Francesca Albanese, UN investigator and critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza, shocked by US sanctions
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina: An independent UN investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s actions in Gaza said Thursday that “it was shocking” to learn that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her but defiantly stood by her view on the war.
Francesca Albanese said in an interview with The Associated Press that the powerful were trying to silence her for defending those without any power of their own, “other than standing and hoping not to die, not to see their children slaughtered.”
“This is not a sign of power, it’s a sign of guilt,” the Italian human rights lawyer said.
The State Department’s decision to impose sanctions on Albanese, the UN special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, followed an unsuccessful US pressure campaign to force the Geneva-based Human Rights Council, the UN’s top human rights body, to remove her from her post.
She is tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and the US have strongly denied that accusation.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio posted on social media. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
The US announced the sanctions Wednesday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was visiting Washington to meet with President Donald Trump and other officials about reaching a ceasefire deal in the war in Gaza. Netanyahu faces an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of crimes against humanity in his military offensive in Gaza.
In the interview, Albanese accused American officials of receiving Netanyahu with honor and standing side-by-side with someone wanted by the ICC, a court that neither the US nor Israel is a member of or recognizes. Trump imposed sanctions on the court in February.
“We need to reverse the tide, and in order for it to happen – we need to stand united,” she said. “They cannot silence us all. They cannot kill us all. They cannot fire us all.”
Albanese stressed that the only way to win is to get rid of fear and to stand up for the Palestinians and their right to an independent state.
The Trump administration’s stand “is not normal,” she said at the Sarajevo airport. She also defiantly repeated, “No one is free until Palestine is free.”
Albanese was en route to Friday’s 30th anniversary commemoration of the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica where more than 8,000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys in a UN-protected safe zone were killed when it was overrun by Bosnian Serbs.
The United Nations, Human Rights Watch and the Center for Constitutional Rights opposed the US move.
“The imposition of sanctions on special rapporteurs is a dangerous precedent” and “is unacceptable,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
While Albanese reports to the Human Rights Council – not Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – the US and any other UN member are entitled to disagree with reports by the independent rapporteurs, “but we encourage them to engage with the UN human rights architecture.”
Trump announced the US was withdrawing from the council in February.
The war between Israel and Hamas began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people captive. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which says women and children make up most of the dead but does not specify how many were fighters or civilians.
Nearly 21 months into the conflict that displaced the vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million people, the UN says hunger is rampant after a lengthy Israeli blockade on food entering the territory and medical care is extremely limited.
When millions of parents bought their kids a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game in the late 90s and early 00s, they couldn’t have understood the profound effect it would have on their children’s music taste. With bands from Bad Religion to Papa Roach and Millencolin accompanying every failed spin and grind, these trick-tastic games slyly doubled up as the ultimate compilation CD.
While the Fifa games have an equally storied history with licensed music, those soundtracks feel impersonal – a who’s who of whichever artists EA’s associated record labels wanted to push at the time. Pro Skater’s soundtrack, by contrast, felt like being handed a grubby and slightly dog-eared handmade mixtape, still battered from its last tumble at the local skate park.
“Most of the bands were chosen because I heard them growing up at the skate park. I would say most of the original punk stuff – even the early hip-hop – that was my soundtrack to skating in the 80s and 90s,” Tony Hawk says. “I never imagined that I would be a tastemaker but, that was really just a byproduct of staying true to the culture.”
“Tony was very involved in punk rock,” says Chris DeMakes, frontman of Less Than Jake, before his set at this year’s Slam Dunk festival. “Ultimately, he had to approve the bands on his soundtrack … So that always kind of made me feel good about it.” The band’s Roger Lima adds: “The culture of skating and music is so meshed, it made sense for them to have a real soundtrack to it.”
For the bands that made it on to these games in those years, the impact was immeasurable. “I remember playing earlier versions of THPS and hearing some of our contemporaries … I hoped we’d get an opportunity like that,” says Hunter Burgan, bassist of AFI. “But I don’t think I really understood how big the impact was until after we actually were on the soundtrack. I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me over the last two decades and told me that THPS3 was their first introduction to AFI.”
‘Tony had to approve the bands on his soundtrack so that made me feel good about it’ … Less Than Jake. Photograph: Piers Allardyce/Rex/Shutterstock
“Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater made All My Best Friends Are Metalheads a hit – as big a hit as if we would have been on 60 major rock stations in America … Probably bigger,” says DeMakes. “I talked to John Feldman [of Goldfinger] about this recently, and with Superman it’s the same thing for them. That wasn’t a worldwide hit, but it became a hit for them because of that game.”
When the original Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater came out in 1999, those grey PlayStation discs served as a punk rock Trojan horse, sneaking a killer introduction to the world of alt and punk music to millions of unsuspecting kids. A quarter-century later, new artists are featuring on modern remakes of the Pro Skater games, alongside the bands that shaped their taste.
“Those games fully altered my taste in music!” says Sammy Ciaramitaro, vocalist of hardcore band Drain. “They brought punk rock (and a lot of other incredible music) to my childhood bedroom.” Drain are now one of a handful of new artists that were chosen to be added to the soundtrack for the remakes. “I think our inclusion represents the growth of hardcore,” says Ciaramitaro. “I’m honored that we now get to be a part of this with Turnstile and End It, too. I hope that maybe some young kids will hear our songs while playing and it will motivate them to do a deep dive into punk rock music, like we all did when we were younger.”
