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  • Israeli forces seize pro-Palestinian boat Handala – World

    Israeli forces seize pro-Palestinian boat Handala – World

    PORT ASHDOD: Israeli forces seized the pro-Palestinian activist boat Handala in the international waters off Gaza and detained the crew and campaigners from 10 countries, including two French parliamentarians, before bringing the vessel into the port of Ashdod on Sunday.

    Campaigners from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition had attempted to break the suffocating siege on Gaza, but were abducted by Israeli forces. On board were activists from 10 countries, including two French MPs from the left-wing France Unbowed party, Emma Fourreau and Gabrielle Cathala.

    There are also American, European and Arab activists among those detained by Israeli forces.

    A previous boat sent by Freedom Flotilla, the Madleen, was also intercepted by the Israeli military in international waters on June 9 and towed to Ashdod. It carried 12 campaigners, including prominent Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. The activists were later expelled by Israel.

    Activists from 10 countries, including two French lawmakers, detained

    Adalah, a legal rights centre, said its lawyers were in Ashdod and had been allowed to speak to 19 members of the 21-strong international crew, which included two French parliamentarians and two Al Jazeera journalists. The remaining two of those detained were dual US and Israeli citizens and had been transferred to police custody, Adalah said.

    “After 12 hours at sea, following the unlawful interception of the Handala, Israeli authorities confirmed the vessel’s arrival at Ashdod port,” said the group, set up to campaign for the rights of Israel’s Arab population.

    “Adalah reiterates that the activists aboard the Handala were part of a peaceful civilian mission to break through Israel’s illegal blockade on Gaza.

    The vessel was intercepted in international waters and their detention constitutes a clear violation of international law.“

    Just before midnight local time on Saturday, video streamed live from the Handala showed Israeli troops boarding the vessel. An online tracker showed the ship in international waters west of Gaza.

    The ship had been on course to try to break an Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and bring a small quantity of humanitarian aid to Palestinians.

    The Handala’s crew had said before their capture in a post on X that they would go on a hunger strike if the Israeli army intercepted the boat and detained its passengers.

    The Israeli foreign ministry said the navy stopped the Handala to prevent it from entering the coastal waters off the territory of Gaza. “The vessel is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. All passengers are safe,” it said.

    Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025

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  • Thai, Cambodian leaders to meet in Malaysia for peace talks – Newspaper

    Thai, Cambodian leaders to meet in Malaysia for peace talks – Newspaper

    • Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim, chair of the Asean bloc, will mediate dialogue
    • Clashes continue as Trump threatens tariffs if no deal is reached on truce

    SAMRAONG: Thailand and Cambodia’s leaders will meet in Malaysia for peace talks on Monday, as the countries clashed for a fourth day in a deadly border dispute.

    At least 34 people have been killed and more than 200,000 displaced as the countries, both popular tourist destinations, fight over a smattering of contested border temples.

    Bangkok announced on Sunday that acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Manet will meet for talks mediated by Malaysian leader Anwar Ibrahim, who chairs the Asean regional bloc of which Thailand and Cambodia are members.

    Anwar said the expected talks were to focus on an immediate ceasefire between the two fighting neighbours.

    “They [Cambodia and Thailand] have asked me to try and negotiate a peace settlement,” the Bernama national news agency quoted Mr Anwar as saying late on Sunday.

    “I’m discussing the parameters, the conditions, but what is important is [an] immediate ceasefire,” the Malaysian premier said.

    Cambodia has not commented on the planned talks, which are due to begin in the afternoon.

    US President Donald Trump, who spoke to both leaders late Saturday, said they had agreed to “quickly work out” a ceasefire. Trump threatened both nations with eye-watering levies in his global tariff blitz unless they agree to independent trade deals.

    “When all is done, and Peace is at hand, I look forward to concluding our Trading Agreements with both!” he wrote on social media.

    Meanwhile, artillery clashes continued on Sunday morning near two long-contested ancient temples in the frontier region between northern Cambodia and northeast Thailand.

    Cambodian defence ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata said Thai forces began attacking areas around the temples at 4:50am.

