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  • Inside Italy’s secret mosaic school

    Inside Italy’s secret mosaic school

    And increasingly, you can learn even as a visitor. The school offers corsi brevi – short courses ranging from four-day intensives to week-long programmes – to give travellers a hands-on introduction to the art. Meanwhile, the tours include access to an archive of more than 800 mosaic works and the opportunity to glimpse into the classrooms where students and maestri work side by side. Leading each visit is usually one of the 79 guides that have specifically been trained by the school, or, for a more local flavour, Spilimbergo’s volunteer city guides, who often pair the experience with a stroll through the town.

    The experience doesn’t stop at the school gates. Spilimbergo itself is full of mosaics: decorating the interiors of its imposing Roman-Gothic Duomo, embedded in shopfronts, woven into restaurant floors and tucked into hidden corners of the old town. On its main thoroughfare, Corso Roma, mosaic shops and showrooms display beautiful creations from the school’s alumni for purchase; while on the outskirts of town, Fabbrica di Mosaici Mario Donà, a historic family-run kiln that moved from Murano to Spilimbergo in 1991, can be visited by appointment to see where the enamels for the mosaics are made.

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  • Israeli forces arrest pro-Palestine activists near Jericho amid settlers’ attack

    Israeli forces arrest pro-Palestine activists near Jericho amid settlers’ attack


    DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Cash is the lifeblood of the Gaza Strip’s shattered economy, and like all other necessities in this war-torn territory – food, fuel, medicine – it is in extremely short supply.


    With nearly every bank branch and ATM inoperable, people have become reliant on an unrestrained network of powerful cash brokers to get money for daily expenses – and commissions on those transactions have soared to about 40 percent.


    “The people are crying blood because of this,” said Ayman Al-Dahdouh, a school director living in Gaza City. “It’s suffocating us, starving us.”


    At a time of surging inflation, high unemployment and dwindling savings, the scarcity of cash has magnified the financial squeeze on families – some of whom have begun to sell their possessions to buy essential goods.


    The cash that is available has even lost some of its luster. Palestinians use the Israeli currency, the shekel, for most transactions. Yet with Israel no longer resupplying the territory with newly printed bank notes, merchants are increasingly reluctant to accept frayed bills.


    Gaza’s punishing cash crunch has several root causes, experts say.


    To curtail Hamas’ ability to purchase weapons and pay its fighters, Israel stopped allowing cash to enter Gaza at the start of the war. Around the same time, many wealthy families in Gaza withdrew their money from banks and then fled the territory. And rising fears about Gaza’s financial system prompted foreign businesses selling goods into the territory to demand cash payments.


    As Gaza’s money supply dwindled and civilians’ desperation mounted, cash brokers’ commissions – around 5 percent at the start of the war – skyrocketed.


    Someone needing cash transfers money electronically to a broker and moments later is handed a fraction of that amount in bills. Many brokers openly advertise their services, while others are more secretive. Some grocers and retailers have also begun exchanging cash for their customers.


    “If I need $60, I need to transfer $100,” said Mohammed Basheer Al-Farra, who lives in southern Gaza after being displaced from Khan Younis. “This is the only way we can buy essentials, like flour and sugar. We lose nearly half of our money just to be able to spend it.”


    In 2024, inflation in Gaza surged by 230 percent, according to the World Bank. It dropped slightly during the ceasefire that began in January, only to shoot up again after Israel backed out of the truce in March.


    Cash touches every aspect of life in Gaza


    About 80 percent of people in Gaza were unemployed at the end of 2024, according to the World Bank, and the figure is likely higher now. Those with jobs are mostly paid by direct deposits into their bank accounts.


    But “when you want to buy vegetables, food, water, medication – if you want to take transportation, or you need a blanket, or anything – you must use cash,” Al-Dahdouh said.


    Shahid Ajjour’s family has been living off of savings for two years after the pharmacy and another business they owned were ruined by the war.


    “We had to sell everything just to get cash,” said Ajjour, who sold her gold to buy flour and canned beans. The family of eight spends the equivalent of $12 every two days on flour; before the war, that cost less than $4.


    Sugar is very expensive, costing the equivalent of $80-$100 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), multiple people said; before the war, that cost less than $2.


    Gasoline is about $25 a liter, or roughly $95 a gallon, when paying the lower, cash price.


    Bills are worn and unusable


    The bills in Gaza are tattered after 21 months of war.


