Good afternoon. Benjamin Netanyahu has ignored pleas from Australian Jewish groups to calm his feud with Anthony Albanese, further criticising the prime minister and escalating an ugly spat between the two leaders.
In a new interview with Sky News, the Israeli prime minister, who is wanted by the international criminal court over allegations of war crimes in Gaza, again labelled Albanese “weak” over the government’s recognition of a Palestinian state.
“I’m sure he has a reputable record as a public servant, but I think his record is forever tarnished by the weakness that he showed in the face of these Hamas terrorist monsters,” Netanyahu said in a clip broadcast by Sky News.
Australia’s peak Jewish group, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, on Wednesday labelled Netanyahu’s attack on Albanese as “inflammatory and provocative”, and a “clumsy intervention” which had affected Australia’s Jewish community.
Meanwhile, world leaders have condemned Israel’s announcement it was calling up an extra 60,000 reservists ahead of an offensive to conquer Gaza City, one of the last places of refuge in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering.
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‘Get out of my city’: JD Vance and Pete Hegseth heckled as they enter DC’s Union Station – video
JD Vance was booed and heckled with chants of “Free DC!” during a photo op with national guard troops in Washington DC on Wednesday afternoon. Handing out burgers to troops deployed last week by Donald Trump alongside the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, the US vice-president told soldiers “we brought some law and order back”, as a crowd of demonstrators protested outside.
What they said …
The treasurer ,Jim Chalmers, during an Economic Reform Roundtable. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
“It was like, ‘OK, guys, you can do that in question time, the rest of us here don’t really get to do that’.” – Sally McManus
The ACTU secretary was in the room as the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, and the Coalition frontbencher Ted O’Brien clashed at the government’s economic reform roundtable. During a heated debate about Labor’s spending commitments in the federal budget, Chalmers told O’Brien “this is not question time”. McManus also claimed a “breakthrough” agreement with the Tech Council of Australia to work together on a model for payment for the use of creative content in training artificial intelligence.
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Can the government keep kids safe in childcare?
After revelations about alleged abuse at childcare centres, Kate Lyons talks to Reged Ahmad about whether the government can restore faith in the sector.
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Can the government keep kids safe in childcare?
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A common brushtail possum on top of a tree at night in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Photograph: Manuel Romaris/Getty Images
Feeding native wildlife is a divisive topic. While some throw mince to kookaburras with wild abandon, others insist it’s best to let them fend for themselves. So when a sick possum showed up in Phoebe Loomes’ garden, her heart overtook her head. Is it ever OK to feed urban wildlife?
Daily word game
Photograph: The Guardian
Today’s starter word is: SORB. You have five goes to get the longest word including the starter word. Play Wordiply.
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When used as first-line therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), GLP-1 receptor agonists (RAs) seemed to be more effective than metformin at reducing the risk for dementia, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and other nonvascular types, with this benefit being more pronounced in older adults and women.
METHODOLOGY:
Both GLP-1 RAs and metformin have shown potential neuroprotective effects in patients with T2D, but no direct comparisons have evaluated their relative efficacy in preventing dementia.
Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study using data from a global health research network to compare the risk for dementia in patients with T2D who initiated either GLP-1 RAs or metformin as first-line monotherapy between 2004 and 2024.
They included 87,229 propensity score-matched patients receiving either therapy for at least 6 consecutive months; age (mean, approximately 58 years), sex distribution (approximately 36% men), comorbidity profiles, and metabolic parameters were comparable between treatment groups.
The index date was defined as the first prescription date of GLP-1 RAs or metformin following a diagnosis of T2D; at least 24 months of follow-up after a 6-month washout period from the index date was required.
The primary outcome measure was the incidence of overall dementia, whereas secondary outcomes included the incidence of specific dementia subtypes such as vascular dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and other forms.
TAKEAWAY:
The use of GLP-1 RAs was associated with a lower risk for incident overall dementia (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.90; 95% CI, 0.85-0.95) than the use of metformin.
Compared with metformin, GLP-1 RAs were linked to a reduced risk for incident Alzheimer’s disease and nonvascular dementia, but the risk for vascular dementia did not differ between the treatment groups.
The protective effects of GLP-1 RAs for dementia were more prominent in adults aged 60 years or older and in women.