Other bands who weren’t quite big enough to get on Tony’s radar at the time, such as the Ataris, spent their careers dreaming of making it on to the next Pro Skater game. “We were coming of age the same time that Pro Skater was,” says bassist Mike Davenport. “In 1999/2000 was when we really started to take off as a band and we didn’t even feel as if we belonged with the bands that were featured [on the games].” The Ataris’ track All Souls’ Day eventually made the soundtrack for 2020’s Pro Skater 1+2 remake.
Davenport says that the band used to play Pro Skater constantly on tour in the back of an RV – even, once, in the middle of a car accident. “My merch guy and I were playing in the kitchen nook one night when we heard the driver yell ‘look out!’ and then the TV flew at us, and we both literally batted it down with our hands so as not to have it smash us in the face,” he remembers. “Sadly the TV and PlayStation were killed, but luckily not us.”
Davey Havok performing with AFI in 2007. Photograph: Reuters/Alamy
Even though Less Than Jake reaped the rewards of being on the game back in 2002, returning with a different song on the Pro Skater remake decades later still felt like a badge of honour: “We’re a band that’s been around for 33 years, so we love anything that can propel us and get us in front of a new audience,” says DeMakes, “Everybody has social media. Anybody can upload their song to YouTube or Spotify or Apple Music now, it’s a different playing field. So how do you get noticed? Getting asked to be in a video game is perfect.”
“As long as there are people playing video games there will be an avenue to connect them with music,” says Burgan, “Skateboarding, punk rock and video games were a huge part of our lives growing up and were inextricably connected, so it seems like a natural continuation of that. For bands, I think the cultural impact is far more important and lasting than any financial benefit.”
Such is the lasting impact of the Pro Skater soundtracks that there are cover bands dedicated to playing it live – among them the 900. “We were really annoying when we first started the band, just tagging Tony Hawk in every story and Instagram post,” frontman Harry Shaw tells me. “When he followed us [on social media] we thought: ‘That’s it, we’ve made it.’ We never imagined that he’d actually come on stage with us.”
In a video that’s since gone viral on Instagram, Tony Hawk hopped on stage unannounced with the 900 in east London, covering Bloodstains by Agent Orange and Superman by Goldfinger, to a rapturous crowd. “[We’re] eternally grateful for him doing that show, and also just not being a dick about bands covering songs from his game, either,” says Shaw, “He doesn’t have to do this stuff, his name is so big within pop culture – like Ronaldo or Messi – he’s almost like a living meme.”
‘I can’t sing every song’ … Tony Hawk on stage with the 900 in London in 2022. Photograph: Doug Young
“There are five bands that only play covers from our video game series, and I’ve sang with three of them. But that one [the 900] was really fun,” says Hawk. “My appearance was a surprise, and they were kind enough to choose songs that I was more into. Yes, I’m proud of the soundtrack, but I can’t sing every song nor could I remember the lyrics!”
In the decades that have passed since the original Pro Skater games, their soundtracks have been the gift that keeps giving for the bands who make it on. “I actually just met Tony a few weeks ago at a music festival,” says AFI’s Burgan. “He is a true music lover and that makes being included in THPS even more special.”
While Pro Skater has gone down in legend, Less Than Jake believes that it could have very easily gone the other way.
“How many stars do we know that have made products or endorsed things that weren’t good?” laughs DeMakes. “But in Tony’s case, he had a really cool game that kids embraced and loved.”
“Pro Skater could have been a flop, it could have just not really worked out in the long run,” agrees Lima. “But every element of it was just super effortlessly cool and it was huge for us … I can’t count the amount of times someone has said: “I found out about you guys through Pro Skater.” Just look at the YouTube comments … thousands and thousands of fans that probably never would have heard of us otherwise.”
As Ozempic use grows, lesser-known risks emerge (Image: AP)
One in eight adults in the US have taken the weight loss drugs like Ozempic, according to survey analysis. But more than 30 percent of those drop the meds after just four weeks, according to a study by Blue Health Intelligence, a US healthcare data company, before the drug can have a meaningful impact on their health.Along with weight loss, Ozempic, which is also sold under the brand name Wegovy, has also won a reputation for its unpleasant side effects. The most common side effects people report are nausea, diarrhea or other digestive problems.Vision changes, erectile dysfunction and mood changes have also been reported, and you may have heard of side effect phenomena like ʺOzempic faceʺ or ʺOzempic buttʺ (sagging in all the wrong places).But what’s worrying medical professionals more are reports of severe medical illnesses after taking the weight loss drug, also called semaglutide or GLP-1 drugs, for several months.ʺThe most concerning side effects include pancreatitis and the effects on musculoskeletal disorders,ʺ Penny Ward, a physician-doctor at Kings College London, UK, told DW.A UK regulator has highlighted potentially deadly side effects of acute pancreatitis — an inflammation of the pancreas — after at least ten deaths were linked to this condition among British users of GLP-1 drugs.
