According to Donald Trump’s White House, the US economy is booming, inflation is dead and jobs are surging. A blizzard of economic reports has cast a pall on such claims in recent days.
This week’s data on Trump’s early economic record was mixed – good, mad and ugly – with jobs numbers so weak he reached for the catchphrase he once used to build himself into a reality TV star: you’re fired.
The picture is chaotic, with robust headline growth in the world’s largest economy, wild swings in trade, and a remarkable slowdown in the labor market.
For six months, Trump has staged an extraordinary campaign to overhaul the global economy and extract concessions from Washington’s allies and rivals by threatening and imposing steep tariffs on their US exports.
But the unpredictable, erratic rollout of this strategy has already had bizarre consequences.
Resilient-ish growth
Charts showing GDP growth
On the surface, at least, this week’s deluge of data opened with good news: the US economy returned to growth in the second quarter, with gross domestic product (GDP) – a broad measure of economic health – expanding at a rate not seen since last summer.
But this followed an unexpected contraction in the first quarter, and underlined some more concerning figures, such as a 15.6% drop in private domestic investment. Businesses have been struggling to keep up with the hour-by-hour jerks and jolts on sweeping economies policies.
Yes, there was good growth in the last quarter but in the first six months, the US economy grew at a mediocre 1.2%. The Wall Street Journal called it “the weirdest GDP report ever”.
Imports surge and plunge
Chart of import growth
Delve a bit deeper, and you start to see how the US economy is grappling with a series of extraordinary forces as Trump hammers out his trade strategy.
Firms spent much of the first quarter waiting for the president to reveal his plans for tariffs: which countries would be targeted, at what rates, and when. They stockpiled, triggering an unprecedented surge in imports that pushed growth into the red.
In the second quarter, however, as Trump started to ramp up his economic attacks, imports tumbled at an equally astonishing pace. Net exports – how much a country exports more than it imports – boosted GDP.
Interest rates on hold
Chart of interest rates
This is Trump’s least favorite chart. Despite his many public demands, threats and attacks, the Federal Reserve has not yet cut interest rates this year.
Why? Jerome Powell, the central bank’s chair, has repeatedly argued it should wait and see the impact of the president’s trade strategy before moving. Fed officials are worried that inflation – despite Trump’s claims that it has collapsed on his watch – has actually remained stubborn, and might rise as a result of his tariffs.
This has gone down extremely poorly in the White House, where officials are counting down the weeks until Powell’s term as chair ends next May.
Jobs growth stalls
Chart showing job growth over time
Data released on Friday fundamentally changed the way US policymakers and politicians think about the economy. Until then, many inside the Fed thought everything was broadly ticking over nicely – and Trump administration officials claimed they were overseeing a boom in activity.
But July’s employment report revealed far fewer jobs were created that month than economists had expected, and revised down estimates for May and June by an astonishing 258,000. Job creation has stalled.
“Look, this jobs report isn’t ideal,” Stephen Miran, chairman of the White House council of economic advisers, told CNN, before suggesting that fading uncertainty around trade and fiscal policy would lead to significant improvement.
“It’s all going to get much, much better from here,” he added.
NEW YORK, Aug. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — As digital threats evolve and user reliance on personal devices grows, the need for robust, multi-platform cybersecurity solutions has never been more urgent. This month, Software Experts has recognized Avast as the Best Antivirus in its latest evaluation, citing the software’s strong threat detection capabilities, wide platform support, and comprehensive privacy features.
Best Antivirus
Avast – a leading global provider of digital security software, known for protecting consumers and businesses across multiple devices through real-time antivirus, privacy, and performance solutions.
The evaluation by Software Experts highlights Avast’s consistent performance in independent testing and its ability to address the realities of modern cyber risks. While Windows has traditionally been the primary target for malware and remote attacks, macOS and mobile platforms have seen a steady rise in threat activity. In today’s digital environment, security tools must deliver cross-platform protection, real-time monitoring, and adaptive safeguards against phishing, ransomware, and spyware.
Avast Premium Security, for instance, includes malware detection, phishing protection, ransomware shields, and web threat prevention. It is available in two plan options: a single-device subscription and a multi-device plan that supports up to 10 devices across desktop and mobile platforms. The multi-device version is suited for individuals and families managing a mix of personal and work devices.