    Money is so fragile, it feels as if it is going to melt in your hands, said Mohammed Al-Awini, who lives in a tent camp in southern Gaza.


    Small business owners said they were under pressure to ask customers for undamaged cash because their suppliers demand pristine bills from them.


    Thaeir Suhwayl, a flour merchant in Deir Al-Balah, said his suppliers recently demanded he pay them only with brand new 200-shekel ($60) bank notes, which he said are rare. Most civilians pay him with 20-shekel ($6) notes that are often in poor condition.


    On a recent visit to the market, Ajjour transferred the shekel equivalent of around $100 to a cash broker and received around $50 in return. But when she tried to buy some household supplies from a merchant, she was turned away because the bills weren’t in good condition.


    “So the worth of your $50 is zero in the end,” she said.


    This problem has given rise to a new business in Gaza: money repair. It costs between 3 and 10 shekels ($1-$3) to mend old bank notes. But even cash repaired with tape or other means is sometimes rejected.


    People are at the mercy of cash brokers


    After most of the banks closed in the early days of the war, those with large reserves of cash suddenly had immense power.


    “People are at their mercy,” said Mahmoud Aqel, who has been displaced from his home in southern Gaza. “No one can stop them.”


    The war makes it impossible to regulate market prices and exchange rates, said Dalia Alazzeh, an expert in finance and accounting at the University of the West of Scotland. “Nobody can physically monitor what’s happening,” Alazzeh said.


    A year ago, the Palestine Monetary Authority, the equivalent of a central bank for Gaza and the West Bank, sought to ease the crisis by introducing a digital payment system known as Iburaq. It attracted half a million users, or a quarter of the population, according to the World Bank, but was ultimately undermined by merchants insisting on cash.


    Israel sought to ramp up financial pressure on Hamas earlier this year by tightening the distribution of humanitarian aid, which it said was routinely siphoned off by militants and then resold.


    Experts said it is unclear if the cash brokers’ activities benefit Hamas, as some Israeli analysts claim.


    The war has made it more difficult to determine who is behind all sorts of economic activity in the territory, said Omar Shabaan, director of Palthink for Strategic Studies, a Gaza-based think tank.


    “It’s a dark place now. You don’t know who is bringing cigarettes into Gaza,” he said, giving just one example. “It’s like a mafia.”


    These same deep-pocketed traders are likely the ones running cash brokerages, and selling basic foodstuffs, he said. “They benefit by imposing these commissions,” he said.


    Once families run out of cash, they are forced to turn to humanitarian aid.


    Al-Farra said that is what prompted him to begin seeking food at an aid distribution center, where it is common for Palestinians to jostle over one other for sacks of flour and boxes of pasta.


    “This is the only way I can feed my family,” he said.

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  • An effectiveness trial of an exercise physiologist service to improve

    An effectiveness trial of an exercise physiologist service to improve

    Introduction

    Severe mental illnesses (SMIs), such as major depression, bipolar disorder, and psychotic disorders, are characterised by persistent symptoms and functional challenges. Symptoms can fluctuate in severity over time, and include positive symptoms (eg, hallucinations, mania) and negative symptoms (eg, avolition, depressed mood). Depending upon the phase of illness,1 people with SMI may require support from clinical and non-clinical services across acute inpatient, intensive rehabilitation, and community settings. People with SMI also experience psychosocial disadvantages, such as social isolation, housing instability, low engagement in the workforce, and unhealthy lifestyle behaviours such as poor nutritional intake, low physical activity, and high rates of smoking and alcohol consumption.2 These factors lead to a heightened risk of preventable chronic disease such as diabetes,2 which further contributes to psychological distress and lower quality of life (QoL) of this group.3 Interventions to improve QoL and reduce the risk of chronic disease are needed to complement existing clinical mental healthcare for people SMI.

    Physical activity (PA) and exercise intervention can improve QoL in people with mental illnesses.4–6 People with SMI have low levels of PA,7 but if supported appropriately, adherence to exercise interventions for this group is comparable with the general population (~70% completion rates).8 Meta-analyses indicate that exercise interventions can also reduce the positive and negative symptoms of psychosis and improve functioning and metabolic health in people with SMI.4,9,10 Exercise is an evidence-based therapy for improving health outcomes in people with a range of mental illnesses, and internationally adopted best-practice guidelines recommend lifestyle support for people with metabolic risks, including exercise intervention.11 Further, exercise delivered by qualified exercise professionals may improve adherence, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cognition for people with SMI compared with other providers such as mental health staff.4,8,12