Side effects after clinical trials ‘not unusual’
GLP-1 drugs have been on the US market since 2017. Ozempic was first approved to treat type 2 diabetes, while Wegovy was approved as a weight-loss medication in 2021.Clinical trials testing their safety and effectiveness showed them to be safe enough for their intended users. But since being release to the public, people have been reporting new side effects that hadn’t appeared in the original clinical trials.Ward said it’s ʺnot unusualʺ for additional adverse reactions to be noted once a product goes into clinical use. ʺRarer side effects may emerge as more patients take these medicines in clinical practice,ʺ she said, “simply as a result of the much larger number of people treated than were included in the clinical development trials.ʺThis is why we continue to monitor the safety of medicines on the market,ʺ Ward added.A major study published in the journal Nature Medicine in January 2025 set out to systematically analyse all the reported health risks of over 215,000 people taking GLP-1 drugs to treat diabetes.The researchers found risks of taking GLP-1 drugs beyond those previously recognized in clinical trials, including an 11 percent increased risk in arthritis and a 146 percent increased risk of pancreatitis. Increased risks of low blood pressure, dizziness or fainting, kidney stones and kidney inflammation were also reported.The study also highlighted well-known risks of several gastrointestinal disorders, backing up numerous past studies showing an increased risk of gastrointestinal side effects.
More research on side effects needed
Last year, people also started reporting that they’d gone blind after taking Wegovy. Researchers who investigated the matter found that GLP-1 drugs are associated with an increased risk of a disease affecting the optic nerve, called nonarteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION).While the condition is rare, affecting an estimated 10 in 100,000 people, a study published in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology found that people with diabetes taking GLP-1 drugs are four times more likely to develop NAION than the population average.ʺThis research does suggest an association between semaglutide treatment and one form of sight-threatening optic neuropathy, but this would ideally be tested in larger studies,ʺ Graham McGeown, an honorary professor of physiology at Queen’s University Belfast, UK.Experts say much more research is needed in representative populations to better understand the side effects of GLP-1 drug and their real-world risks for people taking them.ʺFor example, [more data is needed about] those taking the drug for obesity, who need a higher dose compared to people with diabetes, and taking it for longer than two years,ʺ said Karolina Skibicka, a neuroendocrinologist at University of Calgary, Canada.ʺBut especially, we need studies which include women. Women show unique side-effects to many pharmacotherapies, and still [in] most studies women are often underrepresented at various stages of testing,ʺ Skibicka added.
Benefits outweigh the risks
Despite concerns about new side effects, Skibicka told DW, ʺthe list of benefits for this drug, if taken as prescribed, is still significantly longer and more impactful than risks. It has the promise of saving and improving many lives.ʺAs such, Skibicka said it was ʺunlikelyʺ that the appearance of rare but serious side effects would be grounds to create new, stricter recommendations for prescribing GLP-drugs.Researchers are also finding surprising ‘beneficial’ side effects of taking GLP-1 dugs, too.Studies show that GLP-1 drug use is associated with a reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers are also investigating whether the drugs could be used to treat substance use disorders.The January study also reported reduced risks of blood coagulation and clotting disorders, cardiorenal and metabolic disorders, and several respiratory conditions in diabetic patients taking GLP-1 drugs.The authors speculate that GLP-1 drugs might influence the risk of so many conditions for two reasons: first because they act on many parts of the body, and second because they treat obesity, which contributes to several health issues.
Single-cell and spatial technologies are giving researchers an unprecedented view of how brain diseases like Alzheimer’s really work. The result? Faster discovery, clearer targets and a new path towards more effective treatments.
Neurological diseases are among the most complex and least understood conditions in medicine. Despite the knowledge that certain genes increase the risk of contracting diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, it is still not fully understood how those diseases develop in the brain. But that is beginning to change.
At the centre of this shift is 10x Genomics – a company building tools that enable researchers to study individual cells and their gene activity, both in isolation and in their original spatial context. These technologies are now being used in labs around the world to explore how the brain functions – and what changes occur when it begins to break down.
Michael Schnall-Levin, Chief Technology Officer and founding scientist at 10x Genomics, has seen this transformation up close. “Our mission as a company is to build the most impactful technologies that allow researchers and drug developers to understand underlying biology and ultimately use that to impact human health,” he says.
It matters because it is helping scientists identify new therapeutic targets, track disease progression at the cellular level and test how experimental drugs affect specific brain cell types.
From maths and physics to molecular biology
Schnall-Levin did not begin in the life sciences. “I did physics and math as an undergraduate,” he explains. But during his PhD in applied mathematics, his focus began to shift. “I started looking around and getting interested in biology. I got my eyes opened to molecular biology, bioinformatics, computational biology and these emerging fields at the time.”
That turning point led to a postdoctoral position at the Broad Institute with Dr Eric Lander, Founding Director of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Schnall-Levin also took on an early role at Foundation Medicine – one of the first cancer genomics companies. “I took a couple of other software startup opportunities,” he adds, “but I realised I missed the genomics and science. That’s when I joined 10x.”
What 10x has built
10x’s platforms – Chromium, Visium and Xenium – are all designed to study biology at cellular resolution, but each does so in a different way.
Chromium enables single-cell analysis, allowing researchers to profile gene expression or chromatin accessibility in thousands of individual cells from a tissue sample. Visium adds spatial context by mapping gene activity across a tissue section, showing where different cell types are located and how they interact. Xenium takes this further with in situ analysis at subcellular resolution, detecting RNA and protein molecules directly within tissues using high-resolution imaging. Together, these tools give researchers a detailed view of how cells behave, where they are and how they contribute to health or disease.
There are known genetic mutations that are linked to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s or to a worse prognosis.
“There are known genetic mutations that are linked to a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s or to a worse prognosis,” Schnall-Levin explains. “But with our technologies, what you can do is take people who have those different genetics and look at their cells – either spatially or individually – and understand what is actually happening in some of those patients at the molecular level.”
