NASA has selected seven companies to assist the agency with architectural and engineering services at multiple agency centers and facilities.
The Western Regional Architect-Engineer Services is an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity multiple award contract has a total estimated value not to exceed $75 million. The contract was awarded on July 14 with a five-year period of performance with the possibility of a six-month extension.
The selected contractors are:
DYNOTEC-KZF JV LLC of Columbus, Ohio
Merrick-IMEG JV LLP of Greenwood Village, Colorado
G Squared Design of Lakewood, Colorado
Kal Architects Inc. of Irvine, California
AECOM Technical Services Inc. of Los Angeles
Stell SIA Sala O’Brien LLC DBA S3, LLC (S3) of Mountlake Terrace, Washington
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Arlington, Virginia
Under the contract, the awarded companies will support general construction, alteration, modification, maintenance and repair, new construction of buildings, facilities, and real property for NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley and Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. Support also includes optional back-up capacity in support of other NASA centers and federal tenants at agency facilities, including NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, Goldstone Deep Space Communications Complex in Fort Irwin, California, and the NASA launch alliance at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
Pakistan’s snooker stars made a powerful start at the IBSF World Masters, U-17, U-21 and Men’s 6-Red Snooker Championship 2025, currently underway in Manama, Bahrain, since July 13. The championship features thrilling matches across multiple categories, with Pakistani players quickly making their mark.
In the Masters Category (Last 24 Round), Pakistan’s snooker ace Muhammad Asif delivered a clinical performance against Tony Morgan of Wales, securing a one-sided 3-0 victory. Asif displayed his trademark break-building brilliance with breaks of 55, 90, and 61. The frame scores were: 74(55)-10, 106(90)-104, 89(61)-11.
Asif will now face UAE’s seasoned cueist Muhammad Shehab in the last 16 round, scheduled for 7pm tomorrow.
However, in another Last 16 match, Shahid Aftab of Pakistan faced a tough contest against Qatar’s Bashar Abdul Majeed, ultimately losing 2-4. The match saw a fluctuating scoreline:
76-59, 6-77(65), 18-74, 74-29, 64-50, 60-47
Meanwhile, the U-17 World Snooker Championship also kicked off on Tuesday, featuring 32 players from 15 countries, divided into 8 groups.
The top two players from each group will advance to the pre-quarterfinals.
On the opening day, Pakistan’s young talent Hasnain Akhtar made an emphatic debut by defeating Abdullah Al-Musleh of Qatar in straight frames (3-0). The scores reflected his dominance: 72(35)-2, 65(40)-981(31)-14.
Taylor Swift fans were sent into a frenzy on July 15 after a report hinted at the possibility of a new album—only for that hope to be dashed after a subtle yet significant edit.
The buzz began when music industry site Hits Daily Double published a piece referencing “seismic rumblings of a new Taylor set,” suggesting that Republic Records was bracing for a major Swift release. Given that Swift’s last original album, The Tortured Poets Department, dropped in April 2024, fans had been eagerly awaiting a follow-up.
Swifties, already speculating about re-recordings and surprise releases, took the mention as a signal that a new Taylor Swift album could be on the horizon. However, shortly after the article was published, the line was edited to simply read, “And there’s always Taylor,” dampening the excitement and raising questions about whether the initial claim had been premature or misinformed.
The quiet retraction suggests someone from Swift’s camp or Republic Records may have clarified that there is no immediate release planned. With Swift recently buying back her masters, the timeline for new re-recordings has also become unclear.
🚨Hits Daily Double has edited the article mentioning rumblings of a new Taylor Swift project coming soon
While the edit may have disappointed fans, it also reaffirms Swift’s ever-present dominance in the industry—even a passing mention of her name can spark widespread speculation. For now, fans will have to keep their eyes peeled, but it seems a new Taylor Swift album is not confirmed… yet.
Coming off his best result at a major with a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, Kamil Majchrzak continued his recent success by defeating Frenchman Terence Atmane 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 in the first round of the EFG Swiss Open Gstaad in Switzerland on Monday.
