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  • Attitudes to aging, depression, and death anxiety among community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional correlational study | BMC Geriatrics

    Attitudes to aging, depression, and death anxiety among community-dwelling older adults: a cross-sectional correlational study | BMC Geriatrics

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  • Streaming growth slows and vinyl sales wobble in 2025 half-year UK market figures | Labels

    Streaming growth slows and vinyl sales wobble in 2025 half-year UK market figures | Labels

    The signs of a slowdown in growth have been evident in recent data on music consumption.

    Now the latest figures from the BPI confirm that the market momentum is slowing in the UK, where single digit growth rates for streaming now appear to be the new normal.

    According to the half-year market figures (based on Official Charts Company data), streaming consumption (SEA – streaming equivalent albums) was up 6.4% year-on-year in the first six months of 2025 to 93,632,987 units. The rate of growth has slowed during the course of the year with streaming consumption up 6.3% year-on-year in Q2, compared with 6.6% in Q1.

    It means the market will have to really motor in the rest of the year if it’s to even come close to matching the 11% year-on-year SEA growth in 2024. That was consistent with the 11% growth at the mid-way point of 2024.

    The overall music consumption results (Album Equivalent Sales – AES) across all formats for the half-year period showed an increase of 5.2%. Again, momentum was slowing in Q2 with a year-on-year increase of 4.3% compared to 6.2% in Q1.

    The AES overall market results for the first half of 2025 compares with a 9.8% increase for the first six months of 2024. The overall result for 2024 was almost identical at 9.7%.

    The BPI results for the UK coincide with a new report from industry analysts MIDiA, which found that the global music industry is “navigating a crucial period of recalibration”. It follows MIDiA’s warning on slowing growth earlier this year.

    MIDiA Research Global Music Forecasts 2025-2032 report stated that 2024 marked a year of “tempered growth”, with global recorded music revenues up by a modest 4.5%.

    Despite the near-term slowdown, the long-term outlook remains positive, according to the report. Retail revenues will reach $110.8 billion by 2032, surpassing the $100bn mark in 2030. Label trade revenues are expected to reach $58.2bn by 2032.

    As streaming user growth slows in the West, getting music consumers to spend more is going to be central to revenue growth

    Mark Mulligan

    “As streaming user growth slows in the West, getting music consumers to spend more is going to be central to revenue growth,” said Mark Mulligan, managing director and senior music analyst at MIDiA Research. “The question is whether consumers have an appetite for spending that matches the industry’s expectations, which is why continued diversification of income will be so important for long term market growth.” 

    PHYSICAL SALES

    The upbeat story about physical album sales in the past year has also taken a knock with these latest results.

    Physical sales are back into negative territory with the half-year numbers. Overall physical sales for the first six months are down 4.7% year-on-year to 7,664,596 units. While that’s not disastrous, the Q2 results for physical were dreadful – down 14.5% year-on-year – and that has dragged the half-year result down. Just three months ago, the physical sector was still buoyant with unit sales growth of 5.7%.

    The main reason for the decline was an eye-watering 22.4% slump in CD sales in Q2 (and the format is down 12.8% so far this year). Last summer there had been talk of a CD revival.

    Worryingly, vinyl sales are wobbling so far in 2025. While they were up 6% year-on-year to 3,235,244 units for the first six months, that compares to growth of 12.4% at this time last year (and 9.1% overall in 2024).

    The real concern is that vinyl sales were down in Q2 by 2.8% year-on-year (1,532,884), despite another successful edition of Record Store Day during the quarter.

    However, a one-off factor in that decline may be the absence of a Taylor Swift album in 2025. In Q2 of 2024, Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department moved 180,236 physical copies (109,392 CDs, 66,388 vinyl albums, 4,457 cassettes) in week one alone. That 66,388 for TTPD’s vinyl sales in the opening week outstrips the 43,979 decline in Q2 2025 vinyl units compared to the prior year quarter.

    Nevertheless, it means that vinyl growth can no longer be taken for granted. 

    HALF-YEAR CHART RESULTS

    Alex Warren’s long-running No.1 Ordinary (Atlantic) was the biggest song of the first half of 2025 with consumption of 1,095,807 (Official Charts Company) – the only million-seller of the year so far. 

    Messy (Island) by Lola Young, which was No.1 overall in Q1, is in second place with 996,063 units – although it has total consumption of 1,174,749 when counting streaming for the track in 2024.

