Pakistan plans to ask Qatar to delay delivery of liquefied natural gas supply over the next five years as the South Asian country grapples with weak demand and mounting import costs.
Government officials are in Qatar this week to request a delay for delivery of two LNG shipments per month in 2026, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deliveries would be rescheduled to after 2031, the people said. Pakistan imports about nine cargoes from Qatar per month.
Explosive text messages and emails alleging that Justin Baldoni orchestrated a “smear campaign” against Blake Lively have been made public by the judge overseeing the case.
Last week, Lively’s attorneys filed over 60 exhibits obtained during discovery in the case.
In an August 2024 email obtained by Page Six, Baldoni’s publicist, Melissa Nathan, introduced his production company Wayfarer Studios business partner, Jamey Heath to social media expert Jed Wallace, whose also the owner of Street Relations.
Nathan wrote, “Please meet Jed who will be having his team assist on all social activity based off our own conversations as well as their digital plan you are in receipt of.”
She explained that Wallace, whose LinkedIn profile described him as a “hired gun,” and his team have “worked on some of the most monumental [behind the scenes] projects globally” and added that she and TAG would be “working alongside” him.
“Quote two $25k per month — min 3 months as it needs to seed same as above — this will be for creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts, helping to change narrative and stay on track,” Nathan reportedly wrote, emphasizing that “all of this will be most importantly untraceable.”
Although she didn’t name Wallace or Street Relations in the message, she reportedly said that the quotes came “from the two teams we use that get the best results.”
A source told the Daily Mail that “quote two” was in reference to Wallace and Street Relations.
source added that the “creation of social fan engagement to go back and forth with any negative accounts” meant using anonymous accounts controlled by Wallace’s team to push already-existing pro-Baldoni news articles on social media and argue with Lively fans online.
However, the source claimed the work ended up being unnecessary due to the avalanche of “organic” criticism of Lively from real accounts.
In another text conversation from August 2024, Heath told someone named Andy that he was “in the middle of navigating crisis,” and had hired a “crisis management team,” which cost “9million dollars.”
“Just have to manage every land mine so it doesn’t go off. And there’s just so much to it,” he explained.
August 2024 email — addressed to Heath, Nathan, and Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel — Nathan’s employee Katie Case outlined a plan to mitigate and remedy the social media situation and stressed that “the integral part here is to execute all without fingerprints.”
The group further planned to “to expose behavior of Blake and other parties, both current and past, and engage directly with communities to adjust or influence the conversations taking place in real time” on social media sites, as well as “push[ing] up positive PR to change subject matter opinion on the first page of Google” and remove links that went against Wayfarer Studios, Justin’s narrative, and more to change the “overall narrative and helping keep it on track.”
Blue Beetle is sticking around for the DC Universe, and in a recent interview, James Gunn hinted we could be seeing him soon.
In a recent interview with IMDB, Gunn was asked about the character. The interviewer speaking to Gunn said he was “manifesting” seeing the character appear in upcoming seasons of Peacemaker. Gunn laughed, and said that he wouldn’t say he “was not in luck.”
While not direct confirmation that the character will show up, Gunn seemed to do all but that in his joke. The character of Blue Beetle first made his appearance in film in 2023, with the 14th film in the DC Extended Universe. Played by Xolo Maridueña, the character was brought over to the DCU by Gunn when he and Peter Safran formed DC Studios, but has yet to appear in any projects just yet.
As of right now, it’s unclear exactly when Blue Beetle will show up. However, we do know that his 2023 film is not considered “canon” to the overall DCU. Gunn has clarified that, although Blue Beetle does exist in the DCU, the film (and any DC media released prior to the first four projects for the DCU) would not be in his own canon.
An animated television show based around Blue Beetle is also rumored to be in the works. Originally mentioned in 2024, the series was expected to potentially act as a launching off point for a proper DCU film, although no new information has come of the series lately. The latest news we’ve seen is that Maridueña said the show could come out sometime in 2026.