The 29-year-old from Poland won 70 percent of his service points in the one hour, 49-minute match at the ATP 250 clay-court event.
Peruvian qualifier Ignacio Buse ousted fifth seed Laslo Djere of Serbia 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-4. Argentine Roman Andres Burruchaga won 74 percent of his first-serve points to beat Czech competitor Dalibor Svrcina 6-3, 6-1, setting up a matchup with No. 3 seed Pedro Martinez.
Frenchman Arthur Cazaux needed nearly three hours to defeat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia, who couldn’t overcome nine double faults in a 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) victory by Cazaux, and hometown favorite Dominic Stricker outlasted France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Nordea Open
Sixth-seeded Luciano Darderi faced a roller coaster of a match but ultimately prevailed over Raphael Collignon of Belgium in first-round action at the Nordea Open in Bastad, Sweden on Monday.
In a two hour, 10-minute match, the two swapped 6-2 wins in three sets, with Darderi saving six of eight break points overall, including two critical break points from 2-2, 15/40 in the decider. The 23-year-old Italian is in search of his third ATP Tour title, with his most recent title coming in April in Marrakech.
The only other main-draw singles match on Monday saw Dutchman Jesper de Jong knock down eight aces on his way to easily taking care of wild card William Rejchtman Vinciguerra, the son of former pro Andreas Vinciguerra, by a score of 6-3, 6-2.
Mifel Tennis Open
Seventh-seeded Aleksander Kovacevic edged Lebanon’s Hady Habib, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in the first match of the main draw at the Mifel Tennis Open in Los Cabos, Mexico.
Habib broke in the third game of the deciding set, but Kovacevic answered back to knot the set at 2-2. The New York native held serve and outlasted Habib in a 13-point sixth game to take a 4-2 lead en route to the 6-3 triumph in the one hour, 48-minute match.
On the same side of the draw, Emilio Nava defeated Australia’s Aleksander Vukic, 7-6 (4), 6-3. Nava ran off the final four points to prevail in the first set tie-breaker, then raced out to a 4-0 lead in the second set.
Kovacevic and Nava are both on the same side of the draw as top-seeded Andrey Rublev.
Ben Healy became the first Irishman since Stephen Roche in 1987 to take the overall lead on the Tour de France on Monday with a relentless attack across eight gruelling hills in the Massif Central.
The 24-year-old EF rider had already won stage six in Normandy, but here the smiley Healy confirmed his promise with a career-defining ride claiming the fabled yellow jersey.
He becomes just the fourth Irishman to wear it following Shay Elliott, back in 1963, Sean Kelly in 1983 and Roche who went on to win an epic race 38 years ago.
Healy’s performance even overshadowed that of stage winner Simon Yates, who sat on his wheel all afternoon as they crossed the ancient volcanoes that mark the region.
Such was the Irishman’s effort as the escapees rushed through the grey-black volcanic rock villages that he was also awarded the combativity award for the most attacking rider of the day.
“Hats off to him, he’s the one that dropped everyone,” Yates said of Healy as the escape group was gradually whittled down from 30 to five.
The 2025 Giro d’Italia winner Yates attacked on the last of the day’s climbs, with Thymen Arensman of Ineos second and Healy coming third at the line 31sec adrift and having never relented on a punishing day.
Healy was born in Birmingham but chose to represent Ireland in his youth. He is also in the white jersey for the best young rider.
“The stage win I got and the yellow today both mean a lot to me,” said Healy, who had a tense wait at the line for Pogacar to cross 4min 51sec adrift and ceding the overall lead, likely for several days.
“This yellow is more for the team who worked so hard to put me here but the stage win possibly means more as it came first,” he said.
French mountain joy
Race favourites Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard crossed the line together after eight climbs in the Massif Central where they were rarely a wheel’s length from each other.
Healy leads the Tour itself by 29sec from defending champion Pogacar, with Belgian Remco Evenepoel in third at 1min 29sec.
