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  • Honda sweeps Iowa Race 2 podium

    Honda sweeps Iowa Race 2 podium

    ・Alex Palou leads Honda podium sweep in Farm to Finish 275 at Iowa Speedway
    ・Palou’s Chip Ganassi Racing teammate, Scott Dixon, finishes second
    ・Marcus Armstrong rounds out the all-Honda podium in his Meyer Shank Racing machine

    Honda scored their first podium sweep of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season and 11th win in 12 races with championship leader Alex Palou taking the victory from pole in the Farm to Finish 275 at Iowa Speedway—the second race of Sukup INDYCAR Race Weekend.

    The win is Palou’s seventh victory of 2025, meaning the #10 Chip Ganassi Racing driver has scored victory on all four of the primary circuit types IndyCar races on this season—street circuits (St. Pete), road courses (Thermal, Barber, Indy GP, Road America), speedways (Indianapolis 500), and today’s victory on the short oval at Iowa, his first-career short oval win.

    The result extends Palou’s championship lead to 129 points over second place, 515-386.

    Scott Dixon made it a Chip Ganassi Racing 1-2. A string of good finishes, including the win the last time out at Mid-Ohio and today’s second place in Iowa has moved Dixon from fifth in the championship standings to third in just two weekends.

    Meyer Shank Racing’s Marcus Armstrong rounded out the Honda podium sweep, scoring his first podium since joining the MSR team in 2025.

    Armstrong’s Meyer Shank Racing teammate, Felix Rosenqvist finished seventh after starting on the front row, and the Dale Coyne Racing duo of Jacob Abel and Rinus VeeKay drove from the back of the field to finish 11th and 12th respectively. The P11 result is a career-best finish for Abel in his rookie campaign in IndyCar.

    Honda has won all but one race in 2025, taking the first 10 races in a row in addition to today’s podium lockout. Honda leads Chevrolet by 208 points, 1147-939.

    Next

    The NTT INDYCAR SERIES heads north of border for the Ontario Honda Dealers Honda Indy 200 on the streets of Toronto July 18-20.

    Alex Palou
    10

    Chip Ganassi Racing

    Number one! First win on a short oval. And it was just an amazing day for us, starting on pole, leading a lot of laps. And it’s huge that it’s the first time in the year that we got a 1-2-3 for Honda. It’s amazing to get that 1-2 for the team, 1-2-3 for Honda. We had all the power we needed today. We got a little help by the last yellow there, but we were already running third. But it’s been an amazing weekend here for us and I cannot wait for the next one.

    Scott Dixon

    Scott Dixon
    9

    Chip Ganassi Racing

    It was a great day. Ours was a little difficult, we kind of threw the kitchen sink at it to start with. Yesterday, on the high line, we weren’t super happy, so we used it as a bit of a test session to get everything dialed in. Today, of course with Honda and HRC, the fuel mileage was crazy good and we could dictate what we wanted to do with strategy. It’s always nice to have those options in your back pocket. It worked out well for us! Congrats to Alex and congrats to Honda!

    Marcus Armstrong

    Marcus Armstrong
    66

    Meyer Shank Racing

    I’m happy about that one! We’ve been saving fuel for two days now and we finally caught the yellow there at the end. Good to follow the two Honda boys home there as well—Alex and Scott. We’re just gaining momentum and I’m really happy with how our #66 crew was on pit lane today.

    Kelvin Fu

    Kelvin Fu
    –

    Vice President, HRC US

    Amazing Honda sweep here in Iowa. This is our first win here since 2018, and we’ve worked hard on our short oval package to get back in victory lane. Credit to everybody at HRC for not giving up and pushing through. Today was a combination of great driving, great strategy and great fuel economy to get us this result. Congrats to Alex on continuing an amazing season, and to Scott and Marcus for incredible results today.

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  • England and India face tense final day at Lord’s with third Test on a knife’s edge

    England and India face tense final day at Lord’s with third Test on a knife’s edge

    England has dismissed four Indian batters and given the Lord’s Test another twist of fate to leave it on a knife-edge heading toward the fifth and final day.