Driven by a commitment to strengthen scam protection for today’s users, Avast has introduced Scam Guardian Pro, an AI-powered feature now included in Avast Premium Security. Scam Guardian Pro offers a multi-layered defense against online scams through three key tools: Avast Assistant, which provides 24/7 real-time guidance on suspicious websites, messages, emails, and links using natural language interaction; Web Guard, which continuously scans website content and code to detect hidden threats; and Email Guard, which uses contextual AI to flag potentially dangerous emails before they’re opened.
Avast Ultimate extends this offering through a bundled suite that includes Premium Security along with SecureLine VPN, AntiTrack, and Cleanup Premium. The suite is designed to provide a complete solution across protection, privacy, and performance. Users can install and activate the apps together or use them independently, depending on their device and preference.
SecureLine VPN offers encryption to support secure internet use on public Wi-Fi networks. AntiTrack helps prevent online tracking by websites and advertisers. Cleanup Premium removes unnecessary files and applications, helping improve device performance and system efficiency.
Avast’s recognition by Software Experts follows a series of third-party certifications that underscore the product’s reliability and performance.
In 2024, AV-Test awarded Avast the Best MacOS Security Award for Consumer Users, noting that “one of the best products for protecting macOS is definitely Avast Security.” The same year, Avast earned a perfect score of 30 out of 30 in protection, performance, and usability, blocking 100 percent of real-world threats.
In 2023, AV-Comparatives named Avast a Top-Rated Product, achieving Advanced+ in six out of seven categories and earning Gold awards in both Real-World and Malware Protection tests. The platform was praised for its usability, interface, and threat detection.
Virus Bulletin gave Avast an A+ grade, citing a 99.69 percent malware detection rate with no false positives. In the AVLab Internet Banking Protection Test, Avast was rated Approved for its dedicated banking mode, which uses a virtual desktop to isolate sensitive sessions and limit exposure to malware.
As digital usage continues to expand across personal, professional, and financial domains, antivirus software has taken on a broader role in managing not only security but privacy and performance. Devices operating on macOS, once considered inherently safer, are increasingly vulnerable to targeted exploits. Mobile devices, especially those used for banking, messaging, and authentication, are also key points of risk. In this environment, a platform-agnostic solution that addresses multiple dimensions of cybersecurity is increasingly necessary.
Avast’s software is available worldwide and supports more than 435 million users. Its technologies are certified by leading independent labs, including AV-Test, AV-Comparatives, Virus Bulletin, ICSA Labs, OPSWAT, and VB100.
Software Experts notes that Avast’s combination of platform compatibility, consistent test performance, and built-in privacy tools makes it well suited for current cybersecurity demands. The recognition reflects both product capability and alignment with the growing expectations of users who need to stay secure across devices and networks.
To read the full review and evaluation, visit Software Experts.
About Avast
Avast is a leader in digital security and privacy, and part of Gen™ (NASDAQ: GEN), a global company dedicated to powering Digital Freedom with a family of trusted consumer brands. Avast protects hundreds of millions of users from online threats, for Mobile, PC or Mac, and is top-ranked and certified by VB100, AV-Comparatives, AV-Test, SE Labs and others. Avast is a member of the Coalition Against Stalkerware, No More Ransom and Internet Watch Foundation. Learn more at Avast.com.
About Software Experts: Software Experts provides news and reviews of consumer products and services. As an affiliate, Software Experts may earn commissions from sales generated using links provided.
Doctors have been arguing over the utility of preventive full-body MRI scans for decades. In 2004, it became a central plot point on an episode of the TV show “Scrubs.”
“I am considering offering full-body scans here at Sacred Heart. What do you think?” Dr. Bob Kelso, chief of medicine at the hospital in fictional San DiFrangeles, asks.
“I think showing perfectly healthy people every harmless imperfection in their body just to scare them into taking invasive and often pointless tests is an unholy sin,” Dr. Perry Cox responds, echoing a sentiment many real doctors have toward high-end preventive scans.
In the TV show “Scrubs,” Dr. Kelso (pictured) wants to start offering full-body scans to patients.
