Blog

  • What is ‘executive dysfunction’ and how do you overcome it? | Well actually

    What is ‘executive dysfunction’ and how do you overcome it? | Well actually

    In an ultra-viral TikTok video, a woman lies on her couch. “I’m tired. I should shower so it’ll wake me up; if I shower, I should exercise first so I don’t have to shower twice,” intones the voiceover. “If I’m going to exercise, I should eat first; if I’m going to cook, I should have coffee first so I have energy to cook,” it continues. The video – which has almost 5m views – bears the caption: “What executive dysfunction looks like.”

    Hundreds of videos have circulated through social media, pinning people’s various struggles on “executive dysfunction”. Each video follows similar themes: showing people failing to initiate tasks, growing overwhelmed by household chores or theorizing why they’re never on time.

    But what is executive dysfunction? Why do people experience it, and what can be done to mitigate it? Additionally, what is executive function? We asked experts to explain.

    What is executive function?

    Executive function is the ability to manage and organize tasks on a daily basis, says Mai Uchida, a pediatric psychiatrist at Massachusetts general hospital and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. This includes planning, prioritizing and thinking about how long a task will take you before you need to move on to the next thing. But it also includes the ability to break down larger tasks into smaller ones, being able to shift attention from one task to another, and maintaining working memory.

    What is executive dysfunction?

    “Executive dysfunction”, on the other hand, is not really a term used by mental health professionals. You’re much more likely to hear a professional say that a person “has difficulties with executive functioning” or “has poor executive function”, says Kristin Carothers, a clinical psychologist based in Atlanta and New York. These professionals don’t want to label anyone as “dysfunctional”, she says.

    But the idea of executive dysfunction does get at a real experience that some people live with.

    The obvious hallmarks of poor executive function include difficulty initiating tasks, missing or running up against deadlines, being late, and losing things. But it can also include patterns such as poor impulse control and overspending, difficulties in following through on promises, and overestimating your ability to follow through on commitments, says Carothers.

    Critically, “poor executive function” and “executive dysfunction” are not diagnoses, says Uchida. You cannot be diagnosed with either of these terms, but poor executive function could be a symptom that accompanies a genuine psychiatric condition. Most often, poor executive function is associated with ADHD, she says, though “there are plenty of people with ADHD who don’t have executive functioning difficulties”. It has no relationship to intelligence. Executive functioning difficulties can also accompany anxiety and depression.

    What has a negative effect on executive function?

    Like most other human traits, executive function exists on a spectrum. “It’s on a bell curve, where most people are somewhere in the middle,” says Ari Tuckman, a clinical psychologist in Westchester, Pennsylvania. Executive function can also change over your lifetime. For example, “adults have better executive function than kids”, he says. It can decline a bit as a consequence of normal ageing, and those going through menopause will also likely see a greater degree of change as a side-effect of hormonal changes.

    Life circumstances can also affect executive function. “If you have a bad night’s sleep or if you have the flu”, your executive function will take a hit, Tuckman says. Bouts of depression or anxiety, stress, intoxication, head injuries and being busier than usual are also influential factors.

    If you normally don’t struggle with executive function but are having trouble because of temporary life circumstances – such as getting poor sleep, or being busier than usual – things should return to normal afterward. But if you have chronic, persistent trouble with managing daily tasks, to the point that it’s affecting your personal and professional life, that might be a sign that there’s an underlying issue, and you might want to see a professional, says Carothers.

    skip past newsletter promotion

    Are there ways to improve executive function?

    If your ability to manage and organize tasks is made worse because of existing anxiety or depression, treatments such as therapy or medication to alleviate those psychiatric conditions will also lead to improved executive function, says Tuckman.

    For ADHD, however, while taking medications for the condition can help people avoid distraction and improve concentration, executive functioning skills like “organization, prioritization, and time management are not really treated by the medication”, says Uchida.

    Graphic with three lines of text that say, in bold, ‘Well Actually’, then ‘Read more on living a good life in a complex world,’ then a pinkish-lavender pill-shaped button with white letters that say ‘More from this section’ 

    While there are no real treatments explicitly for poor executive function, there are strategies and workarounds that professionals recommend to help make time management easier. Many are tried and true organizational strategies, says Tuckman: “You don’t have to reinvent the wheel.” For example, set up multiple reminders and alarms for yourself, and write out on paper checklists of things to do, even for tasks that are extremely small and easy.

