful on its own, but nearly invisible after dark. Rather than flooding either space with light, I wanted a soft, even glow that felt intentional and refined.
Like many, I’d seen LED installations online, but most involved soldering irons, an array of essential power tools, and a level of precision that I didn’t have time for. I needed a cleaner, simpler solution that could be done in a small space and in a short amount of time. Below is a full walkthrough of how I brought this idea to life.
Before mounting anything or cutting any strips, it’s critical to assemble the right materials. Fortunately, the list is short and straightforward.
Required:
Optional (but helpful):
Traditional wire strippers can be difficult to use with 2-conductor wire, so you may want to opt for an automatic or self-adjusting wire stripper. Also, avoid LED accessories without adhesive backing, unless you’re prepared to use a lot of double-sided tape.
Before making any physical changes, I spent time mapping out the layout. This is where you’ll measure your shelves, decide how many LED strip segments you’ll need, and determine how wires will run between them.
In my display tower, I had five horizontal shelves. I planned to install two LED strips beneath each one, casting light downward. This meant connecting all fifteen strip segments in series, each powered from the same source. That’s where the 2-conductor wire became essential.
There’s no need to orient all LED strips the same way; the positive and negative terminals don’t have to remain consistent throughout. If polarity is reversed, you can simply twist the 2-conductor wire the opposite way and adjust. Just make sure that you designate either red or black as the positive and the opposite as the negative.
Each LED strip is marked with designated cut points, which look like small copper pads spaced at regular intervals. You can only cut at these points; cutting elsewhere will render the strip unusable.
After measuring, I cut each strip to match the length of the individual shelves. The distance between the copper pads likely won’t line up perfectly with your measurements, so be sure to cut them to the shorter interval so they can fit in the available space.
Before cutting or mounting anything permanently, be sure to plug in the entire LED strip roll to ensure that each light on the strip functions properly.
Clip-on connectors are the key to this entire setup. They have small teeth on them that dig directly into the ends of the LED strips, making contact with the copper pads. On the other side, they have specially designed spikes that make contact with your wire ends and hold them securely.
Here’s how to use them:
In under a minute, you’ve made a solid, functional connection without any soldering, electrical tape, or specialized tools.
Once either end of the connector is snapped shut, it’s nearly impossible to open it back up. If you’re determined enough, you can use a flathead screwdriver to force the end open, but it may bend or snap the plastic, rendering the connector useless.
Visible wires can detract from even the most well-lit installation. To keep the look clean, I drilled holes near the back corners underneath each shelf. These holes were just wide enough for the wire connectors to pass through, and allowed me to route the cable more discreetly out the back of my display tower.
Before drilling, I measured and marked everything carefully, which is particularly important when working with older or delicate wood. In the case of my china cabinet, I used painter’s tape to guide my placement, then drilled roughly one inch in from each side.
If you’re working with open shelving, consider drilling additional holes or using slim cable raceways.
Once all strips had been tested and cut, I peeled off the adhesive backing and pressed each strip firmly underneath the shelves. The adhesive is incredibly strong, but applying steady pressure helps ensure a lasting bond.
For the connector clips themselves, I added my own double-sided mounting tape to reinforce them under the shelves. This held perfectly.
With everything in place, I ran the wires underneath the edges of each shelf and connected them all to the power source. I then plugged the adapter into the wall, and the entire lighting system came to life.
A few key details can make all the difference between a lighting job that feels amateur and one that feels built-in. If a wire was visible from the front, I adjusted its path, moved it behind a panel, or secured it using painter’s tape in a discrete area. The goal is a clean, unobtrusive finish; you’ll want to conceal every wire in the setup.
Similarly, you’ll also want to hide LED light dots. Some lower-density LED strips display noticeable hotspots or gaps. Although I chose this type of LED strip, there are plenty of high quality LED strips that offer smoother, more consistent illumination. The low-density ones still work great, as long as the strips themselves aren’t visible.
Choose warm or cool light based on ambiance. My general rule is the fancier the setup, the cooler the light. Opt for cooler tones if you’re illuminating a modern kitchen or china cabinet. Otherwise, you should choose something on the warmer end of the spectrum.
An inline dimmer switch gives you added control and can be a nice touch in a dark room. In the evenings, I often reduce the brightness to create a more ambient mood without overpowering the space.
The final result exceeded my expectations without any burns, smoke, or melted plastic. Now, the ambient glow highlights my collectibles and china beautifully, adding depth and character to the room. Best of all, the modular design means I can expand or modify it in the future with minimal effort.
If you’re ready to enhance it further, consider adding motion sensors or syncing it with additional smart devices. There are lots of other stunning LED DIY projects you can try out. However you decide to set them up, you’ve taken full control of your lighting.
Three generations of the Wu family from Mengcun are masters of the local form of Bajiquan. As part of the post-90s generation, Wu Hao is still learning, taught by his grandfather and father, Wu Lianzhi and Wu Dawei. Most of the time they live like an ordinary family. But when they’re on the training ground, they maintain a strict master-apprentice relationship.
TORONTO — The smile is beatific, blissed out, even at an ungodly hour on our Zoom call from France. A week later, when I finally meet 43-year old filmmaker Oliver Laxe in person at a private Toronto celebration for his new movie “Sirât,” he radiates serenity. He’s the happiest (and maybe the tallest) person in the room.
“One of the first ideas that I had for this film was a sentence from Nietzsche,” he says. “I won’t believe in a God who doesn’t dance.”
Laxe goes to raves — “free parties,” he clarifies, indicating the ones you need to hear about via word of mouth. He’s thought deeply about what they mean and what they do to him. “We still have a memory in our bodies of these ceremonies that we were doing for thousands of years, when we were making a kind of catharsis with our bodies.”
It’s almost the opposite of what you expect to hear on the fall festival circuit, when directors with big ideas make their cases for the significance of the art form. But the body, the return to something purely sensorial, is Laxe’s big idea.
Steadily, “Sirât” has become, since its debut at Cannes in May, a growing favorite: not merely a critic’s darling but an obsession among those who’ve seen it. A dance party in the desert set at some vaguely hinted-at moment of apocalypse, the movie is something you feel, not solve. Its pounding EDM beats rattle pleasurably in your chest (provided the theater’s speakers are up to snuff). And the explosions on the horizon shake your heartbeat.
“I really trust in the capacity of images to penetrate into the metabolism of the spectator,” Laxe says. “I’m like a masseuse. When you watch my films, sometimes you’ll want to kill me or you’ll feel the pain in your body, like: Wow, what a treat. But after, you can feel the result.”
An image from the movie “Sirât,” directed by Oliver Laxe.
(Festival de Cannes)
Laxe can speak about his influences: cosmic epics by the Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky or existential road movies like “Zabriskie Point” and “Two-Lane Blacktop.” But he is not a product of a typical grad-school trajectory. Rather, it’s his escape from that path after growing up in northern Spanish Galicia and studying in Barcelona (he tried London for a while) that’s fascinating.
“I was not good,” he recalls. “I didn’t find I had a place in the industry or in Europe. I was not interested. I had bought a camera, a 16-millimeter Bolex, and I knew I was accepting that my role was to be a kind of sniper that was working in the trenches but making really small films.”
At age 24, Laxe moved to Tangier, Morocco, where he would live for 12 years at a monastic remove from the glamour of the movies, collaborating with local children on his films. The experience would grow into his first feature, 2010’s “You Are All Captains,” which eventually took him all the way to the prize-winning podium at Cannes, as did his second and third films, all of which came before “Sirât,” his fourth.
“Slowly, the things we were making were opening doors,” he says. “In a way, life was deciding, telling me: This is your path.”
Path is what “Sirât” means in Arabic, often with a religious connotation, and his new movie takes a unique journey, traversing from the loose-limbed dancing of its early scenes to a train’s tracks stretching fixedly to the end of the line. There’s also a quest that gets us into the film: a father and son searching among the ravers for a missing daughter, potentially a nod to “The Searchers” or Paul Schrader’s “Hardcore,” but not a plot point that Laxe feels especially interested in expounding on.
“Obviously I have a spiritual path and this path is about celebrating crisis,” he says. “My path was through crisis. It’s the only time when you connect with your essence. I just want to grow. So that’s why I jump into the abyss.”
“My path was through crisis,” says director Oliver Laxe of his steady rise. “It’s the only time when you connect with your essence. I just want to grow.”
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Laxe tells me he didn’t spend years perfecting a script or sharpening dialogue. Rather, he took the images that stuck with him — trucks speeding into the dusty desert, fueled by the rumble of their own speaker systems — and brought them to the free parties, where his cast coalesced on the dance floor.
“We were telling them that we were making ‘Mad Max Zero,’ ” he recalls, but also something “more metaphysical, more spiritual. A few of them, I already knew. There are videos of us explaining the film in the middle of the dance floor with all the people dancing around. I mean it was quite crazy. It’s something I would like to show to film schools.”
Shot on grungy Super 16, the production drove deep into craggy, sandblasted wastelands, both in Morocco and mountainous Spain, where the crew would make hairpin turns along winding cliff roads that would give even fans of William Friedkin’s legendary 1977 misadventure “Sorcerer” anxiety.
“It was my least dangerous film,” Laxe counters, reminding me of his “Fire Will Come,” the 2019 arson thriller for which he cast actual firefighters. “We were making the film in the middle of the flames, so I don’t know. I’m a junkie of images and I need this drug.”
There is a Herzogian streak to the bearded Laxe, a prophet-in-the-wilderness boldness that inspires his collaborators, notably longtime writing partner Santiago Fillol and the techno composer Kangding Ray, to make the leap of faith with him. But there also seems to come a point when talking about “Sirât” feels insufficient, as opposed to simply submitting to its pounding soundscapes, found-family camaraderie and (fair warning) churning moments of sudden loss that have shaken even the most hardy of audiences.
“The film evokes this community of wounded people,” he says. “I’m not a sadistic guy that wants to make a spectator suffer. I have a lot of hope. I trust in human beings, even with their contradictions and weaknesses.”
For those who wish to find a political reading in the movie, it’s there for them, a parable about migration and fascism but also the euphoria of a headlong rush into the unknown. “Sirât” is giving odd comfort in a cultural moment of uncertainty, a rare outcome for a low-budget art film.
Its visionary maker knows exactly where he is going next.
“I got the message in Cannes,” Laxe says. “People want to feel the freedom of the filmmaker or the auteur. What they appreciate is that we were jumping from a fifth floor to make this film. So for the next one —”
Our connection cuts out and it’s almost too perfect: a Laxian cliffhanger moment in which ideas are yanked back by a rush of feeling. After several hours of me hoping this was intentional on his part, the director does indeed get back to me, apologetically. But until then, he is well served by the mystery.
New Delhi, September 6: TVS Motor Company has launched its new limited edition Apache bikes in India. The company has introduced its TVS Apache models in India, celebrating its 20th anniversary. TVS 20th anniversary editions include TVS Apache RTR 160, TVS Apache RTR 180, TVS RTR Apache 200 4V, TVS Apache RTR310 and TVS Apache RR310. The newly launched motorcycles expand the Apache RR and RTR lineup.
The new TVS Apache trims come with a 20th anniversary logo, celebrating over two decades of market presence and boasting 6.5 million customers. The new special edition Apache models come with a distinct look and features at a starting price of INR 1.28 lakh (ex-showroom). GST Rate Cuts: Mahindra & Mahindra Offers GST Reduction Benefits on SUVs to Customers up to INR 1.56 Lakh Starting Today.
TVS’ new top-end RTR variants come with additional upgrades. Apart from a new colour scheme, the Apache RTR 160 4V and Apache RTR 200 4V offer a 5-inch TFT instrument cluster with Bluetooth and voice assist, slipper clutch, and Class-D projector headlamp with LED DRLs. VinFast VF6 Price in India, Specifications and Features Revealed, Know Everything About Newly Launched Electric SUV Launched in India.
The all-new TVS Apache 4V lineup includes Bluetooth connectivity, Class-DC projectors with LED DRLs, assist and slipper clutch, traction control system, voice assist and 5-inch TFT cluster.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 06, 2025 06:34 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
On this episode of Uncanny Valley, we break down the role of AI in the online gambling scene.
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Generative AI has quickly shifted from experimental novelty to everyday utility – and with that shift comes growing scrutiny.
One of the most pressing questions is how these systems decide which content to trust and elevate, and which to ignore.
The concern is real: a Columbia University study found that in 200 tests across top AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, more than 60% of outputs lacked accurate citations.
Meanwhile, the rise of advanced “reasoning” models has only intensified the problem, with reports of AI hallucinations increasing.
As credibility challenges mount, engines are under pressure to prove they can consistently surface reliable information.
For publishers and marketers, that raises a critical question:
What exactly do generative engines consider trustworthy content, and how do they rank it?
This article unpacks:
Generative systems reduce a complex idea – trust – to technical criteria.
Observable signals like citation frequency, domain reputation, and content freshness act as proxies for the qualities people typically associate with credible information.
The long-standing SEO framework of E-E-A-T (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) still applies.
But now, those traits are being approximated algorithmically as engines decide what qualifies as trustworthy at scale.
In practice, this means engines elevate a familiar set of qualities that have long defined reliable content – the same traits marketers and publishers have focused on for years.
AI engines today are looking to replicate familiar markers of credibility across four traits:
Authority remains one of the clearest trust signals, which can lead AI engines to favor established publishers and recognized domains.
Articles from major media organizations were cited at least 27% of the time, according to a July study of more than 1 million citations across models like GPT-4o, Gemini Pro, and Claude Sonnet.
For recency-driven prompts – such as “updates on new data privacy regulations in the U.S.” – that share rose to 49%, with outlets like Reuters and Axios frequently referenced.
AI Overviews are three times more likely to link to .gov websites compared to standard SERPs, per Pew Research Center’s analysis.
All of that said, “authority” isn’t defined by brand recognition alone.
Generative engines are increasingly recognizing signals of first-hand expertise – content created by subject-matter experts, original research, or individuals sharing lived experience.
Smaller brands and niche publishers that consistently demonstrate this kind of expertise can surface just as strongly, and sometimes more persuasively, than legacy outlets that merely summarize others’ expertise.
In practice, authority in AI search comes down to demonstrating verifiable expertise and relevance – not just name recognition.
And because engines’ weighting of authority is rooted in their training data, understanding how that data is curated and filtered is the next critical piece.
Dig deeper: How to build and retain brand trust in the age of AI
How generative engines define “trust” starts long before a query is entered.
The foundation is laid in the data they’re trained on, and the way that data is filtered and curated directly shapes which kinds of content are treated as reliable.
Most large language models (LLMs) are exposed to massive corpora of text that typically include:
Just as important are the types of sources generally excluded, such as:
Raw pretraining data is only the starting point.
Developers use a combination of approaches to filter out low-credibility material, including:
This curation process is critical because it sets the baseline for which signals of trust and authority a model is capable of recognizing once it’s fine-tuned for public use.
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Once a query is entered, generative engines apply additional layers of ranking logic to decide which sources surface in real time.
These mechanisms are designed to balance credibility with relevance and timeliness.
The signals of content trustworthiness we covered earlier, like accuracy and authority, matter. So do:
Engines don’t treat sources in isolation. Content that appears across multiple trusted documents gains added weight, increasing its chances of being cited or summarized. This kind of cross-referencing makes repeated signals of credibility especially valuable.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai recently underscored this dynamic by reminding us that Google doesn’t manually decide which pages are authoritative.
It relies on signals like how often reliable pages link back – a principle dating back to PageRank that continues to shape more complex ranking models today.
While he was speaking about search broadly, the same logic applies to generative systems, which depend on cross-referenced credibility to elevate certain sources.
Content freshness is also critical, especially when trying to appear in Google AI Overviews.
That’s because AI Overviews are built upon Google’s core ranking systems, which include freshness as a ranking component.
Actively maintained or recently updated content is more likely to be surfaced, especially for queries tied to evolving topics like regulations, breaking news, or new research findings.
Ranking isn’t one-size-fits-all. Technical questions may favor scholarly or site-specific sources, while news-driven queries rely more on journalistic content.
This adaptability allows engines to adjust trust signals based on user intent, creating a more nuanced weighting system that aligns credibility with context.
Dig deeper: How generative information retrieval is reshaping search
Even after training and query-time ranking, engines still need a way to decide how confident they are in the answers they generate.
This is where internal trust metrics come in – scoring systems that estimate the likelihood a statement is accurate.
These scores influence which sources are cited and whether a model opts to hedge with qualifiers instead of giving a definitive response.
As noted earlier, authority signals and cross-referencing play a role here. So does:
Despite the scoring systems and safeguards built into generative engines, evaluating credibility at scale remains a work in progress.
Challenges to overcome include:
Authority signals often skew toward large, English-language publishers and Western outlets.
While these domains carry weight, overreliance on them can create blind spots – overlooking local or non-English expertise that may be more accurate – and narrow the range of perspectives surfaced.
Dig deeper: The web is multilingual – so why does search still speak just a few languages?
Truth is not static.
Scientific consensus shifts, regulations change, and new research can quickly overturn prior assumptions.
What qualifies as accurate one year may be outdated the next, which makes algorithmic trust signals less stable than they appear.
Engines need mechanisms to continually refresh and recalibrate credibility markers, or risk surfacing obsolete information.
Another challenge is transparency. AI companies rarely disclose the full mix of training data or the exact weighting of trust signals.
For users, this opacity makes it difficult to understand why certain sources appear more often than others.
For publishers and marketers, it complicates the task of aligning content strategies with what engines actually prioritize.
Looking ahead, engines are under pressure to become more transparent and accountable. Early signs suggest several directions where improvements are already taking shape.
Expect stronger emphasis on outputs that are directly traceable back to their origins.
Features like linked citations, provenance tracking, and source labeling aim to help users confirm whether a claim comes from a credible document and spot when it does not.
Engines are also beginning to incorporate user input more systematically.
Corrections, ratings, and flagged errors can feed back into model updates, allowing systems to recalibrate their trust signals over time.
This creates a loop where credibility isn’t just algorithmically determined, but refined through real-world use.
Finally, open-source projects are pushing for greater visibility into how trust signals are applied.
By exposing training data practices or weighting systems, these initiatives give researchers and the public a clearer picture of why certain sources are elevated.
That transparency can help build accountability across the industry.
Dig deeper: How to get cited by AI: SEO insights from 8,000 AI citations
Trust in generative AI isn’t determined by a single factor.
It emerges from the interplay of curated training data, real-time ranking logic, and internal confidence metrics – all filtered through opaque systems that continue to evolve.
For brands and publishers, the key is to align with the signals engines already recognize and reward:
The path forward is clear: focus on content that is transparent, expert-driven, and reliably maintained.
By learning how AI defines trust, brands can sharpen their strategies, build credibility, and improve their odds of being the source that generative engines turn to first.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Trump administration is taking its immigration crackdown to the health care safety net, launching Medicaid spending probes in at least six Democratic-led states that provide comprehensive health coverage to poor and disabled immigrants living in the U.S. without permanent legal status.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is scouring payments covering health care for immigrants without legal status to ensure there isn’t any waste, fraud, or abuse, according to public records obtained by KFF Health News and The Associated Press. While acknowledging that states can bill the federal government for Medicaid emergency and pregnancy care for immigrants without legal status, federal officials have sent letters notifying state health agencies in California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington that they are reviewing federal and state payments for medical services such as prescription drugs and specialty care.
The federal agency told the states it is reviewing claims as part of its commitment to maintain Medicaid’s fiscal integrity. California is the biggest target after the state self-reported overcharging the federal government for health care services delivered to immigrants without legal status, determined to be at least $500 million, spurring the threat of a lawsuit.
“If CMS determines that California is using federal money to pay for or subsidize healthcare for individuals without a satisfactory immigration status for which federal funding is prohibited by law,” according to a letter dated March 18, “CMS will diligently pursue all available enforcement strategies, including, consistent with applicable law, reductions in federal financial participation and possible referrals to the Attorney General of the United States for possible lawsuit against California.”
The investigations come as the White House and a Republican-controlled Congress slashed taxpayer spending on immigrant health care through cuts in President Donald Trump’s spending-and-tax law passed this summer. The administration is also pushing people living in the U.S. without authorization off Medicaid rolls. Health policy experts say these moves could hamper care and leave safety net hospitals, clinics, and other providers financially vulnerable. Some Democratic-led states — California, Illinois, and Minnesota — have already had to end or slim down their Medicaid programs for immigrants due to ballooning costs. Colorado is also considering cuts due to cost overruns.
At the same time, 20 states are pushing back on Trump’s immigration crackdown by suing the administration for handing over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials. A federal judge temporarily halted the move. California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, who led that challenge, says the Trump administration is launching a political attack on states that embrace immigrants in Medicaid programs.
“The whole idea that there’s waste, fraud, and abuse is contrived,” Bonta said. “It’s manufactured. It’s invented. It’s a catchall phrase that they use to justify their predetermined anti-immigrant agenda.”
Trump Targets Immigrants
Immigrants lacking permanent legal status are not eligible to enroll in comprehensive Medicaid coverage. However, states bill the federal government for emergency and pregnancy care provided to anyone.
Fourteen states and Washington, D.C., expanded their Medicaid programs with their own funds to cover low-income children without legal status. Seven of those states, plus Washington, D.C., have also provided full-scope coverage to some adult immigrants living in the country without authorization.
The Trump administration appears to be targeting only states with full Medicaid coverage for both kids and adults without legal status. Utah, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, which provide Medicaid coverage only to immigrant children, have not received letters, for instance. CMS declined to provide a full list of states it is targeting.
Federal officials say it is their legal right and responsibility to scrutinize states for misspending on immigrant health coverage and are taking “decisive action to stop that.”
“It is a matter of national concern that some states have pushed the boundaries of Medicaid law to offer extensive benefits to individuals unlawfully present in the United States,” CMS spokesperson Catherine Howden said about the agency’s probe of selected states. The oversight is intended to “ensure federal funds are reserved for legally eligible individuals, not for political experiments that violate the law,” she said.
Health policy researchers and economists say providing Medicaid coverage to immigrants for preventive services and treatment of chronic health conditions staves off more costly care for patients down the road. It also tamps down insurance premium increases and the amount of uncompensated care for hospitals and clinics.
Francisco Silva, president and CEO of the California Primary Care Association, said the Trump administration is threatening to drive up health care costs and make it more difficult to access care.
“The impact is emergency rooms would get so crowded that ambulances have to be diverted away and people in a real emergency can’t get into the hospital, and public health threats like disease outbreaks,” Silva said.
California has taken a health-care-for-all approach, providing coverage to 1.6 million immigrants without legal status. The expansion, which was rolled out from 2016 to 2024, is estimated to cost $12.4 billion this year. Of that, $1.3 billion is paid by the federal government for emergency and pregnancy-related care.
As California rolled out its expansion, the state erroneously billed the federal government for care provided to immigrants without legal status — details that have not previously been reported and that former state officials shared with KFF Health News and the AP. The state improperly billed for services such as mental health and addiction services, prescription drugs, and dental care.
Jacey Cooper, who served as California’s Medicaid director from 2020 to 2023, said she discovered the error and reported it to federal regulators. Cooper said the state had been working to pay back at least $500 million identified by the federal government.
“Once I identified the problem, I thought it was really important to report it and we did,” Cooper said. “We take waste, fraud, and abuse very seriously.”
It’s not clear whether that money has been repaid. The state’s Medicaid agency says it does not know how CMS calculated the overpayments or “what is included in that amount, what time period it covers, and if or when it was collected,” said spokesperson Tony Cava.
California has an enormously complicated Medicaid program: It serves the largest population in the nation — nearly 15 million people — with a budget of nearly $200 billion this fiscal year.
Matt Salo, a national Medicaid expert, said these types of mistakes happen in states throughout the country because the program is rife with overlapping federal and state rules. Salo and other policy analysts agreed that states have the authority to administer their Medicaid programs as they see fit and root out misuse of federal funds.
And Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the Trump administration’s actions “persecute a minority that’s unpopular with the powers that be.”
“The Trump administration cannot maintain that this effort has anything to do with maintaining the fiscal integrity of the Medicaid program,” Cannon said. “There are so much bigger threats to Medicaid’s fiscal integrity, that that argument just doesn’t wash.”
Immigrants’ Medicaid Under Attack
National Republicans have targeted health spending on immigrants in different ways. The GOP spending law, which Trump calls the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” will lower reimbursement to states around the country in October 2026. In California, for example, federal reimbursement for immigrants without legal status will go to 50% for emergency services, down from 90% for the Medicaid expansion population, according to Cava.
The Trump administration is also scaling back Medicaid coverage to immigrants with temporary legal status who were previously covered and announced in August that it would provide states with monthly reports pointing out enrollees whose legal status could not be confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security.
“Every dollar misspent is a dollar taken away from an eligible, vulnerable individual in need of Medicaid,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement. “This action underscores our unwavering commitment to program integrity, safeguarding taxpayer dollars, and ensuring benefits are strictly reserved for those eligible under the law.”
States under review say they are following the law.
“Spending money on a congressionally authorized medical benefit program that helps people get emergency treatments for cancer, dialysis, and anti-rejection medications for organ transplants is decidedly not waste, fraud and abuse,” said Mike Faulk, deputy communications director for Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown.
Records show Washington Medicaid officials have been inundated with questions from CMS about federal payments covering emergency and pregnancy care for immigrants without legal status.
Emails show Illinois officials met with CMS and sought an extension to share its data. CMS denied that request and federal regulators told the state that its funding could be withheld.
“Thousands of Illinois residents rely on these programs to lawfully seek critical health care without fear of deportation,” said Melissa Kula, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, noting that any federal cut would be “impossible” for the state to backfill.
Shastri reported from Milwaukee.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
This story can be republished for free (details).
Darksiders 4 was officially announced in 2025 during a showcase for developer THQ Nordic, and many longtime fans of the franchise are curious about its release date, story, and gameplay. The last time we saw the Darksiders franchise was in 2019 with the release of Darksiders Genesis, a prequel to the original trilogy. This game was met with positive reviews from critics and fans alike, but after radio silence from THQ Nordic for several years, many players thought it could be the last time we’d see the Four Horsemen in action.
Now, with Darksiders 4 confirmed, we finally get to see what THQ Nordic has been cooking up all of this time. We know the Four Horsemen are returning and picking up where they left off at the conclusion of the original Darksiders, but what else do we know about the fourth installment in the franchise? You can check out everything we know about Darksiders 4 in the guide below.
While we did get the reveal of Darksiders 4, THQ Nordic still has not given us a release date for the new action-RPG. Right now, the current release date is “to be announced,” and there’s no indication as to when an announcement is expected.
So, as of right now, we’re pretty much in the dark when it comes to a release date for Darksiders 4. It’s unclear how far along in development THQ Nordic is with the game, either, so we don’t have anything to go on at the time of writing.
As we don’t have a concrete release date for Darksiders 4, there’s currently no way to preorder the game on any of its available platforms (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S). This also means we don’t know how much Darksiders 4 will cost. However, Darksiders has, in recent years, usually been priced under the industry standard for a new AAA game. For example, Darksiders III retailed for $40 at launch, and Darksiders Genesis came in at $30. THQ Nordic could take that same approach with Darksiders 4, which would put it at around $50-60, but it might also be a full-priced, $70 game.
All you can do right now is wishlist the game’s Standard Edition on PC via Steam. This gives you a notification when Darksiders 4 officially goes live for preorders.
If you want a small glimpse into what THQ Nordic has in store with Darksiders 4, you can watch the official teaser trailer for the action-RPG below.
Naturally, this is only a sneak peek at the game that confirms the return of the Four Horsemen. We’ll have to wait for a proper trailer to see exactly what Darksiders 4 will look like.
Darksiders is coming to PC via Steam, as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. It’s currently unknown if THQ Nordic will attempt to port the game to other platforms, such as Nintendo Switch 2, in the future. For now, though, Darksiders 4 will launch for only the current-gen platforms.
As we only have a small teaser trailer to go off, we don’t know too much about the story of Darksiders 4. We do know that the game picks up at the conclusion of the original Darksiders, though, so the setting will still be the post-apocalyptic version of Earth that’s remained prevalent throughout the franchise’s life. The developers also said that the setting will take place over different realms within the post-apocalyptic landscape, and each realm has unique bosses, items, and visuals.
During the game, you’ll get to play as one of the Four Horsemen characters, who have become staples of the franchise. Death, Strife, Fury, and War are back in Darksiders 4, and you can choose which one to play as for a playthrough. Each of the Horsemen features different weapons, abilities, and playstyles, giving you more replayability options for second, third, and fourth playthroughs of the main story.
Aside from the Four Horsemen, we’re unsure of any additional characters in Darksiders 4. However, with the story starting from the end of the first game, it’s a safe bet that some characters from the original will make an appearance.
While we await more details and showcases of Darksiders 4, the developers have given us an idea of how the game will play. Just like the other games in the series, the fourth installment is a third-person action-RPG that emphasizes combat, narrative storytelling, and exploration through a lore-rich world.
The combat in Darksiders 4 features up-close melee action and supernatural abilities that each of the characters possesses. These abilities can all likely be used in combat in some fashion, but other abilities could be more useful outside of engagements with enemies. In the case of Strife, we’ll also likely be able to use his guns. Building on the cooperative feature in Genesis, it’s also been confirmed that Darksiders 4 will support up to four people in cooperative play, with each controller one of the Four Horsemen.
THQ Nordic specifies “traversal and puzzle-solving” as key components to the game. Darksiders is no stranger to unique movement and puzzles across the post-apocalypse, but the early marketing seems to suggest those elements will play a larger role in Darksiders 4. Some characters might offer more traversal abilities than others, which could give them an edge while exploring the map, while other characters might have abilities that make them tankier in battle.
We still don’t know a large chunk of how Darksiders 4 will look when it comes to gameplay, but THQ Nordic should be able to build off the foundation from the previous games in the franchise.
Excessive amounts of visceral fat — the hidden fat surrounding organs — is linked with faster aging of the heart, a new study has found.
Aging is the biggest risk factor for heart disease, but why some people age faster than others isn’t fully understood. The scientists leading the research say that visceral body fat could play an important role in accelerating aging of the heart and blood vessels. This type of fat is known to be harmful to health and this study now links it to faster heart aging.
The study, led by scientists from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Medical Sciences, in London, UK, also found differences between men and women, and discovered that fat around the hips and thighs could potentially slow heart aging in women.
In the study, published in the European Heart Journal, the scientists analyzed data from 21,241 participants in UK Biobank, which includes whole body imaging to map the amount of fat and where it is located in the body.
The UK Biobank data also includes detailed imaging of the heart and blood vessels. Artificial intelligence was used to analyse these images to capture signs of organ aging — such as tissues becoming stiff and inflamed. An individual was given a “heart age” which can be compared to their actual age at the time of the scan.
The researchers found that faster heart aging was linked to having more visceral adipose tissue. Visceral adipose tissue is fat found deep inside the abdomen around organs such as the stomach, intestines, and liver. This type of fat cannot be seen from the outside, and some people can have large amounts of visceral fat despite having a healthy weight.
The researchers found signs on blood tests that visceral fat is linked to increased inflammation in the body – which is a potential cause of premature aging.
They also found differences between the sexes. Male-type fat distribution (fat around the belly, often called ‘apple’ shaped) was particularly predictive of early aging in men.
In contrast, a genetic predisposition to female-type fat (fat on the hips and thighs, often called “pear” shaped) was protective against heart aging in women.
The researchers also found a link between higher oestrogen levels in premenopausal women and a slowing of heart aging, which they suggest could indicate a role for hormones in protecting against heart aging.
Professor Declan O’Regan, who led the research at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences and Imperial College London, and is the British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular AI, said: “We have known about the apple and pear distinction in body fat, but it hasn’t been clear howit leads to poor health outcomes. Our research shows that “bad” fat, hidden deep around the organs, accelerates aging of the heart. But some types of fat could protect against aging- specifically fat around the hips and thighs in women.”
“We also showed that BMI wasn’t a good way of predicting heart age which underscores the importance of knowing where fat is stored in the body and not just total body weight.”
“The goal of our research is to find ways to increase healthy lifespan. While being active is important, we found that hidden fat could still be harmful even in fit people. In the future we plan to investigate how drug therapies, such as GLP-1 inhibitors (e.g. Ozempic) could improve not just diabetes and obesity, but target the aging effects of hidden visceral fat.”
This study was funded by the Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, and the National Institute for Health and Care Research Imperial College Biomedical Research Centre.
Professor Bryan Williams OBE, chief scientific and medical officer at the British Heart Foundation said: “We already know excess visceral fat around the heart and liver can lead to increased blood pressure and high cholesterol, so it is concerning that it could also help to speed up aging of the heart and blood vessels.
“As the pattern of fat distribution typically seen in women’s bodies is linked to oestrogen, that hormone may be key to future therapies developed to tackle heart aging.
“Eating a healthier diet and becoming more active can help to reduce visceral fat levels.”
Kalinga University, Raipur has emerged as a centre of excellence of higher education in Central India. Strategically located in the Smart City of New Raipur, this University has started carving a niche for itself in the education domain and is rising as a shining star on the horizon of quality education.
The Faculty of Law at Kalinga University, Naya Raipur, stands as a beacon of legal education, fostering academic excellence and professional development. With a commitment to nurturing future legal luminaries, the faculty comprises distinguished scholars and experienced faculties who bring a wealth of expertise to the learning environment. Emphasising a holistic approach to legal studies, the faculty members are dedicated to imparting both theoretical knowledge and practical skills essential for success in the dynamic field of law.
In today’s increasingly digital world, cyber violence and digital deception have emerged as significant threats to personal safety, privacy, and societal trust. Cyber violence encompasses a range of harmful behaviours such as online harassment, cyberstalking, doxing, revenge porn, and threats, all of which can have serious psychological and emotional consequences for victims. Digital deception, including identity theft, phishing scams, misinformation, and the use of deepfakes, further complicates the landscape of online abuse.
As technology advances, so do the methods used by perpetrators. Artificial intelligence, social media algorithms, and anonymous communication tools have made it easier to commit technology-facilitated crimes and harder to trace offenders. These crimes not only affect individuals but also undermine public trust, democratic processes, and digital safety.
The conference will provide a platform for networking, collaboration, and knowledge exchange among participants from academia, legal professions, government agencies, NGOs, businesses, and civil society organisations. Attendees will benefit from interactive sessions, keynote addresses, research presentations, case studies, and practical insights shared by industry leaders and subject matter experts.
The Global Conference on “Cyber Violence and Digital Deception: Understanding, Preventing, and Responding to Technology-Facilitated Crimes”, organised by the Faculty of Law, Kalinga University, Naya Raipur, will be held from 20 November 2025 – 21 November 2025. The Conference invites contributions in the form of full-length scholarly papers documenting original and substantial research work.
Theme –”Cyber Violence and Digital Deception: Understanding, Preventing, and Responding to Technology-Facilitated Crimes”.
Sub themes
[Note: Above themes are illustrative, researchers can submit their papers relevant to above themes and other relevant themes.]
Abstract-
Full Paper-
The following guidelines should be followed:
The submission link for the full paper and payment will be shared through E-mail only to the participants whose abstract will be selected. Participants who want to attend the conference without a paper presentation too will besent a final registration link.
Step 1: Participants will have to make payment on the given bank details:
Bank Name: PNB
Account Name: KALINGA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF LAW
Account No.: 1744100100003546
IFSC Code: PUNB0174410
Step 2: Fill out the registration form with all of the necessary information and add the screenshot of the payment details.
Ashutosh Singh – BA.LLB 7 Semester [+91 9098403076]
Shlok Mahapatra – BA.LLB 5 Semester [+91 7224041711]
For more Queries Contact: [email protected]
Disclaimer: WEF April, 2021, Lawctopus will not publish any ‘Call for Papers/Blogs’ by journals that charge money at the time of submission. If you find any journal doing so, please intimate us at tanuj.kalia[at]lawctopus.com
Updated on: Sept 06, 2025 09:15 pm IST
There are a lot of diets trending lately that people are very quick to adopt. But one of the concerns with these quick-fix diets is the lack of longevity. Many get tired or give up midway because it feels too confining. Commonly, fad diets are too ambitious, cutting a number of different food groups, but the real solution lies in balance, moderation, and mindful choices that can be sustained in the long run. The way forward is adopting a diet which is enduring and, most importantly, realistic.
ALSO READ: Having dark chocolate while on diet? Dietician shares 4 tips to enjoy it without derailing your weight loss goals
Dr Aparna Santhanam, dermatologist and holistic wellness coach, told HT Lifestyle that a sustainable diet helps to keep up with dieting for years as it’s not restrictive.
She explained, “A sustainable diet is not a short-lived food plan but a way of eating that you can enjoy and maintain for years. It focuses on balance, variety, and moderation, rather than rigid restrictions. The beauty of sustainable eating is that it not only protects long-term health but also makes daily meals more enjoyable, practical, and kind to the planet.”
Further, she highlighted how in the Indian food culture, where food is respected, sustainable eating is viewed as a way of building a natural habit to nourish the body.
Dr Santhanam shared 8 tips, demonstrating how to follow a sustainable diet:
• Add more plant-based proteins.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Prolific biotechnology investment firm Atlas Venture said Thursday it raised $400 million to pump into its existing portfolio of drug startups, a move meant to support the companies that might struggle to secure further funding in the current climate.
The new fund is Atlas’ third “Opportunity Fund,” an investment vehicle that provides cash to the growing startups Atlas has previously backed through its complementary early-stage fund. Atlas’ Opportunity Fund is designed to help those companies find the kind of follow-up investment rounds that can help them advance their drug prospects — and that have been tougher to come by of late.
“We’ve been encouraged by the incredible progress made across our portfolio, despite the array of challenges faced by biotechs in the current environment,” Atlas’ partners said in a joint statement. The new fund, which is smaller than some of its peers’ recent raises, also reinforces Atlas’ strategy of “raising funds tailored in size and strategy to our bespoke investment approach,” they added.
Atlas’ last raise came in December, when it banked $450 million for the 14th iteration of its early-stage fund. At the time, partner Bruce Booth wrote in a blog post that the “modest” haul reflected lessons learned after Atlas grew too quickly. Atlas, as a result, now wants to “stay disciplined and focused on the model that we continue to try to perfect: seed-led venture creation,” he wrote.
Four of Atlas’ partners — Booth, Kevin Bitterman, Michael Gladstone and Jason Rhodes — are the general partners of the most recent fund.
Atlas joins several other life sciences investors in closing a new fund this year, among them Omega Funds, Frazier Life Sciences and Deerfield Management. The firm is known for supporting a number of successful biotech companies, including Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and startups like Mariana Oncology and Aiolos Bio that were sold to larger drugmakers. Though it’s on pace to make fewer investments in 2025 than last year, according to BioPharma Dive data, the firm has still launched young companies such as Antares Therapeutics and Renasant Bio.
Key takeaways
Median house prices could soar by up to $154k by end of 2026 as buyers pile in for spring
Westpac forecasts suggest Sydney’s median house price could rise by up to $154,000 by the end of 2026, taking it close to $1.68 million.
Melbourne is expected to stage a strong recovery, with forecasts of 10% growth in 2026, pushing the median above $1.05 million.
Of course, these numbers are based on assumptions that could change with economic conditions, RBA policy shifts, or global pressures.
Smart investors should focus on investment-grade properties in high-demand locations, not on chasing short-term forecasts.
Median house prices could soar by up to $154,000 by the end of 2026 as buyers pile in over the next year at a time of limited supply.
Sydney’s median house price could jump by more than $150,000 over the next 15 months.
Melbourne’s median house price may climb past the $1 million mark.
Perth, Brisbane, and Adelaide are also tipped to see six-figure gains in house values.
That’s according to Canstar’s analysis of Westpac’s latest property price forecasts.
If these projections hold true, the conversation about housing affordability is about to get even tougher.
Of course, it’s not only Westpac that’s forecasting a number of strong years of property price growth. All major research houses and banks are forecasting similar levels of growth.
Westpac expects Sydney house prices to rise 5% this year and another 8% in 2026, which would lift the median to nearly $1.68 million, an extra $154,000 compared to today.
Melbourne, after a few quieter years, is forecast to stage a comeback with a hefty 10% jump next year, pushing its median above $1.05 million.
For first-home buyers, that’s yet another psychological hurdle.
Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide are also tipped to see gains between $70,000 and $100,000, while Hobart looks set for a more modest $30,000 rise.
As Sally Tindall, Canstar’s data insights director, put it:
“Sydney’s median house price could rise by up to $154,000 by the end of next year if house prices rise in line with Westpac’s dwelling price forecast.
For those already in the market, that’s welcome news for their equity.
For those still saving, the deposit hurdle is likely to get a whole lot steeper, not to mention the difficulty in clearing a bank’s serviceability test”
This is the classic divide in our property market.
If you already own a home, your wealth compounds.
But if you’re still saving, it feels like the finish line is moving further away just as you’re about to cross it.
And while falling interest rates might give buyers a little more borrowing power, there’s a risk those gains get swallowed up by higher prices.
I’m not surprised by these forecasts.
With population growth strong, rental markets tight, and construction costs elevated, the supply-demand imbalance remains ,which naturally fuels higher property prices.
Add to that the 70,000 new first-home buyers that have been forecast to enter the market over the next 12 months with the introduction of the new first-home buyer incentives, and that will only add fuel to the flames of our housing markets.
But forecasts are not strategies.
Successful investors look beyond next year’s numbers and focus on the long term fundamentals; buying well-located, investment-grade properties that deliver long-term growth.
That’s how you build lasting wealth.
Not by chasing forecasts, but by sticking to proven principles, ignoring short-term noise, and playing the long game.
In 2025, Waze still stands out by focusing solely on one goal: getting you where you’re going fast. Unlike Google Maps’ exploratory approach, Waze navigates real-time traffic and offers community features that save you time.
While Google Maps may pretend to be a guidebook or prioritize the most “comfortable” route, Waze cuts through the jargon. Instead, it acts like a copilot who’s just as impatient as you are. It’ll take you through alleys, across a dirt road, or up a winding mountain if it means shaving minutes off your ETA. It’s an aggressive navigation app, and that’s exactly why I prefer it.
Google Maps leans on more predictable paths. It tends to stick to primary roads and is often less responsive to emerging traffic. That cautious nature means you’ll sometimes be sitting in a jam that Waze would’ve dodged five minutes ago.
The difference is real-time trust. Waze relies heavily on its users’ reports and uses that information immediately. Google wants to verify, while Waze adapts before your foot hits the brake.
If you value getting from point A to point B with zero fluff, Waze has your back. It doesn’t worry about how pretty the drive is; it cares about delivering results. Once you try Waze, you’ll never switch back to Google Maps.
The core of Waze’s success lies in its shared data among drivers. Waze taps into thousands of live users who constantly flag what’s happening on the road. These can be reports of potholes, crashes, stalled vehicles, construction zones, speed traps, and more.
When someone up ahead reports a police officer hiding on the shoulder, you’ll know instantaneously. Additionally, the system encourages accuracy by prompting others to confirm or dismiss alerts, which means the info I’m receiving is up-to-date and accurate. Waze doesn’t offer a passive experience like many other navigation apps.
With Google Maps, those kinds of insights are present but diluted. They’re usually buried, vague, or delayed. Waze’s version is bold, obvious, and loud, which helps a lot with allowing you to keep your eyes on the road rather than on your phone.
That type of collaboration makes Waze feel like something bigger than just an app; it becomes a real-time community of drivers watching out for one another. That spirit of mutual aid makes the difference between casually traveling and actively navigating the road.
When I’m on the road, time is vitally important. In dense cities where one missed reroute can mean an extra 20 minutes in gridlock, I need a navigation app that can keep up. Waze’s rerouting logic is fast, confident, and reacts almost as quickly as somebody sitting in my passenger seat.
Waze can adjust your route within seconds of a slowdown being reported. It knows when something has shifted and recalculates accordingly—often so quickly you barely notice the change. It’s easy to avoid the jam without having to second-guess your route.
Compare that to Google Maps, which tends to wait. In my experience, it often lags behind real-world events, and by the time it does respond, it may be too late. That delay could mean you’re still getting sent down a closed-off road or into a parade you had no clue was happening.
Even changes to road layouts, such as new one-way streets, fresh construction zones, and unexpected lane closures, tend to appear faster on Waze. Its responsiveness becomes a quiet superpower when every block counts.
When you launch Waze, you’re not greeted with a travel blog or options to review a sushi spot; you’re given a map and the simple goal of moving to your destination. That clarity isn’t just a stylistic choice; it’s a safety feature. Fewer distractions mean better focus, and when you’re driving, that means everything.
Waze’s interface is incredibly bold, with colorful, oversized icons. It succeeds in foregoing aesthetics for usefulness by making sure that its entire UI feels designed for motion.
Buttons are large and easy to tap without taking your eyes off the road. Key information, such as ETA, next turn, and traffic conditions, is always front and center, never buried. The screen layout avoids clutter by only showing what matters in the moment, making navigation intuitive even in high-pressure driving situations.
Compare that with Google Maps’ slick but sometimes overly subtle visuals. The minimalist icons and whisper-quiet alerts may look great during trip planning, but on the road, they can fall short.
Waze brings personality into the driving experience without compromising performance. You can swap the voice giving you directions, change your car icon, and even customize your mood on the map. Of course, these features aren’t necessary, but they do bring the app a bit of life.
There’s value in fun, in that it breaks up the monotony. Whether it’s a pirate shouting commands or the latest celebrity Waze navigation voice, that absurdity can help lighten the mood when you’re dealing with borderline road rage. Google Maps, by comparison, is all utility and no charm. There’s always the same monotone assistant giving you robotic directions.
Because you’re likely using the app daily, that little layer of humor or personalization becomes a part of the routine. Waze gives you the option to make the experience more customizable and enjoyable.
Driving in a dense city is usually a massive headache. Routes change constantly, construction zones pop up overnight, traffic cops redirect entire blocks without warning, and special events can throw entire neighborhoods into chaos. One major advantage of Waze is that it’s built for this kind of havoc.
You can almost see Waze thinking as it reroutes you mid-drive during extreme traffic. It reacts to last-minute shifts, tailors your detours in real time, and does it with a level of accuracy that feels like magic. The best part about it is that it’s almost always spot-on.
Waze thrives in gridlock, where precision matters most. It understands the difference between turning left at a light and getting stuck behind five rideshares waiting on passengers. It knows when a supposed “shortcut” is actually a one-way nightmare.
It also updates quickly without waiting for ideal conditions, trusting other Waze users to flag events on the road. In urban environments where timing and adaptability are everything, that functionality gives Waze a massive edge.
Even with its versatile capabilities, like being able to remind you when to leave for appointments, Waze’s focus isn’t in showing you where the nearest gas station is. If you want restaurant ratings or local attractions, Google Maps should be your go-to. But if you’re commuting, going on a road trip, or just trying to outmaneuver a sea of brake lights on a Friday evening, you’ll want to opt for a navigation app built solely for drivers.
Unlike Google Maps, Waze is designed to help you on the road, not for trip-planning at home. From the settings to the search options, its functionalities revolve around clarity and quick decisions, minimizing distractions so your attention stays on the road.
Waze understands that drivers want a navigation experience that anticipates obstacles, traffic, and delays without cluttering the screen with irrelevant details. Google Maps hasn’t quite grasped that concept, and often yields more disruptions than anything else.
There’s a reason people like me haven’t switched to Google’s mainline offering. Waze might not be as “official” as Google Maps, but it’s faster, louder, and more in tune with what really matters on the road. It’s a tool that respects your time, trusts its users, and never stops adapting.
And when you’re behind the wheel, those are the aspects that truly matter.
You won’t find a place hotter than Turpan. Here more than 100 days a year are higher than 35℃ (95℉). Thanks to the high temperature, long sunshine duration and big temperature difference between day and night, Turpan contributes 1/5 of grape output in China and its grapes are of the sweetest nationwide!