    Accredited Exercise Physiologists (AEPs) are qualified exercise professionals who specialise in rehabilitative exercise therapy, and professional consensus statements advocate for their role in mental health services.13–15 Because exercise intervention is generally outside the scope and role of mental health professionals, AEP involvement in mental health teams is highly valued by both participants and staff alike.16,17 Pioneering examples of service models incorporating AEPs within mental healthcare exist in Australia: the Keeping the Body in Mind program has operated since 2013 and evidenced improved health outcomes for young people and adults with psychotic disorders.18,19 Evaluations of AEP services for people with SMI have been conducted across inpatient, residential and community mental health settings, with sample sizes ranging from n=16 to 55. These studies demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of AEP services,18–25 and promising indications for preventing cardiometabolic abnormalities18,19 and improving motivation, physical activity and fitness, sleep quality and negative symptoms.18–25 One study examined QoL outcomes for a 12-week AEP intervention, reporting improvements in total QoL scores (d=0.61), independent living (d=0.8), mental health (d=0.67) and coping (d=0.76) dimensions for 17 young people (aged 14–25 years) with early psychosis.25 However, the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of AEP services for improving QoL in people with SMI remains unclear. Therefore, the overarching aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and implementation process of an AEP service implemented within routine mental health care settings.

    Materials and Methods

    Study Design and Aims

    The MOVEMENT study (“iMproving quality Of life in people with seVEre MENTal illness”) is a non-randomised effectiveness trial evaluating implementation of an AEP service as an adjunct to mental healthcare across public mental health services and non-government organizations (NGOs). The primary aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the AEP service for improving QoL in people with SMI by comparing those who accept the service with those who decline. A secondary aim is to assess the cost-effectiveness of the service. Tertiary aims are to evaluate the implementation process, including reasons for recruitment and attrition rates, reasons for accepting or declining the AEP service, and experiences of staff and participants. It is acknowledged that a cluster randomised trial would be a more robust design to address the study aims; however, a non-randomised design was chosen to support evaluation of the implementation of the AEP service within trial resource restraints.

    Patient and Public Involvement

    This project was developed with the support and input of a broad collaboration of service providers and mental health sector leaders. Partner organizations include NGOs: Communify Queensland, Stride, Neami National, Richmond Fellowship Queensland; public hospital and health services (HHSs): Metro South Addictions and Mental Health Service, Metro North Mental Health Service; Primary Health Networks (PHNs): Brisbane South and Brisbane North PHNs; and Psychosis Australia, a national advocacy body in the mental health and research sector.

    The research question and the intervention content were developed based on community programs developed collaboratively with people with lived experience of mental illness. These programs have been implemented and iteratively improved based on participant feedback since 2015. Representatives from the partner organizations, including people with lived experience of mental illness, will form a Steering Committee overseeing the study’s implementation. The results of this study will be disseminated to participants through presentations at consumer and community forums.

    Setting and Participants

    Participants will be recruited from community and residential rehabilitation services of partnering HHSs and NGOs in Brisbane, Australia. These services provide specialist treatment for approximately two million residents of a catchment encompassing inner city, suburban, and regional areas. The study will be implemented at five sites corresponding with areas serviced by relevant teams within partner organizations. The study will be promoted across team meetings, and staff will be asked to refer interested individuals. Individuals will be eligible if they are current consumers of mental health services for people with SMI provided by partnering organizations, aged 18–65 years, sufficiently fluent in English to complete consent and study procedures, and willing to provide consent to study participation.

    Participants will be informed that study participation requires them to complete assessments at three timepoints, each three-months apart, and they will be offered a $50 gift card for completing each assessment session. They will also be informed that they can access an optional exercise program as part of their involvement in the study, and data collected will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. After completing baseline assessments, participants will be asked if they would like to participate in the AEP service. Accepting or declining the AEP service will not impact their involvement in the study.

    If they agree, an appointment will be made with the AEP at the community exercise venue for an induction and initial assessment. The initial assessment will involve medical screening using the Adult Pre-exercise Screening System (APSS);26 participants will be unable to participate in the exercise service if contraindicating factors are identified as per the American College of Sports Medicine absolute contraindications to exercise (9th edition, page 53); however, this will not exclude them from remaining in the study and completing follow-up assessments. The anticipated participant flow diagram is provided in Figure 1. Assumptions for the flow diagram are based on pilot community implementation which indicates roughly 50% completion rates; however, it is acknowledged that the final recruitment and completion rates may differ.