    Reflect on and try to recognize the patterns that get you into trouble. If you have a work deadline approaching, and you know you tend to lose track of time when you open up and scroll through Instagram, try temporarily removing the app from your phone. Essentially, avoid putting yourself into situations that require more impulse control than you are able to muster, says Tuckman.

    If you get overwhelmed by the size of a task and have trouble getting started, Uchida recommends finding a small amount of time you can commit to. Maybe that’s 15 minutes; maybe it’s just five. Then dedicate just that small amount of time to the task. “When the bar is low, it’s a lot easier to get started,” says Uchida, “and sometimes it’s just getting started that’s difficult.” You might find that after that first 15 minutes, you have the ability to keep going. Or you might need a break before you commit to another 15. You have to find and adapt strategies that work for you, she says.

    Carothers also recommends turning to community to help you understand where you might need assistance. “Sometimes other people have more insight into your behavioral patterns than you do,” she says. “Ask a trusted friend, colleague, romantic partner for areas where they’ve noticed you struggle.” Then ask them to help you brainstorm workarounds for those specific circumstances – they might have ideas that you never learned or considered. “Strong social connections are important,” Carothers says. “Learn from the people around you.”


    Continue Reading

  • Stuart Craig obituary | Harry Potter

    Stuart Craig obituary | Harry Potter

    The production designer Stuart Craig, who has died aged 83 after suffering from Parkinson’s disease, played a major role in bringing the fantastical, magical world of Harry Potter to the screen. Craig’s set design skills had won him three Oscars, for Gandhi, Dangerous Liaisons and The English Patient, but creating the look of the film versions of JK Rowling’s stories about the schoolboy wizard was the crowning glory of his career.

    He worked on all eight films in the series, from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone in 2001 to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011, leading a large team of concept artists, art directors, set decorators, construction workers, painters and decorators, prop makers, plasterers and model makers.

    In an interview with the Guardian in 2011, he recalled contemplating the daunting task during a flight to Los Angeles to meet David Heyman, the producer, and Chris Columbus, director of the first film. “I read the novel on the plane over,” he said. “My first reaction was fright: ‘How the hell are we going to do this?’”

    A major challenge was to create Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, so he began by asking Rowling about its geography. “She immediately took out a pen and paper, and made the most extraordinarily complete map on a sheet of A4,” he recalled. “I was still referring to that map 10 years later on the eighth film.”

    Stuart Craig with the hand-made 1:24 scale model of the Hogwarts castle exterior used for filming. Photograph: Matt Crossick/Alamy

    He created the Hogwarts castle exterior as an intricately detailed 1:24 scale model, a “big miniature”. As the story evolved over the years, it was gradually modified. Craig said he “took incredible liberties with continuity from one film to another”. Muted colours were the order of the day throughout Hogwarts scenes, inside and out.

    For the final story, spreading the Deathly Hallows book over two films, the Hogwarts exterior went digital to make it bigger and allow for more detail to be picked up by the camera. “The physical model was scanned and that digital scan became the skeleton of the new digital model,” Craig said.

    An interior, the Room of Requirement – first seen in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007) – began, said Craig, as a “crude, simplistic model just in Styrofoam” before its evolution into a large physical set, complete with secondhand furniture found at auctions. He always drew an initial pencil sketch, often guided by descriptions in the film scripts. The first for Hagrid’s Hut read: “Everything here is oversized.” Once created, the home of the half-giant wizard Hagrid was filled with simple furniture and animal cages by the set decorator.

    From left: Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasley, David Bradley as Filch the Hogwarts caretaker and Alan Rickman as Severus Snape in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002. Muted colours were used throughout. Photograph: Warner Bros/Allstar

    Craig’s earlier film successes posed different challenges. For The Elephant Man (1980), starring John Hurt as a 19th-century man exhibited in a circus “freak show”, he designed Victorian England sets that combined with black-and-white photography to create a stark look and moody atmosphere. It earned him an Oscar nomination and the first of three Bafta awards.

    Later, he had the challenge of working out of the studio, on location. Much of Gandhi (1982), which starred Ben Kingsley, was shot in India, while The Mission (1986) was made in the South American jungle – Craig credited the Italian classicism of one of his production design heroes, Ferdinando Scarfiotti (who made The Last Emperor and other films with the director Bernardo Bertolucci) as an inspiration for the latter film.

