There’s growing evidence that the mix of bacteria in the gut affects obesity risk, and new research backs up the thinking that ‘good’ bacteria transferred via fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) could help boost metabolic health across several years.
In simple terms, metabolic health is how well our bodies are running, and turning food into energy. In this study, it was measured through what’s known as metabolic syndrome: a cluster of health issues including high blood pressure, high levels of sugar and fat in the blood, waist circumference, and cholesterol.
Led by a team from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the new research follows up on a study published five years ago, for which 87 obese young adults were given fecal transplant capsules containing gut bacteria mixed to promote a healthy metabolism.
Related: Study of Over 400,000 People Links Gut Bacteria With Insomnia Risk
“Metabolic syndrome has severe consequences, including a doubling in risk of death from heart disease or stroke and a five-fold increased risk of type 2 diabetes,” says pediatric endocrinologist Wayne Cutfield, from the University of Auckland.
The transplant didn’t have a noticeable effect on weight loss, but it did seem to reduce the risk of metabolic syndrome, thus limiting the likelihood of related diseases. Now, it’s been shown that these health improvements can last for years.
“What is impressive is that just a single [FMT] treatment produced a dramatic reduction in metabolic syndrome that lasted at least four years,” says Cutfield.
“This means participants are at much lower risk of developing diabetes and heart disease over the long term.”
Waist size was smaller and body fat was lower in treated participants, though the differences in weight and BMI weren’t statistically significant. (Wilson et al., Nat. Commun., 2025)
For the new research, follow-up tests were carried out on 55 of the original 87 study participants, 27 of whom had received the FMT treatment, with the remaining 28 given a placebo.
Again, there was no notable difference in body mass index (BMI) between the groups, but volunteers who had been given the FMT still had significantly better metabolic syndrome scores, with improved results across several health markers, including reduced body fat percentage.
In addition, the researchers found that the healthy mix of bacteria that had been transplanted four years prior were still in place to some extent. It means ongoing treatment might not always be needed.
Based on the extensive amount of research that’s been done, it seems there’s a two-way relationship between obesity and gut bacteria: what we eat of course affects the gut, but it seems the gut microbiome also influences weight and metabolism to some extent.
Taking a processed poop tablet may sound a little icky, and there are studies that suggest FMT has its own risks. However, other studies indicate various benefits, with these types of treatments used to tackle cancers, brain diseases, and aging in general.
Now we’ve seen what the long-term benefits might be, the researchers want to see tests on larger groups of people, and further work done to identify the particular mix of gut microbes that can promote metabolic health.
“Imagine being able to program your microbiome to reduce the risk of conditions before they occur,” says geneticist Justin O’Sullivan, from the University of Auckland.
“This work is paving the way for next-generation probiotics that target specific conditions through sustained changes to the microbiome.”
The research has been published in Nature Communications.
Donald Trump is to rebrand the US Department of Defense as the Department of War, according to the White House.
The president will today sign an executive order allowing it to be used as a secondary title for the US government’s biggest organisation.
It also means defence secretary Pete Hegseth will be able to refer to himself as the “secretary of war” in official communications and ceremonies.
Image: Mr Hegseth could refer to himself as ‘secretary of war’ under the change. Pic: Reuters
Mr Hegseth posted the words “DEPARTMENT OF WAR” on X on Thursday night.
Permanently renaming the department would need congressional approval, but the White House said the executive order will instruct Mr Hegseth to begin the process.
The Department of Defense – often referred to colloquially as the Pentagon due to the shape of its Washington HQ – was called the War Department until 1949.
Historians say the name was changed to show the US was focused on preventing conflict following the Second World War and the dawning of the nuclear age.
Mr Trump raised the possibility of a change in June, when he suggested it was originally renamed to be “politically correct”.
Image: The department is often just referred to as the Pentagon. Pic: Reuters
His reversion to the more combative title could cost tens of millions, with letterheads and building signs in the US and at military bases around the world potentially needing a refresh.
Joe Biden’s effort to rename nine army bases honouring the Confederacy and Confederate leaders, set to cost $39m (£29m), was reversed by Mr Hegseth earlier this year.