Denmark’s double Tour de France champion Vingegaard is fourth overall at 1min 46sec, and his Visma teammate Matteo Jorgenson sits fifth.
Third placed overnight, promising young French rider Kevin Vauquelin dropped a minute to finish the day in sixth place overall.
Recompense for the home nation on the national Bastille Day holiday came in the form of Lenny Martinez as he earned the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey with 27 points garnered on the day’s stage.
His grandfather Mariano Martinez won the polka dot jersey outright on the 1978 Tour.
Successive escape bids ensued from the off Monday as the 164 remaining riders raced out of Ennezat with top guns Pogacar and Evenepoel finally allowing one to get away over the ever-rolling terrain
Once they did, a gap over five minutes was established by a motivated group that rode so hard over the cattle dotted hills the sprinters were dropped to over 30 minutes at the finish line.
While Tuesday is a rest day, Wednesday’s stage 11 is another flat run with a sprinter expected to take the honours in Toulouse.
The development includes a 15,000-seat state-of-the-art arena being designed by global design firm Populous. Specially created to host the highest calibre of regional and international touring acts, concerts and large-scale live events, the venue will be optimised for unparalleled acoustics, sightlines and production flexibility.
The groundbreaking event was officiated by Singapore’s Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Lawrence Wong; Minister for Sustainability and the Environment and Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations Grace Fu; and Las Vegas Sands co-founder Dr Miriam Adelson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert Goldstein, and President and Chief Operating Officer Patrick Dumont.
Robert Goldstein, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Las Vegas Sands, said: “With its opening in 2010, our founder Sheldon G. Adelson embarked on a journey in Singapore with Marina Bay Sands and the people of Singapore that promised to change the face of tourism in the region. Fifteen years later, we have delivered on these ambitions and more. Marina Bay Sands is the world’s most successful integrated resort in history, and the gold standard in the industry. It has been truly incredible to witness Mr Adelson’s vision come to life, and we are proud to carry his legacy forward with today’s groundbreaking ceremony for our new development here. We have every intention of delivering a product that will be the envy of the hospitality industry and ushers in a new era of luxury tourism in Singapore.”
When completed, the new development is set to redefine industry standards further and push boundaries in the realms of luxury tourism, hospitality and entertainment, curating the finest and most exclusive suite of experiences for travellers.
The pioneering project will feature a soaring 570-suite luxury hotel tower capped with signature rooftop and dining experiences, luxury retail boutiques, gaming, holistic spa and wellness amenities, and approximately 200,000 square feet of premium meeting space. Proving to be another extraordinary feat of engineering, the new property is being designed by Safdie Architects.
Situated adjacent to the hotel tower, is the podium that will serve as a bustling hotspot for business, entertainment and cultural exchange. At its core is the state-of-the-art arena. The purpose-built arena situated against the stunning backdrop of Marina Bay aims to enhance the live entertainment scene in Asia, and is being designed by Populous.
The arena will be integrated with new and existing developments within the Marina Bay precinct for greater efficiency and pedestrian connectivity, providing direct access to Bayfront MRT station and linkways between Marina Bay and Gardens by the Bay.
Senior Principal and Head of Populous’ Singapore Studio Andrew Tulen, and Founding Partner of Safdie Architects Moshe Safdie helped to officiate the groundbreaking ceremony where more than 220 guests saw Marina Bay Sands illuminated in a wash of golden hues.
Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) players Ahteshan Humiyun and Hassan Usmani dominated the 21st KC Westbury National Tennis Championship as they booked the final of the U18 juniors event.
Ahteshan defeated Muzammil Bhand 6-2,6-3 in his semifinal, whereas, Hassan outclassed Islamabad player Muhammad Yahya 7-5,6-0 to continue his winning streak at the tournament as well.
Romaisa Malik also defeated Safa Afzal 6-1,6-0 in the girls singles U18 semifinal.
Aahil Imran emerged as they winner of the boys U14 singles second round against Zayd Ali 4-1,3-5,4-2 in an exciting match.