    His opulent production design contributed significantly to the decadence of Dangerous Liaisons (1988), filmed in sumptuous period locations across France. Craig described The English Patient (1996) as “a difficult film logistically”, with the crew moving between Italy and Tunisia. “When you design a set in the studio, just by your placing of windows and doorways and furniture you condition the shooting,” he said. “In a location, that’s more difficult, of course, because things are not always where you would choose them to be.”

    Peter Capaldi and John Malkovich in Dangerous Liaisons, 1988, filmed on location, more difficult, said Craig, becamse ‘things are not always where you would choose them to be’. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc/Alamy

    Craig was born in Norwich, to Kate (nee Ralph), who owned a wool shop, and Norman Craig, a publican. He painted scenery at the Maddermarket theatre while a pupil at the City of Norwich school, then went on to Norwich School of Art and Hornsey School of Art in London, and studied film design at the Royal College of Art (1963-66).

    On graduating, he found work in the art department on the James Bond movie spoof Casino Royale (1967), making tea and learning the ropes. He moved on to be a draughtsperson on Three Sisters (1970), directed by Laurence Olivier, then assistant art director on films such as Scrooge (1970), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), A Touch of Class (1973) and Royal Flash (1975). As art director, he worked on A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Superman (1978).

    Craig’s 40-year-plus career as a production designer also took in the films Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), Cal (1984), Cry Freedom (1987), Memphis Belle (1990), Chaplin (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), Shadowlands (1993), Mary Reilly (1996), The Avengers (1998), Notting Hill (1999), The Legend of Bagger Vance (2000) and all three in the Harry Potter spin-off prequel Fantastic Beasts (2016-22), winning a Bafta award for the first. His other Bafta honour came for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), in addition to nominations for six other films in the series.

    Stuart Craig and his long-time collaborator, the set decorator Stephenie McMillan, right, after being presented with the best art direction Oscar for The English Patient by the actor Sandra Bullock at the 69th Academy Awards in 1997. Photograph: Steven D Starr/Corbis/Getty Images

    He and the set decorator Stephenie McMillan worked together on 16 movies over 30 years, including the entire Harry Potter series, for which they oversaw the art department and provided visual continuity. “She was responsible for the details that brought my vision as production designer to life,” Craig wrote in the Guardian in 2013 following her death. A year earlier, the series won an Art Directors Guild contribution to cinematic imagery award.

    Craig, who was presented with the guild’s lifetime achievement award in 2008, also designed the Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme parks in Florida, Japan, Hollywood and Beijing.

    He was made OBE in 2003.

    In 1965, he married Patricia Stangroom. She, their two daughters, Laura and Becky, and four grandchildren survive him.

    Stuart Norman Craig, production designer, born 14 April 1942; died 7 September 2025

    Continue Reading

  • Chronic insomnia linked to 3.5 years faster aging

    Chronic insomnia linked to 3.5 years faster aging

    Share on Pinterest
    Sleeping enough hours may help keep brain young, decrease dementia risk, recent research suggests. Image credit: AnnaStills/Getty Images
    • Insomnia is a sleep disorder where a person has trouble falling and staying asleep.
    • Past studies have linked insomnia to an increased risk for a number of health concerns, including cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
    • A new study found that people with chronic insomnia may be at a greater risk of developing dementia or mild cognitive impairment than those with non-chronic insomnia, associated with faster brain aging.

    Now, a new study recently published in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, reports that people with chronic insomnia may be at a greater risk of developing dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) than those with non-chronic insomnia, associated with faster brain aging.

    For this study, researchers recruited 2,750 adults with an average age of 70 who were cognitively healthy at the beginning of the study, and 16% of them had chronic insomnia.

    Participants were tracked for an average of 5.6 years, and during that time were asked about their sleeping patterns, took thinking and memory tests, and had brain scans to look for white matter hyperintensities and beta-amyloid plaques, which are considered a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

    “We focused on studying the impact of insomnia on different markers of brain health to understand how insomnia may be related to cognitive decline,” Diego Z. Carvalho, MD, MS, sleep medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and lead author of this study, told Medical News Today. “Is it only through Alzheimer’s disease-related changes like amyloid, or also through cerebrovascular pathways affecting our white matter?”

    At the study’s conclusion, researchers discovered that participants with chronic insomnia had a 40% higher chance of developing dementia or MCI than participants with non-chronic insomnia, which is reportedly equivalent to 3.5 additional years of aging.

    “In our models, the impact of insomnia in the risk of MCI/dementia was higher than having two cardiometabolic conditions like hypertension and diabetes, or being 3.5 years older than your actual age, which are known risk factors,” Carvalho explained.