In neurological disease research, this level of analysis matters. “Even when people talk about glial cells – you might just say, OK, they’re glial cells – but there are actually many different subtypes, and those subtypes can be doing different things in people who are healthy compared to those with a disease.” Schnall-Levin continues, “what our technologies allow you to do in situations like this is really understand at the most fundamental level what’s actually happening and how that’s going to drive disease.”
This kind of insight is what moves research beyond correlation. It helps scientists pinpoint what is actually causing disease – and more importantly, how to stop it.
Xenium analysis of wild-type (WT) and TgCRND8 mice across multiple time points reveals age-associated enrichment of activated glial populations. Green: disease-associated astrocytes; pink: disease-associated microglia. Image courtesy of 10x Genomics.
A growing body of evidence
“We just passed 10,000 publications in total that have used our technology in some way or another,” Schnall-Levin says. This is a major milestone and signals how quickly the field is evolving.
“Some of these 10x technologies have only been released in the last five years or even the last couple of years,” he adds. “It just shows how impactful they are.”
The applications are wide-ranging, but the momentum in neurological research is particularly notable. Researchers are using 10x platforms to identify molecular targets, understand disease heterogeneity and, in some cases, explore how different cell populations respond to drugs in preclinical models.
How AI fits in
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also beginning to play a larger role across 10x’s product portfolio. “The first area where we have done this in the most substantial way is in our spatial technology platform,” says Schnall-Levin.
When a customer uses those platforms, they use these AI tools to automatically annotate the entire image and identify where all the cells are.
One example is cell segmentation – identifying individual cells in tissue images. 10x has trained AI models on manually annotated datasets to automate this process in its software. “When a customer uses those platforms, they use these AI tools to automatically annotate the entire image and identify where all the cells are.”
The company is also integrating AI to make data analysis more accessible and less time-consuming. “We’re starting to look at building AI into our products to help researchers analyse their data and automate that process, to quickly incorporate information from the entire literature or pull together different analysis tools,” Schnall-Levin explains. And larger ventures are also under way: “There have been quite a few efforts now – like the Billion Cells Project with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) , and the Arc Institute just announced the Virtual Cell Atlas which is using our technology – where the goal is to build AI on top of those datasets.”
The Billion Cells Project refers to a global initiative aiming to map gene expression across one billion individual cells, creating reference datasets to advance AI-driven insights into health and disease. Separately, the Arc Institute – a nonprofit research organisation focused on accelerating scientific progress and understanding the root causes of complex diseases – is using 10x platforms to generate large-scale perturbational single-cell datasets designed to support the development of predictive “virtual cell” models. The goal is to deepen their understanding of health and disease and accelerate therapeutic discovery.
In practice, this means that researchers could soon move from raw data to actionable biological insights in a fraction of the time. Instead of manually stitching together datasets, literature references and custom pipelines, scientists could rely on trained AI models to flag meaningful patterns, suggest targets or even predict responses – potentially accelerating early-stage discovery and reducing bottlenecks in the drug development process.
From discovery to therapy
Schnall-Levin believes the industry is edging closer to real-world therapies that will be directly traceable to single-cell and spatial analysis.
“I think some of the breakthroughs that we’re really excited about are from people who are starting to tease apart the underlying molecular mechanisms of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s… and these are now really suggesting better ways to treat these diseases and develop new drug candidates.”
For 10x, the next major milestone will not be about tools – it will be about outcomes. “A really exciting milestone that I would expect to see – and would be really excited to see – would be new therapies coming out for some of these neurological diseases that trace directly back to an understanding that was driven from the single-cell or spatial.”
What comes next
10x will continue to develop and expand its product platforms while supporting researchers with images, datasets and visualisations to make their findings more interpretable and reproducible.
“Sometimes I think just seeing the latest images from our data – it really hits you how powerful it is,” Schnall-Levin says.
The combination of high-resolution tools, large-scale data and AI is shaping the future of neurological disease research. The hope is that, within the next few years, the first wave of therapies to emerge from this work will start to make their way into the clinic.
Publications using these technologies:
Meet Michael Schnall-Levin
Michael Schnall-Levin has been at the company since its inception and today serves as Chief Technology Officer. Before joining 10x Genomics, Michael was a NSF postdoctoral fellow with Eric Lander at the Broad Institute, where he worked on developing novel applications of DNA sequencing technologies. Prior to that, Michael worked at Foundation Medicine, where he developed some of the early algorithms to accurately detect mutations in patient tumour samples. Michael earned his PhD in Mathematics from MIT with Bonnie Berger, where he was both a Hertz fellow and NDSEG fellow, and his B.A. in Physics from Harvard College.
Trump to survey damage from deadly floods during Texas visit
In about an hour, we expect president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to depart the White House for Kerrville, Texas, where scores of people have been killed and remain missing after catastrophic flooding hit the region last week.
While the Trump administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), it has lessened its focus on the topic since the July 4 disaster.
The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas, according to the Associated Press. The White House also said he will visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims.
Trump will also get a briefing from officials. Republican governor Greg Abbott, senator John Cornyn and senator Ted Cruz are expected to the visit.
Key events
Netanyahu leaves Washington without breakthrough on Gaza deal
Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week did not result in a ceasefire deal for the Gaza war, despite Donald Trump’s efforts, the Associated Press reports.