Rates of all-cause mortality were also notably lower in the GLP-1 RA group than in the metformin group (adjusted HR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.81-0.95).
IN PRACTICE:
“Given the severe societal, familial, and economic burden of diabetes-related dementia, these findings raise important considerations about the role of GLP-1 RAs as first-line therapies in T2DM management,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
This study was led by Mingyang Sun, People’s Hospital of Zhengzhou University in Zhengzhou, China. It was published online in BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care.
LIMITATIONS:
The reliance on deidentified electronic health records may have introduced variability in diagnostic coding. The exclusion of patients with prior exposure to GLP-1 RAs or metformin may have limited generalizability to those with mixed treatment histories. The follow-up period, while sufficient for observing dementia outcomes, may not have fully captured long-term cognitive effects.
DISCLOSURES:
The research received support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and the Lo-Hsu Medical Foundation, Lotung Poh-Ai Hospital. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Islamabad, Pakistan – With clasped hands and half-smiles, the foreign ministers of Pakistan, China and Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban posed as they gathered in Kabul on Wednesday for a trilateral meeting.
It was the second such meeting between Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar and their Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi in 12 weeks, after they huddled together in Beijing in May.
That May meeting had led to the resumption of diplomatic ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan after a period of high tension between them. It also set the stage for talks on extending the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a part of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – into Afghanistan. The BRI is a network of ports, railroads and highways aimed at connecting Asia, Africa and Europe.
But as China plans to expand its footprint in the region, its attempts to forge peace between Pakistan and Afghanistan reflect its unease over the security of its interests even along the existing CPEC, say analysts.
And while Beijing is a vital partner to both Islamabad and Kabul, experts believe its influence over both remains untested, as does China’s willingness to take on the risks that it might confront if it seeks to bring Pakistan and the Taliban, once thick allies but now embittered neighbours, back into a trusted embrace, they say.
The Sixth Trilateral Foreign Ministers Dialogue was held on 20 August 2025 in Kabul between Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister of Pakistan @MIshaqDar50, Foreign Minister of China @MFA_China, and Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan @mfa_afghanistan, focusing on political,… pic.twitter.com/i6n8I2oYgr
— Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan (@ForeignOfficePk) August 20, 2025
Shifting regional dynamics
The Beijing conclave took place under the shadow of a four-day conflict between Pakistan and India, but much has changed since then on the regional chessboard.
In recent months, Pakistan – long seen as China’s closest ally and reliant on its northeastern neighbour for military and economic support – has strengthened ties with the United States, Beijing’s main global rival.
China, for its part, has resumed engagement with India, Pakistan’s arch adversary and its key competitor for regional influence. India has also continued to deepen ties with the Afghan Taliban, who have ruled Afghanistan since August 2021, following the withdrawal of US forces.
Pakistan and Afghanistan, meanwhile, remain at odds. Islamabad was once the Taliban’s chief patron. Now, it accuses the group of providing a safe haven to groups carrying out cross-border violence, while Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of human rights violations by expelling Afghan refugees.
Amid this, China has positioned itself as mediator, a role driven largely by the CPEC, the $62bn infrastructure project running from the Pakistan-China border in the north to Gwadar Port in Balochistan.
A senior Pakistani diplomat with direct knowledge of the recent Pakistani interactions with their Chinese and Afghan counterparts said China, as a common neighbour, places a premium on neighbourhood diplomacy. For China, he added, a peaceful neighbourhood is essential.
“China has attached high importance to stability and security to pursue and expand its larger BRI project, so expansion of westward connectivity and development can only succeed when, among others, these two countries are stabilised,” the official told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
“Development and connectivity cannot be achieved in the absence of security. Hence its efforts to bring the two neighbours together,” he added.
CPEC under strain
CPEC, launched in 2015 under then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, elder brother of current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has been hailed by many in Pakistan as a “game-changer” for the country – a giant investment with the potential to create jobs and build the economy.
But the project has slowed down in recent years. Later this month, Prime Minister Sharif is expected to travel to China to formally launch the second phase of the CPEC.
While political upheaval has hampered progress, China’s primary concerns remain the safety of infrastructure and the security of its nationals, who have frequently been targeted.