    “This (is) a significant finding because (it will) bring insomnia to the spotlight of potential modifiable risk factors. The size of this association is significant from a public health perspective, particularly for a disorder that is so prevalent in older adults,” he said.

    Additionally, researchers found that study participants who slept less than usual were more likely to have an increased amount of white matter hyperintensities and amyloid plaques in their brains.

    “This helps to understand how insomnia may be related to cognitive decline,” Carvalho said.

    “We found that insomnia with reduced sleep was not only associated with Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers like amyloid, but also with poorer cerebrovascular health with greater evidence for small vessel disease as shown by white matter hyperintensities. This is relevant because it supports that insomnia with reduced sleep may be related to two independent mechanisms that are known to contribute to cognitive decline.”
    — Diego Z. Carvalho, MD, MS

    “Insomnia remains widely under-recognized, under-reported, and undertreated in the community. Older patients often feel that it is normal to sleep poorly. Although there are indeed age-related changes that affect sleep quality, chronic insomnia goes much beyond that and cannot be equated to age-related changes,” he continued.

    “Doctors need to include sleep assessment as part of any routine evaluation of patients of any age, but in particular older adults, as they tend to underreport sleep issues. Because of how prevalent insomnia in older adults is, this is a problem that cannot be constrained to management in sleep clinics,” he added.

    CBT for chronic insomnia

    “I would hope cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, the mainstream of therapy for insomnia, could be implemented in primary care settings across the country. The advent of online treatment options through apps or courses have facilitated access but there is much more work to be done.”
    — Diego Z. Carvalho, MD, MS

    MNT spoke with Christopher Allen, MD, a board-certified sleep medicine physician, pediatric neurologist, and sleep science advisor at Aeroflow Sleep. He commented that he found this study both important and clinically plausible, with findings that align with what he sees in his clinic.

    “This study’s signal touches multiple pathways: cognition, amyloid biology, and cerebrovascular integrity,” he continued. “Understanding those links helps us personalize care by screening for comorbid sleep apnea, mood symptoms, and cardiometabolic risk. These treatments actually consolidate sleep. The public-health upside is huge because improving sleep is a lever patients can pull.”

    Insomnia more than just ‘feeling tired’

    “Long-standing insomnia is more than just ‘feeling tired’ — it can track changes in attention, memory, and processing speed over time. Insomnia is common, underdiagnosed, and very treatable. The gold standard is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). If persistent insomnia is a marker or even a modest contributor to brain vulnerability, then identifying and treating it becomes part of brain-health prevention, not just symptom relief.”
    — Christopher Allen, MD

    For the next steps of this research, Allen said he would like to see interventional trials, objective sleep measurement, and broader, longer, and more diverse cohorts.

    “(I) would also like to clarify how hypnotic use, where this study found no association with worse outcomes overall, interacts with specific phenotypes like short-sleep insomnia,” he added.

    MNT also spoke with Megan Glenn, PsyD, clinical neuropsychologist in the Center for Memory and Healthy Aging at Hackensack Meridian Neuroscience Institute at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in New Jersey, about this research.

    “Insomnia is one of the most common concerns I see in older adults worried about memory. This study is encouraging because it links poor sleep not just to cognitive symptoms, but to measurable brain changes and future risk of decline. It reinforces sleep as a tangible lever we can act on in the quest to prevent or slow the trajectory of developing dementia.”
    — Megan Glenn, PsyD

    “Most cases of dementia develop from many small risk factors adding up over decades,” she continued. “The more modifiable targets we find — like sleep, blood pressure, hearing, and physical activity — the more we can combine them into meaningful protection. Research suggests roughly 45% of dementia cases could be delayed or prevented by addressing these factors.”

    “We need studies using objective sleep measures, not just self-report or chart review, to clarify which aspects of sleep matter most,” Glenn added. “It’s also critical to test whether treating insomnia — through behavioral therapy or medications — actually changes cognitive outcomes and brain biomarkers.”