Ibrahim Hussain Gill outplayed Majid Bachani 4-2,4-0 to book his place in the boys U12 singles event.
The men’s singles quarterfinals were played as well and Kashan Tariq brought down Hyderabad player Asif Ali Bachani 8-2 in ther first match and then Ismail Aftab joined the last-eight line-up too with a win over Taimoor Ansari 8-2. Eschelle Asif defeated Taiba Yar Baig 8-0 in the ladies singles semifinal
The other results from the championships are as follows:
With the future of a crucial water-sharing treaty between India and Pakistan up in the air, one outside party is looking on with keen interest: China.
For 65 years, the Indus Waters Treaty has seen the two South Asian rivals share access and use of the Indus Basin, a vast area covered by the Indus River and its tributaries that also stretches into Afghanistan and China.
For much of that history, there has been widespread praise for the agreement as a successful demonstration of cooperation between adversarial states over a key shared resource. But experts have noted the treaty has long held the potential for conflict. Drafters failed to factor in the effects of climate change, and the Himalayan glaciers that feed the rivers are now melting at record rates, ultimately putting at risk the long-term sustainability of water supply. Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict over Kashmir, where much of the basin is situated, puts cooperation at risk.
With treaty on ice, China steps in
That latest provocation threatening the treaty was a terrorist attack in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, 2025. In response to that attack, which India blamed on Pakistan and precipitated a four-day confrontation, New Delhi temporarily suspended the treaty.
But even before that attack, India and Pakistan had been locked in negotiation over the future of the treaty – the status of which has been in the hands of international arbitrators since 2016. In the latest development, on June 27, 2025, the Permanent Court of Arbitration issued a supplementary award in favor of Pakistan, arguing that India’s holding of the treaty in abeyance did not affect its jurisdiction over the case. Moreover, the treaty does not allow for either party to unilaterally suspend the treaty, the ruling suggested.
Amid the wrangling over the treaty’s future, Pakistan has turned to China for diplomatic and strategic support. Such support was evident during the conflict that took place following April’s terrorist attack, during which Pakistan employed Chinese-made fighter jets and other military equipment against its neighbor.
Meanwhile, in an apparent move to counter India’s suspension of the treaty, China and Pakistan have ramped up construction of a major dam project that would provide water supply and electricity to parts of Pakistan.
So, why is China getting involved? In part, it reflects the strong relationship between Pakistan and China, developed over six decades.
But as an expert in hydro politics, I believe Beijing’s involvement raises concerns: China is not a neutral observer in the dispute. Rather, Beijing has long harbored a desire to increase its influence in the region and to counter an India long seen as a rival. Given the at-times fraught relationship between China and India – the two countries went to war in 1962 and continue to engage in sporadic border skirmishes – there are concerns in New Delhi that Beijing may respond by disrupting the flow of rivers in its territory that feed into India.
In short, any intervention by Beijing over the Indus Waters Treaty risks stirring up regional tensions.
Wrangling over waters
The Indus Waters Treaty has already endured three armed conflicts between Pakistan and India, and until recently it served as an exemplar of how to forge a successful bilateral agreement between two rival neighbors.
Riccardo Pravettoni, CC BY-SA
Under the initial terms of the treaty, which each country signed in 1960, India was granted control over three eastern rivers the countries share – Ravi, Beas and Satluj – with an average annual flow of 40.4 billion cubic meters. Meanwhile, Pakistan was given access to almost 167.2 billion cubic meters of water from the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab.
In India, the relatively smaller distribution has long been the source of contention, with many believing the treaty’s terms are overly generous to Pakistan. India’s initial demand was for 25% of the Indus waters.
For Pakistan, the terms of the division of the Indus Waters Treaty are painful because they concretized unresolved land disputes tied to the partition of India in 1947. In particular, the division of the rivers is framed within the broader political context of Kashmir. The three major rivers – Indus, Jhelum and Chenab – flow through Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir before entering the Pakistan-controlled western part of the Kashmir region.
But the instability of the Kashmir region – disputes around the Line of Control separating the Indian- and Pakistan-controlled areas are common – underscores Pakistan’s water vulnerability.
