Author: admin

  • Ski Jumping: charges brought against Norwegian officials and athletes

    Ski Jumping: charges brought against Norwegian officials and athletes

    Three Norwegian Ski Jumping officials and two athletes have been charged for violations of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics and the FIS Rules on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions as a result of an investigation conducted by the FIS Independent Ethics and Compliance Office (IECO) that started shortly after allegations of illegal equipment manipulation at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Trondheim 2025.

    The cases of Norway’s team coach Magnus Brevik, assistant coach Thomas Lobben, service staff member Adrian Livelten, as well as of athletes Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang, will now be referred to the FIS Ethics Committee (FEC) for adjudication.

    The decisions

    After the IECO completed its investigation and submitted its report to the FIS Integrity Director, the process for deciding whether to bring charges against various individuals was as follows:

    • The IECO and the FIS Integrity Department agreed to bring charges against Magnus Brevik, Thomas Lobben, and Adrian Livelten for violations both of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics and the FIS Rules on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions. Therefore, in accordance with the FIS IECO Procedural Rules, the matter has been referred directly to the FIS Ethics Committee.

    • In accordance with the FIS IECO Procedural Rules, the decision on whether to bring charges against Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang was taken to the FIS Council, which voted to bring charges against the two athletes for violations both of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics and the FIS Rules on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions. Accordingly, the cases have been referred to the FIS Ethics Committee.

    • The IECO and the FIS Integrity Department agreed not to bring charges against any other athlete or member of the Norwegian National Ski Association or any other party connected to the investigation. In accordance with the FIS IECO Procedural Rules, the decision was submitted to the FIS Council, which confirmed that all matters are closed in respect of all other individuals connected to this investigation. 

    The next steps
    The FIS Ethics Committee will now consider the IECO’s investigation report and decide on whether there have been infringements of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics and/or the FIS Rules on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions.

    A panel of three unconflicted members of the FEC will be appointed by the Chair of the FEC to adjudicate the case. The chairperson of the panel will contact the interested parties to communicate the next procedural steps, which may involve convening a hearing or otherwise coordinating further submissions from concerned parties. 

    After the conclusion of the hearing process, the FEC will announce its decision whether to impose any sanctions on any of the parties no later than 30 days after the hearing process is concluded.

    Other relevant questions and answers

    What sanctions are available to the FEC?
    The sanctioning powers of the FEC include imposition of a period of ineligibility, financial sanctions, or disqualification of results. 

    Any period of ineligibility will start on the date the decision of the FEC is published. The panel may, at its sole discretion, reduce the period of ineligibility based on any period of provisional suspension already served prior to the decision being reached.

    What will be communicated by the FEC after it has reached its conclusion?
    If the conclusion by the FEC is that a violation of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics or the FIS Rules on the Prevention of the Manipulation of Competitions has been committed, the decision will be publicly disclosed in full − after prior notice is given to the interested parties − no later than 20 days after it is issued.

    If a person is exonerated of all charges, then the decision may only be publicly disclosed with the consent of the person who is the subject of the decision. However, the FEC may publicly disclose the fact that the charge has been dismissed.

    What is the appeal process on any potential sanctions?
    An aggrieved party can appeal against any sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. FIS may also appeal against any decision by the FEC not to apply a sanction.

    What exactly did the IECO investigate?

    The terms of reference of the IECO investigation were to examine whether there had been any violations of the FIS Universal Code of Ethics and/or the FIS Rules on the Prevention of Manipulation of Competitions.  Specifically, the IECO investigation looked at five key issues, i.e. whether:

    1. coaches Magnus Brevig and Thomas Lobben and suit technician acted in violation of the rules in orchestrating the equipment manipulation;

    2. athletes Marius Lindvik and Johann André Forfang knowingly acted in contravention of relevant FIS rules;

    3. the conspiracy spread further in the team, either to other athletes or other staff members of the Norwegian NSA;

    4. the Norwegian team had engaged in the same or similar equipment violations in the past; and/or

    5. the conspiracy spread to other teams.

    Who gets to see the IECO investigation report?

    The FIS Integrity Director is in possession of the report, which is the result of a thorough investigation process that included 38 key witness interviews and the examination of 88 key exhibits.

    The FIS Council has received a redacted summary of the report and a verbal debrief to help them come to a decision as to whether to bring charges against the individuals considered in the report.

    Recipients of Notices of Charge have also received redacted versions of the report including findings in relation to their respective involvement only. The FEC has been copied as a recipient of these Notices of Charge and therefore of the same redacted versions as the recipients.

    All other parties concerned have been or will be offered a verbal debrief of the report with the IECO and the Lead Investigator.