    “We rushed to leave the house this morning,” said 61-year-old Thai border resident Maefah, rearranging bin bags of her family’s belongings in the back of a truck stopped at a petrol station in Surin province. “All of my neighbours have already left. And we didn’t feel safe to stay any longer,” she said, declining to give her surname.

    Thai army deputy spokesman Ritcha Suksuwanon said Cambodian forces began firing artillery around 4am as the two sides battled for control of strategic positions.

    With the conflict inflaming nationalist sentiments, Thailand issued a warning to its own citizens to “refrain from any kind of violence, whether in speech or action” against Cambodian migrants living in the country.

    Ceasefire calls

    Cambodia’s Hun Manet said his country “agreed with the proposal for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire between the two armed forces”.

    After Trump’s call, Phumtham said he had agreed in principle to enter a ceasefire and start talks. But on Sunday each side blamed the other again for undermining peace efforts.

    The Thai foreign ministry accused Cambodian forces of firing shells into civilian homes in Surin province. “Any cessation of hostilities cannot be reached while Cambodia is severely lacking in good faith,” the ministry said.

    Thailand says eight of its soldiers and 13 civilians have been killed, while Cambodia has confirmed eight civilian and five military deaths during the clashes since last Thursday. The conflict has also forced more than 138,000 people to be evacuated from Thailand’s border regions, and 80,000 have been driven from their homes in Cambodia.

    The Cambodian government has accused Thai forces of using cluster munitions, while Bangkok has accused Phnom Penh of targeting hospitals.

    Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025

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  • A week when everything happens

    A week when everything happens

    Traders wait for insurance marketplace Accelerant to begin trading during the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 24, 2025.

    Brendan McDermid | Reuters

    Choose a comfortable seat and grab your popcorn. These five days will basically be the Olympics for market watchers:

    • Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple are reporting earnings.
    • The U.S. Federal Reserve's rate-setting committee is meeting.
    • The personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed's preferred inflation reading, comes out.
    • U.S. jobs data for July will be released.

    And looming over all those financial and macroeconomic events is U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline for his new tariffs.

    As Kim Forrest, founder at Bokeh Capital, said, "What isn't happening in this week?"

    Here's the ideal scenario for investors.

    The Magnificent Seven companies reporting earnings this week and the U.S. economy secure gold at their respective events. (The Fed is expected to keep rates unchanged — whether this qualifies the central bank for a medal is up for debate).

    Big trading partners of the U.S., such as South Korea and India, secure a deal with the White House and join the European Union and Japan at the podium, while Beijing extends its tariff suspension with Washington.

    If those events happen, U.S. stocks will probably have legs clear hurdle after hurdle — and the S&P 500 can continue topping record tables.

    — CNBC's Sarah Min contributed to this report

    What you need to know today

    Trump announces a trade agreement with the European Union. Most European goods, including cars, exported to the U.S. will face a 15% tariff, Trump said Sunday. The bloc also agreed to purchase $750 billion worth of U.S. energy, he added.

    The Fed is ready to start lowering rates, Trump said. On Friday, the U.S. president said Fed Chair Jerome Powell told him "the country is doing well," which Trump took to mean "he's going to start recommending lower rates." Futures markets disagree.

    Perfect week for the S&P 500. The broad-based index rose Friday to close at a high — its fifth record in a row last week. The Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average also advanced. The Stoxx Europe 600 lost 0.29%.

    Palantir joins rank of top 20 most valuable U.S. companies. After rising more than 2% on Friday to hit a market cap of $375 billion, Palantir bumped Home Depot out of the list. The software provider has more than doubled in value this year.

    [PRO] Keep an eye on these overbought stocks. Using CNBC Pro's stock screener tool, the team has identified 18 stocks that might be trading at levels higher than their fair value, based on their 14-day relative strength index.

    And finally...

    U.S. President Donald Trump talks to reporters after touring the Federal Reserve’s $2.5 billion headquarters renovation project on July 24, 2025 in Washington, DC.

    Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

    Under Trump, Uncle Sam is becoming an active investor

    The Trump administration has taken direct stakes in companies on a scale rarely seen in the U.S. outside wartime or economic crisis, pushing a Republican Party that traditionally championed free-market capitalism to embrace state intervention in industries viewed as important for national security.

    More interventions could be on the horizon as the Trump administration develops a policy to support U.S. companies in strategic industries against state-backed competition from China.