Originally reported by Anthony Nash for SuperHeroHype.
The post Major DCU Hero’s Debut Teased for Peacemaker Season 2 appeared first on ComingSoon.net – Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.
Maybe you shouldn’t always listen to your gut.
Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC recently studied flavor-nutrient learning – how people come to prefer certain food based on how it makes them feel. Flavor-nutrient learning is one factor that influences eating habits and may impact body weight.
“We have to learn what we are going to eat, and one factor that’s less well studied is post-ingestive signals – our gut talking to our brain, teaching us what to eat,” said Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, who led the research. She is a faculty member at the institute and interim co-director of its Center for Health Behaviors Research.
The team’s findings, recently published and slated for the Nov. 1 issue of Physiology & Behavior, suggest that measures of glycemic control – such as fasting glucose and HbA1C, which measures glucose levels over time – were more closely linked to how much participants’ food preferences changed during the study.
That stood out, because while participants represented a wide range of body-mass index categories, none were diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes.
We wanted to know whether the gut-to-brain system for relaying information about nutrient learning might be different for people who have obesity and for those with differences in glycemic control. If it’s different, we should be using different targeted strategies to help them change their diet.”
Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, Study Leader
Research in animal models points to the importance of signals from the gut to the brain after eating. “They’re actually necessary, beyond just oral taste signals, to guide food preference,” said Mary Elizabeth Baugh, a research scientist at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and the study’s first author.
Scientists have argued that flavor-nutrient learning is difficult to show in people because eating history and food preferences vary so widely, while testing conditions and diet in animal studies can be strictly controlled.
To address that challenge, 26 people from Southwest Virginia were introduced to 10 atypical flavors: acerola, bilberry, horchata, lulo, yuzu, papaya, chamomile, aloe vera, mamey, and maqui berry.
“The best practice is to take something strange, because we want new learning to happen,” said DiFeliceantonio, who also holds an appointment in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
Study participants were asked to rate how familiar the flavors were and how much they liked them. The research proceeded with two flavors that were less familiar and less liked by individual participants.
Flavored drinks were first experimentally matched for sweetness with sugar and an artificial sweetener; one provided calories and the other did not. Participants consumed the drinks at home at specified times over a period of weeks. Later, artificial sweeteners were used in both, so calories during the testing session couldn’t confound results.
As expected, some participants learned to prefer the flavor that had been paired with calories, even when the sugar was removed. “And that’s because of post-ingestive mechanisms, not anything related to sweetness,” Baugh said.
But the findings weren’t uniform.
The expectation was that participants would prefer the flavor that had nutrients in the form of calories, but those with fasting glucose and A1C at the high end of normal were less likely to prefer the flavors that had been paired with nutrients.
“One of the most interesting findings was that measures of body weight status – body-mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist circumference – were not related to individual responses,” Baugh said. “We need more data, but this points to potentially impaired learning based on post-ingestive signals. With higher values of glycemic control, even within the normal range, there could potentially be some disruption in gut-brain signaling.”
This doesn’t only affect people who meet the criteria for overweight and obesity. “Even if you are a person with a healthy range BMI and a healthy range A1C, fluctuations in your blood glucose are still actually influencing what you eat in a way that you might not be aware of,” DiFeliceantonio said.
Baugh notes that this was a small study and more research is needed. She is recruiting participants with an even wider range of glycemic control and different body weights to better inform public health.
“Ultimately, understanding the mechanisms that influence food choice and eating behaviors can be really impactful in developing different pharmacological or behavioral strategies for obesity treatment – and even prevention,” Baugh said.
The research was funded in part by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, both part of the National Institutes of Health.
Source:
Journal reference:
Baugh, M. E., et al. (2025). Metrics of glycemic control but not body weight influence flavor nutrient conditioning in humans. Physiology & Behavior. doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2025.115037.
When the US Open draw was released, the clash between two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova and recently-crowned Montreal winner Victoria Mboko was the most eye-catching first-round matchup of them all.