Separatist groups in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, have long attacked Chinese personnel and installations, accusing them of exploiting local resources. Attacks on Chinese citizens have also occurred in Pakistan’s north.
Nearly 20,000 Chinese nationals currently live in Pakistan, according to government figures. Since 2021, at least 20 have been killed in attacks across the country.
Stella Hong Zhang, assistant professor at Indiana University Bloomington in the US, said China has long wanted to bring Afghanistan into the CPEC, to expand the project’s scope and to promote regional integration.
But Zhang, whose research focuses on China’s global development engagement, said it is unclear how convinced Beijing is about investing in either Afghanistan or Pakistan.
The trilateral meeting in Kabul was the sixth iteration of the forum, with the last formal meeting having taken place in May 2023 [Handout/Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
“China might promise investments, but even though we are seeing actions on China’s diplomacy front,” she told Al Jazeera, it is uncertain whether officials in the two nations “will be able to convince China’s state-owned enterprises and banks to invest in further projects in both countries, given CPEC’s disappointing track record and the substantial risks in both countries”.
For Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, improvement in Pakistan’s internal security is paramount for China.
“This concern is what guides Beijing’s push for improvement in Pak-Afghan bilateral ties since the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) is operating from the Afghan soil, while Baloch militant groups have also found space in Afghanistan,” he told Al Jazeera.
“Through high-level trilateral talks, Beijing is aiming to narrow Islamabad-Kabul differences and also urge both sides to address each other’s security concerns to avert a breakdown of ties,” he added.
Pakistan Taliban, also known as TTP, founded in 2007, is a group which is ideologically aligned with the Taliban in Afghanistan but operates independently both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The Taliban has repeatedly rejected allegations that it allows its soil to be used for attacks against Pakistan and has consistently denied any ties with the TTP.
Security challenges
Since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, Pakistan has faced a sharp rise in violence, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, both bordering Afghanistan.
Islamabad has repeatedly alleged that Afghan soil is being used by armed groups, especially the TTP, to launch attacks across the porous frontier.
Data from the Islamabad-based Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) shows that in the first six months of 2025, 502 fighter attacks killed 737 people, including 284 security personnel and 267 civilians.
Compared with the first half of 2024, fighter attacks rose 5 percent, deaths surged 121 percent, and injuries increased 84 percent, according to PICSS.
China, too, has also voiced concern over the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), accusing its fighters of using Afghan territory to launch attacks against China.
Abdul Basit, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, said that since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, China has emerged as South Asia’s main geopolitical player.
“Without addressing Pakistan’s Afghan-centric security concerns, BRI’s Pakistan component, CPEC, will remain underutilised and underdeveloped. Hence, China has started the trilateral to help Afghanistan and Pakistan resolve their security issues under a holistic policy which tries to isolate economy and diplomacy from security trouble,” he told Al Jazeera.
Faisal, of the University of Technology Sydney, added that China brings political weight, offering both diplomatic backing at multilateral organisations – particularly on counterterrorism – and the promise of economic inducements.
But he was cautious about Beijing’s long-term leverage. “Beyond underlining the importance of stability via enhanced security coordination between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the outcomes of China’s efforts have been limited, partially due to Beijing’s own security anxieties,” he said.
The senior Pakistani diplomat said China’s BRI and related projects have brought it leverage in Southeast Asia and Central Asia, and expressed optimism that Beijing could bring about change between Pakistan and Afghanistan “armed with the political, diplomatic, economic and financial tools”, even if results have so far been limited.
But will China act as mediator and guarantor between Pakistan and Afghanistan? The diplomat was sceptical.
“As for guarantorship, I’m not sure whether China is willing or keen to do so. It certainly can play that role because of a high degree of trust it enjoys, but whether it would do so or not remains to be seen,” he said.
A new study shows high triglyceride levels directly cause abdominal aortic aneurysms – highlighting triglyceride-lowering therapies as a potential new treatment.
High levels of triglycerides – the most common fat in the body and in foods– directly cause abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA), according to a new Michigan Medicine study in mouse models.
Triglycerides as causal drivers, not just biomarkers
The research, published in Circulation, identified triglyceride-rich lipoproteins and regulatory proteins such as APOC3 and ANGPTL3, as causal drivers of AAA.