Mitch Haaseth/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images
It’s been more than 20 years since that Scrubs episode first aired, and yet real doctors are no closer to settling their big debate about full-body MRIs.
Preventive full-body MRIs are now used in high-end longevity clinics and are available through a growing suite of direct-to-consumer offerings. Prices range from $2,500 or more for a one-hour scan to new AI-assisted offerings that cost $500 and only take about 20 minutes.
Kim Kardashian promoted Prenuvo’s scan on Instagram in 2023, calling it a “lifesaving machine.”
Ernesto Ruscio/GC Images
Stars and longevity fiends, including Kim Kardashian, tout these scans on social media, and everyday patients share real success stories, gripping testimonials of lifesaving insights they’ve gleaned from scanning their entire bodies for signs of danger.
Genetic sequencing pioneer Craig Venter previously told Business Insider that he diagnosed his own prostate cancer “that was about to metastasize” with a high-end MRI “after being told by the best medical system that I didn’t have prostate cancer.”
Full-body MRIs can detect cancer early. But they can also have you parting with thousands of dollars, scheduling numerous follow up appointments to chase little dots on your scans, and in the end revealing nothing.
A full-body MRI is like a security camera for your innards
The promise of a full-body MRI is that it can uncover dangerous things happening inside you that aren’t bad enough — yet — to get picked up on other tests.
Danielle Hoeg is a perfect example of how this can work. A non-smoker in her early 40s and mom of three, she told Business Insider she decided to do a Prenuvo scan after some “wonky” blood work was taken at her doctor’s office, which suggested something might be wrong.
She signed up for a $2,500 Prenuvo scan (not covered by insurance), which took about an hour. The scan highlighted a few things: some moderate spinal degeneration and a lingering sinus infection. It also flagged a “minor” white cloud on her lung, an “indeterminate lesion” that “appears at low risk of becoming problematic,” her Prenuvo report found.
A blood test for lung cancer came back negative, but a CT scan her doctor ordered showed that, sure enough, that lung spot was likelycancer. She eventually had a stage 1 tumor removed, just three months after her Prenuvo scan.
Hoeg was in shock. She was a 43-year-old, healthy non-smoker with lung cancer. How could this be?
“I’m not out there smoking, asking for lung cancer, I’m not working in a coal mine,” she told Business Insider.
Since she caught this cancer early, she didn’t have to undergo any aggressive radiation or chemotherapy treatments. She tells everyone she can about her experience with Prenuvo.
“I have a little bit less lung, I have some scars, but I’m OK, and I’m here, and I’m with my kids, and swimming and running,” she said.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Emi Gal, founder of Prenuvo competitor Ezra, recently acquired by Function Health, says this is exactly what full-body scans are meant for. They’re helping find cancer that either can’t be screened for or won’t get picked up on regular screening tests because it’s not big enough yet.
“My mother passed away from cancer because she found cancer late,” Gal told BI. “I’ve dedicated my career and my life really to helping everyone in the world detect cancer early.”
Ezra founder Emi Gal.
Ezra/Function Health
The scans can also pick up back and spine problems, aneurysms, liver disease, and cysts.
Inevitably, they will also flag many things as worrisome that people don’t need to worry about at all, like benign scar tissue or inflammation lingering from a recent illness or injury. The scan can’t tell you definitively, “hey, this is trouble.” It just shows you when something’s there.
Are ultrasounds the real untapped medical tool of the future?
What is in there? Everything.
Getty Images
As the fictional Dr. Cox presciently said on Scrubs, “If you get this scan, the next year of your life is going to be a series of endless tests.”
Prenuvo says that nearly half of its patients “find something to keep an eye on,” but doctors want to know: Are they saving lives?
For now, you won’t find major medical boards or cancer advocacy organizations recommending full-body MRIs. There isn’t the hard evidence they’d need to back up a medical recommendation.
“Your end goal is saving years of life, helping people live longer,” Dr. Samir Abboud, the chief of emergency radiology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, told BI.
If annual scans are overkill, our annual check-ups are often not enough. Independent reviews consistently show that yearly health checks have little to no effect on preventing deadly diseases.
Dr. Tim Arling, who runs a concierge medicine practice focused on longevity, says he only occasionally recommends full-body MRIs to his patients. What he’s started doing more often is spending a few extra minutes waving a little medical wand over parts of a patient’s body as a preliminary scan for trouble.