    Continue Reading

  • Butterfly-shaped hole pops up on the Sun. It's 5,00,000-km-wide – MSN

    1. Butterfly-shaped hole pops up on the Sun. It’s 5,00,000-km-wide  MSN
    2. Aurora alert! Butterfly-shaped ‘hole’ in sun’s atmosphere could spark geomagnetic storm Sept. 13-14  Space
    3. Auroras could light up Northern (and Southern) skies on Sept 13 and 14 following powerful solar wind storm  Notebookcheck
    4. Butterfly-Shaped Hole in the Sun May Spark Stunning Auroras This Weekend  NewsX
    5. 5,00,000-km-wide butterfly-shaped hole pops up on Sun | Solar wind from it might reach Earth on Sunday | Inshorts  Inshorts

    Continue Reading

  • Talks Resurgence of 2007 Hit ‘Ikenai Taiyo’

    Talks Resurgence of 2007 Hit ‘Ikenai Taiyo’

    Billboard Japan caught up with ORANGE RANGE for its Monthly Feature interview series spotlighting currently noteworthy artists and works. The five-man J-pop band is soon celebrating its 25th anniversary and showering fans with a string of releases both nostalgic and new.

    On July 2 — a Japanese numeric pun, as “7/2” can be read as “natsu,” meaning summer — the band hailing from Okinawa dropped a brand-new music video for one of its signature hits called “Ikenai Taiyo”（”Naughty Sun”). The updated “Reiwa”

    version visuals star the popular comedy duo Mayurika, who previously referenced lyrics from OR’s hit “Shanghai Honey” in their routine, and feature 72 Japanese throwback pop-culture references from the aughts, a period that falls under the country’s Heisei era. The comic video resonated with Japan’s thirty to forty-something demographic that grew up on the pop band’s hits, topping the Billboard Japan’s video views metric for two consecutive weeks and continuing to chart in the upper ranks today. 

    Additionally, the group’s “Oshare Bancho feat. Soy Sauce” is going viral on TikTok, with numerous influencers, idols, and other celebrities posting dance videos set to this song from 2008. ORANGE RANGE’s current resurgence in mainstream popularity, where people from all generations are responding to the band’s highly addictive pop music, can be attributed not only to the strength of the songs themselves but also to the success of Sony Music’s strategy after reuniting with the band.

    Back in July 2010, OR established its own independent imprint called SUPER((ECHO))LABEL, continuing its music activities independently in recent years. The band returned to Sony Music Records in May and dropped its first CD single from the label in about 12 years called “Maji de sekai kaechau 5 byou mae.” Currently promoting its Natsui Natsu★Project (roughly meaning “Summery Summer Project”), the band is hyping up the summer of “Reiwa 7” (2025) with signature party tracks including “Hadashi no ceccoli.” The members and label staff chatted with Billboard Japan about their thoughts behind the band’s latest project with SMR and series of releases in this latest interview.

    “Ikenai Taiyo” from 2007 was featured as the theme song for the TV drama series Hana-Kimi and became one of your signature tracks, partly due to the popularity of the show. How do you view its resurgence in the summer of 2025?

    RYO: Looking at the comments on YouTube’s THE FIRST TAKE and our music videos, I think the core audience is probably in their 30s, and it really hit home just how many people were listening to our songs. Then the teenagers and 20-somethings who see those comments realize that those were the people who used to listen to ORANGE RANGE back in the day, and that’s a very modern phenomenon. It wasn’t really a thing when we first made our debut, so it genuinely makes me happy.

    NAOTO: I have a personal anecdote related to this. I got a LINE message out of nowhere from a relative, a kid in high school, who hadn’t spoken to me at all until last New Year’s. And this kid was like, “I never knew ‘Oshare Bancho feat. Soy Sauce’ was a song you did, Uncle.” I didn’t want to pry too much, so I just replied, “Thanks.” [Laughs] 

    YAMATO: Honestly, I’m really happy about it. But we haven’t really changed what we’ve been doing. We’re currently riding the wave and experiencing firsthand what it means to go viral, but intend to continue doing what we do and should do, as we always have.

    HIROKI: While it wasn’t just a sudden, spontaneous phenomenon and there was definitely a strategic element to it, we never expected it to reach this level. I think we were incredibly lucky. But I also genuinely want to give ourselves credit, since the fact that we’ve been doing this until now and strength of our songs have something to do with it, too. Receiving renewed attention means we have a better chance of getting more people to listen to our future releases, and I’m really happy this whole chain of events was successful. Of course, this isn’t the end goal, so I’m excited about what to do with our next song and so on.

    You left gr8!records, a label within Sony Music where you’d been for nine years, and rejoined Sony Music Records in May. There was a strategic intent behind that move as a band, right?