The findings question the common belief that triglycerides are merely biomarkers of vascular disease. Instead, the study demonstrates that they play a direct role in aneurysm development, growth and rupture.
“We have known that hyperlipidaemia is a risk factor for aortic aneurysm, but this multidimensional study pinpoints hypertriglyceridaemia as an essential contributor to the development and growth, as well as dissection and rupture, of aortic aneurysms,” said co-senior author Dr Eugene Chen, MD, Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at University of Michigan Medical School.
“Our findings suggest that managing triglycerides could become a powerful therapeutic strategy.”
Triglyceride dose-dependent effects
Using three different mouse models of hypertriglyceridaemia, the researchers discovered a clear triglyceride dose-dependent effect on aneurysm severity.
Moderate elevations in triglycerides accelerated aneurysm formation.
Higher levels led to aortic dissection.
Mice with elevated triglyceride concentrations developed more severe complications consistent with aortic rupture.
Mechanism behind aneurysm progression
Further research showed that elevated triglycerides and related fatty acids – particularly palmitate – impaired the maturation and activity of lysyl oxidase (LOX). LOX is a critical enzyme responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of the aortic wall.
This enzyme dysfunction weakened connective tissue and promoted aneurysm progression. However, when researchers overexpressed LOX in the aorta – they effectively blocked the damaging effects of hypertriglyceridaemia – confirming the presence of the mechanism.
New therapeutic potential
While normal lipid-lowering therapies – such as niacin – were not effective enough to bring triglyceride levels into a protective range, the team found success with an experimental antisense oligonucleotide therapy.
The drug candidate targets ANGPTL3 – a protein secreted in the liver that regulates fat metabolism. In mouse models, the treatment reduced triglyceride levels by up to 50 percent and prevented both aneurysm formation and dissection.
“This is an exciting development for a condition that currently has limited options beyond surgical repair,” said co-senior author Dr Yanhong Guo, MD, Research Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at University of Michigan Medical School.
“The findings may represent a paradigm shift in how vascular diseases like abdominal aortic aneurysm are understood and treated, offering hope for patients at high risk who currently lack effective pharmacological interventions.”
The present study utilized the TTE method based on observational data to assess the impact of early albumin use on the development of SA-AKI in sepsis patients. This study employed the clone-censor-weight (CCW) method to reduce immortal time bias, along with a new-user design to address current user bias [14, 15]. Specifically, to mitigate current user bias, only records of patients receiving albumin for the first time were selected. A detailed explanation of the CCW method is provided in Additional file 1: Methods.
Patients admitted to the ICU between 2008 and 2022 were included in the study, with sepsis diagnosed according to Sepsis-3 criteria, which define sepsis as suspected infection combined with an acute increase in Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score ≥ 2 points and acute kidney injury (AKI) identified using the Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) guidelines [16, 17]. The definition of SA-AKI in this study follows the criteria established by the 28th ADQI workgroup, which defines SA-AKI as AKI occurring within 7 d of sepsis onset [7]. The patient’s survival time was calculated from the baseline to the time of death. The study adhered to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines [18].
Data source
All data for this study were sourced from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care IV (MIMIC-IV), a publicly accessible database that is widely utilized in medical research [19,20,21]. MIMIC-IV v3.1 comprises hospitalization records from approximately 364,627 patients who received emergency or intensive care treatment at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston from 2008 to 2022 [22]. The database ensures patient anonymity, eliminating the need for informed consent. Access to the data was granted to the authors upon completion of the necessary training and certification [20].
Eligibility criteria
Patients over the age of 18 who had been diagnosed with sepsis, and who were admitted to the ICU for the first time and had an ICU stay longer than 24 h, participated in this study. The exclusion criteria were as follows: 1) patients who developed AKI before the onset of sepsis, 2) patients who received albumin before sepsis onset, and 3) patients with incomplete or incorrect time records. The exclusion criteria did not include post-baseline information [23].