    Continue Reading

  • Biogen and Stoke Therapeutics Announce First Patient Dosed in Phase 3 EMPEROR Study of Zorevunersen, a Potential Disease-Modifying Treatment for Dravet Syndrome – Biogen

    1. Biogen and Stoke Therapeutics Announce First Patient Dosed in Phase 3 EMPEROR Study of Zorevunersen, a Potential Disease-Modifying Treatment for Dravet Syndrome  Biogen
    2. Dravet children sought in US for clinical trial testing zorevunersen  Dravet Syndrome News
    3. Stoke Therapeutics and Biogen Announce First Patient Dosed in Phase 3 EMPEROR Study of Zorevunersen, a Potential Disease-Modifying Treatment for Dravet Syndrome  Business Wire

    Continue Reading

  • Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith on how friend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce inspired her return to the track after Paris disappointment

    Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith on how friend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce inspired her return to the track after Paris disappointment

    Ta Lou-Smith: Carrying Africa’s hopes

    Most things went smoothly for the Ivorian in 2024. After qualifying for the 100m final, she had the same hope — could this finally be the year an African athlete reaches the Olympic podium in a sprint event?

    She had been at this for so long. The three-time world medallist left a lot behind, choosing to pursue a track career instead of attending medical school. At 35, Paris was her best chance for success after previous Olympic near-misses.

    She finished fourth in both the 100m and 200m at Rio 2016. In Tokyo, she again placed fourth in the short sprint, behind Elaine Thompson-Herah, and fifth in the 200m.

    Ta Lou-Smith has suffered from back pain for most of her career, and it came back at the beginning of the Olympic year. Her spine has an irregular curve, which makes her prone to knee, hamstring and shoulder injuries.

    Despite this, she has bravely carried the hopes of the continent.

    In Paris, Ta-Lou-Smith was forced to put an end to her Olympic quest early in the competition and for the first time since Beijing 2008, Africa had no representative in the women’s 200m final.

    “Every time that I fail, I feel like I let down the country, the continent, so many people who trust and believe in me,” said Ta Lou. She also knew that no African had ever clinched a medal in the modern Games’ men’s or women’s sprints before Botswana’s star Letsile Tebogo took gold in the 200m final in Paris.

    “But seeing all the comments, and all the people who still tell me that I’m an inspiration for them, gave me the strength to continue and not give up.

    “After the 100m, I remember I also talked to Shericka Jackson. She was really helpful, she encouraged me. We talked for about 20 minutes just around the track. Jackson and everyone else I spoke to told me that maybe I need time for myself, to think, rest my body and my mind and then come back slowly, slowly. They told me, ‘Don’t rush, take your time and fully enjoy what you are doing’.”

    Continue Reading

  • New web-based tool helps fight lung cancer mortality and advance treatment

    New web-based tool helps fight lung cancer mortality and advance treatment

    Experts have created a customizable, web-based tool that provides state and local leaders with tailored resources to reduce lung cancer mortality rates and advance treatment. The tool’s development and features are described in an article published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

    Although lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer and cancer deaths worldwide, screening rates have remained low, leading to delayed diagnoses and care and ultimately resulting in high mortality rates.

    To reduce lung cancer deaths, the American Cancer Society National Lung Cancer Roundtable (ACS NLCRT) was founded in 2017 to unite public, private, and non-profit groups, with more than 200 leading patient advocacy organizations, professional medical societies, state and federal government agencies, cancer centers, academic institutions, health systems, health plans, and corporate associations joining together to lend their expertise. Among its 10 task groups, the State-Based Initiatives (SBI) Task Group was charged to provide states with tailored resources, best practices, and implementation strategies to address lung cancer, and to create a centralized, web-based tool.

    The SBI Planning Tool was developed through meetings, interviews, and usability testing, and the website’s content, layout, and navigability were reviewed biweekly. User feedback was also gathered through surveys. The developers made an effort to allow users to navigate the webpage towards tailored recommendations based on their needs because every state or region has unique challenges and assets dependent on existing work in lung cancer, availability of funds, policies in place, levels of provider engagement, and community perceptions.

    Also, as limiting interventions to better-resourced communities without including underserved areas could worsen geographic, demographic, and cultural disparities in lung cancer outcomes, a focus on health equity was integrated throughout the SBI Planning Tool.

    Before the ACS NLCRT was established, but more so after, state coalitions focused on public health initiatives to reduce lung cancer deaths have sprung up. It is often said that ‘all public health is local,’ and the aim of the ACS NLCRT State-Based Initiatives Task Group is to give local leaders, health care professionals, and advocates the tools to efficiently and effectively develop tailored programs to advance lung cancer control in their state. Among the many achievements of the ACS NLCRT, the development of the SBI Planning tool ranks high on the list.”