    — Spencer Kimball


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  • How astronomers spotted birth of a new solar system around baby star HOPS-315

    How astronomers spotted birth of a new solar system around baby star HOPS-315

    For the first time, astronomers have captured a young star just beginning to assemble its planets. An international team has observed mineral particles solidifying around the infant star HOPS-315, located 1,300 light-years away, using the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA) radio telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). These mineral specks will collide and grow into rocky Earth-like worlds, revealing how terrestrial planets (planets composed primarily of silicate rocks) and the rocky cores of the gas giants are born.

    “For the first time, we have identified the earliest moment when planet formation is initiated around a star other than our Sun,” says Melissa McClure, a professor at Leiden University in the Netherlands and lead author of the study, published recently in Nature.

    A massive cloud of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity, forming a protostar (an infant stage of a star’s formation) like HOPS-315. These protostars have leftover gas, dust, and ice that flatten into a spinning protoplanetary disc (a rotating disk of matter around a young star), where new planets form. Over time, the disc cools and particles begin to stick together, eventually forming rocky planetesimals (precursor building-blocks of planets) that become planets or remain as smaller bodies.

    When our solar system formed, the first grains to cool and solidify near Earth’s orbit were minerals containing silicon monoxide (SiO). These solid grains clumped together to form rocky planetesimals, the building blocks of terrestrial planets, such as Earth. Some SiO-rich grains were trapped in ancient meteorites during the solar system’s formation, preserving a record of early planet formation. Scientists now study these meteorites to uncover when the first solid grains appeared.

    Astronomers have now observed the birth of solid stardust around HOPS-315, using JWST and ALMA. They detected silicon monoxide (SiO) as both gas and freshly forming crystals, explaining how building blocks of planets appear in the protoplanetary disc.

    The team used JWST’s infrared telescope to study the chemical composition of material around the star. Different molecules absorb specific wavelengths of infrared radiation based on their chemical properties, creating distinct dips (absorption lines) in the spectrum, which is a graph showing how much light is absorbed at each colour. These lines, like unique fingerprints, allow astronomers to identify the molecules present and determine their temperature, providing insights into the composition and conditions of molecules in the protoplanetary disc (the disk-shaped region of matter around a young star where planets can form).

    Also read: Why Earth is in a hurry and July 9 saw one of the shortest days ever

    In HOPS-315’s disk, the team detected warm silicon monoxide (SiO) alongside SiO-rich silicate minerals for the first time. The star’s midsection, nearly 1200K, was hot enough to vaporise rocks. In this region, silicates turned into gas, which later cooled and condensed into solid minerals, forming the material that would eventually become planets. “This hot mineral is the first feedstock that you have to start growing things in the disk,” says McClure.

    JWST identified key chemical ingredients, while ALMA pinpointed their location. Using ALMA, the team traced the sources of these signals. JWST detected SiO gas moving at 10 km/s, but ALMA found SiO jets moving ten times faster, showing that slower SiO is concentrated in a region near the star, similar to our Solar System’s asteroid belt.

    While SiO jets shoot from the disc, the SiO gas concentration in the jets is less than in the disc itself. This suggests that some SiO gas is cooling and turning into solid dust, similar to steam condensing into water.

    The team identified these chemical signatures in a small section of HOPS-315’s disc, which is similar in size to our asteroid belt. They recognised the same minerals seen in ancient meteorites from our solar system, confirming signals from a region where Earth-like planets may form. The jets contained less silicon and iron gas than expected, hinting that these elements are being absorbed by growing planetary seeds.

    “We’re really seeing these minerals at the same location in this extrasolar system as where we see them in asteroids in the Solar System,” says co-author Logan Francis, a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University.

    HOPS-315 is among 410 young stellar objects identified by the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey using the Spitzer Space Telescope. The survey identified different types of protostars, ranging from very young to more developed ones, and demonstrated how their surroundings evolve over time, ultimately leading to the formation of planetary systems.

    Also read: All eyes on India’s first space mission in four decades; Shubhanshu Shukla on board

    HOPS-315, in the Orion molecular cloud complex about 1,300 light years away, drew astronomers’ attention for its crystalline silicate minerals, a sign of early planet formation. McClure and her team focused on this protostar using JWST and ALMA.