He’s using a portable ultrasound machine, the same device doctors use to look at a fetus as it’s developing in utero. The technique is common in Japan, where doctors often glide ultrasound wands over a person’s thyroid, as an initial screen for cancer.
A technician performs an ultrasound on an Achilles tendon.
Pyrosky
In addition to the thyroid gland, Arling sometimes glides his ultrasound over a patient’s liver, kidneys, or aorta, “as a little extension of the physical exam.”
“If I see something, I’ll have a discussion with the patient, we’ll decide if we want to do something in real time,” he said.
The move costs nothing extra to the patient and takes just a few extra minutes. Critically, it also includes the doctor in the discussion from the get-go.
Hoeg’s stage 1 cancer was graded as a “minor” finding by Prenuvo. If Abboud, who’s both a doctor and a friend, hadn’t said she should get it looked at ASAP, would she have known to take the finding so seriously?
Hoeg shared this image of her lung. The “minor” finding ended up being stage 1 lung cancer.
courtesy of Danielle Hoeg
Arling said he went through a “very bizarre three-week period” last year where he ended up flagging a case of early-stage liver cancer, plus another case of early-stage kidney cancer using ultrasounds.
Related stories
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
“If primary care is trying to catch things earlier, the question comes down to how can we do it in a way that doesn’t necessarily add a whole bunch of extra cost or a whole bunch of extra waste?”
Maybe “we can start just sort of waving wands over people and getting a little more information,” he said.
How to decide if you should get a full-body scan: 5 questions to ask
A full-body MRI can take upward of an hour.
simonkr/Getty Images
For some people, doctors are already in agreement that full-body cancer scans are a good thing. If you have a rare condition called Li-Fraumeni syndrome, which puts you at greater risk of developing all sorts of cancer, annual full-body scans are a go-to, and they’re covered by insurance.
For everybody else, the jury — a jury full of practicing physicians — is still out.
If you’re interested in a full-body scan, Dr. Arling recommends weighing a few key factors:
1. What’s your family history?
You might want to consider a full-body MRI if you’ve got a family history of cancer.
But that scan should be in addition to other recommended cancer screenings you’re already doing, Arling said: “paps, mammos, PSAs, colonoscopies, the standard stuff.”
Another option is a cancer blood test like Galleri. It costs $950.
2. What’s your medical anxiety level?
If you are anxious about medical care or testing, full-body scans may not be for you.
“If you already have that health-anxious person, I’m not super enthusiastic about recommending this test, because they’re going to find something,” Arling said.
3. What’s your level of concern?
On the other hand, full-body scans are good at “looking for trouble,” Arling said.
“If you’re really trying to find the thing, not rule out the thing, then the MRI is going to have better data. It has higher sensitivity,” he said.
It’ll be more sensitive than a Galleri test, for example.
4. What’s your budget?
Is this the best use of a few hundred to a few thousand bucks of your cash?
Might you derive more health benefits from putting those dollars into things we know will improve healthy aging, like more exercise, some personal training, better nutrition, or less stress (a nice vacation, perhaps?)
“If it gets people being healthy, great, but if it’s just a thing that rich people do to flaunt that they’re healthier than you, it doesn’t quite achieve the goal,” Arling said.
5. Is there metal in your body?
Finally, full-body MRIs may not be for you if you have metal in your body (sorry).
That’s because they work by harnessing the power of magnets. There’s no harmful radiation involved, but you generally can’t wear anything metal, inside or out. (Discuss this with your doctor, though — many surgical implants are designed to be MRI-safe).
“A typical three tesla MRI is 60,000 times the strength of the magnetic pull of Earth,” Gal said.
Unlike humans, frogs and other amphibians don’t need to rely on their lungs to breathe; their unique skin helps them exchange oxygen and drink. But how do frogs breathe and drink through their skin?
Frog skin is complex: It’s thin, covered in glands that produce mucus to keep the skin moist, and porous enough to allow air molecules to permeate.
“[Their skin] is designed to allow both oxygen to get into the skin, and water to be absorbed,” Christopher Raxworthy, a curator and herpetologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, told Live Science.