TTE
TTE is an approach that constructs a framework, like RCT, from observational data, simulating a design for an ideal trial that could be implemented in practice. By explicitly delineating the temporal configuration of the research question, the inclusion criteria, the intervention strategies, the outcome definitions, and the analytical protocols, TTE seeks to minimize biases such as immortal time bias and prevalent user bias, thereby enhancing the interpretability and the causal validity of the observational findings [13, 14]. Additional file 1: Table S1 provides a comparison of TTE with RCT and observational studies. In this study, following the principles of TTE [13, 14, 23, 24], the study initiation point, exposure assessment window, intervention and control allocation strategies, and outcome monitoring during follow-up were defined with precision. Using the TTE method, we established a causal inference-compliant framework (Additional file 1: Table S2) to better estimate the potential causal impact of early albumin administration on sepsis-related outcomes.
Treatment strategy and assignment
In this study, the time of sepsis onset was defined as the baseline time. The population was classified into the “Albumin group” (treatment group, n = 27,088) and the “No albumin group” (control group, n = 27,088) based on whether patients received albumin within 24 h after the onset of sepsis [25]. It is not equivalent to a placebo arm.
Follow-up and outcomes
Patients were observed until the following outcomes occurred: the onset of SA-AKI, death, discharge, or the expiration of the 7-day follow-up period.
Covariates
Baseline, time-dependent, and post-baseline covariates were selected for adjustments [24]. The type and codes of each variable are shown in Additional file 1: Table S3. The selection of covariates was primarily informed by literature review [7, 26] and expert clinical knowledge, to identify variables that may plausibly confound the relationship between exposure and outcome. For instance, the SOFA score has been demonstrated to reflect illness severity, which is closely related to liquid management strategies [27]. Comorbidities such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetes have been demonstrated to modify the outcome risk [7, 26]. A detailed explanation regarding the selection of covariates for inverse probability-censored weighting (IPCW) is provided in Additional file 1: Methods. The final list of adjusted covariates includes age, sex, race, year of admission, type of ICU, weight, length of stay before ICU admission, SOFA score, Acute Physiology Score III (APSIII) score, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), crystalloids dosage, time to antibiotic use, hypertension, diabetes, CKD, artificial colloid use, nephrotoxic drug exposure, vasoactive agent use, mechanical ventilation, and renal replacement therapy (RRT).
Sensitivity and subgroup analyses
To ensure the robustness of the results, 3 sensitivity analyses were conducted. In the first 2 sensitivity analyses, the follow-up grace periods were adjusted to 12 h and 36 h to assess whether the effect of early albumin use remained consistent across different grace periods. In another sensitivity analysis, patients who had received RRT were excluded, and all subsequent sensitivity analyses were repeated using CCW and the previously described analytical procedures. Finally, subgroup analyses were performed based on age, sex, race, CKD, and septic shock to evaluate the potential influence of these variables on outcomes. All 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for sensitivity and subgroup analyses were obtained using a nonparametric bootstrap method with 1000 repetitions.
Statistical analysis
This study utilized a TTE framework. In observational data, patient treatment intention is unknown. Therefore, the causal contrasts in the TTE are the per-protocol effect [28]. Continuous variables that did not meet the assumption of a normal distribution were reported as medians with interquartile ranges (IQRs) and compared using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test. Categorical variables were presented as frequencies and percentages, with group differences assessed using the chi-square test.
Initially, each patient in the original dataset was replicated, thus creating 2 identical individuals with identical baseline characteristics. These individuals were then assigned to the treatment and control groups. Following the generation of the cloned dataset, human censoring was applied, meaning that patients who deviated from the planned protocol were censored. Specifically, clones in the treatment group who did not receive albumin within the follow-up grace period and clones in the control group who did receive albumin were censored (Additional file 1: Fig. S1). It is noteworthy that most patients do not receive albumin treatment immediately following the onset of sepsis. Consequently, a follow-up grace period was introduced, and the length of the follow-up grace period was set at 24 h [23, 29]. Finally, IPCW was applied to mitigate selection bias that had been introduced by censoring. The weights were truncated at the 1st and 99th percentiles [30]. Additionally, the mean values of covariates over time were visualized before and after weighting (Additional file 1: Figs. S2, S3).