    An added benefit came from HOPS-315’s accidental alignment. While jets from newborn stars often block the disc, HOPS-315’s tilt allowed astronomers a direct view of its gas and dust disk. The protoplanetary disc of HOPS-315 extends 35 Astronomical Units (AU), or the distance between Earth and the Sun, resembling a solar system in formation. “The star is on track to grow to be as large as the Sun,” McClure says, “and the disc is about the same mass and radius… as the Sun’s disc at a similar age.”

    Until now, astronomers debated whether rocky planets formed farther out (where water freezes) or closer to the star (where SiO — silicon monoxide — is abundant). HOPS-315 confirms the latter, hot minerals condense into rock near the star.

    “Our results… provide physical constraints on what the region around the sun within 1 AU might have looked like for our solar system,” McClure says, “which will allow people to test these theories.”

    “What we’ve been trying to do is find a baby version of our Solar System somewhere else,” says Merel van’t Hoff, an astronomer at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and a co-author of the study. HOPS-315 provides a wonderful analogue for studying our own cosmic history. As van’t Hoff says, “This system is one of the best that we know to actually probe some of the processes that happened in our solar system.”


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  • Nine dead, 30 injured in bus crash on Islamabad-Lahore Motorway – Newspaper

    Nine dead, 30 injured in bus crash on Islamabad-Lahore Motorway – Newspaper

    • Victims include three siblings
    • Survivor blames reckless driving, police cite ‘burst tyre’ as cause of fatal accident

    CHAKWAL: Nine passengers, including four children, were killed and 30 others injured when the bus they were travelling in crashed on the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway near the Balkassar Interchange on Sunday morning.

    The victims included three siblings, as well as a mother and her young son. Among the injured was also a Filipino, married and residing in Lahore.

    Carrying over 40 passengers, the bus bearing registration number JA-6871 was en route to Lahore from Islam­abad, police and rescue officials said.

    Around 7:15am, it was near Dhoke Sial village, just 2km from the Balkassar Interchange, when one of its tyres burst, officials said. As a result, they added, the driver lost control of the vehicle, which veered off the motorway and fell into a ditch.

    Besides, the personnel of Motor­way Police, Chakwal district police, teams of Rescue 1122 and Frontier Works Organisation also arrived at the site soon after the crash.

    Police said eight people, including four children, died on the spot, while a woman later died at a hospital. According to the police, there were two drivers on the bus; one died in the crash while the other fled.

    The injured were transported to Kallar Kahar tehsil headquarters hospital and Chakwal district headquarters hospital. Also, seven bodies were shifted to Chakwal hospital, while one was taken to Kallar Kahar hospital where a critically injured woman passed away.

    Chakwal Hospital Medical Super­intendent Dr Mukhtar Sarwar Niazi told Dawn that 12 injured passengers and seven bodies were brought to the hospital. “Four persons are critically injured and have been referred to Rawalpindi,” he said.

    Most of the deceased and injured were residents of Lahore.

    The deceased were identified as two-year-old Haram, her sister Khadija, 14, and their eight-year-old brother Ahmed. All three siblings, residents of Lahore, were travelling with their mother, Sidra Khaliq, who sustained injuries in the accident.

    Eight-month-old Haider and his mother, Ume Rubab, 31, also from Lahore, died in the crash, while his two-year-old sister Abeeha and father Mohsin were injured.

    Other victims included Habiba from Lahore, Sardar Nadeem Mush­taq and Manshad Begum from Islam­abad, and Muhammad Yasin, resident of Arifwala, and one of the bus drivers.

    While police identified tyre burst as the sole cause of the crash, Mohsin, who lost his wife and son, alleged it was reckless driving. “Both drivers were talking to each other about reaching their destination quickly to pick up more passengers.

    ‘‘Due to overspeeding, the driver lost control, and the bus skidded off the road,” Mohsin told Dawn.

    A case has been registered against driver, manager and owner of the transport company.

    Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2025

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  • Preventive steps stressed to avert chikungunya outbreak

    Preventive steps stressed to avert chikungunya outbreak



    Patients with chikungunya are treated at the Hospital Center West Reunion Chor (Centre Hospitalier Ouest Reunion – CHOR) in Saint-Paul, Reunion, on April 10, 2025. —AFP

    PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Academy of Family Physicians (PAFP) has raised concerns over the growing global threat of chikungunya and has called on federal and provincial health authorities to take immediate preventive measures to avert a potential outbreak in Pakistan.

    The concern follows recent alerts issued by the World Health Organization, which reported that the mosquito-borne viral disease has now spread to over 100 countries.

    In a statement, Dr Rashid Mahmood, President of the Peshawar Chapter of PAFP, emphasized that the rising number of chikungunya cases globally poses a direct threat to Pakistan, where favorable climatic conditions and poor sanitation could facilitate the rapid spread of the virus.

    He warned that without swift and coordinated action, the country could face serious public health consequences.

    Dr Mahmood stressed the need for preparedness on multiple fronts. He urged health authorities to establish early detection systems, deploy rapid diagnostic tools, and develop a coordinated emergency response strategy to handle suspected cases.

    He called for strengthening the primary healthcare infrastructure and training frontline doctors to properly diagnose and manage chikungunya cases.

    In addition to medical preparedness, the PAFP urged the government to intensify anti-mosquito campaigns across both urban and rural areas.

    It said these efforts should include fumigation drives, larvicide spraying, and mass awareness campaigns aimed at educating the public about mosquito breeding and prevention.

    Public cooperation, the statement said, is essential in the fight against chikungunya.

    Citizens were advised to eliminate stagnant water from their surroundings, use insect repellents, wear long-sleeved clothing, and sleep under mosquito nets, especially in high-risk areas.

    They were also urged to seek immediate medical attention if symptoms such as fever, joint pain, or rash occur, and to avoid self-medication.


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  • Vehari education CEO stresses full support for national HPV vaccination effort

    Vehari education CEO stresses full support for national HPV vaccination effort

    Vehari  –  To protect young girls from the risk of cervical cancer, a nationwide Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaign will be launched from September 15 to 27, 2025, targeting girls aged 9 to 14 years in both public and private schools. The Education Department has been directed to fully support the Health Department in ensuring that all eligible girls are registered in time and receive the vaccine, which is considered a crucial preventive measure for safeguarding their health and future. This was discussed in a special meeting held under the chairmanship of CEO Education Vehari, Nasir Aziz. The meeting was attended by DEO Elementary (Women Wing) Andaleeb Asghar, DDHO Health Dr Yousaf Shehzad, DEO (Men) M Javed, Deputy DEO Yasir Arafat, assistant education officers, DSC Dr Ajwad, EPI Focal Person Muhammad Afzal Din, DSV Zulfiqar Ali, ASVs Muneer and Shaukat Ali, Waseem Akram from the District Council, and other officials. CEO Education Nasir Aziz instructed all officers to provide complete cooperation to the Health Department and ensure that all required data of girls aged 9 to 14 is submitted by July 30, 2025. He stressed that the HPV vaccine is vital for preventing cervical cancer and that this campaign is an important step towards a healthier and safer future for young girls. He reaffirmed that the Education Department will continue to play its full role in the success of this national health initiative.


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  • Why DC feels like a turning point for Fernandez

    Why DC feels like a turning point for Fernandez

    From the beginning, Leylah Fernandez was all over Anna Kalinskaya, crowding the baseline and running down virtually every ball.

    But with the end in sight, at 4-1 in the second set, Fernandez visibly tightened. She lost the first two points on her serve and the Tennis Channel announcers broached the subject of the inevitable “complications.”

    But the nerves they conjured evaporated as Fernandez geared up and won four straight points — the last two on an ace and another unreturnable serve.

    Fernandez won the biggest title of her career on Sunday with a resounding 6-1, 6-2 win over Kalinskaya at the Mubadala Citi DC Open. With a strong field featuring four Top 20 players, this 70-minute result was totally unexpected.

    Fernandez came into this Washington, D.C. tournament scuffling a bit. The 22-year-old Canadian hadn’t won a tournament in nearly two years, had a middling record of 3-3 at the Grand Slams and a losing record overall.