    Chrystal is the only other UK artist in the Top 10 (No.7, 680,923) with The Days (Chaos/Polydor), though RCA’s streaming sensation Myles Smith secures two entries in the year-to-date Top 20 with Nice To Meet You (No.19, 505,924) and Stargazing (No.20, 476,805). Stargazing has consumption to date of 1,489,504.

    In the albums chart, Sabrina Carpenter is on top overall for the half-year with Short ’N Sweet (Polydor) on 347,717 units in 2025 (720,673 to date). With a follow-up album, Man’s Best Friend, out in August there’s a strong possibility that Carpenter could have two of the biggest albums of 2025.

    Atlantic-signed Ed Sheeran is at No.2 with +–=÷× (Tour Collection) on 216,299 units so far this year. Sheeran, who has lined up new studio album Play for Q4, is one of five UK acts in the Top 10 (including Anglo-Americans Fleetwood Mac at No.4). 

    Sam Fender’s album People Watching (Polydor) is at No.3 overall (188,682 units), making it the biggest new release of 2025.

    He is joined by fellow UK acts Elton John with Diamonds (EMI/UMR) at No.8 (152,094 units this year) and Charli XCX’s Brat at No.9 (143,827 units this year).

    As well as Top 10 album appearances for the half-year by The Weeknd, Chappell Roan and SZA, Tate McRae is just outside at No.11 with So Close To What (139,279). Released via Sony Music’s Ministry Of Sound, the Q1 album release has actually gained momentum in Q2 where it finished at No.7 overall.

    Ahead of their comeback tour, Oasis also had a strong result in Q2 with a No.5 finish for Time Flies – 1994-2009 (Big Brother) on consumption of 74,001 in the quarter.

    PHOTO: Banquet

     

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  • Experimental medication sensitizes glioblastoma to treatment and blocks tumor spread

    Experimental medication sensitizes glioblastoma to treatment and blocks tumor spread

    A potential treatment for glioblastoma crafted by scientists at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute renders the deadly brain cancer newly sensitive to both radiation and chemotherapy drugs, and blocks the cancer’s ability to invade other tissue, a new study shows.

    The experimental medication, called MT-125, has received approval from the FDA to move to clinical trials as a possible first-line treatment for the most aggressive form of the brain cancer.

    Each year, 14,000 people in the United States receive the devastating news that they have glioblastoma. It is a cancer with an average survival of just 14 to 16 months. Standard treatments include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. But half of glioblastoma patients have a subtype that doesn’t respond to any approved cancer drugs, said Courtney Miller, Ph.D., a professor and academic affairs director at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology.

    New options are urgently needed for those patients, said Miller, a member of the University of Florida Health Cancer Center.

    We know glioblastoma patients are awaiting a breakthrough, and we are moving as fast as humanly possible.”


    Courtney Miller, Ph.D., professor and academic affairs director at The Herbert Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology

    Miller and her colleagues have long focused on molecular “motors” in the cell, nanoscale proteins called myosin. They look and act like machines, converting the cell’s energy into activity. Myosin motors enable cells to move, connect to other cells or contract and expand, Miller said. They are found throughout the body, including in heart, muscle and brain tissue.

    As a result, they have potential as therapeutic targets for a wide range of conditions, from cancer to substance use disorders, she said. However, there are no current medications that target them, or even selective drug-like tools that scientists can use to study them.

    Miller teamed up with her Wertheim UF Scripps colleagues to design a spectrum of potential drug candidates to block myosin motors in different contexts. Their work was published Tuesday, July 1, in the scientific journal Cell.

    Medicinal chemist Theodore Kamenecka, Ph.D., engineered the array of compounds, in consultation with structural biologist Patrick Griffin, Ph.D., The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute’s scientific director.

    To test the oncology potential of the myosin motor drugs, the team joined forces with Steven Rosenfeld, M.D., Ph.D., a scientist and neuro-oncologist at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Their out-of-the-box strategy appears to have opened a new route to attacking the hardest-to-treat glioblastoma. It works in four ways, the scientists reported in a companion paper published in Cell on June 10.

    “In animal studies, MT-125 makes malignant cells that were previously resistant to radiation responsive to it,” Miller said. “You also end up with multinucleated cells that cannot separate, and so they get marked for cell death.”