    Robert Smith, PhD, senior author, American Cancer Society

    Source:

    Journal reference:

    Olson, J. M. G., et al. (2025) The American Cancer Society National Lung Cancer Roundtable strategic plan: Addressing planning for lung cancer interventions at the state and local level through the creation of the National Lung Cancer Roundtable Planning Tool. CANCER. doi.org/10.1002/cncr.35954.

    Continue Reading

  • The Apple Watch Series 11 May Drop in Less Than a Month

    The Apple Watch Series 11 May Drop in Less Than a Month

    Apple season is upon us! No, I’m not talking cider and hayrides (although that’s coming too). We’re just weeks away from seeing the tech giant’s next batch of products, including the next Apple Watch. According to German phone carrier iPhone Ticker (first flagged by Apple Insider) Apple is gearing up for a launch event on Sept. 9; right on target with its typical fall product cycle.

    The Series 11 is the likely candidate, but as the rumor mill picks up speed, there’s growing buzz that Apple could also unveil an Apple Watch Ultra 3 and a next-gen Apple Watch SE alongside it. And this time, it’s not all speculation. Apple CEO Tim Cook just revealed that all Apple Watches and iPhones will be sporting US-made cover glass manufacturing at glass giant Corning’s plant in Kentucky, as part of a broader push to invest in domestic production.

    Apple may have also tipped its hand on the Ultra 3, after MacRumors uncovered imagery buried in the iOS 26 public beta showing display details for what’s likely the next-generation rugged watch.

    With September fast approaching, the clues are stacking up. Here’s a breakdown of everything we know, suspect and can reasonably expect from Apple’s 2025 smartwatch lineup.

    Apple Watch Series 11 launch date

    Unless there’s a massive glitch in the universe, we can expect the Apple Watch Series 11 to arrive this September alongside the rumored iPhone 17. Not only does this follow the same launch cycle as previous years (dating back to the first-gen Apple Watch), but we now have even more reason to save the date. According to German phone carrier iPhone Ticker, as first flagged by Apple Insider,  the company is preparing for a launch event on Tuesday, Sept. 9. That timing would align perfectly with last year’s Glowtime event, which also took place on Sept. 9 (a Monday in that case).

    What’s less predictable is the exact release date. Traditionally, new models go on sale anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks after the keynote. This year, that could mean preorders opening on Friday, Sept. 12, with availability starting the following Friday, Sept. 19. That said, recent years have seen delays due to production issues, and it’s still unclear how newly imposed tariffs might affect both the launch timing and pricing in 2025.

    An Apple Watch Series ten with a platinum band sits on a stand, with the screen showing the time and elevation

    CNET

    How many Apple Watches will we get?

    Based on the usual update cycle and now the latest clues in iOS 26, we’re at least getting a flagship (Series 11) and an Apple Watch Ultra 3. Also likely, but not confirmed, is the possibility of getting a next-gen SE model, according to a report from Bloomberg’s Apple analyst Mark Gurman. The Apple Watch Ultra and the cheaper SE line haven’t exactly followed a predictable upgrade cycle, but last year’s absence could prove a strong clue that 2025 could be the year we get all three again. The Series 10 took the spotlight in 2024 as the only smartwatch announced that year. The new Ultra and Series 11 are mostly expected to look the same, while the SE could be getting a refreshed exterior, according to Gurman. And the Ultra could get satellite connectivity and 5G RedCap network access that would bring even the most remote adventures “on the grid”.

    Apple Watch Series 10

    James Martin/CNET

    Apple Watch Series 11 design

    The Series 11 is expected to keep the slim, flat-edged design introduced on the Series 10 (42mm and 46mm), but Apple’s new Corning partnership means all of the glass protecting the display will be made in the US. Not only does the news make for a great marketing bullet; it could also hint at improved durability, sustainability benefits, and potentially faster repair turnarounds if replacement glass is sourced domestically.

    According to MacRumors, the Apple Watch might get a more energy-efficient screen, maybe an LTPO display with higher resolution and better brightness, which, on paper, could help improve the battery life.

    This would coincide with what we just learned about the Ultra 3. If the leaked iOS 26 imagery holds true, it will have a slightly larger screen with a 422×514-pixel resolution (up from the Ultra 2’s 410×502 pixels). This could be achieved by slimming down the bezels while keeping the same overall case size, in keeping with Apple’s tradition of maximizing screen real estate without making the already-large Ultra any bulkier.

    Processor and performance

    Apple is expected to debut its new S11 chip in the Series 11 and Ultra 3, promising more efficiency and potentially better battery life. The SE could see a jump to the S9 chip.

    According to MacRumors, the Apple Watch might get a more energy-efficient screen, maybe an LTPO display with higher resolution and better brightness, which, on paper, could help improve the battery life. This could be reserved for the higher-end Ultra 3, which will likely otherwise keep its original design. 