    Figure 1 Anticipated participant flow diagram. A total of 150 participants with at least two timepoints are needed to adequately power primary analyses. Accounting for a dropout rate of 25% and assumed rate of declining vs accepting the Accredited Exercise Physiologist (AEP) service of 50%, we anticipate recruiting 200 participants.

    Exercise Service Structure

    The exercise service will involve an AEP working with participants according to their scope of practice.27 Participants will be asked to complete at least one group-based exercise session/week at a community gym in groups of up to 10 participants, involving 60-minutes of exercise in the gym and a 60-minute health literacy session covering a range of topics. The AEP will engage participants in individual goal setting, and exercise prescriptions will be tailored to individual preferences and abilities and include a variety of aerobic and resistance exercises and physically active recreation (eg, sports, active groups). Participants will have access to the AEP service for six months, and exercise sessions will be delivered in blocks (10–12 weeks) separated by interim assessments. Participants will be sent weekly text message reminders about the group session times, with phone follow-up if sessions are missed without explanation. There will be no restrictions on participating in other therapies or programs outside the intervention.

    Data Collection

    The schedule of assessments is provided in Table 1. Assessments include 12 self-report questionnaires with a total of 87 items, and physical measures described in Table 2. Questionnaires will cover the following domains: quality of life, psychological distress, health service utilisation, resource use, sense of belonging, self-efficacy, health literacy, social connection, alcohol intake, nutritional intake, physical activity, and sleep quality. Physical health assessments will include blood pressure and waist circumference. These outcomes were chosen because of their potential influence on QoL, and usefulness in describing what psychosocial and lifestyle factors may have changed over the course of the 6-month intervention. Measures were chosen based on their validity and brevity for minimising participant burden. Initial piloting indicates that these measures are generally completed within a 60-minute assessment session.

    Table 1 SPIRIT Figure for Schedule of Assessments

    Table 2 Prospective Data Collection

    Participants may elect to complete self-report questionnaires online; however, it is anticipated the participants will complete most assessments with the assistance of researchers in-person. Participants will be offered $50AUD gift cards for completing assessments at each timepoint. Additional data collection for participants of the AEP service will include medical screening, attendance at the exercise sessions, rate of perceived exertion and exercise completed each session, adverse events, and qualitative interviews about their experiences with the service.

    Adverse Event Reporting

    Participants will be asked to report pain or injuries from the previous week at each session; any adverse events will be reported to the Steering Committee and Metro South Health Human Research Ethics Committee. Participants experiencing pain related to exercise, pre-existing conditions, or unrelated injury may be required to discontinue the intervention until medical clearance can be obtained. Hospital re-admissions for psychiatric reasons will also be reported, and participants permitted to re-enter the intervention when they return to community or residential mental healthcare settings.

    Data Management and Analyses

    Questionnaires will be administered electronically using the online survey platform REDcap; data will be exported into SPSS version 23 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, Illinois) and STATA 15 (College Station, TX: StataCorp LLC) for analysis.

    Primary Analysis

    Linear mixed-effects models for repeated measures (repeated measurements nested within individuals) will be used to compare outcomes between participants who consent to the exercise intervention with those who decline. The most suitable auto-regressive covariance structure will be tested and implemented to account for relations of measurements over time. We will adjust for potential confounders, such as implementation site, changes to medications, other treatments (eg, Allied Health), and baseline health status. Analysis will be conducted on the intention-to-treat basis (ITT), and missing data will be handled using multiple imputation with chained equations where appropriate. Because participants self-select to the intervention, potential selection bias and confounding will be approached descriptively by examining standardised mean differences and confidence intervals between groups on psychosocial outcomes, and by comparing participant characteristics with a random sample of de-identified routine care data from the whole service cohort.

    Economic Evaluation

    All relevant costs and participant health outcomes will be compared in a cost-utility analysis using both health sector and partial societal perspectives. Costs will include the exercise intervention plus additional health and social support resource use data. Total incremental costs will be compared between each group using generalised linear models (GLMs). The total quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) occurring in each group will be derived from health utility scores using area-under-the-curve methods. Incremental QALYs between groups will, in turn, be analysed using mixed-effects (eg, linear, gamma family, log link) GLMs. The “incremental cost per QALY gain” ratio will be estimated by dividing the difference in mean costs between participants who accept the exercise service vs those who decline against the corresponding difference in mean outcomes. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses will be conducted to evaluate the impact of parameter uncertainty around the cost-effectiveness findings.