If someone told Michael Ubaldini that dusty copies of his old band’s records from four decades ago would sell for hundreds of dollars each, he probably wouldn’t have believed it. Not that anyone was really rushing to tell him. Especially not the internet-savvy young fans of his obscure, ‘80s power pop band the Earwigs that followed him to his present day gigs as a singer-songwriter begging for copies of “She’s So Naive” pressed on 45s for a mere $20 each. To Ubaldini, 61, it (naively) appeared like he was getting the better end of the bargain.
“Some kids came up to me at a gig one time and asked if I had any of Earwigs’ original 45s which had become a collector’s item but at the time I didn’t know it,” said the Orange County-based musician who still gigs regularly in OC and Nashville, Tenn. “I told em ‘yeah I got couple of those.’ They said ‘Can we buy em?’ So I sold them to the kids for $20 each thinking I’d gotten a really good score, but they must’ve felt guilty about what they paid for them because they were offering to give me some other records on top of what they paid me.”
Not long after the dubious parking lot sale, Ubaldini went online to find that the 45s packaged in flimsy, handmade cardboard sleeves with the photo of the band pasted on the front (known as the “alt sleeve” to the original band logo cover) were being sold for over $300 on sites like Discogs.
After his initial shock subsided, Ubaldini tried selling the records himself. “I had a few more and I put one online “bidding starts at $100, buy it now for $350,” he said. “I went to breakfast and came back and somebody bought it.”
The Earwigs perform at The Cuckoo’s Nest in Costa Mesa
(Courtesy of Michael Ubaldini)
The highest amount paid for a rare bootleg copy of the 45 record containing the catchy single “She’s So Naive” and “Here Come the Earwigs” was sold on Discogs for about $500.
This revelation, along with his desire to finally give his old band a proper album release, sparked a recent revival for The Earwig’s largely forgotten legacy. On Saturday, The Earwigs–fronted by Ubaldini alongside the band’s original drummer Dave Reed, guitarist Oscar Munoz and bassist Jerry Adamowicz will play a long-delayed album release party at The Mamba Sports Bar & Grill in Huntington Beach for “The Earwigs—Orange County 1981: The Lost Debut Album” limited edition vinyl pressing. The first two pressings sold out in just five days via pre-order. Each of the pressings of 100 copies is made in a different color which are being stocked in record stores from their native OC to London and Japan.
The once-popular band started in 1978 and played at legendary Costa Mesa venue the Cuckoo’s Nest alongside celebrated bands from the early OC punk scene like The Adolescents, T.S.O.L., Agent Orange and Social Distortion. ”We were part of that scene but we weren’t a punk band—we had a bit of a mod influence mixed with the energy of the Buzzcocks and the Ramones,” Ubaldini said.
Though they never quite fit in with the bands credited for bringing Orange County punk to the world, the pompadour grit that combined Hamburg-era Beatles with sped-up bubblegum pop songs about teenage love and suburban angst carved a brief moment in the music history of the region.
So how did the Earwigs gain this unlikely cult following unbeknownst to its founding member?
Ubaldini thinks it started when radio DJs like KROQ’s Rodney Bingenheimer and KNAC’s Sue Mink started playing the band’s music on their radio shows frequently in the early ‘80s. Fans recorded the tunes off the airwaves onto cassettes that got passed around before they even had an official record to sell. Their songs became sought after among fans of power pop/ garage rock and sped-up rockabilly. The underground success was driven by the catchy, saccharine-yet-explosive single “She’s So Naive.”
Though they were getting airplay, the band’s album, which they recorded in 1981, didn’t see daylight because the ill-fated Rock-A-Mod Records, which the recorded the album for, folded before it could be released.
The band’s original lineup (including guitarist Ashton Rands and bassist Dave Hughes) broke up by 1982 as members grew up and went their separate ways, only to reform with a slightly different line up for a couple more years before permenantly calling it quits in 1984, never releasing any more music. Ubaldini continued to play roots rock and honky-tonk music in OC and formed a new band called Mystery Train that got signed but only lasted for one record. For years, late Times entertainment reporter Mike Boehm championed Ubaldini as a dynamite frontman and songwriter.
“A tall, lean, dark-and-handsome, denim-and-leather type, Ubaldini fits the old-fashioned mold of the classic rock ‘n’ roll rebel as well as anybody on the O.C. scene,” Boehm writes. “Mystery Train is built on sturdy old models, full of cranking, Stones-Creedence guitar riffs and rockabilly licks. It also is largely concerned with that oldest of rock ‘n’ roll subjects: unbridled, gleeful, exuberant sexual lust.” Ubaldini’s local success spent many years gaining steam though never quite taking off.
“Meanwhile all this time I’d be playing in other bands or my own projects there would be someone in the crowd that would yell ‘Earwigs!’ at me,” he remembers. “‘Play some Earwigs!’ It always struck me as funny. And I would never play those songs because I’d written so many others since then.”
Over the years, Ubaldini says he’s gotten offers from a number of small indie labels wanting to put out some of the Earwigs’ old singles. These were mostly bad deals that promised very little profit for the songs Ubaldini wrote as a teen.
“I wasn’t gonna get anything out of it [from any of these small labels], he said. “I thought I might put it out one day but I’m not gonna put it out and just get ripped off. I’ve been through too much in music to get ripped off again.”
The original lineup of the Earwigs: Michael Ubaldini, Dave Reed, Ashton Rands, and Tom Hughes.
(Courtesy of Michael Ubaldini)
Earlier this year, Ubaldini, inspired by the revived interest in his music, finally took the leap and started to remaster the old album of 17 tracks that he never put out, opting to press it independently. A new batch has arrived in time for the band’s last one-off show to commemorate their unlikely cult status. The frontman is excited to sell copies to die-hard local fans who helped keep his music alive.
“I just want to release this Earwigs thing, it deserves its place, it’s part of that time and all these kids wanna hear it,” Ubaldini said. As to why the music itself seems to have caught on even after the revivalists bands like Jet, The Strokes and The Strypes have come and gone, he attributes it to the timeless, straight-ahead nature of the music. “It seems like the songs never got dated really because we stayed away from the synthesizers and we just played rock-n-roll.”
Ubaldini wonders if the mystery of the band that never made it big is what kept people curious about his old music. “People had recorded our stuff and made bootlegs of our music for all these years and it kinda took on a weird life of its own. It’s kinda mind blowing when I think about it,” he said. “There was not one ounce of promotion or anything. It was truly all because of the underground scene.”
The subtitle of the doom bible to be published by AI extinction prophets Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares later this month is “Why superhuman AI would kill us all.” But it really should be “Why superhuman AI WILL kill us all,” because even the coauthors don’t believe that the world will take the necessary measures to stop AI from eliminating all non-super humans. The book is beyond dark, reading like notes scrawled in a dimly lit prison cell the night before a dawn execution. When I meet these self-appointed Cassandras, I ask them outright if they believe that they personally will meet their ends through some machination of superintelligence. The answers come promptly: “yeah” and “yup.”
I’m not surprised, because I’ve read the book—the title, by the way, is If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Still, it’s a jolt to hear this. It’s one thing to, say, write about cancer statistics and quite another to talk about coming to terms with a fatal diagnosis. I ask them how they think the end will come for them. Yudkowsky at first dodges the answer. “I don’t spend a lot of time picturing my demise, because it doesn’t seem like a helpful mental notion for dealing with the problem,” he says. Under pressure he relents. “I would guess suddenly falling over dead,” he says. “If you want a more accessible version, something about the size of a mosquito or maybe a dust mite landed on the back of my neck, and that’s that.”
The technicalities of his imagined fatal blow delivered by an AI-powered dust mite are inexplicable, and Yudowsky doesn’t think it’s worth the trouble to figure out how that would work. He probably couldn’t understand it anyway. Part of the book’s central argument is that superintelligence will come up with scientific stuff that we can’t comprehend any more than cave people could imagine microprocessors. Coauthor Soares also says he imagines the same thing will happen to him but adds that he, like Yudkowsky, doesn’t spend a lot of time dwelling on the particulars of his demise.
Reluctance to visualize the circumstances of their personal demise is an odd thing to hear from people who have just coauthored an entire book about everyone’s demise. For doomer-porn aficionados, If Anyone Builds It is appointment reading. After zipping through the book, I do understand the fuzziness of nailing down the method by which AI ends our lives and all human lives thereafter. The authors do speculate a bit. Boiling the oceans? Blocking out the sun? All guesses are probably wrong, because we’re locked into a 2025 mindset, and the AI will be thinking eons ahead.
Yudkowsky is AI’s most famous apostate, switching from researcher to grim reaper years ago. He’s even done a TED talk. After years of public debate, he and his coauthor have an answer for every counterargument launched against their dire prognostication. For starters, it might seem counterintuitive that our days are numbered by LLMs, which often stumble on simple arithmetic. Don’t be fooled, the authors says. “AIs won’t stay dumb forever,” they write. If you think that superintelligent AIs will respect boundaries humans draw, forget it, they say. Once models start teaching themselves to get smarter, AIs will develop “preferences” on their own that won’t align with what we humans want them to prefer. Eventually they won’t need us. They won’t be interested in us as conversation partners or even as pets. We’d be a nuisance, and they would set out to eliminate us.
The fight won’t be a fair one. They believe that at first AI might require human aid to build its own factories and labs–easily done by stealing money and bribing people to help it out. Then it will build stuff we can’t understand, and that stuff will end us. “One way or another,” write these authors, “the world fades to black.”
The authors see the book as kind of a shock treatment to jar humanity out of its complacence and adopt the drastic measures needed to stop this unimaginably bad conclusion. “I expect to die from this,” says Soares. “But the fight’s not over until you’re actually dead.” Too bad, then, that the solutions they propose to stop the devastation seem even more far-fetched than the idea that software will murder us all. It all boils down to this: Hit the brakes. Monitor data centers to make sure that they’re not nurturing superintelligence. Bomb those that aren’t following the rules. Stop publishing papers with ideas that accelerate the march to superintelligence. Would they have banned, I ask them, the 2017 paper on transformers that kicked off the generative AI movement. Oh yes, they would have, they respond. Instead of Chat-GPT, they want Ciao-GPT. Good luck stopping this trillion-dollar industry.
Personally, I don’t see my own light snuffed by a bite in the neck by some super-advanced dust mote. Even after reading this book, I don’t think it’s likely that AI will kill us all. Yudksowky has previously dabbled in Harry Potter fan-fiction, and the fanciful extinction scenarios he spins are too weird for my puny human brain to accept. My guess is that even if superintelligence does want to get rid of us, it will stumble in enacting its genocidal plans. AI might be capable of whipping humans in a fight, but I’ll bet against it in a battle with Murphy’s law.
Still, the catastrophe theory doesn’t seem impossible, especially since no one has really set a ceiling for how smart AI can become. Also studies show that advanced AI has picked up a lot of humanity’s nasty attributes, even contemplating blackmail to stave off retraining, in one experiment. It’s also disturbing that some researchers who spend their lives building and improving AI think there’s a nontrivial chance that the worst can happen. One survey indicated that almost half the AI scientists responding pegged the odds of a species wipeout as 10 percent chance or higher. If they believe that, it’s crazy that they go to work each day to make AGI happen.
My gut tells me the scenarios Yudkowsky and Soares spin are too bizarre to be true. But I can’t be sure they are wrong. Every author dreams of their book being an enduring classic. Not so much these two. If they are right, there will be no one around to read their book in the future. Just a lot of decomposing bodies that once felt a slight nip at the back of their necks, and the rest was silence.
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For years, I’ve updated my working definition of SEO to capture how the discipline has evolved.
Here’s how those definitions have changed over time:
This redefinition raises an essential question: if SEO has converged into educating AI assistive engines, where should we look to understand how these systems learn?
Although Google may seem to be losing ground in online search and research, it remains the best ecosystem for understanding where AI assistive engines are heading.
Why?
Because it’s the only major player with all three pillars of the algorithmic trinity:
Our role is to create clarity.
Think of AI as a child – eager to please, but easily confused.
It learns from your digital footprint and forms its answers, recommendations, and suggestions through three lenses:
The curriculum to teach is threefold: conversation, knowledge, and up-to-date information.
Dig deeper: Generative AI is changing search, but Google is still where people start: Study
To succeed in this new paradigm, brands need a structured, repeatable methodology.
Traditional, channel-specific tactics won’t hold up because AI learns from the entire digital ecosystem.
This methodology rests on three sequential pillars:
Together, these three phases build a consistent digital presence that:
Every day, AI assistive engines like Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Copilot have trillions of niche conversations with billions of people who trust them.
These engines now cover every stage of the Conversational Acquisition Funnel – explicit, implicit, and ambient research – and every prospect will engage with their version of your funnel at some point.
Your job is to win at every stage by being top of algorithmic mind, whichever engine your ideal prospect prefers.
At the awareness stage, how does a new client discover you?
Google’s recent cleanup of ambiguous thing entities shows that AI assistive engines are unlikely to introduce a vaguely defined concept into a specific conversation. They prefer a recognized expert.
To become the clear answer here, you must provide relevant content in the right format and be the trusted entity on a specific topic (topical authority).
When AI is confident in your expertise and you feed it the content it needs, it will prioritize your solution – and advocate for you at the top of the funnel.
Awareness is the deliverability phase.
Get the newsletter search marketers rely on.
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See terms.
At the consideration stage, Google’s focus on unifying person entities is telling.
When a user is evaluating options, AI is asking:
An entity with a confused or multi-typed classification is at a disadvantage. It lacks the clear authority to be presented as a trustworthy option.
To earn the recommendation here, AI must have absolute confidence in your credibility, earned through a clearly defined entity and reinforced by undeniable N-E-E-A-T-T signals.
Consideration is the credibility phase.
At the decision stage, the stakes are highest – the perfect (money) click.
When a potential client asks, “Who should I choose?” you need to be firmly established as the ultimate choice.
To be the trusted choice at this stage, your brand must be factually and consistently defined across the web.
That clarity allows AI to confidently present you as the solution – reinforced with a trust-building summary and a direct link to the money page.
Decision is the understandability phase.
Google’s June 2025 Knowledge Graph update was a call to arms for clarity – and it changes our job description.
Our role is no longer about persuading algorithms with tactics, but about fundamentally educating them.
This is the greatest opportunity since Google won the search engine wars, when we could finally focus on one engine instead of half a dozen.
Today, brands that embrace their role as teachers will build a deep, resilient moat of algorithmic trust.
Those brands will stay top of the algorithmic mind – and the ones AI engines confidently recommend again and again.
SACRAMENTO, California — La administración Trump ha extendido su política de mano dura en inmigración a la red de atención médica pública, iniciando investigaciones sobre el gasto de Medicaid en al menos seis estados liderados por demócratas.
Estos estados brindan cobertura médica integral a inmigrantes pobres y con discapacidades que viven en el país sin estatus migratorio permanente.
Los Centros de Servicios de Medicare y Medicaid (CMS) están examinando los pagos que cubren atención médica para personas sin papeles, para asegurarse que no haya malgasto, fraude o abuso, según registros públicos obtenidos por KFF Health News y The Associated Press.
Si bien el gobierno federal permite que los estados facturen servicios de emergencia y atención relacionada con el embarazo para estos inmigrantes, funcionarios federales han enviado cartas a agencias estatales de salud en California, Colorado, Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon y Washington notificando que están revisando pagos estatales y federales por otros servicios médicos, como medicamentos recetados y atención especializada.
La agencia federal indicó a los estados que está revisando estos reclamos como parte de su compromiso por mantener la integridad financiera de Medicaid.
El principal objetivo es California, después que el propio estado informara haber cobrado de más al gobierno federal por servicios ofrecidos a inmigrantes sin estatus legal, por al menos $500 millones, lo que generó la amenaza de una demanda.
Según una carta con fecha del 18 de marzo, “si los CMS determinan que California está usando fondos federales para pagar o subsidiar atención médica para personas sin un estatus migratorio satisfactorio, para los cuales está prohibido por ley el financiamiento federal… los CMS aplicarán con diligencia todas las estrategias de cumplimiento disponibles, incluidas, de acuerdo con la ley aplicable, reducciones en la participación financiera federal y posibles derivaciones al fiscal general de Estados Unidos para una posible demanda contra California”.
Las investigaciones surgen mientras la Casa Blanca y el Congreso, controlado por los republicanos, recortan el gasto público en atención médica para inmigrantes, mediante los recortes de la ley fiscal y presupuestaria del presidente Donald Trump aprobada este verano. La administración también está impulsando que se elimine de Medicaid a las personas que viven en el país sin papeles.
Expertos en políticas de salud advierten que estas acciones podrían dificultar el acceso a atención médica y dejar vulnerables desde el punto de vista financiero a hospitales, clínicas y otros proveedores que forman parte de la red de seguridad.
Algunos estados liderados por demócratas —como California, Illinois y Minnesota— ya han tenido que reducir o finalizar sus programas de Medicaid para inmigrantes debido al aumento de los costos. Colorado también está considerando recortes por exceso de gastos.
Al mismo tiempo, 20 estados están demandando al gobierno federal por entregar datos de Medicaid de millones de beneficiarios a las autoridades migratorias. Un juez federal detuvo temporalmente esa acción. Rob Bonta, fiscal general de California, quien lidera este desafío, sostiene que la administración Trump está lanzando un ataque político contra los estados que incluyen a inmigrantes en sus programas de Medicaid.
“La idea de que hay malgasto, fraude y abuso es inventada”, dijo Bonta. “Es un pretexto. Es una frase genérica que usan para justificar su agenda antiinmigrante predeterminada”.
Grupo demográfico en la mira de Trump
Los inmigrantes sin estatus migratorio permanente no son elegibles para acceder a la cobertura médica completa de Medicaid. Sin embargo, los estados sí pueden facturar al gobierno federal por atención de emergencia y servicios relacionados con el embarazo que se ofrezcan a cualquier persona.
Catorce estados, y Washington, D.C., han ampliado sus programas de Medicaid con sus propios fondos para cubrir a niños de bajos recursos sin papeles. Siete de esos estados, además de D.C., también ofrecen cobertura integral a algunos adultos inmigrantes que viven en el país sin autorización.
La administración Trump parece estar enfocándose exclusivamente en los estados que ofrecen cobertura completa de Medicaid tanto a niños como a adultos sin papeles. Por ejemplo, Utah, Massachusetts y Connecticut, que sólo cubren a niños inmigrantes, no han recibido cartas. Los CMS se negaron a proporcionar una lista completa de los estados bajo investigación.
Funcionarios federales sostienen que es su derecho y responsabilidad legal examinar si los estados están usando mal los fondos de Medicaid para cubrir la atención médica de inmigrantes, y aseguran que están tomando “acciones decisivas para detenerlo”.
“Es un tema de interés nacional que algunos estados hayan sobrepasado los límites de la ley de Medicaid al ofrecer beneficios extensos a personas que se encuentran ilegalmente en Estados Unidos”, dijo Catherine Howden, vocera de los CMS, refiriéndose a la auditoría en estados específicos. Este escrutinio busca “asegurar que los fondos federales se reserven para personas legalmente elegibles, y no para experimentos políticos que violan la ley”, dijo.
Investigadores en políticas de salud y economistas afirman que ofrecer cobertura médica a inmigrantes para servicios preventivos y tratamiento de enfermedades crónicas puede evitar gastos mayores en el futuro. También ayuda a contener el aumento de las primas y reduce la atención no remunerada en hospitales y clínicas.
Francisco Silva, presidente y director ejecutivo de la California Primary Care Association, advirtió que la administración Trump está poniendo en riesgo el acceso a servicios de salud, y elevando los costos.
“El impacto sería que las salas de emergencia se saturarían, las ambulancias tendrían que ser desviadas y personas con emergencias reales no podrían entrar al hospital, además de riesgos de salud pública como brotes de enfermedades”, expresó Silva.
California ha adoptado un enfoque de atención médica para todos, y ofrece cobertura de salud a 1.6 millones de inmigrantes sin estatus legal. La expansión, implementada entre 2016 y 2024, se estima que costará $12.400 millones este año. De ese total, $1.300 millones son financiados por el gobierno federal para servicios de emergencia y relacionados con el embarazo.
Durante la implementación de la expansión, California facturó erróneamente al gobierno federal por servicios ofrecidos a inmigrantes sin estatus legal, según detalles no informados previamente, que ex funcionarios federales compartieron con KFF Health News y The Associated Press. El estado cobró de forma incorrecta por servicios como atención de salud mental y adicciones, medicamentos recetados y atención dental.
Jacey Cooper, quien fue directora de Medicaid en California entre 2020 y 2023, dijo que detectó el error y lo reportó a los reguladores federales. Cooper aseguró que el estado ha estado trabajando para reembolsar al menos $500 millones identificados por el gobierno federal.
“Una vez que identifiqué el problema, creí que era muy importante reportarlo, y lo hicimos”, dijo Cooper. “Nos tomamos muy en serio el malgasto, fraude y abuso”.
No está claro si ese dinero ya se devolvió. La agencia estatal de Medicaid dice que no sabe cómo los CMS calcularon los pagos indebidos ni “qué se incluye en ese monto, qué período cubre y si ya fue devuelto o no”, indicó el vocero Tony Cava.
California tiene un programa de Medicaid extremadamente complejo: atiende a la población más grande del país —cerca de 15 millones de personas— con un presupuesto de casi $200.000 millones para este año fiscal.
Matt Salo, experto nacional en Medicaid, dijo que este tipo de errores ocurren en todo el país, ya que el programa está lleno de reglas superpuestas entre los gobiernos estatales y el federal. Salo y otros analistas coinciden en que los estados tienen la autoridad de administrar sus programas de Medicaid según lo consideren adecuado y corregir el uso indebido de fondos federales.
Por su parte, Michael Cannon, director de estudios de políticas de salud en el Instituto Cato —un centro de tendnecia libertaria— afirmó que las acciones de la administración Trump “persiguen a una minoría que es impopular para quienes están en el poder”.
“La administración Trump no puede sostener que este esfuerzo tiene que ver con mantener la integridad financiera del programa Medicaid”, dijo Cannon. “Hay amenazas mucho más grandes para la integridad financiera de Medicaid, por lo que ese argumento no se sostiene”.
Menos, o nada, de cobertura para inmigrantes
A nivel nacional, los republicanos han apuntado al gasto en salud para inmigrantes desde distintos frentes.
La ley de presupuesto del Partido Republicano, que Trump llama la “Grande y Hermosa Ley” (One Big Beautiful Bill), reducirá los reembolsos a los estados a partir de octubre de 2026. Por ejemplo, en California, el reembolso federal por servicios de emergencia para inmigrantes sin estatus legal pasará a ser del 50%, comparado con el 90% actual para la población cubierta por la expansión de Medicaid, según explicó Cava.
La administración Trump también está reduciendo la cobertura de Medicaid para inmigrantes con estatus legal temporal que antes estaban cubiertos, y anunció en agosto que enviará a los estados informes mensuales que destacan a beneficiarios cuyo estatus migratorio no ha sido confirmado por el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional.
“Cada dólar malgastado es un dólar que se le quita a una persona vulnerable y elegible que necesita Medicaid”, dijo en un comunicado Mehmet Oz, administrador de los CMS. “Esta acción subraya nuestro firme compromiso con la integridad del programa, la protección de los recursos públicos y la garantía de que los beneficios se otorguen exclusivamente a quienes son elegibles por ley”.
Los estados bajo revisión aseguran que están cumpliendo con la ley.
“Gastar dinero en un programa de beneficios médicos autorizado por el Congreso que ayuda a las personas a recibir tratamientos de emergencia para cáncer, diálisis y medicamentos antirrechazo para trasplantes de órganos no es, de ninguna manera, malgasto, fraude o abuso”, dijo Mike Faulk, subdirector de comunicaciones del fiscal general del estado de Washington, Nick Brown.
Los registros muestran que funcionarios de Medicaid en Washington han recibido muchas preguntas de los CMS sobre los pagos federales que cubren atención de emergencia y embarazo para inmigrantes sin papeles.
Correos electrónicos revelan que funcionarios de Illinois se reunieron con los CMS y pidieron una prórroga para compartir sus datos. La entidad les negó la solicitud y les advirtió que su financiación podría ser retenida.
“Miles de residentes de Illinois dependen de estos programas para recibir atención médica crítica sin temor a ser deportados”, dijo Melissa Kula, vocera del Departamento de Servicios de Salud y Atención Médica del estado, indicando que cualquier recorte federal sería “imposible” de compensar por parte del estado.
Shastri reportó desde Milwaukee.
El Departamento de Salud y Ciencia de The Associated Press recibe apoyo del Departamento de Educación Científica del Instituto Médico Howard Hughes y de la Fundación Robert Wood Johnson. AP es el único responsable de todo el contenido.
Esta historia fue producida por Kaiser Health News, que publica California Healthline, un servicio editorialmente independiente de la California Health Care Foundation.
Humble has brought back one of the most popular game bundles from last year as part of its Best of Humble Bundle series. From now until September 24, you can get 17 Lego video games for only $15. Many of the biggest franchises from Traveller’s Tales extensive catalog of licensed games are included in the lineup: Star Wars, Batman, Marvel, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Jurassic World, and more. All told, Lego Worlds Collide 2025 is valued at $499, while the 2024 version was worth $419.
All 17 games in the bundle will be instantly added to your Humble account as Steam keys, and the vast majority run wonderfully on Steam Deck. Most of the games have split-screen cooperative modes and are great adventures for parents to play with kids.
Part of the proceeds from your $15 (or more) donation go toward Raiden Science Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for the genetic disorder UBA5 and other rare diseases that affect children.
Here’s the full list of games in Lego Worlds Collide 2025:
As usual, Humble has lower-priced tiers, but the full bundle offers the best value by a considerable margin. For $5, you can get Marvel Super Heroes, The Hobbit, Batman, and The Lego Movie Video Game. Step up to the $10 tier to add Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, The Lord of the Rings, The Lego Ninjago Movie, and Marvel’s Avengers Deluxe Edition.
The Lego Worlds Collide 2025 bundle does have a couple of minor differences compared to last year’s iteration. This time around, you also get Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s Deluxe Edition, whereas last year the bundle included a coupon to get the game for 85% off. Additionally, the two Lego Harry Potter games are noticeably absent, dropping the total number of titles from 18 to 17. But you’re getting extra content elsewhere: Four of the games that were standard editions last year are now Deluxe/Premium Editions that include season passes with additional content.
The headliner is The Skywalker Saga, the newest game in Traveller’s Tales series. The Skywalker Saga broke from the familiar mold by offering large, open-world environments, an overhauled combat system, and a modern third-person camera angle.
The Skywalker Saga was the biggest and most ambitious Lego game yet when it launched in 2022–though we’ll see if that changes when Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight releases in 2026. And what we’ve seen and played so far has been quite promising. With that in mind, now’s a pretty good time to revisit the first three Lego Batman games, all of which are included in Lego Worlds Collide 2025.
For bundle deals on real Lego sets, check out our roundup highlighting all of the great offers in Walmart’s Bricktember Sale. This limited-time promotion includes exclusive bundles for Lego Star Wars, Spider-Man, Harry Potter, Fortnite, and more. Walmart also has exclusive Lego Gift Sets featuring a bunch of Star Wars and Minecraft minifigures as well as discounts on the newly released Lego 2025 Advent Calendars.
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Owning a smartphone before age 13 is associated with poorer mind health and wellbeing in early adulthood, according to a global study of more than 100,000 young people.
Published recently in the peer-reviewed Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, the study found that 18- to 24-year-olds who had received their first smartphone at age 12 or younger were more likely to report suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, poorer emotional regulation, and low self-worth.
The data also shows evidence that these effects of smartphone ownership at an early age are in large part associated with early social media access and higher risks of cyberbullying, disrupted sleep, and poor family relationships by adulthood.
A team of experts from Sapien Labs, which hosts the world’s largest database on mental wellbeing, the Global Mind Project — where the data for this research was pooled from — are calling for urgent action to protect the mind health of future generations.
“Our data indicate that early smartphone ownership — and the social media access it often brings — is linked with a profound shift in mind health and wellbeing in early adulthood,” says lead author neuroscientist Dr Tara Thiagarajan, who is the founder and Chief Scientist of Sapien Labs.
“These correlations are mediated through several factors, including social media access, cyberbullying, disrupted sleep, and poor family relationships leading to symptoms in adulthood that are not the traditional mental health symptoms of depression and anxiety and can be missed by studies using standard screeners. These symptoms of increased aggression, detachment from reality and suicidal thoughts can have significant societal consequences as their rates grow in younger generations.
“Based on these findings, and with the age of first smartphones now well under age 13 across the world, we urge policymakers to adopt a precautionary approach, similar to regulations on alcohol and tobacco, by restricting smartphone access for under 13s, mandating digital literacy education and enforcing corporate accountability.”
Since the early 2000s, smartphones have reshaped how young people connect, learn and form identities. But alongside these opportunities come growing concerns over how AI-driven social media algorithms may amplify harmful content and encourage social comparison — while also impacting on other activities such as face-to-face interaction and sleep.
Although many social media platforms set a minimum user age of 13, enforcement is inconsistent. Meanwhile, the average age of first smartphone ownership continues to fall, with many children spending hours a day on their devices.
Currently, it is a mixed picture internationally around the banning on phones in schools, at least. In recent years, several countries have banned or restricted cell phone use in institutions, including France, the Netherlands, Italy, and New Zealand. Results of these moves are limited, however a study commissioned by the Dutch government has found improved focus among students. This month, policymakers in New York have announced it was to become the largest US state yet to ban smartphones in schools, joining locations such as Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and West Virginia which have all passed legislation requiring schools to have policies that at least limit access to smartphones.
Overall, previous studies into screen time, social media and smartphone access and various mental health outcomes have shown negative effects, but also mixed, often conflicting results — making it hard for policymakers, schools, and families to navigate this issue. Possibly this may have to do with the use of screeners that miss the critical associated symptoms.
For this new analysis, the team at Sapien drew data from their Global Mind Project, and then used the Mind Health Quotient (MHQ) — a self-assessment tool that measures social, emotional, cognitive, and physical wellbeing — to generate an overall ‘mind health’ score.
Their results showed:
· The specific symptoms most strongly linked with earlier smartphone ownership include suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, and hallucinations.
· Young adults who received their first smartphone before age 13 had lower MHQ scores, with scores progressively declining the younger the age of first ownership. For example, those who owned a smartphone at age 13 scored an average of 30, dropping to just 1 for those who had one at age five.
· Correspondingly, the percentage considered distressed or struggling (with scores indicating they had five or more severe symptoms) rose by 9.5% for females and 7% for males. This pattern was consistent across all regions, cultures and languages, pointing to a critical window of heightened vulnerability.
· That younger ownership is also associated with diminished self-image, self-worth and confidence, and emotional resilience among females, and lower stability and calmness, self-worth and empathy among males.
Further analysis indicated that early access to social media explains about 40% of the association between earlier childhood smartphone ownership and later mind health, with poor family relationships (13%), cyberbullying (10%) and disrupted sleep (12%) also playing significant downstream roles.
The researchers acknowledge the COVID-19 pandemic may have magnified these patterns, but the consistency of these trends across all global regions suggests a broader developmental impact of early smartphone access.
While current evidence does not yet prove direct causation between early smartphone ownership and later mind health and wellbeing, a limitation of the paper, the authors argue that the scale of the potential harm is too great to ignore and justifies a precautionary response.
They recommend four key areas for policymakers to address:
· A requirement of mandatory education on digital literacy and mental health.
· To strengthen the active identification of social media age violations and ensure meaningful consequences for technology companies.
· Restricting access to social media platforms.
· Implementing graduated access restrictions for smartphones.
“Altogether, these policy recommendations aim to safeguard mind health during critical developmental windows,” states Dr Thiagarajan, whose research specialism focuses on the impact of environment on the brain and mind, with an interest in understanding and enabling the productive evolution of the human mind and human systems.
“Their implementation requires substantial political and societal will, effective enforcement, and a multi-stakeholder approach, but successful precedents do exist. For example, in the United States, underage alcohol access and consumption is regulated through a combination of parental, commercial, and corporate accountability.”
Concluding she states: “Our evidence suggests childhood smartphone ownership, an early gateway into AI-powered digital environments, is profoundly diminishing mind health and wellbeing in adulthood with deep consequences for individual agency and societal flourishing.
“I was initially surprised by how strong the results are. However when you give it due consideration, it does begin to make sense that the younger developing mind is more compromised by the online environment given their vulnerability and lack of worldly experience.
“That said, I think it is also important to point out that smartphones and social media are not the only assault to mental health and crisis facing younger adults. It explains some of the overall decline but not all of it. “Now, while more research is needed to unravel the causal mechanisms, waiting for irrefutable proof in the face of these population-level findings unfortunately risks missing the window for timely, preventative action.”
This paper is part of a special cohesive set, entitled ‘The Policy Forum’, in the upcoming publication of Journal of Human Development and Capabilities.
Saveetha School of Law (SSL), Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS), established in 2009, is a premier institution accredited with NAAC A++ grade, recognized by the Bar Council of India, and ranked 13th among all India law universities (NIRF 2023). With a mission to impart excellence in legal education and nurture young legal minds, SSL offers UG, PG, and Ph.D. programs with a focus on research, leadership, and holistic development.
The Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saveetha School of Law (SIMATS) is organizing a National Conference on “Viksit Bharat @ 2047: Transforming India through Public Policy, Law, and Governance” on 8th October 2025 at Heritage Guild, Saveetha School of Law, SIMATS, Chennai.
The conference aims to provide a platform for scholars, legal practitioners, policymakers, and civil society to discuss reforms in law, governance, and public policy to realize the vision of a just, inclusive, and developed India by 2047.
Heritage Guild, Saveetha School of Law, SIMATS, Chennai
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Ammonia-free hair colours have gained a good reputation as a safer way to colour your hair. As the name suggests, these are free of ammonia, a commonly used ingredient that can make hair frizzy and dull, weaken hair structure, cause moisture loss, lead to scalp irritation and emit unpleasant fumes. With awareness, the demand for ammonia-free hair colours is increasing. These colours may not always be 100% chemical-free, but brands claim they are safer than regular hair colour options while maintaining hair strength and providing rich and lasting colour, gently.
Formulations with no ammonia also reduce damage and breakage, so they are considered the best choice to reduce hairfall and ensure healthy hair growth. Since various brands are available with ammonia-free hair colour under ₹1000, selecting products that deliver healthy-looking hair at a low price becomes easy, but confusing. Let us help you find the best options in India.
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L’Oréal Paris Casting Crème Gloss in the Shade of 400 Dark Brown, an ammonia-free hair colour under ₹1000, is used by both men and women. It is formulated with the Glycolic Gloss Complex, making your hair shiny and smooth while not irritating the scalp. This formula does not lose natural moisture or irritate the scalp like ammonia-based dyes, making it suitable for a sensitive scalp. It gives natural hair colour and long-lasting coverage, keeping the hair healthy and becoming a safe colouring choice.
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Conditioning Hair Colour Darkest Brown 3N by Biotique Herbcolor hair colour is an ammonia-free, safe hair colour that contains nine organic herbs in extract form. It gives a natural, rich colour and makes hair shine naturally. This DIY hair colour pack is a good, cost-effective decision compared to expensive treatments in the salon because it delivers professional-quality results at a significantly lower cost. The herbal conditioning formula helps keep your hair healthy, minimises the damage, and offers long-term coverage without making the scalp dry and irritable.
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Paradyes Natural Black Timeless Hair Tint is gaining popularity in the ammonia-free hair colour category under ₹1000. This permanent crème-based formula contains no harsh chemicals like ammonia, PPD, and resorcinol, making it safer for scalp health and overall hair strength. Formulated to cover grey hair, it gives lasting, natural-looking results. With nourishing ingredients that keep your hair shiny and smooth, Paradyes is gaining credibility as the product of choice among men and women who desire safe, effective and lasting hair colour at home.
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Revlon Top Speed Hair Colour in Brownish Black is a good decision one can make when they want to colour their hair safely and effectively. Its ammonia-free formula offers maximum grey hair coverage within 5 minutes, which is ideal when one wants fast results without damaging their hair health. The extreme conditioning formula is used to ensure soft and glossy hair, and the fact that it is easy to apply makes it easy for beginners. This is the best choice when you want to have a trusted time-saving hair colour while caring for your scalp and hair.
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Indus Valley Basic Hair Colouring Medium Brown is a good choice for natural gel hair colour that is ammonia-free and costs under Rs. 1000. Devoid of ammonia and PPD, it applies soft organic ingredients to your scalp and gives maximum grey cover. The gel-based formula provides long-lasting colour and deep conditioning, leaving your hair smooth and healthy-looking. This product will suit the buyer who desires safe and natural effects with the added advantage of scalp-friendly nourishment.
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Streax Gel Hair Colour Natural Brown is an easy-to-apply gel that offers a range of choices to men and women who want an ammonia-free colouring under Rs. 1000. It is formulated using a gel base, making it easy to apply and fully cover the grey areas without the use of parabens or sulphate. Its long-lasting colour will keep your hair soft and manageable, so you can use it at home. It’s scalp-friendly, dries and irritates your hair less, making it a safer option than harsh dyes. This hair colour is affordable as it offers buyers a natural look with more care.
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Yes, ammonia-free hair colour is less harsh on the scalp and, hence, less irritating than chemical-based colour dyes.
Absolutely. Most brands list ammonia-free hair colours under Rs. 1000 with complete grey coverage, resulting in soft, shiny hair.
Most of them have saturated shades that would last weeks without seeming faded.
They suit men and women with sensitive scalps or those looking for safe and healthy hair results at home.
Disclaimer: At Hindustan Times, we help you stay up-to-date with the latest trends and products. Hindustan Times has an affiliate partnership, so we may get a part of the revenue when you make a purchase. We shall not be liable for any claim under applicable laws, including but not limited to the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, concerning the products. The products listed in this article are in no particular order of priority.
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A newly launched startup is the latest young company to build itself around a drug discovered in Chinese laboratories.
Hengrui Pharma on Friday said it licensed an experimental heart medicine to a secretive startup called Braveheart Bio. Per deal terms, Braveheart — a company incorporated in Delaware last year that doesn’t yet have a website — will pay Hengrui $32.5 million in cash and an equal amount in its shares for rights outside of Greater China and Taiwan to a drug called HRS-1893. Hengrui could also receive a $10 million payment in the near term, and is eligible for just over $1 billion in future milestones as well as sales royalties should the drug get to market.
With the deal, Braveheart joins other startups this year who’ve turned to China-originated drugs to build a pipeline. Since January, at least 19 privately held U.S. or European companies have licensed drugs from China, according to data compiled by BioPharma Dive. The surge in dealmaking for China-discovered medicines reflect both the sector’s fast growth there as well as the speed by which Chinese companies can bring new medicines into clinical testing.
Hengrui, one of China’s largest drugmakers by market capitalization, has been a beneficiary. Aside from its deal with Braveheart, the company has formed broad partnerships in the last year or so with Merck & Co. and GSK and licensing deals with Merck KGaA and startup Kailera Therapeutics. It also previously licensed a respiratory disease drug to startup Aiolos Bio, which GSK later bought in a $1 billion acquisition.
Through the deal announced Friday, Braveheart is joining a push to develop better medicines for a progressive heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Bristol Myers Squibb’s Camzyos in 2022 became the first approved medicine for the condition, which is characterized by a potentially deadly stiffening of the heart muscle. Others, like Cytokinetics, Edgewise Therapeutics and Hengrui, are advancing treatments they aim to prove are superior.
Like those medicines, HRS-1893 is a so-called myosin inhibitor designed to make the heart’s contractions less forceful. The drug is currently in Phase 3 testing for the more common “obstructive” form of the condition that Camzyos is approved to treat and Cytokinetics’ drug could be cleared for later this year. Phase 1 data were presented at a medical meeting last month and “may confer best-in-class properties,” said Travis Murdoch, Braveheart’s CEO, in a statement.
“We are looking forward to further advancing its potential as a differentiated therapeutic for large and growing unmet needs in cardiovascular disease,” Murdoch added.
Though little is publicly known about Braveheart, the company is backed by a consortium of investors including Forbion and OrbiMed and is focused on heart conditions. It’s led by Murdoch, the former CEO of an immune drug startup, HI-Bio, that Biogen acquired last year.
Two-thirds of property investors make the mistake of buying in their own backyard.
Now we know that most property investors never achieve the financial freedom they’re looking for.
Of the 2.1 million property investors in Australia, 1.9 million never get past their first or second property while only around 20,000 investors around Australia own 6 or more properties.
A while ago a report published by University of Tasmania economics lecturer Dr. Maria Yanotti and University of Sydney finance lecturer Danika Wright found that two-thirds of Australians buy an investment property picked one close to where they live, rather than in another location that could outperform their home town in the long run.
Dr. Yanotti said:
“The explanation for that home bias … is a familiarity bias, lack of sophistication, knowledge or education and momentum behaviour.”
But there was no evidence that location familiarity gave these buyers an information advantage.
As I’ve often said, knowing your local area is not the same as understanding the dynamics of the local property markets and understanding what does or does not make a good investment property.
Sure proximity is an opportunity for property investors to cut down on time and effort, but to become a successful investor does require time and effort – but maybe not yours.
That’s why more and more investors are turning to buyers’ agents who have more widespread market knowledge.
Another interesting, but scary, statistic that came from this report was that one-fifth of investors were self-managing their properties.
Now that’s a recipe for disaster in my mind because employing a proficient property manager is not a cost, it’s an investment and a form of insurance to protect your asset.
I’m sure these investors who bought locally and putting all their eggs in one basket thought they were doing the right thing because it felt safe, but Dr. Yanotti said:
“The problem is housing assets are one of the biggest assets …By having all your assets in the same geographical location, the risks are much higher.”
The report also found the inclination to invest in property close to home meant investors were paying a lot more to own a second or third property in the same postcode.
“We found, to our surprise, that investors who invest in their own area pay much higher prices, although we don’t control for the quality of the house,” Dr. Yanotti said.
“We argue that they may not be getting the highest return.
They’re over-confident of their local area, and that’s where the home bias comes in.”
My weekends used to disappear into household maintenance. Between vacuuming, laundry cycles, and chasing my escaped black lab Bella through neighbors’ yards, I felt like a full-time house manager. Smart home automation changed everything—not difficult overhauls, just targeted solutions for my biggest time drains. These simple fixes have given me back about 5–10 hours weekly.
At 7 AM, while I’m taking my kids to school, my Roomba robot vacuum starts doing its work. Four hours later, I walk into a house with spotless floors; it looks like someone came by and vacuumed while I was gone. This has eliminated 45 minutes from my daily routine by tackling both hardwood and carpet without any input from me.
What really changed my life wasn’t just having clean floors—it was never having to think about it. I used to vacuum whenever the house looked messy or before people came over. Now my floors stay presentable all the time, which means way less weekend deep cleaning. It picks up all Bella’s black hair and figures out how to get around chair legs and coffee tables on its own.
Weekly maintenance is maybe five minutes to dump out the bin and pull hair from the brushes. I don’t miss how much of a pain it was hauling out that clunky old vacuum, fighting with that tangled cord, and squeezing it between furniture.
I fire up my Whirlpool oven from the parking lot at work. As I walk through my front door, the oven’s already heated to 350°F and is waiting for me to put in dinner. This saves me from standing around the kitchen for 15–20 minutes watching the temperature climb.
Both my Whirlpool washer and dryer send alerts to my phone when cycles finish or something goes wrong. I’ve broken the habit of walking to the laundry room every few minutes to check if they’re done (or forgetting about the load until the next day)—now I just wait for the notification. The dryer sends a heads-up when lint starts building up, keeping it running well and avoiding those house fires you read about in the news.
I can see exactly how much power these appliances use and when electricity costs the least, so I’ve started to have better timing for when I run the laundry. The washer suggests the right settings for different loads, which saves water and shortens cycle times.
The MyQ garage door app has saved me more times than I can count with deliveries and repair crews. One time, I was running behind schedule when a couch delivery showed up. Thankfully, through the app, I was able to open my garage door so the delivery people could put it inside instead of leaving it out in the rain. No more missed deliveries or frantic drives home.
I used to get halfway to work and suddenly panic about whether I’d unplugged the clothes iron. That became my regular Tuesday morning routine until I got smart outlets. Now I just check the Alexa app and kill the power to whatever I forgot. I haven’t made a panic U-turn home in months.
My Ring setup lets me see who’s at the door and check on packages through the doorbell and floodlight cameras. I can verify everything’s locked up without walking around the house, testing every door and window.
A hydrangea tree in my side yard never got enough water from the main sprinkler system and was getting burnt, so I connected a B-hyve controller to a garden hose for drip irrigation. It waters based on actual weather and local rainfall amounts, not guesswork. Those weekly watering sessions with the hose are history, and the plant looks better than ever. And this is just one part of my smart watering setup.
Flood sensors from Ring monitor the basement, laundry room, and both bathrooms. Last month, one caught my four-year-old’s toilet overflow within minutes. I stopped a minor mess from becoming extensive water damage by getting the alert right away.
Bella’s Halo GPS collar put an end to those neighborhood search missions when she decided to go on an adventure. The virtual boundary alerts me if she escapes or if I forget to turn the GPS fence back on after our walk. The app shows her exact location, so there’s no more running around calling her name or knocking on doors.
My Camp Chef smoker hooks up to an app that monitors internal meat temperature. During those long Saturday brisket sessions, my phone gets temperature readings, so I don’t have to keep walking outside to check the thermometer. It sends alerts when it’s time to wrap the meat or once everything’s ready to come off.
All these gadgets together have freed up around 5–10 hours in my week. I get to spend time with my wife and kids, work on home improvement projects I keep delaying, or just relax on the couch without a mental list of chores nagging at me. My advice is to pick the one household task that drives you the craziest and automate that one first.
After you see the difference, you’ll be hunting for other tasks to hand off to technology. Good smart home gear shouldn’t make your life more complicated—it should handle the mundane details so you can do what matters to you.
China’s services trade showed steady growth in the first seven months of 2025, with a significant rise in travel-related service trade, according to official data released on Friday.
The country’s services trade volume reached 4.58 trillion yuan (about $641.3 billion) during this period, an increase of 8.2 percent year over year, as reported by the Ministry of Commerce.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-05/China-s-services-trade-sees-notable-growth-in-first-7-months-1Gq4yBTse1q/img/c6a357acd6374d5ca4c0d5c85580b7eb/c6a357acd6374d5ca4c0d5c85580b7eb.jpeg' alt='Cultural and creative products are on display at a media briefing for The China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS), Beijing, China, August 11, 2025. /VCG'
Services exports reached nearly 2 trillion yuan (about $280 billion), an increase of 15.3 percent from a year earlier. In comparison, services imports rose 3.3 percent to 2.58 trillion yuan (about $361.3 billion), resulting in a deficit of 581.56 billion yuan (about $81.4 billion).
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-05/China-s-services-trade-sees-notable-growth-in-first-7-months-1Gq4yBTse1q/img/d5fc3c08836c43fb909c94f393db51a6/d5fc3c08836c43fb909c94f393db51a6.jpeg' alt='International tourists visit the Temple of Heaven, Beijing, China, July 17, 2025. /VCG'
Trade in travel-related services continued strong growth, rising 10.4 percent year over year to 1.26 trillion yuan (about $176.4 billion). Notably, exports increased 62.9 percent.
Meanwhile, trade in knowledge-intensive services grew by 6.8 percent year over year to over 1.77 trillion yuan (about $247.8 billion).
(Cover: The CIFTIS billboard at Shougang Park in Beijing, China. /VCG)
Nothing says “awards season” like a fall film festival. The Times’ reporters, critics, videographers and photographers are on the ground at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, bringing you all the news from TIFF’s 50th edition. Our coverage includes our TIFF Daily newsletter, along with photo and video highlights from the Los Angeles Times Studio.