    The more adorable SE, however, could see a more extensive design overhaul. It would still have the body of the Series 8 and, according to Gurman, get several upgrades from the Series 10, like an always-on display. 

    Apple Watch Series 11 processor

    Apple typically bumps up the processor with every new smartwatch, so we should see an Apple S11 chip this time around for at least the Series 11 and Ultra 3. The Ultra 3 is also rumored to get satellite connectivity and 5G support, but according to Gurman, these features likely won’t make it to the Series 11. Considering last gen’s upgrade cycle, my personal bet would also be on the SE getting a processor bump up to the S9 chip, currently found in the Ultra 2 and the Apple Watch Series 9. 

    Apple Watch Series 10 charger

    The Series 10 charges faster than earlier Apple Watches, but the battery lasts the same length of time.

    Celso Bulgatti/CNET

    Apple Watch Series 11 battery

    If there’s one thing on everyone’s wishlist, it’s better battery life. The Series 10 introduced faster charging — 0% to 80% in just 30 minutes compared with 90 minutes on previous models — but there’s room for improvement in battery capacity itself.

    While there aren’t any rumors indicating that new Apple Watches will get a longer battery life, I truly hope Apple addresses the battery because its smartwatches are falling behind. Some Android models use dual chipsets to divide tasks and optimize battery life. I’d like to see Apple adopt a similar strategy and finally push battery life to two full days on a single charge for regular models. I hope the Ultra, which currently gets a full 72 hours on a charge, gets the faster charging and pushes its battery life limits to four full days.

    Apple Watch Series 11 price

    Based on current pricing, the Apple Watch Series 11 could cost $399 for the 42mm aluminum version and $429 for the 46mm version, with upgrades for cover material and LTE connectivity costing extra. That is, unless recently enacted tariffs play a part in pricing this year, which remains to be seen. The other question is what the most expensive variant will be — solid gold, diamond-encrusted Hermès, anyone?

    apple-watch-heart-rate-and-calorie-validation-image

    Getty Images/Tharon Green/CNET

    Apple Watch health and fitness upgrades

    There’s been a persistent rumor about blood pressure tracking finally making its way to the Apple Watch, but it’s unclear when it will be ready. According to a March report from Gurman, Apple has already been testing the feature in its smartwatch but has run into problems. Other wearables health companies like Omron and Med-Watch have proven it’s possible to measure blood pressure from the wrist, but adding this feature would likely require new sensors and a bulkier design. It would also be less precise than dedicated health devices like Omron’s and measure baseline metrics like the Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra (which isn’t supported on Samsung watches in the US).

    Blood pressure and glucose monitoring have also been thrown in the mix, but the latter might not be fully baked for this cycle according to Gurman. Lastly, the blood oxygen feature that debuted on the Series 6 likely won’t be making a comeback this year as Apple is still navigating legal issues related to it.

    A hand with an Apple Watch activates a Level Lock Plus on a wood door.

    Level

    A WatchOS glow-up on the Series 11

    Apple also gave us a preview of the new interface for the Apple Watch with WatchOS 26 at its developers conference in June. The new UI update includes a new “Liquid Glass” display with glassy, transparent design language that mimics the one seen in visionOS. 

    The redesign features clear overlays for icons and notifications, resulting in a more uniform look and feel across Apple’s ecosystem. Google made a similar move with its redesigned UI, Material 3 Expressive, for Android phones and smartwatches with Wear OS 6.

    Want a full breakdown of everything Apple announced, including the new iOS 26 and its eye-catching Liquid Glass design? Here’s everything you missed at WWDC 2025.

    Health and fitness coaching

    WatchOS 26 also introduced an AI-powered Workout Buddy to the Apple Watch, offering encouragement and real-time feedback during specific workouts. Most of the heavy lifting will happen on the iPhone, meaning the feature requires pairing the watch with a newer Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone. The Series 11 (and Ultra 3) could push this further by leveraging their more powerful chipset.

    This could include coaching that goes beyond just the workout app, potentially debuting on the Series 11 and then also rolling out to compatible Apple Watches. According to Gurman, Apple has been working on a major Health app revamp, code-named Project Mulberry, that would bring AI recommendations and actionable health and fitness insights to users. The new “Health Plus” app would likely arrive as part of an iOS 19 update, working in tandem with WatchOS 11 to gather and process data. Though it’s still unclear which devices would support it, we could get a first look as early as June 2025 at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

    Health coaching is something other competitors, like Garmin and Fitbit, offer through their platforms via premium (paid) subscriptions. It’s not clear whether Apple would charge extra for these features, or if they’d be baked into the standard Health app at no additional cost.