Despite Trump throwing his weight behind a push for a 60-day truce between Israel and Hamas, no breakthrough was announced during Netanyahu’s visit, a disappointment for a president who wants to be known as a peacemaker and has hinged his reputation on being a dealmaker. His aim of making a peace deal has been challenged by the Israeli prime minster’s desire to continuing the war until Hamas is destroyed.
Yesterday, my colleague José Olivares reported that the death toll in Texas was plateaued at 120, signaling that rescuers have made little progress to find victims amid wreckage in the past 24 hours. From José’s report:
On Thursday morning, local officials in Kerr county, which was hit the hardest by the 4 July flash flood, announced that 96 people had died, the same number reported on Wednesday evening.
Thursday’s update comes a day after Kristi Noem, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, discussed plans to overhaul the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Weeks ago, Trump had promised to begin “phasing out” Fema in order to “bring it down to the state level”.
You can read the full story here:
Trump to survey damage from deadly floods during Texas visit
In about an hour, we expect president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to depart the White House for Kerrville, Texas, where scores of people have been killed and remain missing after catastrophic flooding hit the region last week.
While the Trump administration isn’t backing away from its pledges to shutter the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), it has lessened its focus on the topic since the July 4 disaster.
The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas, according to the Associated Press. The White House also said he will visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims.
Trump will also get a briefing from officials. Republican governor Greg Abbott, senator John Cornyn and senator Ted Cruz are expected to the visit.
A recent ruling by the US supreme court cleared the way for the state department layoffs to start while lawsuits challenging cuts continue to play out.
The department formally advised staffers on Thursday that it would be sending layoff notices to some of them soon.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said officials took “a very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused,” the Associated Press reported.
“It’s not a consequence of trying to get rid of people. But if you close the bureau, you don’t need those positions,” he told reporters. “Understand that some of these are positions that are being eliminated, not people.”
Rubio said some of the cuts will be unfilled positions or those that are about to be vacant because an employee took an early retirement.
State department firing more than 1,300 employees
The US state department is firing more than 1,300 employees in line with the Trump administration’s reorganization plan initiated earlier this year.
The department is sending layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with domestic assignments in the US, a senior State Department official told the Associated Press.
Foreign service officers affected will be placed immediately on administrative leave for 120 days, after which they will formally lose their jobs, according to an internal notice obtained by the AP. For most affected civil servants, the separation period is 60 days, it said.
“In connection with the departmental reorganization … the department is streamlining domestic operations to focus on diplomatic priorities,” the notice says. “Headcount reductions have been carefully tailored to affect non-core functions, duplicative or redundant offices, and offices where considerable efficiencies may be found from centralization or consolidation of functions and responsibilities.”
The cuts have been criticized by current and former diplomats who say it will weaken US influence and its ability to counter existing and emerging threats abroad.
Tom Perkins
The Trump administration has killed nearly $15m in research into Pfas contamination of US farmland, bringing to a close studies that public health advocates say are essential for understanding a worrying source of widespread food contamination.
Researchers in recent years have begun to understand that Pfas-laden pesticides and sewage sludge spread on cropland as a fertilizer contaminate the soil with the chemicals, which then move into crops and nearby water sources.
Sludge is behind a still unfolding crisis in Maine, where 84 farms have been found to be significantly contaminated with Pfas, and some were forced to close. Advocates say farms across the nation are almost certainly contaminated at similar levels, but Maine is the only state with a robust testing program. The impacts on members of the public who eat from the farms in Maine and beyond is unclear.
“We have to do this research and take steps to not just make sure that our food supply is safe, but also ensure our farms and farmers are safe,” said Bill Pluecker, a Maine state representative and public policy organizer at Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, which has advocated for stricter sludge regulations.
“As we’ve seen here in Maine, farmers are the most affected by the Pfas because they’re working the soil, eating the food and drinking from wells.”
Pfas are a class of around 15,000 compounds that are dubbed “forever chemicals” because they do not naturally break down, and accumulate in the human body and environment. The chemicals are linked to a range of serious health problems like cancer, liver disease, kidney issues, high cholesterol, birth defects and decreased immunity.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did not respond to a request for comment.
Dharna Noor
The fossil fuel industry poured more than $19m into Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, accounting for nearly 8% of all donations it raised, a new analysis shows, raising concerns about White House’s relationship with big oil.
The president raised a stunning $239m for his inauguration – more than the previous three inaugural committees took in combined and more than double the previous record – according to data published by the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). The oil and gas sector made a significant contribution to that overall number, found the international environmental and human rights organization Global Witness.
The group pulled itemized inaugural fund contribution data released by the FEC in April, and researched each contributor with the help of an in-house artificial intelligence tool. It located 47 contributions to the fund made by companies and individuals linked to the fossil fuel sector, to which Trump has voiced his fealty.
On the campaign trail and in his inauguration speech, the president pledged to “drill, baby, drill”.
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” Trump said in his inaugural address, just hours before he signed a spate of executive orders to “unleash American energy” and roll back environmental protections. His administration has since worked to boost the oil industry, including by taking aim at city- and state-led fossil fuel accountability efforts, opening up swaths of land to extraction, and cracking down on renewable energy expansion.
Paramount Global, the parent company of CBS News, settled a lawsuit filed against it by Donald Trump for $16m last week.
It came after Disney and Meta settled lawsuits with the president in similar ways.
Jonathan Freedland speaks to the Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan about why these companies are caving to Trump’s demands, and whether critics are right to be worried about what this means for the future of a free press…
Politics Weekly America
Why is the media paying millions to Trump? – podcast
At least eight core members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have left their positions in the last six months, Politico reported on Friday, citing internal records and sources familiar with the matter.