Nearly 65% of Pakistanis live in the Indus Basin region, compared with 14% for India. It is therefore not surprising that Pakistan has warned that any attempt to cut off the water supply, as India has threatened, would be considered an act of war.
It also helps to explain Pakistan’s desire to develop hydropower on the rivers it controls. One-fifth of Pakistan’s electricity comes from hydropower, and nearly 21 hydroelectric power plants are located in the Indus Basin region.
Since Pakistan’s economy relies heavily on agriculture and the water needed to maintain agricultural land, the fate of the Indus Waters Treaty is of the utmost importance to Pakistan’s leaders.
Such conditions have driven Islamabad to be a willing partner with China in a bid to shore up its water supply.
China provides technical expertise and financial support to Pakistan for numerous hydropower projects in Pakistan, including the Diamer Bhasha Dam and Kohala Hydropower Project. These projects play a significant role in addressing Pakistan’s energy requirements and have been a key aspect of the transboundary water relationship between the two nations.
Using water as a weapon?
With it’s rivalry with India and its desire to simultaneously work with Pakistan on numerous issues, China increasingly sees itself as a stakeholder in the Indus Waters Treaty, too. Chinese media narratives have framed India as the aggressor in the dispute, warning of the danger of using “water as a weapon” and noting that the source of the Indus River lies in China’s Western Tibet region.
Doing so fits Beijing’ s greater strategic presence in South Asian politics. After the terrorist attack, China Foreign Minister Wang Yi reaffirmed China’s support for Pakistan, showcasing the relationship as an “all-weather strategic” partnership and referring to Pakistan as an “ironclad friend.”
And in response to India’s suspension of the treaty, China announced it was to accelerate work on the significant Mohmand hydropower project on the tributary of the Indus River in Pakistan.
Construction at the Mohmand Dam. Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority
Chinese investment in Pakistan’s hydropower sector presents substantial opportunities for both countries in regards to energy security and promoting economic growth.
The Indus cascade project under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative, for example, promises to provide cumulative hydropower generation capacity of around 22,000 megawatts. Yet the fact that project broke ground in Gilgit-Baltistan, a disputed area in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, underscores the delicacy of the situation.
Beijing’s backing of Pakistan is largely motivated by a mix of economic and geopolitical interests, particularly in legitimizing the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. But it comes at the cost of stirring up regional tensions.
As such, the alignment of Chinese and Pakistani interests in developing hydro projects can pose a further challenge to the stability of South Asia’s water-sharing agreements, especially in the Indus Basin. Recently, the chief minister of the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, warned that Beijing’s hydro projects in the Western Tibet region amount to a ticking “water bomb.”
To diffuse such tensions – and to get the Indus Waters Treaty back on track – it behooves India, China and Pakistan to engage in diplomacy and dialogue. Such engagement is, I believe, essential in addressing the ongoing water-related challenges in South Asia.
Creating high-quality audio for video content presents numerous technical and creative challenges, impacting both novices and experienced audio professionals. Producers often grapple with issues like noise management, balancing dialogue with sound effects, meeting budgetary and time constraints, and maintaining creative consistency. Translating artistic vision into a cohesive final product that accurately reflects visual dynamics, acoustic environments, and timing also remains challenging.
To address these challenges, Alibaba’s Tongyi Speech Lab has introduced ThinkSound, a novel open-source multimodal LLM utilizing Chain-of-Thought (CoT) reasoning for advanced audio generation and editing. ThinkSound offers a structured, interactive approach to audio production, specifically tailored for video content. The model, available in three compact sizes – 1.3B, 724M, and 533M parameters – supports video-to-audio generation, text-based audio editing, and interactive audio creation, even on edge devices.
ThinkSound mimics the multi-stage workflow of human sound designers, ensuring generated audio remains contextually accurate, cohesive, and high quality throughout production. The model first analyzes a video’s visual dynamics, logically interprets corresponding acoustic attributes, and then synthesizes contextually appropriate audio.
