A real-world, multicenter study of 67 evaluable patients treated with fecal microbiota, live-jslm (RBL), demonstrated a 77.6% treatment success rate at 8 weeks for preventing recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), with 87% maintaining remission at six months. These findings support RBL’s safety and efficacy beyond controlled clinical trials in an elderly, comorbid population frequently exposed to multiple rCDI risk factors.1
What You Need To Know
RBL achieved a 77.6% treatment success rate at 8 weeks and 87% sustained remission at 6 months in a high-risk, elderly population.
The treatment was well tolerated, with minor adverse events reported in only 5 patients.
Advanced age and multiple CDI recurrences were common risk factors, emphasizing the need for effective microbiota-based preventive strategies in these patients.
RBL, FDA-approved in November 2022 as the first microbiota-based product for rCDI prevention in adults, is administered rectally after standard-of-care antibiotics. The study population had a median age of 74 years and a median Charlson comorbidity score of 4, with over half having three or more prior CDI recurrences. Risk factors were prevalent, including advanced age (72%), gastric acid suppressant use (55%), immunocompromise (24%), and recent non-CDI antibiotic exposure (21%).1
All patients received prior antibiotics, most commonly fidaxomicin (58%), before RBL administration. Adverse events were minimal, limited to minor leakage in 5 patients. Age ≥65 was significantly associated with higher recurrence risk. Among patients experiencing recurrence within 8 weeks, median time to relapse was 28 days. Of 30 patients with 6-month follow-up data, 26 (87%) sustained treatment response.1
These data provide important evidence for clinicians managing complex rCDI cases, highlighting RBL as a valuable and well-tolerated intervention to reduce recurrence risk in routine practice.1
In relation to RBL, in a recent interview with Paul Feuerstadt, MD, FACG, AGAF, he emphasized that beyond effectively reducing recurrent Clostridioides difficile infections, the treatment plays a crucial role in improving patients’ overall quality of life. Feuerstadt described how recurrent CDI often leads to significant anxiety, fear, and social isolation, likening the emotional burden to post-traumatic stress. He noted that RBL not only targets the infection but also helps restore patients’ mental, physical, and social well-being, allowing them to regain confidence and normalcy in their daily lives.2
Reference
1.Seo S, Hengel R, Krishnan S, et al. Real-World Experience with Fecal Microbiota Treatment (live-jslm) for the Prevention of Recurrent Clostridioides difficile Infection. Abstract 85 E. MAD-ID Meeting. May 28–31, 2025. Orlando, FL.
2.Improved Symptoms and Health-Related Quality of Life in Adults with Recurrent Clostridioides Difficile Infection after Fecal Microbiota, Live-jslm (RBL) Administration by Colonoscopy. Abstract presented at DDW 2025, May 3-6, 2025. Accessed July 1, 2025.
Fakes of the globally popular Labubu dolls seized recently in Scotland are “potentially dangerous”, according to trading standards officers.
The elf-like creature from Chinese toy maker Pop Mart are the latest craze in collectibles and have gone viral on social media.
But officials in Aberdeen are warning consumers and businesses to be alert, following the seizure of “counterfeit and potentially dangerous” versions of the toys from shops in the city.
They had loose parts which could pose a choking hazard.
The council’s trading standards team seized the counterfeit Labubu toys from four premises across the city.
They did not have the required safety labelling.
Trading standards manager Graeme Paton said: “Following the discovery of counterfeit toys, we want to alert consumers and particularly parents to be extra vigilant.
“These counterfeit toys can seem like a bargain compared with trying to source the genuine toy, especially when they are a much-sought-after item, but they are potentially dangerous.”
He added: “Counterfeit toys can potentially pose significant dangers to young children such as chemical exposure and choking hazards.
“These products routinely lack proper safety testing and we encourage anyone concerned about the safety of toys they’ve purchased to get in touch with us via Consumer Advice Scotland.”
Labubu is both a fictional character and a brand.
The word itself does not mean anything.
It is the name of a character in “The Monsters” toy series created by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung.
The vinyl faces are attached to plush bodies, and come with a signature look – pointy ears, big eyes and a mischievous grin showing nine teeth.
A curious yet divided internet cannot seem to decide if they are adorable, or just bizarre.
Dust devils on Mars could be crackling with electric currents, according to a new study — and scientists are a little concerned about this because a buildup of such charge could harm rovers rolling along the surface of Mars.
“Electrified dust will adhere to conducting surfaces such as wheels, solar panels and antennas. This may diminish the availability of solar energy, harm communications and complicate the motion of rovers and robots,” Yoav Yair, a professor at Reichman University in Israel who studies planetary lightning and was not part of the new study, told Space.com.
The study, led by Varun Sheel, head of the Planetary Science Division at the Physical Research Laboratory in India, uses computer models to show how charges could be distributed inside a Martian dust devil. But before getting to how charge buildup works within Red Planet dust devils, it is key to understand how dust devils form on Mars to begin with.