Not only did it pit 18-year-old Mboko’s youth against Krejcikova’s experience, but it indicated just how quickly things can change in tennis. At the start of 2025, Krejcikova was a Top 10 player, and Mboko outside the Top 300. But this week, the surging Mboko was the seeded player at No. 22, while Krejcikova’s current position of No. 62 means she is unseeded in New York.
US Open: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Krejcikova’s slide in the rankings owes more to her six months off tour due to a back injury this year than her quality, and the Czech demonstrated that emphatically with a 6-3, 6-2 win in 1 hour and 23 minutes. Her tactical nous was on show from the start: alternating knifing slices with heavy clouts off both wings, she effectively prevented Mboko from finding a rhythm while setting points up for her own winners.
Mboko, who sustained a wrist injury during her Montreal title run and withdrew from Cincinnati the following week to recover, seemed hampered at times by it. Though she delivered a scattering of her signature backhand winners down the line, the Canadian teenager shook out her heavily-strapped wrist several times, and coughed up 10 double faults. That included two in her opening game, two in the last game of the opening set, two more to drop serve at the start of the second and two in the final game of the match.
By contrast, Krejcikova’s serve got better and better as the match went on. She won 81% of her first-serve points overall, and conceded only three points behind her delivery in the second set. And a ranking far below her career high of No. 2 has not bothered her in the past: she won both of her major titles, Roland Garros 2021 and Wimbledon 2024, while ranked outside the Top 30.
Krejcikova will next face Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, who snapped a 10-match losing streak by saving seven match points to defeat Olga Danilovic 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6[9] on Sunday.
“It’s less complicated than you might think,” Jordan says. “The aim is progress over perfection. Once you start paying attention to your protein and build the habit, you’ll feel the difference quickly.”
To hit 100 grams of protein, she suggests a typical day could look like this:
Breakfast: 200g Greek yogurt with 40g of a nutritional supplement powder, berries and tsp butter (optional) ~38g
Lunch: Chicken breast with 100g quinoa and roast veg tray bake ~32g
Dinner: Lentil and chickpea curry with 150g cooked lentils + 100g cooked chickpeas, served with 100g cooked brown rice and a dollop of Greek yogurt ~30g protein
“It’s easier when you break it down across meals,” Rail says. “One simple way is to build meals around your protein source, then add carbs and fats around it. This keeps portions clear and cuts down on decision fatigue,” he says. “If appetite is low, liquids help: shakes, soups, or blended meals make it easier to increase intake without feeling overstuffed.”
Vegan or veggie? The good news is it’s easier than ever to hit your protein goals. Yes, adding beans and legumes is a great way to pad out every meal, but you can also keep it interesting with high protein, ‘fake meat’ options like seitan.
While not as high in protein as the real thing, often these fake meats can help provide a satisfying texture close to actual meat. You might also consider adding blended tofu or lentils to your curry and pasta sauces as an invisible way of upping the protein punch of your meals.
Finally, high protein, vegan yogurts loaded with nuts and even some vegan peanut butter is a great way to ensure you’re eating well.
Still struggling to hit your protein macro? Richardson has some advice:
Don’t back-load your protein
“A typical pattern of eating within many Western diets is to ‘backload’ protein, which refers to consuming most protein within the evening meal and far less protein within carbohydrate-dominated breakfast and lunch,” he says. “It’s more beneficial to include meaningful doses of protein within each meal.”
Eat protein first
“Avoid filling up on starchy carbohydrates like bread, pasta, and rice at the beginning of a meal, and go for the protein first instead,” he advises. “This can help you prioritize the protein intake without feeling over-full.”
Snack smart
“Most snack foods are high in carbohydrates, or fat, and low in protein. Biltong, jerky and boiled eggs are your friends.”
A protein shake within your ‘fasting’ window
“If you practice time-restricted eating, and struggle to reach your daily target, you could add in a pure protein shake within your fasting window,” says Richardson. “Yes, this ‘breaks’ your fast, but if you are fasting mainly for weight-control and body composition, adding in 20 grams of protein within a shake amounts to fewer than 100 calories, and can even support your goals.”