Bookmark this site and revisit all weekend to see new actors, directors, documentarians and international icons who couldn’t wait to say hi to us. And be sure to check out our complete coverage of TIFF 2025 throughout the festival.
Elle Fanning from the film “Sentimental Value.”
(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)
1. Back row left to right, Nadia Latif and Willem Dafoe. Front row left to right, Anna Diop and Corey Hawkins from the film “The Man in My Basement.” 2. Anna Diop.
Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst and Derek Cianfrance from the film “Roofman.”
Back row left to right, Anita Afonu and Ben Proudfoot. Front row left to right, Nana Adwoa Frimpong and Ghanaian Brandon Somerhalder from the film “The Eye of Ghana.”
Pete Ohs from the film “Erupcja.”
Left to right, Lisa Barros D’sa, Glenn Leyburn and Eanna Hardwicke from the film “Saipan.”
Director Oliver Laxe from the film “Sirât.”
Kirsten Dunst from the film “Roofman.”
Stephen Amell, left, and Sean Astin from the film “Little Lorraine.”
Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgard from the film “Sentimental Value.”
than Hawke from the film “The Lowdown.”
Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia from the film “Hamlet.”
Left to right, Thomas DeGrezia, Director Eif Rivera, Brad Feinstein and Christina Weiss Lurie and Diego Boneta from the film “Killing Castro.”
1. Jay McCarrol. 2. Matt Johnson from the film “Nirvana: The Band – The Show – The Movie.”
Connor O’Malley, Vanessa Bayer, Kate Berlant, Claudia O’Doherty, Eric Rahill and John Early from the film “Maddie’s Secret.”
Channing Tatum from the film “Roofman.”
Left to right, Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, seated, and Adam Carter Rehmeier from the film “Carolina Carolina.”
1. Samara Weaving from the film “Carolina Carolina.”
Left to right, Idan Weiss and Agnieszka Holland from the film “Franz.”
Left to righy, Chris Candy, Jennifer Candy and Colin Hanks from the film “John Candy: I Like Me.”
Potsy Ponciroli from the film “Motor City.”
Back row, co-Director Tom Dean and Emilia Jones. Front row, co-Director Mac Eldridge and Nick Robinson from the film “Charlie Harper,”
Left to right, Megan Lawless, Cooper Tomlinson, Curry Barker, Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette from the film “Obsession.”
Back row, Chandler Levack and Juliette Gariepy. Middle row, Stanley Simons and Barbie Ferreira. Front row, Devon Bostick from the film “Mile End Kicks.”
Anthropic has agreed to pay at least $1.5 billion to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of book authors alleging copyright infringement, an estimated $3,000 per work. In a court motion on Friday, the plaintiffs emphasized that the terms of the settlement are “critical victories” and that going to trial would have been an “enormous” risk.
This is the first class action settlement centered on AI and copyright in the United States, and the outcome may shape how regulators and creative industries approach the legal debate over generative AI and intellectual property. According to the settlement agreement, the class action will apply to approximately 500,000 works, but that number may go up once the list of pirated materials is finalized. For every additional work, the artificial intelligence company will pay an extra $3,000. Plaintiffs plan to deliver a final list of works to the court by October.
“This landmark settlement far surpasses any other known copyright recovery. It is the first of its kind in the AI era. It will provide meaningful compensation for each class work and sets a precedent requiring AI companies to pay copyright owners. This settlement sends a powerful message to AI companies and creators alike that taking copyrighted works from these pirate websites is wrong,” says colead plaintiffs’ counsel Justin Nelson of Susman Godfrey LLP.
Anthropic is not admitting any wrongdoing or liability. “Today’s settlement, if approved, will resolve the plaintiffs’ remaining legacy claims. We remain committed to developing safe AI systems that help people and organizations extend their capabilities, advance scientific discovery, and solve complex problems,” Anthropic deputy general counsel Aparna Sridhar said in a statement.
The lawsuit, which was originally filed in 2024 in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, was part of a larger ongoing wave of copyright litigation brought against tech companies over the data they used to train artificial intelligence programs. Authors Andrea Bartz, Kirk Wallace Johnson, and Charles Graeber alleged that Anthropic trained its large language models on their work without permission, violating copyright law.
This June, senior district judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic’s AI training was shielded by the “fair use” doctrine, which allows unauthorized use of copyrighted works under certain conditions. It was a win for the tech company but came with a major caveat. As it gathered materials to train its AI tools, Anthropic had relied on a corpus of books pirated from so-called “shadow libraries,” including the notorious site LibGen, and Alsup determined that the authors should still be able to bring Anthropic to trial in a class action over pirating their work. (Anthropic maintains that it did not actually train its products on the pirated works, instead opting to purchase copies of books.)
“Anthropic downloaded over seven million pirated copies of books, paid nothing, and kept these pirated copies in its library even after deciding it would not use them to train its AI (at all or ever again). Authors argue Anthropic should have paid for these pirated library copies. This order agrees,” Alsup wrote in his summary judgement.
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The European Commission fined Google 2.95 billion euros ($3.45 billion) for its dominance and anti-competitive ad-tech business. The EU Commission accused Google of unfairly favoring its own display advertising technology services and told Google to end these practices.
What’s happening. The Commission also ordered Google to “bring these self-preferencing practices to an end” and “implement measures to cease its inherent conflicts of interest along the adtech supply chain.” The company has 60 days to respond.
The backstory. This comes after a 2018 decision where the EU Commission charged Google with violating the European Union’s antitrust laws and suggested that “mandatory divestment” is the only way the search engine can resolve the issue.
Google’s response. “It imposes an unjustified fine and requires changes that will hurt thousands of European businesses by making it harder for them to make money,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, the company’s global head of regulatory affairs, said in a statement.
Why we care. Will this lead to Google breaking up parts of its ad-tech business or other business units. Will this result in any changes for advertisers? It is unknown. What we saw with the Google US monopoly ruling was very little, if any, action taken against Google as a result of that ruling.
More coverage. See Techmeme.
Trump. After this news came out, President Donald Trump threatened to launch a trade investigation to “nullify” what he said were discriminatory penalties levied by Europe against U.S. tech firms such as Google.
Julie Rovner
KFF Health News
Read Julie’s stories.
Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to Z,” now in its third edition.
Just days after his firing of the brand-new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a defiant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, defended that action and others before a sometimes skeptical Senate Finance Committee. Criticism of Kennedy’s increasingly anti-vaccine actions came not just from Democrats on the panel but from some Republicans who are also medical doctors.
Meanwhile, members of Congress have only a few weeks left to complete work on spending bills or risk a government shutdown, and time is also running out to head off the large increases in premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans likely to occur with additional Biden-era government subsidies set to expire.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of KFF Health News, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, Sarah Karlin-Smith of Pink Sheet, and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico.
Jessie Hellmann
CQ Roll Call
Sarah Karlin-Smith
Pink Sheet
@sarahkarlin-smith.bsky.social
Alice Miranda Ollstein
Politico
Among the takeaways from this week’s episode:
Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’s Tony Leys, who discusses his “Bill of the Month” report about a woman’s unfortunate interaction with a bat — and her even more unfortunate interaction with the bill for her rabies prevention treatment.
Plus, for “extra credit” the panelists suggest health policy stories they read this week that they think you should read, too:
Julie Rovner: ProPublica’s “Gutted: How Deeply Trump Has Cut Federal Health Agencies,” by Brandon Roberts, Annie Waldman, and Pratheek Rebala.
Jessie Hellmann: KFF Health News’ “When Hospitals and Insurers Fight, Patients Get Caught in the Middle,” by Bram Sable-Smith.
Sarah Karlin-Smith: NPR’s “Leniency on Lice in Schools Meets Reality,” by Blake Farmer.
Alice Miranda Ollstein: Vox’s “Exclusive: RFK Jr. and the White House Buried a Major Study on Alcohol and Cancer. Here’s What It Shows,” by Dylan Scott.
Also mentioned in this week’s podcast:
Francis Ying
Audio producer
Stephanie Stapleton
Editor
To hear all our podcasts, click here.
And subscribe to KFF Health News’ “What the Health?” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
This story can be republished for free (details).
The Witcher fans can now play Gwent with real cards thanks to the official physical adaptation. Revealed last December, Gwent: The Legendary Card Game starts shipping this month, and Amazon is now taking orders for $45. The complete set features five factions, over 400 cards with new artwork, and six game modes for 1-5 players.
Gwent: The Legendary Card Game was designed by No Loading Games and published by Hachette Boardgames. Amazon’s store page for Gwent just popped up this month. Though not marked as a preorder, the delivery estimate of three to four weeks suggests Amazon still needs a few weeks to get its inventory situation sorted. Gwent is sold by the game’s publisher but will ship from Amazon for free.
Unlike many card games–including the digital version of Gwent–this is a one-off release. No Loading has no plans to release expansions or booster packs, which is why it’s advertised as the “complete set.”
Gwent’s physical edition has five factions: Northern Realms, Scoia’tael, Monsters, Skellige, and Nilfgaard. Players can build their faction decks from a pool of 436 cards, each of which has new artwork inspired by CD Projekt Red’s hit series.
Along with an impressive number of cards to pick from when building your deck, you can play six different variants of Gwent with the physical edition. Newcomers can use pre-built decks to learn the ropes in Initiation Mode. Four players can split into teams for 2v2 matches. Three to five players can battle in Free-for-All. If you want to test the deck you built or don’t have anyone to battle, Solo Challenge Mode is a single-player variant.
Advanced Mode and Tournament Format utilize Gwent’s conventional 1v1 set. Advanced Mode tasks you with making your deck from scratch, and Tournament Format uses Gwent’s traditional competition rules. A typical round of Gwent is around takes 20 minutes.
What’s in the box?
Gallery
Gwent has been playable as a digital card game for a decade at this point. It first appeared as a minigame in The Witcher 3. The minigame’s immense popularity led CD Projekt Red to release a standalone version in 2018. Though official support ended in October 2023, Gwent remains playable today on consoles, PC, and mobile devices. Additionally, the Gwent community is keeping the digital version fresh with fan-made content updates and mods.
Gwent has technically been available in physical format before. Decks of cards were offered for a limited time to support the launch of The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine. That said, the new retail edition includes the first full set of Gwent cards.
The Witcher video game series has served as the inspiration for multiple board games over the past few years, including the competitive strategy game called Old World. More recently, The Witcher joined the strategy fighting game series Unmatched.
The card game isn’t the only exciting release for The Witcher franchise this month. The ninth novel in Andrzej Sapkowski’s original book series will be published in English on September 30. The Witcher: Crossroads of Ravens is a prequel novel that explores Geralt’s backstory before he became the character we know today. You can preorder a hardcover copy of Crossroads of Ravens for $23.49 (was $30) at Amazon.
Just like the mainline games, Gwent was inspired by a game mentioned in Sapkowski’s novels called Gwint. If you haven’t read Sapkowski’s other Witcher novels and story collections, you can get the first seven by purchasing the two box sets below:
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As we age, what and how much we eat tends to change. However, how meal timing relates to our health remains less understood. Researchers at Mass General Brigham and their collaborators studied changes to meal timing in older adults and discovered people experience gradual shifts in when they eat meals as they age. They also found characteristics that may contribute to meal timing shifts and revealed specific trajectories linked to an earlier death. The results are published in Communications Medicine.
“Our research suggests that changes in when older adults eat, especially the timing of breakfast, could serve as an easy-to-monitor marker of their overall health status. Patients and clinicians can possibly use shifts in mealtime routines as an early warning sign to look into underlying physical and mental health issues,” said lead author Hassan Dashti, PhD, RD, a nutrition scientist and circadian biologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system. “Also, encouraging older adults in having consistent meal schedules could become part of broader strategies to promoting healthy aging and longevity.”
Dashti and his colleagues — including senior author Altug Didikoglu, MSc, PhD, of the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey — examined key aspects of meal timing that are significant for aging populations to determine whether certain patterns might signal, or even influence, health outcomes later in life. The research team analyzed data, including blood samples, from 2,945 community-dwelling adults in the UK aged 42-94 years old who were followed for more than 20 years. They found that as older adults age, they tend to eat breakfast and dinner at later times, while also narrowing the overall time window in which they eat each day.
Later breakfast time was consistently associated with having physical and mental health conditions such as depression, fatigue and oral health problems. Difficulty with meal preparation and worse sleep were also linked with later mealtimes. Notably, later breakfast timing was associated with an increased risk of death during follow-up. Individuals genetically predisposed to characteristics associated with being a “night owl” (preferring later sleep and wake times) tended to eat meals at later times.
“Up until now, we had a limited insight into how the timing of meals evolves later in life and how this shift relates to overall health and longevity,” said Dashti. “Our findings help fill that gap by showing that later meal timing, especially delayed breakfast, is tied to both health challenges and increased mortality risk in older adults. These results add new meaning to the saying that ‘breakfast is the most important meal of the day,’ especially for older individuals.”
Dashti noted that this has important implications as time-restricted eating and intermittent fasting gain popularity, where the health impacts of shifting meal schedules may differ significantly in aging populations from those in younger adults.
Authorship: In addition to Dashti, Mass General Brigham authors include Chloe Liu, Hao Deng and Anushka Sharma.
Funding: This study was supported by the National Institute of Health (R00HL153795).
Dharmashastra National Law University (DNLU), Jabalpur, established in 2018, was founded with the vision of advancing legal education through a strong foundation of research and innovation.
Over the years, DNLU has successfully organised national and international events and continues to be recognised as a forward-looking institution that blends academic rigour with creativity.
HSA Advocates is a full-service law firm renowned for its practical, outcome-oriented approach to complex legal challenges. The firm’s practice spans multiple areas, including Projects, Energy & Infrastructure, Banking & Finance, Restructuring & Insolvency, Corporate & Commercial, Dispute Resolution, Defence & Aerospace, Real Estate, Taxation, and Technology, Media & Telecommunications.
With a collaborative ethos, HSA brings together domain experts to provide tailored and strategic solutions for clients.
Participants enrolled in the course will be eligible to apply for an internship with HSA. After the course concludes, interested candidates will be required to fill out a Google Form and submit their CV along with a Statement of Interest. The selection process will be entirely at the discretion of HSA.
Applications will be assessed on overall quality, and preference may be given to candidates with prior internships, competition achievements, or strong academic work. The mode, duration, month, and all other aspects of the internship will be determined solely by HSA Advocates.
| Module | Title | Key Topics |
| 1 | Introduction to Banking System, RBI & Regulatory Framework | Nature & evolution of banking · Types of banks · Banking Regulation Act, 1949 · RBI as Central Bank · RBI Act, 1934 · CRR, SLR, repo · RBI’s supervisory powers |
| 2 | Banker–Customer Relationship & Banking Operations | Legal nature of banker–customer relationship · Rights and duties · Types of accounts · Banker’s lien & set-off · KYC guidelines |
| 3 | Negotiable Instruments Law | NI Act, 1881 · Cheques, promissory notes, bills of exchange · Section 138 (cheque dishonour) · NEFT, RTGS, UPI |
| 4 | Banking Recovery Laws & Consumer Protection | SARFAESI Act, 2002 · DRT Act, 1993 · Banking Ombudsman Scheme · Consumer protection · NPAs, digital banking, cybersecurity |
| 5 | Banks & FIs – Project Financing | Types of banks/FIs · Infrastructure project funding · Borrower considerations · Restrictions in loan agreements · Events of default |
| 6 | Statutory Framework for Recovery | RDDB Act, 1993 · SARFAESI Act, 2002 · Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code, 2016 |
Open to law students, in-house counsel, legal practitioners, chartered accountants, company secretaries, and anyone interested in exploring Banking and Project Finance Law in India and globally.
Participants will receive an E-Certificate of Completion/Participation. A final online MCQ assessment will be conducted. Those opting for the test will have their grades reflected on the certificate.
Interested participants can register for the course using the link mentioned at the end of this post.
Soft, fluffy and stuffed with a delicious filling, baos have come to be a mainstay at any Chinese eatery. Also called baozi, these pillowy steamed buns originate from ancient China’s Three Kingdoms period (220-280 CE). The dough is made with flour, yeast, milk, sugar and a little oil, and traditionally stuffed with seasoned ground pork, Chinese sausage, quail eggs, pork belly, or even wood ear mushrooms, tofu, and mixed vegetables.
Wan Ming Li, Executive Chef, Bao To Me, calls them “fun and comforting”, and credits Indians’ love for this traditional Chinese appetiser to their “fluffy texture and their ability to carry a variety of flavorful fillings. They’re indulgent yet light enough to be enjoyed as a snack or a meal. It is a humble food, but it is crafted with a lot of care.”
Adding, Vinayak Patil, Head Chef of The Bigg Small Cafe + Bar, Mumbai, says, “The bao bun feels familiar — like our pav or kulcha, while the fillings are an explosion of global flavours. That’s why they connect so easily with diners.”
Indian restaurants are serving up the baos with traditional Chinese ingredients such as soy-glazed mushrooms, braised pork belly, Korean-style bulgogi beef, or spicy tofu. Chef Pema Takchung, Hunaaan from Bengaluru, says, “Indian flavours in baos have also become popular, and had fillings such as chicken tikka, butter chicken, paneer makhani, or spiced lamb keema. The bao acts as a soft, neutral canvas that pairs well with bold spices and rich gravies, making it ideal for fusion-style street food.”
In recent years, the open bao or gua bao has gained popularity. This is a folded, open-faced bun made with a refined flour dough, steamed until soft and pillowy, then filled with a variety of ingredients. Originally popular as a Taiwanese street food, open baos are now loved around the world, including in India.
Today, a brief rundown of news involving the Food and Drug Administration and Gilead Sciences, as well as updates from AC Immune, Agios Pharmaceuticals, Merck KGaA that you may have missed.
Moving forward, the Food and Drug Administration plans to release the complete response letters it uses to reject drugmaker approval applications “promptly” after they’re issued, a major new step for an agency that only months ago published a select archive of the letters for the first time. Most of the letters it posted in July had previously been made public and involved products that were later approved. The FDA now plans to publish batches of previously issued letters connected to applications that were withdrawn or abandoned. Along with its announcement, the agency added 89 previously unpublished letters issued in 2024 and this year, including rejection notices for Replimune, Capricor, Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical and Rocket Pharmaceuticals. — Ned Pagliarulo
The U.S. government will help distribute Gilead Sciences’ HIV prevention drug Yeztugo to several low- and middle-income countries through an international AIDS relief program called PEPFAR, the company said Thursday. The assistance of the Trump administration had been in doubt following cuts to foreign aid earlier this year. But it will now enable Gilead, with the help of PEPFAR and The Global Fund, to reach up to 2 million people over the next three years in the countries the two organizations support. Yeztugo, a twice-yearly shot, was approved by the FDA in June and is expected by analysts to reach $4 billion to $5 billion in peak annual sales. — Ben Fidler
Following a strategic review, brain drug developer AC Immune has decided to lay off roughly 30% of its workforce. The company had 172 employees, 39 of whom were part-time, by the end of last year. In a statement, CEO Andrea Pfeifer called the decision “challenging and carefully considered.” AC Immune is also narrowing its research lens to focus on three clinical-stage immunotherapy programs, two of which are in ongoing collaborations with pharmaceutical giants, as well as its “most promising” small molecule drugs targeting the proteins NLRP3 and tau. The company expects these shakeups will provide enough savings to keep it operational until at least the third quarter of 2027. — Jacob Bell
The FDA needs more time to decide whether to approve Agios Pharmaceuticals’ drug Pyrukynd for people with certain forms of the rare inherited blood disease thalassemia. The agency was scheduled to issue a verdict by Sept. 7, but delayed its decision by three months after Agios submitted a risk mitigation protocol the FDA has classified as a “major amendment” to the submission. That protocol is meant to protect people from the risk of the type of liver cell damage or inflammation that’s been observed in clinical testing of Pyrukynd in thalassemia. The potential impact on Pyrukynd’s commercial outlook sent Agios down by double digits. It also heightened pressure in an ongoing Phase 3 trial in sickle cell disease, wrote Leerink Partners analyst Andrew Berens. — Ben Fidler
Merck KGaA on Tuesday named veteran pharmaceutical executive and venture capitalist David Weinreich its global head of R&D and chief medical officer for its healthcare business unit. Weinreich, who will be based in Massachusetts, previously worked in clinical and development roles at Regeneron, Bayer and Amgen. Most recently, he’s worked as an operating partner and senior adviser at Foresite Labs and Foresite Capital Management. “In David, we have a leader with a unique combination of deep scientific expertise, immense experience in drug development and successfully bringing drugs to the finish line, and global perspective,” Danny Bar-Zohar, head of Merck KGaA’s healthcare unit, said in a statement. “His appointment marks an exciting step forward as we work to bring more medicines to more patients, faster.” — Ned Pagliarulo
Key takeaways
In the past, each generation improved economically: more education, better jobs, homeownership, and longer lives.
That upward trajectory is now in question, especially for Millennials and Gen Z.
Young Australians are increasingly skeptical that they’ll be wealthier or more secure than their parents.
Recognising generational shifts allows savvy investors to anticipate changes in housing demand, family formation, and asset preferences.
Don’t count out young Australians—they’ll still build wealth, but on different timelines and terms.
As always in property, the earlier you understand the macro trends, the better positioned you are to benefit from them.
Will today’s younger generations end up wealthier, happier, and more secure than their parents?
That used to be a no-brainer.
For much of Australia’s modern history, each generation climbed the economic ladder higher than the one before it. More education, better jobs, bigger homes, longer lives.
But that narrative is now being questioned, especially by the very people meant to live it.
So, are young Australians still on track to be better off? Or has the promise of generational progress quietly slipped away?
Let’s take a closer look at what the evidence really says—and what it means for us as property investors and wealth builders.
According to the 2025 UBS World Wealth Report, our wealth increased by 11% in 2024, and Australia ranks second globally in terms of median wealth per adult.
However, most of Australia’s wealth is concentrated in the hands of Baby Boomers, and there are a few clear reasons why.
Firstly, Boomers have simply had time on their side.
Many entered the workforce during an era of strong wage growth, affordable property prices, and generous superannuation reforms.
They were able to buy homes in the 1970s, 80s and even early 90s—when median house prices were just a few times the average income, not 8 to 10 times like they are today.
As the decades rolled on, rising property values and favourable tax policies supercharged the wealth of owner-occupiers and investors alike.
Secondly, Baby Boomers benefited from stability.
They lived through a period of economic expansion, lower education costs, and more secure full-time employment.
Many now have built up sizable equity in their homes, often being mortgage free.
Add to that the rise in share market participation through superannuation, and for some, inheritances from their own parents, and it’s easy to see why this generation holds a disproportionate slice of the nation’s wealth.
Today, Boomers control more than half of Australia’s private wealth, despite representing only a quarter of the population.
This isn’t unfair – it reflects a lifetime of accumulation, but it raises important questions about intergenerational equity and how that wealth will be transferred in the decades ahead.
So back to the original question – will young Australians be better off than their parents?
E61 Institute looked at this and came up with some interesting findings…
There’s no doubt that young Australians are the most highly educated generation in our nation’s history.
They’re more than twice as likely to hold a university degree as their parents were at the same age, and they’re far less likely to drop out of school early.
That’s a win.
But education hasn’t come cheap.
More than 30% of Australians under 35 now carry a student debt, up from 20% a decade ago, and the average HELP debt has ballooned to over $26,000.
Many are still paying off that debt well into their mid-30s, right when they’re trying to save a deposit or start a family.
It’s not just the size of the debt—it’s the timing.
And it’s holding them back.
Young Aussies are earning similar real wages to those who came before them.
In fact, early-career earnings are broadly comparable to those of Gen X.
But after the Global Financial Crisis, income growth for under-40s has fallen dramatically behind that of older Australians.
Add to that a shift toward insecure, lower-paid work and reduced job mobility, and you get a generation struggling to build financial momentum.
And while older Australians enjoy tax-free gains on their homes and capital gains discounts on their investments, younger workers carry the growing burden of income tax, courtesy of bracket creep.
And while some Gen Zs will benefit from the largest wave of inheritances in Australian history, as I mentioned above, these windfalls often come too late, usually in their 50s.
That doesn’t help much when you’re 30, renting, and trying to raise kids.
Nowhere is the generational gap more visible than in housing.
Homeownership rates among 25–34-year-olds have plummeted.
Even many professional millennials now view homeownership as a pipe dream, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.
As a result, more young adults are staying in their family home longer – nearly 60% of 18- to 24-year-olds still live with their parents, and fewer are forming relationships or having children before the age of 30.
This isn’t just a lifestyle choice.
It’s a response to affordability pressures and economic precarity.
The traditional life path – job, partner, home, kids – is being delayed, or in some cases, rewritten entirely.
There’s no single “youth” experience in Australia anymore.
For example , young women are earning more than their male peers in early careers, driven by higher educational attainment and growth in female-dominated sectors like healthcare.
But they’re also experiencing declining mental health and higher levels of loneliness and hospitalisation.
Meanwhile, some young men, particularly in regional locations, are falling behind, facing higher unemployment, lower education rates, and rising rates of disengagement.
And the divide doesn’t stop there.
In some remote areas, up to 30% of 20–24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training. That’s a massive pool of untapped potential.
Young Australians are also the first generation to grow up fully online.
They’ve gained access to more information, more choice, more opportunity.
But they’ve also inherited a suite of new problems: social media addiction, increased anxiety, and declining mental well-being.
Mental health scores for young women have fallen significantly over the last decade.
And young men are showing signs of risky behaviour in other areas – gambling, for instance, has doubled among young men since 2015, and surprisingly, it’s not just online betting – it’s pokies.
In other words, technology has reshaped how young Australians interact, form relationships, and take risks, but not always for the better.
Australia is on the brink of the biggest wealth transfer in its history.
Inheritances are expected to quadruple by 2050.
However, these gains will be unevenly distributed; many will receive little or nothing, and they often arrive too late to support early financial milestones.
JBWere estimates that some $5.4 trillion of this wealth will be transferred to younger generations over the next two decades.
However, this won’t be passed on to Gen Z or millennials anytime soon – it will be passed on to their parents.
And while some young Australians will eventually catch up through bequests and asset appreciation, others won’t.
And that could cement a new kind of inequality, not just between generations, but within them.
That depends.
If we’re measuring in raw education levels, life expectancy, or access to digital tools – yes, young Australians have got an edge.
But if we’re talking about financial independence, homeownership, relationship stability, or mental wellbeing, many young Australians are facing a much rougher road.
In reality, the story isn’t one of decline, but delay.
Life milestones are being pushed back, reshaped, and in some cases, reimagined.
According to the E61Institute report , the challenge for policymakers is understanding these shifts and preparing for what comes next.
Why does this matter to you as a property investor or business owner?
Because understanding generational change gives you insight into tomorrow’s housing market, workforce, and economy.
Young Australians may be buying later, renting longer, and starting families in their 30s- but that doesn’t mean they won’t build wealth.
They’ll just do it differently. Some will inherit, some will invest, others will co-buy or rentvest.
But they’ll still need homes. They’ll still chase financial independence. And they’ll still be looking for opportunities in a rapidly changing world.
Your job is to see the trends early, adapt, and invest accordingly.
It’s my favorite time of the year: IFA 2025. The world’s largest tech show (yes, larger than CES!) brings the eyes of the world to the giant exhibition halls of Messe Berlin, and with more than 200,000 visitors expected, every tech company is vying for a piece of the action.
I’ve been on the IFA 2025 floor for the past few days, drinking in the tech and walking miles to do so. There is always a phenomenal amount of new tech to check out, but I’ve narrowed it down—this is the best new tech at IFA 2025.
Baesus made a real statement at IFA 2025, launching a trio of new audio products that have caught the imagination of the thousands of tech enthusiasts here.
Of the three, the Baseus Inspire XH1 is the jewel in the crown. The company collaborated with Bose to create a new sound profile for the XH1s, and the collaboration has really hit home where it counts. The XH1 headphones sound great, and while they’re a little on the bass-heavy side, this can be easily managed in the companion app EQ settings.
I’ve also found the XH1s really comfortable. The plush ear cushions fit snuggly around my ears and create a good seal without crushing them to death. In that, they also don’t turn my ears into a sweaty mess, which really is one of my least favorite feelings when wearing headphones.
ANC is another strong point for the Inspire XH1s. With five different levels of ANC to choose from, you can tailor the level of noise cancellation to whatever noise you want to block out. They did a great job blocking out the constant drone of the plane on my flight to Berlin, and that’s one of the sterner tests for ANC headphones.
Then there is the outstanding battery life. I’ve been using these headphones for hours each day since leaving my house two days ago (with ANC), and I’ve still not had to reach for the charger. Baseus claims a 100-hour battery life (dropping to 65 hours with ANC), and I’m confident this figure is accurate.
And the cherry on the cake? You get all of this for a mere $150, which is what makes these some of the best headphones you can currently buy.
The DuRoBo Krono is a 6.13-inch e-paper device carving out a space somewhere between an e-reader and a phone. It runs Android 13, powered by an octa-core processor with 6 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. The display is an E Ink Carta 1200 panel at 824 × 1648 pixels, with an adjustable front light for both warm and cool tones.
On paper, it reads like a compact e-reader that can double as a distraction-free productivity device. That’s exactly the point. Rather than another e-reader, DuRoBo is pitching Krono as a focus hub.
Spec-wise, it mirrors the Onyx Boox Palma 2 almost identically. Same screen, same RAM and storage, same Android OS. But where Boox looks and feels like an engineer’s utility device, Krono’s design is more inspired. The back features a cylindrical spine that houses both a rotating dial and breathing LEDs.
The dial is the most inspired touch. If you’ve ever used Samsung’s Galaxy smartwatches with their rotating bezels, you’ll get the point: a physical anchor makes the device feel tangible and tactile.
Battery life should also impress. With the same 3,950 mAh cell as the Palma 2, and paired with the low-power E Ink screen, you’re looking at weeks of use on a charge instead of days. If you’re sick of nightly charging like I am, that’s a pretty big deal.
Now, if you want to get in nice and early, you can join DuRoBo’s Kickstarter. I wouldn’t normally push anyone to a Kickstarter for the obvious reasons, but having talked to the DuRoBo team at IFA 2025, it’s clear that the Krono is coming to market whether this succeeds or not. It’s just a handy way to get your hands on it before anyone else if you’re that way inclined.
Lenovo is launching the Legion Go 2, its second-generation Windows-based gaming handheld, following the success of its first version. The Legion Go 2 features the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor and up to 32GB 8000 MHz memory. It’s a significant performance improvement over the first generation, especially considering the changes to the display.
Lenovo has opted for a smaller resolution display for the Legion Go 2. Instead of the QHD+ 2560 x 1600 IPS panel in the first Legion Go, the second generation gets a WUXGA 1920 x 1200 144Hz OLED display with variable refresh rate support. While the resolution is smaller than before, at this screen size, I’d rather have OLED capabilities, as you won’t really be able to tell the difference on the 8.8-inch touchscreen.
The storage has also been doubled since the previous generation, with the new model coming with up to 2TB PCIe Gen 4 storage and a microSD slot with support for an additional 2TB. The battery capacity has also nearly doubled to a 4-cell 74 Wh battery in the second generation.
Other changes include a redesign of the TrueStrike controllers for a smoother and ergonomic feel. You get hall effect joysticks, three customizable buttons, and a fingerprint reader built into the power button.
My only real concern is the price. With the Legion Go 2 set to cost just under $1,100, it’s an expensive piece of kit. Has the modern gaming handheld market already priced itself out of reach for most people? It’s hard to say, but clearly, Lenovo doesn’t think so, and I’m keen to see how this behemoth performs.
The EarFun Air Pro 4+ claims to be the world’s first Hi-Res, dual-driver, hybrid ANC earbuds under $100. Those words might not mean a lot to you, but these earbuds pack a surprising amount of features for their price tag.
You get Bluetooth 6.0 support with codecs including aptX Lossless, aptX LDAC, Auracast, LC3, SBC, and AAC. The sound is delivered through 10mm hybrid drivers (with a balanced armature) in each earbud. There’s also Hi-Res certification, Qualcomm Snapdragon Sound support, and the accompanying app has custom EQ support to tune the sound to your liking.
Battery life is also pretty decent on the Air Pro 4+. EarFun claims up to 12 hours of battery life on the earbuds with the ANC off, and up to eight hours with ANC enabled. That’s a total of 54 hours and 36 hours with the charging case with ANC off and on, respectively. Actual battery life can vary by volume level and audio content, but these are respectable numbers regardless.
Speaking of ANC, you get adaptive hybrid ANC up to 50 dB. There’s also the usual crop of premium earbuds features, including multipoint connection, support for Google Fast Pair, in-ear detection, and an IP55 water and dust resistance rating.
I’m rarely blown away by new laptop tech, but the Acer Swift Air 16 has done it. This full-sized 16-inch laptop weighs under 1kg, which is less than a 13-inch MacBook Air, and looks pretty good while doing so.
The Swift Air 16’s frame is manufactured from an ultra-lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy, so it’s plenty sturdy, but when you pick it up, it feels astonishingly light. The thickness of 15.9mm is also impressive, and gives the Swift Air 16 a really unique feel. I mean, where else can you see something like this?
It comes equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 300-series chip, which is very competent, though you’re not going to be using this laptop for gaming (well, maybe a touch of light gaming, but don’t expect to be playing the latest Call of Duty).
My only real concern with the Swift Air 16 is the battery size. Despite its size, it only has a 50Wh battery, which in 2025 is criminally small. I get that Acer may have compromised here, but I’d be a little wary of this for that reason. Still, we’ll know more once the Swift Air 16 begins shipping and the real testing gets underway.
UGREEN is no stranger to charging accessories, and its latest MagFlow Qi2 power bank feels like a preview of where wireless charging is headed. Rated at 10,000 mAh, it’s among the first to adopt the Qi2.2 standard, which pushes wireless charging speeds up to 25W, nearly twice as fast as its predecessor (15W). There’s a catch, though: you’ll need iOS 26 to unlock those speeds, at least on iPhones.
In testing, the results lined up with expectations. Wireless charging added about 20% in 25 minutes, while wired charging managed the same boost in just 20 minutes. UGREEN claims 50% in half an hour, but real-world use was closer to 35–40%, which still makes it noticeably faster than older power banks.
The bank itself is on the chunky side, roughly the thickness of two phones stacked, but that capacity allows for flexibility. You can wirelessly charge a Qi2-compatible iPhone or accessory, plug into the USB-C port for up to 30W wired charging, or use the built-in cable that doubles as a lanyard. All three can even run at once, making it a handy travel companion for people juggling multiple devices.
A small display on the side shows battery percentage and charging status, though it doesn’t yet display live wattage. At $90, it’s not the slimmest or cheapest option, but as one of the first Qi2 power banks on the market, it’s a sign of faster, more versatile wireless charging to come.
The Plaud AI Note Pro takes everything compelling about the original Plaud Note and cranks up the capabilities significantly. At just 2.79mm thick and 30g, this credit card-sized AI recorder now packs four precision MEMS microphones instead of two, doubling its audio pickup range to 16.4 feet. That’s perfect for larger conference rooms where you’re not sitting right next to the speaker.
The standout upgrade is the 0.95-inch AMOLED display, which provides visual confirmation of what’s happening. No more wondering if you’re actually recording or if the battery died mid-meeting. The screen shows recording status, battery level, and even waveforms, solving the anxiety that plagued the original’s simple LED indicator.
As a dedicated standalone AI device, the Note Pro operates independently from your phone, preserving battery life and removing the distraction of notifications during critical meetings. Smart dual-mode detection automatically switches between phone calls and in-person meetings, eliminating the manual toggle that occasionally caused missed recordings on the first-gen device. A new press-to-highlight feature enables you to mark important moments in real-time, which should significantly improve the AI summary accuracy and also help you locate specific moments much faster.
Battery life stretches to 50 hours in endurance mode, and the companion app now supports multimodal input. You can add text notes and photos to provide richer context for transcription and summaries.
At $179, it’s only $20 more than the original Plaud Note, making this a worthwhile upgrade. For anyone who found the original compelling but wanted more polish and reliability, the Note Pro delivers exactly that.
I first saw the Tecno Slim concept at MWC 2025, where I gave it an award for innovation in smartphone tech. And now, five months later, the Tecno Slim is a fully-fledged smartphone, ready for the world to marvel at its wonderful design.
Measuring just 5.95mm thick, the 5G Tecno Pova Slim is a really phenomenal bit of engineering. Tecno hasn’t held back elsewhere on this smartphone to make the concept work. It packs a really decent 5160mAh battery, complete with 45W charging, that uses lithium-cobalt oxide. It allowed Tecno to compact the battery to just 4.04mm thickness, allowing other components to fit around it.
Tecno has also developed an ultra-slim vapor chamber cooling system to help stop the Slim from overheating (with all the components crammed into such a small space, overheating is a major concern).
The rear case uses ultra-thin aerospace-grade fiberglass, which, according to Tecno, is “0.19mm thinner than standard composite plates, yet delivers 300% greater strength and 200% greater toughness.” On the front, it uses Corning Gorilla Glass 7i, and also comes with a decent IP64 water and dust resistance rating.
Also—and this is one of my favorite features—the Mood Light feature is super fun, and brings a little pair of eyes to the rear lighting panel that surrounds the camera housing.
It’s a great piece of engineering from Tecno.
Anker is a long-trusted name for phone chargers, cables, headphones, and more, but this year the company is expanding into something new: a voice-recording tool for in-person meetings. The Soundcore Work looks like it’s roughly the size of a Tile tracker, and is designed to record everything during a discussion so you can review the transcription, along with an AI-generated summary, later. Currently, the AI summary uses GPT 4.1, but this will be upgraded to GPT 5 at a later date.
Everything about the device seems simple and lightweight. Pressing the button once starts recording; it’s also lockable, so you won’t accidentally disable it during a session. As you record, you can double-tap to mark an important moment, which will presumably be highlighted in the notes later.
Battery life shouldn’t be a factor, with the company quoting 10-day standby time, between 8 and 32 hours of recording time, and 2 hours of usage from just 10 minutes of charging. It’s also compatible with Apple’s Find My, so you can track the device with your iPhone if you lose it. If you’re concerned about privacy, Anker promises that while audio is temporarily processed by AI through cloud services, all data is deleted once it’s moved to your device.
Anker lists the device’s price plus “basic services” at $99.99, with a $15.99/month fee “for more” thereafter. Perhaps transcription will be free, but AI summaries will require a subscription?
As someone who appreciates the AI notetaking features in video calling tools, I’m curious to see how this fares. If I did more in-person meetings, I’d appreciate something like this so I can be fully present in the discussion and not worry about taking notes. The included necklace chain means you can wear it like you would a necklace, so you don’t have to carry around a clunky microphone or look weird doing so.
The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 514 is one of those laptops designed to make life easier without feeling overly complicated. It’s powered by Mediatek’s new Kompanio Ultra 910 processor with about 50 TOPS of built-in AI muscle, plus an Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU to keep creative tasks like editing or rendering from dragging. Acer is also bragging about 17 hours of battery life, which is the kind of number that would make me want to test how long I can actually go without the charger.
The 14-inch touchscreen is available in WQXGA+ (2800×1800) or WUXGA (1920×1200), both of which are covered in Gorilla Glass with an anti-fingerprint coating. It supports USI 2.0 styluses, and ChromeOS now has handy gesture-based edits like scribble to delete and circle to move, which sound like little touches you’d quickly get addicted to. The hinge flips into laptop, tablet, tent, or display mode, and it’s MIL-STD 810H rated (military-grade durability), so you don’t have to baby it.
Connectivity is future-proof with Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and dual USB-C ports. For calls, there’s a webcam option up to 5MP with AI tricks like lighting fixes, background blur, and noise cancellation, plus a physical shutter for when you want it off for real. I also like the smaller touches like upward-firing DTS-tuned speakers, a touchpad made from recycled ocean plastic, and even a full year of Google AI Pro with 2TB of cloud storage included.
After 52 episodes and three movies, the world of “Downton Abbey” is coming to a heartwarming conclusion — for now, at least. The series and the previous two films, 2019’s “Downton Abbey” and 2022’s “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” have followed several characters over an 18-year period, both from the upstairs and downstairs of the grand house. While viewers already said goodbye to the imperious Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham (Maggie Smith), in the last film when she tragically died onscreen surrounded by her family, there are still many more farewells to come. Here is where we left some of the key characters as “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale” arrives in theaters Sept. 12.
Michelle Dockery in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
Lady Mary wasn’t always in line to take over Downton Abbey, but her ill-fated marriage to Matthew Crawley and the birth of their son George ensured that she could be at the helm of the estate, at least until George came of age. Mary eventually remarried toward the end of the series, to race car driver Henry Talbot, but “The Grand Finale” sees the couple divorced and Mary on the outs from society. Still, she has clever ideas about how to keep Downton Abbey afloat and to push it into the modern age as she finally takes the reins from her father. “From the start, she always had a strong personality,” creator Julian Fellowes told The Times in 2022. “And I think what we’ve watched over the years is how she has come to harness her strength, master it and use it to achieve what she wants.”
Laura Carmichael, right, and Elizabeth McGovern in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
For many years Lady Edith was the passed-over second daughter, but by the end of the series she was firmly ensconced as the formidable Marchioness of Hexham. She and her husband Herbert “Bertie” Pelham are happily raising two children and she has become a voice of reason for Mary, offering counsel to the sister who once overshadowed her. “The Grand Finale” even gives Edith a satisfying moment of fortitude when she stands up for the family. “By the time we leave her, Edith is a strong woman and capable of big decisions,” Fellowes says.
Elizabeth McGovern and Hugh Bonneville in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
The Crawley clan’s patriarch and matriarch have gone through a lot since “Downton Abbey” premiered, including the loss of their daughter Sybil and multiple financial challenges. Cora dealt with a health scare in “A New Era” while both grieved the death of Violet, whose presence still looms in “The Grand Finale.” Although he technically left Mary in charge of Downton Abbey at the end of “A New Era,” Robert is struggling to settle into the next chapter of his life. It’s up to Cora, his always-steady companion, to help him move forward.
Allen Leech in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
After heroically saving the day in the first “Downton Abbey” film, the widowed Tom married Lucy Smith (Tuppence Middleton) in “Downtown Abbey: A New Era,” giving his daughter Sybbie a mother once again. By the end of the second film, Tom and Lucy have a baby of their own and are living away from Downton. The character already got his much-deserved happily ever after and now shows up to dole out sage advice and support for the family. “I felt Tom Branson was the only one we hadn’t really settled in the series,” Leech told me in 2019. Now, he is.
Sophie McShera, second from left, in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features )
Daisy began her journey at Downton Abbey as a belabored kitchen maid, but eventually the estate’s revered cook Mrs. Patmore took her under her wing. She married the dying William Mason during the series and later settled down with Andrew Parker, a footman in the house who has now taken over for Mr. Carson. In the spirit of the younger generation stepping forward, Daisy takes over the kitchen in “The Grand Finale,” an important moment of growth for the character.
From left, Penelope Wilton, Allen Leech, Michelle Dockery and Paul Giamatti in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
It took some time for Isobel to establish herself at Downton Abbey, but her friendship with the Dowager Countess and her relationship to the family became invaluable throughout the series. She married Richard Grey after her son Matthew’s death and continued her good work with the community’s hospital throughout the episodes. Following Violet’s passing, Isobel has taken up the mantle to organize the county fair — a job that comes with some challenges.
Joanne Froggatt in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
Anna Bates has always been one of Downton Abbey’s most loyal servants and a thoughtful friend to Lady Mary. She married valet John Bates at the beginning of Season 3 and the couple went through numerous ups and downs in the years that followed, including several miscarriages. They got a much-deserved happy end in the series finale when Anna gave birth to their first child. The films haven’t shaken their contentment and “The Grand Finale” brings another uplifting arrival for the pair.
Kevin Doyle, left, and Michael Fox in “Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale.”
(Rory Mulvey / Focus Features)
Mr. Molesley endeared audiences with his hapless but well-meaning misadventures in the series, eventually transitioning from footman to local schoolteacher. He got his due in “A New Era” when he proved himself to be a skilled screenwriter and charmed Phyllis Baxter. In “The Grand Finale,” the couple are married and Mr. Molesley is endeavoring to boost his film career, although he hasn’t left his time at Downtown Abbey in the past.
New Delhi, September 5: Citroen Basalt X is launched in India. The Basalt X comes with style with practicality, featuring advanced projector headlamps for improved visibility. It also comes with 3D-effect tail lamps to add a distinctive road presence. It offers a premium feel with dual-tone interiors and added comfort through rear AC vents. As per reports, the Citroen Basalt X price in India starts at INR 7.95 lakh.
The Citroen Basalt X gets a special X badging on the tailgate. The cabin is enhanced with ventilated front seats and a cruise control feature. Citroen has already started pre-bookings from August 22 with a token amount of INR 11,000. Tesla India Delivers First Model Y to Maharashtra Transport Minister Pratap Sarnaik From Mumbai Experience Centre (Watch Video).
The Citroen Basalt X comes with a coupe-SUV inspired design. Its new horizontal LED strips on the grille add an aggressive look to the front profile. The vehicle is equipped with features like a 360-degree camera, auto-dimming IRVM, push-button start, stop button and cruise control. It also offers a 10.25-inch touchscreen infotainment system, a 7-inch digital driver’s display, and wireless phone charging. The interior of Basalt X also offers auto AC with rear vents and adjustable under-thigh support for rear seat occupants.
As per reports, the Citroen Basalt X carries forward the same engine options seen in the standard Basalt. Customers can choose a 1.2-litre naturally aspirated petrol engine that generates 82 PS and 115 Nm of torque, offered with a 5-speed manual gearbox. There is a 1.2-litre turbo-petrol engine producing 110 PS and up to 205 Nm, paired with either a 6-speed manual or a 6-speed automatic transmission. TVS Ntorq 150 Price, Specifications and Features Revealed; Know All About Latest TVS Scooter Launched in India.
Citroen Basalt X has been launched in India with multiple variants. As per reports, the base variant, Basalt 1.2 NA MT You is priced at INR 7.95 lakh (ex-showroom). The Basalt X 1.2 Turbo MT Plus is available at INR 9.42 lakh, INR 10.82 lakh, and INR 12.07 lakh (ex-showroom), depending on the configuration. The Basalt X 1.2 Turbo MT Max variants are priced at INR 11.62 lakh and INR 12.89 lakh (ex-showroom).
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 05, 2025 02:53 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has rejected Neuralink’s attempt to trademark the product names Telepathy and Telekinesis, citing pending applications by another person for the same trademarks.
Neuralink, the brain implant company cofounded by Elon Musk, filed to trademark the names in March. But in letters sent to Neuralink in August, the trademark office is refusing to allow the applications to move forward. It says Wesley Berry, a computer scientist and a cofounder of the tech startup Prophetic, previously filed trademark applications for Telepathy in May 2023 and Telekinesis in August 2024. Prophetic is building a wearable headset to induce lucid dreaming, but only Berry is the author of the trademark applications, not Prophetic. (Berry declined to comment for this story.)
In response to Neuralink’s application for Telepathy, the trademark office also references the existing trademark for Telepathy Labs, a Tampa-based company that provides interactive voice and chatbot technology to businesses.
Musk’s Neuralink, meanwhile, is developing a brain-computer interface that involves a device, surgically implanted in the skull, that collects brain activity. The company has been using the name Telepathy to describe its first product, which is designed to allow paralyzed people the ability to operate their phones and computers with just their thoughts. Musk unveiled the Telepathy name in a January 2024 social media post, shortly after the company implanted its first volunteer with the technology. A total of nine people now have the Neuralink device, according to a July announcement. (Neuralink did not respond to a request for comment.)
Both Berry and Neuralink filed “intent-to-use” applications, which allow businesses and inventors to reserve trademark rights before using the mark in commerce. Berry’s application for Telepathy was accepted in December 2024 and for Telekinesis in August 2025 but the trademarks aren’t fully registered until he shows that he’s actually using them in commerce. Berry has three years to do that from acceptance, otherwise his applications would be considered abandoned and Neuralink’s application would take priority.