    VisionOS stats

    The Apple Watch could take some design cues from visionOS on the Apple Vision Pro headset. 

    Apple/Screenshot by CNET

    Additional future Apple Watch surprises

    There’s another rumor floating around that the Apple Watch could get a camera — not for selfies, but for AI-based image recognition. With the release of Apple Intelligence, Apple introduced a visual search tool on the iPhone that uses the camera to provide relevant information about objects and places.

    According to a report by Gurman, Apple is exploring this option, and even if the company decides to move forward with the technology, it likely wouldn’t make its way to the Apple Watch until the 2027 models. While it’s not expected for this launch, it could hint what kind of AI integration will arrive with WatchOS 12. By contrast, WatchOS 11 lacks any Apple Intelligence features.

    foldableapplewatch

    A foldable Apple Watch concept published in the US Patent Application Publication in March, 2025.

    United States Patent Application Publication

    An even further-fetched clue hints at a foldable Apple Watch with two cameras. A recent Apple patent, first uncovered by Patently Apple, and published by the US Patent and Trademark Office in March, details an Apple Watch design featuring a foldable screen and another with a dual-screen display that either folds or slides out. The additional screens could give the Apple Watch more real estate to expand its functionality and make it less reliant on the iPhone. The same patent also points to the possibility of two cameras on this dual-screened watch for either AI processing or video calls. Apple often files patents well before any related technology appears in an actual product, so even if this concept does live to see the light of day, we’re not expecting it to make its public debut anytime soon.


    Continue Reading

  • How old is the earliest trace of life on Earth?

    How old is the earliest trace of life on Earth?

    But Whitehouse presented a third line of evidence to dispute the 3.95 billion-year date: isotopes of hafnium in the same zombie zircon crystals.

    The technique relies on radioactive decay of lutetium–176 to hafnium–176. If the 2.8-billion-year age resulted from rejuvenation by later heating, it would have had to have formed from material with a hafnium isotope ratio incompatible with the isotope composition of the early Earth.

    “They go to impossible numbers,” said Whitehouse.

    The only way that the uranium-lead ratio can be compatible with the hafnium in the zircons, Whitehouse argued, is if the zircons that settled in the silt had crystallized around 2.8 billion years ago, constraining the organic carbon to being no older than that.

    The new oldest remains of life on Earth, for now

    If the Labrador carbon is no longer the oldest trace of life on Earth, then where are the oldest remains of life now?

    For Whitehouse, it’s in the 3.77-billion-year-old Isua Greenstone Belt in Greenland: “I’m willing to believe that’s a well-documented age… that’s what I think is the best evidence for the oldest biogenicity that we have,” said Whitehouse.

    O’Neil recently co-authored a paper on Earth’s oldest surviving crustal rocks, located next to Hudson Bay in Canada. He points there. “I would say it’s in the Nuvvuagittuq Greenstone belt,” said O’Neil, “because I would argue that these rocks are 4.3 billion years old. Again, not everybody agrees!” Intriguingly, the rocks he is referring to contain carbon with a possibly biological origin and are thought to be the remains of the kind of undersea vent where life could well have first emerged.

    But the bigger picture is the fact that we have credible traces of life of this vintage—be it 3.8 or 3.9 or 4.3 billion years.

    Any of those dates is remarkably early in the planet’s 4.6-billion-year life. It’s long before there was an oxygenated atmosphere, before continents emerged above sea level, and before plate tectonics got going. It’s also much older than the oldest microbial “stromatolite” fossils, which have been dated to about 3.48 billion years ago.

    O’Neil thinks that once conditions on Earth were habitable, life would have emerged relatively fast:

    “To me, it’s not shocking, because the conditions were the same,” he said. “The Earth has the luxury of time… but biology is very quick. So if all the conditions were there by 4.3 billion years old, why would biology wait 500 million years to start?”

    Continue Reading

  • Webb Telescope detects gas giant in closest star system to Earth

    Webb Telescope detects gas giant in closest star system to Earth

    Just next door in cosmic terms, astronomers may have spotted a new planetary neighbour – a gas giant circling Alpha Centauri A, the closest Sun-like star to Earth.

    Located a mere four light-years away, this possible Saturn-sized world was detected by the James Webb Space Telescope in its most challenging exoplanet hunt yet.

    If confirmed, it would be the closest planet ever found in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star, offering an unprecedented glimpse into a nearby solar system.

    Alpha Centauri: Our closest cosmic neighbour

    Visible from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere, the Alpha Centauri system consists of three stars: the Sun-like pair Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, plus the faint red dwarf Proxima Centauri.

    Proxima is already known to host three confirmed planets, but finding worlds around the brighter A and B stars has proven far more challenging.