    Tertiary Aims

    The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) will inform evaluation of the implementation process,44 and the Behaviour Change Wheel and COM-B framework will inform the evaluation of the implementation and participant experiences.45 CFIR will be used to examine barriers and enablers to implementation in five domains (inner and outer setting, people involved, implementation process, and intervention content). COM-B will be used to frame qualitative data from participants about their capability, opportunity and motivation to engage in the AEP service.

    To ensure that a range of views are represented, participants from three different experience groups (those who: (i) declined the exercise service; (ii) accepted but did not continue; and (iii) had high attendance to the sessions) will be invited to interviews. A framework approach will be employed for qualitative analysis which provides a structure for coding and categorising data.46 Both deductive and inductive logic will be used to reduce and synthesise data using COM-B as a frame; coding will be conducted by one researcher. Recruitment and participation rates and the resourcing required to conduct the study will be examined.

    Sample Size

    Previous research has estimated mean baseline ReQoL scores of 21.99 (SD=10.26) for a sample of people with mental health difficulties, and that a change of five points or more on the ReQoL is reliable for detecting clinical changes.28 Using Power Analysis and Sample Size software (PASS) 2020 for a repeated measures design with a first-order autoregressive covariance structure, we estimate that 75 participants would be required in each condition to provide at least 90% power to detect a clinically significant increase of five points on the ReQoL questionnaire, assuming a correlation between three time points of 0.6 and a statistical significance level set at 5%. Accounting for dropout, we will aim to recruit a total of 200 participants over two-years.

    Ethics and Dissemination

    The authors assert that all procedures contributing to this work comply with the ethical standards of the relevant national and institutional committees on human experimentation and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2013. All procedures involving human subjects/patients are approved by the Metro South Health Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/2024/QMS/109698). The trial will be subject to random auditing by the HREC independently from the researchers. Results from the trial will be available to participants, published in a peer-reviewed journal, and presented at conferences, community and consumer forums and hospital grand rounds. The final dataset will be deidentified and published on an open access repository; confidentiality will be protected in all dissemination activities. The trial is registered under the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry (ACTRN12624001148561). Any protocol modifications will be reported to the HREC and ACTRN and reported in the subsequent publication.

    Discussion

    A pragmatic approach has been taken in the design: inclusion criteria are broad and specific to services that provide care for people with SMI to enhance generalisability to similar service settings. To further enhance applicability to routine service settings, participation in the study is not contingent on involvement with the AEP service. Describing potential differences between participants who adopt or decline the AEP service is pertinent to informing implementation in routine care. For example, the difference in outcomes between participants who accessed the service and those who could not attend because of participation barriers may elucidate how the implementation could be adapted to improve the accessibility of exercise among people living with SMI.

    However, because participants will not be randomly allocated to conditions, the comparison group must be drawn from participants who decline involvement with the AEP service. It is acknowledged that participant groups (ie, control and intervention) will likely differ on important characteristics, and unmeasured confounding may compromise internal validity. Representativeness of the sample will be evaluated by comparing demographic information with a random selection of routine care data from the whole service cohort.

    We anticipate that these findings will inform future implementation of AEP services within mental healthcare settings, and how AEP interventions could be designed to address the barriers to engagement experienced by people with SMI. Because of differences in healthcare systems, we anticipate that the findings will be most relevant to Australian mental healthcare settings.

    Author Contributions

    All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the protocol conception or study design; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

    Funding

    This work is funded by a grant from the Medical Research Futures Fund (App ID:2023060). This work is also funded by contribution from the Brisbane North Primary Health Network.

    Disclosure

    Dr Nicole Korman reports financial support to convene an educational conference from Otsuka, outside the submitted work. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

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    36. Allen K-A, Arslan G, Craig H, Arefi S, Yaghoobzadeh A, Sharif Nia H. The psychometric evaluation of the sense of belonging instrument (SOBI) with Iranian older adults. BMC Geriatr. 2021;21:1–8. doi:10.1186/s12877-021-02115-y

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  • Watch England vs India on ICC TV (it’s free)

    Watch England vs India on ICC TV (it’s free)

    You can watch all five days of the third test of England vs India live on ICC TV, streaming for free. The stream includes English commentary as Shubman Gill looks to lead his team from the front again at the Home of Cricket.

    The worldwide platform will show every wicket and boundary to a variety of fans across the globe — find the full list here.