Read more from Sky News: The proxy war that will redefine US public health Judge says Trump’s National Guard deployment was illegal
Opponents have already criticised Mr Trump’s move.
“Why not put this money toward supporting military families or toward employing diplomats that help prevent conflicts from starting in the first place?” said Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, a member of the armed services committee.
Mr Trump’s other federal renaming orders include controversially labelling the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf Of America” and reverting North America’s tallest mountain, Denali in Alaska, to its former name of Mount McKinley.
The Mexican government and Alaska’s Republican senators both rejected the changes.
Hydrogels-materials like gelatin that can absorb and hold water-can aid wound healing and enable slow-release drug delivery, but they usually break down in acidic environments like the stomach. Inspired by the properties of gastric mucus, a team of researchers and clinicians led by Zuankai Wang of Hong Kong Polytechnic University have developed an acid-resistant hydrogel called “ultrastable mucus-inspired hydrogel” (UMIH). Publishing September 4 in the Cell Press journal Cell Reports Physical Science, they showed that UMIH improved gastrointestinal wound healing in animals and outperformed a clinically approved mucosal protectant (a material used to protect the stomach lining).
UMIH has potential for treating gastroesophageal reflux, gastric ulcers, and post-surgical wound protection and can be combined with endoscopic delivery for minimally invasive therapy. In both rat and pig models, it not only sticks firmly but also helps wounds heal faster and better.”
Bei Li, coauthor of Sichuan University
Like other hydrogels, UMIH consists of a meshwork of polymers that absorb water to create a strong but jelly-like consistency. To make it acid resistant, the researchers incorporated three key molecular components into UMIH’s structure: a protein called ELR-IK24 that binds to hydrogen ions under acidic conditions to reduce local acidity; tannic acid, which enhances the hydrogel’s ability to stick to surfaces; and a molecule called HDI that stabilizes the hydrogel’s structure under acidic conditions.
“UMIH represents a major step forward in biomaterials for gastrointestinal repair,” says Dr. Wang. “Its strong adhesion, durability, and scalable manufacturing process position it as a promising platform for clinical translation.”
In lab tests under acidic conditions (pH2), UMIH showed 15× stronger adhesive abilities compared to aluminum phosphate gel (APG), a clinically approved mucosal protectant and antacid that is used to manage gastric ulcers and acid reflux. And whereas APG degraded completely after 3 days, UMIH still maintained 50% of its structural integrity after 7 days in acidic conditions. UMIH was not associated with any toxicity issues in lab-grown gastrointestinal cells. It also inhibited the growth of E. coli and S. aureus bacteria, indicating that it has antimicrobial potential.
“UMIH achieves an adhesion strength 15 times higher than that of clinically approved materials in acidic conditions,” says coauthor Xiao Yang of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “It remains stable for 7 days and shows excellent biocompatibility and significant tissue repair capability.”
In pig and rat models of esophageal injury, UMIH adhered tightly to wounds and improved healing compared to control animals and animals treated with APG. UMIH was associated with less tissue damage, reduced inflammation, and it promoted the growth of new blood vessels, which is essential for healing.
Clinical trials will be needed to validate UMIH’s safety and efficacy in humans, but the researchers say that it has good potential for commercialization.
“This is a material that’s ready for both the operating room and the production line,” says coauthor Feng Lou of Sichuan University. “UMIH is low-cost, easy –to –mass produce, and built from components with established safety profiles. In [the] future, we plan to integrate UMIH with drug release systems and implantable flexible electronics to create smart gastrointestinal devices that can treat and monitor in real-time.”
Source:
Journal reference:
Yang, X., et al. (2025). Mucus-inspired hydrogels with protonation-driven adhesion for extreme acidic conditions. Cell Reports Physical Science. doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2025.102772
A US lawyer with the same name as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is suing the social media platform, arguing it keeps suspending his account while falsely accusing him of “impersonating a celebrity”.
Mark S Zuckerberg says his account has been disabled five times over the past eight years, and it has cost him thousands of dollars in lost business.
The Indiana bankruptcy attorney’s lawsuit states that he has been practising law for 38 years – ever since Mark E Zuckerberg, now one of the richest men in the world, was a toddler.
Meta said it had reinstated the lawyer’s account and was taking steps to prevent the mistake recurring.