    India set itself a winning target of 193 runs but was reduced to 4-58 in its second innings overnight. Stumps, with eight overs remaining, came as a relief to India, with England fired up and a sun-soaked Lord’s crowd turned happily hostile.

    For one of the teams to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series, England needs six more wickets or India needs 135 more runs.

    Asked for a prediction, India’s Washington Sundar smiled and said his team was in the box seat to claim the win. 

    “Definitely India winning tomorrow. Just after lunch,” he said.

    “The position we are in right now, we would have taken. Maybe one down would be ideal.”

    Opening batter Lokesh Rahul will resume on 33 not out but with the ball only 17.4 overs old and still juicy.

    India began its chase after tea and appeared to weather the early storm after Yashasvi Jaiswal fell to Jofra Archer for a duck and fellow opener Rahul was dropped on five by Chris Woakes.

    Rahul and Karun Nair piled more hurt on England and were chipping runs off the target until nearly an hour later when Nair left a straight delivery from seamer Brydon Carse and was plumb LBW.

    India appeared to panic. In came captain Shubman Gill, the series’ most prolific batter. But he was unusually anxious, played six false shots in the nine balls he faced, and was out LBW to Carse for six.

    That huge wicket sent England into orbit and Carse into overdrive.

    India sent in fast bowler Akash Deep as a nightwatchman and for the last 15 minutes of the day he was targeted. Deep survived a video review on umpire’s call and multiple LBW and catch appeals off Carse. But it was Stokes who smashed his off stump in what turned out to be the last ball of a remarkable day.

    The inspired Carse had 2-11 and Stokes 1-15.

    In all, 14 wickets fell on day four.

    “When the ball gets a little bit softer, there are more runs to be had out there, but if you get it enough in the right place [the pitch is] very tricky,” England batting coach Marcus Trescothick told the BBC. 

    “It’ll come down to who holds the pressure best tomorrow.”

    England was fielding on days two and three and gave its bowlers only 61 overs of rest before it was bowling again on day four.

    England was batting at 4-154 in the afternoon session and looking good to post a challenging target but it suffered a collapse of 6-38 to be all out for 192.

    For some reason, the pitch turned nasty overnight. It was offering plenty for the new-ball seamers and India’s Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj made deliveries fly off a length and rear up almost dangerously. On this minefield, four England batters blew up in the morning.

    Ben Duckett swatted straight to mid-on and Siraj followed through by screaming “come on” twice in Duckett’s face and they brushed shoulders. Siraj got Ollie Pope next, LBW for four after a review.

    Zak Crawley’s brave but skittish innings finished on 22, edging a drive at Nitish Kumar Reddy.

    Harry Brook relieved the tension by scooping Deep for two boundaries and smashing him into the members’ pavilion. But Brook then tried sweeping the seamer and was bowled around his pads on 23.

    Joe Root and Stokes took England to lunch on 4-98 and spent the afternoon edging their team toward a defendable target; 250 in the mind of most observers.

    The pitch eased as the ball softened and Root and Stokes took England past 100 and 150.

    Then off-spinner Sundar regained the momentum for India when he found drift and spin and bowled Root on 40 (sweeping), Jamie Smith on 8 (defending), Stokes on 33 (sweeping) and Shoaib Bashir on 0 (defending).

    Sundar had 4-22 in 12.1 overs, the best figures by an India spinner in England in 23 years.

    Bumrah took 2-38 and Siraj 2-31.

    “They were all big wickets, especially [at] the stage of play,” Sundar said. 

    “The UK has been kind. I don’t get as much drift in subcontinent conditions.”

    A dozen England batters in the match were bowled, the most by England in a Test since 1887 in Sydney. It had never happened in England. Six of the bowleds in the match were by Bumrah. That was a first for India against England. The last bowler to bowl six Englishmen was Curtly Ambrose in 1994 at Port of Spain.

    But India’s terrific bowling effort showed England what kind of damage it can do, too, and set up the match for a thrilling finale at a sold-out Lords.

    AP

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  • Music is at the forefront of AI disruption, but NZ artists still have few protections

    Music is at the forefront of AI disruption, but NZ artists still have few protections

    Was the recent Velvet Sundown phenomenon a great music and media hoax, a sign of things to come, or just another example of what’s already happening ?