Berry has not marketed nor commercialized a product called Telepathy or Telekinesis, but in his trademark applications describes both as “software that analyzes EEG to decode internal dialogue to control computer or mobile devices.” EEG, or electroencephalogram, data refers to the electrical activity of the brain recorded through electrodes worn on the scalp.
The trademark office’s letters to Neuralink are not final decisions. Neuralink filed a response letter on August 28 addressing the existing Telepathy Labs trademark, saying that Neuralink’s Telepathy product is not likely to be confused with Telepathy Labs. Neuralink did not address Berry’s applications in its response.
“The standard for likelihood of confusion is, if a random consumer encountered both of these products, would they think that they’re coming from the same company?” says Heather Antoine, an intellectual property partner at Stoel Rives in Sacramento, California.
The trademark office will consider Neuralink’s response and decide if there is a likelihood of confusion. But there’s still the fact that Berry filed to register the Telepathy and Telekinesis marks first. If Berry succeeds in registering the marks, Neuralink would have a few options. It could attempt to buy the trademarks from Berry or negotiate a consent agreement, in which Berry could agree to allow Neuralink to also use the marks. These types of agreements are usually made when the trademarks are not likely to cause consumer confusion.
If Berry is successful in registering Telepathy, Neuralink could be sued if the company continues to use it.
Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney and founder of Gerben IP in Washington, DC, says it’s difficult to know how things will shake out because there’s a lot of nuance to a trademark claim. “Certainly at the moment, though, advantage goes to this other applicant,” he says, referring to Berry. “He could become a considerable thorn in the side of Neuralink in terms of these trademarks.”
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Google will switch to a monthly release cycle for the Google Ads API release schedule. This will result in more frequent releases, with more updates more often. This new release schedule begins in 2026.
The new schedule. The new schedule will have three to four major releases and several minor releases. This is the new schedule:
| Version | Planned Release Type* | Projected launch* | Projected sunset* |
| V23 | Major | January 2026 | February 2027 |
| V23_1 | Minor | February 2026 | February 2027 |
| V23_2 | Minor | March 25, 2026 | February 2027 |
| V24 | Major | April 2026 | May 2027 |
| V24_1 | Minor | May 2026 | May 2027 |
| V24_2 | Minor | June 2026 | May 2027 |
| V25 | Major | July 2026 | August 2027 |
| V25_1 | Minor | August 2026 | August 2027 |
| V25_2 | Minor | September 2026 | August 2027 |
| V26 | Major | October 2026 | November 2027 |
| V26_1 ** | Minor | November 2026 | November 2027 |
What Google said. Here is what Google wrote:
We will increase the number of major releases from 3 per year to 4 per year. The remaining releases will be minor releases, only adding incremental new non-breaking features. We have also adjusted the sunset schedules to avoid extra version migrations that will burden the API developers. Each major release will now be available for one year after the release.
With the new timeline, the tentative release schedule for 2026 will be as shown in the following table. Please keep in mind that these dates are only estimates and may be adjusted going forward. Additionally, releases may be added, removed, or switched between major and minor versions.
Sunset schedule. Google also its tentative sunset schedule for 2026:
| Version | Projected sunset* |
| V19 | February 2026 |
| V20 | June 2026 |
| V21 | August 2026 |
| V22 | October 2026 |
Why we care. If you use the Google Ads API within your own custom software or in a third-party software application, you can expect to have access to more features and changes more frequently.
This may help you manage your campaigns in more ways in 2026.
When Sally Nix found out that her health insurance company wouldn’t pay for an expensive, doctor-recommended treatment to ease her neurological pain, she prepared for battle.
It took years, a chain of conflicting decisions, and a health insurer switch before she finally won approval. She started treatment in January and now channels time and energy into helping other patients fight denials.
“One of the things I tell people when they come to me is: ‘Don’t panic. This isn’t a final no,’” said Nix, 55, of Statesville, North Carolina.
To control costs, nearly all health insurers use a system called prior authorization, which requires patients or their providers to seek approval before they can get certain procedures, tests, and prescriptions.
Denials can be appealed, but nearly half of insured adults who received a prior authorization denial in the past two years reported the appeals process was either somewhat or very difficult, according to a July poll published by KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News.
“It’s overwhelming by design,” because insurers know confusion and fatigue cause people to give up, Nix said. “That’s exactly what they want you to do.”
The good news is you don’t have to be an insurance expert to get results, she said. “You just need to know how to push back.”
Here are tips to consider when faced with a prior authorization denial:
1. Know your insurance plan.
Do you have insurance through your job? A plan purchased through healthcare.gov? Medicare? Medicare Advantage? Medicaid?
These distinctions can be confusing, but they matter a great deal. Different categories of health insurance are governed by different agencies and are therefore subject to different prior authorization rules.
For example, federal marketplace plans, as well as Medicare and Medicare Advantage plans, are regulated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Employer-sponsored plans are regulated by the Department of Labor. Medicaid plans, administered by state agencies, are subject to both state and federal rules.
Learn the language specific to your policy. Health insurance companies do not apply prior authorization requirements uniformly across all plans. Read your policy closely to make sure your insurer is following its own rules, as well as regulations set by the state and federal government.
2. Work with your provider to appeal.
Kathleen Lavanchy, who retired in 2024 from a job at an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in the Philadelphia area, spent much of her career communicating with health insurance companies on behalf of patients.
Before you contact your health insurer, call your provider, Lavanchy said, and ask to speak to a medical care manager or someone in the office who handles prior authorization appeals.
The good news is that your doctor’s office may already be working on an appeal.
Medical staffers can act as “your voice,” Nix said. “They know all the language.”
You or your provider can request a “peer-to-peer” review during the appeals process, which allows your doctor to discuss your case over the phone with a medical professional who works for the insurance company.
3. Be organized.
Many hospitals and doctors use a system called MyChart to organize medical records, test results, and communications so that they are easily accessible. Similarly, patients should keep track of all materials related to an insurance appeal — records of phone calls, emails, snail mail, and in-app messages.
Everything should be organized, either digitally or on paper, so that it can be easily referenced, Nix said. At one point, she said, her own records proved that her insurance company had given conflicting information. The records were “the thing that saved me,” she said.
“Keep an amazing paper trail,” she said. “Every call, every letter, every name.”
Linda Jorgensen, executive director of the Special Needs Resource Project, a nonprofit offering online resources for patients with disabilities and their families, has advised patients who are fighting a denial to specifically keep paper copies of everything.
“If it isn’t on paper, it didn’t happen,” she said.
Jorgensen, who serves as a caregiver to an adult daughter with special needs, created a free form you can print to help guide you when taking notes during phone calls with your insurance company. She advised asking the insurance representative for a “ticket number” and their name before proceeding with the conversation.
4. Appeal as soon as possible.
The silver lining is that most denials, if appealed, are overturned.
Medicare Advantage data published by KFF in January found that nearly 82% of prior authorization denials from 2019 through 2023 were partially or fully overturned upon appeal.
But the clock is ticking. Most health plans give you only six months to appeal the decision, according to rules laid out in the Affordable Care Act.
“Don’t dillydally,” Jorgensen advised, especially if you’re sending a paper appeal, or any supporting documents, through the U.S. Postal Service. She recommends filing quickly, and at least four weeks before the deadline.
For the sake of speed, some people are turning to artificial intelligence for help crafting customizable appeal letters.
5. Ask your HR department for help.
If you get your health insurance through an employer, there’s a good chance your health plan is “self-funded” or “self-insured.” That means your employer contracts with a health insurance company to administer benefits, but your employer shoulders the cost of your care.
Why does that matter? Under self-funded plans, decisions about what is or isn’t covered ultimately rest with your employer.
Let’s say, for example, your doctor has recommended that you undergo surgery, and your insurer has denied prior authorization for it, deeming the procedure “not medically necessary,” a phrase commonly used. If your plan is self-funded, you can appeal to the human resources department at your job, because your employer is on the hook for your health care costs — not the insurer.
Of course, there’s no guarantee your employer will agree to pay. But, at the very least, it’s worth reaching out for help.
6. Find an advocate.
Many states operate free consumer assistance programs, available by phone or email, which can help you file an appeal. They can explain your benefits and may intervene if your insurance company isn’t complying with requirements.
Beyond that, some nonprofit advocacy groups, such as the Patient Advocate Foundation, might help. On the foundation’s website is guidance about what to include in an appeal letter. For those battling severe disease, foundation staffers can work with you one-on-one to fight a denial.
7. Make noise.
We’ve written about this before. Sometimes, when patients and doctors shame insurers online, denials get overturned.
The same holds when patients contact lawmakers. State laws regulate some categories of health insurance, and when it comes to setting policy, state lawmakers have the power to hold insurance companies accountable.
Reaching out to your legislator isn’t guaranteed to work, but it might be worth a shot.
Finally, if you’re interested in sharing your experiences with a journalist, fill out this form. We’d like to hear from you.
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
This story can be republished for free (details).
Hollow Knight: Silksong isn’t a linear adventure by any stretch of the imagination. It expects you to explore thoroughly as you chart your path through its perilous maps. Doing so will sometimes lead you to some unique NPCs who ask you to complete quests known as Wishes, such as the Seamstress you’ll encounter in the Far Fields. This character will assign you the Flexile Spine Wish, tasking you with finding 25 Spine Cores. Luckily, you won’t have to make too long a journey to collect these items.
To collect Spine Cores, you must find enemies known as Hokers, which look like floating white balls with a green beard and spikes. If you leave the Seamstress’s home and head to the right, you can move through some rooms filled with plenty of these enemies, so you won’t have to travel far to get what you need.
However, instead of focusing on killing these enemies, your goal is to harvest their spikes. Each time you hit them, they’ll fire off spikes that will stick to nearby surfaces. You can then strike these spikes to make them drop an orb containing a Spine Core. Do this 25 times, and you’ll have everything you need.
Each Hoker can take three hits before they die. The trick to getting the most bang for your buck is to hit them one time and wait for them to regenerate spikes again. If you hit them before they regenerate spikes, you’ll ultimately end up with fewer Spine Cores from that Hoker.
Additionally, beware that the spikes Hokers fire out will disappear after a few moments, so make quick work of them to ensure you aren’t missing out on the Spine Cores within.
Once you’ve collected all 25 Spine Cores, return to the Seamstress to earn your reward, which is the Drifter’s Coat. This upgrade lets you glide after a jump, and it’ll allow you to ride the air currents you’ve probably seen around the area. Now, you can explore even further than ever before.
There are plenty more Wishes to finish throughout your journey. For instance, if you haven’t finished the Berry Picking Wish, check out where to find 3 Mossberries in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
A toxic protein forms dynamic pores in the membranes of brain cells – and that may be the key to understanding how Parkinson’s disease develops. This is the conclusion of a new study from Aarhus University, where researchers have developed an advanced method to track molecular attacks in real time.
Parkinson’s disease often begins subtly. A slight tremor in the hand. A bit of stiffness. But over time, brain cells begin to die, and the symptoms worsen. The cause has long remained a mystery – but scientists may now be a step closer to an explanation.
At the center of attention is the protein α-synuclein, which plays a role in cell-to-cell communication in the healthy brain. In Parkinson’s, however, it starts to behave abnormally and clumps into toxic structures.
Until now, most research has focused on the large aggregates known as fibrils, which are visible in brain tissue from patients with Parkinson’s. But a new study focuses on smaller, less understood, and more toxic structures: α-synuclein oligomers. According to the researchers, these are the ones that drill microscopic holes in the membranes of nerve cells.
The study was recently published in the prestigious journal ACS Nano, published by the American Chemical Society.
Tiny revolving doors in the cells
“We are the first to directly observe how these oligomers form pores – and how the pores behave,” says Mette Galsgaard Malle, postdoctoral researcher at both Aarhus University and Harvard University.
The process unfolds in three steps. First, the oligomers attach to the membrane, especially at curved regions. Then they partially insert themselves into the membrane. Finally, they form a pore that allows molecules to pass through and potentially disrupt the cell’s internal balance.
But these are not static holes. The pores constantly open and close like tiny revolving doors.
“This dynamic behavior may help explain why the cells don’t die immediately,” says Bo Volf Brøchner, PhD student and first author of the study. “If the pores remained open, the cells would likely collapse very quickly. But because they open and close, the cell’s own pumps might be able to temporarily compensate.”
Molecular movie in slow motion
This is the first time such pore dynamics have been observed in real time. It was made possible by a newly developed single-vesicle analysis platform that allows researchers to follow interactions between individual proteins and individual vesicles.
Vesicles are small artificial bubbles that mimic cell membranes and serve as simplified models of real cells.
“It’s like watching a molecular movie in slow motion,” explains Mette Galsgaard Malle. “Not only can we see what happens – we can also test how different molecules affect the process. That makes the platform a valuable tool for drug screening.”
Long road to treatment
In fact, the team has already tested nanobodies – small antibody fragments – developed to specifically bind these oligomers. They show promise as highly selective diagnostic tools. However, as a treatment, there is still some way to go.
“The nanobodies did not block the pore formation,” says Bo Volf Brøchner. “But they may still help detect oligomers at very early stages of the disease. That’s crucial, since Parkinson’s is typically diagnosed only after significant neuronal damage has occurred.”
The study also shows that the pores are not formed randomly. They tend to emerge in specific membrane types – especially those resembling the membranes of mitochondria, the cell’s energy factories. This could indicate that the damage begins there.
One step at a time
However, the researchers emphasise that the study was conducted in model systems – not in living cells. The next step will be to replicate the findings in biological tissue, where more complex factors come into play.
“We created a clean experimental setup where we can measure one thing at a time. That’s the strength of this platform,” says Mette Galsgaard Malle. “But now we need to take the next step and investigate what happens in more complex biological systems.”
The Centre for Development of Intellectual Property and Research (CDIPR) is a premier institution established as India’s First Non-Governmental Research Organisation dedicated to Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Operating under the Naovina Development of Intellectual Property and Research Foundation as a registered Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), CDIPR is dedicated to promoting and protecting Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) within India, thereby fostering a conducive environment for innovation and creativity.
In today’s global landscape, where intellectual property serves as a cornerstone for economic growth, technological advancement and cultural development, CDIPR plays a pivotal role in driving forward-thinking policies, research and education. We are a community, Connecting 2200+ Members & 12,300+ Global Academicians on Intellectual Property Rights. Please visit our website for more details.
The International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Digital Governance, 2025 is a landmark International Academic and Policy Conference Organised by the Centre for Development of Intellectual Property and Research (CDIPR), Naovina Development of Intellectual Property and Research Foundation in collaboration with the Access Now, EU and the Centre for Democracy & Technology (CDT), USA.
This conference is a multidisciplinary global platform to interrogate, evaluate and reimagine the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence (AI), digital rights, cybersecurity, and governance frameworks. It brings together engineers, legal scholars, social scientists, technologists, policymakers, economists, civil society leaders and students across disciplines to reflect upon how AI systems, digital infrastructures, and governance models are reshaping societies and democracies worldwide.
At the heart of this conference lies a recognition in a world increasingly mediated by algorithms, automated decision-making, data-driven governance and AI-powered innovation, there is an urgent need to examine how to ensure transparency, fairness, accountability and inclusivity in the design and deployment of these technologies.
This is especially critical for developing and Global South economies, where technology adoption often outpaces legal and ethical frameworks.
Participants are invited to submit papers engaging with the following thematic tracks:
The conference will be conducted virtually to allow accessible participation across geographies. Selected authors will present their papers in live sessions before an international audience comprising scholars, professionals, industry leaders and policy experts.
Selected contributors will receive:
(To be published and distributed across 15 nations, with DoI, international editorial and institutional collaboration.)
Each submission must include a concise abstract not exceeding 300 words summarising the core ideas of the paper with 5 keywords.
Papers may have up to two authors.
For direct communication, email us at: [email protected].
Disclaimer: WEF April, 2021, Lawctopus will not publish any ‘Call for Papers/Blogs’ by journals that charge money at the time of submission. If you find any journal doing so, please intimate us at tanuj.kalia[at]lawctopus.com
Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women worldwide and the most common cancer diagnosed in American women, per the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Per the report, it is a leading cause of cancer death in less developed countries and the second leading cause of cancer death in American women. Meanwhile, as per the ICMR- National Cancer Registry Programme (NCRP) data, the estimated number of incidence of cancer cases in India for 2025 is 15,69,793.
Also Read | AIIMS gastroenterologist shares 8 powerful ways to lower cancer risk: Limit meat, maintain weight, choose healthy oils
Therefore, educating oneself about this type of cancer, especially for women, is essential. In an Instagram post shared on July 11, Dr Lauren Ramsey, breast cancer surgeon, MD, shared some key facts that every woman should know:
Captioned, “Advice I would give you as a breast cancer surgeon if I wasn’t afraid of hurting your feelings,” the breast cancer surgeon highlighted these 4 important details:
1. The breast cancer surgeon pointed out that only about 5-10 percent of breast cancers are linked to inherited mutations like BRCA. However, you should still get regular screenings even if you don’t have a family history.
2. The surgeon highlighted that breast cancer doesn’t always come with a lump. In fact, skin changes, nipple discharge, swelling, or subtle pain can be signs too. “Know what’s normal for you,” she advised.
3. “Dense breast tissue makes breast cancer harder to detect,” the breast cancer surgeon warned. “It’s common and normal, but it may require additional imaging. Ask if your breast density is noted on your mammogram,” she added.
According to Radiologyinfo.org, mammography is specialised medical imaging that uses a low-dose X-ray system to see inside the breasts. It aids in the early detection and diagnosis of breast diseases in women.
4. Lastly, she highlighted that the lifestyle changes people talk about really do make a difference. She suggested limiting alcohol and processed foods and increasing daily movement is a great place to start.
Per PubMed Central, diet, physical activity, smoking, alcohol use, and vitamin and mineral use are key factors influencing the risk of breast cancer among women. Since breast cancer has a high rate of mortality and morbidity among women, it is logical to try to find ways to decrease the risk of developing breast cancer using easy, effective, and economical lifestyle changes.
Note to readers: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice.
U.S. lawmakers clashed with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over his changes to the country’s vaccine policy and oversight of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including the recent ouster of director Susan Monarez.
Several members of the Senate Finance Committee called for Kennedy’s resignation at a hearing Thursday amid turmoil at the CDC after Monarez was ousted less than a month after taking the job. In an op-ed published Thursday, Monarez said she was fired for refusing to preemptively sign off on recommendations from Kennedy’s hand-picked vaccine advisory panel, which is set to meet next month.
When questioned on Monarez’s firing by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the committee’s senior Democrat, Kennedy accused her of lying. “I did not say that to her, and I never had a private meeting with her,” Kennedy said. “Other witnesses to every meeting that we have, and all those witnesses will say, I never said that.”
Monarez’s firing, and subsequent resignation by other senior agency scientists, were cited as evidence of the chaos of Kennedy’s leadership, which has included layoffs of thousands of employees at the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health. (Hundreds of workers were later reinstated at the CDC and at the NIH.)
Nearly two dozen health advocacy groups released a letter Wednesday calling for Kennedy’s resignation. The departure of senior CDC leaders was the “final exclamation point on a term defined by repeated efforts to undermine science and public health,” they wrote.
There was even criticism by senators from President Donald Trump’s own party, including Bill Cassidy, R-La., who provided the key vote to confirm Kennedy to the role, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
“I don’t see how you go over four weeks from a public health expert with unimpeachable scientific credentials, a long time champion of [Make America Healthy Again] values, a caring and compassionate and brilliant microbiologist, and four weeks later, fire her because, at least the public reports say, because she refused to fire people that work for her,” Tillis said.
Senators also criticized Kennedy for replacing previous members of the CDC vaccines committee, citing conflicts of interest. The panel has now “lost scientific credibility,” Wyden said.
Many of the new panelists have either been critical of or lack expertise in vaccines, and heavily questioned the evidence supporting COVID-19 shots during their first meeting in June. The committee also resurrected an old debate around a vaccine preservative that has long been targeted by vaccine skeptics.
Previous members of the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, known as ACIP, have called for an alternative to the group, while the American Academy of Pediatrics, which is a regular participant in the ACIP process, broke from the agency’s recommendations and released its own childhood vaccination guidelines.
During the hearing, Kennedy claimed AAP is “gravely conflicted.” He has said the group receives money from vaccine makers, although in a prior post to X he referred instead to the group’s associated philanthropy Friends of Children Fund.
Cassidy questioned the new ACIP members’ conflicts of interest, noting some received revenue for serving as witnesses in litigation against vaccine makers. When asked if Kennedy saw this as a conflict of interest, Kennedy said no.
“It may be a bias, and that bias, if disclosed, is OK,” Kennedy said.
A recent study found financial conflicts of interest among ACIP members has been low, with an average of 6.2% since 2016 — far lower than Kennedy’s claim of 97%.
Experts and Senators worry the new panel could rescind vaccine recommendations even further. A meeting scheduled this month is set to feature discussions on vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, hepatitis B and COVID-19.
“We’re seeing deaths from children from measles — we haven’t seen that in two decades. We’re seeing that under your watch. You are a hazard to the health of the American people. I think that you ought to resign, and if you don’t resign, the President of the United States who put forward Operation Warp Speed, which worked, should fire you,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.
Among other changes to vaccine policy, Kennedy defunded more than $500 million in contracts for research and development on messenger RNA vaccines, the same technology that enabled Pfizer and Moderna to quickly develop safe and effective COVID shots during Operation Warp Speed under Trump’s first term.
Kennedy has regularly claimed mRNA vaccines are not safe or effective, despite many studies proving otherwise. Over the weekend, Trump called on Pfizer and Moderna to make their data public, even though results from dozens of studies testing their shots have been published in medical journals and presented publicly. In statements in response, both companies defended their products. Pfizer went further, saying the success of Trump’s Operation Warp Speed “would typically be worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize, given its significant impact.”
“Is Trump and the medical community right, or are you right?” Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., asked Kennedy during the hearing.
“You’ve got the entire medical community on one side. You’ve got the [American Medical Association] representing hundreds of thousands of doctors, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, all of these organizations are telling us that the COVID vaccine and vaccines in general are safe and effective,” Sanders added. “You are casting doubt on that.”
It’s been a dynamic month across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, with fresh data from Cotality’s August Cordell Construction Monthly revealing a surge in project activity, and some compelling signals for homebuilders and investors alike.
In Sydney, there has been a strong uptick in mixed-use developments.
The $105 million Elizabeth Street project and the $99.6 million Grand Hotel redevelopment in Warwick Farm are prime examples of how residential, hospitality, and community spaces are converging.
For investors, these signals growing demand for lifestyle-driven precincts and opportunities to tap into high-yield accommodation assets.
Melbourne’s momentum is equally impressive.
According to Cotality, the $100 million East Village build-to-rent precinct in Bentleigh East is a standout, reflecting the city’s push toward long-term rental solutions.
With a new boutique office tower in Richmond also in play, developers should note the appetite for premium commercial spaces that blend heritage with sustainability.
Melbourne’s master-planned communities and early learning infrastructure projects also offer fertile ground for family-focused housing.
Southeast Queensland continues to shine, with Southport’s $300 million mixed-use precinct and Caloundra’s $300 million triple-tower development leading the charge.
Residential towners in Wynnum and South Brisbane also point to strong demand for medium-density living with shared amenities – which could be ideal for young professionals and downsizers.
Cotality’s data doesn’t just track projects, it tells a story and it’s a story of shifting demographics, evolving buyer preferences, and the rise of integrated living.
For those of us in development, it’s a roadmap to smarter decisions and sharper investment strategies.
Dolby’s latest HDR evolution promises smarter TVs, but as is the case with everything else these days, it crams AI into its feature set. Your content might look great with Dolby Vision 2, but the tech behind its Content Intelligence system is rather invasive.
Dolby Vision 2 brings new tools for studios and TV productions that let them achieve greater picture quality, especially on high-end TVs. The standard uses dynamic metadata to identify the Dolby Vision-compatible display it’s connected to and adjusts the video signal to best use what the specific screen can do.
The dynamic data also contains instructions that further tweak the signal based on various scenes, shots, or even specific frames. As a result, you get color and exposure-accurate video as close to the director’s original intent, tuned specifically to your TV’s display. It also introduces a brand new image engine—the underlying software that processes video content based on the included metadata.
Apart from jazzing up video quality on your TV, Dolby Vision 2 also includes Content Intelligence. This is a set of tools for content producers to “authentically and automatically” optimize your TV to present a more realistic and better-looking picture based on what and where you’re watching your content.
At the time of writing, Dolby supports the following features under Content Intelligence:
While I have no doubt these features will result in amazing picture quality on just about every Dolby Vision 2 compatible TV, the standard has to constantly monitor what you’re watching in order to optimize your content. And that’s where it gets concerning.
Dolby’s announcement doesn’t explain how exactly Dolby Vision 2 will optimize content automatically. However, it will need to constantly monitor what you’re watching and combine it with any sensor data received from your TV to achieve the results Dolby is bragging about. Since it’s an AI-powered system, the data collection and analysis can go deeper than you think.
Unlike simple data collection, AI systems can collect more sensitive information, like viewing patterns. Dolby Vision 2’s AI systems can just as easily analyze viewing behavior to build detailed psychological profiles.
You see, smart TVs already have features such as Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) that scan everything playing on your screen. You can stop your Smart TV from tracking you with certain tweaks, but the behavior already exists. And if you’re wondering whether the personalized ads on your TV are getting too accurate, that’s because LG Smart TVs use AI to track your emotions.
Additionally, no information on what AI system is powering the Content Intelligence suite of features was shared. Dolby hasn’t shared any information on how this data will be collected, analyzed, or stored either.
We’ll have to wait until Dolby Vision 2-compatible TVs and content start rolling out to get answers. Until then, Dolby’s invasive approach to improving image quality is sure to upset anyone looking out for their privacy.
Lonely Island member Jorma Taccone shattered his pelvis and detached his sacrum after a recent fall from a 20-foot ladder at his farmhouse in Connecticut.
The “Saturday Night Live” alum recounted the incident from his hospital bed during Tuesday’s episode of the “Lonely Island & Seth Meyers” podcast.
“There’s a barn, and the back half of the barn has a big white wall. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is great. We can do a big mural,’” the comedian said to his co-hosts Meyers, Akiva Schaffer and Andy Samberg. “The mural would be very, very large at the top. The apex of this barn is like 25 feet.”
Taccone said that he borrowed ladders, including one that his neighbor described as “bad.” As in, “you shouldn’t use this ladder. Like, it doesn’t have a footing thing. And I was like, ‘No, it’s really good.‘”
Taccone was using the ladder to hang lights around the barn to highlight the mural when he fell 20 feet onto his butt.
“I literally have enough time as I’m falling to be like, ‘I’m going to die,’” he said.
The accident was on Aug. 31, his daughter’s fifth birthday, according to Us Weekly. “It wasn’t the coolest way to start the day,” Taccone said.
Two days post-surgery, Taccone said the doctors expect him to walk again within three to six months.
“It’s been a really scary week, and we’re glad that you didn’t hit your head and that you’re not dead,” Schaffer said.
There was only one question left: How long do the hosts have before they can poke fun at the accident?
“I mean, don’t you think it should be instantaneous?” Taccone quipped.
Taccone’s film “Over Your Dead Body,” which he directed, was recently acquired by IFC in May, according to Deadline. The theatrical release date is yet to be determined.
In one paper Eleos AI published, the nonprofit argues for evaluating AI consciousness using a “computational functionalism” approach. A similar idea was once championed by none other than Putnam, though he criticized it later in his career. The theory suggests that human minds can be thought of as specific kinds of computational systems. From there, you can then figure out if other computational systems, such as a chabot, have indicators of sentience similar to those of a human.
Eleos AI said in the paper that “a major challenge in applying” this approach “is that it involves significant judgment calls, both in formulating the indicators and in evaluating their presence or absence in AI systems.”
Model welfare is, of course, a nascent and still evolving field. It’s got plenty of critics, including Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, who recently published a blog about “seemingly conscious AI.”
“This is both premature, and frankly dangerous,” Suleyman wrote, referring generally to the field of model welfare research. “All of this will exacerbate delusions, create yet more dependence-related problems, prey on our psychological vulnerabilities, introduce new dimensions of polarization, complicate existing struggles for rights, and create a huge new category error for society.”
Suleyman wrote that “there is zero evidence” today that conscious AI exists. He included a link to a paper that Long coauthored in 2023 that proposed a new framework for evaluating whether an AI system has “indicator properties” of consciousness. (Suleyman did not respond to a request for comment from WIRED.)
I chatted with Long and Campbell shortly after Suleyman published his blog. They told me that, while they agreed with much of what he said, they don’t believe model welfare research should cease to exist. Rather, they argue that the harms Suleyman referenced are the exact reasons why they want to study the topic in the first place.
“When you have a big, confusing problem or question, the one way to guarantee you’re not going to solve it is to throw your hands up and be like ‘Oh wow, this is too complicated,’” Campbell says. “I think we should at least try.”
Model welfare researchers primarily concern themselves with questions of consciousness. If we can prove that you and I are conscious, they argue, then the same logic could be applied to large language models. To be clear, neither Long nor Campbell think that AI is conscious today, and they also aren’t sure it ever will be. But they want to develop tests that would allow us to prove it.
“The delusions are from people who are concerned with the actual question, ‘Is this AI, conscious?’ and having a scientific framework for thinking about that, I think, is just robustly good,” Long says.
But in a world where AI research can be packaged into sensational headlines and social media videos, heady philosophical questions and mind-bending experiments can easily be misconstrued. Take what happened when Anthropic published a safety report that showed Claude Opus 4 may take “harmful actions” in extreme circumstances, like blackmailing a fictional engineer to prevent it from being shut off.
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The search marketing community today is remembering Alan Bleiweiss, a veteran SEO consultant known for his detailed forensic site audits, sharp wit, and tireless mentorship.
Bleiweiss passed away Aug. 22, but news of his death was only revealed publicly last night.
As I’ve written before about Bleiweiss, he was known for being selfless, friendly, insightful, caring, positive, helpful, and a true advocate for the industry.
Bleiweiss had been active in digital marketing since the mid-1990s, carving out a unique specialty in what he called “forensic site audits.” Since 2002, he built a reputation for digging into the smallest details to uncover technical and strategic issues that could impact how sites performed in Google’s search results.
Over the course of his career, he performed more than 60 “brutally honest” audits a year for medium and enterprise-level companies, with notable clients including NBC Universal, Disney, Petco, and the ACLU.
Beyond his client work, Bleiweiss was a prominent and generous voice in the SEO community. He regularly offered guidance on social media and industry forums, often challenging misinformation and calling for higher standards in SEO advice.
Here’s what Susan Wenograd said in 2017, when she nominated him for recognition in Search Engine Roundtable.
Kelsey Jones, another industry peer, said:
Bleiweiss was known for his no-nonsense approach to advice. He often warned peers about the dangers of oversimplifying SEO.
His philosophy centered on responsibility: only give advice when you have the experience and context to do so, and be clear about the limitations of your perspective.
Bleiweiss was most recently an SEO consultant at Alan Bleiweiss Consulting. He did SEO and web development for 30 years.
He was also formerly the Director of Search Services at Click2Rank, Senior Project Manager of Development and SEO at WebSight Design Inc., and Director of Web Development for ANT Internet Computer / Associates.
Bleiweiss also contributed many articles during his career and spoke at numerous conferences, including SMX Advanced.
When asked what he wanted to be known for in the SEO space, Bleiweiss simply said he hoped to be remembered as “that guy” – leaving us to interpret what that meant.
I had the chance to interview Alan in 2020, when I was at SEJ. You can listen to that nearly 90-minute interview in Sustainable SEO, Forensic Audits, Top Tools & More with Alan Bleiweiss.
I also did a special SEO “game show” with Bleiweiss and Jamie Indigo back in 2020. And I had no idea this video was online. Enjoy!
Wenograd first shared the news of Bleiweiss’ passing away via Facebook:
It breaks my heart to post this, but my dear friend Alan Bleiweiss passed away on August 22nd.
After many years of heart problems he had treated and fought hard to overcome, his body finally had enough. I’m grateful he passed peacefully – he deserved to, for all the peace and comfort he gave others when they needed it.
Alan was one of my closest friends, and a light in my life. It’s been surreal to grieve over a person who would normally be the first one I’d call when something like this happens.
His family has asked me to be the designated point person for handling financial contributions, and I’m honored to help.
I will be setting up a GoFundMe this week I will post here. All funds and donations should be routed there only.
Alan’s will also requested donations be made to Make-A-Wish – any unused funds for his end-of-life arrangements from the GoFundMe will be donated there by his family, in his name.
- Update: The Alan Bleiweiss GoFundMe is now live.
Dr. Pete Meyers wrote on LinkedIn:
“He was passionate (occasionally to a fault), knowledgeable, but the thing I’ll remember most is that he was generous without hesitation. He dropped everything to be with Dana and Ed during her last days, and he cared deeply about bringing the community together in any way he could, even when he barely had the energy to keep his own practice running. Our industry’s reputation can take a beating sometimes, but it holds a deep thread of generosity, and Alan will be sorely missed.”
Victoria Shepherd wrote on LinkedIn:
“So sorry to hear about the passing of Alan Bleiweiss. He was another great mentor and teacher, and I’ll always fondly remember the time he let me video record him doing an audit while Lisa Buyer and I carefully watched.
Alan was also behind the legendary Pubcon Epic Dinners, an event that brought countless laughs, smiles, and unforgettable moments to the SEO community.
He will be deeply missed. Sending love to everyone grieving his loss.”
Very sad to hear of the passing of Alan Bleiweiss. He was very kind to me when I was beginning in SEO — something I’ll always remember.
In an industry where tensions run high at times, kindness is not a given, and it truly makes a huge difference.
Barry Adams wrote on LinkedIn:
If you’re in SEO and regularly perform in-depth SEO audits (and I don’t mean tool-generated reports, but actual data-gathering and analysis yourself), you probably owe a debt of gratitude to Alan.
His approach to SEO auditing and his sharing of knowledge and insights made the whole SEO industry better.
Back in 2016 when I met Alan for the first time at Pubcon, he very generously offered to share his SEO audit approach and template with me. That helped me elevate my own SEO auditing to higher levels.
Aside from being a superb SEO who helped push the industry forward, he was also a very vocal social media user who fought hard for causes he believed in. That got him banned more than once, but I couldn’t help but admire his outspokenness and passion.
I’m gonna miss him.
After losing 50 pounds on the injectable weight loss medication Zepbound, Kyra Wensley received a surprising letter from her pharmacy benefit manager in April.
Her request for coverage had been denied, the letter said, because she’d had a body mass index of less than 35 when she started Zepbound. The 25-year-old who lives in New York had been taking Zepbound without incident for months, so she was confused: Why was her BMI, which had been around 32 when she started, becoming an issue only now?
Wensley had no interest in quitting an effective drug. “Going right off like that, it’s easier said than done,” she said.
Her doctor fought to keep her on the GLP-1 agonist, the category that includes weight loss and Type 2 diabetes drugs Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. But Wensley ultimately had to switch from Zepbound to Wegovy to meet her plan’s requirements. She said she doesn’t like Wegovy as much as her old medication, but she now feels lucky to be on any GLP-1.
Lots of research suggests such medications must be used indefinitely to maintain weight loss and related health benefits. But with list prices of roughly $1,000 a month, public and private payers are struggling to keep up with ballooning demand for GLP-1 weight loss drugs and in some cases are eliminating or restricting their coverage as a result.
North Carolina Medicaid plans to end GLP-1 coverage for weight loss on Oct. 1, just over a year after starting the coverage. Pennsylvania is planning to limit Medicaid coverage to beneficiaries at the highest risk of complications from obesity. And despite recent reports of a potential federal pilot program to extend coverage of GLP-1 obesity drugs under Medicaid and Medicare, all state Medicaid programs are likely to be under pressure due to steep spending cuts in the budget reconciliation package recently signed into law by President Donald Trump.
Already, many GLP-1 users quit within a year, studies suggest — often due to side effects, high costs, or insurance issues. Now a growing number of researchers, payers, and providers are exploring deliberate “deprescription,” which aims to taper some patients off their medication after they have taken it for a certain amount of time or lost a certain amount of weight.
The U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which creates guidance for the National Health Service, recommends two-year limits on the use of some weight loss medications, such as Wegovy. And the concept was raised in a recent Institute for Clinical and Economic Review report on affordable access to obesity drugs.
A. Mark Fendrick, who directs the Center for Value-Based Insurance Design at the University of Michigan, has argued that if some people using GLP-1s to lose weight were eventually transitioned off, more people could take advantage of them.
“If you’re going to spend $1 billion or $100 billion, you could either spend it on fewer people for a long period of time, or you can spend it on a lot more people for a shorter period of time,” he said.
Fendrick’s employer, the University of Michigan, indeed does that. Its prescription drug plan caps coverage of GLP-1 drugs at two years if they’re used solely for weight loss.
Jamie Bennett, a spokesperson for Wegovy and Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk, declined to comment on the concept of deprescription, noting that its drugs are intended for chronic conditions. Rachel Sorvig, a spokesperson for Zepbound and Mounjaro manufacturer Eli Lilly, said in a statement that users should “talk to their health care provider about dosage and duration needs.”
Studies have shown that people typically regain a substantial amount of weight within a year of stopping GLP-1 medications, and that many people who quit ultimately go back on the drugs.
“There’s no standard of care or gold standard on how to wean right now,” said Allison Adams, an obesity and internal medicine doctor with UK HealthCare in Kentucky.
But the math shows why time-limited coverage is appealing to payers that struggle to pay for beneficiaries’ GLP-1 prescriptions, said Michelle Gourdine, chief medical officer for the pharmacy benefit manager CVS Caremark.
And states are “between a rock and a hard place,” said Kody Kinsley, who until January led North Carolina’s Health and Human Services Department. “They’re going to have to look at every single thing and trim dollars everywhere they can.”
Pennsylvania was looking for cost-saving strategies even before the new federal tax-and-spending law, according to Brandon Cwalina, press secretary for the state’s Department of Human Services. Pennsylvania projects it will spend $1.3 billion on GLP-1 drugs this year.
Plans could see real savings, Fendrick said, if they covered GLP-1s for initial weight loss then moved people to cheaper options — such as more affordable drugs or behavioral health programs — to maintain it.
Plenty of companies are eager to sell insurers, employers, and individuals on behavioral alternatives. One is Virta Health, which advertises its nutrition-focused weight management program as “a proven approach for deprescribing GLP-1s when clinically appropriate.” A Virta-funded study assessed 154 people with Type 2 diabetes who stopped using GLP-1 medications but continued following Virta’s program, concluding that their weight did not significantly increase after a year.
Researchers affiliated with a European weight management company also recently reported that slowly tapering off the medications may help maintain weight loss.
For employers and insurers, the “initial question” was whether to cover GLP-1s for obesity, said Virta CEO Sami Inkinen. “Now, basically, everyone’s coming to the middle and asking, ‘How do we responsibly cover these drugs?’”
Part of responsible coverage, Inkinen said, is providing other forms of support to patients who stop using GLP-1 medications, by choice or otherwise.
For some people, however, maintaining weight loss without a GLP-1 remains a challenge, even with other options available.
Lily, who lives in Michigan, lost almost 80 pounds in roughly 18 months on Wegovy. But she had to quit the drug when she turned 26 and left her parents’ insurance plan this year. The plan her employer offers stopped covering GLP-1s for weight loss right around the time she joined.
Lily, who asked to be identified by only her first name because she is not out to her family as transgender, has tried other medications since then, and previously tried lifestyle programs to control her weight. But she said nothing works as well for her as Wegovy.
She has regained 20 pounds since going off the drug at the beginning of the year and worries that number will continue to rise, potentially contributing to future health problems.
“Just give people the drugs,” she said. “It seems cheaper and safer in the long run.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
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Roblox has become a hub for crossovers and a growing metaverse of IP, and its next collaboration will see one of the most popular anime series of all time, My Hero Academia, land on its shores starting September 6. My Hero Academia: Ultimate launches that day and is billed as a PvP-focused MMORPG that will allow players to go on quests to unlock new abilities, level up their characters to get stronger, and use their powerful “Quirks” to climb up the in-game leaderboards.
Set in the world of My Hero Academia, the main goal is to become a Pro Hero while attending the superhero academy known as UA. The game looks fairly accurate to the My Hero Academia manga and anime source material, and the trailer briefly showed off characters like Izuku “Deku” Midoriya, Katsuki “Dynamight” Bakugo, Ochaco “Uravity” Uraraka, and the strongest hero of his generation, All Might.
According to anime streaming platform Crunchyroll, players can expect to battle in the PvP arena of UA Stadium, socialize in the All Might lobby, and visit other locations like the Musutafu Suburbs, Takoba Municipal Beach Park, and more. Exploration will allow you to unlock abilities and level up your characters when you take on various enemies. This tie-in comes just in time for the final season of the anime series, which kicks off on October 4, 2025, on Crunchyroll.
If you’ve never watched it, My Hero Academia is set in a world where almost everyone has gained unique powers, and this seismic shift in society has led to the rise of superheroes who protect the populace from those who would use their Quirks for crime. The series revolves around the Quirkless Midoriya after he is granted the power of All Might and he enrolls at UA, an academy where the next generation of superheroes train so that they can become professional protectors.
Fans of the series can also look forward to a new game in the future, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice. The 3D fighting game is planned to launch for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, and it features a massive roster of heroes and villains.
A simple brainwave test developed at the University of Bath has been shown to detect signs of memory impairment linked to Alzheimer’s disease years before clinical diagnosis is typically possible.
Published in the journal Brain Communications the study by academics from the University of Bath and the University of Bristol, reports that Fastball EEG, a three-minute passive test that records electrical activity in the brain while participants view a stream of images, can reliably identify memory problems in people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) — a condition that can lead to Alzheimer’s. This follows the group’s previous study in 2021 that demonstrated Fastball was sensitive to memory impairment in Alzheimer’s disease.
Crucially, the research team has demonstrated for the first time that the test can be administered in people’s homes, outside of a clinical environment. Researchers say this opens the door to wider screening and monitoring using accessible, low-cost technology.
With the development of the breakthrough Alzheimer’s drugs, donanemab and lecanemab, an early diagnosis is more important than ever before. The drugs are clinically proven to be the most effective in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Despite this, in England, it is estimated that as many as 1 in 3 people do not currently have a dementia diagnosis, delaying treatments, support and research opportunities to tackle the condition.
The study was led by Dr George Stothart, a cognitive neuroscientist in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. He said:
“We’re missing the first 10 to 20 years of Alzheimer’s with current diagnostic tools. Fastball offers a way to change that — detecting memory decline far earlier and more objectively, using a quick and passive test.”
How the test works
Fastball is a passive EEG test that monitors the brain’s automatic responses to images — without requiring participants to follow instructions or recall information. This makes it more objective and accessible than traditional memory tests.
Key findings:
Researchers say Fastball could be scaled for use in GP surgeries, memory clinics, or at home — helping deliver earlier, more accurate diagnoses.
Dr Stothart added: “There’s an urgent need for accurate, practical tools to diagnose Alzheimer’s at scale. Fastball is cheap, portable, and works in real-world settings.”
The study was funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences and supported by dementia research charity BRACE.
Chris Wiliams, CEO of BRACE Dementia Research, said: “Fastball is an incredible tool that could offer anyone who, for whatever reason, cannot access a dementia diagnosis in a clinical setting.
BRACE has been supporting the development of Fastball for several years, and we are excited to see what Dr Stothart’s team will achieve over the next few years with ongoing support from the charity.”
The Ministry of Education has released the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) Rankings 2025 on September 4, marking the 10th annual edition of India’s most widely followed institutional rankings. This year, a total of 267 law schools participated, with 13 National Law Universities (NLUs) making it to the Top 40 list.
As always, the rankings are based on parameters such as Teaching, Learning & Resources (TLR), Research and Professional Practice (RP), Graduation Outcomes (GO), Outreach and Inclusivity (OI), and Perception (PR). While the leaders have held their ground, there are some interesting changes in the middle order.
For the 7th year in a row, the National Law School of India University (NLSIU), Bengaluru has retained its position as India’s top law school. Known for its academic rigor, stellar placements, and strong alumni network across the judiciary, legal practice, governance, business, and academia, NLSIU continues to set the benchmark for legal education in the country.
Just behind NLSIU, National Law University, Delhi takes the second spot, while NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad comes in at third place. Together, these three institutions continue to dominate Indian legal education.
The NIRF Rankings are more than just numbers. They:
This year’s rankings highlight that India’s legal education is no longer about just a handful of elite institutions. While NLSIU, NALSAR, and NLU Delhi continue their dominance, other universities are steadily closing the gap. This growing competition is good news for students, it pushes institutions to do better in teaching, research, and opportunities.
Disclaimer: Law School Experiences are opinions shared by individual law students and tend to be personal and subjective in nature. The law school experiences shared on Lawctopus are NOT Lawctopus’ official views on the law school. We also do not edit law school experiences (except to ensure readability) to ensure that the author’s voice remains intact.
Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani, popularly known as King Giorgio has died at 91. His demise has left a void in fashion and he was single-handedly responsible for rewriting the rules of fashion. The designer was the archetype of Italian style and built a multibillion-dollar fashion empire. His fashion house released a statement soon after his death. “Indefatigable to the end, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to the company, the collections and the many ongoing and future projects,” the statement said.
The iconic designer died at his house surrounded by his loved ones. He gave a miss to the June 2025 Milan Fashion Week for the first time, and was planning a major event to celebrate his brand’s 50 years during Milan Fashion Week this month.
Indian fashion designers and personalities poured in their condolences for the icon.
This is such a big loss for all of us. His name has been synonymous with fashion. I had the fortune of working with him for two years for the launch of Armani Casa. I was his guest at the opening of Armani Casa in Milan, where I met him personally. I was in awe of his personality. Meeting him was the biggest highlight of my life. My first meeting with him was in the year 1994 at Oberoi Hotel and had a brief interaction in the hotel’s elevator.
Giorgio Armani’s passing marks the end of an era. He wasn’t only a master of elegance and restraint—he was the architect of how a designer could build a global brand. Armani created a business model that became a case study for generations: from Armani cafe, Armani Casa to multiple divisions under his name, he showed that creativity and structure can coexist at the highest level. For independent designers like myself, and even for conglomerates, his legacy is both wisdom and roadmap. Personally, for my study having lived in Milan and witnessed his vision up close, I can say his influence shaped my own path. His ideas, his craftsmanship, and his relentless vision will remain safe in history—and he will be deeply missed by us all…
The world has lost a true icon with the passing of Giorgio Armani. His vision redefined elegance and simplicity, leaving an indelible mark on global fashion. For me, Armani was the epitome of timeless style and creative genius, an inspiration whose legacy will live on forever.
Giorgio Armani, the maestro of timeless elegance, redefined modern fashion with his quiet confidence and pure lines. He gave the world a new order of style—where tailoring was softened, glamour became effortless, and jeans stood as a symbol of democracy in dress. Armani dressed presidents, film stars, and dreamers alike, yet his true genius was in making sophistication accessible. With his passing, we lose not just a designer, but a visionary who shaped how the world dresses forever.
Giorgio Armani is an absolute legend whose contribution to fashion is eternal. Bringing ease and fluidity to menswear, sophisticated androgyny to women’s fashion and being one of the first designers to build and nurture an independent fashion empire, his legacy is large and inspiring to generations of designers. I continue to be inspired by his focus and timeless elegance as he built his signature over decades.
As a young designer my only first big dream was to wear Armani head-to -toe. He exemplified quiet class in clothing, no logos sreaming what you are wearing. With time ofcourse newer brands came, but Monsieur Armani at 91 could still be seen at the end of the show walking tall though frail with age. Students in India in fashion in 2025 must read of his legacy his craft to understand my perspective.