A network of small blood vessels right underneath the skin absorbs oxygen directly from water or the air, and also allows carbon dioxide to be driven out of the body in a process called cutaneous respiration, explained Kurt Schwenk, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Connecticut who has studied the breathing mechanisms of frogs and tadpoles. “It’s really almost identical to a lung system,” Raxworthy added.
Although frogs can also breathe through their lungs and the lining of their mouth, cutaneous respiration allows frogs to survive underwater and through long hibernations. “Almost without trying, just having skin that’s moist, and having some blood vessels in it, they’re going to exchange gas and water through their skin, whether they like it or not,” Schwenk said, although not all frogs depend on cutaneous respiration equally.
Meanwhile, tadpoles don’t have developed gills yet, so they need to breathe in air from the surface to survive. But when they’re hatchlings, they’re too small to break water’s surface tension. Instead, they create their own air bubbles. In a 2020 study, Schwenk and his colleague observed the tadpoles swim right below the surface, where they quickly suck in air, forming a bubble. Then, they push the air bubble into their lungs.
Related: Can turtles really breathe through their butts?
Frogs’ porous skin is also how they drink. “That water is getting into all those spaces in the skin, and is then being absorbed across cell membranes into cells and into the bloodstream,” Schwenk added. Many frogs even have a highly vascularized area on their skin called a “drinking patch,” through which they can absorb a large amount of water.
Some frogs found in arid areas — like the trilling frog and the water-holding frogs living in Australian deserts — are especially adept at absorbing water during rainy seasons. “They store it, and then they go into burrows, into the ground, and sometimes they might even put an extra layer of mucus around them, and then they can survive on that water that they stored internally for months or even years until the next rains come,” Raxworthy explained.
A West African bullfrog, submerged in shallow water, can use its skin to both breathe and drink. (Image credit: Brian Mckay via Getty Images)
Although it’s a handy tool, their skin’s permeability also means frogs and other amphibians are especially vulnerable to pollutants and climate change, Schwenk said. Studies have shown that the permeability of frog skin routinely exposes the animals to commercial chemical products and microplastics. And because frogs need to keep their skin moist to survive, the increased droughts and warmer weather scientists predict from climate change could shrink frog habitats, especially in the Amazon rainforest and the Atlantic rainforest in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
“Amphibians tend to be some of the first groups that you start seeing declining or disappearing, and that usually is an indication of a problem within the environment,” Raxworthy said. Losing frogs, in turn, changes the balance of an ecosystem because of their position on the food chain: They keep insect populations under control and are prey for snakes and birds.
Time will tell if some frog species will adapt to a changing climate. “A question that runs through all climate change biology is whether any particular species is subject to climate change, which is all of us, can adapt fast enough,” Schwenk said. “In most cases, climate change is happening much faster than animals can adapt.”
Animal quiz: Test yourself on these fun animal trivia questions
Born in Nottingham, Su Pollard, 75, began singing in pubs and working men’s clubs at the age of 16 and appeared on Opportunity Knocks in 1974. She went on to play Peggy in the BBC television sitcom Hi-de-Hi! from 1980 to 1988. In 1986 she had a UK hit single with Starting Together. She has appeared in more than 35 stage plays and musicals and, in 2023, received the UK Pantomime Association’s outstanding achievement award. Her Still Fully Charged tour returns next month. She lives in London.
When were you happiest? Getting my full Equity card as a professional performer.
What is your greatest fear? Dying too young, and spiders.
What is your earliest memory? Five years old, sitting on a tree stump, being kissed on the lips by this young boy on our estate. It was fantastic.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? I don’t say that I’m perfect but there’s nothing that I deplore.
What is the trait you most deplore in others? People who aren’t kind enough.
What was your most embarrassing moment? Gloria Hunniford’s wedding at Hever Castle 20-odd years ago. We had a lovely buffet and a few drinks and then I had to get a cab back to the train station. I said to the driver: “I’m ever so sorry, but I’m not going to be able to hang on till I get to the train. Could you possibly take me down this alleyway?” He said: “Yes, of course.” As I prepared myself to go “to the ladies”, this police car came along and the policeman said: “Hi-de-Hi!”