    MT-125 also blocks the cells’ ability to squeeze and change shape, which means they cannot proliferate and invade other parts of the brain, she said. And if MT-125 is combined with existing chemotherapy drugs, including sunitinib, the drug appears to deliver a very powerful response, Rosenfeld said. Sunitinib belongs to a class of chemotherapy drugs called kinase inhibitors.

    “We found in mice that combining MT-125 with a number of kinase inhibitors created long periods of a disease-free state that we haven’t seen in these mouse models before,” Rosenfeld said. 

    The scientists cautioned that many potential drugs that perform well in mice fail in human studies, due to differences in biology, so it will take time and study to learn if MT-125 is the hoped-for breakthrough, Rosenfeld said.

    Toxicity is another worry. But because the cancer cells are much more sensitive to MT-125 than healthy cells, and because the drug doesn’t stay in the body long, pulsed administration of the medication over a brief period seems to address the issue, Rosenfeld said.

    “I have been in the field for 35 years, and I always thought the solution to this problem would have to come from out-of-the-box thinking,” Rosenfeld said. “The tried-and-true methods don’t seem to work for this disease.”

    The compound, MT-125, has been licensed to a Jupiter, Florida-based biotechnology company started by the scientists, Myosin Therapeutics. They are working hard to begin first-in-human clinical trials within the year in glioblastoma patients, Miller said. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given them the green light to proceed. They are awaiting release of a federal grant that has internal approval, she said. The National Institutes of Health has provided study funding, as well as the William Potter Glioblastoma Research Fund at The Wertheim UF Scripps Institute, which was established by William Potter’s wife, Ronnie Potter, in his memory.

    Looking ahead, Miller says there is evidence that MT-125 could prove beneficial not only against the aggressive variant of glioblastoma, but for malignant gliomas and other cancers.

    In parallel, Miller and her collaborators are working to prepare a clinical trial for a related compound, MT-110, which appears to block drug cravings for people with methamphetamine use disorder. This compound is described in more detail in the July 1 Cell study.

    Source:

    Journal reference:

    Radnai, L., et al. (2025). Development of clinically viable non-muscle myosin II small molecule inhibitors. Cell. doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.006.

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  • The hottest watch moments of May and June 2025: from Aaron Taylor-Johnson at Omega and Henry Cavill’s Longines appointment, to IWC Schaffhausen’s F1 sponsorship and new models from Vacheron Constantin

    The hottest watch moments of May and June 2025: from Aaron Taylor-Johnson at Omega and Henry Cavill’s Longines appointment, to IWC Schaffhausen’s F1 sponsorship and new models from Vacheron Constantin

    As spring turns to summer this year, we’re taking a look at some of the biggest horology highlights of May and June. Omega kicked things off by announcing Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the brand’s newest ambassador, sparking a flurry of rumours that the actor is next in line to play James Bond; Danish brand Urban Jürgensen marks a new chapter as it relaunches the legacy brand by bringing in renowned Finnish watchmaker Kari Voutilainen as co-CEO; while Longines is implementing a major swap at the senior management level. Then, a host of red carpet events – including the Met Gala, the French Open and global movie premieres – saw stars breaking out choice timepieces for their moment in the limelight.

    Here are our biggest watch moments of May and June.

    Aaron Taylor-Johnson bonds with Omega

    Omega’s new ambassador, actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Photo: Handout

    On May 22, Omega announced Aaron Taylor-Johnson as its newest ambassador. The British actor is known for playing Pietro Maximoff in Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015, winning a Golden Globe in 2017 for playing Ray Marcus in Nocturnal Animals, and more recently for his trifecta of roles in 2024: The Fall Guy, Nosferatu and Kraven The Hunter.

    Omega ambassador Aaron Taylor-Johnson with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann. Photo: Handout
    Omega ambassador Aaron Taylor-Johnson with Omega CEO Raynald Aeschlimann. Photo: Handout
    Brands announce new ambassadors all the time, but the timing of Omega’s announcement in May raised eyebrows. It’s been six years since Omega released the Seamaster Diver 300M 007 Edition in 2019 to commemorate No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s last turn as the British superspy. The brand has been heavily associated with James Bond and British cinema since 1995 when Pierce Brosnan sported an Omega Seamaster Professional 300M in GoldenEye – six years after Timothy Dalton’s last turn as a Rolex-sporting 007 in 1989’s Licence to Kill.