As the sun heats the Martian surface, air near the surface gets heated. Hot air is lighter than cool air, and so it tends to rise. Pockets of hot air therefore rise through cold air, rapidly forming an upward current. The sudden uprush causes air to speed horizontally inward to the center of a newly forming vortex. If the conditions are right, the vortex completes formation and starts spinning. As the air continues to rise, the vortex gets stretched vertically — sort of like a noodle — making the vortex spin even more quickly. As the vortex picks up speed, the wind swirls and kicks up dust. This creates a dust devil.
In short, dust devils are like little gusts of dust high on adrenaline.
Dust devils are frequent on the dry and dusty Martian surface. Mars has lower gravity and a thinner atmosphere compared to Earth. This allows the wind there to kick up dust higher than wind on Earth can. As a result, Martian dust devils can be thrice as large as their terrestrial analogues. NASA’s Viking was the first spacecraft to report dust devils on Mars. Later, Mars rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance captured dust devils zooming across the desolate Martian landscape. In general, such whirlwinds can pose a threat to landers and rovers — however, some rovers have actually benefited from dust devils. In 2005, a benevolent dust devil blew dust off the Spirit rover’s solar panels, increasing its power levels. Dust devils on Mars, indeed, are a fascinating and curious phenomenon.
And deepening the intrigue, the new study suggests lightning could be zapping inside these dust devils on Mars.
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A dust tower can be seen in the bottom center of this image, taken by the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)
The most common form of lightning on Earth is the one seen during a thunderstorm. As water and ice churn violently inside a thundercloud, they generate electrical charges due to friction. Once that happens, the atmosphere around the clouds doesn’t let these charges flow through easily. This means the charges have nowhere to go and keep building up. At some point, the charges can’t hold anymore — and they snap. The charges crack through the atmosphere in the form of an electrically conductive conduit, which we see as lightning.
Interestingly, the new study’s team explains, a similar kind of churning happens inside dust devils on both Earth and Mars. In the case of dust devils rather than clouds, however, it’s the dust particles that are getting churned instead of ice and water droplets. Again, friction builds up charges, and when the charges can’t hold any more, the charges release in the form of lightning.
To be clear, the formation of a strong electric field precedes lightning and no direct observations of electric fields within dust devils on Mars have been found thus far. Instead, the study uses computer models to estimate the possible electric field strength and distribution within a Martian dust devil. This is, in fact, the first study to consider the size distribution of dust particles.
Sheel and his team found that when the atmosphere of Mars is laden with dust, the atmosphere becomes less conductive, prohibiting the flow of charges. This could cause a massive charge buildup in a dust-filled vortex, triggering lightning, he explains.
“The possibility that one day we can discover lightning [in these dust devils] is the most exciting aspect of the results,” Sheel told Space.com.
In terms of distribution, the study found that larger, positively-charged particles would settle at the bottom of the dust devil while lighter, negatively-charged ones would rise upward. The team also found that larger dust particles would increase the possibility of lightning.
“[The paper] adds an original level of complexity by discussing size distributions,” Yair said. “This is an important addition to the existing literature, with practical implications.”
However, regarding the possibility of dust devils generating lightning, Yair says, “I am surprised that the authors discuss the probability of lightning inside the dust devil while neglecting the fact that highly charged dust may discharge at much lower electric fields … negating the possibility of lightning.”
“In the end, predictions about lightning are very difficult because we don’t fully understand how particles charge each other, not even really on Earth. … Ultimately, I think the question will be settled only [by] direct observations on Mars,” Steven Desch, a professor of astrophysics at Arizona State University, who was also not involved in the study, told Space.com.
Some progress may have happened on that front, too.
A recent study — shared by a group led by Baptiste Chide of the Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie, France at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna in May — may have recorded the thunder from an electrical discharge. “Electrical discharges such as lightning are among the most energetic and remarkable phenomena in planetary atmospheres,” write the authors in their paper. They studied sounds recorded by the SuperCam microphone onboard the NASA Perseverance rover on Mars. The recordings showed signs of coming from an electric discharge in a dust devil. This is the first such direct detection on Mars, setting the stage for newer discoveries by upcoming Mars missions such as the European Space Agency’s Rosalind Franklin rover.
The study was published in the journal Physics of Plasmas in March.
1. Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Ballantine Books: $30) A story of friendship, love and adversity during the 1980s Space Shuttle program.
2. James by Percival Everett (Doubleday: $28) An action-packed reimagining of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
3. Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab (Tor Books: $30) A vampiric tale follows three women across the centuries.
4. The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press: $30) An unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond.
5. So Far Gone by Jess Walter (Harper: $30) A reclusive journalist is forced back into the world to rescue his kidnapped grandchildren.