Subsequent analyses were conducted using CCW datasets. The risk difference was calculated as the relative difference in the incidence of the outcome between the treatment and control groups during the specified follow-up period [28]. The development of weighted cumulative risk curves and weighted Kaplan-Meier survival curves was plotted to illustrate the differences in SA-AKI risk between the treatment and control groups, as well as the differences in 7-day survival. In the SA-AKI analysis, death was considered a competing event. To calculate 95% CIs for the differences in SA-AKI risk, 7-day survival, restricted mean time lost (RMTL) [31], and restricted mean survival time (RMST) [32], a nonparametric bootstrap method with 1000 repetitions was used. However, it should be noted that the use of hazard ratios is not recommended for causal inference [28, 33].
Only variables with a missing rate of 20% or less were included in the final analysis. A comprehensive summary of missingness across all candidate variables is provided in Additional file 1: Fig. S4. For variables with a missing rate below this threshold, random forest (RF) imputation was performed using the “mice” package in R [34]. To ensure robustness, sensitivity analyses were performed using predictive mean matching (PMM) and weighted predictive mean matching (midastouch) (Additional file 1: Fig. S5).
Statistical analyses were performed using R v4.4.2 software (https://www.r-project.org/). Data from the MIMIC-IV databases were extracted using Structured Query Language (SQL) [35], leveraging SQL scripts from the official MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Laboratory for Computational Physiology GitHub repository (https://github.com/MIT-LCP/mimic-code). P < 0.05 (two-tailed) was considered statistically significant.
Hosts India, to be led by ace drag-flicker Harmanpreet Singh, have been drawn in Pool A along with the People’s Republic of China. Record five-time Asia Cup champions and current title holders the Republic of Korea are in Pool B.
Asia Cup 2025 hockey groups and teams
Pool A: India, Japan, China, Kazakhstan
Pool B: South Korea, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Chinese Taipei
The Pakistan hockey team and Oman have withdrawn from the Asia Cup with Bangladesh and Kazakhstan named as their replacements, respectively.
All matches of the 2025 Asia Cup will be played at the Rajgir Hockey Stadium.
This year’s quadrennial continental showpiece – the 12th edition of the men’s Asia Cup – also carries added significance as a qualifying event for the 2026 Hockey World Cup, to be jointly hosted by the Netherlands and Belgium.
The winner will get a direct spot in next year’s global showcase while the teams ranking second to sixth will earn a spot in the 2026 Men’s FIH Hockey World Cup Qualifiers to be played in February-March next year.
The Asia Cup 2025 hockey tournament kicks off with Malaysia and Bangladesh facing each other in Pool B on August 29. The Indian men’s hockey team will face China in its opener later on the same day.
UCL and Great Ormond Street Hospital have developed the world’s first gene therapy for p47 Chronic Granulomatous Disease, providing life-changing treatment for patients with this rare immune disorder
Researchers at University College London have developed a groundbreaking gene therapy that offers new hope for patients living with p47 Chronic Granulomatous Disease. This innovative approach represents a significant advancement in the treatment of life-limiting diseases and could pave the way for future therapies that transform patient outcomes.
p47 Chronic Granulomatous Disease: A rare immune condition affecting one in a million
p47 Chronic Granulomatous Disease is an inherited, rare genetic immunodeficiency disorder. People with this condition have immune systems that do not function properly, leaving them susceptible to inflammation and frequent bacterial and fungal infections. This condition can leave patients with severe life-limiting conditions such as colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, and inflammatory complications, and in some cases, can be life-threatening due to the risk of severe infections.
p47 Chronic Granulomatous Disease is currently treated with a bone marrow transplant; however, finding a matching donor is a challenging and long-winded experience. Previous gene therapy research has proven successful for a different form of Chronic Granulomatous Disease called X-CGD, but there have been no trials for the p47 form.
Gene therapy developed and delivered under one roof
The p47 gene therapy was also the first product to be researched, manufactured, and delivered to patients under one roof at the Zayed Centre for Research into Rare Disease in Children, run jointly by UCL and GOSH.
To deliver the gene therapy to a patient, a viral vector is required, which is a harmless virus that ‘tricks’ cells into accepting new genes. These are highly complex to make, and their availability and effectiveness dictate whether a clinical trial of gene or cell therapy will work.
In 2023, GOSH received an MHRA licence to manufacture viral vectors in the Zayed Centre, and the UCL Technology Fund, managed by Albion VC in collaboration with UCL Business, funded the development of the vector, the preclinical testing, and the ongoing clinical trial.