    More recently, as Amazon takes the reins of the Bond franchise, an Omega Seamaster Chronograph appeared in the trailer for 007 First Light, a video game slated for release on the PlayStation 5 next year.

    Aaron Taylor-Johnson wears the Omega Speedmaster First Omega In Space to visit the brand’s headquarters as its new ambassador. Photo: Handout
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson wears the Omega Speedmaster First Omega In Space to visit the brand’s headquarters as its new ambassador. Photo: Handout

    The timing of Omega’s announcement of Taylor-Johnson as its new ambassador has led to speculation that the actor would be taking up the mantle of 007, especially after he visited the Omega headquarters sporting an Omega Seamaster First Omega in Space. He seems a perfect fit for the role, with a long CV in the action and romance genres. However, it’s all purely speculation at this stage.

    Urban Jürgensen roars back to life

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  • EU may as well be ‘province of China’ due to reliance on imports, says industrialist | International trade

    EU may as well be ‘province of China’ due to reliance on imports, says industrialist | International trade

    The EU may as well “apply to be a province of China” such is its inability to wean itself off that country’s supply of critical raw materials used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and wind turbines, a leading German industrialist has said.

    As chief executive of AMG Lithium, the EU’s first factory to make the lithium hydroxide used in many car batteries, Stefan Scherer sits at the centre of what has been dubbed a new gold rush.

    But the chemist said China will continue to dominate battery technology and undercut EU rivals unless temporary protections on components are put in place, arguing that current Brussels policy and laws are failing to deliver results on the ground.

    “Europe has to become independent of China, otherwise it’s just blah blah blah,” said Scherer, speaking at the AMG plant in Bitterfeld-Wolfen, a town in the former east Germany.

    The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, promised as recently as March that the EU would “will promote domestic production to avoid strategic dependencies, especially for batteries”.

    Stefan Scherer, inside AMG Lithium’s factory, in 2023. Photograph: Kristin Bethge/The Guardian

    But the reality on the ground, Scherer said, is that many component manufacturers, known as other equipment manufacturers (OEMs), are faced with daily cheaper Chinese alternatives ranging from steel to whole batteries.

    Unless the EU addresses this in a meaningful way, this will not change and will imperil the bloc’s climate goals, he said, adding: “It might be better to apply to be a province of China. It’s an interesting thought if you think it through. We are really at a tipping point and it has nothing to do with the war in Ukraine, it’s a complete change of global relationships.”

    Scherer said the world economy had been “lifted on the backs of people working hard for Europe in China, in India” and the new balance in the global supply chain was the western leaders’ own creation.

    Scherer said he was not pleading for special treatment and was confident AMG would succeed in the auto market’s green transition, but was not optimistic that Europe’s dependency on China would change.

    AMG Lithium in Bitterfeld-Wolfen in former east Germany opened last year and aims to produce 20,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide a year, enough to supply 500,000 EVs. It produced its first test batch last month and hopes to produce commercial quantities later this year.

    Scherer said he has “no doubts that we will be able to sell this [product] within Europe”, but added: “I’m talking more about the long term; about strategic investment in European resources, European refineries, this has to happen now, because it takes you five years if you are lucky to get this far.”

    Bitterfeld-Wolfen where AMG Lithium’s factory is situated. Photograph: Kristin Bethge/The Guardian

    It has taken the company five years and £150m to get to its current position, with no sign of a rival for two or three years. “It is a slow process,” he said.

    He was highly critical of the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act 2024 (CRMA), seen as the backbone of the EU’s strategy to reduce its reliance on China, arguing it fails to match US moves to push manufacturers to buy locally.

    “Unfortunately, the CRMA doesn’t hold you responsible for anything, for example, in the mining of raw materials there is no incentivisation or penalisation to do mining in Europe,” he said.

    “It is completely opposite to the US where they have a local content policy that sticks. There, they have to have a certain percentage of materials they see as critical to be produced on US soil.

    “We don’t have that. We have intentions, but nothing tangible. You don’t have to pay if you don’t buy from the EU, so why would you? Instead, you just continue purchasing from China.”

    China, by contrast, has a near 20-year start on Europe, having set the strategy to acquire stakes in mines and supply contracts all over the world as part of Xi Xinping’s 2013 belt and road initiative.