The RDEP program follows Commissioner Marty Makary’s promises to expedite the development and review of rare disease medicines. But it also builds on years of work at the FDA that predate Makary, including 2023 guidance laying out how the agency expects companies to demonstrate sufficient supportive evidence with one primary clinical trial.
Peter Marks, who led CBER until his ouster this spring, had also pushed the agency to establish more flexible standards for cell and gene therapies that treat rare diseases.
“Drug developers — and the patients they hope to treat — deserve clear, consistent information from the FDA,” Makary said in a statement. “These principles ensure that FDA and sponsors are aligned on a flexible, common-sense approach within our existing authorities, and that we incorporate confirmatory evidence to give sponsors a clear, rigorous path to bring safe and effective treatments to those who need them most.”
The program comes with narrow criteria, however. Prospective applicants to it must aim to treat a disease that’s driven by a known genetic defect and affects fewer than 1,000 people in the U.S. The target condition must also lead to progressive deterioration in an individual’s functioning that causes significant disability or death within a short period. For a treatment to be eligible, there must be “no adequate alternative therapies” that change the disease’s trajectory.
For those drugs that meet the criteria, the agency will consider one adequate and well-controlled study as sufficient for approval, provided it’s supported by “strong confirmatory evidence of the drug’s treatment effect,” by way of data from non-clinical models, pharmacodynamic studies, case reports, expanded access or natural history studies.
“What the RDEP offers is the assurance that drug review will encompass additional supportive data in the review,” the agency wrote on a webpage detailing the program.
Drugmakers seeking to apply must do so before they begin the main study they expect will support their approval submission.
Applications will be reviewed by CBER and CDER teams, who will consult with a coordinating Rare Disease Policy and Portfolio Council.
Once accepted, drugmakers will meet with the FDA to discuss study designs and needed supporting evidence. The process could also include patient listening sessions “when appropriate.”
“While we are encouraged that the FDA is continuing to exhibit flexibility in evaluating gene therapies for rare diseases, it remains unclear what tangible impact the framework will have on the development process and approval timeline,” wrote Sami Corwin, an analyst at William Blair, in a Wednesday client note.
Corwin noted how companies like Neurogene, Rocket Pharmaceuticals, Ultragenyx and UniQure already plan to use single-arm studies to support approval applications for gene therapies they’re developing.
“In addition, given the restrictions on patient size for the program, most therapies in development won’t be eligible to apply,” she added.
Writing in a separate note, Jefferies analyst Andrew Tsai said that, even with the patient size restriction, the new program “should bode well” for rare disease drug developers.
Tsai speculated that a few drugmakers might be “emboldened” by the program to explore smaller indications that have clear disease mechanisms.
Key takeaways
Over 50% of Australian voters now rely on government money as their primary source of income, whether via wages, welfare, subsidies, or aged/disability care.
This is a massive cultural shift, not just a fiscal one; we’re normalising dependency, not empowering independence.
According to the Centre for Independent Studies, this dependency is underpinning the largest peacetime government spending surge since WWII.
As more voters become reliant on government money, political pressure builds to keep spending high.
Cuts or reforms become politically toxic, meaning governments are incentivised to expand, not shrink, programs.
We’re entering a “feedback loop” of dependency, which makes meaningful reform increasingly difficult.
There’s a quiet but powerful shift happening in the Australian economy, and it’s not getting the attention it deserves.
More than half of Australian voters now rely on government support for their primary income.
Whether it’s through public sector wages, welfare payments, disability support, childcare subsidies, or aged care funding, over 50% of voters are dependent on government largesse to get by.
That’s not just a statistic, it’s a warning light blinking on our economic dashboard.
According to a recent report by the Centre for Independent Studies reported by the Australian Financial Review , this growing reliance is fuelling the biggest public spending spree we’ve seen since World War II.
And it’s not just about cost.
In my mind, it’s about culture because we’re not just spending more, we’re building a system where dependency is becoming institutionalised.
According to the article in the AFR, Federal and state government spending has surged to 39% of GDP: well above the 34–35% range that held steady before the Global Financial Crisis.
And the major driver is social programs and the so-called “care economy.”
Let’s look at just one piece of the puzzle: the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
Originally envisioned as a compassionate support net, the NDIS has ballooned beyond expectations.
At $52 billion, it now exceeds spending on the age pension, defence, and even Medicare.
Add to that:
$14 billion a year for childcare subsidies (more than double the 2018 figure)
$90+ billion in total disability-related payments (NDIS + support pensions + carer payments)
A push for universal childcare that could add another $13 billion annually
Hidden off-budget items, including green energy investments and reduced student debt, totalling $104 billion over five years
This kind of fiscal expansion is unprecedented in peacetime.
The biggest issue here isn’t the dollars. As I said, it’s the mindset.
When more than half of voters depend on government spending to pay their bills, it creates a political environment hostile to restraint.
Politicians aren’t incentivised to cut spending or reform entitlements.
Why would they, when voters have come to expect more, not less?
As CIS senior fellow Robert Carling put it, we’re entering a “feedback loop”, a political and social system that rewards ever-growing entitlements.
Now don’t get me wrong, I believe support for those in genuine need is part of a civil society. It’s what we pay our taxes for.
But when support morphs into systemic reliance, we’ve crossed a line from empowerment to entitlement.
This culture of dependence has real economic consequences:
1. Rising public debt
As borrowing costs climb (no thanks to interest rates reverting to long-term norms), our ballooning debt will become harder to service.
Interest payments alone are expected to rise by almost 10% a year for the next decade.
That’s money that won’t be spent on productive investments.
2. Weaker productivity growth
Four out of every five new jobs created in the past two years were in the non-market sector: health, education, and public admin.
These roles are often necessary, but they don’t typically drive productivity gains.
More bureaucracy, less innovation.
3. Higher taxes on the horizon
With spending outpacing revenue, the inevitable question is: who pays?
The answer, as always, is the taxpayer. And that’s probably you and me
Whether it’s bracket creep, higher GST, or new taxes on investment, those creating wealth will be asked to carry a growing burden.
Now, you might be wondering, what does all this have to do with property?
Everything.
When a growing share of the population is reliant on government support, economic resilience weakens.
The government’s capacity to invest in infrastructure, housing supply, or tax reform gets squeezed.
At the same time, wealth creators, investors, business owners, skilled professionals, face higher taxes and tighter regulations.
The Albanese government’s ambitions include universal childcare, free TAFE, expanded Medicare, sound attractive on paper.
But they come at a cost.
And if those costs aren’t matched with reforms that lift productivity or unleash private sector growth, the result is slower economic momentum and more pressure on future taxpayers.
For property investors, this shift implies:
A more constrained fiscal future, which could reduce government capacity to stimulate housing.
More interventionist policies (think rent caps, land tax hikes, and regulatory creep) as governments try to “fix” affordability via levers that often backfire.
Increased reliance on immigration to prop up growth and demand, supporting long-term property fundamentals, but possibly straining infrastructure and housing supply.
As I see it, Australia faces a choice.
We can continue down the path of dependency, expanding government programs, inflating the public sector, and deferring tough decisions.
Or we can return to a model that rewards productivity, encourages self-reliance, and fosters economic resilience.
Jim Chalmers’ upcoming economic reform summit is a timely opportunity to ask some hard questions.
But let’s hope it leads to more than a reshuffling of subsidies and a few tweaks to the tax system.
Real reform means reshaping incentives, trimming bloated programs, and focusing government spending where it truly adds long-term value.
Because in the end, prosperity doesn’t come from what the government gives you, it comes from what you create, build, and invest in yourself.
Baseus is one of those brands I feel more people should know about. It always delivers excellent audio hardware at what can only be described as a bargain price.
And this year at IFA 2025, the story is no different. Baseus launched headphones, earbuds, and a really handy set of clip-on earbuds in collaboration with legendary audio outfit Bose, which should have some of the better-known audio brands worried.
Baseus’ brand-new audio products are the stars of the show, but they’re far from the only new tech the company unveiled at IFA 2025, with new portable chargers, security cameras, and more to complete its lineup.
I’ve used a few Baseus headphones over the years, most recently the Bowie 30 Max ANC—which I actually found a little underwhelming. They were priced well, and for that price, the ANC was good, but the overall sound quality didn’t quite hit home for me.
It’s safe to say that the Baseus Inspire XH1 is a huge step forward in almost every area.
First, Baseus collaborated with Bose to produce a new sound profile for these headphones (and the earbuds, which I’ll come to in a minute). The uptick in overall quality is immediately noticeable, with the Inspire XH1s producing a good, balanced sound.
I’ll slightly caveat that by saying I did have to go into the Baseus app and turn off a Bass Boost setting that’s turned on out of the box, but once switched off, I enjoyed the Sound by Bose audio profile. It’s slightly bass-forward, even without the aforementioned bass boost setting.
Now, Baseus has tuned this towards bass, with SuperBass 3.0 and SuperBalance 3.0, but with some EQ tweaks in the Baseus companion app, you can find a real sweet spot for these cans.
These headphones are also super comfortable. The Inspire XH1’s earpads are thick and plush, meaning you can keep them on for hours at a time. I’d like the clamping pressure to be a bit stronger, but they don’t slip off easily.
And that comfortable design is also a strong part of why the Inspire XH1 ANC works so well. The earcups fit nicely around your ears, creating a good seal. Then, the XH1s have five different ANC levels to choose from, plus presets for indoor, outdoor, business, and commuting, plus an adaptive mode. I’ve tried the ANC in a few different scenarios, and found it works well against most noise, drastically cutting down the background droning of a flight and helping me keep focused at home during the school holidays.
Battery life is another big plus point for the Inspire XH1 headphones. Baseus claims a 100-hour battery life, dropping to 65 hours with ANC on. Those are top-tier numbers for ANC headphones, especially at this price point.
On that, the Inspire XH1 headphones are launching in the US on September 4, 2025, priced at $150.
I’ve tried quite a few clip-on earbuds since this style really started to become popular. My favorite up to this point was the Soundcore AeroClip, which, in fairness, delivers where you’d expect from a Soundcore product.
With that said, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the Baseus Inspire XC1 clip-on open-ear earbuds. Like the XH1, these buds have been tuned in collaboration with Bose, and it shows. Open-ear earbuds are always at a disadvantage. It’s just a part of the design; you can’t make a seal around or in the ear, so some fidelity is naturally lost.
But the XC1 design does accommodate for this well, in a couple of ways. First, the XC1 clip-on earbud is long enough that the earbud itself rests close to my ear canal, projecting the audio exactly where it needs to go. Second is the 10.8mm dynamic driver and a supporting Knowles-balanced armature driver, which, in combination, deliver a powerful sound.
So, while the XH1 cannot provide ANC due to the design, I still found these earbuds able to block out a decent range of noise. Take a recent flight I was on. The background noise of the plane wasn’t completely removed, but I was suitably impressed with how personalized and focused the audio was.
In the Baseus companion app, there are custom EQ options, along with the same Sound by Bose default setting. This time, there is no bass booster option to toggle off. One handy feature in the Baseus Sound Settings is the Enhanced Battery Life mode, which boosts your listening time by turning off any audio enhancements. It pares back the audio a little, but gives you several hours extra play time when you need it.
I like that these earbuds are rated IPX7 for water and dust resistance. This means they can withstand water and dust to a high level, making them the ideal partner for sports and other outdoor activities. Oh, and they have wear detection, too—such a handy feature that I always feel is missing when earbuds or headphones don’t include it.
The Baseus XC1 clip-on open-ear earbuds are launching on September 4, 2025, priced at $129.
Baseus’ new audio hardware is completed with its new Inspire XP1 earbuds, a tidy set of buds that look and feel great.
Like the headphones and clip-ons, Baseus has worked closely with Bose to develop an entirely new soundstage for these buds, and it shows. They’re a little on the bass-heavy side for me, but again, with a few small EQ tweaks in the Baseus app, you can tune that back down and really discover what makes these buds worth buying.
What I really like about the Baseus Inspire XP1 is the fit. I didn’t have to spend ages fiddling around to find a comfortable listening position, which is somewhat rare. These were straight out of the box and into my ears, and just felt right. Baseus designed the XP1 with a huge range of ear ergonomics in mind. It almost sounds counterintuitive, given how many ears there are in the world and how different each pair is. But the time spent crafting these has paid off.
The battery life of these buds is also worth noting. You get up to eight hours of battery life per charge (with a couple of hours lost with ANC on), and an additional 45 hours in the case. It’s not best in class, but it’ll get you through a day. Add onto that the 2.5 hours of playback on a rapid 10-minute charge, and it’s a tidy combination.
The Baseus XP1 earbuds are launching on September 4, 2025, priced at $129.
I’m always keen to keep my devices charged up on the go. These days, who isn’t? It’s why the portable power bank and charger market has become so enormous. Baseus is launching two different portable power banks to help you keep going, and both have some interesting features that make them worth a good look.
The GX11 MiFi is a combined 67W power bank and portable MiFi router, designed to give both power and Wi-Fi wherever you go. It uses an eSIM and can connect to up to 150+ different networks. And while you’re connected, you can keep your devices powered up, or at the very least, you know the MiFi won’t run out of battery.
Alternatively, the new EnerGeek GT011 is a 45W Qi2-certified magnetic portable charger. While it has a lower overall capacity, its magnetic charging and second-generation wireless charging make it a supremely useful addition to your day-to-day backpack.
The Baseus EnerGeek GX11 launched on August 30, 2025, priced $120, and the Baseus EnerGeek GT01 is launching September 4, 2025, priced at $100.
Everyone travels with a charger in the car, right? Whether plugged into the 12V port or into a dedicated USB port, they’re a mainstay of every modern vehicle.
So I can’t be alone with the dreaded curse of USB cables running around the car, with multiple cables draped throughout the interior.
That’s exactly the problem the Baseus PrimeTrip VR2 solves. You can finally get rid of all of those cables, with a 240W retractable charging unit that you can plug into basically any car. Each cable can deliver up to 105W, and the base unit actually features USB-A and USB-C ports if you want to plug something in directly.
It’s handy, it’s portable, and it’s available to buy right now for $34.
Baseus goes from strength to strength with its audio hardware. As mentioned, the Inspire XH1 headphones represent a significant upgrade over Baseus’s previous headphones, offering a great budget-friendly option for those seeking high-resolution audio and exceptional battery life. They look great, too. At the moment, you’ll struggle to find better headphones than these for under $200.
This article contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “Wednesday.”
In a world where teenagers grapple with accusations of withering attention spans and a lack of motivation, Wednesday Addams managed to rouse from a coma and made the back-to-school scaries feel even more like a mind trip by … summoning Lady Gaga?
“Wednesday” returned for the second half of its sophomore season on Netflix this week, picking up right after Part 1’s ominous cliffhanger to reveal its moody teenage protagonist evaded potential death and that she was ready to dive back into the twisty world of deadly family secrets, monsterly situationships and friendship woes.
In the middle of the new threats and old mysteries are the show-stopping contributions from the pop superstar (and honorary mother to all outcasts, including her legion of Little Monsters, as her fanbase is called). Lady Gaga, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, made a roughly two-minute appearance as Rosaline Rotwood, a deceased professor at Nevermore, the school for outcasts that Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) attends, with second sight capabilities that trigger a Freaky Friday/body-swap interlude between Wednesday and her estranged friend Enid (Emma Myers). The multi-hyphenate artist also provides the song “The Dead Dance” to score what’s poised to be another social media dance trend akin to Ortega’s viral Season 1 moves to the Cramps’ “Goo Goo Muck.”
The Times spoke with creators and showrunners Al Gough and Miles Millar to break down the season. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
You know where we have to start: Lady Gaga. Tell me the origin story of this casting.
Gough: It all grew out of the viral dance from the first season. Some fan, who should collect a lot of money, put Lady Gaga’s “Bloody Mary” [over the dance] — because it was “Goo Goo Muck”— and suddenly the dance became its own, whole new thing. We’ve always been huge Lady Gaga fans. And if there was anybody who was the ultimate outcast, it would be her. We just started a conversation with her and her team … is there a way for her to be involved in Season 2? We found this character — because obviously, she’s very busy and touring — that could be a small role, but it’s an impactful one. Out of that grew “The Dead Dance,” a song that she had which we heard a year ago and loved it. They’re like, “She’ll hold it for the show.” And we were like, “Oh my God.”
Millar: When we heard the lyrics, it was almost like she had written the song for the show. And we had this moment in Episode 7, which we’d always planned — we never wanted to repeat ourselves with Jenna doing a dance — but it feels like music and the show and dancing are integral now. To not scratch that itch creatively in Season 2, I think the audience would have been so disappointed. So it felt like, how do we honor the incredible Rave’N dance in Season 1, which became such an iconic moment, but do it in a way that’s different and celebrate new characters? That’s why we came up with the idea of the gala and seeing Agnes [Evie Templeton] and Enid come together. They’ve been antagonistic, and it felt like a beautiful moment of female friendship and blossoming and this incredible Gaga song was just like the icing on the cake.
I was expecting a long courting process when you’re trying to get Lady Gaga — like, writing letters.
Gough: The process wasn’t fast, but it was always very pleasant and complimentary. Everybody wanted it to work. I think that’s where we were starting from, is everybody wanted it to work.
Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams and Lady Gaga as Rosaline Rotwood. (Helen Sloan / Netflix)
There’s a lot of discussion right now about gaps between seasons, and obviously there were some factors that caused the gap here — namely the strikes, but also other projects. How do you feel about that, especially knowing the fan base skews younger? Is it harmful to maintaining that relationship with the material?
Millar: We certainly never wanted a three-year gap. I think the show feels like an event movie, in a weird way, so I think people are prepared to wait, but it’s not ideal. It’s something that we would never want ourselves, as viewers. It’s been gratifying that people have come back in the way they have, and we definitely feel their love for the show, but we had obstacles in terms of getting to that place, coming back. No one’s to blame. It’s just the reality of the strike and everything else. Now the focus is coming back quicker. We rolled right from production into the writers’ room; now we’re rolling right into production [on Season 3 in October]. We’re definitely on a faster cadence, and that’s certainly the plan moving forward.
That said, as hopefully you see on screen, it is a huge show. We have over 3,500 visual effects shots. We’re still finishing [the finale] this week. There are still shots that are going to be dropped in that monster fight on the roof, the fight in the clock tower. The most complex visual effects in the show actually is Professor Olaf, which is the Christopher Lloyd character. But that takes a lot of time and trial and error to get to the point where I think the show looks as good as it does. Certainly our imperative is to get the show back faster; I know Netflix has that goal and wish as well.
Gough: Our goal is we’ve got to create the best show we can create. As Miles said, it takes us a certain amount of time. When you get in your head like that, you can’t actually do your best work. I can guarantee you that’s something that the Netflix marketing department thinks about a lot. They certainly try to keep fans engaged online and through other ways. And the Netflix Houses now that have those [fan] experiences. Can you translate that and keep engagement? You’re right, there’s a lot of shows and movies out there and you want to be able to stay in the zeitgeist in that time when you’re not in the zeitgeist. But for us, at a certain point, we just got to create the show, try to keep all the noise outside.
In the space between Season 1 and 2, Jenna was pretty vocal about not connecting with the character choices from the first season. I’m curious how you felt as it happened? And what has “Wednesday” taught you about how to work with actors and how to consider their opinions or perspective about the material?
Gough: We’re not going to speak to some of that because we’ve spoken to it in previous interviews, but I think our philosophy has always been — from “Smallville” on down “Into the Badlands” — it is a collaboration and a conversation with the actors. We always say movies is a party, but a television show is like a family. They have to feel ownership. We had that with Jenna in Season 1 — she read all the scripts, she gave notes. She’s continued to do that in Season 2. She’s taken a more active role in terms of being in production meetings and understanding the marketing perspective and just having all of that. She’s a generational talent and she’s going to have a very long career, and the career will be more than just acting. Actors are the keeper of the world and they have to be able to [understand] their characters. We’ll take a good idea from anybody. You just want them to be engaged and to have good ideas and be thinking about their characters. It’s something we learned from John Wells, who we met with very early on, before we started running “Smallville,” to get his advice. That’s what he told us. As a creator, you have to have the vision for the show, but you have to be open to these ideas and funnel them through.
Enid (Emma Myers) and Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) in “Wednesday.” Season 2 explores the growing pains of the polar-opposite friends: “The end of Season 1, Wednesday made a friend, but then it’s like, OK, how do you be a friend?”
(Netflix)
Is it fair to say you took some of it into consideration because there was less of an emphasis on a love triangle, at least with Wednesday? We really see things build in the friendship between Enid and Wednesday.
Gough: The thing is, if your first boyfriend turns out to be a monster, there was never going to be like, “Oh, I can’t wait to dive back into a romance” idea. The show’s been in our head for six years; it was always like, Season 2 was once bitten, twice shy, especially if you’re Wednesday Addams — or once bitten, twice stabbed. That felt like the natural evolution. Again, she’s not a character who was, even Season 1 [boy crazy] and it worked great. People were invested and intrigued and wanted to know. I can tell you from having daughters — because most times it’s portrayed as the girls are loving for the boys. That’s not true in every situation. With my two daughters, it’s the boys who’ve been way more interested in the girls, and then they eventually come around or think, maybe I’ll do it. If you look at Season 1, Xavier and Tyler were way more interested in Wednesday. Wednesday had no interest and any time she even delved into what you would see as romance — she went to the dance because she thought he was a suspect. Wednesday never does anything because she goes with the flow. She’s either backed into a corner or it’s going to help her in her larger case. Even in that love triangle, we never betrayed Wednesday. She was never starry-eyed for either boy.
Millar: That love triangle worked, actually, very well. It’s the dramatic backbone of the season and leads Wednesday — because I think Wednesday, as we like to say, is often wrong; she is someone who just is very headstrong, and I think that’s what makes her so intriguing, that she’s complex and flawed. That’s an interesting thing for teenage female protagonist, who often aren’t that. It’s the journey of a teen; with Season 2, we can change it, and Jenna was in an agreement with that. It’s been a very successful partnership in terms of the steering the course of the character, and where she goes and how she behaves and what she says.
What were you interested in exploring between the Enid-Wednesday dynamic in Season 2? And how did you arrive at the body-swapping idea?
Gough: The end of Season 1, Wednesday made a friend, but then it’s like, OK, how do you be a friend? That’s something that she is still very Wednesday [about] and she still has her preconceived notions of Enid, which is, “I can’t tell her the secret, I have to save her. I can’t include her — she’s weak, she’ll lose her mind.” She doesn’t think that Enid can handle it, so she doesn’t really see her friend. With Enid, it’s even the case with Ajax, and moving on to Bruno, which is Ajax saw her one way, and she’s not that girl anymore.
The body-swap episode was a way to explore that so that they could see [what it’s like] literally walking a mile in somebody else’s shoes — in this case, their bodies — and seeing what it is that they appreciate about each other. It’s an idea that’s sitting there — they’re so polar opposites and they’re both such good actors that they’ve created characters with such specific quirks and body movement and cadences and things like that. To then put the one in the other, it just felt like, why wouldn’t we do that?
Millar: We’ve had moments of real darkness this season; we just need to have an episode where the audience is going to have the best time and it be a great ride. I remember we were on set and it was the moment where Enid wakes up in [Wednesday’s] body and starts screaming. Jenna can scream nonstop. She was screaming all day, but it was so incredible to hear. You didn’t know who it was really. It was complete transformation. It was definitely a challenge. It was more than halfway through the season, they were tired and it was a real testament to their resilience and professionalism that they really just went for it.
Gough: They would record each other doing the line so that they could hear. They studied like two A students. They really put everything into it.
The Addams family plays a bigger role this season. From left, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Wednesday (Jenna Ortega), Gomez (Luis Guzmán) and Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez).
(Helen Sloan / Netflix)
You brought the Addams family further into the fold this season, particularly giving attention the mother-daughter dynamic between Morticia and Wednesday — their parallels, their tension.
Gough: The show‘s a comedy, it’s a satire, but it always comes down to [being] a family drama. Season 1 even went back Wednesday’s ancestor, Goody vs. Crackstone; then it was Gomez and Morticia vs. the Gates family. It all comes down to family secrets in this show. We wanted to expand that. The feedback we also got was people love the Addams Family and they’re intrigued by them because there’s no real mythology for the Addams Family. They didn’t have names until the TV show in the ’60s. Then you got a couple movies in the ’90s. People love them, but you don’t know much about them. For us, it’s great because it’s the opposite of “Smallville.” It is a clean slate where you can build the family tree. And we do it with the blessing of Kevin Miserocchi, who runs the Addams Foundation.
You got a taste of it in Season 1, with Morticia and Wednesday, and then you saw it in the Parents’ Weekend episode. But then the idea of Morticia is here, and what does that do? And the idea of this mother-daughter relationship, which especially in the teenage years, can be very fraught. They’re a lot more alike than they want to admit, on both ends. To take that very universal idea and relationship that a lot of people have experienced, but put it through the prism of the Addams Family with Morticia and Wednesday, and they solve their fights with swords and there’s more life-and-death sort of circumstances — that felt like a fun way to do it and a way to open up the show.
Millar: We really wanted to give Jenna some relief as well; she was in every scene of Season 1. It was a creative opportunity for us to explore different characters and to really expand the world of the show.
Thing, performed by Victor Dorobantu, and Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams in “Wednesday.” The rogue appendage received a backstory in Season 2.
(Netflix)
I loved getting an origin story for Thing.
Millar: The first thing you see of Slurp is this gloved hand coming out of the ground. We thought, “Oh, everyone’s going to know immediately; it’ll be the worst kept secret in Hollywood.” It’s been really gratifying because that’s such a great twist, if we could pull it off — it’s right in front of your face the whole time.
We talked about [whether Thing] should be attached to someone who is so evil. Obviously, he’s flawed. He’s often doing things for the right reasons; they’re sort of deranged reasons. But Isaac Night [Owen Painter] is a flawed character, but he’s also the noble genius as well. That was a debate. We had some other options we explored and went down the road with, but ultimately we thought it was this idea of transformation of seeing a zombie who then becomes human and the comic foil of Pugsley [Isaac Ordonez] choosing him like a pet dog, and then he starts eating brains — it just sounds so insane, but actually it make sense in the show.
Now I want to know the path you didn’t take with him.
Millar: We had a whole backstory for him, which is he was in a circus and he fell in love with a circus performer. It was a very much more sweet story, rather than this one, which is much more macabre, sort of inspired by Frankenstein, zombie movies.
What can you tease about Season 3? Will there be more Lady Gaga? Things ends with Enid being seemingly trapped in wolf mode and there’s Wednesday’s psychic vision of Ophelia, Morticia’s sister.
Millar: We’re in the middle of [writing] Season 3 now. Our lips are sealed. We can’t say anything, but obviously the end of Season 2 does set up that Ophelia will be coming to feature in Season 3. We’ll say that much.
By this time next year, will we have a Season 3?
Gough: I can’t say anything to that.
While there is a lot of work to do, Tedrake says all of the evidence so far suggests that the approaches used to LLMs also work for robots. “I think it’s changing everything,” he says.
Gauging progress in robotics has become more challenging of late, of course, with videoclips showing commercial humanoids performing complex chores, like loading refrigerators or taking out the trash with seeming ease. YouTube clips can be deceptive, though, and humanoid robots tend to be either teleoperated, carefully programmed in advance, or trained to do a single task in very controlled conditions.
The new Atlas work is a big sign that robots are starting to experience the kind of equivalent advances in robotics that eventually led to the general language models that gave us ChatGPT in the field of generative AI. Eventually, such progress could give us robots that are able to operate in a wide range of messy environments with ease and are able to rapidly learn new skills—from welding pipes to making espressos—without extensive retraining.
“It’s definitely a step forward,” says Ken Goldberg, a roboticist at UC Berkeley who receives some funding from TRI but was not involved with the Atlas work. “The coordination of legs and arms is a big deal.”
Goldberg says, however, that the idea of emergent robot behavior should be treated carefully. Just as the surprising abilities of large language models can sometimes be traced to examples included in their training data, he says that robots may demonstrate skills that seem more novel than they really are. He adds that it is helpful to know details about how often a robot succeeds and in what ways it fails during experiments. TRI has previously been transparent with the work it’s done on LBMs and may well release more data on the new model.
Whether simple scaling up the data used to train robot models will unlock ever-more emergent behavior remains an open question. At a debate held in May at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta, Goldberg and others cautioned that engineering methods will also play an important role going forward.
Tedrake, for one, is convinced that robotics is nearing an inflection point—one that will enable more real-world use of humanoids and other robots. “I think we need to put these robots out of the world and start doing real work,” he says.
What do you think of Atlas’ new skills? And do you think that we are headed for a ChatGPT-style breakthrough in robotics? Let me know your thoughts on [email protected].
This is an edition of Will Knight’s AI Lab newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.
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Apple is preparing its own AI-powered search engine. Known internally as World Knowledge Answers, it will debut next spring as part of a long-awaited Siri overhaul, Bloomberg reported.
The upgrade. It will go well beyond Siri’s current fact-checking. Apple’s new system will generate summaries that blend text, images, video and local results.
Behind the scenes. Apple will rely partly on Google’s Gemini AI model for its new search experience.
Why we care. Apple’s push into AI search could reshape how billions of queries are handled on iPhones. Visibility for brands and businesses won’t just depend on Google rankings – it will depend on whether and how Apple’s AI systems surface and summarize your content in voice and web answers.
The report. Apple Plans AI-Powered Web Search Tool for Siri to Rival OpenAI, Perplexity (subscription required)
After being announced six years ago, multiple delays, and years of anticipation, Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally releasing on September 4. Now, on Silksong eve, a resurfaced Reddit thread about the original Hollow Knight is a great reminder of just how far the franchise and developer Team Cherry have come in the past decade.
The thread, posted by Reddit user crazy_loop 10 years ago, includes a trailer for the original Hollow Knight prior to its release in 2017 and features a heartfelt message.
“Last year my best friend quit his full-time job to chase his dream and make a fully fledged video game,” the post reads. “Today he just released a trailer and it looks beyond amazing.”
In 2025, a new trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong would have set the internet ablaze, but back in 2015, the response was more muted, to say the least. Many players seemed indifferent.
The most upvoted response to the post stated that the game is probably “a fine game, but the market is currently saturated with side-scrolling platformers so I feel his game may not do as good as he hopes.” Another user said the game looked fun, but they “hate to be raining on a parade” and continued that Hollow Knight looked to lack the “innovation and individuality of something like Limbo.” They continued: “probably not going to be huge.” Yet another said the game looked “cliche.”
What a difference a decade makes. There were definitely people in the Reddit thread who disagreed that the market was “saturated” with similar games and recognized that Hollow Knight could be something special. Some even expressed interest in buying it based on the trailer. Overall, however, the general consensus seemed to be that Hollow Knight looked fine, but might have a hard time finding an audience. Some said it might get a decent sales boost from appearing on Reddit’s front page.
Flash forward to now, and Hollow Knight has sold more than 15 million copies, is breaking its all-time concurrent player peak on Steam, and its sequel is such a big deal that numerous other games have announced delays in order to avoid Silksong’s release. Not bad for the sequel to a small indie game that, judging from this Reddit thread, many expected to just be another drop in the metroidvania bucket.
Despite Hollow Knight’s huge success and wild anticipation from fans, Hollow Knight: Silksong will only cost $20, $5 more than the original. Silksong will launch on PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch, and Switch 2 (with a free upgrade for Switch 2 owners). It will also be a day one Game Pass release.
Certain brain cells are responsible for coordinating smooth, controlled movements of the body. But when those cells are constantly overactivated for weeks on end, they degenerate and ultimately die. This new observation made by scientists at Gladstone Institutes may help explain what goes awry in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers have long known that a particular subset of neurons die as Parkinson’s disease progresses, but they aren’t sure why. The new work, published in the scientific journal eLife, shows that in mice, chronic activation of these neurons can directly cause their demise. The scientists hypothesize that in Parkinson’s, neuron overactivation could be triggered by a combination of genetic factors, environmental toxins, and the need to compensate for other neurons that are lost.
“An overarching question in the Parkinson’s research field has been why the cells that are most vulnerable to the disease die,” says Gladstone Investigator Ken Nakamura, MD, PhD, who led the study. “Answering that question could help us understand why the disease occurs and point toward new ways to treat it.”
Too Much Buzz
More than 8 million people worldwide are living with Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative brain disease that causes tremors, slowed movement, stiff muscles, and problems walking and balancing.
Scientists know that a set of neurons that produce dopamine and support voluntary movements die in people with Parkinson’s. Many lines of evidence also suggest that the activity of these cells actually increases with disease, both before and after degeneration begins. But whether this change in activity can directly cause cell death is poorly understood.
In the new study, Nakamura and his colleagues tackled this question by introducing a receptor specifically into dopamine neurons in mice that allowed them to increase the cells’ activity by treating the animals with a drug, clozapin-N-oxide (CNO). Uniquely, the scientists added CNO to the animals’ drinking water, driving chronic activation of the neurons.
“In previous work, we and others have transiently activated these cells with injections of CNO or by other means, but that only led to short bursts of activation,” says Katerina Rademacher, a graduate student in Nakamura’s lab and first author of the study. “By delivering CNO through drinking water, we get a relatively continuous activation of the cells, and we think that’s important in modeling what happens in people with Parkinson’s disease.”
Within a few days of overactivating dopamine neurons, the animals’ typical cycle of daytime and nighttime activities became disrupted. After one week, the researchers could detect degeneration of the long projections (called axons) extending from some dopamine neurons. By one month, the neurons were beginning to die.
Importantly, the changes mostly affected one subset of dopamine neurons — those found in the region of the brain known as the substantia nigra, which is responsible for movement control — while sparing dopamine neurons in brain regions responsible for motivation and emotions. This is the same pattern of cellular degeneration seen in people with Parkinson’s disease.
A Link to Human Disease
To gain insight into why overactivation leads to neuronal degeneration, the researchers studied the molecular changes that occurred in the dopamine neurons before and after the overactivation. They showed that overactivation of the neurons led to changes in calcium levels and in the expression of genes related to dopamine metabolism.
“In response to chronic activation, we think the neurons may try to avoid excessive dopamine — which can be toxic — by decreasing the amount of dopamine they produce,” Rademacher explains. “Over time, the neurons die, eventually leading to insufficient dopamine levels in the brain areas that support movement.”
When the researchers measured the levels of genes in brain samples from patients with early-stage Parkinson’s, they found similar changes; genes related to dopamine metabolism, calcium regulation, and healthy stress responses were turned down.
The research did not reveal why activity of the dopamine neurons might increase with Parkinson’s disease, but Nakamura hypothesizes that there could be multiple causes, including genetic and environmental factors. The overactivity could also be part of a vicious cycle initiated early in disease. As dopamine neurons become overactive, they gradually shut down dopamine production, which worsens movement problems. Remaining neurons work even harder to compensate, ultimately leading to cell exhaustion and death.
“If that’s the case, it raises the exciting possibility that adjusting the activity patterns of vulnerable neurons with drugs or deep brain stimulation could help protect them and slow disease progression,” Nakamura says.
By Tanuj Kalia
Lawyers read a lot, perhaps, more than any other professional. Here are the must-read books for a law student in India (and I have shamelessly included my book ‘Law as a Career’ here).
Full disclosure: The links and images contain Amazon affiliate links which provide us a small sum of money every time you buy.
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Let’s get started!
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Fali S. Nariman is a well known name as he has been involved in many high profile cases. In Before Memory Fades: An Autobiography, he tells his own story, from his childhood to his days in the Bombay High Court and continues to present his experiences as he rose to higher positions.
Tomorrow’s Lawyers predicts fundamental and irreversible changes in the world of law. For Richard Susskind, best-selling author of The End of Lawyers?, the future of legal service will be neither Grisham nor Rumpole. Instead, it will be a world of virtual courts, Internet-based global legal businesses, online document production, commoditized service, legal process outsourcing, and web-based simulated practice.
Legal markets will be liberalized, with new jobs for lawyers and new employers too. This book is a definitive guide to this future – for young and aspiring lawyers, and for all who want to modernize our legal and justice systems. It introduces the new legal landscape and offers practical guidance for those who intend to build careers and businesses in law.
‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man falsely charged with the rape of a white girl.
The executive, the legislature and the judiciary are the three branches of government, both state and central, in India. Of these, it is the judiciary’s task to uphold constitutional values and ensure justice for all. The interpretation and application of constitutional values by the judicial system has had far-reaching impact, often even altering provisions of the Constitution itself.
‘An outstanding effort’ – Chief Justice Venkatachaliah ‘An extraordinary book’ – Fali S. Nariman ‘Unputdownable’ – Ashok Desai First published in 2001, Courts and Their Judgments soon became a pioneering work on the subject. It raised important questions on the functioning of our judiciary – questions that continue to be as relevant today.
What does it take to succeed as a law student? This book will show you how. Voted one of the top 6 books that all future law students should read by The Guardian’s studying law website*, Letters to a Law Student is packed full of practical advice and helpful answers to the most common questions about studying law at University across every stage of taking, or thinking about taking, a law degree.
Roses in December, the autobiography of M. C. Chagla (1900-81), is one of Bhavan’s landmark publications.
Chagla distinguished himself not only as a lawyer and judge but stood out in a few other fields of public activity. Rightly, he chose to record his aspirations and achievements, ideals and convictions, thoughts and experiences, for the benefit of posterity (as he himself has said). The book turned out to be a casket of wisdom, not to speak of the racy style of writing that made it gripping.
Indian judicial system has garnered worldwide fame through its historical and remarkable judgements and the hard work of its judges and lawyers rarely catches the glaze of common public. Legal Eagle tries to bridge this gap. Indu Bhan?s ‘Legal Eagles: Stories of top seven Indian lawyers? traces the story of the top seven lawyers in India. Lawyers, as we commonly perceive, are not just shrewd intellectuals but much more.
This book presents a compilation of 10 essays on some of the most influential judgments that were passed by the Supreme Court of India and proved to be life-altering for the common man and the democracy of the nation.
Nani A. Palkhivala’s name is a byword in India’s legal world. A man of many and varied parts, he has crossed with ease the law’s narrow confines and has gone beyond into numerous other fields. Palkhivala discusses many subjects – education and democracy; economic growth and social justice; socialism and taxation; crucial constitutional issues and memorable judgements; personalities and the law; nuclear proliferation and apartheid; and his experiences as the Ambassador of India to the U.S.A.
India, the sleeping giant of an economy – in the words of Lee Kuan Yew – is, at last, slowly stirring from its long night of slumber, drugged as it has been for decades with the opiate of socialism. This amazing subcontinent with its mosaic of colours, cultures, contrasts and maddening contradictions, always has, thanks to vast quantities of its own indigenously manufactured red tape and venal politicians, been held in thrall for so long.
One L, Scott Turow’s journal of his first year at law school was a bestseller when it was first published in 1977, and has gone on to become a virtual bible for prospective law students. Not only does it introduce with remarkable clarity the ideas and issues that are the stuff of legal education; it brings alive the anxiety and competitiveness – with others and, even more, with oneself – that set the tone in this crucible of character building.
Widely regarded as Dickens’s masterpiece, Bleak House centers on the generations-long lawsuit Jarndyce and Jarndyce, through which “whole families have inherited legendary hatreds.” Focusing on Esther Summerson, a ward of John Jarndyce, the novel traces Esther’s romantic coming-of-age and, in classic Dickensian style, the gradual revelation of long-buried secrets, all set against the foggy backdrop of the Court of Chancery. Mixing romance, mystery, comedy, and satire, Bleak House limns the suffering caused by the intricate inefficiency of the law.
A terrifying psychological trip into the life of one Joseph K, an ordinary man who wakes up one day to find himself accused of a crime he did not commit, a crime whose nature is never revealed to him. Once arrested, he is released but must report to court on a regular basis, an event that proves maddening, as nothing is ever resolved. As he grows more uncertain of his fate, his personal life, including work at a bank and his relations with his landlady and a young woman who lives next door, becomes increasingly unpredictable. As Joseph tries to gain control, he succeeds only in accelerating his own excruciating downward spiral.
The Firm is a legal thriller by John Grisham. It follows the story of Mitchell McDeere, a successful lawyer who was raised in the coal-mining region of rural Kentucky, and worked hard to pave his way out of menial labour and poverty. After graduating third in his class at Harvard Law, he marries his college sweetheart, Abby Sutherland.
Request: Lets make this list bigger and better. If you want to add a review of the book that you’ve read (on this list or not), please leave a comment below.
Note: This article was first published on 26 November 2023. We have updated and republished it on 4 September 2025.
The bedrock of your menstrual cycle is hormones. And if your body’s normal functioning gets disrupted, hormone levels get affected too, and they fluctuate, and in turn, changes are visible in your period’s flow, duration and pain. These changes can show up in many distinct ways. Identifying anomalies in your period can help you catch health issues early on, and you can take the necessary steps for treatment.
ALSO READ: Gynaecologist reveals 5 ways stress affects menstrual cycle: From heavier flow to missed periods
Dr Vaishali Joshi, consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai, told HT Lifestyle that a normal period usually arrives every 21 to 35 days and lasts for 2 to 7 days, with flow that may be light or heavy, and small variations from month to month are natural. Anything otherwise, including drastic changes or becoming too painful, needs to be checked by a doctor and shouldn’t ideally be dismissed as normal.
She said,“When periods suddenly become very heavy, irregular, or unusually painful, it may point to an underlying health issue. Paying attention to these changes is important because your cycle often reflects hormonal balance, reproductive health, and even nutrition.”
What are some of the warning signs you need to look out for? Dr Joshi revealed, “Very heavy bleeding that soaks pads or tampons quickly, bleeding between periods, missing cycles for several months, or periods lasting longer than a week are not normal. Severe cramps that interrupt daily activities are also a concern.”
What can these health problems be? These symptoms can be a clue to several health conditions. As the gynaecologist explained, they may indicate thyroid problems, fibroids, or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS).
While these abnormal period symptoms can be traced back to underlying health problems, they can also result in additional issues. Dr Joshi pointed out that heavy or continuous bleeding may cause low iron levels and reduced haemoglobin, which leads to fatigue and weakness.
Another cause of concern for menstruating women is irregularity. The gynaecologist, however, assured that for young girls, in the first couple of years, irregular periods can be normal. But older women who have been menstruating for a long time shouldn’t ignore irregular periods.
This is why medical attention is of utmost importance for any out-of-the-ordinary symptoms. Not only can the underlying causes, like thyroid, worsen if left untreated, but the additional consequences of these symptoms, like low iron level, may trigger a new set of health complications.
While medical attention cannot be replaced by regular home remedies, some practices offer gentle support to manage your symptoms daily. Whether it’s eating a nutrition-rich diet for a healthy flow or using heating pads to ease cramps, here are some tips Dr Joshi shared:
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Biohaven’s top executive said his team is well-prepared to sell a therapy that could be not only the first approved medicine for a group of rare brain diseases, but also the company’s first commercial product since it sold off its main revenue driver a few years ago.
After some delays, the Food and Drug Administration is set to issue an approval verdict on this medicine sometime between October and the end of December. If cleared for market, the oral drug would be sold as Vyglxia and used to treat patients with spinocerebellar ataxia, a type of genetic disorder where the progressive erosion of nerve cells causes problems with movement, coordination and brain function.
Pending approval, Biohaven would be “ready to ship on Day 1,” according to CEO Vlad Coric. The company already has in place a patient hub, nurse managers, specialists to negotiate coverage with insurance companies, as well as the “basic constructs” of a small sales team for Vyglxia.
“There’s a number of patients who are waiting,” Coric said on Wednesday, during a healthcare conference hosted by the investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald. “We’re ready to go. We’re just waiting on the FDA.”
Biohaven today is referred to by some as the “2.0” version of the original company, which made a name for itself developing and then securing approval for the migraine drug Nurtec ODT. Despite competition from the much larger AbbVie, which sold a similar drug, Biohaven quickly carved out a substantial portion of the migraine treatment market and was recording more than $450 million in annual sales from Nurtec by the end of 2021.
That success piqued the interest of Pfizer, which, in the spring of 2022, agreed to buy Biohaven for its migraine business. After that nearly $12 billion deal closed, the remaining pieces of Biohaven were spun out into a new company operating under the same name.
Coric envisions the Vyglxia launch being “very different” than its predecessor. It will be much smaller, more streamlined, cost considerably less and likely be accomplished with a sales team that, in size, is less than 10% of what the company deployed to sell Nurtec.
Additionally, Biohaven won’t have to worry about any direct competitors, as there are no other drugs currently available for spinocerebellar ataxia. “Thankfully, we’re not going to have the epic David versus Goliath, Biohaven versus AbbVie,” Coric said.
The commercial activities won’t be entirely divergent, however. Coric acknowledged that, with Vyglxia, investors should expect to see a “modern day launch” and some of the same themes that defined Nurtec’s debut. There, Biohaven ushered its drug into the zeitgeist through ads on racecars and TikTok, as well as endorsements from celebrities like Khloe Kardashian.
Coric estimated that, already, around 400 people are taking Vyglxia through so-called open-label and expanded access programs. Biohaven would work to “immediately convert” those patients upon the drug’s approval.
But the plan more broadly is to direct the company’s sales team at the roughly two dozen “centers of excellence” for spinocerebellar ataxia, along with another roughly 70 facilities specialized in movement disorders. Coric said that, of the 15,000 or so patients in the U.S., the “vast majority” are covered by these sites. Biohaven estimates about half of that population — between 6,000 and 7,000 patients — will be reachable at Vyglxia’s launch.
Coric also noted how some people might suspect they have this disease but not have gotten tested because there are no approved therapies. As such, Biohaven will be “pretty aggressively” sponsoring genotype testing to identify more potential patients.
Elsewhere, Biohaven still intends to secure approval in Europe. The company pulled a marketing application there earlier this year, after concluding a key regulatory committee was not going to give Vyglxia a classification that carries substantial commercial benefits. That classification is only for chemicals not previously authorized in Europe. Notably, Vyglxia works by breaking down into a drug already cleared in the U.S. and Europe as a treatment for ALS.
According to Coric, Biohaven gathered more data to help its case and has notified European regulators it expects to refile for approval.
Australia’s housing market is under pressure from many directions, but one of the most overlooked barriers is stamp duty.
Once a relatively modest transaction cost, stamp duty has ballooned into one of the biggest financial hurdles for homebuyers.
Just to give you an idea – in Sydney, stamp duty on a median-priced house has gone from around 45% of a household’s disposable income in 2000 to 120% today.
And it’s not just buyers who are suffering.
Stamp duty distorts housing decisions, locks people into homes that no longer suit them, and acts as a handbrake on productivity.
Today, I’m joined by Dr Nicola Powell, Chief of Research and Economics at Domain, whose recent report makes a compelling case for replacing stamp duty with a fairer, broad-based land tax.
Whether you’re a property investor, a home buyer, or just somebody who’s interested in the housing markets, I’m sure today’s chat with Dr Nicola Powell will give you a new perspective as I also want to discuss their latest report on who has profited from property over the last few years.
Links and Resources:
Answer this week’s trivia question here- www.PropertyTrivia.com.au
Everyone wins a copy of a fully updated property report – What’s ahead for property for 2026 and beyond.
Get the team at Metropole to help build your personal Strategic Property Plan Click here and have a chat with us
Michael Yardney – Subscribe to my Property Update newsletter here
Dr Nicola Powell, Chief of Research and Economics at Domain
Domain’s property profit and loss report
Domain’s Stamp Duty suggestions:
Get a bundle of eBooks and Reports at www.PodcastBonus.com.au
Also, please subscribe to my other podcast Demographics Decoded with Simon Kuestenmacher – just look for Demographics Decoded wherever you are listening to this podcast and subscribe so each week we can unveil the trends shaping your future.
Google features a lot of jokes and fun little secrets, collectively known as Easter eggs, around its products. While you might be familiar with Easter eggs in video games, they’re also present in software and other tech sources.