A senior White House official explained the departures by pointing to the fact that many DOGE staffers were special government employees, a designation that has a required end date, the report said.
Kremlin says it awaits ‘major statement’ from Trump
Russia is awaiting the “major statement” that president Donald Trump announced he would deliver on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.
Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he will make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday, without elaborating what it will be about.
In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration with Russian president Vladimir Putin over Russia-Ukraine conflict, Reuters reported.
When asked about the new Nato weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Peskov called it “just business” as Kyiv had already been receiving weapons prior to this development.
Rubio says ‘high probability’ that Trump and Xi will meet
Secretary of state Marco Rubio on Friday said there was “high probability” of a meeting between president Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, but no date has been discussed.
Rubio was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Malaysia.
Callum Jones
Brazil threatened to hit back against Donald Trump’s plan to introduce 50% tariffs on its exports with its own 50% tariff on US goods, setting the stage for a precipitous trade war.
“If he charges us 50%, we’ll charge him 50%,” Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, told local news outlet Record, a day after Trump threatened to impose steep duties on Brazilian goods and accused the country of conducting a “witch-hunt” against its former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing a trial over his attempt to overturn his 2022 election defeat.
Brazil could appeal to the World Trade Organization, propose international investigations and “demand explanations”, Lula suggested. “But the main thing is the Reciprocity Law, passed by Congress,” he told Record, referring to recent legislation designed to defend Latin America’s largest economy from tariff attacks.
Trump’s claim that Brazil’s economic relationship with the US was “far from Reciprocal” was also “inaccurate”, Lula had said in a statement on Wednesday. US tariff hikes “will be addressed” by Brazil, he said.
Joseph Gedeon
Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship suffered a courtroom defeat on Thursday as a federal judge in New Hampshire blocked the controversial executive order nationwide and certified a sweeping class-action lawsuit that could protect tens of thousands of children.
Ruling from the bench on Thursday, Judge Joseph LaPlante announced his decision after an hour-long hearing and said a written order would follow. The judge, an appointee of George W Bush, said a written order would follow later in the day, with a seven-day stay to allow for appeal.
The decision is a test case following a recent supreme court ruling that restricted nationwide injunctions, in effect making class-action lawsuits the primary remaining method for district court judges to halt policy implementation across large areas of the country. It delivers a legal blow to the administration’s hardline immigration agenda and ramps up a constitutional dispute that has continued through the first six months of Trump’s second term.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a pregnant woman, two parents and their infants. It is among numerous cases challenging Trump’s January order denying citizenship to those born to undocumented parents living in the US or temporarily. The plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and others.
“Tens of thousands of babies and their parents may be exposed to the order’s myriad harms in just weeks and need an injunction now,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in court documents filed on Tuesday.
Trump reportedly backs away from abolishing Fema ahead of trip to Texas
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next couple of hours.
We start with news that president Donald Trump has backed away from abolishing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the Washington Post reported on Friday.
No official action is being taken to wind down Fema, and changes in the agency will probably amount to a “rebranding” that will emphasize state leaders’ roles in disaster response, the newspaper said, citing a senior White House official.
It comes as Trump heads to Texas on Friday for a firsthand look at the devastation caused by catastrophic flooding.
Since the 4 July disaster, which has killed at least 120 people, the president and his top aides have focused on the once-in-a-lifetime nature of what occurred and the human tragedy involved rather than the government-slashing crusade that’s been popular with Trump’s core supporters.
“Nobody ever saw a thing like this coming,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday, adding, “This is a once-in-every-200-year deal.” He’s also suggested he’d have been ready to visit Texas within hours but didn’t want to burden authorities still searching for the more than 170 people who are still missing.
The president is expected to do an aerial tour of some of the hard-hit areas. The White House also says he will visit the state emergency operations center to meet with first responders and relatives of flood victims.
Trump will also get a briefing from officials. Republican governor Greg Abbott, senator John Cornyn and senator Ted Cruz are joining the visit, with the GOP senators expected to fly to their state with Trump aboard Air Force One.
In other developments:
Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking $20m in damages, alleging he was falsely imprisoned
A US district judge issued an injunction blocking Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship, certifying a nationwide class of plaintiffs
Police in Scotland are bracing for protests against Trump before an expected visit later this month to his immigrant mother’s homeland, where he is spectacularly unpopular.
The US state department has announced that it plans to move forward with mass layoffs as part of the most significant restructuring of the country’s diplomatic corps in decades.
Senator Ruben Gallego introduced a one-page bill to codify into law the Federal Trade Commission’s “click to cancel” rule, one day after a federal appeals court blocked the rule.
Federal immigration officers, supported by national guard troops, used force against protesters, firing chemical munitions, during raids on two cannabis farms in California’s central coast area.
Trump nominated a far-right influencer to serve as US ambassador to Malaysia.
A team of scientists, including those from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), have uncovered the hidden remains of a vast ancient coastal plain beneath East Antarctica—an important discovery that could refine forecasts of future global sea level rise.
The international study, led by Durham University and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, used radar data to reveal previously unmapped, remarkably flat surfaces buried beneath a 3,500km stretch of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, between Princess Elizabeth Land and George V Land.
These surfaces, some of which are believed to have formed over 80 million years ago when East Antarctica and Australia were still joined, are thought to have been smoothed by large rivers before the continent was engulfed by ice around 34 million years ago. Remarkably, these landscapes have remained largely intact, preserved beneath the ice sheet for over 30 million years.