Aside from a property, what’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought? A hand-painted beaded dress from New York. It weighs about 16lb and cost me £4,000, 30 years ago.
Describe yourself in three words Kind, fun and professional.
What would your superpower be? Making people who are running their country understand that power is not everything.
What do you most dislike about your appearance? My hair’s too thin.
What is your most unappealing habit? Always losing pens.
Who is your celebrity crush? Freddie Mercury. I met him in the Copacabana club in Earl’s Court, London. He asked me for my autograph and gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
Would you choose fame or anonymity? Fame.
What or who is the greatest love of your life? Work. Work enlivens me every day.
skip past newsletter promotion
after newsletter promotion
What does love feel like? Like you’ve got no other thought in your head.
Which words or phrases do you most overuse? It was a nightmare!
How often do you have sex? In my head, every day.
What has been your closest brush with the law? Sixty years ago, a policeman on the beat at about 2am saw me pinching two bottles of milk off somebody’s doorstep. He said: “That’s a bit naughty.” I said: “I won’t go to prison, will I?” He said: “I’ll let you off this time.”
How would you like to be remembered? For bringing positivity to people.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you? Stay out of other people’s business.
What happens when we die? We drift off to a beautiful place where we live a better, fuller life than what we’ve left.
TL;DR: Thousands of retro games, 4K visuals, and dual OS magic — this nostalgia-packed retro gaming console is just $89.97 (reg. $159.99) with free shipping through September 7.
If your ideal weekend includes mashing buttons, pixelated dragons, and yelling “Hadouken!” at your screen, this one’s for you. The Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro is a plug-and-play nostalgia machine loaded with thousands of retro and 3D games. And it’s only $89.97 at the moment (reg. $159.99). No monthly subscriptions, no in-app nonsense. Just pure gaming joy, straight out of the box.
What makes this console such a homerun? The Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro takes your favorite childhood gaming memories, upgrades the graphics, adds Wi-Fi, and packs it all into a sleek, plug-and-play system that costs less than a new controller.
You’re getting two powerful systems in one: Android 9.0 for apps and streaming, plus EmuELEC 4.6 for all your retro gaming needs. It supports 4K UHD video output, and the included dual wireless controllers mean you and a buddy can dive into head-to-head battles or co-op sessions without fuss.
The X2 Pro comes pre-loaded with classics across platforms — think Zelda, Final Fantasy VII, Sonic, Street Fighter II, and thousands more — plus you can download even more 3D games for free. Whether you’re revisiting your childhood favorites or introducing younger family members to the golden age of gaming, this console brings all the magic back.
Add in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, two operating systems, and compatibility with TVs, projectors, or even your laptop, and this little gray box turns any screen into an arcade.
Mashable Deals
Don’t miss getting the Kinhank Super Console X2 Pro while it’s just $89.97 (reg. $159.99) with free shipping through September 7.
In this week’s Five Cool Things, we’re bringing you the freshest of releases. We’ve got the latest pedals from PNW Components that claim to have a convex and concave profile, as well as the latest camera from DJI, the Osmo 360. On top of that, we’re going to check out the Smith Optics Motive glasses, Evoc’s elbow protection, and a travel case from Buds Sports.
To kick off the week, we rounded up the best bikes of Ard Rock 2025, where we found Danny Hart’s prototype Norco downhill bike, Ronan Dunne’s Hardline Tasmania winning machine, and even something rather exciting from Deviate. Our Steve then caught up with the King of Chaos, Justina Leveika, to learn about how he balances the tough job of nursing with winning ultra races.
As for news, it’s been a busy week as Canyon’s Neuron:ON goes enduro with a bigger stanchioned fork, more travel, and a more aggressive geometry. PNW Components unveiled its latest Loam Pedal, and DJI broke headlines once again, this time announcing its Osmo 360, its first 360 camera that brings a bunch of industry firsts to the fray. Hunt then brought its MTB H_Core tech to its latest 25 Carbon Gravel X-Wide wheelset. Finally, with Hardline taking place last weekend, it once again made history as it crowned its first female winner and its youngest men’s winner ever.
Wrapping up with our reviews, our Ty has rated OneUp Components Clip Pedals highly, loving their secure hold and top-notch build quality. He also gave us his thoughts on the Mason Macro, the brand’s distance-fuelled hardtail. Jimmer then delivered us the lowdown on Leatt’s ProClip 8.0 Race shoes, the brand’s first stab at endurance-focussed kicks.