    But amid the oppressive heat and humidity and on the hardcourts that seamlessly suit her game, Fernandez was unstoppable. She took out No. 1-seeded Jessica Pegula in the second round and backed it up with a terrific victory over No. 3 Elena Rybakina in the semifinals, in a match that ran 3 hours and 12 minutes.

    This was Fernandez’s fourth career title, the first since Hong Kong in late 2023.

    She’ll take away nearly $200,000 and those 500 PIF WTA Rankings points — but perhaps more important a growing confidence that maybe reaching that US Open final four years ago wasn’t some kind of random accident.

    Emma Raducanu, who won that final, has talked about the difficulty that followed the breakthrough — the pressure and expectations, hers and everybody else’s. Fernandez acknowledges that she struggled with the same thing.

    “It was mainly my own expectations,” Fernandez told wtatennis.com an hour after winning. “I played some great tennis in New York — a lot of my balls were going in. At some point, post-2021, I let my guard down a little bit. To be fair, my coach [and father Jorge] had warned me about it and I was just too naïve at the time to believe him.

    “To say, `No, I’ve got to keep working, I’ve got to keep earning my spot. It’s not going to be easy here on out.’ So, post-US Open, it was hard to battle through that. And it’s still hard, because we’re still connected to that result until we both do another good result.”

    This was also Fernandez’s seventh final and, despite the fact Kalinskaya is four years older, that championship experience showed up in the final. Kalinskaya — still a sparkling 9-3 in D.C. main draw matches — came in without a dropped a set, but now she’s 0-3 in Hologic WTA Tour finals.

    Fernandez’s ranking will rise a dozen spots, to No. 24 on Monday, and she’ll play a first-round match, likely Tuesday, against Maya Joint for the second time in two weeks.

    Fernandez spent a few minutes afterward fielding questions from wtatennis.com:

    Your first title in almost two years, what does it mean to you?

    It’s been a long, long couple of years with a lot of ups and downs. Getting this title is great not only for confidence and self-belief, but also for the whole team and family. The past couple of years, we’ve gone through a lot of tough moments. This trophy just indicates how much they have fought. And it shows me if they can fight through their difficulties, I can do it in a little tennis match with a tennis ball coming back at me. That’s the goal and the mentality. 

    Talking to you all week, you seemed so confident, so upbeat … based on the work you’ve been putting in, did you have any sense this might be a successful tournament for you?

    I had no idea [laughing] it was going to be a nice tournament for me. I just went in thinking … enjoy my time. I put in the work, I put in the hours. The important thing was to get here and do what I trained for. If there’s things to work on — there’s always things to work on — and it will be good preparation for Montreal and Cincinnati. It’s a great steppingstone going into Canada.

    You beat No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula and No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina. How does that make this title even more satisfying?

    It’s very satisfying. We’ve gone through some very tough opponents, from the first round all the way through to the final. Maya [Joint], she’s a tough opponent and she’s had an amazing year. Playing Jess in Washington, it’s never easy. She loves hard courts, had some great results here. She wasn’t going to give me anything. Taylor [Townsend] was another battle, physically and mentally. I’ve played doubles with her and we’re pretty good friends, so setting that aside wasn’t easy. I was cramping and back in the locker room, I told her ‘You killed me.’ It wasn’t going to be an easy tournament from the get-go, so to get through all those tough opponents and challenges was great.

    How does winning in DC help you prove to people — and maybe yourself — the US Open final was not a fluke?

    It definitely helps a little bit. It gives us some good momentum going into bigger tournaments. To play against the big players here in Washington — it wasn’t an easy draw — it’s a good feeling to get my first 500. And I hope — hope — I can continue with that momentum the next few tournaments, but also stay grounded and not forget there’s a new beast every week. That we’ve just got to start from zero.

     

     

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  • What Is MSI’s Project Zero, And How Is It Different From Other Products Like It?

    What Is MSI’s Project Zero, And How Is It Different From Other Products Like It?





    Cable management might just be one of the worst parts of PC building. It can be annoying and downright intimidating, and even when done correctly, it doesn’t always look perfect. This is where MSI’s Project Zero (PZ) product line comes in, which is a lineup of motherboards and PC cases that were built with one goal in mind — making the cabling as invisible as possible.