The gene therapy went through several quality assurance checks and was then handed over to the clinical trial delivery team responsible for administering the treatment to patients in the trial.
The trial’s Principal Investigator, Professor Claire Booth, Mahboubian Professor in Gene Therapy at UCL Great Ormond Institute of Child Health and Consultant in Paediatric Immunology at GOSH, who led the clinical trial said: “For the first time we’ve been able to develop, manufacture, and deliver a new gene therapy entirely under one roof – marking a true bench-to-bedside milestone.
“This is a significant step forward. It means that future gene therapies developed at UCL and GOSH could reach clinical trials, and patients with rare diseases like Remi, faster than ever before.”
World’s first gene therapy gives 19-year-old patient a new lease on life
Remi, aged 19, is the first patient to receive this gene therapy in the world, which was developed by a team at UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, led by Professor Adrian Thrasher and Dr Georgia Santilli.
Remi was first diagnosed with Chronic Granulomatous Disease in 2007 and had been waiting for a bone marrow transplant match when he found out about the trial. “Before the trial, I became unwell and was struggling with my weight due to inflammation in my gut. I had been missing a lot of school, and even when doing online studies, it was hard to focus when I was in thehospital,“ he said. “Having the gene therapy has completely changed my life. I can go out and about now without worrying, help my family out, and I’m excited to start university and start the next stage of my life.”
China’s dominance of the battery supply chain is uncontested. Many U.S. storage companies have tried to catch up by replicating the technologies already in mass production there. But a smaller cohort is taking a different tack: building factories for next-generation batteries that could give American manufacturers more of a competitive edge.
Peak Energy is one of the newest members of that cohort. The startup, which appeared on the scene in 2023, took a big step this summer when it shipped its first sodium-based grid-battery system for installation in the field. The 875-kilowatt/3.5-megawatt-hour battery is now being completed in Watkins, Colorado, at a testing facility known as the Solar Technology Acceleration Center.
In fairness, the battery cells were imported from China, but Peak designed and built a new enclosure for them in Burlingame, California. Since the sodium batteries are especially rugged, Peak could forgo the temperature-control equipment needed for the current favorite chemistry for grid storage, lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP). If this first installation works well and the cost savings are as consequential as promised, Peak plans to build U.S. manufacturing for the whole package, cells and all.
But the power sector still wants to build grid batteries at record pace, especially as supersized data centers clamor for electricity supply as soon as possible.
Safer batteries mean less energy spent on temperature control
Upstart battery-makers often jockey over how much energy density they can pack into their cells, or how they can reduce the fire risks that follow from squeezing so much energy into a tight footprint. Peak Energy brags more about what its technology doesn’t need: heavy-duty climate control.
“If you think about it, an LFP [energy storage system] is essentially a giant refrigerator that has to operate flawlessly for 20 years in the desert,” said Cameron Dales, Peak’s chief commercial officer and cofounder. That’s because that particular chemistry ideally needs to stay within a few degrees of 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) to preserve its useful life; serious deviations from that safe zone could lead to declining performance or even dangerous failures. A handful of dramatic battery fires has already inspired community pushback against storage plants, making safety a crucial part of the industry’s social license. Indeed, this week U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin pledged to support communities resisting nearby battery installations.
The sodium-ion cells that Peak favors — technically called sodium iron pyrophosphate or NFPP — can withstand a much broader range of temperatures, from minus 20 degrees C (minus 4 degrees F) to 45 degrees C (113 degrees F). Peak’s engineers thus dispensed with the usual battery-cooling systems, relying instead on what Dales calls “clever engineering” around how the cells fit into the broader package. “There’s no moving parts, no fans, no liquids, no pumps, no nothing,” he said. The container does include a solid-state heater to ensure the cells never get too cold to charge.
This saves money by reducing the cost of materials and cutting auxiliary power usage up to 90% over the life of the project. But axing the conventional safety equipment brings one more major benefit, because that hardware has paradoxically caused several of the recent high-profile grid-battery fires (by, for example, erroneously spraying water on live batteries, which can make a fire where there wasn’t one).