And if you really want to pack a wallop, you can try rounding out your meals with the below. “Note that while nuts, seeds and other legumes can certainly be a great way to add protein, they are also more rich in fats and carbohydrates than protein,” Richardson warns.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.
Article 93 of the French Finance Law for 2025 introduced new rules regarding the tax and social security regime applicable to gains on the sale of securities acquired or allocated to employees or executives in consideration of their duties (New Legal Framework).
These new provisions aimed to clarify the numerous uncertainties surrounding the taxation of gains from management incentive packages (MIPs) that persisted after decisions issued in 2021 by the French Supreme Administrative Court (Conseil d’Etat, July 13, 2021, no. 435452, 428506, and 437498).
New French tax authorities’ guidelines (New Guidelines) have been published on July 23, 2025, and provide clarification on the New Legal Framework, although some gray areas still remain at this stage and will need further guidance. In addition, the New Guidelines are not final and are subject to public consultation until October 22, 2025. While they remain in draft form, they are nevertheless binding on the French tax authorities until the final version is published, once the process of public consultation is finalized.
The gain realized on securities subscribed to or acquired by employees and executives (or allocated to them) is in principle taxed as an ordinary wage where it is realized “in consideration for their duties as employees or executives” (the overall gain realized in consideration for these duties hereinafter referred to as the “Gain” and the related securities covered by this new regime as the “Covered Securities”).
The New Guidelines clarify the scope of the New Legal Framework, i.e., whether a gain should be considered as having been realized by virtues of employee or executive status:
By way of exception, under the New Legal Framework a portion of the Gain is taxable as a capital gain pursuant to the provisions of Article 150-0 A of the French Code Général des Impôts (French Tax Code) (Capital Gain Portion, and the difference between the Gain and the Capital Gain Portion being referred to hereinafter as the Salary Portion).
To qualify for this favorable capital gain tax treatment, the securities must (1) present a risk of loss of the capital subscribed to or acquired (or, in the case of free shares, stock options, and BSPCE, a risk of loss of the acquisition or exercise gain), and (2) have been held for at least two years (this two-year period, however, does not apply to free shares, stock options, and BSPCE).
For purposes of the risk of loss requirement, the New Guidelines provide that:
For purposes of the holding period requirement, the New Guidelines provide that, in the event of the sale of fungible or non-identifiable securities acquired or subscribed on different dates, the securities sold are deemed to be those acquired or subscribed to at the earliest dates. However, the New Guidelines do not at this stage indicate how the two-year holding period should be computed in the case of transactions benefiting from a tax deferral (e.g., a contribution of Covered Securities) and, in particular, whether the previous holding period for the securities would have to be taken into account or whether the holding period would start again from zero.
The new regime is based on the concept of a performance multiple, equal to three times the project multiple (Cap). The portion of the Gain below the Cap constitutes the Capital Gain Portion, while the portion exceeding this threshold constitutes the Salary Portion.
The Capital Gain Portion is determined using the following formula:
Where:
The fair market value of the issuing company (to be assessed for both entry and exit values), for the purposes of determining the Cap, corresponds to the “fair market value of its net equity” (although the New Guidelines unfortunately do not clearly define this concept) increased by the amount of debts owed to any shareholder or any party related to the issuing company as per Article 39, 12 of the French Tax Code. This inclusion of shareholders and related party debts is not, however, permitted to have the effect of increasing the Capital Gain Portion. The fair market value of the issuing company is adjusted to take into account certain corporate transactions realized between the acquisition date and the disposal date of the Covered Securities, including, among others, share capital increases or reductions, free grants of shares, and distributions of reserves. The New Guidelines provide some examples illustrating these principles, but unfortunately not eliminating all the uncertainties related to determining the Cap in the context of corporate transactions.