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    2. DPM Dar inaugurates Mango Festival in Kuala Lumpur to promote cultural diplomacy and trade  Ptv.com.pk
    3. Dar meets world leaders on sidelines of ASEAN forum  The Express Tribune
    4. Ishaq Dar meets Russia’s Lavrov in Kuala Lumpur  Dunya News
    5. DPM Dar commends Pakistani Community in Malaysia for strengthening bilateral ties  Associated Press of Pakistan

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    2. EU mulls diplomatic action against Israel over human rights: report  Dawn
    3. The EU has a chance next week to end complicity in Gaza genocide  The New Arab
    4. EU’s ‘reluctance’ to act over Israel criticised by 27 former ambassadors  Euronews.com
    5. EU says demolition of West Bank villages hampers 2-state solution  The Jewish Federations of North America

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    1. AI at Work: Look for employees who excel at these core skills  Microsoft
    2. Upwork Research Reveals New Insights Into the AI-Human Work Dynamic  GlobeNewswire
    3. HR is at the helm of the smarter work revolution  HRZone
    4. AI talent drain: Why your most productive, tech-savvy employees are eyeing the exit  worklife.news
    5. The personal AI gap: Employees move fast, companies lag behind.  Atos

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  • UN calls for reversal of US sanctions on Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese – UN News

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    2. US sanctions UN expert Francesca Albanese over Israel criticism  Al Jazeera
    3. US sanctions UN expert Francesca Albanese, critic of Israel’s Gaza offensive  BBC
    4. UN urges reversal of US sanctions on UN expert Albanese  Dawn
    5. US imposing sanctions on senior UN official focused on Palestinian human rights  CNN

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  • King Charles and Princess Kate's cancer struggles having profound impact, charity boss says – Reuters

    1. King Charles and Princess Kate’s cancer struggles having profound impact, charity boss says  Reuters
    2. Will Kate Middleton’s Parents Receive Royal Titles After She Becomes Queen?  People.com
    3. Catherine talks candidly of ‘life-changing’ cancer treatment  BBC
    4. Kate Middleton admits she’s ‘not able to function normally’ after cancer treatment  Page Six
    5. Catching up with the royals (July 7, 2025)  Substack

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  • Photo agencies to boycott Oasis tour over rights restrictions | Oasis

    Photo agencies to boycott Oasis tour over rights restrictions | Oasis

    Photo agencies are to boycott the rest of the Oasis reunion tour, including the first “homecoming” gig in Manchester on Friday, over restrictions imposed on how newspapers, magazines, TV broadcasters and digital publishers can use pictures from the gigs.

    The band’s management has told photo agencies and publishers that they own the rights to shots taken at the concerts for just a year, and then they will lose ownership of the images for any future use.

    The industry norm is that such deals for independent photographers from agencies are struck in perpetuity so that publishers can continue to use the shots for pieces such as band retrospectives and tributes, and to illustrate future concerts.

    The News Media Coalition (NMC) – which represents national newspaper groups including Guardian News & Media; the Telegraph; the Sun and Times publisher, News UK; and the Mirror and Express owner, Reach – lodged a complaint before the first gig in Cardiff after negotiations failed to sufficiently improve the terms.

    The NMC also represents agencies including Thomson Reuters, Associated Press, PA Media, Shutterstock, Getty Images, France’s AFP and Spain’s EFE.

    The bodies agreed to the stringent terms for the first two gigs in Cardiff, but have decided to boycott the remaining 39 dates in the UK and overseas after further negotiations with the band’s management failed to improve terms.

    It is understood that before the year-long terms were agreed, the initial proposal was for the right to use images for only a month.

    The NMC said the “highly unusual” restrictions would hit independent news agencies in the UK and abroad, as well as publishers and broadcasters that use stills to illustrate editorial reports.

    The row is the latest to beset the highly anticipated tour, which has brought Noel and Liam Gallagher back together on stage for the first time in 16 years.

    Last week, it emerged that the UK competition watchdog had written to Ticketmaster threatening legal action over the way it sold more than 900,000 tickets for the reunion gigs.

    In March, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published concerns that Ticketmaster may have misled fans in the way it priced tickets for the band’s comeback gigs when they went on sale last August. Some fans paid more than £350 for tickets with a face value of £150.

    The watchdog said Ticketmaster had failed since then to provide any undertakings that it found acceptable to resolve the issue of the way it sold the tickets.

    Oasis have been contacted for comment.

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