“It’s not funny,” Mr Zuckerberg told WTHR-TV in Indianapolis, Indiana. “Not when they take my money.”
The lawsuit, filed in Marion Superior Court, argues that Facebook parent company Meta is in breach of contract because he paid $11,000 (£8,200) for advertising that was improperly taken down.
“It’s like buying a billboard on the side of the highway, paying the people for the billboard and then they come and put a giant blanket over it and you don’t get the benefit of what you paid for,” he told WTHR.
Mark S Zuckerberg
Mark S Zuckerberg is an Indiana bankruptcy attorney
Emails with Facebook that Mr Zuckerberg shared with local media indicate the company had accused him of not using his “authentic name”.
He said that he has submitted his photo ID, his credit cards, and multiple images of his face in order to prove his identity.
“I’m Mark Steven. And he’s Mark Elliot,” Mr Zuckerberg told WTHR.
His account was shut down in May, and only restored after his lawsuit was filed.
In a statement, the company said it had “reinstated Mark Zuckerberg’s account, after finding it had been disabled in error”.
“We appreciate Mr Zuckerberg’s continued patience on this issue and are working to try and prevent this from happening in the future.”
Mr Zuckerberg, who specialises in bankruptcy law, started a website to track mix-ups over his name, including the time he was inadvertently sued by the state of Washington for abuse.
First-year undergraduates who grew up with overly cautious or controlling parents tend to experience increased anxiety when faced with stresses associated with the transition to university, researchers from McGill University and the University of California (Los Angeles) have found.
The researchers asked 240 first-year McGill students to fill out several questionnaires in the first six weeks of the fall semester. The questionnaires used well-established scales to measure the parenting style they were raised with, current anxiety symptoms and different types of stressors they encountered during the transition to university, including housing difficulties, personal loss or even life-threatening situations.
The team then looked at associations among those variables, focusing on how the relationship between exposure to stressors and current experiences of anxiety correlated with different parental behaviours.
“We found that students whose parents are very protective experience a stronger link between exposure to stressful events and feelings of anxiety,” explained Lidia Panier, the study’s lead author. Panier, a PhD student in the Department of Psychology, is a member of the Translational Research in Affect and Cognition (TRAC) Lab led by Professor Anna Weinberg, the study’s senior author and principal investigator.
While cautioning that their study model does not allow them to conclude that overprotective parenting causes anxiety in children, the researchers note that such a conclusion would be consistent with the existing body of research.
Previous findings show that overprotective parenting leads to insecure attachment and poorer emotion regulation, both of which are linked to greater vulnerability to anxiety.”
Lidia Panier, study’s lead author
She said she believes overprotective parenting in childhood and adolescence may not be helpful in teaching kids how to adapt to stressful situations in the long term. At the same time, she noted that the overprotective parenting might in some cases be a response to a child’s anxious behaviours: parents might develop watchful attitudes or controlling habits to protect a child who often appears fearful.
“These interpretations are not mutually exclusive,” explained Panier. “A bi-directional dynamic where child behaviours influence parenting, which then affects child development, is also well-supported in the literature.”
The researcher said she hopes that future studies can clarify these links, as well as explore ways to better support young adults experiencing anxiety, especially during key transitional periods.
“It would be interesting to see if these patterns can change over time, such as whether supportive peer relationships in university can help young adults become more resilient, even if they experienced overprotective parenting,” she said.
Source:
Journal reference:
Panier, L., et al. (2025) Parental overprotection moderates the association between recent stressor exposure and anxiety during the transition to university. Development and Psychopathology. doi.org/10.1017/S095457942510028X
ISLAMABAD: Global and local health experts on Thursday warned that chronic obesity is quietly crippling thousands of young Pakistanis every year, with new data revealing that more than three-quarters of the country’s adult population are now overweight or obese.
Speaking at an event to mark the launch of Pakistan’s first generic tirzepatide, organised by Getz Pharma, health professionals described the drug as one of the most promising breakthroughs in obesity and diabetes care worldwide, demonstrating remarkable results in both clinical trials and real-world use.
Experts cautioned that obesity is driving a sharp rise in diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, cancers, infertility, and obstructive sleep apnea, warning that without urgent action Pakistan faces an unprecedented public health crisis.