PNW Components Loam Pedals Gen 2
£147
The original Loam Pedal from PNW Components is one that went down rather well in our reviews, but there was certainly room for improvement. After taking some of those notes on board, the guys and PNW took their flagship flat pedal back to the drawing board, and earlier this week, the brand unveiled the Loam Pedal Gen 2. Although it carries a similar shape, it’s a very different pedal.
This time around, it uses Tectonic pins, which are one-piece pins that are secured via a bolt that screwed into the side of the pedal and through the pin itself. We’re told that this makes for a stronger pin, that’s easier to service should the worst happen. They’re a little shorter than the pins on the outgoing pedal, too.
Things get more interesting when we turn our attention to the Loam Pedal’s new platform. With it, the brand claims to have achieved a convex and a concave profile. It’s said to bring support and traction while making for easy foot positioning. Additionally, there’s an all-new axle system that uses two sealed bearings and a bushing, and it’s been built to be user-serviceable without fancy tools.
DJI Osmo 360
£410
If you’re one to film your rides, 360 cameras bring a new level of immersion and creativity compared to regular action cameras, and with the likes of GoPro and Insta360 dominating this space in the market, DJI has joined the party, bringing a few industry firsts with it. This camera uses a square sensor, the first of its kind in a 360 camera, at least, which uses larger pixels, which should then produce higher quality footage in low light scenarios. The camera can also shoot 8k footage at 50fps continuously for 100 minutes, we’re told.
There’s a lot more going on in this bit of kit, so we’ll leave it for the incoming review to explain, but the Osmo 360 comes with a bunch of neat features. Users can tweak the composition of the footage in-app using things like GyroFrame and Intelligent Tracking. The camera can also shoot 120 megapixel photographs and film up to 100fps at 4k.
Buds Rollbag Pro
£330
Flying with your pride and joy can be a dangerous endeavor. With baggage handlers slinging luggage into the depths of a plane’s storage, your very expensive bike can easily be knocked about and even broken. Buds aims to minimise the risk while making lugging a bike around the airport easy with its Rollbag Pro.
Measuring in to suit European train standards, the Rollbag Pro comes with everything you’ll need to pack your bike safely, including a handlebar cover, frame protector, a fork protector, and a clip-on pad for the bike’s BB to sit on. This bag requires the bike’s wheels to be removed, but the wheels get their own pouches and brake rotor protectors. There’s then a pair of wheels on the bag itself and a number of handles to make rolling the bag around simple.
Smith Optics Motive glasses
£150
Smith’s Motive glasses are built especially for adventures on two wheels and promise to provide an unobstructed view. As you can expect from Smith, these riding specs use the brand’s ChromaPop technology to boost colour and contrast, and it’s said that the half-frame design provides full coverage.
Coming with a smudge and moisture-resistant coating, the Motive glasses are of a medium fit, and the lens is built with a five-base lens curvature with a slight wraparound fit. There are Megol temple and nose pads to help the glasses stay in place, even on a sweaty face, and the frame itself is built from TR90 plastic.
Evoc LS Flex Lite Elbow Protector
£75
Coming as part of Evoc’s move into limb protectors is the Flex Lite Elbow Protector. It uses the same material found on the LS Flex Enduro knee pads we’ve recently reviewed, which is said to be lightweight while mega flexible. There’s silicone at the top and bottom to keep the pad in place, and it promises optimal ventilation thanks to the material that the sock is made from. Boosting durability is an abrasion-resistant and tearproof material that covers the protective pad.
TL;DR: Youbooks turns your ideas into fully written, professionally styled non-fiction books using powerful multi-AI collaboration — get lifetime access now for just $49 (reg. $540).
We all have a book in us — or at least, a great idea for one. But writing it? That’s where most of us get stuck. Youbooks is here to flip the script. With a one-time $49 purchase, you can unlock lifetime access to a seriously powerful AI-driven platform that turns your ideas into full-blown non-fiction books — without the months-long slog or the need for ghostwriters.