    YOH: Let’s say the band is a robot. It started out as a small robot with just the members. But by the time our songs started reaching more people, it had grown massive, and it was like our weapons kept changing too. Then, to go back to basics, we decided to operate it on our own again, which meant leaving the company. There was always plenty to learn, no matter the environment, and we’ve taken steps in building our careers. So personally, I was eagerly waiting for the moment to use those super-powerful weapons and high-defense shields we used before. It wasn’t a decision made in the past year or two, and was always in the back of my mind. I’m glad we got good results, and think we’ve taken the first step towards next year’s 25th anniversary.

    Did you have any conflicted feelings when you left the major label?

    YOH: More and more people got involved as we rose to stardom, which meant the members were talking to each other less and it became harder to know what everyone was thinking. It felt like tension just kept building up inside the group. That was incredibly stressful for me. After going back to the indie scene, I got to hear stories from people I probably never would have connected with otherwise, and had all kinds of encounters. Sometimes people looked at us in a biased way, so being able to shed that was huge. I’m pretty sure each of us has our own experiences. It feels like all of that has come together and connected to created this good flow we have today.

    RYO: I definitely felt conflicted. It felt like we were just charging ahead. Back then, I believed that was the right thing to do. Now, we’ve come to understand each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and we’ve achieved a good balance because each of us has our own role. Next year is our 25th anniversary, and I think we’d be unbeatable if we all became proficient in every area by the time we reach our 35th.

    Do you feel you were able to team up with a major label again and create the situation you’re in today precisely because the band has become tougher now? 

    RYO: Oh, for sure.

    YOH: Personally, I discover a lot of new stuff when we go head-to-head (with the label staff). There are more sections now than back then and everyone analyzes things deeply, so it’s really interesting to hear what they have to say. I mean, they all graduated from good universities. [Laughs] You’ve got to hand it to them.

    What are your thoughts on your performances on THE FIRST TAKE? You released “Ikenai Taiyo” on July 18 and “Hana” on July 30.

    RYO: I was nervous.

    YAMATO: Maybe I came across as being nervous because my recent stance has been to take things a bit too seriously. But I’ve also noticed that I’ve become more sensitive to tension over the past few years.

    Is that so?

    YAMATO: I’ve grown older and I’m not as mobile as I used to be, so I’ve started using my mind more. I’m someone who used to just go with the flow, relying on instinct. After I stopped doing that and started trying to think things through as much as possible, I realized over the past few years that I hadn’t been doing what I should have been doing. I’ve become more aware of all sorts of things, and feel like I’ve started putting more pressure on myself. Maybe that’s what made me seem nervous.

    NAOTO: About that young relative I mentioned earlier — I got a LINE message saying, “I watched THE FIRST TAKE, too.”

    So you’re reaching that demographic! Are there any aspects you consciously focused on or paid particular attention to that are unique to THE FIRST TAKE?

    YAMATO: I thought I’d do it like I always do, but noticed there were a lot of parts that I sing on the recording, but don’t sing them live. We had discussions like, “Should we try sticking closer to the recording here?” Maybe we could incorporate that as a nice accent in future concerts too.

    Tell us about “Ikenai Taiyo (Reiwa ver. Music Video).” How did that project come about?

    HIROKI: That was also something we started preparing months ago. It started as a suggestion from the team, so I’d actually like to ask them about it now. I imagine there were individual steps they could visualize, like “Let’s do this, let’s do that,” and others where they were like, “Is this such a good idea?” All those dots connected to get us to where we are now, and I’m curious about the extent that they had planned ahead.

    SMR Staff: We had a lot of ideas, but the biggest factor was probably that not just me, but the entire Sony Music Records team was incredibly happy to be working with ORANGE RANGE again. So there was this shared passion among the staff to really get things going. I also felt that many people within the company still felt grateful for the band’s conduct and musical activities during their previous tenure here, which made us feel we had to carry that legacy forward in a proper way.

    That’s very interesting.

    Staff: I think I first said to the members that we wanted to revisit past songs, knowing they probably wouldn’t like that idea. But (those songs) shined so bright to me. I believed that by polishing them further, there’d be a moment beyond that when the band’s new songs would reach people properly. That’s why I brought it up. So it really is like a starting point, a gateway, and I’m excited to create new things together with the band from here and release new songs. 

    Tell us about your latest single, “Hadashi no ceccoli.” What was the original concept behind its creation?

    NAOTO: Our team asked us to write something like “an old-school ORANGE RANGE summer bop.” It was an idea that we wouldn’t have acted on ourselves, and decided to go along with it. So it’s more like a self-homage to the old ORANGE RANGE, rather than an attempt to create something new. But ultimately it gave us a fresh new feeling, and we realized this kind of thing definitely works too.