These Google Search Easter eggs don’t have any practical use, but they’ll make you chuckle when you search for something that brings up a goofy result. Try entering these into Google and seeing the fun for yourself.
The Did you mean line appears on the results page when your search has a typo or Google thinks you meant to look up something similar. Some of the best Google Search Easter eggs take advantage of this.
When you search “Alex Trebek”, the Did you mean suggestion asks if you meant “Who is Alex Trebek”. This is a reference to his longtime hosting of the game show Jeopardy, where all contestant answers must be in the form of a question, starting with “who is”, to be accepted.
Searching Google for “steamed hams” will result in it asking if you meant “steamed clams“. If you’re a fan of The Simpsons or internet humor in general, you’ll recognize this.
It references a short scene where Skinner’s plans to have his boss over for lunch are ruined when he burns the roast. He lies that the smoke in the oven is actually steam from the “steamed clams” he’s preparing, then heads to a nearby fast food place and tries to pass their burgers off as his own cooking. When he’s questioned about this, he clarifies he said “steamed hams”, which he claims are what he called hamburgers where he grew up.
While this episode aired in 1996, it became major meme fodder in the late 2010s, when “Steamed hams but…” videos started parodying it in every conceivable way.
If you’ve been to a wedding lately, you’ll know where this one is going. The Cha Cha Slide is a line dancing song, first released in 2000, that has become a staple at wedding receptions.
Googling it lets you dance along at home, thanks to the icons to the left of the song name. As you click them, you’ll hear the instructions like “to the left” and “one hop this time!”
Continuing with the pop culture references, Google also has an amusing reference for fans of The Office. Searching “assistant regional manager” will result in Google asking if you meant “assistant to the regional manager”.
This is a running joke early in the series, where Dwight calls himself “assistant regional manager” but Michael continually corrects this to the lesser “assistant to the regional manager”. Even Google’s AI overview seems in on the joke, though this is likely because the overview is getting its information on this term primarily from content about The Office.
I’ve mostly chosen Easter eggs that were new to me, but this is a long-running one I’ve enjoyed for a while. Searching for “recursion” brings up a Did you mean prompt for the same word, which might lead you to think you spelled it wrong the first time. But each time you click it, the page refreshes, which is the joke.
Recursion is when a process depends on a prior version of itself, like when a programming function calls itself or the “infinity mirror” effect when you share your screen on a video call and create dozens of smaller copies of it.
If you like this one, try “Groundhog Day” (one of those movies you can watch over and over, if you will) and see what happens!
The One Ring is the central object of the Lord of the Rings series, and has an Easter egg for anyone searching for more info about it on Google. A search for it will ask if you instead meant “my Precioussss”, which is how the character Gollum refers to the ring after being corrupted by it and becoming obsessed with it.
It’s one of the most famous lines from an excellent series of movies, so it’s well-deserving of this amusing suggestion from Google.
If you were online during the internet’s early days, you’ll remember many webpages with ugly fonts, scrolling text, and other near-unreadable issues. Searching for “blink tag” lets you relive one of these: the deprecated HTML tag that flashes text.
Text disappearing and reappearing is annoying and doesn’t work well with accessibility tools, so we quickly moved on, thankfully. But it’s fun to relive those early days in this small way.
I didn’t realize this until recently: when you search for a font by name, Google displays its results page in that font. Not all are supported, but many common ones are. While this is a fun discovery, it can also be practical (unlike most of these).
If you’re not sure what a font looks like, or want to see it in use without fumbling around in a document of your own, this lets you easily preview it. Another fun one related to this: searching “best font ever” brings up Comic Sans, the internet’s “favorite” font.
Ever feel the desire to see what websites looked like in the past? You don’t need any special tools to do this for Google. Search “google in 1998” and you’ll be treated to a recreation of what the service looked like the year it launched.
It comes complete with the exclamation point in Google’s early logo, the option to change how many results appear, and links to try your query on other long-gone search tools like AltaVista and Infoseek.
Everyone around my age will remember growing up with DVDs. While their often-unique menus bring a lot of nostalgia, nothing evokes that as much as the classic screensaver. Google lets you relive this by searching “DVD screensaver”.
Wait a moment and you’ll see the logo fly around the screen in that predictable pattern. Every time the logo hits an edge, it changes color. And of course, the big moment comes when the logo hits a corner. A small pleasure, but one that brings back simpler times for many of us.
If you love this bit of nostalgia, the Bouncing DVD Logo site lets you put one up on the screen for as long as you like.
A major exhibition in Hong Kong is honoring China’s united efforts in the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression which started in 1931. Co-organized by the National Museum of China and the Hong Kong Museum of History, it features the rare relics and interactive displays, highlighting contributions from Hong Kong and the rest of the country.
Two major digital platforms — YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV — have agreed to carry C-SPAN two months after the nonprofit organization made a public plea for wider distribution.
Changing industry economics have taken a toll on C-SPAN, prompting the U.S. Senate to urge streaming companies to begin offering customers the privately funded television service, which has provided nonpartisan gavel-to-gavel television coverage of congressional hearings and roll call votes for decades.
“All television providers, including streaming services, should make delivery of C-SPAN a priority so Americans can watch Congress in action, in real time,” senators said in their June resolution.
On Wednesday, C-SPAN announced separate distribution agreements with YouTube and Hulu + Live TV.
The agreements expand “access to C-SPAN’s unfiltered coverage of U.S. government for millions of subscribers nationwide, further strengthening the network’s role as an indispensable source of public affairs programming,” C-SPAN said in a statement.
C-SPAN stands for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network. It relies heavily on revenue generated from license fees paid by cable, satellite and other multi-TV channel operators. But as the number of traditional pay-TV homes continues to shrink, C-SPAN found itself running a troubling financial deficit.
Last year, C-SPAN collected $46.3 million in revenue, a 37% decline from $73 million in 2015. That’s largely because C-SPAN and other basic cable channels were available in more than 100 million homes 10 years ago.
Since then, the number of homes has been cut nearly in half.
The three C-SPAN channels — C-SPAN, C-SPAN2 and C-SPAN3 — will be added to YouTube TV’s base package of channels this fall, the companies said. C-SPAN video clips, archival programming and event coverage also will run on the main YouTube video platform.
In addition, Google-owned YouTube will sponsor the network’s coverage of “America 250” — the celebrations to mark the nation’s founding two and a half centuries ago.
“For nearly half a century, C-SPAN has partnered with cable and satellite providers who recognize the value of our important public service,” C-SPAN Chief Executive Sam Feist said in a statement. “We now look forward to working closely with YouTube to bring C-SPAN’s unfiltered coverage of the democratic process to millions more Americans.”
C-SPAN uses its own cameras in the Capitol, enabling the service to catch the action when government-operated audio and visual equipment is cut off.
Earlier this summer, Feist told The Times that C-SPAN should be able to close its budget gap if YouTube TV and Walt Disney Co.’s Hulu + Live TV would carry its feeds.
Around 20 million households subscribe to such online subscription platforms, known as virtual multichannel video program distributors, which stream broadcast and cable channels.
Times staff writer Stephen Battaglio contributed to this report.
New Delhi, September 3: Maruti Suzuki Victoris SUV has been unveiled today in India. The new model comes with a bold design. It has front-connected headlights, a panoramic sunroof and a fresh new look. The company said the Maruti Suzuki Victoris mid-sized SUV will be sold in 100 countries and offer safety, comfort, connectivity and style. Maruti Suzuki has added various features to its new flagship Victoris SUV, which is offered in three options: petrol, CNG, and hybrid.
The car will be sold at the company’s Arena dealerships across India. Maruti Suzuki Victoris comes with a five-star Bharat NCAP safety rating. The company has introduced this new SUV model in six variants: Lxi, Vxi, Zxi, Zxi(O), Zxi Plus and Zxi (O) Plus. Bookings open at INR 11,000 amount. Maruti Suzuki Victoris SUV Unveiled Today in India; Check Key Highlights About Features and Specifications.
Maruti Suzuki Victoris SUV comes with a 10.25-inch fully digital driver’s display. It offers a panoramic sunroof, wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay support, ventilated seats, AC with rear vents and 64-colour ambient lighting. The SUV comes with a large infotainment touchscreen. So, Victoris’ SUV has included a Level-2 ADAS (advanced driving assistance system), a 360-degree camera, and it achieved a five-star safety rating in Bharat NCAP crash test.
Maruti Suzuki Victoris SUV is available in the following powertrains: 1.5-litre mild hybrid petrol engine with 103 PS power and 137 Nm torque capabilities. It is mated with five-speed MT and AT transmission options. The 1.5-litre strong hybrid engine can generate 116 PS combined power and 141 Nm hybrid torque and comes paired with e-CVT (electronic continuously variable automatic transmission). The 1.5-litre petrol+CNG engine comes with a five-speed MT transmission and churns 88 PS power and 121.5 Nm torque. Hyundai Creta King, Hyundai Creta King Knight and Hyundai Creta King Limited SUVs Launched in India; Check Prices of Each Variant, New Specifications and Features.
On the front and rear, it comes with connected lights. At the rear, it gets a silver skid plate on the black cladding, and on the front, it has a horizontal grille with chrome accents. Maruti Suzuki Victoris has 18-inch dual-tone alloy wheels, black OVRMs and roof rails.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 03, 2025 03:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
Crypto advocates see things differently. They claim stablecoin rewards create healthy market pressure and could drive big banks to provide more competitive interest rates in an effort to keep customer deposits.
“To call this a trillion-dollar fight would be an understatement: This is highly fraught territory that banks have jealously guarded,” says former Republican Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, who served as Chair of the House Financial Services Committee until January 2025.
A study commissioned by Coinbase predicts a maximum decrease in banks’ deposits of 6.1 percent. Looking at community banks specifically, the report does not find a statistically significant effect on deposits under what it sees as likelier market-growth projections for stablecoins. Meanwhile, Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer and head of global policy at Circle, the issuer of USDC, has written that “today’s generation of successful stablecoins have increased dollar deposits in the U.S. and global banking system,” adding that the prohibition on interest from stablecoin issuers represents “a measure that would protect the deposit base.”
In the four years it took to push stablecoin legislation over the finish line, most lawmakers in Congress agreed that stablecoin issuers should not pay interest. “The drafters understood that [stablecoins are] a different kind of instrument: digital cash, a digital dollar, not a security instrument that provides a return,” says Corey Then, deputy general counsel of global policy at Circle.
In March, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong weighed in. On X, he suggested customers should be allowed to earn interest on stablecoins. He likened the arrangement to “an ordinary savings account, without the onerous disclosure requirements and tax implications imposed by securities laws.”
The rest of the story—as told by Ron Hammond, who recently worked as a senior lobbyist on behalf of the Blockchain Association, a prominent crypto industry group—goes something like this: Eventually, the banking industry agreed to a deal, which included the sought-after prohibition on stablecoin issuers paying interest. But the provision still left some room for crypto exchanges to provide users with a monetary incentive for holding stablecoins. Hammond says some crypto companies had hoped interest would be explicitly allowed, but prominent crypto groups were willing to agree to a compromise.
“The world of crypto, at the very least, was successful in getting language that opens the door for them to provide some type of reward that either is yield or something that resembles yield,” says McHenry, the former Chair of the House Financial Services Committee, who now serves as the vice-chair of Ondo, a blockchain-focused financial markets company.
The fact that banking industry groups are now sounding the alarm about stablecoins frustrates some crypto industry experts. “Raising concerns about stablecoin rewards at this stage feels disingenuous and overlooks the extensive debate that shaped the GENIUS Act,” says Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber, a crypto-focused advocacy and lobbying group. “Banking industry representatives were fully engaged throughout the process, alongside crypto stakeholders, and the final language, which permits stablecoin-related rewards offered by exchanges and affiliated platforms, was a direct product of those discussions.”
The crypto industry might have been willing to compromise in part because it didn’t want to expend too much political capital on a bill it viewed as a test case for broader crypto regulation. “The concern for the crypto industry was, ‘If we start having hiccups with the stablecoin bill—the easy bill—the odds of us getting past it significantly go down, and then the odds of us getting to the market structure bill are near zero for these next two years,’” Hammond says.
The bill he is referring to is what’s known as the CLARITY Act, which attempts to create a regulatory framework for products and financial platforms operating on the blockchain, much like the laws already governing traditional financial entities like stock markets, banks, and institutional investors. The act has passed in the House; a Senate version of the bill is expected in September. Days after the GENIUS Act was signed, Senate drafters of the CLARITY Act published a request for information that asks whether legislation should limit or prohibit systems like stablecoin rewards.
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One of the most powerful tools for competitive intel sits right inside your Google Ads account: the Auction Insights report.
As long as you’re spending money on Search and Shopping, you can get an instant look into how your search visibility stacks up against theirs. Plus, it’s quite common for your “auction competitors” to be slightly different from who you might consider your “real world” competitors.
Let’s explore the metrics and use cases for the Auction Insights report, so you can understand what this data means and how you can use it to gain a strategic advantage.
The Google Ads Auction Insights report shows you how you’re showing up in search results versus how your competitors are showing up on your search terms. It’s a quick and easy way to get a pulse on your competitive landscape.
To find it, go to Insights and Reports, then select Auction Insights. You can view this report at the account, campaign, ad group, or keyword level for Search, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns.
Your search impression share needs to be at least 10% for this report to generate. Plus, the Auction Insights report is only applicable for Google Search inventory, not Search Partners inventory.
The Auction Insights report provides different metrics depending on whether you’re looking at Search or Shopping inventory.
You’ll see three metrics (Impression Share, Overlap Rate, Outranking Share) for both Search and Shopping inventory. The other three metrics (Position Above Rate, Top of Page Rate, Absolute Top of Page Rate) only apply to Search inventory.
Impression Share is the percentage of impressions you actually received out of the total impressions you were eligible to receive.
For example, if your campaign had the opportunity to serve 1000 impressions on your keywords, but only served 100, your impression share would be 10%. What happened to the other 900 impressions? You either lost the auction due to a limited budget, lost the auction due to low ad rank, or both. While the Auction Insights report won’t tell you which one, you can add those columns to your Campaign overview to isolate the culprit.
The beauty of checking your Impression Share in the Auction Insights report is that it doesn’t just tell you your impression share, it tells you your competitors’ impression shares!
For example, if a competitor has 20% impression share, it means that they served an ad in 20% of your eligible auctions. Note that this does NOT mean they have twice your market size or twice your visibility; the report is based on your universe of keywords and targeting, not theirs. So, the metric shows how they are performing on the keywords you are bidding on. In their account, they might have a completely different strategy and a much larger set of keywords that you can’t see, so you could show up very differently in their Auction Insights report.
Overlap Rate tells you how often your competitor served an impression when you also served an impression. Put more casually: how often is your competitor all up in your business?
A high Overlap Rate means you’re frequently vying for the same queries as your competitor, and showing up often together on the SERP.
Outranking Share tells you how often your ad was shown in a higher position than a competitor’s ad, or how often your ad showed when theirs didn’t. This is basically how often you “beat” your competitor in the ad auction.
A high Outranking Share vs. a competitor means that even though they are present in your auctions, you are much more visible than they are.
This is essentially the opposite of Outranking Share. It tells you how often a competitor’s ad was shown in a higher position than yours, when both of your ads were shown.
A high Position Above Rate for a competitor means they are consistently ranking higher than you on the SERP.
Top of Page Rate tells you how often your ad was shown at the top of the SERP, above the organic search results (but potentially still below the AI Overview).
For example, if you got 10 impressions and 4 of them were in the top auction, including 1 absolute top impression, your Top of Page Rate would be 40%.
If you’re looking at a competitor’s Top of Page Rate, that tells you how often they appeared at the top of the SERP in your auctions.
Absolute Top of Page Rate tells you how often your ad was shown as the very first ad on the page. Just like the Top of Page Rate, you can compare this with your competitors to see who is dominating that coveted number one spot.
For example, if you got 10 impressions and 1 of them was in the number one position, your Absolute Top of Page Rate would be 10%.
To dig deeper into your SERP placement, you can add the Top vs Other segment to your Campaign report.
Now that you know what these metrics mean, how do you use this competitive data to your advantage?
My favorite way to use the Auction Insights report is to identify my auction competitors and spy on their ads. Once I know who I’m competing against, I look them up in the Google Ads Transparency Center. This free tool lets you see what ad creative your competitors are using.
By reviewing their ad text, I can get ideas for how to improve my own ad copy. Maybe they’re using a specific call-to-action or a unique selling proposition that’s worth testing.
Updating my ad text to be more relevant and compelling can improve my expected click-through rate, which can improve my ad rank and help me get better visibility in the auction.
I don’t recommend constantly obsessing over your Auction Insights report. It has a lot of numbers, and it can be easy to get analysis paralysis.
Impression Share is the one metric I do keep a close eye on, looking at the Search Lost IS (Rank) and Search Lost IS (Budget) columns at the Campaign level to understand why I’m missing out on impressions.
I check the full Auction Insights report monthly or quarterly to get a broader overview of the competitive landscape and make high-level strategic adjustments. It’s also a good way to see if new competitors are entering the auction or if certain competitors are scaling up or down.
By understanding what each Auction Insights metric means and using the data to inform your ad copy and bidding strategy, you can make smarter decisions and improve your Search and Shopping performance.
This article is part of our ongoing bi-weekly Search Engine Land series, Everything you need to know about Google Ads in less than 3 minutes. Every other Wednesday, Jyll highlights a different Google Ads feature, and what you need to know to get the best results from it – all in a quick 3-minute read.
Microsoft has announced a new line of Xbox Wireless Controllers, dubbed the Breaker special edition series. These controllers will be released in three distinct colors–Heart Breaker, Ice Breaker, and Storm Breaker–and they’ll be launching simultaneously on September 9, priced at $80 each.
Aside from the bold colors for each variant and textured grips, these are your typical Xbox controllers in form and function. This has been the default design since the Xbox Series X|S consoles were launched in late 2020, and they’ve stood the test of time thanks to several factors: comfortable ergonomics, durable inputs, and strong battery life. The other great thing about Xbox controllers is that they’re extremely versatile, as you can pair them with your Xbox Series X|S or Xbox One consoles, PC, Android, and iOS devices. Thanks to Bluetooth connectivity, linking them to compatible hardware is relatively easy.
If you’d prefer something different, you can also check out our list of the best Xbox controllers, as we’ve rounded up the best premium and budget options from Razer, Victrix, 8BitDo, and more. For something that’s quite colorful, the 8BitDo Ultimate 3-Mode Rare 40th Anniversary Edition is a lovely tribute to the famed developer behind decades of hit games. This is 8BitDo’s first wireless controller for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, and it’s compatible with PC/Mac and mobile devices as well. It’s highly customizable, and it has premium parts like Hall Effect sticks and a metal D-pad.
For something more brutal, there’s the Doom: The Dark Ages-themed Xbox Wireless Controller at Walmart for $74 (was $80), and this one looks like a mini-Doom Slayer. It has matte green-and-silver color scheme modeled after the Doom Slayer’s iconic armor, rubberized grips with a leather-like texture, and 3D “spikes” on either side of the Xbox Guide button.
Another great controller worth looking at right now if you’re on PC is the 8BitDo Ultimate 2 Wireless Controller: Wuchang Edition for $65, as it’s a special-edition Ultimate 2 decked out in some very cool colors and design elements inspired by the action game Wuchang: Fallen Feathers. One thing to note here is that this is a 2.4GHz wireless controller for PC, Mac, and Android via Bluetooth, but it’s not compatible with Xbox Series X|S and PS5 consoles.
The widely used diabetes drug metformin changes blood metal levels in humans. The Kobe University study is an important step in understanding the drug’s many actions and designing better ones in the future.
Metformin is the most widely prescribed diabetes drug in the world. Apart from lowering blood sugar levels, it is also known to have a broad range of beneficial side effects such as against tumors, inflammations and atherosclerosis. However, although it has been used for more than 60 years now, its mechanism of action is still not clear, hampering the development of even better drugs against these conditions.
Kobe University endocrinologist Wataru Ogawa says: “It is known that diabetes patients experience changes in the blood levels of metals such as copper, iron and zinc. In addition, chemical studies found that metformin has the ability to bind certain metals, such as copper, and recent studies showed that it is this binding ability that might be responsible for some of the drug’s beneficial effects. So, we wanted to know whether metformin actually affects blood metal levels in humans, which had not been clarified.” To do so, Ogawa and his team enlisted about 200 diabetes patients at Kobe University Hospital, half of which took metformin and half of which did not, in a study to analyze their blood serum levels for those metals and various metal deficiency indicators.
In the journal BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care, the Kobe University team now published the first clinical evidence of altered blood metal levels in patients taking metformin. They showed that drug-taking patients have significantly lower copper and iron levels and heightened zinc levels. Ogawa says: “It is significant that we could show this in humans. Furthermore, since decreases in copper and iron concentrations and an increase in zinc concentration are all considered to be associated with improved glucose tolerance and prevention of complications, these changes may indeed be related to metformin’s action.”
Recently, Japan has approved the use of imeglimin, a new diabetes drug that is a derivative of metformin but that should not be able to bind metals the same way as its parent. “Imeglimin is thought to have a different method of action, and we are already conducting studies to compare the effects the two drugs have,” says Ogawa.
It is not just about understanding the current drugs, however. Ogawa explains the bigger picture, saying: “We need both clinical trials and animal experiments to pinpoint the causal relationship between the drug’s action and its effects. If such studies progress further, they may lead to the development of new drugs for diabetes and its complications by properly adjusting the metal concentrations in the body.”
This research was funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (grant 24H00638) and the Manpei Suzuki Diabetes Foundation. It was conducted in collaboration with a researcher from the Kagayaki Diabetes and Endocrinology Clinic Sannomiya.
NEW SOUTH WALES: If you follow wellness content on social media or in the news, you’ve probably heard that processed food is not just unhealthy, but can cause serious harm.
Eating a diet dominated by highly processed foods means you’re likely to consume more kilojoules than you need, and greater amounts of salt, sugar — as well as food additives.
But not all processed foods are equal, nor bad for you.
Here’s what to look out for on food labels if you want to buy processed, but convenient, foods.
What do the processing categories mean? Researchers use the Nova processed food classification system to group foods into four processing levels.
Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed foods are either in their natural state or have minimal processing.
They’re basic foods you could eat straight away, such as vegetables and fruit, or foods that only need minimal processing to make them safe and palatable, such as eggs, meat, poultry, fish, oats, other grains, plain pasta, legumes, milk, plain yoghurt, ground herbs and spices, or nuts with shells.
Group 2: Processed culinary ingredients are derived from group 1.
These are used in cooking to enhance flavour and texture, and include oils, sugar and honey.
Group 3: Processed foods are treated using traditional processing methods such as canning, bottling, fermenting, or salting to extend shelf life.
These include canned fruits, tomato paste, cheese, salted fish, and breads with minimal ingredients.
You could make these foods in a home kitchen.
Group 4: Ultra-processed foods are industrially produced with ingredients and additives not normally found in home kitchens, and have little, if any, group 1 items left intact.
These foods are engineered to be hyper-palatable, meaning you can’t stop eating them, and have long shelf lives.
Products include factory-made biscuits, snack foods, instant meals, frozen desserts, preserved meats, instant noodles, margarine, some breakfast cereals and sugar-sweetened drinks.
However, group 4 products vary greatly in their nutritional quality and the number and type of food additives used to manufacture them.
What’s the concern about eating lots of ultra-processed foods? About 42 per cent of Australians’ total energy intake comes from ultra-processed foods.
These are relatively cheap and are energy-dense, but nutrient-poor.
This means they can contain a lot of kilojules, salt and added sugars but are poor sources of nutrients the body needs such as vitamins, minerals and dietary fibre.
JuristQuest is India’s premier moot court competition, offering law students a platform to sharpen their advocacy, legal research, and courtroom skills. Conceptualized by Crosby Law Associates in association with the Secretary of Madras High Court Advocates Association, bridges academic learning with real-world legal practice through high-level competitions, workshops, and interactions with global legal experts.
JuristQuest not only nurtures national talent but also provides international exposure, connecting students with judges, legal professionals, and global legal issues. The JuristQuest 2025 edition marks a special milestone, celebrating the completion of 75 years of the Constitution of India.
JuristQuest 2025 is India’s first-ever Moot Court Marathon, scheduled from September 15th, 2025, to November 29th, 2025. For the first time, JuristQuest allows teams to present their arguments in their native languages (Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu) up to the quarterfinals, making the competition more inclusive for law students across South India.
The semifinals and finals will be held in English, ensuring global readiness. The grand finale will be held at Chennai, on November 29th, 2025. The competition will be in hybrid mode. Prelims and Quarterfinals (Virtual): Sep 15–30, 2025.
Semifinals (Onsite): Oct 25–30, 2025. Finals: Nov 29, 2025. Winners of each state qualify for the Final round.
Open to all 3-year or 5-year LL.B students from institutions in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana. Teams may use regional languages until the quarterfinals; semifinals and finals will be in English. Multiple teams per institution allowed. Each team: 2 speakers + 1 researcher. Researcher cannot argue. No changes post-registration without approval. No institutional identity disclosure.
Hybrid Mode:
Phone: +91-9677883855
Email: [email protected]
Published on: Sept 03, 2025 08:48 pm IST
Bloating can be uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing, affecting your daily routine and overall digestion. Many people struggle to identify why it happens, as the causes are often overlooked or misunderstood. Dr Saurabh Sethi, a gastroenterologist and liver specialist trained at AIIMS, Harvard and Stanford Universities, shared in his September 3 Instagram post the top 3 reasons for bloating and how to tackle them effectively. (Also read: Gastroenterologist shares 7 common mistakes people make while cooking in air fryer: ‘Always clean the tray and use…’ )
Dr. Sethi explains that what you eat can play a huge role in bloating. “The biggest culprits are lactose, fructose, fructans, sorbitol, and other carbohydrates that your gut does not fully absorb. Even healthy foods can ferment in the digestive tract and trigger symptoms if you are sensitive,” he says. He emphasises that it’s not just “junk” foods, sometimes foods considered healthy can also lead to gas and discomfort depending on an individual’s gut sensitivity.
According to Dr. Sethi, conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or functional dyspepsia mean your gut is more sensitive than usual. “The movement of your intestines is disordered, which can lead to gas getting trapped, belly distention, and bloating,” he explains. He also points out that these issues are often linked to changes in gut bacteria, meaning your digestive system may react more strongly to foods or stress than usual.
Slow-moving bowels can also be a major factor in bloating. Dr. Sethi says, “Even if you are going once a day, if your colon moves slowly, food sits longer, leading to more fermentation, gas buildup, and bloating.” He adds that constipation can make the gut overly sensitive, contributing to the same problems seen in IBS, including gas trapping, belly distention, and alterations in gut bacteria.
Note to readers: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Wave’s treatment, WVE-006, was the first of its kind to reach human testing.
WVE-006 edits RNA, the messenger molecules that turn DNA into proteins. That approach is seen as a potentially safer and more flexible alternative to DNA editing and, accordingly, has drawn interest from an array of investors and drugmakers. But RNA editing is also far less proven, making each study update from Wave a referendum on the concept.
Wave last year reported that, after receiving a single, 200 milligram dose of WVE-007, the first two patients in its trial began producing the “wild-type” AAT protein their bodies normally can’t. The total levels of AAT protein — including that important wild-type version — reached, on average, about 11 micromolars in blood plasma concentration within 15 days. That result surpassed investor expectations and met a threshold set by regulators for approval of AAT augmentation therapies.
Investors were hoping to see more powerful effects in Wave’s latest update, which involved eight patients who received a 400 mg dose and eight who’d gotten a series of twice-monthly injections at the lower dose. According to Wave, the former group hit about 12.8 micromolars of total AAT protein, on average, while the latter got to 11.9 micromolars. Wave said all side effects were deemed mild to moderate, and that there were no notable elevations in liver enzyme levels, which can be a sign of organ damage.
Wave also said a single patient spiked to over 20 micromolars during an “acute” response to the type of “exacerbation” that can damage the lungs of people with AATD. That finding suggests WVE-006 can help patients produce “protective protein when needed,” CEO Paul Bolno told analysts on a conference call.
The data show the therapy “can rise to meet the occasion, wherever it is, to drive down and protect during exacerbations,” he said. “That is the functional cure.”
Despite that apparent promise, Wave shares fell as much as 22%. Protein levels for the multidose group “narrowly hit” what Jefferies analysts projected as a positive result, while the higher dose data missed the firm’s mark, wrote Roger Song. Excluding the one patient with an acute response, the single dose group achieved a mean 11.8 micromolars of AAT protein, roughly the same result as the multidose group. The findings require “a bit more digestion” than WVE-006’s last readout, added Mizuho Securities’ Salim Syed.
Still, multiple analysts came to Wave’s defense. The share sell-off reflects “outdated investor expectations,” wrote Leerink Partners’ Joseph Schwartz, as the findings show “higher levels of AAT protein do not appear to be required to drive efficacy and protection in AATD.” Song and Syed added that all study groups hit the mark set by regulators, even if not by much.
The results are “still clinically meaningful,” Syed wrote.
Wave is testing monthly administrations of the higher dose and expects to deliver results in early 2026. Korro Bio, meanwhile, will share early results for a rival RNA editing drug for AATD later this year.
GSK has global rights to Wave’s AATD medicine under a broad partnership the companies signed in 2022.
Key takeaways
The RBA is Cautious, You Should be Decisive: Rates are easing, but slowly. The RBA’s data-dependent stance means a return to ultra-low rates isn’t on the cards. Waiting for massive cuts is a losing strategy.
Cheaper Credit Pushes Quality Assets Further Away: Lower rates increase borrowing power across the market. With listings for A-grade properties already tight, this simply means more competition and upward pressure on the prices of the very assets you want to own.
The Banks See Growth, Not a Bust: The mainstream forecast from banks like CBA is for national prices to keep rising, perhaps by 6% in 2025 and another 4% in 2026. If they’re right, waiting will cost you far more in capital growth than you’d save on interest.
It’s Always Quality Over Timing: This is the golden rule. The financial advantage of securing an A-grade asset at today’s price will almost always outweigh the marginal benefit of a slightly lower interest rate next year.
With the Reserve Bank finally starting to ease monetary policy, I’m getting a flood of calls from homebuyers and investors. The RBA has now cut the cash rate three times in 2025, bringing it down to 3.60%. And with every cut, the same question comes up:
“Jayden, should I buy now or wait for rates to fall even further?”
As a mortgage broker at Hunter Galloway, I see the logic. Cheaper repayments feel good, and a higher borrowing capacity is always welcome. But from my vantage point of seeing hundreds of property-buying journeys unfold, I can tell you this is often the wrong question to be asking.
Note: Focusing too much on timing the interest rate cycle is a classic mistake that can leave you worse off.
Successful, long-term property investors understand a crucial truth: you don’t time the market; you prepare to act when you find the right asset. Your finance strategy shouldn’t be about chasing an extra 25 basis point cut. It should be about getting yourself ready to buy a high-quality, investment-grade property that will grow in value for decades to come.
Let’s break down the strategic way to think about your finances in this new environment.
Figure 1: Major banks project continued property price growth through 2025-2026, with CBA forecasting 6% growth in 2025
There’s a fundamental reason why waiting for lower rates can backfire: the price of the asset you want to buy doesn’t stand still.
Figure 2: The RBA has delivered three consecutive rate cuts in 2025, bringing the cash rate down to 3.60%
Lower interest rates make money cheaper. Cheaper money increases borrowing capacity. As PropTrack data suggests, even a single 0.25% cut can boost a typical buyer’s budget by around 2-3%.
Figure 3: Each 0.25% interest rate cut increases borrowing capacity by approximately 2-3%
When that extra firepower meets a market with a low supply of quality homes for sale—which is exactly the situation in many of our capital cities—prices are inevitably forced upward. We’re already seeing this play out, with national values recording their sixth straight month of gains in July, according to Cotality.
Figure 4: Housing supply remains tight across major capital cities with low vacancy rates and decreasing days on market
This creates a dangerous illusion for those on the sidelines. You might feel prudent waiting for a cheaper mortgage, but the purchase price of the property you want is quietly drifting further out of reach.
Let’s look at a simple scenario. Imagine you’ve found an investment-grade property for $1,000,000. You have your deposit, but you’re thinking of waiting six months in the hope the cash rate falls by another 0.50%.
Figure 5: It would take over 16 years of monthly interest savings to offset the higher purchase price after waiting just 6 months
The problem? You’ve paid $50,000 more for the asset to save a few hundred dollars a month on repayments. It would take over 15 years of those monthly savings just to break even on the higher purchase price you paid.
This is the trap. Buyers become so focused on the cost of the debt that they forget the far more powerful impact of the price of the asset. Seasoned investors know that paying less for a quality asset is the single most important financial lever you can pull.
Instead of trying to time the RBA, a better approach is to control what you can. As a broker, this is what I advise my most successful clients to do.
Before you even look at properties, get your financial house in order. This means having a stable income, a healthy emergency buffer (at least 3-6 months of living expenses), and a clear deposit strategy. Don’t be a spectator; be a prepared buyer ready to act.
Don’t just get a loan; get the right loan structure. An offset account is non-negotiable for maximising your cash flow and reducing non-deductible debt. Consider a variable or split-rate loan to ensure you benefit from any future rate cuts. Most importantly, get a fully assessed pre-approval. A simple online calculator won’t cut it. You need the confidence of knowing the bank is ready to back you when you find the right property.
Your finance is only as good as the asset it’s buying. This is the core of the Property Update philosophy, and from a finance perspective, I couldn’t agree more. Banks lend more willingly against quality properties in desirable locations because they represent a lower risk. Focus your search on A-grade homes or investment-grade properties with proven long-term performance and strong demographic drivers. Let this be your non-negotiable.
Ignore the dramatic media headlines. Watch the leading indicators in the suburbs you’re targeting. Are days-on-market falling? Is vendor discounting shrinking? Is the number of new listings low? These are the real-time signs of rising competition and a market that won’t wait for you.
Trying to pick the bottom of the interest rate cycle is a seductive but ultimately distracting game. For serious homebuyers and investors, the playbook should be simple and disciplined.
If your finances are organised and you find an A-grade asset in an investment-grade location, the evidence suggests you should act. A conversation with a mortgage broker can help you take the next step with confidence.
In an environment of tight housing supply and easing rates, the cost of the asset rising will likely eclipse any small savings you might get from a lower rate in the future.
If you’re not financially ready, then wait—but wait with intent. Use the next few months to aggressively build your deposit, clear consumer debts, and work with a broker to get your loan strategy locked in.
The real edge isn’t found in guessing the RBA’s next move. It’s found in buying the right property with the right finance structure, and then letting time and compounding do the heavy lifting.
Google Drive is fantastic for storing and sharing files, but actually finding the file you need can sometimes be a challenge, especially if you don’t remember its name. Luckily, there are smarter ways to search, filter, and navigate your Drive so you can find exactly what you’re looking for—fast.
A simple yet effective way to narrow down search results in Google Drive is to search by file type. Instead of scrolling through a long list of results, you can ask Google Drive to focus on what kind of file you are actually looking for.
Google Drive lets you filter by documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, images, videos, and even folders. For example, if you know the report you need is a PDF, use the Type drop-down menu before or after typing your search and select PDF.
This will cut your results down to only relevant files. It’s a simple trick, but it can save you a lot of time, especially if your Drive is overflowing with years of documents, old projects, and random downloads.
Sometimes, filtering by just file type isn’t enough, especially when your Google Drive is full of similar files. That’s when searching by user or last modified date can prove useful.
If you remember who created or shared the file, the People drop-down menu is your best friend. Type the person’s name, hover over it, and choose from options like All, Owner, Creator, Shared by, or Shared with. This will narrow your results to files connected to that specific person and make it much easier to track down what you need.
Another powerful way to reduce irrelevant results is by filtering files based on their last modified date. You can search for files edited in the last 7 days, 30 days, a specific year, or even set a custom date range. This is perfect for when you roughly remember when you last worked on the file, but can’t recall the title.
Even when you have trouble remembering a file’s name, you’ll likely remember a word or phrase it contains. The good news is that Google Drive’s search bar can help you find the file based on that. It can scan the contents of your documents, spreadsheets, and presentations to locate the words or phrases you recall.
For example, if you know a report mentions Q3 sales projections, you can type that phrase into the search bar. Google Drive will bring up every file that contains those words. This method works for all types of text-based files, including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, PDFs, and more.
You can combine this with other filters such as file type, user, or last modified date. Suddenly, finding that elusive file feels less like searching for a needle in a haystack and more like flipping straight to the right page in a well-organized binder.
Most of the time, basic search filters are enough to find what you’re looking for. But when they aren’t, Google Drive’s Advanced Search has you covered. Click the Advanced Search icon next to the search bar, and you’ll be able to combine all the filters in one place.
From this menu, you can narrow your search by file type, owner, location, date modified, and even keywords inside files. This is perfect for situations where you remember some details about a file but not its exact name.
Advanced Search also offers more specialized options, like approvals, e-signatures, and follow-ups, which are especially helpful if your Drive is packed with collaborative projects. The more details you add, the faster you’ll find what you’re looking for.
Much like Gmail, Google Drive also supports Boolean operators. If you prefer not to click through menus, you can type specific keywords into the search bar to get highly precise results.
For instance, type:pdf will show only PDFs, while owner:me will limit results to files you own. If you remember something from the title, use title: followed by your keyword. You can also search by words inside the file with content: operator. The real magic happens when you combine these operators, for example, type:docx owner:me content:routine to find Word documents you created containing the word “routine.”
These are just a few examples. There are plenty more search operators listed on Google Drive’s help page. It might take a little practice to get comfortable with them, but once you do, finding the exact file you need will take much less time.
Sometimes, the fastest way to find a file isn’t searching at all. Both Recent and Starred folders are easy to overlook, but they can save you a ton of time.
Google Drive’s Recent folder lists files you’ve opened or edited most recently, which makes it ideal for when you’re working on new projects and can’t remember the exact name of a file.
Click the Recent tab from the left pane, and you’ll see a chronological list of files you’ve accessed today, yesterday, earlier this week, or even earlier this month. You can also refine the list using the drop-down menu to filter by file type, owner, or date modified, which helps you zero in even faster.
Another handy feature is the Starred folder. If there are files you frequently need—like a monthly report, a team presentation, or a reference document—you can star them for easy access. Additionally, of course, you can also create folders and use color-coding to keep your Google Drive files organized.
You don’t always need to open Google Drive to start a search. Most browsers let you search your Drive directly from the address bar. This way, you can open a new tab, type @Drive followed by the name of the file or keyword in the address bar, and jump straight to the results.
In Chrome, you can set this up by going to Settings > Search engine > Manage search engine and site search. Under the Site search section, click Add. Enter Google Drive as the search engine name, @Drive as the shortcut, and paste the following address under the URL field.
https:
Finally, click save, and you’re ready to search instantly. This trick works in Edge and most other browsers too. You can even make Google Drive your default search engine if you don’t wish to type @Drive every time. Using your browser’s address bar for Drive searches is a neat trick that can help save extra steps.
Finding files in a cluttered Google Drive doesn’t have to be scary. Once you familiarize yourself with the above tricks, filters, search operators, and advanced search tools, you should be able to locate what you need in seconds.
The key is knowing which tool to use for the situation. Sometimes, a simple filter may be enough, while other times advanced search or operators will save you precious time. The more you use these Google Drive hacks, the easier it will get over time.
China’s first 8K movie shot in space, titled “Shenzhou 13,” was officially launched in Beijing on Friday. Produced by China Media Group (CMG), the film is set to premiere nationwide on September 5.
The movie is based on the six-month orbital mission of astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu aboard China’s space station. Shot entirely with 8K ultra-high-definition cameras, it offers unprecedented views of space as well as intimate glimpses of daily life aboard the station.
The Shenzhou-13 mission, which launched on October 16, 2021, saw the crew spend 183 days in orbit – a record for the longest continuous spaceflight by Chinese astronauts.
“Shenzhou 13” not only showcases China’s technological achievements in space exploration but also provides audiences with a rare cinematic experience from the final frontier.
The Southern California Independent Bookstore Bestsellers list for Sunday, Sept. 7, 2025, including hardcover and paperback fiction and nonfiction.
On this episode of Uncanny Valley, we look back at the week’s biggest stories—from the researchers leaving Meta’s new superintelligence lab, to the dark money group funding Democratic influencers.
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Amy Frank dijo que pasó 17 horas al teléfono durante casi tres semanas, rebotando entre su aseguradora y el sistema hospitalario local, para asegurarse de que el plan de salud cubriera la atención que su esposo necesitaba después de una cirugía.
Muchas de sus llamadas no pasaron de la música en espera. Cuando lograba comunicarse, el hospital le decía que llamara a su aseguradora. La aseguradora, a su vez, le pedía que el hospital enviara por fax un formulario a un número específico. El hospital respondía que se le había indicado enviarlo a otro número distinto.
“Era un gran vacío legal en el que quedamos atrapados, dando vueltas sin parar”, dijo Frank.
Ella y su esposo, Allen, enfrentaron esa maraña de frustración porque estaban entre los 90.000 pacientes del centro de Missouri atrapados en una disputa contractual entre University of Missouri Health Care (MU Health Care), un sistema de salud con sede en Columbia, Missouri, y Anthem, la aseguradora de la pareja.
Las empresas dejaron vencer su contrato en abril al no lograr un acuerdo para mantener al sistema hospitalario y sus clínicas dentro de la red del seguro.
Cada vez más personas en Estados Unidos se ven en aprietos similares.
En la ciudad de Nueva York, las negociaciones entre UnitedHealthcare y Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center no llegaron a un acuerdo antes del 30 de junio, lo que dejó brevemente a algunos pacientes en el limbo hasta que se concretó un acuerdo al día siguiente.
En Carolina del Norte, Duke Health anunció recientemente que podría dejar de formar parte de la red de Aetna a menos que la aseguradora aceptara pagar tarifas más altas. Y los Frank casi quedaron fuera de la red el año anterior, cuando una disputa contractual en 2023 entre Anthem y un grupo de atención primaria en Jefferson City, Missouri, los obligó a cambiar algunos de sus proveedores a MU Health Care.
De hecho, el 18% de los hospitales no federales experimentaron al menos un caso documentado de enfrentamiento público con una aseguradora entre junio de 2021 y mayo de 2025, según hallazgos preliminares de Jason Buxbaum, investigador en políticas de salud de la Escuela de Salud Pública de la Universidad Brown. En el mismo período, el 8% de los hospitales dejaron de estar dentro de la red de alguna aseguradora, al menos en forma temporal.
Según expertos de la industria, tendencias como la consolidación hospitalaria y el aumento de los costos médicos contribuyen a estas disputas, y políticas impulsadas durante la presidencia de Donald Trump podrían hacer que sean más frecuentes, ya que los hospitales se preparan para enfrentar recortes de aproximadamente $1.000 billones en el gasto federal en salud, como parte de una ley presupuestaria de gran alcance del presidente.
“Van a ser más duros en las negociaciones con las aseguradoras porque van a estar en un estatus de supervivencia”, dijo John Baackes, ejecutivo de seguros jubilado y ex integrante de la junta de America’s Health Insurance Plans, el grupo gremial nacional que representa a la industria aseguradora.
Durante los tres meses de estancamiento entre la aseguradora y el sistema hospitalario en Missouri, los pacientes con planes de Anthem perdieron el acceso a cobertura dentro de la red con el proveedor médico más grande de la región, y, en algunas especialidades, el único.
La mayoría de las personas no podían cambiar de aseguradora a mitad de año y enfrentaban la opción de pagar precios más altos, posponer la atención, buscar nuevos proveedores o atravesar una pesadilla burocrática con la esperanza de que su condición médica calificara para una extensión de cobertura de 90 días.
La disputa ocurrió en un momento especialmente complicado para los Frank. Allen Frank se recuperaba de complicaciones luego de caerse del techo mientras limpiaba el revestimiento exterior de su casa en Rich Fountain en octubre. Amy lo llevó en auto 24 millas hasta la sala de emergencias más cercana. Hacía poco que MU Health Care había adquirido ese centro, en Jefferson City, y Allen fue trasladado en ambulancia terrestre 30 millas más hasta el hospital principal del sistema en Columbia, donde se le practicó una cirugía para colocarle dos placas metálicas y varios tornillos en la clavícula.
La consolidación del sistema de salud ha venido aumentando en todo el país durante las últimas tres décadas: desde 1998 se han anunciado más de 2.000 fusiones de hospitales, incluidas 428 entre 2018 y 2023. Las fusiones pueden generar eficiencias y algunos beneficios para los pacientes, pero también reducen la competencia en el mercado y fortalecen la posición de los hospitales en sus negociaciones con las aseguradoras.
“Los mercados de aseguradoras llevan tiempo estando consolidados”, dijo Buxbaum, de Brown. “Lo que ha cambiado es el nivel de consolidación de los hospitales”.
Ahora, si un sistema hospitalario deja de formar parte de una red, explicó, “no se trata solo de un hospital importante. Es mucho más probable que se trate de todos los centros clave o de una masa crítica de proveedores en el área”.
Para los pacientes, esto representa un escenario alarmante. Y por eso, la amenaza pública de romper relaciones se ha convertido en una herramienta poderosa en las negociaciones entre hospitales y aseguradoras. Esa táctica suele favorecer a los hospitales, comentó Baackes, “porque la suposición general es que la aseguradora es avara y el hospital está haciendo el trabajo de Dios”.
En un comunicado, Buddy Castellano, vocero de Elevance Health, empresa matriz de Anthem, escribió: “Abordamos las negociaciones con un enfoque en la equidad, la transparencia y el respeto para todos los afectados. Las discusiones sobre tarifas de los planes de salud son complejas y requieren una colaboración cuidadosa para garantizar la sostenibilidad a largo plazo. Nuestro compromiso es claro: asegurar el acceso a la atención médica mientras mantenemos la cobertura accesible para las familias, los empleadores y las comunidades a las que servimos”.
Allen Frank necesitó atención médica de seguimiento en los meses posteriores a la cirugía, incluida una segunda operación en julio.
Una ley federal conocida como Ley de No Sorpresas (No Surprises Act), que entró en vigencia en 2022, ofrece protección a algunos pacientes cuyos proveedores salen de la red por una disputa contractual. Las personas que están en tratamiento por condiciones graves pueden mantener las tarifas dentro de la red hasta por 90 días con sus proveedores actuales, lo que retrasa la necesidad de cambiar de proveedor o pagar más. Así que Amy Frank pasó horas al teléfono para lograr que su esposo pudiera continuar con la atención médica.
“Ya habíamos alcanzado el deducible. Si salimos de la red, tendríamos que empezar desde cero con el deducible”, explicó.
Finalmente, Anthem aceptó que Allen Frank continuara su tratamiento con MU Health Care. Pero cuando se presentó a una cita para una inyección en el hombro lesionado, le dijeron que el sistema de salud no tenía constancia de la autorización. Allen se negó a irse sin ser atendido y, finalmente, una enfermera logró comunicarse con Anthem para obtener el número de confirmación y la aprobación para la cita.
“Es muy frustrante”, dijo Amy Frank a principios de julio, antes de que las partes llegaran a un acuerdo. “Yo también tengo problemas médicos, pero no siento que sean lo suficientemente graves como para tener que pelear por la continuidad de mi atención”.
En un correo electrónico, el vocero de MU Health Care, Eric Maze, escribió: “Aunque nuestro objetivo era llegar a un acuerdo antes de que venciera el contrato y evitar interrupciones en la atención, establecimos procesos y recursos con anticipación para facilitar la continuidad de la atención y reducir la carga para nuestros pacientes. Entendemos y lamentamos el estrés y la preocupación que generó estar fuera de la red para muchos, y estamos profundamente agradecidos por la paciencia y la confianza que depositaron en nosotros durante este tiempo”.