    It now refines 60% of the world’s supply of lithium on its own soil and controls 60% of the world’s production of battery components, giving it a dominant position across the markets.

    The consensus in his industry is that those in the critical raw material sector need protection while they go through the lengthy process of trying to grow to match Chinese state-backed rivals, Scherer said.

    “I don’t mean you have to support every investment with public grants,” he said. He suggested Brussels could offer temporary tariffs or tax incentives similar to the US’s Inflation Reduction Act, which incentivises those who buy home-produced lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite – all critical to creating green technologies.

    Brussels and Washington are still thrashing out trade negotiations before the 9 July deadline when a threatened 50% tariff could be imposed on all EU imports to the US. European negotiators are seeking to trim a possible 10% baseline levy and win concessions in key areas, including trying to reduce a 25% border tax imposed on cars and a 50% rate on steel and aluminium.

    As far as Scherer is concerned, Germany’s struggling auto industry may yet have further to fall before it improves. “You cannot wait for Brussels to make decisions,” he said.

    One of his biggest gripes is the price of energy in Germany, which Eurostat puts at 37% higher than the EU average. It is also the bugbear of the German steel industry with ThyssenKrupp warning last night that the sector could be wiped out by a combination of Trump tariffs, high energy costs and cheaper Chinese imports.

    Combining temporary tariffs and tax incentives with an invitation to the Chinese to invest in Europe on condition they employ Europeans could be the answer, Scherer said.

    “We have to create an environment which enables western companies to safeguard their investments, not for everything, but critical technology especially in the auto industry where you are replacing the internal combustion engine technology with a new one. This is highly strategic and important move.”

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  • New law in Kazakhstan restricts public wearing of face veils

    New law in Kazakhstan restricts public wearing of face veils

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    Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a law prohibiting individuals from wearing clothing in public places that covers their faces, joining a trend in several Central Asian countries to restrict forms of Islamic dress.

    The text of the law says clothing that “interferes with facial recognition” will be banned in public, with exemptions for medical purposes, in adverse weather conditions and at sporting and cultural events.

    The legislation, one in a series of wider amendments signed into law on Monday, does not explicitly mention religion or types of religious dress.

    Tokayev has previously praised the legislation as an opportunity to celebrate ethnic identity in Kazakhstan, a majority-Muslim country and former Soviet republic.

    “Rather than wearing face-concealing black robes, it’s much better to wear clothes in the national style,” he was quoted by Kazakh media as saying earlier this year.

    Read: Kyrgyz body backs ban on niqab

    “Our national clothes vividly emphasise our ethnic identity, so we need to popularise them comprehensively.”

    Other Central Asian countries have introduced similar laws in recent years.

    Police in Kyrgyzstan have conducted street patrols to enforce their ban on the Islamic niqab face veil, according to local media reports.

    In Uzbekistan, violating the niqab statute carries a fine of over $250. Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon signed a ban on wearing clothing in public that is “alien to national culture.”

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  • 5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the 2025 British Grand Prix

    5 storylines we’re excited about ahead of the 2025 British Grand Prix

    The latest European double-header continues with a visit to a track that was the starting point for the Formula 1 World Championship, and a huge crowd awaits. Fresh from a thrilling battle between the McLaren drivers on Sunday, there’s plenty to look forward to as the paddock reconvenes at Silverstone…

    The McLaren title fight

    McLaren have enjoyed a clear advantage over most of the field at a number of races this season, leading to Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris sharing eight wins between them from the opening 11 rounds. But Austria was perhaps the longest in-race battle between the two so far, as Norris had to hold off Piastri’s attacks for the entire first stint at the Red Bull Ring.

    In the end, it was Norris who came out on top, converting a very impressive pole position into victory, closing the gap at the top of the championship to 15 points in the process.

    Although the Briton retired after running into Piastri in Canada, he has actually outscored his team mate by a point over the past five race weekends, with two wins and two second places in that time.

    Heading to a race where Norris is sure to have significant backing – although both McLaren drivers have received strong support in the past – we’re set for the next instalment of a championship battle that is ebbing and flowing in a manner that suggests it could go the distance to the final round this year.

    Ferrari’s upgrades

    The Austrian Grand Prix saw a number of the front-running teams introduce upgrades following the return to Europe, and McLaren cited their new parts as one reason why they enjoyed a good margin over the chasing pack.