    HIROKI: Over the past few years, we’ve been making songs entirely based on our own judgment. So this time, we consciously tried to absorb and incorporate different people’s opinions and ideas. That was probably our mindset for this production. We hadn’t really done stuff like the vocal chase in the A-melody (first verse) of “Shanghai Honey” in recent years. Even with the lyrics, we were deliberately going for that borderline cheesy feel, like “Remember how it used to be?” while we were making it. People don’t want to do the same thing over and over and want to try something different, you know? So we were like, “Maybe this will do, too,” and had fun with it. 

    Lastly, what are ORANGE RANGE’s visions and ambitions moving forward?

    HIROKI: We released “Hana” on THE FIRST TAKE too, so I’m hoping people searching for the girl group HANA accidentally click on our “Hana” instead and it gets more views.

    YAMATO: They both do come up on the search.

    HIROKI: It’d be great if we showed up higher when people search for “Hana.” [Laughs]

    —This interview by Takuto Ueda first appeared on Billboard Japan

    Continue Reading

  • Pigs’ heads left outside French mosques stoke suspicions of Russian interference

    Pigs’ heads left outside French mosques stoke suspicions of Russian interference


    Paris
     — 

    Severed pigs’ heads dumped outside mosques, red hands daubed on a Holocaust memorial, Stars of David sprayed in Paris neighborhoods: French authorities suspect foreign – and plausibly Russian – interference in a chain of acts looking to stoke internal tensions in France.

    The pigs’ heads, discovered outside nine mosques in and around Paris during the night of September 8, according to Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez on Wednesday, is the latest incident to stir these suspicions, with the Paris prosecutor’s office investigating the alleged hate crime as being possibly sponsored by a foreign country.

    CCTV footage showed two men driving into Paris and then depositing the porcine remains, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office.

    The men allegedly responsible were foreigners who had since left France, according to a statement on Thursday, with the acts having, “the clear intention to cause unrest within the nation.”

    A farmer in Normandy sold about 10 heads to two people traveling in a car bearing a Serbian number plate, prosecutors said, adding that authorities tracked a Croatian SIM card the men reportedly used to the Franco-Belgian border.

    The farmer, speaking to CNN affiliate France 2, said they were “two foreigners who didn’t speak French, spoke bad English.”

    While he is used to selling pigs’ heads to chefs, the farmer said it was unusual to sell 10 at a time, additionally the men put the heads directly into the trunk of their car, raising his suspicions.

    “Keeping them cold, you can forget it,” he said of the heads in the trunk, and later alerted the authorities, he told France 2.

    In this deliberately blurred photo, a pig's head which was dumped outside a mosque in Paris on Tuesday can be seen on the floor.

    A French defense intelligence source told CNN that these acts were a “maneuver by the pro-Russian sphere,” but because of a lack of support from pro-Russian media and online outlets, the interference did not “work as well as anticipated.”

    The incidents come at a time of stark confrontation between Russia and France, with French President Emmanuel Macron a vocal supporter of robust security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any potential peace deal. While Russia denies meddling in the affairs of other states, Russian state-controlled media like to cast European countries like France as tottering on the brink of anarchy over hot-button issues such as immigration and culture clash.

    Paris Police Chief Nunez, speaking in an interview with CNews on Thursday, said the intention behind the pigs’ heads was “to divide, to actually fan the flames of division.”

    This incident has striking similarities with past hate acts in France.

    Foreign perpetrators have been linked to previous acts intended to incite hatred. Three Bulgarians were suspected of painting red hands on Paris’ Holocaust Memorial in May 2024, with the Paris prosecutor suggesting Russia was behind the crime.

    Graffiti on the

    A Moldovan man believed to have masterminded the painting of some 60 blue Stars of David on walls in and around Paris was detained in France, with authorities investigating possible links with Russia, according to CNN affiliate BFMTV.

    France has been the target of an “unprecedented disinformation campaign, orchestrated by pro-Russian circles” since January 2025, according to the French Defense Ministry, including the use of fake news sites and social media bots. A 2025 European Union report found that over one in three incidents from “hostile actors” in 2024 targeted France, with 152 cases originating in Russia and China.

    Authorities in the Paris region have investigated nine cases of crimes suspected of being sponsored by foreign powers since 2023, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.

    A woman walks past a building tagged with Stars of David in Paris on October 31, 2023.