El aumento de los costos médicos está impulsando las disputas contractuales. Los gastos hospitalarios aumentaron un 5,1% en 2024, según un informe reciente de la Asociación Estadounidense de Hospitales (American Hospital Association), superando la tasa de inflación, que fue de 2,9%. Los costos laborales son el principal factor: los salarios ofrecidos a enfermeros aumentaron un 26,6% más rápido que la inflación entre 2020 y 2024, según el informe.
Los hospitales buscan recuperar esos costos presionando a las aseguradoras para que paguen más por sus servicios.
El economista en salud de la Universidad de Washington en St. Louis, Tim McBride, dijo que esta dinámica podría empeorar aún más por la ley masiva de impuestos y gastos. Esta medida contempla recortes significativos al gasto federal en salud para la próxima década, incluyendo una reducción de 911.000 millones de dólares en Medicaid, y se prevé que provoque la pérdida de cobertura médica para 10 millones de personas.
Durante el colapso de las negociaciones entre MU Health Care y Anthem, la aseguradora afirmó que el hospital pedía un aumento del 39% en las tarifas durante tres años, mientras que el hospital aseguró que la aseguradora no se movía del 1%-2%.
El 30 de junio, tres meses después del inicio del conflicto, el Comité del Senado de Missouri sobre Seguros y Banca convocó a ambas partes a una audiencia que rompió el estancamiento de meses y provocó nuevas propuestas de Anthem.
“Anthem duplicó su oferta de aumento en las tarifas”, escribió en una publicación en Facebook la presidenta del Senado de Missouri, Cindy O’Laughlin, republicana cuyo distrito abarca partes del centro de Missouri, en una publicación del 8 de julio, alentando un acuerdo.
“Sí, sé que no estoy involucrada directamente ni soy la directora general de ninguna de las dos partes, pero por lo que me han dicho, esto parece una oferta razonable”.
Una semana después, las partes anunciaron un acuerdo con efecto retroactivo al 1 de abril, fecha en que venció el contrato anterior.
Amy Frank recibió varios mensajes de texto de amigos y familiares sobre el acuerdo. Ella había sido muy vocal con sus frustraciones, y querían asegurarse de que estuviera al tanto. Pero su alivio fue moderado.
“¿Y todo esto fue para nada?”, dijo al día siguiente del anuncio.
Ya había invertido horas al teléfono para asegurarse de que la cirugía de Allen del 31 de julio para reparar las placas en su clavícula estuviera cubierta. No tenía prisa por llamar a sus médicos para reprogramar las citas que había cancelado, imaginando que las líneas seguirían ocupadas. La experiencia la hizo preguntarse si ambas partes buscaban enfadar a la gente como táctica de negociación.
“Todo ese dinero por el que pelean… ¿realmente vale la pena todo este estrés?”, dijo.
Y después de haber vivido dos disputas en tres años, no puede evitar preguntarse: ¿cuánto tiempo pasará hasta la próxima?
The Collector’s Edition for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater is back in stock for PS5 at Amazon on September 2. You can also grab the $200 edition at Walmart, but stock is running low. All retailers are sold out of the Xbox Series X Collector’s Edition.
It’s not surprising the Collector’s Edition has been so difficult to find in stock. The included Terrarium Diorama and exclusive steelbook are very cool. The diorama recreates a scene from the game’s first mission, and the steelbook has Yoji Shinkawa’s artwork from the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Here’s everything you get with the Collector’s Edition:
If you haven’t picked up a physical copy for PS5 or Xbox Series X but aren’t interested in the Collector’s Edition, there’s still time to get Metal Gear Solid Delta’s Tactical Edition for either platform. The Tactical Edition includes a voucher for the White Tuxedo and the Sneaking DLC Pack, a bundle with 10 additional cosmetic items for Solid Snake, including six alternate suits. The Sneaking DLC Pack is sold separately for $15, so you might as well get it for free while you can.
PC players, meanwhile, can save 25% on Steam keys at GameSpot sister site Fanatical.
Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater – Tactical Edition:
As they often do, Walmart and Amazon have undercut the competition by one dollar for the Tactical Edition on PS5 and Xbox Series X. It’s worth emphasizing that the Tactical Edition is a special launch edition. At some point, whenever retailers sell through their inventories, the next batch of physical copies will be standard editions without the Sneaking DLC voucher in the box.
Sneaking DLC Pack:
The 10-item cosmetics bundle includes six suits, two masks, and two alternate face camos. Two of the suits are from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. You can also make Snake cosplay as a crocodile.
The 25% discount on Steam keys at Fanatical applies to both the standard and Digital Deluxe Editions. Just keep in mind that one of the main perks of the Digital Deluxe Edition was two-day early access. The other perk is the Sneaking DLC Pack.
Disclosure: GameSpot and Fanatical are both owned by Fandom.
For more Metal Gear collectibles, take a look at GameStop’s exclusive merch collection. And if you want to read more about the remake before you order a copy, check out our Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater review. We awarded the remake a 9/10. Solid Snake’s return is solid.
One of the first parts of the brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease is the entorhinal cortex — a region that plays a big role in memory, spatial navigation, and the brain’s internal mapping system.
With support from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases Research Award Fund (ARDRAF), Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC scientists Sharon Swanger and Shannon Farris are working to understand why this area is especially vulnerable.
Swanger studies how brain cells communicate across synapses in disease-susceptible brain circuits, while Farris focuses on how different circuits in the brain’s memory center function at the molecular level. Their overlapping expertise made the collaboration a natural fit.
“We’ve both been studying how circuits differ at the molecular level for a while,” said Swanger, an assistant professor at the research institute. “This new collaborative project brings together my work on synapses and Shannon’s on mitochondria in a way that addresses a big gap in the Alzheimer’s disease field.”
“This kind of state-level support is critical,” Farris said. “It gives researchers in Virginia the chance to ask questions that may eventually make a difference for people living with Alzheimer’s. It’s meaningful to be part of research that could help people facing that journey.”
A key focus of their research is mitochondria — tiny structures inside brain cells that provide the energy needed for a variety of cellular functions in neurons including synaptic transmission. In Alzheimer’s disease, mitochondria stop working properly in the course of the disease.
Farris and Swanger are investigating whether mitochondria in a vulnerable memory-related circuit may become overloaded with calcium, a key signaling chemical for multiple neuronal and synaptic processes. That overload could contribute to the early breakdown of memory circuits.
“The connection between these cells is one of the first to fail in Alzheimer’s,” Farris said. “We found that this synapse has unusually strong calcium signals in nearby mitochondria — so strong we can see them clearly under a light microscope. Those kinds of signals are hard to ignore. It gives us a model where we can really watch what’s happening as things start to go wrong.”
To test their hypothesis, the researchers will study brain tissue from healthy mice and mice with certain aspects of Alzheimer’s pathology. By comparing how mitochondria function and how brain cells communicate across synapses in each group, they hope to find early signs of stress or failure in the entorhinal cortex-hippocampus circuit.
Swanger and Farris are members of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s Center for Neurobiology Research and also faculty in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Pathobiology of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine.
Miss Universe 2021 Harnaaz Sandhu is all set to make her Bollywood debut with Baaghi 4, starring Tiger Shroff. In a September 2 interview with Femina, the 25-year-old shared that her skincare secret lies in simplicity: she believes in cleansing, hydrating, and protecting. Also read | Harnaaz Sandhu stuns with dramatic weight loss for Baaghi 4 after facing bullying for weight gain
Sunscreen is non-negotiable for Harnaaz Sandhu, and she kickstarts her day with water and a pinch of salt. When it comes to getting that radiant glow, she swears by icing her skin before makeup — and says it’s a game-changer. But according to her, it is a ‘genuine smile’ that is her ultimate beauty hack.
She said, “I’ve always believed beauty starts with self-care. My go-to ritual is very simple – to cleanse, hydrate, and protect. I never skip sunscreen, and I swear by drinking plenty of water with a pinch of salt to start my day. A beauty hack I carry everywhere in the world is using ice cubes on my skin before makeup; it instantly refreshes and gives that natural glow. And, of course, a genuine smile.”
When you drink salt water, it may contribute to clearer and healthier skin by helping to balance the body’s pH levels, reducing inflammation, and eliminating toxins. Click here to know the seven health benefits of drinking salt water.
Harnaaz Sandhu’s weight loss transformation has been quite impressive. After winning Miss Universe in 2021, she faced online criticism for her weight gain due to celiac disease, an autoimmune condition that made her body react negatively to gluten.
In the new Femina interview, Harnaaz highlighted how she underwent rigorous training in mixed martial arts, kickboxing, and weapons handling as part of her fitness routine for Baaghi 4.
She said, “When I signed Baaghi 4, I knew I had to bring both beauty and strength to the screen. I trained for months in mixed martial arts, kickboxing, and basic weapons handling. It wasn’t just about learning the moves; it was about building stamina, agility, and the right mental discipline. My coaches really pushed me to move like a fighter but with the grace and poise that comes naturally to me. It was the perfect fusion of my pageant discipline and an action star’s athleticism.”
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Today, we’re catching up after a long weekend on news involving Amgen and Replimune, as well as updates from Sanofi, Roche, Eisai and Biogen that you may have missed.
Amgen on Tuesday said it will invest more than $600 million in a new center for science and innovation at its global headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California. The multidisciplinary center will have “advanced automation and digital capabilities,” and focus on developing new therapies for serious diseases. Construction will begin in the third quarter of this year. The announcement follows Amgen’s $900 million expansion in Ohio, and a $1 billion construction of a manufacturing plant in Holly Springs, North Carolina. In its statement, the company cited recently renewed U.S. corporate tax cuts as a tailwind for its domestic investment. — Delilah Alvarado
Replimune, which controversially had its melanoma drug rejected by the Food and Drug Administration in July, on Tuesday said it has scheduled a meeting with the agency to discuss the complete response letter. The biotechnology company has also submitted a “briefing book” it says addresses the FDA’s concern. Should the agency ultimately refuse to approve Replimune’s drug again, company CEO Sushil Patel said further development, including a Phase 3 confirmatory study, “will not be viable.” — Ned Pagliarulo
The FDA has approved the first BTK inhibitor for immune thrombocytopenia, clearing Sanofi’s rilzabrutinib on Friday. The drug, which Sanofi will sell as Wayrilz, is OK’d for adults with persistent or chronic immune thrombocytopenia who did not have a positive response to prior treatment. The disorder causes the immune system to mistakenly attack and destroy platelets, which can lead to bruising and bleeding. The oral drug was approved based on positive Phase 3 trial results, and is being studied across other rare disorders. — Delilah Alvarado
Roche and partner Alnylam Pharmaceuticals plan this year to begin a large cardiovascular outcomes study of their experimental blood pressure drug zilbesiran. They expect to enroll around 11,000 people with uncontrolled hypertension in the study, which will test twice-yearly dosing of zilebesiran versus placebo. The drug, which blocks production of angiotensinogen via RNA interference, was tested in three Phase 2 trials. Data from the latter was presented over the weekend at this year’s European Society of Cardiology Congress, showing treatment helped reduce office systolic blood pressure at month three. The study did not meet its formal primary endpoint, however. — Ned Pagliarulo
The FDA on Friday approved a new autoinjector formulation of Eisai and Biogen’s Alzheimer’s disease drug Leqembi. The autoinjector, which the companies will market as Leqembi Iqlik for maintenance dosing, can be administered in about 15 seconds, compared to the roughly one hour needed for the intravenous infusion formulation. After 18 months of IV treatment, patients can switch to receive Leqembi via weekly autoinjector doses, for which Eisai and Biogen will charge $375 per pen at list price. The approval came a day after the FDA recommended earlier MRI monitoring of patients treated with IV Leqembi to better detect brain swelling. — Ned Pagliarulo
Money doesn’t discriminate; it doesn’t care who you are or where you come from.
No matter what you did yesterday, today begins anew and you have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else to become wealthy.
Yet the sad reality is that the majority of Australians will never achieve financial freedom.
On the other hand, a small group of Australian property investors are becoming very wealthy.
Today I want to begin exploring the common myths about money that hold many people back from achieving their financial goals and part 2 of this series will be published in a few days.
Despite what some people believe, it doesn’t really take a lot of money to make money.
Many Australians have untapped equity in their homes that they can use as seed capital for investments, while others will have to learn the discipline of saving to get some start-up capital.
Then all they need to do is invest in high-growth investments such as residential real estate and use the magic of compounding, leverage and time to grow their asset base.
You don’t need a fortune to begin making your first million; you just need to commit to making a start and stick with it.
Almost everyone makes enough money to become an investor.
The truth is most people don’t have an income problem, they have a spending problem.
Look at your current wage and ask yourself; how much am I likely to earn over my lifetime?
For most of us, the answer will probably be over a couple of million dollars.
The problem is most of us spend as much as we earn.
You’ve got to start living within your means, paying yourself first, saving a deposit for a property and investing in order to break your current pattern.
If you accept my definition of financial freedom as having enough passive income to finance the lifestyle you desire, without having to work; you will never achieve this through your job or superannuation.
Instead, you will need to take control of your financial future by investing.
Even if you try to save 5 or 10% of your income as many financial planners suggest, you’ll find it won’t give you a big enough nest egg to fund your retirement.
You just can’t save your way to wealth
In our country, everybody has the ability and opportunity to become rich.
Successful people come from different backgrounds and while some have university degrees, others never finished high school.
To reassure you that education doesn’t equal a financial fortune, here are a few multi-millionaires who never graduated from college: Bill Gates (Microsoft), Michael Dell (Dell Computers) and Steve Jobs (Apple).
The truth is you can do whatever you want; not being smart enough is just another excuse.
Developing your own financial freedom is only as complicated as you make it.
Sure gaining the knowledge to become financially independent is challenging, but many new things seem more difficult than they are until you develop an understanding of them.
Investing is no different.
It’s easier than ever before to learn the fundamentals of wealth creation, with limitless tools available in today’s high-tech, info-laden world.
The key is to learn from the right people – those who’ve already achieved what you want to achieve.
The process is also simplified when you select an investment niche such as residential property investment and develop specialist knowledge in that area.
The dictionary definition of “invest” is: “To commit (money or capital) in order to gain a financial return.” The word “risk” doesn’t even get a look in.
However many people speculate when they think they are investing – they buy a property in a secondary location or off the plan “hoping” it will increase in value. Speculation is risky.
On the other hand, finding a property with an element of scarcity so it will always be in strong demand, in an area that has always outperformed the averages and buying it below its intrinsic value, is a proven investment strategy that minimises your risk.
Myth # 7: You have to know how to time the investment marketsIt’s often said that timing is everything when investing, but that’s not really the case.
Sure timing matters – you don’t want to buy property at the peak of the boom, but successful investors find that timing isn’t really that important.
Have you noticed how some investors do well in good times and do just as well in bad times, while others do poorly in good times and even worse in bad times?
The truth is, successful investors, know how to create wealth at any point in the property cycle while unsuccessful investors manage to lose money at the same stages of the cycle.
This suggests to me that it’s not our external world that determines whether we make money; it’s something inside us – our mindset.
In part two, which will be published in a few day’s we’ll bust eight more myths—including the ones even seasoned investors fall for. You won’t want to miss it.
Note: The good news is that, as you become aware of these myths, you can do things differently.
You can choose to change your beliefs and produce outrageous results and reach every goal you set by investing wisely in the right type of property.
Of course, while property investing may be simple it’s not easy.
And that’s not a play on words.
The fact is, around 20% of those who get involved in property investment sell up in the first year and close to half sell their property in the first 5 years.
And of those investors who stay in property, about 90% never get past their second property.
So if you want financial freedom from property investment to fund your dreams, you’re going to have to do something different to what most property investors are doing.
You’re going to have to listen to different people, to whom most Australian property investors listen.
You’re going to need to set yourself some goals and follow a strategy that’s known, proven and trusted.
Then you grow your property investment businesses one property at a time.
When I first noticed that my laptop was running hot, I panicked, thinking it was due to malware, like cryptojackers use the device’s CPU and GPU to mine for crypto. Laptops react differently depending on the type of malware they contract, but a common symptom of a virus is the device lagging and overheating.
I couldn’t recall clicking on a malicious link or downloading a suspicious file, so when my antivirus scan came back clean, I began considering other possibilities. If it wasn’t malware or spyware, then maybe there’s an underlying issue with the hardware or software of my laptop; hopefully, an easy fix!
Your laptop overheating could be a hardware problem. Your device relies on one or more internal fans to regulate the temperature of its components. They’re usually quiet and only pick up speed (and become a bit noisy) when running resource-intensive software. However, if the fan is old or damaged, it may not work properly.
In the short term, this results in the device overheating and negatively impacting its performance. Long-term, however, this could damage more expensive components, such as your CPU, shortening its projected lifespan.
There are two ways you can check the health of your fan yourself. Either physically, by taking note of any weird noises or lack of spinning, or digitally. In fact, you can easily check the speed and temperature of your device’s CPU without needing to open it.
On the body of your laptop, usually the bottom or sides, you’ll notice multiple rows of narrow slits. While some laptops may have them at the top, others utilize vents on multiple faces for optimal air circulation.
These are vents that allow the fans to exchange the hot air inside the laptop with the cooler air outside. But they can also bring in dust from the surrounding environment. And if you have any furry pets, fine hairs might even clog the small openings, drastically reducing the fan’s efficiency. In most cases, clogged vents are an easy and inexpensive fix. Power off your laptop and wipe any visible particles with a clean tissue paper or microfiber towel. Regularly checking that the vents are not blocked by anything will ensure your laptop gets the ventilation it needs.
If you notice hair or crumbs on the inside of the vents, don’t stick anything sharp or pointy in to nudge them out. Instead, use a can of compressed air, blowing it right into the slits from multiple angles. Just make sure you’re targeting as many of the vents and gaps between the keyboard keys as possible. The inside of a laptop is densely packed, and air can’t travel as well through the entirety of the inner cavity, so don’t be afraid to get creative with the angles!
For laptops, dust buildup can be a trickier problem. Unlike desktop PCs, most laptops aren’t designed for you to open and clean them yourself. Dust buildup on the CPU and GPU can trap in heat and result in inefficient cooling. Even a few minutes of using a resource-intensive piece of software can be enough to spike your device’s internal temperature.
Generally, you’d want to avoid using your laptop on top of overly dirty surfaces. You should also be extra careful to prevent pet hair or food crumbs from getting in through the vents.
Frequently wipe the outside of the laptop (bottom, screen, and keyboard) with a clean paper towel or use a cleaning solution suitable for electronics. Also, don’t hesitate to use some keyboard slime every once in a while for a more thorough cleanup at home. Luckily, most local tech shops offer laptop clean-up services that’ll leave it as clean as new.
“Launch on Startup” apps are applications that automatically launch as soon as you switch on your laptop. Usually, they’re useful tools to keep operating, like antivirus or auto backup, but that’s not always the case. Think about the last time you needed Visual Studio or Microsoft Teams to be running round-the-clock.
Many apps offer a “launch on startup” option as a feature. You could easily end up with almost a dozen apps all running at once as soon as you launch. Having so many apps open at once can also cause your device to heat up. Make sure you regularly go through your device’s settings, limiting startup launch apps to ones you personally need for your daily tasks. Search for Startup apps in the taskbar to see all the apps with “launch on startup” enabled.
You can also sort startup apps by Startup impact. This lets you better determine which apps you should allow to start automatically and which you should disable, depending on how much it impacts the speed of your startup and overall performance.
Similar to “Launch on Startup,” a lot of apps don’t actually close when you hit that X icon in the far right corner. They keep running in the background, using up your device’s resources on top of the apps you’re actively using. Background activity isn’t all bad. For specific applications, such as your email or Discord, you need the app to keep running to receive desktop notifications on time. However, you probably don’t need Steam to be running in the background during school or work.
If you notice your laptop starts to run hot later in the day, background apps might be the cause. That’s because one or two might not be a problem, but once you have ten? Your laptop might not be able to handle the load.
Search background activity in your settings, then under Battery usage, you’ll have a detailed breakdown of the energy and resource consumption of all your applications. If you sort by Background, you’ll be able to see which applications consume the most energy while running in the background, rather than apps you actively use often.
Older software and apps tend to be inefficient and incompatible with your current OS. If you notice your laptop getting hot when running a particular app or software that shouldn’t be resource-intensive, it might just be too old. Keeping software you regularly use up-to-date ensures you have access to the latest features and the best performance. Not to mention, older applications are more vulnerable to malware, so you might actually end up getting your device infected with something malicious.
As for drivers, which play a key role in how efficiently your hardware runs, they also need to be up-to-date. If you’ve been neglecting the “update available” notifications for too long, consider setting aside 20 minutes to let your laptop update all its components.
Simply search for Updates in the taskbar and click on Check for updates. Then, scroll down to Advanced options. There you’ll find a tab called Optional updates, where you can easily check for and update any outdated drivers.
If you’ve been practicing proper online hygiene, you likely don’t have to worry about malware or spyware being the culprit. Still, if your laptop is running unexpectedly hot, you should run a quick device scan to rule out the worst-case scenario before exploring alternatives.
But more often than not, the solution to an overheating laptop is pretty simple. Whether it’s a quick tweak in your settings or dusting your desk more often, you can go back to having a cool laptop in no time.
A themed subway train commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War was put into operation in Beijing on Sunday. The train, operating on the city’s Line 19, will run for one month, and features seven themed carriages. Through graphic displays, themed decorations and interactive installations, the carriages vividly recreate the heroic deeds of the Chinese people during the war and their resolve to carry forward the nation’s revolutionary legacy.
Cardi B has prevailed in a civil lawsuit brought against her by a Beverly Hills security guard after two days of testimony from the rapper that was sometimes colorful and drew laughter from jurors.
Emani Ellis sued Cardi B for $24 million, accusing her of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress in the aftermath of a confrontation in a hallway outside of an obstetrician’s office. Ellis claimed that, during the set-to, the rapper scratched her with a long nail extension, leaving a facial scar.
The hip-hop star was found not liable on all counts by jurors after less
than an hour of deliberations.
“I swear to God, I will say it on my deathbed, I did not touch that woman,” Cardi B said outside the courthouse following the conclusion of the trial. She added that she had missed her kids’ first day of school because of the civil trial.
“I want to thank my lawyers,” she said, “I want to thank the jurors, I want to thank the judge, and I want to thank the respectful press.”
Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, testified that she never touched, scratched or spat at the security guard, who she believed was taking video of her with her cellphone. The rapper was four months pregnant and had an appointment on the day of the incident — Feb. 24, 2018.
Ellis worked as a security guard at the Beverly Hills building where Cardi B had her medical appointment, and she testified that she was doing her rounds when she saw the celebrity exit the elevator. She testified that she was overcome with excitement and declared, “Wow, it’s Cardi B.”
Ellis alleged that the performer then turned to her and said, “Why the f— are you telling people you’ve seen me?” Cardi B then accused her of trying to spread news about her being at the doctor’s office, she testified during the four-day trial.
Cardi B cursed at her, used the N-word and other slurs, called her names, threatened her job, body-shamed her and mocked her career, Ellis said. She alleged Cardi B spat on her, took a swing at her and scratched her left cheek with a 2- to 3-inch fingernail.
But jurors believed Cardi B’s version of events, which was that Ellis was the aggressor.
The rapper blasted the plaintiff in an Alhambra courtroom, saying she was looking for a payout. Cardi B said the pair went chest-to-chest and exchanged angry words but nothing more.
She told jurors that she said to Ellis: “B—, get the f— out of my face. Why are you in my face? Why are you recording me? Ain’t you supposed to be security?’
“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Girl is big!’” she testified.” “She’s got big black boots on. I’m like, ‘D—, the hell am i gonna do now?’”
The rapper said that she’s 5 feet 3 and was 130 pounds and pregnant at the time of the incident. She wouldn’t have tried to fight the guard, who was far larger, she said.
Asked if she was “disabled” during the incident, Cardi B’s comments drew laughter in the courtroom: “At that moment, when you’re pregnant, I’m very disabled,” she said with a roll of her eyes. “You want me to tell you the things I can’t do?”
Tierra Malcolm, a receptionist for Dr. David Finke, with whom Cardi B had an appointment that day, told jurors that she saw Ellis corner the celebrity. The receptionist said she then got between them, and the guard reached for the rapper. Malcolm said she ended up with a cut on her own forehead.
Finke testified that he saw the guard cause that injury and also hit the receptionist’s shoulder. He further said that Ellis had no injuries. Both testified they never saw Cardi B hit Ellis.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, Ellis’ attorney, Ron Rosen Janfaza, told jurors, “Cardi B needs to be held accountable.” “There was no video camera … so really it comes down to one thing — do you believe, Ms. Ellis, a guard with a good record? She is a model citizen,” he told jurors.
Rosen Janfaza noted that, under cross-examination, the rapper acknowledged that she and Ellis were chest-to-chest as expletives were exchanged, and that alone is an unwelcome touch and battery on his client, he said. He told jurors that the receptionist and doctor did not see the 40 to 50 seconds where Cardi B labeled his client fat, spat on her and took a swing at her.
He said his client suffered for seven years, and “this was a violent attack.”
Cardis B’s attorney, Peter Anderson, said jurors needed to employ common sense to reject the security guard’s story and that the preponderance of evidence showed his client did nothing more than yell and curse, and “that isn’t something you can sue over.”
“The question is whether Cardi ever struck the plaintiff,” Anderson said. And the evidence is overwhelming that she did not, he said. Anderson said that the guard testified that she never made a police report, did not seek immediate medical attention, did not even use a Band-Aid on the scratch, but went home and took a nap.
Some up-and-comers are pushing to make agents that can actually place wagers instead of just supplying tips, but the field is off to a rough start. Tom Fleetham formerly worked as the head of business development for a blockchain platform called Zilliqa that experimented with an AI gambling agent called Ava, focused on picking horse race winners. “She had good analysis, good results,” he says. “Where it got hard was actually trying to place the bets.”
The company couldn’t get Ava to reliably place bets using crypto wallets in a timely fashion, Fleethem claims. “It took forever,” Fleetham says. “We gave up.”
YouTube is awash in tutorials about how to create and manage gambling agents that can place bets on behalf of humans. But again, these services do not appear to be minting new millionaires—or even thousandaires. Siraj Raval, a YouTuber who publishes videos about how to make money using AI, has promoted a side project called WagerGPT on his channel. He claims the tool is capable of placing bets, and he charges people $199 a month for access. “As of eight months ago, I implemented a feature to let WagerGPT place bets. Now it’s doing that for the users full-time,” Raval claims. According to Raval, WagerGPT scans over 40 sports books and “spots all sorts of variables that humans can’t.” Ravel invited WIRED to join a Telegram group he claimed was full of people using WagerGPT, but the channel was largely inactive, and most of the recent messages were questions about what’s going on with the service. “It’s completely dead,” alleges Pete Sanchez, one of the participants. “Waste of money.”
As AI agents cannot control traditional bank accounts, most of the fully automated betting products focus on sports gambling websites and prediction markets that take cryptocurrency, as many agents can and do operate crypto wallets. One of the largest mainstream projects to allow AI agents to make all sorts of transactions on behalf of humans is Coinbase’s AgentKit. It imagines a world in which agents can execute a number of financial transactions, from purchasing airline tickets to trading crypto and, yes, placing bets on sports. Lincoln Murr, an AI product manager at Coinbase, says that a lot of AgentKit’s early use cases “were speculative in nature” and noted he hadn’t seen anything particularly successful. “How profitable these agents truly are, I don’t know,” he says. The one he’s been paying the most attention to is called Sire. The project describes itself as “an agentic sports-betting hedge fund” and operates as a DAO. (In crypto terms, DAO means decentralized autonomous organization—a member-owned community that uses blockchain-based contracts). “Those types of things are the direction we’re heading,” Murr says.
Sire (which was previously called DraiftKing, but had to rebrand for legal reasons) is in the process of a relaunch. Max Sebti, the CEO of its parent company, Score, says the company uses a combination of public and private data as well as “computer vision tech that is watching the games” to get the most up-to-date information possible in order to determine winning bets. Score’s business model is a complicated mashup of crypto and gambling. Eventually, the company plans to allow anyone to transfer USD into a wallet, which will then be converted into a stablecoin. After that, the plan is that Sire’s AI agents will pool the money with payments from other customers and place bets on decentralized sports books and prediction markets that accept crypto, including Polymarket. Then, Sebti says, the gents will redistribute the winnings back to the community. Septi describes the initiative as “a very steady, hedge-fund like product.” Anyone can add money to a wallet, but to take winnings out, there’s a “performance fee” that must be paid to Sire—one that can be reduced if the customer purchases the company’s crypto token. The service comes out of beta this month.
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“Good SEO is good GEO.” That’s according to Google’s Danny Sullivan, a director within Google Search, and former search liaison
Why we care. You can believe Google if you want. But we’ve tried to consistently say that we believe GEO is an emerging practice. That doesn’t mean it replaces SEO today or tomorrow – because SEO fundamentals matter and SEO is still not dead. But I also agree with Michael King’s assessment that SEO is deprecated. The future of Google and conversational AI search will be answers, not ranking, regardless of what Googlers say publicly today.
What he’s saying. Here’s some of what Sullivan said about SEO/GEO during his keynote at WordCamp US on Aug. 28:
CTR question. During the audience Q&A, blogger Angie Drake said her organic search click-through rate has plummeted since AI Overviews launched, even though impressions are up (known as the great decouoling of search). She asked Sullivan what Google will do to compensate publishers who are losing clicks. Sullivan’s response:
Other takeaways. Some other data Sullivan shared:
The keynote. Here is the full video. I’ve linked to the takeaways portion of Sullivan’s presentation, where he discusses GEO. Drake asks her CTR question starting at 45:06.
Amy Frank said it took 17 hours on the phone over nearly three weeks, bouncing between her insurer and her local hospital system, to make sure her plan would cover her husband’s post-surgery care.
Many of her calls never got past the hold music. When they did, the hospital told her to call her insurer. The insurer told her to have the hospital fax a form to a special number. The hospital responded that they’d been instructed to send faxes to a different number.
“It was just a big loophole we were caught in, going around and around,” Frank said.
Frank and her husband, Allen, faced that ellipse of frustration because they were among 90,000 central Missouri patients caught in the middle of a contract dispute between University of Missouri, or MU, Health Care, a Columbia, Missouri-based health system, and Anthem, the couple’s health insurance provider. The companies let their contract expire in April after failing to strike a deal to keep the hospital system and its clinics in-network.
A growing number of Americans find themselves in a similar pinch. In New York City, negotiations between UnitedHealthcare and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center missed a June 30 deadline, briefly leaving some patients in limbo until a deal was reached the next day. In North Carolina, Duke Health recently announced it could leave the Aetna network unless the insurance company agreed to pay more favorable rates to the health system. And the Franks were nearly caught out-of-network previously, when a 2023 contract dispute between Anthem and a primary care group in Jefferson City, Missouri, prompted the couple to switch some providers to MU Health Care.
Indeed, 18% of non-federal hospitals experienced at least one documented case of public brinksmanship with an insurance company from June 2021 to May 2025, according to preliminary findings by Jason Buxbaum, a health policy researcher at the Brown University School of Health. Over the same period, 8% of hospitals ultimately went out-of-network with an insurer, at least for a time.
Industry observers say long-standing trends like hospital consolidation and rising health care costs contribute to the disputes, and Trump administration policies could make them more frequent as hospitals brace for about $1 trillion in cuts to federal health care spending as part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget law.
“They’re going to be more hard-nosed at negotiating with the health plans because they’re going to be in a survival mode,” said John Baackes, a retired insurance executive and former board member of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the national trade group representing the health insurance industry.
During the three-month stalemate between the insurer and the health system in Missouri, patients with Anthem plans lost in-network coverage with the region’s largest — and, for some specialties, only — medical provider.
Most people were unable to switch insurance midyear and faced the choice of paying higher prices upfront, delaying care, finding new providers, or running a paperwork gauntlet in hopes their medical conditions qualified for a 90-day coverage extension.
The dispute came at a particularly inconvenient time for the Franks. Allen Frank was recovering from complications from falling off the roof while cleaning the siding of the couple’s home in Rich Fountain in October. When it happened, Amy drove him 24 miles to the nearest emergency room. The facility in Jefferson City had recently been taken over by MU Health Care, and Allen was soon transferred 30 miles farther by ground ambulance to the system’s main hospital in Columbia for surgery to insert two metal plates and several screws to repair his collarbone.
Health care consolidation has been booming nationwide for 30 years, with over 2,000 hospital mergers announced since 1998, including 428 from 2018 to 2023. Mergers may lead to some efficiencies and benefits for consumers, but they also reduce market competition and strengthen the hand of hospitals in negotiations with insurers.
“Insurer markets have been consolidated for a long time,” Brown’s Buxbaum said. “What’s changed is how consolidated the hospital markets have become.”
Now if a hospital system drops out of a network, he said, “it’s not just going to be one key hospital. It’s much more likely to be all the key facilities, or many of the critical mass of providers” in an area.
It’s a scary prospect for patients, making the public threat of a rupture a potent tool in negotiations between hospitals and insurers. That typically works in a hospital’s favor, Baackes said, “because the general assumption is the insurance is being greedy and the hospital is doing God’s work.”
In a statement, Buddy Castellano, spokesperson for Anthem’s parent company, Elevance Health, wrote, “We approach negotiations with a focus on fairness, transparency, and respect for everyone impacted. Health plan rate discussions are complex and require thoughtful collaboration to ensure long-term sustainability. Our commitment remains clear: ensuring access to care while keeping coverage affordable for the families, employers, and communities we serve.”
Allen Frank needed follow-up care in the months after his initial surgery, including a second surgery in July.
A federal law dubbed the No Surprises Act, which took effect in 2022, offers protections for some patients whose provider drops out of network due to a contract dispute. People getting treatment for serious conditions can keep their in-network rates for up to 90 days with their current providers, delaying the need to find a new one or face higher rates. So Amy Frank worked the phones to get that continuity of care for her husband.
“Our deductible was already met. If we go out-of-network, we’re going to have to start completely over for the out-of-network deductible,” she said.
Eventually, Anthem agreed to let Allen Frank continue his care with MU Health Care. But when he showed up for an appointment to get an injection in his injured shoulder, he was told the health system didn’t have a record of the approval. He refused to leave without being seen, and, eventually, a nurse was able to get through to Anthem to get a confirmation number and approval for the appointment.
“It’s just very frustrating,” Amy Frank said in early July, before the sides had reached a deal. “I’ve got my own medical issues, and I don’t feel like mine are bad enough to be fighting for a continuity of care.”
In an email, MU Health Care spokesperson Eric Maze wrote: “While our goal was to reach agreement prior to our contract terminating and to avoid disruption in care, we established processes and resources well in advance to facilitate continuity of care and reduce the burden for our patients. We understand and are sorry for the stress and concern being out of network created for many, and we are deeply grateful for the patience and trust placed in us during this time.”
Rising health care costs are fueling contract disputes. Hospital expenses grew 5.1% in 2024, according to a recent brief from the American Hospital Association, outpacing the 2.9% inflation rate. Labor costs are the biggest driver, with advertised nursing salaries rising 26.6% faster than inflation from 2020 to 2024, the brief noted.
Hospitals want to recoup those costs by pressing insurance companies to pay more for services.
Washington University in St. Louis health economist Tim McBride said that dynamic could be further enflamed by the massive tax-and-spending law. The measure makes significant cuts to federal health care spending over the next decade, including a $911 billion drop in Medicaid spending, and is expected to cause 10 million Americans to lose their insurance.
As negotiations between MU Health Care and Anthem broke down, the insurer claimed the hospital was seeking a 39% rate increase over three years, while the hospital said the insurer wouldn’t budge past 1%-2%.
On June 30, three months into the standoff, the Missouri Senate Insurance and Banking Committee called the two sides in for a hearing that broke months of deadlock and prompted new proposals from Anthem.
“Anthem doubled their rate increase offer,” Missouri Senate President Cindy O’Laughlin, a Republican whose district includes parts of central Missouri, wrote in a Facebook post on July 8, encouraging a deal.
“Yes I know that I’m not on the inside nor the CEO of either but from what I’ve been told this seems a reasonable offer.”
The sides announced an agreement one week later that was retroactive to April 1, the day the previous contract expired.
Amy Frank got several texts from friends and family about the agreement. She’d been so vocal about her frustrations, they wanted to make sure she’d seen the news. But her relief was subdued.
“So you put everybody through all of this for nothing?” she said the day after the deal was announced.
She had already sunk hours on the phone to ensure Allen’s July 31 surgery to repair the plates holding his clavicle together would be covered. She was in no rush to call her doctors to reschedule the appointments she’d skipped, figuring their phone lines would be busy. The experience had her wondering if the two sides were trying to get people upset as a bargaining tactic.
“That money that they’re fighting over — is that really worth all of the stress?” she said.
And after going through two disputes in three years, she can’t help but wonder: How long until the next one?
Sony’s upcoming PS5 and PC live-service game Fairgame$ has lost another top developer. Game director Daniel Drapeau has left developer Haven Studios to join WB Games Montreal.
Haven founder Jade Raymond left the company in May. It was reported at the time that Fairgame$ was delayed to 2026 after a playtest proved unfavorable.
Drapeau left Haven weeks ago, and said in a LinkedIn post that they’re joining WB Games Montreal as a creative director for an upcoming project. “Let’s do this!” Drapeau said.
Drapeau is a video game industry veteran, having started back in 2006 in testing and internship positions with VMC and Odd1 before joining Ubisoft in 2007 as a game designer. Drapeau was later promoted to lead game designer on Rainbow Six Siege before leaving to join Eidos-Montreal in 2017 to work on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Drapeau re-joined Ubisoft in 2019 and worked at the company for two years before moving to Haven in 2021.
There is no word yet on what Drapeau is working on at WB Games Montreal, but the studio was said to have been pitching a new Game of Thrones game earlier this year. The studio assisted Rocksteady with 2024’s underperforming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and also made 2022’s Gotham Knights.
As for Haven and Fairgame$, the game is now reportedly coming in Spring 2026, putting it in the vicinity of GTA 6 in May 2026.
As you can see in the announcement trailer, Fairgame$ has players going after billionaires who have “too much money and too much power.” In the trailer, we see a squad of players infiltrating some kind of compound, working together to take down security guards with the apparent aim of sticking it to the man.
“Fairgame$ will give you an opportunity to break the rules as a modern-day Robin Hood, a thrill seeker, or just someone who wants to collect cool loot,” creative director Mathieu Leduc said. “Trespass inside forbidden locations around the world, fill your pockets like a kid in a candy store and unravel the nefarious plans of untouchable billionaires.”
Back when Fairgame$ was announced in 2023, Sony was in the midst of a huge push and investment into the live-service market. At one point in time, Sony wanted to release 12 live-service games over the coming years (alongside its commitment to single-player games). However, in May 2023, Sony announced that it was halving its planned live-service game output, with management stressing it wanted to focus on quality over quantity. After this announcement, Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us multiplayer game was canceled in December 2023.
At the beginning of 2024, though, Sony found its biggest success to date in the live-service market with Helldivers 2–the game went on to smash sales records and become the No. 3 overall best-selling game of 2024 in the US. It recently came to Xbox, and, along with a new update, has seen a huge surge in popularity.
In August 2024, Sony launched the multiplayer game Concord. It had such a dismal performance out of the gate that Sony quickly took the game offline and refunded all players. Its developer, Firewalk, was later closed. At the end of 2024, Sony confirmed that it canceled multiple projects, including a live-service God of War and another live-service title from Bend.
It was reported in 2023 that PlayStation boss Jim Ryan, who left Sony in 2024, had a mandate that Sony’s teams should make more games-as-a-service titles. A number of PlayStation developers were reportedly upset with this, and the blame was said to have fallen not on Ryan but Connie Booth, one of the most important and veteran PlayStation developers, leading to her eventual departure.
Another former PlayStation boss, Shuhei Yoshida, recently said the chance of finding success in the competitive live-service market was “small,” but his replacement, Hermen Hulst, was given the resources to fund both single-player games and live-service titles at the same time. However, had Yoshida stayed in that role, he said he would have “tried to resist” the push into the live-service market. He joked, “That’s one of the reasons they removed me.”
In addition to Fairgame$, Sony is working on multiple other live-service games, including Bungie’s Marathon–which is facing its own set of challenges and has been delayed indefinitely. Another game, codenamed Gummy Bears, which spun out from Bungie at SIE, recently crossed a milestone.
Following the failure of Concord, top boss Hermen Hulst said Sony put new structures in place to help ensure its live-service games come to market in better shape.
For more on Sony’s live-service games, check out the gallery below to get the latest on the status of all the projects in the works.
Insomnia patients taking cannabis-based medical products reported better quality sleep after up to 18 months of treatment, according to a study published August 27 in the open-access journal PLOS Mental Health by Arushika Aggarwal from Imperial College London, U.K., and colleagues.
About one out of every three people has some trouble getting a good night’s rest, and 10 percent of adults meet the criteria for an insomnia disorder. But current treatments can be difficult to obtain, and the drugs approved for insomnia run the risk of dependence. To understand how cannabis-based medical products might affect insomnia symptoms, the authors of this study analyzed a set of 124 insomnia patients taking medical cannabis products. They examined the patient’s reports of their sleep quality, anxiety/depression, and quality of life changes between one and 18 months of treatment.
The patients reported improved sleep quality that lasted over the 18 months of treatment. They also showed significant improvements in anxiety/depression as well as reporting less pain. About nine percent of the patients reported adverse effects such as fatigue, insomnia, or dry mouth, but none of the side effects were life-threatening. While randomized controlled trials will be needed to prove that the products are safe and effective, the authors suggest that cannabis-based medical products could improve sleep quality in insomnia patients.
Co-author Dr. Simon Erridge, Research Director at Curaleaf Clinic, summarizes: “Over an 18-month period, our study showed that treatment for insomnia with cannabis-based medicinal products was associated with sustained improvements in subjective sleep quality and anxiety symptoms. These findings support the potential role of medical cannabis as a medical option where conventional treatments have proven ineffective, though further randomised trials are needed to confirm long-term efficacy.”
He adds: “Conducting this long-term study provided valuable real-world evidence on patient outcomes that go beyond what we typically see in short-term trials. It was particularly interesting to observe signs of potential tolerance over time, which highlights the importance of continued monitoring and individualized treatment plans.”
Published on: Sept 02, 2025 08:52 pm IST
For many, losing weight can feel like an uphill battle, with countless diets, hours at the gym, and still little progress on the scale. Often, the key isn’t extreme measures but small, consistent habits that fit seamlessly into daily life. A woman named Kate Daniel completely transformed her life in just two years, shedding over 70 kg. In an Instagram post, she revealed how adopting 4 simple nighttime habits helped her lose weight. (Also read: Woman lost 70+ kgs by following 4 simple morning habits: ‘I start the day with…’ )
She says, “I’m not a garbage bin, so I had to stop treating myself like one. If I’m full, it’s waste whether I eat it or toss it, even the kids’ leftovers. The difference is whether I carry it on my body.”
Kate shares, “Whether it’s grabbing a prepped meal from the freezer or throwing something together, I make sure everything I need for work is ready to go. It stops me from ‘winging it’ and losing the daily decision battle before the day even starts.”
According to her, “This simple practice locks in gratitude, focus, and intention before sleep. It clears mental clutter, so I don’t just sleep better, I wake up ready and positive, changing the way I approach my day.”
She explains, “I fill my water bottle and lay out my workout gear the night before. It’s not about willpower, it’s automation. A visual cue that removes excuses before my brain even tries to find them.”
Note to readers: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.
This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
The biotechnology careers of John Maraganore and Clive Meanwell have brought them into collaboration time and time again.
As the respective founders of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and The Medicines Company, the two previously partnered on the drug that would ultimately become Leqvio, which was later bought in a $10 billion acquisition of Medicines Co. by Novartis. And before Alnylam, Maraganore had led development at Biogen of Angiomax, which was later licensed to Meanwell’s company.
Now, the two have partnered to launch and run Corsera Health, which aims to make a preventive medicine for cardiovascular disease as well as an artificial intelligence tool to identify who could benefit from earlier heart intervention.
Corsera’s target are younger people who are not “willing to wait 40 years to see whether they have a heart attack,” Meanwell said. “They’re saying, ‘What can I find that will help me?’”
Corsera’s lead drug, an RNA interference therapeutic now in preclinical testing, is designed to be a once-yearly injection that blocks two targets known to drive cardiovascular disease: PCSK9 and angiotensinogen. The company expects to begin clinical testing by the end of the year.
There are two antibody drugs that reduce LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol by binding to and blocking PCSK9, while Leqvio accomplishes the same goal by using RNA interference to reduce PCSK9 production. Currently, all three drugs are approved to treat people who have high cholesterol or, in the case of the two antibodies, to reduce cardiovascular risk in people with established heart disease.
Corsera aims to develop its medicine as a preventive treatment. It’s betting there will be demand from people who want to lower their lifetime risk of heart disease. Even there, though, it could have competition from Amgen’s PCSK9-targeting antibody, which is in advanced testing for primary prevention as well.
Maraganore and Meanwell argue an annual treatment could appeal to payers as well as patients, boosting treatment adherence and reducing barriers to access.
“We’re willing to trade off a little bit on maximal effect in order to get the benefit of that low disutility that enables adoption,” Maraganore said.
In its launch statement, Corsera said it intends to develop its medicine for “population-scale reach,” with “pricing that enables broad accessibility.”
Since leaving Alnylam in 2021, Maraganore has helped launch other biotech companies specializing in RNA interference. Last year, he founded City Therapeutics, and he sits on the advisory board for another, Judo Bio.
Meanwell, after selling Medicines Co. to Novartis, helped launch obesity drug developer Metsera, which earlier this year priced an initial public offering and presented promising Phase 1 data for its amylin-targeting shot.
The two will serve as co-CEOs of Corsera.
Corsera is also developing an AI tool it calls Klotho Health, named after the Greek fate who, in mythology, controlled the threads of human life. Corsera’s name, meanwhile, is rooted in the Latin word for heart.
The company has raised more than $50 million since its formation in 2023, backed only by the founders and insiders. Maraganore and Meanwell said they decided it would be “efficient” if they worked on the company in stealth without tapping traditional venture capital firms.
“When you have a really novel idea, you have to have proof of concept before you can bring the professionals in,” Meanwell said. “Otherwise they tell you, ‘Come back when you when you’ve got something.’ We really think we’ve got something now.”
With their prominence on the rise across the country, buying a strata unit may be the next step in your property journey – and the fact that strata titles now make up more than 20% of living arrangements in New South Wales is further testament to this.
But there’s more to owning a body corporate than just a new income stream. Strata buildings require round-the-clock maintenance and vigilant management to run efficiently and maintain compliance with local building codes and regulations, as well as minimum rental standards.
Note: It can take a village to keep a strata building up and running, and a good strata building manager knows they cannot do it alone. Building managers employ a wide variety of tradespeople and specialists to keep things running smoothly and in compliance with local laws.
So what trades contacts should you expect a quality strata manager to have in their address books? Here are just the top essential tradespeople that your strata manager should have handy in the event that your strata building suddenly becomes in need of urgent repairs or essential maintenance to ensure ongoing compliance.
Strata managers likely have their electrician’s phone number on speed dial, and for good reason. Strata buildings often face unique electrical issues given their scale and age. A good building manager will have connections with reliable electricians for strata properties who know what they are doing and, most importantly, are local.
Trusted electricians, like Approved Electrix in Melbourne, for instance, have been serving their neighbourhoods for over 20 years. In the Melbourne city centre, where change is a constant, calling upon an electrical service provider who knows the area like the back of their hand is preferable since they’ll be better equipped to handle any older electrical systems and infrastructure.
In Australia’s larger city centres (like Melbourne and Sydney), where construction often marries the old and the new, experience working with and modernising outdated electrical systems becomes essential. This keen understanding of the area’s history will make electrical repairs, routine inspections, and upgrades more dependable – no matter how old or how large your strata complex may be.