    But that chasing pack was led by Ferrari on this occasion, following a floor upgrade from Maranello that Charles Leclerc says delivered a clear step forward. That progress helped Leclerc score his third podium in four races in Austria, with Lewis Hamilton following him home in fourth place for a strong points haul that moves Ferrari back into second place in the Constructors’ Championship.

    There is a promise of more upgrades to follow soon – perhaps as early as this weekend – and the recent step forward bodes well for Ferrari’s chances of having those work as intended, too. But Silverstone will provide another example of how much progress has been made with the latest car developments.

    Silverstone was not a happy hunting ground for Ferrari last year in changeable conditions, and they might face more of the same this weekend, providing opportunities to see if there have been improvements on multiple fronts.

    Red Bull and Mercedes looking to bounce back

    There was an enormous crowd of Max Verstappen supporters in Austria, at a track where the Dutchman has enjoyed significant success in the past.

    Qualifying had not exactly raised expectations of a sixth win at the Red Bull Ring, but there was still hope from the Orange Army that Verstappen could fight for the podium. Unfortunately, they never got the chance to find out, as the defending champion was hit by Kimi Antonelli at Turn 3 on the opening lap and retired.

    With Yuki Tsunoda finishing two laps down and last of those to complete the race, it was a tough day for Red Bull at their home race, but it came just two weeks after a strong showing in Canada.

    And they weren’t the only team to suffer a challenging weekend, as Montreal race-winner George Russell finished a distant fifth, over a minute behind Lando Norris. Coupled with Antonelli’s retirement, it was not the weekend Mercedes had been hoping for, either.

    But both teams have been extremely competitive at Silverstone in the past, and Mercedes will be hoping the forecast cooler temperatures hold, that would really play to their strengths after Hamilton’s victory here last year.

    Silly season warming up

    Prior to their respective disappointing Sundays, two major names in the driver market were central to a lot of the pre-race talking points in Austria, as George Russell suggested Mercedes are in discussions with Max Verstappen about a potential future seat.

    Russell is out of contract at the end of this season and says he has not yet started significant talks, but that he is comfortable in his position. His mention of talks with Verstappen – said during an interview with Sky Sports F1 – led to plenty of questions for Team Principal Toto Wolff last Friday, who talked up the pairing of Russell and Antonelli, but did not totally rule out a move.

    Until Russell has a new deal in place, speculation is likely to continue, not only about Verstappen and Mercedes but also where Russell himself could end up. And that’s before the knock-on impact on any other seats.

    For one, it would leave Red Bull needing a replacement for Verstappen, and home fans will get a look at a potential future star in the form of Arvid Lindblad. The Formula 2 title contender will make his FP1 debut this weekend, having been given a Super Licence at the age of 17 following a request made to the FIA.

    One of the biggest events of the year

    Silverstone was the venue for the first ever Formula 1 World Championship race 75 years ago, and as a venue it has grown into a special setting for a Grand Prix.

    The high-speed nature of the track makes it one that is enjoyed by the majority of the drivers, as it provides them with an opportunity to really push their machinery. The current generation of ground effect cars really come alive through corners such as Copse, Abbey and Stowe, and the rapid changes of direction through Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel.

    Similar to the last race in Austria, the huge numbers of fans that descend on Silverstone and stay in its many campsites give the whole weekend a real festival feel, as do the big-name acts that appear on the music stages throughout the four days.

    But never are the grandstands more energised than when there is racing taking place on track. With five British or part-British drivers on the grid in the form of Lando Norris, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, Alex Albon and Ollie Bearman, plus three support categories – Formula 2, Formula 3 and Formula 4 – it’s sure to be an action-packed weekend with plenty for them to get behind.

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  • Climeworks raises USD 162M to scale up technology

    Climeworks, the global pioneer in Direct Air Capture (DAC) technology and leading provider of holistic carbon removal portfolios, has achieved a significant milestone by securing USD 162 million in additional equity funding — marking the largest carbon removal investment of 2025 to date globally.

    This financing round underscores Climeworks’ commitment to scaling up and perfecting its cutting-edge technology to help significantly reduce the cost of carbon removals. This latest investment takes the company’s total funding since inception to over USD 1 billion, further solidifying its position as the industry leader.