Prof Waseem Hanif, Professor of Diabetes and Endocrinology at the University of Birmingham, described obesity as “a normal response to an abnormal environment.”
He said nearly 2.5 billion adults worldwide are overweight, with one billion classified as obese, adding that South Asians face heightened risks even at lower body weights.
“The ideal BMI is 18 to 25, but for South Asians it should be around 23. Obesity is a chronic disease that kills young, causes sleep apnea and severely diminishes quality of life. In Pakistan, over 100 million people are obese.
A revolutionary new treatment like tirzepatide offers a fresh breath of hope, capable of reducing weight by up to 25 percent, but it must be combined with a balanced diet and regular exercise. Obesity is a disease, and its main symptom is hunger,” he emphasised.
Prof Saleem Qureshi, Head of Medicine at KRL Hospital Islamabad, welcomed the local availability of the drug as a major relief for patients.
“Until now, patients have had to spend hundreds of thousands of rupees on smuggled, unregistered products. With tirzepatide now available in Pakistan, diabetes remission is becoming a reality.
However, a greater concern is that if current trends continue, over 57 percent of Pakistani children will be obese by the time they reach 35. Obesity must be treated as a chronic disease with medication and lifestyle modification, as most Pakistanis seek medical care far too late,” he warned.
Echoing these concerns, Prof Jamal Zafar acknowledged the effectiveness of tirzepatide but stressed that medication alone is insufficient.
“Doctors must guide patients towards exercise, physical activity and a balanced diet. Exercise does not increase appetite – it reduces it. Lifestyle change is essential alongside treatment,” he added.
Dr Khurram Hussain, Managing Director of Getz Pharma, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to providing affordable, evidence-based solutions for obesity and its complications.
“With GLP-1 and GIP therapy, we aim to support effective weight reduction and reduce the risks of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. For over 17 years, the company has led efforts to make life-saving biologics accessible in Pakistan, from insulin to interferons, and we remain dedicated to advancing innovative, affordable treatments for weight management.”
Sharing data from the PAK-SEHAT study, Dr Khurram Nasir, Co-Primary Investigator and Chief of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention & Wellness at Houston Methodist, said the findings were alarming.
“Only one in five adults in Pakistan falls within a normal BMI range. Nearly three out of four are obese, making obesity the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and hypertension. These results were recently presented at the American Society for Preventive Cardiology in Boston,” he added.
The event was attended by numerous endocrinologists, medical specialists, pulmonologists, general practitioners and gastroenterologists, who welcomed the arrival of this new anti-diabetic and anti-obesity therapy in Pakistan.
Wood-panelled bar. Mirror splashback. Threadbare carpet. This could be The Standard, The Fox or The Tote but it isn’t – it’s The Lark. This “brick and bluestone box” has seen better days. There isn’t a patron in sight – merely the septuagenarian publican, the aptly named Rose Grey, shuffling around on a walking stick – and the building is soon to be demolished. Last drinks have, definitively, been called. You can almost smell the stale beer and piss, the reek of long-ago drinking sessions and unsatisfied yearnings.
The pub – a “third place”, in the words of sociologist Ray Oldenburg, existing between home and work and offering belonging and respite – is a fitting setting for The Lark, Daniel Keene’s elegiac monodrama about memory, loss and regret. It follows last year’s powerful and moving revival of Mother, Keene’s 2015 play about an unhoused woman named Christie, and reprises the same creative team, namely director Matt Scholten and actor Noni Hazlehurst (for whom both parts were written). Both evince Keene’s predilection for the melancholic and existentialist and are shot through with his recognisable blend of lyricism and old-fashioned ockerisms.
Whereas Mother’s Christie was rageful, her misfortune having twisted into something akin to neurosis, Rose is resigned and wistful although still, like Christie, rough as guts. As played by Hazlehurst – wonderful in the part, by turns salty and lachrymose – Rose’s signature mannerism is the bilabial blow, the rapid blowing of air between the lips signifying derision or, more often, dismissal. Thus Rose dispels, or rather attempts to dispel, the myriad ghosts who haunt The Lark – including her father, George, a war veteran who acquired the pub under “dodgy” circumstances and ultimately bequeathed it to his daughter.