Think of it like an AI writing room
Youbooks doesn’t rely on just one AI model — it combines the strengths of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Llama to create deeply researched, well-structured, and engaging content up to 300,000 words long. It even does real-time internet research while it writes, so that the facts and stats in your book are up to date. Want it to sound like you? You can upload style samples and personal notes so the tone is spot-on.
You define the concept, tone, and direction. Youbooks does the heavy lifting.
Whether you’re a coach looking to package your insights, a content creator repurposing your podcast, or an entrepreneur ready to build authority with a branded book, Youbooks makes it simple — and a little bit thrilling. With full commercial rights, you can publish, sell, or distribute your books as you see fit.
You get 150,000 monthly credits, enough to generate hefty manuscripts or multiple smaller projects. And the platform is built for growth, so you’ll get access to updates and improvements as they roll out.
Youbooks takes your idea, adds AI superpowers, and hands you back a book. No subscriptions. No writer’s block.
Mashable Deals
Get lifetime access to Youbooks while it’s on sale for just $49 (reg. $540) for a limited time.
A James Webb Space Telescope study is setting the record straight on the ages of some known ancient galaxies, which have turned out to be much older and farther away in space than previously thought.
Webb, a joint observatory of NASA and its European and Canadian counterparts, took a fresh look at a piece of the sky made famous by the Hubble Space Telescope’s ultra-deep field view more than 20 years ago. At that time, Hubble’s long-exposure image was extremely ambitious: Scientists pointed the telescope at a seemingly starless area, unsure what photons they’d collect.
In the end, that ultra-deep field image was “found to be anything but blank,” Webb researchers said, “containing thousands of distant galaxies.”
Now with Webb, this patch of sky is revealing more about the universe — even shuffling the cosmic timeline. Known as the MIRI Deep Imaging Survey, the project involved the Webb telescope’s mid-infrared instrument, which detects light wavelengths invisible to the naked eye. The new findings from the survey are published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
SEE ALSO:
New telescope captures interstellar comet speeding through space in video
With Webb, astronomers are able to observe the faint infrared glow from ancient stars and the structures they formed. The telescope trained on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field area for 100 hours, according to the research, including 41 hours with one particular filter. The resulting image picked up dim signals from galaxies when the universe was barely a few hundred million years old — a mere whippersnapper.
To understand a deep field space image, think of it as you would a core sample taken from the ground, collecting older rocks and soil the farther down you go: The image is a tiny-but-distant slice of space, revealing cosmic history by cutting across billions of light-years, each deeper layer revealing an earlier time.
Mashable Light Speed
“To our knowledge, this constitutes the longest single-filter exposure obtained with (Webb) of an extragalactic field as of yet,” the authors wrote.
The project, dubbed MIDIS for short, found nearly 2,500 light sources, most of them distant galaxies. About 1,000 now have revised distance estimates, based on how their light has shifted.
Webb was built to observe an early period known as “cosmic dawn,” between 100 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang, detecting light at invisible infrared wavelengths. In short, light gets stretched — or “redshifted” — over time and distance by the expansion of the universe. Those infrared waves can also pierce through the prevalent gas and dust in space that could otherwise obscure far and naturally weaker light sources.
The James Webb Space Telescope used its mid-infrared instrument to look at the region captured in Hubble’s famous Ultra Deep Field Image. Credit: NASA GSFC / CIL / Adriana Manrique Gutierrez illustration
In one case, the project found that a galaxy previously believed to be 11.8 billion years old was closer to 13.3 billion — pushing its origins back to when the universe was perhaps just 450 million years old. That puts the galaxy squarely in the first wave of galaxies formed.
Other objects in the MIDIS image reveal a different story: hundreds of red galaxies, some of which got their color because they’re dusty or contain mature, cooler stars. Either way, the results show Webb’s MIRI instrument can be a powerful tool for uncovering missed or misidentified ancient galaxies. Not even NASA’s Spitzer, a now-retired infrared space telescope, saw with this level of clarity.
That bodes well for researchers looking into how the universe evolved from birthing the first galaxies to a time when star and supermassive black hole formation seemed to peak.
“MIDIS surpasses preflight expectations,” the authors wrote. “Deep MIRI imaging has great potential to characterise the galaxy population from cosmic noon to dawn.”