    Main investors of the funding round were BigPoint Holding and Partners Group, with additional backing mainly from other existing investors, reaffirming their strong commitment to Climeworks. This unwavering support underscores deep confidence in the company’s technology leadership, commercial momentum, and ambitious long-term mission to revolutionize carbon removal.

    Developing best-in-class technology

    The new capital will fuel the continued development of Climeworks’ best-in-class DAC technology to bring down the cost of removals. Climeworks has achieved major milestones in scaling its groundbreaking technology. Its first plant, Orca, successfully validated the company’s approach. In addition, the second plant, Mammoth, is driving further advancements by enabling scaling and large-scale testing of new removal technologies.

    The company has already demonstrated significant advancements that will make its processes more efficient, including doubled energy efficiency, increased throughput, and a much longer filter material lifespan—key progress toward making the world’s first profitable direct air capture plant a reality.

    Building the market with a more diverse removals portfolio

    The funding will also allow Climeworks to continue expanding its carbon removal portfolio, providing tailored, blended solutions that help companies begin investment in removals, spread risk and progressively move up the quality curve.

    Climeworks continues to expand its carbon removal portfolio offering as the number one carbon removal player. As demand grows, companies increasingly rely on nature-based and hybrid engineered solutions for near-term removal needs while increasing their focus on technical removals over time. Climeworks is uniquely positioned to meet both short- and long-term demand with a global portfolio that already includes > 6 million tons of secured supply. According to analysts, the carbon removal market is poised for a potential to reach 80 billion USD by 2030, growing to a trillion USD by 2050.

    Christoph Gebald, co-CEO and co-founder of Climeworks says: “Direct Air Capture has gone from experiment to essential—and we’re focused on scaling it by driving down costs and pushing innovation. Our hybrid model builds long-term demand while generating cash flow today, helping us grow a market that investors now see as inevitable. Crossing the $1 billion equity mark isn’t just a milestone—it shows that carbon removal is real, needed, and here to stay.”

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  • Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories | Edited by Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau and Peter Szendy – Announcements

    Ecotones: Investigating Sounds and Territories | Edited by Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau and Peter Szendy – Announcements

    Edited by Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau and Peter Szendy

    Published by Spector Books

    The Luxembourg Pavilion at the 19th Venice Architecture Biennale is an invitation to close our eyes and actively listen. The installation hosted in the pavilion, Sonic Investigations, operates a radical shift away from the visual: it offers a cartography of various environments exclusively through sound. The volume, conceived as a companion to the sound installation in Venice, has a broad ambition: it argues for a counter-project to the hegemony of images.

    Since the climate crisis can also be understood as a crisis of sensory perception and representation, it is all the more urgent to find new ways of approaching the ongoing environmental transformations. The act of listening allows for different forays into both anthropic and natural ecosystems. It directs our attention toward the vocality of other-than-human agencies; it empowers them with a voice of their own.

    Field recording can thus be the prelude to another mapping of the world, attuning our ears to its various fault lines, to its tensions. And sounding becomes a powerful investigative tool, a way of auscultating the infrastructures of the present as well as the times to come. The concept of ecotone, a transitional space between two ecosystems, is a guiding thread for the authors of this volume as they listen to boundaries between territories, to urban patterns, to natural balances and imbalances, or to political fractures.

    The book includes contributions by Peter Szendy, Shannon Mattern, Tim Ingold, Soline Nivet and Ariane Wilson, David George Haskell, Ludwig Berger, Philip Samartzis and Madelynne Cornish (Bogong Centre for Sound Culture), Nadine Schütz, Laure Brayer (AAU-CRESSON), Julia Grillmayr, Christina Gruber and Sophia Rut (Lobau Listening Comprehensions), Yuri Tuma (Institute for Postnatural Studies), Emma McCormick Goodhart, as well as a fiction piece by Xabi Molia and poems by Laura Vazquez and Cole Swensen. The graphic identity is designed by Pierre Vanni.

     

    Public events of Sonic Investigations, Luxembourg Pavilion at the Venice Biennale
    The activations extend the reflection on embodied practices and sensorial approaches to space through sound, offering a unique exploration of the performer’s and the audience’s body within soundscapes. The events will create a dialogue between the space of the pavilion and the infrastructural apparatus of the Venetian lagoon, together with local Italian sound artists and researchers.