    Alpha Centauri A is the third-brightest star in our night sky, and its close companion B makes observations complex. Any planetary discovery here would offer an unprecedented opportunity to study a nearby solar system in detail.

    Cutting-edge observations with Webb

    The breakthrough came from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which used a coronagraphic mask to block the glare of Alpha Centauri A.

    In August 2024, astronomers detected a faint object over 10,000 times dimmer than the star located at about twice the Earth-Sun distance.

    Because Alpha Centauri B sits nearby, its extra light complicated the analysis. Careful subtraction of both stars’ glow revealed the mysterious candidate, sparking excitement among the team.

    Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, DSS, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (JPL), D. Mawet (Caltech), J. DePasquale (STScI)

    The mystery of the disappearing planet

    Follow-up observations in February and April 2025, using Webb’s Director’s Discretionary Time, failed to spot the object again.

    Rather than dismissing the find, scientists ran millions of computer simulations to model potential orbits.

    Results showed that in nearly half the scenarios, the planet would have moved too close to Alpha Centauri A during those later observations, hiding it from Webb’s view.

    The models suggest a gas giant roughly the mass of Saturn, travelling in an elliptical path that ranges from one to two times Earth’s orbital distance from the Sun.

    This is not the first time Alpha Centauri A has teased astronomers. In 2019, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope recorded a potential exoplanet in the system.

    The new Webb data, combined with that earlier hint, strengthens the case for a genuine planetary companion.

    Why this potential gas giant matters

    If the detection holds, this would be the closest directly imaged planet to a Sun-like star and the most similar in temperature and age to our own gas giant planets. It would also be the nearest such world to Earth, making it an ideal candidate for future study.

    Its presence in a binary system would also challenge existing models of planet formation, survival, and stability in dynamic environments.

    The find underscores how the James Webb Space Telescope is expanding our ability to image exoplanets directly – something that was once nearly impossible, especially around bright and nearby stars.

    Further observations will be needed to confirm the gas giant’s existence and refine its orbit. If verified, the discovery could reshape the next decade of exoplanet science, offering the closest and clearest look yet at a planetary system beyond our own.

    Continue Reading

  • ‘Mazhab nahi, soch badlo’: Religious minorities seek end to forced conversions, intolerance – Pakistan

    ‘Mazhab nahi, soch badlo’: Religious minorities seek end to forced conversions, intolerance – Pakistan

    Jinnah’s oft-quoted speech of Pakistani citizens being free to go to temples and places of worship remains relegated to the history textbooks.

    “I have a problem with the use of the term ‘minority’. It only serves to otherise religious groups within the country and reinforce existing divides. We are all equal citizens of Pakistan.”

    Christians like Pastor Daniel were among hundreds gathered at Karachi’s YMCA on Sunday for the Minority Rights March, which, ironically, was celebrated a day earlier since “minorities wouldn’t get a day off to celebrate it”.

    Jinnah’s oft-quoted speech of Pakistani citizens being free to go to temples and places of worship remains relegated to the history textbooks since the lived realities for religious minorities across Pakistan are far from that freedom once promised.

    “Christians like me aren’t allowed to preach their religion, and seldom can we practice it without the fear of the supposed majority,” said Daniel of Karachi’s Philadelphia Pentecostal Church.

    Jinnah’s speech and his very upbringing were woven through the day’s itinerary. The speakers emphasised that his early education was at schools founded by religious minorities, to whom these schools now remain largely inaccessible.

    Sunday’s march centred around two main demands: the denationalisation of educational institutions, and an end to forced conversions.

    “The biggest discrimination against the Christian community and minority communities in general is that the institutions we built, the institutions that equipped Jinnah to become Quaid of the country, have now been captured under elitist policies and are inaccessible to the general minority population,” Luke Victor, an organiser at the march, told Dawn.com.

    Organiser Luke Victor addresses the crowd at the Minority March at the YMCA ground in Karachi, on August 10, 2025. — Photo by Shifa

    Victor explained that the denationalisation policy has been in place for the past 40 years, but educational institutions still haven’t been returned to the church administration.

    “We have a right under Article 22 to manage our own institutions, but the nationalisation policy is ultra vires of that,” Victor explained. Article 22 of the Constitution outlines “safeguards as to educational institutions in respect of religion”.

    “It’s sort of a robbery of our heritage, of our educational institutions.”

    Other speakers emphasised how former premier Benazir Bhutto was empowered by her alma mater, Karachi Grammar School — founded by the city’s first chaplain, Reverend Henry Brereton — but it hardly has any Christian students today.

    “Systemic discrimination and biased policies have kept minorities away from institutions they once founded and thrived in. They now face a state-created cycle of educational exclusion,” a post on the Minority Rights March’s official X account said.