In her pub, Hazlehurst presides over the ‘church of the godless’ and ‘Noah’s ark for the lonely’. Photograph: Cameron Grant
Rose’s mother, Irene, left shortly after she was born, and Rose tells us she never had much luck with men (“I’ve had the men I’ve had,” she shrugs). Instead, her recollections revolve around her father, a man with fine hair and a reedy voice “shut up tight as an oyster”. Rose recounts, devastatingly, George’s succumbing to dementia, the loss of the other pea in her pod to the condition’s mercurial sadnesses, paranoias and dislocations of self. “We scratched a living,” Rose says of their halcyon days, “and forgot about the past.”
But The Lark is, fundamentally, a play about the impossibility of forgetting. (Keene quotes William Faulkner in his program note: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”) We sense that Rose has told these stories many times before – about having been born in the pub, about her attempt to leave home and work as a cook on a boat, about closing time and the colourful cast of regulars whose immoderate boozing enabled the Greys to “hang on grimly to the tits of life” – and will, despite protestations to the contrary, do so many times more.
We also sense, unsettlingly, that these characters – the glamorous Dolly, Jenny Candles and her rosary beads, a nameless, unremembered woman on her own playing solitaire – might be emanations from Rose’s own dementing mind. Her nostalgic yet increasingly fraught recollections of the early evening light streaming through the coloured glass of the pub’s doors could be a sign of sundowning, a symptom of dementia that occurs as daylight fades. She is like a spirit doomed to play out the past on a perpetual loop and, indeed, recalls a patron – a buttoned-up Christian with a Bible under one arm – who once dubbed The Lark “purgatory”. (The souls in here, Rose quips, would need a long time to cleanse themselves of their sins.)
The Lark, in its premiere season, is a production as immaculately well-crafted as Keene’s script. Scholten’s direction is commendably unobtrusive while Darius Kedros’ sound design evocatively combines ripples of haunted piano with washes of ambient electronics and distant traffic noise (ask not for whom the Melbourne tram bell tolls). Richard Vabre’s warm, yellowy lighting, subtly rising and falling in concert with the rhythms of Rose’s yarning, superbly complements Emily Barrie’s dilapidated L-shaped bar.
Despite its occasional lapses into cliche, The Larkis every bit as good as its predecessor. It is, in its way, a portrait of a disappearing Australia, one in which the pub played a central role in its social life. This “church of the godless” and “Noah’s ark for the lonely”, as Rose puts it, is already in the process of being forgotten – if it was ever known – by generations who barely drink. But I’m reminded that the magpie lark, after which Rose’s pub is named, is one of only a few species of bird that sings in duet. They, like us, are better off with company.
China and India are easing tensions, but the sensitive terrain of territorial disagreements and overlapping regional ambitions remains in the way.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
COMMENTARY
“It should be the right choice for China and India to be good-neighbourly friends and partners that help each other succeed, and have the dragon and the elephant dance together,” said Chinese President Xi Jinping at his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tianjin on Sunday (Aug 31).
The dragon and elephant metaphor is often used to describe the geopolitical and economic ties between China and India. At times, they fight. At times, they co-exist. And at times, they dance.
Xi invoked the imagery at his meeting with Mr Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit, at a time when both countries are trying to stabilise a historically uneasy relationship. The visit marked the first trip to China by Modi in seven years.
The two Asian giants have great potential for collaboration. They are among the ten biggest economies of the world, and together boast a market of 2.8 billion people. As emerging powers, they have shared interests in global economic stability, common development and multilateralism.
These shared interests prompted recent advances in the Sino-Indian relationship. After a five-year hiatus incited by security tensions on their disputed border, they recently agreed to continue the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra pilgrimage, resume direct flights, recommence the issuing of Indian tourist visas to Chinese nationals, and are planning to reinstate border trade. At a recent meeting between their foreign ministers, the two economies committed to facilitating trade and investment ties via concrete measures.
Actions by third actors have catalysed the recent thaw between China and India. In its quest to weaken Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, the European Union sanctioned multiple Chinese and Indian entities for their purported support of Moscow. At the same time, the United States imposed hefty import tariffs on Chinese and Indian products and unleashed further levies for Indian oil purchases from Russia.