Being down the street helps, too, so any emergencies can be addressed as quickly as possible. The closer the working relationship between strata managers and their electricians, the better, since they can be tapped for services beyond repairs, like pre-sale electrical inspections and routine fire alarm servicing.
It cannot be overstated just how important a role plumbers play in helping manage a strata building. Like electricians, building managers are probably calling upon their services every week—every day, even. Compliant residential buildings require ongoing servicing by experienced professionals, from routine plumbing maintenance to emergency repairs.
Plumbing services run the gamut, from a leaking shower head or slowly draining kitchen sink to an exploded toilet cistern or burst pipe. Unresolved plumbing issues can also spell disaster down the line for strata managers, quickly ballooning into unsafe and costly problems with ripple effects throughout the building, even impacting the electrical and fire alarm systems.
Note: Good plumbing requires proactive maintenance and speedy response times.
Unaddressed plumbing issues worsen and are a fast way to drain a strata building of its value, so your manager might even have multiple local plumbers under their employ to address the variety of problems that can come up. Otherwise, your body corporate may be at risk of flushing money down the toilet.
Locksmiths are another essential group of tradies your strata manager will likely employ often. According to rental laws across most, if not all, Australian states and territories, keys must be provided for every door in a rental unit. For strata complexes, this responsibility will fall upon your building manager, who will need to oversee every door and every lock—old, new, and in-between. Body corporates will need to cut new keys for new residents, make copies for tradies, replace any broken or lost keys, and service existing locks in the building regularly.
We’ve all been there personally, either locking ourselves out of our apartment or losing a key (or two). When strata title owners and tenants in strata properties are in the same situation, they can be referred to the building’s local locksmith at the manager’s behest, who can ideally provide speedy service.
Tip: Working with a reliable, local locksmith is ideal since they will have an intimate understanding of the building and can offer 24/7 help when stuck.
Strata managers who are able to take after hours requests and offer access to these emergency locksmith services are naturally going to be able to offer a greater level of support to title owners.
The property’s exterior is just as important as its interiors. Gardening and landscaping can impact a strata building’s performance on the market, so another crucial tool in your manager’s belt is an excellent gardening team. Well-kept gardens, neat hedges, healthy lawns, and creatively designed flower beds can help create a strong first impression for residents, visitors, and potential buyers.
Note: A skilled gardener or landscaper will work strategically to enhance the property’s appearance, improve outdoor functionality, and ensure plants are thriving year-round with regular upkeep.
Your manager will employ a local gardener who can appreciate the area’s unique climate and season to plan accordingly to spruce up shared spaces like shared courtyards, barbecue patios, or walking paths.
For strata managers, having a reliable landscaping professional on call is a powerful asset. They help maintain a consistent appearance for the building, supported with ad hoc work that contributes to residential satisfaction. In the strata building world, a well-kept exterior isn’t just decoration, but a long-term investment.
Here’s one tradie you may have forgotten about, but your strata manager surely hasn’t: the window cleaners! For many people, the façade of a strata building offers their first impression, and nothing ruins a good first impression more than dirty or broken windows.
Like thoughtful landscaping and gardening services, managers understand that keeping windows clean and presentable comes with good building management. Professional window washers will reach out to managers in advance of their servicing so that residents can mark cleaning days on their calendars.
Caring for the windows with regular cleaning keeps things polished, presentable, and compliant, and helps allow more natural light in for residents. During a routine cleaning, damages or faults may also be brought to light. Your manager may even employ window washers whose company can also offer repairs, which reflects well on the building
Strata buildings are living, breathing communities, and keeping them safe, functional, and appealing to buyers requires good management. A good strata building manager will employ a trusted network of skilled tradespeople to get the jobs done and help owners save money on their levies.
From electricians and plumbers, who keep the lights on and prevent costly disasters, to landscapers and window cleaners who maintain the property’s appearance, every tradie plays a vital role in a manager’s efforts to support the building.
But the list goes on! This is by no means an exhaustive list of every tradie working in a strata building. There are also painters, carpenters, roofers and tilers, all of which play a vital role in maintaining and performing repairs as they’re needed.
Note: By working with reliable, local professionals, strata managers can respond quickly to emergencies, stay on top of maintenance, and ensure compliance, thus safeguarding your investment and making it a place anyone would be proud to call home.
ChatGPT isn’t perfect, but it has several features that genuinely make it more useful for everyday tasks. Rather than replacing my workflow entirely, these tools complement my existing work process.
I like ChatGPT’s study feature as it doesn’t simply answer but acts more like a tutor. Instead of just spitting out solutions, it guides you through problems step by step. I’ve found this useful when working on engineering or science topics, where understanding each step is more important than just the final result.
For instance, if you ask ChatGPT, “Explain the pressure drop calculation for turbulent flow in a pipe using the Darcy-Weisbach equation,” it won’t just deliver the formula and plug in numbers. Instead, it walks you through identifying the Reynolds number first, then determining the friction factor, and finally applying the formula. If your calculations go wrong, it points out the errors gently, encouraging you to correct them yourself.
As ChatGPT’s study mode trains your brain instead of handing over answers, it helps you reinforce learning, which is much better than straightforward Q&A sessions.
The guidance adapts based on your responses. If you demonstrate a solid understanding of basic concepts, it moves faster through fundamentals and focus on advanced applications. ChatGPT is more suitable for studying than Gemini when compared to other AI tools. The interactive nature keeps you engaged rather than letting you passively consume information.
ChatGPT’s image creation feature includes preset styles that simplify the creative process. Instead of providing detailed prompts, you can pick from styles such as Synthwave, Art Nouveau, or Retro Cartoon, each of which produces a distinct visual mood.
When I needed concept art, I used this prompt:
Create a futuristic laboratory with robotic arms assembling circuit boards, workers in clean suits monitoring the process.
I selected the Cyberpunk style, which placed a built-in prompt above what I asked, resulting in that gritty, neon-lit aesthetic I wanted without additional prompting.
The consistency of these styles is a big advantage. Whether it’s the specific nostalgia of 80s Glam or the polished look of Photo Shoot, you get reliable, high-quality results every time. These options remove much of the guesswork from creative projects and are predictable in a good way.
On the other hand, I want to love Claude as a ChatGPT alternative, but it misses image creation entirely. Also, ChatGPT’s range of styles gives it an edge. You can describe lighting, color palettes, or artistic techniques, but the style handles most of those details.
Although the styles may sometimes feel a bit limiting, for most projects, they provide exactly the creative direction you need without overthinking.
The Canvas feature improves the interaction with long documents by providing a dedicated workspace right inside ChatGPT. Instead of copying and pasting text back and forth, you can edit directly within the interface—like working in a word processor. This integration removes friction and helps keep ideas organized.
It gives you various options, such as Suggest edits, which highlights potential improvements without making any automatic changes. Adjust the length lets you expand or contract sections while preserving the core message. The Reading level tailors the complexity of your text to fit your audience.
It also offers selective editing. When you highlight a sentence, a pop-up appears with formatting options—bold, italics, font size changes—plus an Ask ChatGPT button for targeted revisions.
For coding projects, Canvas becomes essential because it offers version control. This allows you to test different approaches to a function without having to start over each time. The various ways to use Canvas extend beyond writing, as Canvas supports exporting to PDF, Word, and markdown files, among others, allowing you to deliver files in the required format.
The interface isn’t perfect, as sometimes the Add final polish feature overcomplicates simple text. However, it is handy for iterative work that requires multiple revisions.
Connecting external apps eliminates the tedious download-and-reupload cycle. Instead of saving files locally first, the connectors allow you to share files with ChatGPT directly. So you don’t need to constantly switch between platforms. Setting up connectors is straightforward:
ChatGPT doesn’t have direct access to files from your apps, like Google Drive files, unless you explicitly use the file-sharing option to share a specific file.
When I need to analyze a document, I can prompt: “I’ll share three PDF reports from my Google Drive. Please summarize the key findings and identify common themes across all documents.” The connector lets me select and share those files with ease.
The advantage is removing friction from the workflow. Instead of managing local copies, you can pull files directly from cloud storage and work with them in ChatGPT. This beats opening multiple tabs, downloading files, and manually uploading them one by one.
These features won’t completely change how you work, but they do make ChatGPT more practical for everyday tasks. The improvements are incremental rather than groundbreaking—yet that’s exactly what makes them useful for workflow integration.
The core area of Tiananmen Square is now largely ready for the commemoration marking the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War, scheduled for September 3.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-02/Tiananmen-Square-set-for-80th-anniversary-commemoration-1Gldfs0Smsg/img/61dd95d5ba76461c9c06dad7715d60da/61dd95d5ba76461c9c06dad7715d60da.jpeg' alt=''
The square features red, gold and green decorations. Green at the base represents the land; The golden sun above it symbolizes the dawn of progress for the Chinese nation.
The design scheme was created by a team from the Central Academy of Fine Arts, selected and refined from more than 100 proposals through extensive discussions.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-02/Tiananmen-Square-set-for-80th-anniversary-commemoration-1Gldfs0Smsg/img/3406e6a4ddc7459ab1da6136db84006b/3406e6a4ddc7459ab1da6136db84006b.jpeg' alt=''
Tian Zhongli, head of the planning and design department of the event’s service and command office, said, “We placed the year pedestals on both sides of the Monument to the People’s Heroes, lifting up ‘1945’ and ‘2025,’ which clearly conveys the theme of the commemoration.”
The pedestals reflect the Great Wall as the central design language, with seven dove sculptures on each side to denote the 14-year struggle of the Chinese people in the war.
“The 14 doves are a highlight of the design, representing the shared pursuit and safeguarding of peace by hundreds of millions of Chinese people and peace-loving people around the world,” Tian said.
<img src='https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-02/Tiananmen-Square-set-for-80th-anniversary-commemoration-1Gldfs0Smsg/img/ca4b52a8a7aa496e9becbd1db2fad9ca/ca4b52a8a7aa496e9becbd1db2fad9ca.jpeg' alt=''
Along Chang’an Avenue, 10 large themed flowerbeds have been arranged, drawing crowds of citizens and tourists to take photos.
Liberty Station, the decades-long transformation of San Diego’s massive Naval Training Center into a mixed-use neighborhood and cultural district, is a welcome reprieve from much of Southern California’s fragmented sprawl. Thanks to its 1920s-era Spanish Revival buildings, arched colonnades and broad public promenades, visiting it feels like stepping back to a time when walkability and simple elegance were the norm. To get a picture in your head, rewatch the original “Top Gun” for NTC’s cameo when Tom Cruise’s Maverick rides toward the house of Kelly McGillis’ Charlie along the complex’s Roosevelt Road with the arcaded buildings perfectly framing the shot.
Despite its legacy and the site’s many amenities, Arts District Liberty Station, the nonprofit that manages more than 100 of Liberty Station’s cultural and hospitality facilities, was still searching for an anchor. Enter San Diego’s Cygnet Theatre, which was seeking a new home. Cygnet had long outgrown its technologically outdated, barnlike theater in Old Town San Diego, its lease was uncertain and its operations were scattered around the area, notes Sean Murray, the Cygnet’s co-founder and artistic director.
Fall Preview 2025
The only guide you need to fall entertainment.
On Sept. 10, Liberty Station’s long-neglected naval base exchange, otherwise known as Building 178, will be reborn as the Cygnet’s new home. Called the Joan, short for the Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center in recognition of the project’s lead donors, the 42,000-square-foot complex will serve as the theater’s home for productions — its first will be a staging of James Goldman and Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” — and its offices, while hosting other performance companies from around the region.
Building 178, originally opened in 1942, had included a bowling alley, commissary, tailor shop and even a disco. But after the Navy closed the San Diego training center in 1997, it sat empty and deteriorating, facing threats of demolition or commercial redevelopment.
1. Chris Bittner, a principal at San Diego’s OBR Architecture. 2. Irwin Jacobs, one of San Diego’s most prominent arts philanthropists. 3. Sean Murray, the Cygnet’s co-founder and artistic director. (Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
“When the Navy left, they just walked out,” says Lisa Johnson, executive director of Arts District Liberty Station. “It looked like they’d gone to lunch — half-drunk coffee cups still on the desks.” Much of Building 178 barely stood. “Ceilings had collapsed. Columns were rotted through. In some cases, stucco was holding up walls that had no structural core,” says architect Chris Bittner, a principal at San Diego-based OBR Architecture.
Bittner, whose grandfather trained at the base during World War II, has worked on various Liberty Station projects for more than two decades. He and his team rebuilt the building’s eastern flank, now containing rehearsal spaces, re-creating the colonial-style roof, beams and walls while opening up breezeways that had been bricked in.
The Joan’s two performance venues — a 280-plus-seat proscenium theater and a 150-seat black box — are built into the surviving part of the building, but many of the spaces around them had to be reconfigured.
For the main theater, to avoid changing the building’s historic roofline, crews excavated below the original slab, lowering the stage and audience levels so catwalks, rigging and lighting grids could fit under the low profile. “We basically took a two-story building and sunk it down a floor,” notes Bittner. Raising the black-box theater ceiling and making the space column-free required massive transfer beams to carry the load of the floor above.
Because the theater sits directly under San Diego International Airport’s flight path (just try having an uninterrupted conversation in the Point Loma neighborhood), the architects wrapped each theater in layered wall assemblies, rubber gaskets and sound-lock vestibules with paired doors to block noise. HVAC units were acoustically isolated with springs and pads, ductwork was lined to slow air velocity, and separate mechanical zones were created so lobby or shop noise couldn’t leak into performances. The main stage also has a thick concrete ceiling, and its subtly faceted acoustic wall panels, embedded with micro-perforations, double as sound absorbers and diffusers, subtly tuning the space.
1. Leonard and Elaine Hirsch Community Green Room 2. The Dottie Studio Theater 3. Molli and Arthur Wagner Rehearsal Studio 4. Pam Fair and Glen Sullivan Dressing Room 4 (Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
The auditorium design is modern but understated, with its angled panels and pops of color providing lively accents while still focusing attention on performances. The lobby, which opens to its surroundings (and breezes) via large sliding glass doors, tells a different story. With warm wood paneling, exposed concrete, terrazzo and low steel railings, the lively space feels both modern and nostalgic, with references to its past life as a bowling alley. There are lane arrows in some of the floorboards while original lane numbers are painted on the basement girders of the back-of-house spaces. There’s also a small art gallery just below, reached via an open stair.
The project might never have come to life without the support of the Jacobs’, San Diego’s most prominent arts philanthropists. (Irwin Jacobs founded Qualcomm, among other endeavors.) Joan Jacobs died last year, making the theater’s name, which had already been planned, especially poignant. Even more so because Joan, raised in New York City, was a passionate theatergoer. The couple pledged $10 million when the project was still starting up — a move certainly noted by subsequent donors. “Once people saw the scope and ambition it became easier to attract other supporters,” Murray says.
“We hoped our gift would be a catalyst,” says Irwin Jacobs, whose son Gary helped found Liberty Station’s High Tech High in 2000, giving the Jacobs familiarity with the area. “We wanted to help set the stage for the next chapter,” he adds. Jacobs and his late wife supported a dizzying list of cultural facilities in the city (in addition to science and educational giving) including, in recent years, the San Diego Symphony’s Jacobs Music Center, the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s Joan and Irwin Jacobs Building.
“They have shaped the cultural landscape of San Diego,” Johnson says.
Jacobs, who acknowledged that his contributions have “made San Diego a more dynamic place to live and work,” says the Joan may be one of the last (or the last) major cultural project he supports. “We couldn’t think of a better note to end on,” he says. Additional funding included a $10-million grant from the state of California (something that seems unimaginable in today’s political climate), as well as support from San Diego County and dozens of private donors.
The Joan and Irwin Jacobs Performing Arts Center (“The Joan”) in Liberty Station in San Diego.
(Ariana Drehsler / For The Times)
While Cygnet will operate the facility, the Joan — located at what Bittner calls “the front door” to Liberty Station — is designed as a shared community space. The secondary black box, named the Dottie for significant donor Dorothea Laub, will be available for rental and outside performances. Public galleries and lobby spaces will activate the building throughout the day, not just during shows.
Even as Cygnet prepares to open the Joan, fundraising continues — about 14% of the $43.5-million budget remains to be raised. To its creators, the building’s most lasting legacy may be how it draws people into a campus that also boasts shops, galleries, artist studios, restaurants, museums, a cinema and Liberty Public Market food hall.
“This project is going to activate the whole campus in a way we’ve never seen,” Johnson says. “It’s not just a theater — it’s a magnet. It will bring people here during the day, into the evenings, and make this district a true cultural destination.”
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A viral social media post is roasting Google’s AI Overviews – the company’s AI-generated answers in search results – accusing it of breaking the spam policies Google enforces on everyone else.
The post. It was published by Nate Hake on X, minutes after Google’s announcement about the release of the August 2025 spam update:
“I’d like to report a spammer called “AI Overviews”
It’s coming up #1 for a ton of queries & violates all these Google policies:
-No first-hand experience
-Uses extensive automation
-No expertise
-Primarily summarizes what others have written
Screenshots of Google’s own guidelines accompanied his critique, making the punchline hit even harder.
Why we care. Many websites have been losing organic search traffic since the arrival of Google’s AI Overviews last year. We’ve also seen the great decoupling of search, with impressions up and clicks down. AI has been accused of contributing to the death of the business model of the web, as Cloudflare put it.
Flashback. In 2014, a similar viral moment hit when digital marketer Dan Barker quipped that Google itself was a “scraper site” – using Google’s own definition box as proof. That tweet, echoing frustrations among SEOs, racked up more than 14,000 retweets.
The big picture. Google’s AI Overviews have been under heavy scrutiny for accuracy, usefulness, and their impact on publishers. By highlighting Google’s own rules, this viral post crystallizes a long-running tension: search engines taking more space at the top of results while holding websites to standards they don’t meet themselves.
Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi is on sale for 20% off at Walmart thanks to the retailer’s newly launched Bricktember Sale. The promotion is loaded with exclusive Lego bundles as well as deals on rarely discounted sets. Walmart’s deal drops the price of the 1,215-piece pixel art display model to only $104 (was $130). The Bricktember Sale also includes the largest Lego Super Mario expansion playset. The 1,392-piece Bowser Express Train is discounted to only $80 (was $120).
Last week, Walmart and Amazon both had the Super Mario World Lego set for $117. Only Walmart has the $104 deal at this time, but Amazon’s $117 deal is still active. Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi launched last October and is one of only a handful of Nintendo Lego sets geared toward adults that is actively being produced today.
Lego Super Mario World: Mario and Yoshi is a 1,215-piece set that authentically captures the pixelated aesthetic from the Super Nintendo era. It’s a fun build to piece together and a fitting display piece for all Super Mario fans, but especially those with a fondness for the 16-bit character designs.
The completed model is 15.5 x 10 x 4 inches and features several interactive components. There’s a dial behind Yoshi’s head that extends his tongue. The crank on the side of the base creates a more elaborate animation. Yoshi’s legs move to make it appear as if he is running. Adding to the illusion is the figure’s quick bouncing motion. Yoshi’s head inches forward and back, and Mario’s cape sways gently, just as it does in the game.
It also has an Action Tag, so if you own one of the Adventures with Lego Super Mario starter courses, the Interactive figures (Mario, Luigi, or Peach) will react.
Lego did a wonderful job making the instructions easy to follow. I used a combination of the physical instruction booklet and the Lego Builder app on iPad. The square pieces used to create the “pixel art” are numbered in the booklet, which was extremely helpful for me as someone with colorblindness.
Though technically part of Lego’s 18-plus “for adults” line, kids who have assembled sets in the 1,000-piece probably won’t have any issues.
Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi is one of only eight Lego Nintendo display models designed for adults. Earlier this year, Lego launched a 1,972-piece Mario Kart display model for $170. The elaborate build features Mario’s iconic red kart and the first realistic Lego replica of the character’s modern 3D look.
On October 1, exactly one year after Lego Super Mario World: Mario & Yoshi’s launch, Lego’s highly anticipated Game Boy replica will be available at major retailers and the Lego Store. The 421-piece display set only costs $60 and includes two buildable cartridges, three lenticular screens, multiple display stands, and several interactive features. Check out our Lego Game Boy preorder guide for more details, and keep in mind multiple retailers have sold out of preorders numerous times. Preorders sold out at Amazon in late August, but Walmart restocked the Lego Game Boy around the same time.
The most affordable Lego Nintendo display model is the 540-piece Piranha Plant, which you can find on sale at Amazon and Walmart for just $48 (was $60).
As mentioned, The Bowser Express Train is the largest Lego Super Mario playset by piece count. There are a few Lego Nintendo display models for adults with more pieces–The Mighty Bowser is the biggest overall with approximately twice as many pieces–but the 1,392-piece Bowser’s Express Train is considered a Lego Super Mario Expansion Set. Based on The Bowser Express level in Super Mario 3D World, this elaborate and well-designed build has four train cars, a makeshift station, and numerous interactive elements such as a spring-loaded shooter. It comes with six buildable Lego Super Mario figures.
Up until now, The Bowser Express Train hadn’t received any notable discounts–it almost always sold for full price–so now’s your chance to save $40 on this awesome Bowser-themed Lego set.
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are used by over 15 million adults in the U.S., or 4.5% of the population. Despite their effectiveness, they have drawbacks. Their effect may not last after discontinuing use, and side effects including osteoporosis and muscle loss have raised concerns about long-term harms. They also induce nausea, which can make it difficult to stay the course of treatment.
Now Tufts researchers led by Krishna Kumar, Robinson Professor of Chemistry, have designed a new, next-generation compound with hopes that it could be more effective with fewer side effects, which they report in a paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
While weight loss drugs currently on the market and in development target one, two, or even three hormone receptors related to glucose metabolism and the desire to eat, the Tufts team has identified a fourth target that could potentially further enhance the control strategy.
“Obesity is linked to over 180 different disease conditions, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, osteoarthritis, liver disease, and type 2 diabetes, and affects over 650 million people worldwide,” said Kumar. “What drives us is the idea that we can design a single drug to treat obesity and simultaneously mitigate the risk of developing a long list of health problems plaguing society.”
How the Drugs Work
After we eat a meal, our gut and brain trigger a hormonal “fuel gauge” that regulates levels of glucose and tells us when we have had enough to eat.
The hormone glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) is released to help stimulate the production of insulin and the uptake of glucose in muscle and other tissues. With the cells now loaded with fuel, the level of glucose in the blood returns to normal. Ozempic uses GLP-1 with slight modifications to increase its availability in the bloodstream. Its success in controlling blood glucose has prompted the American Diabetes Association to recommend it and other GLP-1-based drugs as the new first line injectable treatments for diabetes, ahead of insulin.
But GLP-1 also acts directly on the brain, making us feel full after having a meal, and it slows down the rate that the stomach contents are emptied into the intestines, creating a more evenly paced release of nutrients and glucose into the bloodstream. That’s why it has also become extremely popular as a weight loss treatment.
It’s still not a perfect drug strategy for weight loss, though. “The biggest problem with GLP-1 drugs is that they have to be injected once a week, and they can induce a very strong feeling of nausea,” said Kumar. “As much as 40% of people using these drugs give up after the first month.”
A second hormone released after eating is glucose-dependent insulinotropic peptide (GIP). It also makes us feel full after a meal. GIP looks a lot like GLP-1, so rather than administer two drugs, researchers created one peptide that incorporates structural elements of both — what’s called in drug development a chimera. That drug, called Mounjaro or Zepbound (the brand names for tirzepatide), has the added benefit of significantly reducing nausea. As a more tolerable treatment, it may overtake Ozempic in the weight loss market.
“And then there is a third hormone, glucagon,” said Kumar. “Paradoxically, it actually increases blood glucose, but at the same time increases the expenditure of energy in cells of the body, raises body temperature, and suppresses appetite.” By adding glucagon to the mix, GLP-1 and GIP end up neutralizing its glucose-enhancing effect, leaving the remaining functionalities of all three hormones working together to enhance weight loss.
Glucagon is also similar in structure to GLP-1 and GIP, so drug developers created a single chimera peptide that incorporates elements of all three hormones, which can be recognized by their three separate receptors. That drug, called retatrudide, is currently in clinical trials that indicate even greater achievable weight loss (up to 24%) compared to the original GLP-1 drugs (6-15%).
Going for the Weight Loss Gold Standard with a Fourth Target
“The goal that people are trying to shoot for is bariatric surgery,” said Kumar. That’s a surgical procedure significantly reducing the size of the stomach, which can achieve long-lasting weight loss up to 30%. “For individuals with persistent obesity and potential deadly associated conditions, it becomes a necessary but invasive treatment.”
Current injectable weight loss drugs still fall short of that gold standard, so the Tufts chemists are focused on a drug redesign that could match the 30% weight loss outcome.
“There is one more hormone we wanted to bring in to complete a weight control quartet,” said Tristan Dinsmore, a graduate student in the Kumar lab and the lead author of the study. “It’s called peptide YY (PYY). This molecule is also secreted by the gut after we eat a meal, and its job is to reduce appetite and slow the process of emptying food from the stomach, but via different mechanisms than either GLP-1 or GIP. It may also be involved in directly ‘burning off’ fat.”
PYY is from a separate and structurally unrelated class of hormones than the first three, so blending its structure into a chimeric peptide that also mimics GLP-1, GIP, and glucagon was not easy. Instead, the Tufts team was able to join two peptide segments end-to-end, creating a new ‘tetra-functional’ clinical candidate.
“One of the limitations of the current drugs is that individual variation, possibly including how people express target receptors or respond to their corresponding hormones, can lead to lesser than desired weight loss outcomes in many patients,” said Martin Beinborn, visiting scholar in the Department of Chemistry. “By hitting four different hormone receptors at the same time, we hope to improve the chances of averaging out such variation toward the goal of achieving greater and more consistent overall effectiveness.”
“A second issue is that patients tend to regain weight after discontinuing currently available GLP-1 related drugs,” said Beinborn, who notes that lifestyle changes should ideally be a complement to medication treatment. This two-pronged approach will not only support reaching and keeping one’s target weight, but may also help preserve bone and muscle mass.
“Recent studies indicate that weight rebound after drug discontinuation is delayed with the newer, more effective GLP-1 mimetics,” he said. “Extending from this observation, one may speculate that multi-chimeras along the lines of the one we discovered could get us closer to the bariatric surgery standard of lasting weight loss.”
Note: The Orientation Session (which explains the logistics of the course) is on September 2. The first LIVE Session is on September 4. Hence, we are accepting registrations for this batch till September 2.
10-12 live sessions, 2 practical assignments and 1 practical activity!
Learn how real M&A deals are structured, negotiated, and closed.
In the fast-paced world of corporate law, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) remains one of the most intellectually engaging and high-impact practice areas.
Whether you’re a law student aspiring to work in corporate field, a young professional handling transactional matters, or someone curious about how companies grow, merge, and restructure, this 2-month course has been developed to give you the expertise and confidence to step into real-world deals.
Over 2 months, this M&A course will equip you with a clear, practical understanding of how deals are structured, negotiated, and executed in India. Starting with the fundamentals and blueprint of an M&A transaction, you’ll learn about due diligence, the role of PE and VC in M&A, SEBI regulations for listed companies, cross-border transactions under FEMA, use of SPVs, holding companies in deal structuring and risk management, post-merger integration, etc.
Through expert-led sessions, practical assignments, and real-world deal documents, you’ll gain the confidence and skills to work on actual M&A transactions across firms, companies, or as an independent advisor.
Rs. 12,999/- – Rs. 6,999/- (inclusive of GST)
Lawctopus Law School has taught a wide range of practical skills to over 20,000+ law students, young lawyers, professionals, academicians, and business people. Over 1000 students have rated our courses, with an average of 93.2/100. Our online courses are ‘warm’ learning experiences!
At LLS, our courses are developed by subject matter experts (practitioners and academicians) and these courses are a mix of
The course begins with a live ‘Orientation Session,’ which explains how to fully benefit from it.
Aayush Aggarwal, Partner, C Cube Advisors, Company Secretary (CS)
Aayush Aggarwal completed his LL.B. from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Agra and LLM in Business Law from Kurukshetra University. He began his professional journey as an Associate at RRA Legal, where he built a strong foundation in corporate and tax law.
With a multidisciplinary background and a deep understanding of regulatory frameworks, Mr. Aggarwal is committed to helping businesses navigate complex legal challenges while ensuring full compliance with applicable laws. He currently runs his law firm, which focuses on IP and General Corporate matters.
Meghmala Mukherjee, Assistant Professor, JGLS, BCL from Oxford University
Ms. Meghmala Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor of Legal Practice at JGLS. Her primary focus areas are company law, corporate finance law, corporate governance and securities law. Before academia, she practised as a transaction and advisory lawyer across firms such as SAM and Verist Law.She graduated from NLUO with 7 gold medals and received the university scholarship for 4 consecutive years. She has also read the BCL at the University of Oxford and was awarded the HSA Advocates Scholarship by the Oxford India Centre for Sustainable Development.
Archita Mohapatra, Senior Associate, Trilegal
Archita Mohapatra is a seasoned employment law expert currently serving as a Senior Associate at Trilegal, one of India’s leading law firms. She specializes in advising multinational corporations on a wide range of labour and employment matters, including workforce restructuring, compensation and benefits, employee investigations, and compliance with Indian labour laws.
Archita began her legal career at Nishith Desai Associates and later pursued an LL.M. in Labour Law and Employment Relations at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
Her academic and professional excellence has been recognized by The Legal 500, which named her a Rising Star in Labour & Employment Law for three consecutive years (2021–2023) . Archita has also contributed scholarly work to the field, including a publication in the European Labour Law Journal on the rights of temporary agency workers
Ishika Goon, Counsel at Trilegal
Soumya Chaturvedi
Soumya is a corporate lawyer, and has worked with the capital markets team at IndusLaw as an associate for the last 3 years and has recently joined Lawctopus Law School as a Learning Manager (Corporate Vertical). She is a graduate from National Law University Odisha.
Jaibatruka Mohanta
Jai is a law practitioner in Bangalore. In addition, he is a Research Associate with CEERA, National Law School of India University (NLSIU).
Rs. 12,999 – Rs. 6,999
In case you do the course sincerely and are still dissatisfied with it, we’ll refund you 100% of the money you invested; no questions asked. We are that confident in our course!
What does ‘sincerely’ mean? It means you attend at least 75% of the live classes and successfully complete the compulsory assignments. If you still don’t think the course was worth the money, we’ll refund the full amount, no questions asked!
Just email us at [email protected], and the refund will be issued within 7-10 working days.
If you have any questions about the course, please email [email protected], and we will respond within 24 hours!
Updated on: Sept 02, 2025 08:21 am IST
Your gut health is equally important to maintain your overall health. Moreover, a compromised gut impacts the functioning of your heart, too. According to a March 2017 study, changes in the composition of gut microbiota have been linked to hypertension, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, obesity, and even type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Also Read | Are you always feeling tired? Cardiologist explains how fatigue can be a symptom for many cardiovascular diseases
In an Instagram post shared on August 29, Dr Alok Chopra, a cardiologist and functional medicine expert, stressed the important role of gut in ensuring your heart stays healthy. He also shared a few simple lifestyle hacks that can ensure your gut stays in the best shape by avoiding bloating. Let’s find out what Dr Chopra said.
Sharing the lifestyle hacks, Dr Chopra captioned the post, “As a cardiologist and functional medicine expert, I’ve seen how gut health impacts overall health—including your heart. These simple lifestyle habits can help you beat post-meal bloating and feel your best.” Here’s what he suggested to avoid bloating:
According to a report by the Johns Hopkins Medicine Organisation, experts have suspected a connection between gut health and heart health, and recent research adds evidence, finding that changes in certain types of gut bacteria are associated with high blood pressure, lower levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, and heart failure. Having the wrong balance of bugs may mean more byproducts that raise cholesterol levels and harm blood vessels.
Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
Catch your daily dose of Fashion, Taylor Swift, Health, Festivals, Travel, Relationship, Recipe and all the other Latest Lifestyle News on Hindustan Times Website and APPs.
This winter has shaped up as the strongest property market we’ve seen in a long time, with strong buyer activity and rising confidence cutting through the usual seasonal slowdown.
In today’s show Dr. Andrew Wilson and I discuss how results have been far from uniform – Sydney is surging ahead with particularly strong performance, while conditions across the other capitals are more varied, reminding us just how segmented Australia’s housing markets really are.
We explore the impact of government initiatives for first home buyers, the performance of various regional markets, and the implications of inflation and interest rates on housing prices.
The conversation concludes with an optimistic outlook for the housing market as it heads into the spring selling season.
Takeaways
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Many of the devices we treat as harmless have a hidden side that most people never consider. Once you start pulling at that thread, it’s surprising how much they are quietly paying attention to us.
Smart TVs have carved out a permanent spot in our living rooms. We stream on them, browse on them, and even manage other smart devices from the comfort of the couch. But tucked behind that glossy interface, many of these TVs quietly monitor every button press, search term, and viewing choice.
A big part of this comes down to a feature called Automatic Content Recognition (ACR). It doesn’t just track the shows you stream, but can identify what’s playing through an HDMI input, whether that’s a Blu-ray disc, a console, or even cable TV.
Companies like Samsung, LG, and Vizio scoop up this information, bundle it neatly, and sell it to advertisers. Vizio, in fact, was slapped with a $2.2 million fine back in 2017 for secretly gathering viewing data from millions of households without asking permission. And while the fine made headlines, the tracking didn’t really disappear. It just got buried in those long, dense privacy policies most of us skip through while setting up a new TV.
Another layer of unease opens up if you find that your smart TV has a built-in camera. You can prevent it from watching you by covering the lens, but even after you painstakingly change settings to make your smart TV more private, you can’t shake the feeling that the tracking hasn’t really gone away.
When wearable tech first appeared, the pitch was that they’d help us live healthier lives. And in a way, they do. These gadgets know when you wake up, when you fall asleep, how well you sleep, how often your heart skips a beat, and whether you’ve been lazy for three days in a row. They even know your location every time you go for a jog. However, all of that doesn’t just sit on your wrist; it gets sent to cloud servers run by companies that are more than happy to share or sell the data.
For example, in 2018, the fitness app Polar accidentally revealed sensitive details about soldiers, including their names and exact military base locations, just through their fitness data. That’s how precise and intrusive this tracking can be.
Every smart gadget you add to your home creates another data point. Your thermostat knows when you’re home or away, your smart lights know when you go to bed, and your doorbell camera knows who comes to your house. Even your security camera, which is meant to keep you safe, can just as easily keep tabs on you. Hackers have slipped into those systems before, sometimes even speaking to children through hijacked baby monitors.
Again, all this information funnels straight into cloud servers where companies stitch together a round-the-clock portrait of your household. They can infer when you usually cook, what groceries you’re likely to buy, even how often you run the vacuum. It sounds absurd until you realize this is the level of granularity they’re after.
The hardest part is, once you’ve handed over that data, there’s no getting it back.
Scan through different forums, and you will see people talking about how Alexa recorded them snoring or Siri chiming in on their conversation out of the blue. It’s funny on the surface, but the reality isn’t so amusing. Voice assistants are always on standby, and their microphones are tuned to detect wake words like “OK Google” or “Hey Siri.” Supposedly, nothing is transmitted until you activate it. Supposedly.
However, in practice, “accidental activations” are real, sometimes capturing personal conversations by mistake. In a 2019 Time article, it was reported that Amazon employees listened to a portion of Alexa recordings to “improve service.” That means real people—absolute strangers—were listening in on private conversations, kids yelling, couples arguing, and everything in between.
Even when it works as advertised, it’s still creepy. Every command you give is stored, analyzed, and tied back to your profile. The more you use it, the more it learns about you, from your music preferences to your shopping habits and routines.
On the surface, Bluetooth trackers like Apple AirTags or Tile seem like lifesavers. You can use them in many ingenious ways, including finding your lost keys or luggage. But the story changes the moment these supposedly harmless gadgets are flipped on their heads.
Take AirTags, for instance. Stalkers have already weaponized them to track people without their knowledge. Apple had to scramble to add safety features after reports (like the ones Cosmopolitan highlighted) started piling up of women finding hidden AirTags tucked into purses, cars, or even coat pockets.
And even if no one’s slipping one into your bag, those trackers are still chatting away. Every little ping between your device and a nearby iPhone is quietly feeding Apple’s enormous location database. Well, even though the manufacturer claims it’s “anonymous” and “encrypted,” trusting a trillion-dollar tech empire not to squeeze profit out of a goldmine of location data requires a leap of faith not everyone’s willing to make.
If there’s a single gadget that takes the gold medal for spying, it’s your smartphone. It contains more information about you than your family, friends, and probably even you yourself.
Think about it: your phone knows everywhere you’ve been, thanks to GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell towers. It knows what you search, what you watch, who you talk to, and how often. Every app you install is another surveillance pipeline. Some apps track your location even when you’re not using them. Others scrape your contacts, your photos, your microphone, your accelerometer—yes, even how fast you’re walking.
And don’t think adjusting a few settings saves you. Phones are designed to track. The operating system, the carrier, the apps—they all want a slice of your life. That’s why I laugh when people say, “I’ve got nothing to hide.” Because, realistically, you couldn’t hide much even if you tried.
Yet, year after year, we queue up for the newest model, grinning as we carry around what is essentially a state-of-the-art tracking device—one we paid for ourselves.
The strangest part is how normal all of this feels now. It’s not that companies are twirling their mustaches in some dark room, plotting against us—it’s that we always click or tap “Agree.” Buried inside those endless terms of service, consent hides in paragraphs of legalese most of us either skim or skip entirely. We just want our gadgets to work, to stay updated, and to “improve.” So we shrug, stick with the defaults, and keep moving. The alternative, of course, is to walk away from these devices altogether. In the end, it’s really your call either way.
In China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the Aweitan Reservoir in Altay has become a lively stopover for migratory birds on their journey south. Egrets, wild ducks, geese and other species can be seen foraging and playing in the water, creating a vibrant autumn scene. Situated along the lower reaches of the Kelan River, the reservoir has grown into an important habitat that highlights the region’s rich biodiversity and its role in protecting migratory birds.
Chloë Grace Moretz tied the knot with her longtime girlfriend over Labor Day weekend.
The “Kick-Ass” actor married model and photographer Kate Harrison during a private ceremony, reports Vogue, which was on site when the brides were doing the final fitting in Paris for their custom Louis Vuitton wedding dresses.
Moretz posted photos of herself on Instagram rocking a baby blue gown along with images of Harrison wearing a white dress with a sweetheart neckline and a birdcage veil. Both gowns were designed by Nicolas Ghesquière, longtime artistic director for Louis Vuitton’s women’s collections.
“It just feels like me,” Moretz told Vogue. “I never really envisioned a wedding dress in my mind growing up, so when we started talking about what that would look like, I knew I would do something non-traditional, and not wear white, and kind of have it feel different, and I think it really does.”
Chloë Grace Moretz, left, and her now-wife, Kate Harrison, right, with Huma Abedin, center at the 2024 Democracy Heroes at Rockefeller Foundation in New York last year.
(Craig Barritt / Getty Images)
In the Instagram post, the star of “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” also showed off her after-party look, a custom jacket with cut-outs and trousers, which was inspired by a 2019 Louis Vuitton runway look. She accessorized her outfit with a white cowboy hat. Meanwhile, Harrison, who has modeled in campaigns for J. Crew and Topshop, wore a bodice and trousers with a sheer overlay on top.
“A big part of the wedding [is about] sharing things that Kate and I love with everyone that’s going to be there,” Moretz told the magazine. “So there’s fishing, horseback riding, and poker. Kate made a custom poker mat herself, so we’re going to kind of be leaning into it. Our second day is going to be line dancing and everything.”
Moretz came out publicly as a gay woman in November of last year via Instagram, but she and Harrison have been dating since 2018. The couple gave curious fans a peek into their mostly private relationship when Moretz announced their engagement in a New Year’s Day post this year on Instagram.
“We’ve been together for almost seven years and making this promise to each other in a new way, and exchanging these vows,” Moretz told Vogue. “I think it’s important to just stay every day choosing each other.”
Latam-GPT is new large language model being developed in and for Latin America. The project, led by the nonprofit Chilean National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), aims to help the region achieve technological independence by developing an open source AI model trained on Latin American languages and contexts.
“This work cannot be undertaken by just one group or one country in Latin America: It is a challenge that requires everyone’s participation,” says Álvaro Soto, director of CENIA, in an interview with WIRED en Español. “Latam-GPT is a project that seeks to create an open, free, and, above all, collaborative AI model. We’ve been working for two years with a very bottom-up process, bringing together citizens from different countries who want to collaborate. Recently, it has also seen some more top-down initiatives, with governments taking an interest and beginning to participate in the project.”
The project stands out for its collaborative spirit. “We’re not looking to compete with OpenAI, DeepSeek, or Google. We want a model specific to Latin America and the Caribbean, aware of the cultural requirements and challenges that this entails, such as understanding different dialects, the region’s history, and unique cultural aspects,” explains Soto.
Thanks to 33 strategic partnerships with institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean, the project has gathered a corpus of data exceeding eight terabytes of text, the equivalent of millions of books. This information base has enabled the development of a language model with 50 billion parameters, a scale that makes it comparable to GPT-3.5 and gives it a medium to high capacity to perform complex tasks such as reasoning, translation, and associations.
Latam-GPT is being trained on a regional database that compiles information from 20 Latin American countries and Spain, with an impressive total of 2,645,500 documents. The distribution of data shows a significant concentration in the largest countries in the region, with Brazil the leader with 685,000 documents, followed by Mexico with 385,000, Spain with 325,000, Colombia with 220,000, and Argentina with 210,000 documents. The numbers reflect the size of these markets, their digital development, and the availability of structured content.
“Initially, we’ll launch a language model. We expect its performance in general tasks to be close to that of large commercial models, but with superior performance in topics specific to Latin America. The idea is that, if we ask it about topics relevant to our region, its knowledge will be much deeper,” Soto explains.
The first model is the starting point for developing a family of more advanced technologies in the future, including ones with image and video, and for scaling up to larger models. “As this is an open project, we want other institutions to be able to use it. A group in Colombia could adapt it for the school education system or one in Brazil could adapt it for the health sector. The idea is to open the door for different organizations to generate specific models for particular areas like agriculture, culture, and others,” explains the CENIA director.
Your brand message is no longer entirely yours to control.
AI systems have become storytellers, shaping how consumers discover and understand your brand. Every customer review, social media post, news mention, and errant leaked internal document can feed AI models that generate responses about your company.
When these AI-generated narratives drift from your intended brand message, a phenomenon we can define as AI brand drift, the results can be devastating.
Your official brand voice, customer complaints, and leaked memos are LLM fuel. AI synthesizes everything into responses that millions of consumers encounter daily.
Your brand messaging competes with unfiltered customer sentiment and information that was never meant for public consumption. AI-driven misrepresentations can instantly reach global audiences through search results, chatbot interactions, and AI-powered recommendations. Mixed brand signals can reshape how AI systems describe your company for years to come.
This guide will show you how to identify AI brand drift before it damages your market position and provide actionable strategies for regaining control.
Large language models aggregate every available signal about your brand, turn around, and synthesize authoritative-sounding responses that consumers accept as fact. Companies confirm that phantom features proposed by ChatGPT cause support tickets, but are also considered part of the product roadmap.
This is the case for the company Streamer.bot:
“We often have users joining our Discord and say ChatGPT told said xyz. Yes the tool can,however their instructions are wrong 90% of the time. We end up correcting their attempts to get it working how they want, still creates support tickets.”
Brand stewardship now requires managing four distinct but interconnected layers. Each layer feeds AI training data differently. Each carries different risk profiles. Ignore any layer, and AI systems will construct your brand narrative without your input.
| Layer | Description | AI Impact |
| Known Brand | Official assets: logos, slogans, press kits, brand guides. | Semantic anchors for AI; most controlled, but only the tip of the iceberg. |
| Latent Brand | User-generated content, community discourse, memes, cultural references. | Fuels AI’s understanding of brand relevance and relatability. |
| Shadow Brand | Internal docs, onboarding guides, old slide decks, partner enablement files—often not public. | The risk: LLMs can inject outdated or off-message info into AI summaries. |
| AI-Narrated Brand | How platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity describe your brand to users. | Synthesis of all layers. Answers served as “truth” to the world. This leads to a high risk of misalignment and distortion. |
Here’s a concrete example: BNP Parisbas’ logo is contextualized by Perplexity.ai using a “Bird Logos Collection Vol.01” Pinterest board.
“Semantic drift describes the phenomenon wherein generated text diverges from the subject matter designated by the prompt, resulting in a growing deterioration in relevance, coherence, or truthfulness.” – A., Hambro, E., Voita, E., & Cancedda, N. (2024). Know When To Stop: A Study of Semantic Drift in Text Generation.
When AI-generated content gradually strays from your brand’s intended message, meaning, or facts as it unfolds, you know you are dealing with a brand drift crisis. This can take several forms:
Key insight: Even well-trained AI can quickly undermine brand clarity, consistency, and trust if not closely managed.
This can also create cybersecurity issues. Netcraft published a study concluding that 1 in 3 AI-generated login URLs could lead to phishing traps. Between fake features and dodgy login pages, monitoring is key!
LLMs generate text sequentially, with each new word based on the prior context. There’s no “master plan” for the entire output, so drift is inherent.
Most factual or intent drift occurs early in the output, according to a 2024 study of semantic drift in text generation. Errors are compounded in multi-turn conversations: initial misunderstandings are amplified and rarely corrected without a context reset (starting a new conversation for example).
Marketers must be aware that they face critical vulnerabilities, identified by leading experts at Meta and Anthropic:
AI-generated content sounds plausible and on-brand but could subtly distort your message, values, or positioning. This drift can erode brand equity, undermine consumer trust, and potentially introduce compliance risks.
The shadow brand is the sum of internal, proprietary, or outdated digital assets your organization has created but not intentionally exposed:
If these are accessible online (even buried), they are “trainable” by LLMs. If it’s online, it’s fair game for LLMs (even if you never meant it to be public).
Shadow assets are often off-message. Outdated or inconsistent materials can actively shape AI-generated answers, introducing narrative drift. Most teams do not track their shadow brand, leaving a major gap in their narrative defense.
| Drift Type | Brand Risk | Example Scenario |
| Factual Drift | Compliance violations, misinformation, legal exposure, customer confusion. | AI lists outdated features as current, invents product capabilities, or misstates regulatory claims. |
| Intent Drift | Value misalignment, loss of trust, diluted brand purpose, reputational damage. | Sustainability message is reduced to a generic “green” platitude, or brand values are misrepresented. |
| Shadow Brand Drift | Narrative hijack, exposure of confidential or sensitive info, competitor leakage, internal miscommunication. | Old partner deck surfaces, referencing past alliances; internal docs or leadership quotes go public. |
| Latent Brand Drift | Meme-ification, tone mismatch, off-brand humor, loss of authority. | AI adopts community sarcasm or memes in official summaries, undermining professional tone. |
| Narrative Collapse | Erosion of brand story, loss of message control, amplification of errors. | AI-generated errors are repeated and amplified as they become new training data for future outputs. |
| Zero-Click Risk | Loss of audience touchpoint, diminished traffic to owned assets, lack of context for brand story. | AI Overviews in search engines present a drifted summary, so users never reach your official content. |
You should audit and map all four brand layers:
Brand is no longer just what you say, it’s what AI (and your customers) says about you. In the generative search era, narrative control is a continuous, cross-functional discipline.
Marketing teams must actively manage all four layers, own the shadow brand, and measure semantic drift. Track how meaning and intent evolve in AI outputs in order to establish rapid responses to correct drifted narratives, both in AI and in the wild.
As Philip J. Armstrong, GTM Head of Insights & Analytics at Semrush, puts it, “Keeping an eye on brand drift protects your hard-earned brand reputation as consumers move to AI to evaluate products and services.”