If the Covered Securities were subscribed to or acquired (or if they were allocated for free) on different dates, the Capital Gain Portion is computed separately, taking into account the subscription or acquisition price on each of these dates. The New Guidelines specify that securities acquired, subscribed, or granted within a close timeframe (without specifying an exact duration) as part of the same transaction under a framework agreement (without specifying an exact duration), a contractual agreement set, or a single allocation decision by the competent authority are deemed to have been acquired, subscribed, or granted on the same date.
If the employee or executive holds his/her Covered Securities via a management company (i.e., a company whose main purpose is to, directly or indirectly, hold the shares of the issuing company), the Cap is assessed at the level of the issuing company and not at the level of the management company itself.
The New Guidelines also set out that:
The Covered Securities may not be recorded in a share saving plan (Plan d’épargne en actions), and thus the Gain (including the Capital Gain Portion) does not benefit from the capital gain tax exemption applicable under such plans. Apart from the loss of such capital gain tax exemption, this prohibition might also create issues for managers willing to acquire the Covered Securities by means of a rollover of securities already recorded in such a share saving plan.
In the event of a gift of the Covered Securities, the Gain is determined and taxed at the level of the donor in respect of the year during which the beneficiary of the gift disposes of the Covered Securities by means of a sale, conversion, or lease. This undermines the tax benefits of the scheme whereby employees and executives make a gift of securities immediately prior to an exit.
The New Guidelines provide that the French tax authorities have the ability to disregard any artificial interposition of a company or methods of receiving the gain from the sale of Covered Securities in the form of distributions, if such actions were aimed at evading or reducing the tax liabilities that the executive or employee would normally bear if the tax regime outlined in the New Legal Framework were applied in accordance with the objectives intended by its authors.
The New Legal Framework applies to disposals, sales, conversions, and leases entered into as from February 15, 2025, and thus applies to all existing MIPs.
At this stage, the following uncertainties remain in particular:
The new rules make the Salary Portion subject to a specific 10% employee contribution, while the Gain is exempt from any employer social security contributions.
This new social security regime applies to disposals, transfers, conversions, or leases carried out between February 15, 2025, and December 31, 2027.
There thus remains an uncertainty as to the social security treatment of gains that will be realized after December 31, 2027. A forthcoming social security finance law is expected to set out the rules that will apply from 2028 onwards. However, one cannot rule out that a specific employer contribution may also be introduced at that time.
Paramilitary soldiers from Frontier Corps stand guard outside their headquarters, where supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan protest against the arrest of their leader, in Peshawar, Pakistan, on May 9, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP
An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on Monday handed down jail terms from three to 10 years to 75 leaders and workers of Imran Khan’s party for their involvement in an attack on the house of a senior PML-N leader during the May 9 riots.
“The ATC Faisalabad sentenced 59 leaders and workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party to 10 years of imprisonment, three years to 16 and acquitted 34 in the attack on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz Punjab president Rana Sanaullah’s house,” a court official said.
He said the court sentenced a total of 75 people out of the total 109 accused.
Prominent among those convicted are former opposition leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub, former Senate opposition leader Shibli Fraz, former lawmakers Zartaj Gul Ahmad Chatha, Ashraf Khan Sohna and Sheikh Rashid Shafique (nephew of former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed) and Kanwal Shauzab.
Earlier, these leaders were also convicted for 10 years each for attacking the ISI building in Faisalabad. The sentences will run concurrently.
Former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Ex-Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s son Zain Qureshi were acquitted in the case, the official said.
On May 9, 2023, Imran Khan’s supporters vandalised the military and state buildings, mostly in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mr. Khan has been in jail for the last two years in multiple cases, while thousands of his party workers are also incarcerated in the May 9-related cases.
The courts in Punjab have started sentencing the PTI leaders and workers on the order of the Supreme Court.
The PTI strongly condemned the verdict, saying the ruling was based on fake cases and phony witnesses.