New Delhi and Beijing found common ground on this issue, pushing back against Brussels and Washington, charging them with discrimination and double standards against Chinese and Indian companies.
Against this backdrop, the leaders struck a positive tone at their meeting. They expressed appreciation for the constructive momentum and consistent advancement in bilateral ties. They reiterated that the two nations view each other as development partners rather than competitors and doubled down on their commitment to growth and multipolarity.
While current geopolitical trends facilitate the thaw in China-India relations, there are deep-rooted issues between them that can set back or even derail the process.
Sticky Issues Related to the Border and River Flows
China and India share a disputed border spanning thousands of kilometres. In 2020, after decades of bloodless militarised interaction in the contested regions, a deadly conflict erupted, claiming the lives of at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers.
While the 2024 border patrol agreement brought back stability on the border, a long list of sensitive issues between China and India remains.
According to recent reports, China plans to construct a rail link between Xinjiang and Tibet, which will reportedly run close to disputed areas. On the other side of the Himalayas, India has been upgrading its infrastructure in the disputed region.
Furthermore, China recently started the construction of the largest hydropower project in the world, the Motuo Hydropower Station. The dam’s location on the transboundary Yarlung Tsangpo river may enable China to divert or control the river’s water flows and potentially harm the interests of downstream states, such as India. New Delhi formally articulated concerns over the dam’s potential impact on regional stability and water flows.
While these developments have not derailed the Sino-Indian rapprochement, they can spur protracted discontent between the two sides and become flashpoints in the future. The example of the 2020 Galwan conflict shows that border-related issues can escalate and freeze ties for years.
Overlapping Regional Ambitions
The boundary problem and river flows are far from being the only friction points between China and India. The two countries are both key regional players in each other’s backyards, and their overlapping regional activities tend to frustrate one another.
China’s close ties with Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Pakistan have long been viewed as a threat to India’s strategic interests. These ties, based on Chinese investments, loans and arms supplies, have triggered concerns of encirclement in New Delhi.
On the other side of the equation, some of India’s strategic activities in Southeast Asia draw concern from China. In early August, India and the Philippines conducted their first joint maritime exercise in the South China Sea. Beijing is wary of non-regional states’ strategic presence in the area, and after the joint maritime drill, warned third parties not to interfere in the South China Sea dispute.
Southeast Asia and China-India Ties
In sum, the China-India thaw is underway, but New Delhi and Beijing have to navigate the sensitive terrain of territorial disagreements and overlapping regional ambitions.
This nuanced geopolitical setting brings opportunities and challenges to Southeast Asian states.
The positive direction of ties between China and India enhances stability in the Asia-Pacific. The lower likelihood of a military conflict benefits Southeast Asian states as they can focus on deepening ties with China and India. Closer interaction with Beijing and New Delhi can mitigate the fallout of US tariff policies and strategic retrenchment.
With the opportunity comes challenges. First, as long as the border dispute is not resolved, the ties between China and India can turn volatile at any moment. This requires agile policymaking that is prepared for worst-case scenarios, such as a spike in tensions on the Sino-Indian border followed by a downturn in their bilateral ties.
Second, as China and India vie for influence in Southeast Asia, regional states have to balance their strategic engagements carefully to maintain equidistance between them for the sake of preserving strategic flexibility.
Third, US tariffs already triggered a flow of cheap Chinese goods to Southeast Asia. The situation could turn for the worse if the US and China fail to reach an agreement and Washington maintains hefty tariffs on Beijing.
Now that India is also among the states heavily hit by US tariffs, Indian firms might follow the Chinese playbook and double down on sales to Southeast Asian markets. Therefore, regional states must monitor trade rerouting patterns to protect local businesses from being undercut by cheap imports from China and India.
Ultimately, the trajectory of China-India relations will play a key role in shaping Southeast Asia’s security landscape, geoeconomic outlook, and its capacity to manoeuvre within an increasingly complex, multipolar order.
About the Author
Daniel Balazs is a Research Fellow in the China Programme of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. The views expressed are his own and do not represent the views of his affiliated institutions. This commentary was published on CNA on 3 September 2025. It is republished here with permission.