The BAS survey aircraft, one of several aircrafts from national programs, used to image the flat surfaces below the ice.
Dr Guy Paxman, lead author and Royal Society University Research Fellow at Durham University, explains:
“The landscape hidden beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is one of the most mysterious not just on Earth, but on any terrestrial planet in the solar system.
“These flat surfaces we’ve found are likely the remnants of ancient river beds that have survived beneath the ice. Their shape and position now appear to slow down the movement of ice above them, acting almost like a brake on fast-flowing glaciers.”
While ice loss from Antarctica is accelerating due to climate change, these ancient fluvial surfaces may be playing a stabilising role – regulating how quickly ice can flow to the ocean through narrow troughs that separate the plateaus.
Co-author Professor Stewart Jamieson, also from Durham, said that factoring these hidden landscapes into computer models could significantly enhance projections of how Antarctica will respond to warming temperatures.
BAS played a key role in collecting and interpreting radar data that helped map the subglacial topography.
Dr Tom Jordan, a BAS geophysicist and co-author, explains:
“These findings show just how much of Antarctica’s past remains locked beneath the ice. Understanding the ancient landscapes that influence present-day ice flow is crucial if we’re to predict how this huge ice sheet will behave in the future.”
The discovery could help scientists improve long-term predictions of sea level rise. If East Antarctica’s ice were to melt completely, it holds enough frozen water to raise global sea levels by up to 52 metres. The researchers stress that further exploration is needed to determine how these flat surfaces influenced ice movement in past warm periods. Drilling to obtain rock samples from beneath the ice could confirm when these regions were last ice-free—vital data for improving climate models.
The study was supported by the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the Leverhulme Trust, the European Research Council, and international partners including the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and the Polar Research Institute of China.
Extensive fluvial surfaces at the East Antarctic margin have modulated ice-sheet evolution, by Paxman, G.J.G, et al, is published in Nature Geoscience, DOI 10.1038/s41561-025-01734-z.
The AI-powered browser by OpenAI will integrate ChatGPT-like features and offer smarter web browsing through direct user interaction.
OpenAI is preparing to launch an AI-powered web browser that could challenge Google Chrome’s dominant market position. The browser is expected to debut in the coming weeks and aims to change how users interact with the web fundamentally.
The new browser will reportedly integrate AI capabilities directly into the browsing experience, allowing for more intelligent and task-driven user interactions. Instead of simply directing users to websites, the browser is designed to keep many interactions within a native ChatGPT-style interface.
If adopted by ChatGPT’s 500 million weekly users, the browser could seriously threaten Google’s ad-driven ecosystem. Chrome is critical in Alphabet’s advertising revenue, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the company’s income by collecting user data and directing traffic to Google Search.
By building its browser, OpenAI would gain more direct access to user behaviour data, improving its AI models and enabling new forms of web engagement. However, this move is part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to integrate its services into users’ personal and professional lives.
The browser will reportedly support AI ‘agents’ capable of performing tasks such as making reservations or filling out web forms automatically. These agents could operate directly within websites, making the browsing experience more seamless and productive.
While OpenAI declined to comment, sources suggest the browser is built on Google’s open-source Chromium codebase—the same foundation behind Chrome, Edge, and Opera. However, this allows OpenAI to maintain compatibility while customising user experience and data control.
Competition in the AI-powered browser space is heating up. Startups like Perplexity and Brave have already launched intelligent browsers, and The Browser Company continues to develop features for AI-driven navigation and summarisation.
Despite Chrome’s 3-billion-strong user base and over two-thirds of the browser market share, OpenAI sees an opportunity to disrupt the space. Apple’s Safari holds second place with just 16% of the global share, leaving room for new challengers.
Last year, OpenAI hired two senior Google engineers from the original Chrome team, fueling speculation that the company was eyeing the browser space. One executive even testified that OpenAI would consider buying Chrome if it were made available through antitrust divestiture.
Instead, OpenAI built its browser from the ground up, allowing greater autonomy over features, data collection, and AI integration. A source told Reuters this approach ensures better alignment with OpenAI’s goal of embedding AI across user experiences.
In addition to hardware acquisitions and agent-based interfaces, the browser represents a crucial link in OpenAI’s strategy to deepen user engagement. The company recently acquired the AI hardware firm io, co-founded by Apple’s former design chief Jony Ive, for $6.5 billion.
The browser could become the gateway for OpenAI’s AI agents like ‘Operator,’ enhancing productivity by turning passive browsing into interactive assistance. Such integration could give OpenAI a competitive edge in the evolving consumer AI landscape.
Meanwhile, Google faces legal challenges over Chrome’s central role in its ad monopoly. A US judge ruled that Google maintains an unlawful hold over online search, prompting the Department of Justice to push for divestiture of key assets, including Chrome.
OpenAI’s entry could spark a broader shift in how consumers, businesses, and advertisers engage with the internet as the browser race intensifies. With built-in AI capabilities and task automation, browsing may become a different experience.
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A new review reveals how timed eating patterns spark a chain of reactions in your gut and brain that could help prevent Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.
Study: Intermittent Fasting as a Neuroprotective Strategy: Gut–Brain Axis Modulation and Metabolic Reprogramming in Neurodegenerative Disorders. Image credit: Chizhevskaya Ekaterina/Shutterstock.com
A review published in Nutrientsexamined existing preclinical and limited clinical evidence showing that intermittent fasting (IF) may help reduce the toxic protein burden, support synaptic function, and rehabilitate glial and immune homeostasis across models of various neurodegenerative disorders.