6. The Wedding People by Alison Espach (Henry Holt & Co.: $29) An unexpected wedding guest gets surprise help on her journey to starting anew.
7. My Friends by Fredrik Backman (Atria Books: $30) The bond between a group of teens 25 years earlier has a powerful effect on a budding artist.
8. Nightshade by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown & Co.: $30) A cop relentlessly follows his mission in the seemingly idyllic setting of Catalina Island.
9. Among Friends by Hal Ebbott (Riverhead Books: $28) What begins as a celebration at a New York country house gives way to betrayal, shattering the trust between two close families.
10. Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry (Berkley: $29) Two writers compete for the chance to tell the larger-than-life story of an heiress.
…
Hardcover nonfiction
1. The Let Them Theory by Mel Robbins (Hay House: $30) How to stop wasting energy on things you can’t control.
2. Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster: $30) A study of the political, economic and cultural barriers to progress in the U.S. and how to work toward a politics of abundance.
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4. Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green (Crash Course Books: $28) The deeply human story of the fight against the world’s deadliest infectious disease.
5. How to Lose Your Mother by Molly Jong-Fast (Viking: $28) The author recalls her famed mother, writer Erica Jong.
6. Not My Type by E. Jean Carroll (St. Martin’s Press: $30) The journalist chronicles her legal battles with President Trump.
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9. Original Sin by Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson (Penguin Press: $32) Inside President Biden’s doomed decision to run for reelection and the hiding of his serious decline.
10. Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane (W. W. Norton & Co.: $32) The naturalist explores rivers as living beings.
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Paperback fiction
1. All Fours by Miranda July (Riverhead Books: $19)
2. Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt (Ecco: $20)
3. Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar (Vintage: $18)
4. One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune (Berkley: $19)
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9. Sandwich by Catherine Newman (Harper Perennial: $19)
10. Of Monsters and Mainframes by Barbara Truelove (Bindery Books: $19)
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1. The Friday Afternoon Club by Griffin Dunne (Penguin: $21)
2. On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Crown: $12)
3. The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron (TarcherPerigee: $20)
4. All About Love by bell hooks (Morrow: $17)
5. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi (Metropolitan Books: $20)
6. The Art Thief by Michael Finkel (Vintage: $18)
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A new report out today from phishing defense company Cofense Inc. reveals a dramatic rise in malicious activity leveraging Spain’s .es top-level domain, marking a shift in tactics among phishing operators targeting enterprise users.
According to the research from Max Gannon and Jacob Malimban from Cofense’s Intelligence Team, the use of the .es TLD in credential phishing campaigns surged by a whopping 19 times from the fourth quarter of 2024 through to the end of the first quarter of this year. The surge in the use of .es saw the TLD enter the top three most abused domains for phishing, behind only .com and .ru.
The .es domain is officially intended for Spanish-speaking audiences, but threat actors seemingly don’t care and are increasingly using it to disguise malicious content. The researchers note that the abuse isn’t isolated to a specific group either, as a broad cross-section of phishing campaigns has adopted .es domains to host second-stage phishing pages — sites users are redirected to after clicking on email links.
The sites are often used to harvest login credentials or distribute remote access tools such as XWorm and Dark Crystal RAT. A RAT is a type of malware that allows attackers to secretly control a victim’s computer or network remotely.
Though the surging use of .es TLDs is perhaps surprising, what isn’t is the company the threat actors are impersonating: Microsoft Corp. and its various services. Some 95% of the phishing campaigns using the .es TLD are impersonating Microsoft services such as Outlook. Bringing up the rear, other companies being impersonated include Adobe Inc., Google LLC, and Docusign Inc., though at much lower rates. The campaigns often feature highly polished emails and convincing login pages hosted on pseudo-randomly generated subdomains under .es domains.
In an interesting twist, the researchers also claim that nearly all of these malicious .es domains — about 99% — are hosted on Cloudflare Inc.’s infrastructure, often using Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA for added legitimacy. That raises questions about how easily threat actors are leveraging modern deployment tools such as Cloudflare Pages to spin up malicious content quickly.
“While Cloudflare has recently made deploying a web page quick and easy via command line with pages hosted on [.]pages[.]dev it is unclear whether their recent move to making domains hosted by them easy to deploy has attracted threat actors to their hosting services across different platforms or if there are other reasons, such as how strict or lenient Cloudflare is with abuse complaints,” the researchers write.
The report emphasizes that the use of dynamically generated subdomains that are typically random strings rather than human-readable names is a common trait of these campaigns. Examples include domains like gymi8.fwpzza.es, making them harder for casual users to identify as suspicious.
Cofense warns that organizations should be alert to this shift in TLD abuse and adapt their detection strategies accordingly, particularly focusing on subdomain monitoring and more nuanced brand spoofing detection. As phishing tactics evolve, domain abuse patterns continue to be an early warning signal for threat activity.
Image: SiliconANGLE/Reve
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