A rendering of Peak’s battery system (Peak Energy)
Plenty of cleantech startups have pitched themselves as safer alternatives to dominant strains of lithium-ion batteries, only to be crushed mercilessly by the lithium-ion manufacturing juggernaut. Overwhelming scale and a wealth of industrial expertise keep pushing mainstream batteries to lower prices and superior performance. However, the up-front costs of the batteries themselves are now just a small piece of the overall bill.
The Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the bail pleas of former prime minister Imran Khan in eight cases related to the May 9, 2023 riots.
In November 2024, a Lahore anti-terrorism court had denied Imran bail in the cases related to the May 9, 2023 riots, including an attack on the house of the Lahore corps commander.
The incarcerated PTI leader’s plea challenging that was also rejected by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on June 24. Subsequently, days later, Imran had challenged that dismissal before the apex court.
A three-member bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Yahya Afridi, which also comprised Justices Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Hasan Azhar Rizvi, resumed hearing the petitions today.
Barrister Salman Safdar appeared on behalf of the PTI founder, while Punjab Special Prosecutor Zulfiqar Naqvi represented the state.
Both concluded their arguments, following which the CJP announced the bench’s decision.
However, Imran has multiple other cases against him. Imprisoned since August 2023 in a case related to state gifts, the PTI founder is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in the £190 million graft case and faces pending trials related to the May 9 riots.
The PTI hailed the SC ruling, using the hashtag “Victory For Imran Khan” in its post on X.
The hearing
At the outset of the hearing, the Punjab prosecutor informed the court that he could not appear yesterday due to illness.
CJP Afridi, noting he had two questions from Naqvi, asked, “You must have read the Lahore High Court’s verdict. Can a final observation be made in a case of bail?”
During the hearing on August 12, the chief justice had raised questions over some observations made by the LHC, noting that the SC will not touch upon the legal findings so as not to affect any party’s case.
Asking his second question, the CJP said, “This same court (LHC) gave bail to a suspect on the charge of conspiracy. Will the principle of precedence not apply to this case?”
The prosecutor responded that a court’s observation in a bail case was always of an “interim nature”. “A court observation does not have any impact on the trial,” he contended.
When the hearing resumed after a brief break, the prosecutor requested that the court allow him to assist on the merits of the case.
However, CJP Afridi observed, “We will not allow anyone to argue on the merits of the case. You may only answer the legal questions pertaining to the conspiracy [charge].”
Babar Azam and Pakistan’s Mohammad Rizwan run between the wickets during the ICC men’s Twenty20 World Cup 2024 group A cricket match between Pakistan and Canada at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in East Meadow, New York on June 11, 2024. – AFP
St. Kitts and Nevis Patriots have signed Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan for the remainder of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) 2025.
The franchise made the announcement on its official social media accounts with the caption: “Welcome to the Patriots, Mohammad Rizwan! A class act, a proven performer, and now one of us. Let’s do something special this season!”
The former Pakistan T20I captain has been signed as a replacement for fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi, who will join Afghanistan ahead of the tri-series in the UAE involving Pakistan and the UAE.
He will join fellow teammates Abbas Afridi and Naseem Shah in the Patriots squad, making him the third Pakistani player representing the franchise this season.
The right-handed batter has previously competed in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) from 2017 to 2024, representing Sylhet Strikers and Comilla Victorians.
In 17 BPL matches, he scored 478 runs at an average of 39.83, including four fifties, with a strike rate of 113.27.
Domestically, Rizwan leads Multan Sultans in the Pakistan Super League (PSL), guiding the team to its maiden title in 2021.
Across 93 PSL matches, he has accumulated 2,770 runs at an average of 42.61, including 21 fifties and two centuries, at a strike rate of 128.95.
The signing also means that the 33-year-old will reach his quota of two overseas T20 leagues within a 12-month period, as stipulated by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB).
Earlier this year, he was confirmed as a signing by Melbourne Renegades for the upcoming edition of the Big Bash League (BBL).
The Patriots have struggled this CPL season, winning their opener but suffering three consecutive defeats, leaving them second from bottom on the points table. The franchise has previously won the CPL titles in 2017 and 2021.
Other Pakistani players joining the CPL this season include Usama Mir with Antigua and Barbuda Falcons, along with Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, and Salman Irshad.