    On the other hand, Christian-founded public schools like the YMCA lie vacant and misused after being brought under government control as part of the nationalisation policy.

    Several points made at the march were amplified speeches of a robust social media campaign that the Minority Rights March team had begun ahead of the event. #EducationForAll, #GiveBackOurInstitutions, #StopForcedConversions and #MeraMazhabMeriMarzi were just some of the hashtags across the team’s social media, which were spotted on posters too.

    “The state has stolen our educational institutions from us,” one speaker chanted to applause from a colourful sea of participants dressed in quintessentially Sindhi chunri prints, munching on papad and bhel sold by vendors who followed the crowd as they marched to the Arts Council Chowk. The crowd was a microcosm of what minority communities in Pakistan tend to look like: intergenerational, close-knit, small but mighty.

    End to forced conversions

    One of the many slogans reverberating through the crowd of 500-something
    people was ‘mazhab nahi, soch badlo’ (change your mindset, not religion), which called for an end to forced conversions of Hindu girls.

    An attendee Minority Rights March sits outside the YMCA holding a placard saying ‘Mazhab nahi, soch badlo’ on August 10, 2025. — Photo by Anushe Engineer

    “If you can’t get a driver’s licence or own a gun before the age of 18, then why are forced conversions allowed before that age?” asked one speaker who runs a private shelter for young minority girls who were forcibly converted.

    The state’s failure in this case is two-pronged; on the one hand, it fails to protect religious minorities from being forcibly converted. On the other hand, the police refuse to recover those who have been abducted and converted, claiming the girls have now embraced Islam and the parents must stop seeking their recovery.

    According to a study by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Sindh, a province that is host to the largest Hindu population in the country, has seen a mass exodus of Hindus towards India.

    “We have a total of 11 demands today, the foremost being an end to forced conversion of Hindu girls,” said organiser Rampal Singh, who donned a sea-green turban and white kurta shalwar, standing in solidarity with his Hindu brethren.

    “This is not a protest but a celebration for us,” Singh proclaimed, vowing to stand with his Muslim brothers on August 14 as “they are standing with us today”.

    “I am a son of this soil, and all we are asking today is that, please hear us out and our issues.”

    Suhani Naveej, of the Jaguti Foundation, detailed her work on the issue of forced conversion. “Many Hindu parents are now refusing to get their daughters’ CNIC cards made lest it be used as evidence in a court, declaring her a legal adult if she is ever abducted and forcibly converted.”

    Naveej believed that the state’s apathy towards the plight of Hindu girls often leaves them vulnerable to social and educational inequalities.

    “The lack of a CNIC card severely impacts the future prospects of the girls, barring them from accessing education and healthcare, among other basic facilities,” Naveej said.

    Activist Suhani Naveej and Sanjana Kumar pictured with their group from Jugati Foundation at the Minority Rights March 2025 in Karachi on August 10, 2025. — Photo by Shifa

    Still, the activist remained hopeful. Through her work, she aims to rebuild the Hindu community’s trust in state institutions. She has repeatedly called on the state to support her efforts in bridging the divide that has taken root only due to the state’s negligence.

    While expressing despair at the state of forced conversions, activist and organiser Najma Maheshwari said: “Today is supposed to be a day of celebration for us, but instead, we are forced to protest for our basic rights, and for our daughters to not be taken away.”

    Voluntary migration also has its roots in religious discontent. Several nurses belonging to religious minorities flee the country due to workplace harassment, which Pastor Naomi Bashir urged the government to end, as well as address the severe shortage of nurses in Pakistan.

    ‘Apna kachra khud uthao’

    There was an almost palpable distaste from the crowd when speakers addressed the synonymity of sanitary workers with religious minorities, particularly Christians and Hindus, who are often referred to as “churra” and “bhangi” (derogatory terms used for cleaners).

    “We always see that job listings for sanitary work or Khakrob, exclusively ask for non-Muslims. Such actions constitute and promote systemic exclusion against religious communities, pushing them towards the margins,” Jagruti Foundation’s co-founder Sanjana Kumar told Dawn.com.

    Jagruti Foundation is an initiative which aims to promote education in underserved communities.

    Kumar, among many others at the march, questioned the discrimination, asking if cleanliness is “half of faith, then why does the responsibility of it fall solely on religious minorities?”

    “Is that why we voted to be a part of Pakistan? So we could pick up trash?” one organiser asked as she spurred the crowd to chants of “shame, shame”.

    A woman holds up a wooden cross as she sits outside the YMCA at the Minority Rights March in Karachi on August 10, 2025. — Photo by Anushe Engineer

    The day’s doom and gloom was replaced by crowds dancing and swaying to a harmonium player singing Damadam Mast Qalandar as the sun broke through a cloudy sky that shielded the crowd from otherwise unbearable heat.