    October 7–10, 2025
    Ecotongues (Residency and Performance inside the pavilion): Gaia Ginevra Giorgi (author, sound artist and performer)
    Ecotongues explores mediumship as the ability to inhabit the threshold between the visible and the invisible, the audible and the inaudible, as a performative practice of interspecific intimacy between human and more-than-human entities.

    October 25–26, 2025
    Attunement Exercises: Nicola Di Croce (researcher and sound artist)
    The two public exercises address the idea of ‘attunement’ as the possibility of entering ‘into resonance with’ the non-human, through an investigation of the sound sources of the Venice lagoon taking particularly into account the infrastructure systems and their relation to wilder ecosystems.

     

    19th International Venice Architecture Biennale, Luxembourg Pavilion, Arsenale, Sale d’Armi, 1st floor / May 10–November 23, 2025.
    Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau with Ludwig Berger, Peter Szendy: Sonic Investigations

    Commissioners appointed by the Luxembourg Ministry of Culture: Kultur | lx—Arts Council Luxembourg, LUCA—Luxembourg Center for Architecture / Curators: Valentin Bansac, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau / Exhibitors: Valentin Bansac, Ludwig Berger, Anthea Caddy, Mike Fritsch, Alice Loumeau, Peter Szendy / Visual identity: Pierre Vanni.

    Press contact: Kultur | lx – Arts Council Luxembourg
    Emilie Gouleme, emilie.gouleme [​at​] kulturlx.lu,  T +352 621 680 028

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  • Clashes and arrests in Turkey over magazine cartoon allegedly depicting prophet Muhammad | Turkey

    Clashes and arrests in Turkey over magazine cartoon allegedly depicting prophet Muhammad | Turkey

    Clashes erupted in Istanbul with police firing rubber bullets and teargas to disperse a mob on Monday after allegations that a satirical magazine had published a cartoon of the prophet Muhammad.

    The clashes occurred after Istanbul’s chief prosecutor ordered the arrest of the editors at LeMan magazine on grounds it had published a cartoon that “publicly insulted religious values”.

    The magazine’s editor-in-chief, Tuncay Akgun, said the image had been misinterpreted.

    “This cartoon is not a caricature of prophet Muhammad in any way,” he told Agence France-Presse. “In this work, the name of a Muslim who was killed in the bombardments of Israel is fictionalised as Muhammad. More than 200 million people in the Islamic world are named Muhammad.

    “[It] has nothing to do with prophet Muhammad. We would never take such a risk.”

    As the news broke, several dozen angry protesters attacked a bar often frequented by LeMan staffers in downtown Istanbul, provoking angry scuffles with police, an AFP correspondent said.

    The scuffles quickly became clashes involving between 250 to 300 people, the correspondent said.

    Founded in 1991, LeMan is famed for its political satire and has long been the bane of conservatives, especially following its support for France’s Charlie Hebdo after its Paris offices were attacked in 2015 by Islamist gunmen who killed 12 following the magazine’s publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.

    The interior minister, Ali Yerlikaya, said on that X police had arrested the cartoonist responsible for the image as well as LeMan’s graphic designer.

    “The person named DP who made this vile drawing has been caught and taken into custody,” he wrote, adding: “These shameless individuals will be held accountable before the law.”

    Others named in the arrest warrant were LeMan’s editor-in-chief and its managing editor, media reports said.

    In a string of posts on X, LeMan defended the cartoon and said it had been deliberately misinterpreted to cause a provocation.

    “The cartoonist wanted to portray the righteousness of the oppressed Muslim people by depicting a Muslim killed by Israel, he never intended to belittle religious values,” it said. “We do not accept the stigma imposed on us because there is no depiction of our prophet. It takes a very malicious person to interpret the cartoon in this way.”

    “We apologise to our well-intentioned readers who we think were subjected to provocations.”

    The justice minister, Yilmaz Tunc, said an investigation had been opened on grounds of “publicly insulting religious values”.

    “Disrespect towards our beliefs is never acceptable,” he wrote on X. “No freedom grants the right to make the sacred values of a belief the subject of ugly humour. The caricature or any form of visual representation of our prophet not only harms our religious values but also damages societal peace.”

    Istanbul’s governor, Davut Gul, also lashed out at “this mentality that seeks to provoke society by attacking our sacred values”.

    “We will not remain silent in the face of any vile act targeting our nation’s faith,” he said.

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