Through its innovative approach, ThinkSound enables users to create detailed and coherent soundscapes, refine generated audio through intuitive user interactions, and edit specific audio segments using natural language instructions, effectively bridging the gap between creative intention and automated audio production.
Additionally, Alibaba’s research team introduced AudioCoT, a large-scale multimodal dataset featuring audio-specific CoT annotations, enhancing the alignment between visual content, textual descriptions, and sound synthesis.
Extensive evaluations have demonstrated that ThinkSound achieves state-of-the-art performance in video-to-audio generation, delivering contextually accurate and precisely timed soundscapes. The model excels in traditional audio quality metrics and CoT-based evaluations. Furthermore, on the MovieGen Audio Bench – a benchmark assessing video audio-generation capabilities – ThinkSound significantly outperforms other leading models.
Comparison of our ThinkSound foundation model with existing video-to-audio baselines on the VGGSound test set. ↓ indicates lower is better, ↑ indicates higher is better.
ThinkSound can seamlessly integrate with various video-generation models to provide realistic voiceovers and soundtracks for synthesized videos. Its sophisticated audio-generation capabilities offer significant potential applications in film and television sound design, audio post-production, and immersive sound experiences for gaming and virtual reality.
ThinkSound is now available open source on Hugging Face, GitHub and Alibaba’s Model Studio.
Out-of-distribution evaluation on MovieGen Audio Bench.
This work aimed to understand how anemonefish — the colorful reef dwellers best known from Finding Nemo — evolved into such a diverse group of species. Scientists have long assumed that their tight-knit relationship with sea anemones, their protective hosts, was the main engine behind their evolutionary diversification. But the team wondered if other ecological factors could also have played a critical role. This question matters because anemonefish are one of the few examples of adaptive radiation in marine environments — where species rapidly diversify to fill ecological roles. Understanding how this happened can teach us how biodiversity forms and is maintained, especially under changing environmental pressures.
Research significance
The study challenges long-held ideas about what drives species diversification, revealing that the story of anemonefish evolution is much more complex than host specialization alone. The team shows that distinct ecological lifestyles — such as how much a fish ventures away from its anemone or how efficiently it swims — also shaped how different species evolved. This matters because it underscores how fine-scale behaviors and physiological traits influence biodiversity. In a time of rapid environmental change, understanding these hidden dimensions of animal adaptation helps us better predict which species may be more resilient or vulnerable. The work also positions anemonefish as a new model system for studying how ecological and evolutionary forces interact — with future research potentially revealing how behavior, physiology, and even personality influence species’ survival and coexistence.
Conclusions
The researchers discovered that anemonefish have evolved into distinct “eco-morphotypes” — functionally different types that vary in how much they rely on their host and how well they swim. Surprisingly, these differences are not linked to the number of host species a fish uses (host specificity), as traditionally thought. Instead, they found that swimming efficiency, muscle architecture, and behavior better explain their ecological strategies. Some species are “adventurers” that roam widely with powerful muscles and low energy costs, while others are “homebodies” that stay close to their anemone, have smaller muscles, and use more energy to swim. This fine-tuned diversification likely played a key role in the adaptive radiation of anemonefish — and highlights the importance of traits we often overlook when thinking about evolution.
Methods
In the wild, the researchers filmed fish around their anemone hosts to measure how much time they spent inside or outside the host. In the lab, they used swim tunnels to test their endurance and oxygen use — like putting them on tiny fish treadmills. They also used 3D imaging and computer simulations to examine muscle anatomy and hydrodynamics, revealing how body shape affects swimming performance.
Example imagery from this project
The variety of techniques used in this research means a wealth of imagery available for journalists. These include images and videos of anemonefish in their natural habitat, as well as video swimming in the lab and the output of computational fluid dynamics simulations.
Method of Research
Observational study
Subject of Research
Animals
Article Title
Integrative phenotyping reveals new insights into the anemonefish adaptive radiation
Article Publication Date
21-Jul-2025
COI Statement
The authors declare no competing interests.
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