    “Chant louder so that it reaches the place where laws are passed,” one of the organisers said as he gestured to the Sindh Assembly behind him, the first legislature to pass a resolution in favour of creating Pakistan.

    “We lived here before Pakistan was formed, and we will continue to live here, because, to us, this land’s significance is equivalent to that of our mother”, Maheshwari said.

    “We have been fighting all our lives, and we will continue until our last breath.”

    Header Image: A woman holds up a wooden cross outside the Sindh Assembly at the Minority Rights March held in Karachi on August 10, 2025. — Photo by Shifa

    Continue Reading

  • Kindness in childhood predicts healthy eating habits in teens

    Kindness in childhood predicts healthy eating habits in teens

    A new analysis using data from a longitudinal study that followed children between the ages of 5 and 17 has revealed a surprising association; kids who engaged in kind, caring, and helpful behaviors (being prosocial), were more likely to sustain healthy eating habits as teenagers. The findings from the study appearing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, suggest that fostering prosociality throughout childhood may be a novel intervention strategy to promote healthy eating.

    Researchers analyzed data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a nationally representative study that followed children born in the United Kingdom for over 20 years, starting at birth. Parents reported on whether their child engaged in helping behaviors that reflect kindness, caring, and cooperation when they were 5, 7, and 11 years of age, and the investigators examined whether the extent to which children engaged in these behaviors was related to their self-reported fruit and vegetable consumption in adolescence (assessed at ages 14 and 17).

    Reframing the narrative

    “Too often, we focus on what is going wrong in young people’s lives, but what we hear from them time and time again is that they are tired of that narrative. They want us adults to pay more attention to what is going right, including what they bring to their families and communities,” says lead investigator Farah Qureshi, ScD, MHS, Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Prior research has found that behaviors that help others (like volunteering) are related to better health in older adults. We wanted to understand whether these types of activities benefit youth as well, focusing on a broader range of prosocial behaviors, like acts of kindness, cooperation, and caring for others. In our current research, we found that children who consistently displayed more of these kinds of positive social behaviors at any age were more likely to maintain healthy eating habits into their teenage years, a time when dietary choices set patterns that can shape lifelong health.“

    Senior author Julia K. Boehm, PhD, Department of Psychology, Chapman University, adds, “Prosocial behaviors, such as being considerate of others’ feelings, sharing, helping if someone is hurt or upset, being kind, and volunteering to help others, can influence health by strengthening children’s social ties and improving psychological functioning by promoting better mood, purpose, feelings of competence, and enhanced capacity to cope with stress. All of these, in turn, serve as resources that may inform health-related choices, as is evidenced by our latest findings.”

    Promoting prosocial behavior as a health asset

    The study’s strengths include its large sample, longitudinal design, and extensive covariate adjustment. Parenting or other aspects of the family environment may be unmeasured confounders. “Although we could not account for many of these factors due to data availability, we adjusted for parent-reported eating behaviors in childhood, along with other contributors to family climate (e.g., socioeconomic factors, parent marital status), which may account for some residual confounding,” the authors explain.

    Importantly, the analysis highlights a potential health asset – prosocial behavior – that can promote positive outcomes across the life course. These longitudinal findings support prior cross-sectional work that found youth prosocial behavior was related to healthier behaviors, including dietary patterns.

    Co-author Laura D. Kubzansky, PhD, MPH, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, leads a novel research program on the long-term health impact of prosociality. She points out, “Asset-based interventions can open the door to new and creative health promotion strategies that engage youth in ways that speak to their inherent strengths, including shared values around kindness and cooperation. Supporting prosociality in childhood may be a promising health promotion strategy for future consideration.”

    Dr. Qureshi concludes, “We are living through a divisive time, when empathy can feel undervalued. This study offers us an important reminder about the power of kindness and compassion not only for those who receive it, but also for those who give it. Cultivating these qualities in kids may be an important and novel pathway to promoting public health.”

    Source:

    Journal reference:

    Qureshi, F., et al. (2025). Kind Kids, Healthy Teens: Child Prosociality and Fruit and Vegetable Intake. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2025.107965.

    Continue Reading

  • Sesko reveals basketball passion and Slovenian pride

    Sesko reveals basketball passion and Slovenian pride

    “I play a lot of basketball, especially in the days off and stuff, if I really have time,” Sesko told Zarah Connolly, in his signing interview with club media.

    “Of course, I’m not sweating a lot because you just have to do regeneration, but if there’s an opportunity that I can take, I’ll play basketball.

    “I love to do it. It’s just been also a passion of mine since the youth. When I was off the football, there was basketball.

    “So yeah, I like to do that and I’m enjoying it and it’s like it relaxes me.”

    Continue Reading