     Project Zero moves most of the connectors to the back of the motherboard, effectively shielding them from view. This connector placement is exactly what sets Project Zero motherboards apart from the competition. On traditional motherboards, you’ll find them on the front or top surface of the board, facing into the main compartment of the PC case. That makes them quite an eyesore. 

    However, there’s more to Project Zero than meets (or doesn’t meet) the eye, and MSI isn’t the only motherboard brand to introduce a similar solution. Below, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about MSI’s venture into improved cable management.

    How is MSI’s Project Zero different from other motherboards?

    MSI’s Project Zero products, whether it’s the cases or the motherboards, use a back-connect design that moves many connectors out of sight. If you use a case without a see-through side panel, you might not find this useful, but it’s not just an aesthetic choice. With fewer cables in sight, cleaning your PC regularly becomes less of a chore. You might also see cooling benefits, as air will flow freely through the case.

    Project Zero hides the large 20+4-pin power connector, along with the CPU connectors. Cooling-related headers are also tucked away, including CPU fans, case fans, and water pump fans. SATA ports, RGB and ARGB headers, and front panel connectors (such as the power button) are all hidden as well. The CPU socket, memory slots, and PCIe slots remain visible. In a regular motherboard, all of these connectors would be up at the front in plain sight.

    MSI’s got plenty of rivals as far as some of the best motherboard brands are concerned, but when it comes to Project Zero, the competition is limited to just two brands: Gigabyte and Asus. Both tackle the same core goal of creating a cleaner, more visually appealing PC build. Gigabyte’s Project Stealth is more of a comprehensive ecosystem, with motherboards, cases, and even a couple of graphics cards. Meanwhile, Asus has its Back to the Future (BTF) lineup of products, also featuring GPUs, motherboards, and cases. 

    Is MSI Project Zero compatible with every case?

    So far, MSI has released six Project Zero motherboards spread across Intel and AMD processor options. They all feature silver or white color schemes paired with black accents, and they’re a great fit for MSI’s matching cases. There are five total chassis available in white and black. In addition to supporting both standard and back-connect motherboards, some models feature a 270-degree panoramic display and can have at least one 360 mm radiator on top.

    However, even though MSI is one of the leading PC case manufacturers, other brands also offer compatible case options. Third-party brands like Corsair, InWin, Lian Li, Cooler Master, and Thermaltake are among those that support some micro-ATX (mATX) and ATX Project Zero motherboards. Through a combination of its special motherboards and compatible cases, MSI is among the first brands that truly put cable management front and center, but Asus and Gigabyte have enticing options of their own.



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  • ‘Shoulda, woulda, coulda’ – Lando Norris concedes Oscar Piastri ‘did a better job’ in Belgian GP

    ‘Shoulda, woulda, coulda’ – Lando Norris concedes Oscar Piastri ‘did a better job’ in Belgian GP

    Lando Norris was left with no complaints after team mate Oscar Piastri “did a better job” to win the Belgian Grand Prix.

    Norris started Sunday’s Spa-Francorchamps race from pole position, with the McLaren pairing locking out the front row. Following an 80-minute rain delay, the Briton led the field for a rolling start, but was out-dragged into Les Combes by Piastri, in what proved to be the race-winning overtake.

    “Oscar just did a good job, nothing more to say,” said Norris following Sunday’s Grand Prix. “He committed a bit more through Eau Rouge and had the slipstream and got the run. Nothing to complain of.

    “He did a better job in the beginning and that was it, nothing more I could do after that point. I would love to be on top but Oscar deserved it today.”

    Lapping in close proximity to his team mate, Norris was forced to stay out on intermediate tyres for a lap longer than Piastri – who had fitted medium tyres on Lap 12. With the life of the tyres an unknown, Norris elected to run the hard Pirelli compound, meaning he would benefit if the medium could not go the distance.

    Although this gave Norris a pace advantage in the latter stages, a handful of small errors cost him time and meant he was unable to mount a challenge.

    “It’s shoulda woulda coulda,” he added. “Oscar deserved it. I’m sure he made a couple of mistakes so if he drove a perfect race, I couldn’t have won today.

    “I’ll review my things but so happy for the team, another 1-2, I think our first 1-2 here for many, many years so nice to bring that back to the team and a well deserved result for them and for Oscar too.”

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