Intermittent fasting and the gut-brain axis
Research has linked IF to higher levels of bacteria known to produce beneficial metabolites and regulate immune responses. Among these metabolites, short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are crucial signalling molecules in the gut-brain axis (GBA), and existing evidence points to the role of IF in increasing SCFA-producing bacteria, such as Eubacterium rectale, Roseburia spp., and Anaerostipes spp. Preclinical studies have associated this with increased hippocampal synaptic density and reduced tau protein phosphorylation in animal models of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
IF upregulates microbial gene expression, particularly enhancing the growth of butyrate-producing taxa. It also modifies bile acid metabolism and modulates tryptophan pathways, thereby improving the production of neuromodulatory metabolites, e.g., serotonin and kynurenine. IF has been associated with a decline in circulating monocytes, which are extremely important in the body’s inflammatory response.
Chronic low-grade inflammation and inflammaging from the gut are increasingly recognized as key factors in neurodegeneration. Intestinal permeability, also known as “leaky gut,” allows microbial endotoxins to enter the systemic circulation, triggering immune responses and producing proinflammatory cytokines. IF can enhance SCFA-producing microbes, improving epithelial integrity and reducing endotoxin exposure.
Recent findings suggest that IF affects neurotransmitter pathways originating in the gut, specifically those involved in tryptophan and serotonin metabolism. Under IF conditions, there is greater microbial conversion of tryptophan into indole derivatives, which may offer neuroprotective benefits through aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling. This may also support the balance between intestinal and immune functions.
Neuroinflammation is circadian-sensitive, where hypothalamic inflammation can increase in the case of misaligned feeding schedules. IF reduces hypothalamic lipocalin-2 expression, restores hypothalamic homeostasis, and enhances astrocytic clearance pathways. IF’s impact on circadian rhythms may also affect redox homeostasis in the brain and alter mitochondrial dynamics.
Metabolic reprogramming, neuroprotection, and intermittent fasting
IF could enhance mitochondrial efficiency and antioxidant capacity by facilitating metabolic switching from glucose to lipid and ketone-based substrates, such as β-hydroxybutyrate (BHB). BHB exerts neuroprotective effects through its antioxidant defences, modulation of mitochondrial function, and GBA. BHB has preserved mitochondrial membrane potential in preclinical models and improved cognitive performance in AD and epilepsy. BHB contributes to gut health by strengthening the integrity of the intestinal barrier. Merging BHB with GBA and IF provides a robust framework for reducing oxidative stress and enhancing mitochondrial bioenergetics.
IF activates autophagy by activating SIRT1 and inhibiting mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR). SCFAs have also been shown to influence epigenetic regulation of autophagy genes. Elevated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression, lowered amyloid plaque burden, and tau hyperphosphorylation in AD models, as well as similar effects, have been noted in models of Parkinson’s Disease.
Existing research on neuroimmune interactions has demonstrated that IF modulates glial–neuronal interactions and the integrity of the blood–brain barrier. IF influences neuroimmune homeostasis via GBA-integrated signals that regulate glial activity, cytokine networks, and immune–metabolic resilience. These adaptations are key for long-term cognitive preservation and neuroprotection.
Translation to clinical practice and future directions
Translating IF’s promise to clinical practice requires thorough interrogation of mechanistic monitoring, safety, personalisation, and ethical deployment. It can be tricky to deploy IF interventions in vulnerable populations such as older adults, due to risks of hypoglycaemia, dehydration, and micronutrient deficiencies. Adherence can also be challenging, especially when cognitive decline hinders routine maintenance, making unsupervised IF potentially hazardous. Caregiver-linked compliance platforms, app-guided timers, and other digital solutions could bridge this gap.
A shift toward precision fasting is emerging, guided by increasing evidence that genetic, epigenetic, metabolomic, and microbiome-related factors shape individual responses to fasting. Incorporating circadian biomarkers, such as melatonin rhythm, sleep phase, and cortisol amplitude, offers a promising path for personalized chrono-nutrition. This approach may be especially beneficial for individuals with neurodegenerative disorders, who often experience disrupted circadian rhythms.
IF’s pleiotropic effects make it an ideal backbone for multimodal therapeutic synergies. This is crucial in the case of neurodegeneration, where monotherapeutic approaches are unlikely to yield long-lasting clinical benefits. Co-administration of aerobic or resistance training and IF has yielded additive neurocognitive benefits in some preclinical and pilot clinical studies.
IF is emerging as a potentially scalable neurotherapeutic strategy. As clinical applications progress, the focus should be on incorporating IF into a comprehensive precision medicine framework. This could be done utilizing digital health technologies, multi-omics biomarkers, and complementary therapies. However, it is essential to note that most supporting evidence currently comes from preclinical animal studies, and robust, large-scale human trials are still limited.
Future research conducting randomized controlled trials should adopt stratified designs, integrate longitudinal biomarkers, and consider real-world adherence.
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Journal reference:
Hein, Z. M. et al. (2025) Intermittent Fasting as a Neuroprotective Strategy: Gut–Brain Axis Modulation and Metabolic Reprogramming in Neurodegenerative Disorders. Nutrients. 17(14), 2266. Doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu17142266 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/17/14/2266