“Under the guise of May 9, innumerable injustices have been inflicted upon ordinary citizens, families and leadership of PTI,” Imran Khan’s close aide Zulfi Bokhari said in a post on X.
“One of the victims is Shahrez, one of Aleema Khan’s sons, who’s been remanded. When the judge declined even a cursory glance at the evidence establishing that Shahrez was not in Lahore on the 9th of May, it amounted to a most grievous miscarriage of justice. This sombre chapter shall be indelibly inscribed in history, and those accountable shall not elude the hand of justice,” he added.
Published – August 25, 2025 10:07 pm IST
Netflix appears to have its first No. 1 box-office title in the streaming company’s 18-year history thanks to the sensation of “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Rival studios on Sunday estimated “KPop Demon Hunters” led all films over the weekend with $16-18 million in ticket sales. Distribution executives from three studios shared their estimates for the Netflix phenomenon on condition of anonymity because the streaming company has a policy of not reporting ticket sales.
Following a dominating few weeks as one of the most popular Netflix releases ever, the streamer put the film into 1,750 theaters for sing-along screenings Saturday and Sunday. Studios are able to accurately estimate ticket sales for all releases on Sunday morning, though the uncommon nature of the “KPop Demon Hunters” releases means a wider variance. Some estimates were as high as $20 million.
It amounted to a victory lap for “KPop Demon Hunters,” arguably the biggest hit of Hollywood’s summer, and an ironic success for Netflix, whose emphasis on streaming, not theatrical release, upended the movie industry. Another sore spot for Hollywood: The film was developed and produced by Sony Pictures, which sold it to Netflix.
Not all exhibitors went along. AMC, the largest theater chain in North America, declined to show the movie. But that didn’t stop Netflix from claiming the box-office title its more traditional competitors typically own.
David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm FranchiseRe, called it “a completely unique two-day musical event.”
“It may turn out to be higher,” said Gross. “Theater owners are quick on their feet and can add capacity according to demand.”
The theatrical release, though limited, is out of the ordinary for the streaming giant, which has long stressed a commitment to subscriber releases. The movie debuted on the platform in late June and is currently Netflix’s most-watched animated original film.
The film centers on Huntr/x, a KPop superstar trio who double as demon hunters. The members, Rumi (Arden Cho), Mira (May Hong) and Zooey (Ji-young Yoo), must protect their fans and face their biggest enemy yet: a rival boy band made up of demons in disguise.
Zach Cregger’s horror hit “Weapons” maintained strength in the box office during its third weekend, bringing in $15.6 million domestically. The buzzy horror movie has proved its staying power, raking in over $100 million globally since its release.
Disney’s “Freakier Friday” landed behind the horror movie once again, earning $9.2 million in North American theaters.
The two films are “real bright spots” as the box office heads into a “rather quiet finish” for the summer, said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for the data firm Comscore. Both films, which premiered simultaneously earlier this month, had a minimal 36% drop from last weekend.
“I think we have to look at the currency of the goodwill generated by people having these great summer moviegoing experiences,” Dergarabedian said. “We have to look at that as a more important metric than just the bottom-line dollars and cents.”
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” earned $5.9 million domestically during its fifth weekend. The movie enjoyed a strong $118 million debut but has experienced a steady decline.
Newcomer “Honey Don’t!” opened in 1,317 North American theaters with a weekend gross estimate of $3 million, in line with expectations. The movie made it to the top 10, right above “The Naked Gun.”
The dark comedy stars Margaret Qualley as Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator who investigates a slew of strange deaths tied to a church in Bakersfield, California.
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Weapons,” $15.6 million.
2. “Freakier Friday,” $9.2 million.
3. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” $5.9 million.
4. “The Bad Guys 2,” $5.1 million.
5. “Nobody 2,” $3.7 million.
6. “Superman,” $3.4 million.
7. “Honey Don’t!” $3 million.
8. “The Naked Gun,” $3 million.
9. “Jurassic World Rebirth,” $2.1 million.
10. “Relay,” $2 million.
—
Coyle reported from New York.