    She told BFMTV the alleged perpetrators often spend little time in France, sometimes sending proof of their acts to their handlers.

    While earlier incidents against Jewish sites, coming amid the backlash over the soaring death toll in Israel’s conflict in Gaza, sparked a media frenzy around this particularly act of brazen antisemitism, the pigs’ heads did not have the same effect.

    “It is also notable that French society has shown great resilience, with, from the outset, doubts about the origin,” the French defense intelligence source told CNN.

    France has seen a spike in antisemitism since Israel’s war in Gaza, with 1,570 such acts recorded in 2024, according to the French government and 646 in the first six months of 2025, per CNN affiliate BFMTV.

    There was also a 72% increase in Islamophobic acts in France in the first three months of 2025 compared to the previous year, according to French government figures.

    Additional reporting by Philippe Cordier and Cecilia Laurent Monpetit.


    Continue Reading

  • Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank expect three US interest rate cuts this year – Reuters

    1. Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank expect three US interest rate cuts this year  Reuters
    2. US Treasuries Rise as Mixed Data Leave Fed Rate Cuts Intact  Bloomberg.com
    3. September Fed Meeting: Live Updates and Commentary  Kiplinger
    4. Fed Rate Cuts Are Priced In. Watch for Dissent Among the Committee.  Barron’s
    5. Six rate cuts in search of a reason  RBC Wealth Management

    Continue Reading

  • Camera trap in Chile detects strange lights blazing through the wilderness. Researchers are scrambling to explain them.

    Camera trap in Chile detects strange lights blazing through the wilderness. Researchers are scrambling to explain them.

    On Jan. 21, at 12:22 a.m. local time, in the silence and darkness of Chile’s Patagonia region, a camera trap used to monitor wildlife for a project run by the University of Magallanes (UMAG) captured, in 2 seconds, three photographs showing intense lights moving downward.

    Everyone was baffled.


    Continue Reading

  • What Apple’s FDA clearance for hypertension means for RPM

    What Apple’s FDA clearance for hypertension means for RPM

    The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted clearance for a new Apple Watch feature designed to monitor hypertension risk, marking a significant milestone for wearable health and remote patient monitoring (RPM). Beginning next week, users in more than 150 countries will gain access to this functionality across Apple Watch Series 9, 10, 11, and Ultra 2 and 3 models. Unlike traditional blood pressure cuffs, which provide only periodic readings, the Apple Watch uses its optical heart sensor to track vascular responses over a 30-day period. This longitudinal approach offers a more comprehensive view of blood pressure regulation and allows for earlier identification of risk patterns.

    Hypertension is one of the most pervasive and costly chronic conditions, and affects almost half of the adult US population. It contributes to significant rates of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and kidney failure if left untreated. Early detection and consistent monitoring are critical for prevention, but patients often struggle with adherence to conventional at-home monitoring protocols. The Apple Watch clearance represents a major step forward in addressing this challenge. By embedding FDA-validated monitoring into a widely used consumer device, the barriers to RPM adoption could be lowered. Users who already wear an Apple Watch daily now have access to clinically relevant information without changing their routines.

    This clearance is also notable for what it signals about the FDA’s stance on digital health. Wearable devices have long offered features that are used for wellness and clinical utility, but the regulatory approval elevates Apple’s feature into the category of validated medical technology. Such recognition opens the door for broader use of consumer wearables in structured RPM programmes. It also underscores the increasing convergence of consumer electronics and regulated medical devices, a trend likely to accelerate in cardiovascular health and beyond.

    The integration of hypertension monitoring into a mass-market wearable aligns with broader trends in healthcare delivery, including the shift towards value-based care and the decentralisation of monitoring from clinics to patients’ homes. The potential benefits include early intervention, improved patient adherence, and reduced costs. Healthcare systems may also find value in integrating Apple Watch data into electronic medical records and care management platforms to enable more seamless coordination across care teams.

    Apple’s FDA clearance is more than a product announcement; it represents a broader shift in how chronic disease management is being reimagined. By embedding clinically validated monitoring into a device that millions of people already own, Apple can advance the adoption of RPM significantly. For healthcare providers and patients alike, this could mean more accessible data, earlier interventions, and a path towards more efficient and proactive models of care.



    Continue Reading

  • Warming climate drives surge in dengue fever cases

    Warming climate drives surge in dengue fever cases

    Health and medicine  |  News releases  |  Public Health  |  Research  |  Science

    September 12, 2025

    Continue Reading