    In case you missed it, the breakout act was streamed hundreds of thousands of times before claims emerged the band and their music were products of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).

    Despite the “band” insisting they were real, an “associate” later admitted it was indeed an “art hoax” marketing stunt. Much of the subsequent commentary was concerned with fairness – particularly that a “fake” band was succeeding at the expense of “real” artists.

    But Velvet Sundown is only the most recent example in a long history of computer generated and assisted music creation – going back to the 1950s when a chemistry professor named Lejaren Hiller debuted a musical composition written by a computer.

    By the 1980s, David Cope’s Experiments in Musical Intelligence created music so close to the style of Chopin and Bach it fooled classically trained musicians.

    Artist and composer Holly Herndon was highlighting a need for the ethical use and licensing of voice models and deepfakes several years before Grimes invited others to use AI-generated versions of her voice to make new music, and “Deepfake Drake” alarmed the major record labels.

    At the same time, music companies, including Warner, Capitol and rapper-producer Timbaland, have since inked record contracts for AI-generated work.

    GenAI-powered tools, such as those offered by Izotope, LANDR and Apple, have become commonplace in mixing and mastering since the late 2000s. Machine learning technology also underpins streaming recommendations.

    Creativity and copyright

    Despite this relatively long history of technology’s impact on music, it still tends to be framed as a future challenge. The New Zealand government’s Strategy for Artificial Intelligence, released this month, suggests we’re at a “pivotal moment” as the AI-powered future approaches.

    In June, a draft insight briefing from Manata Taonga/Ministry for Culture & Heritage explored “how digital technologies may transform the ways New Zealanders create, share and protect stories in 2040 and beyond”.

    It joins other recent publications by the Australasian Performing Rights Association and New Zealand’s Artificial Intelligence Researchers Association, which grapple with the future impacts of AI technologies.

    One of the main issues is the use of copyright material to train AI systems. Last year, two AI startups, including the one used by Velvet Sundown, were sued by Sony, Universal and Warner for using unlicensed recordings as part of their training data.

    It’s possible the models have been trained on recordings by local musicians without their permission, too. But without any requirement for tech firms to disclose their training data it can’t be confirmed.

    Even if we did know, the copyright implications for works created by AI in Aotearoa New Zealand aren’t clear. And it’s not possible for musicians to opt out in any meaningful way.

    This goes against the data governance model designed by Te Mana Raraunga/Māori Sovereignty Network. Māori writer members of music rights administrator APRA AMCOS have also raised concerns about potential cultural appropriation and misuse due to GenAI.

    Recent research suggesting GenAI work displaces human output in creative industries is particularly worrying for local musicians who already struggle for visibility. But it’s not an isolated phenomenon.

    In Australia, GenAI has reportedly been used to impersonate successful, emerging and dead artists. And French streaming service Deezer claims up to 20,000 tracks created by GenAI were being uploaded to its service daily.

    Regulation in the real world

    There has been increased scrutiny of streaming fraud, including a world-first criminal case brought last year against a musician who used bots to generate millions of streams for tracks created with GenAI.

    But on social media, musicians now compete for attention with a flood of “AI slop”, with no real prospect of platforms doing anything about it.

    More troublingly, New Zealand law has been described as “woefully inadequate” at combating deepfakes and non-consensual intimate imagery that can damage artists’ brands and livelihoods.

    The government’s AI strategy prioritises adoption, innovation and a light-touch approach over these creative and cultural implications. But there is growing consensus internationally that regulatory intervention is warranted.

    The European Union has enacted legislation requiring AI services to be transparent about what they have trained their models on, an important first step towards an AI licensing regime for recorded and musical works.

    An Australian senate committee has recommended whole-of-economy AI guardrails, including transparency requirements in line with the EU. Denmark has gone even further, with plans to give every citizen copyright of their own facial features, voice and body, including specific protections for performing artists.

    It’s nearly ten years since the music business was described as the “canary in a coalmine” for other industries and a bellwether of broader cultural and economic shifts. How we address the current challenges presented by AI in music will have far-reaching implications.

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  • Learn More About New 90s-Inspired Survival Horror, DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR

    Learn More About New 90s-Inspired Survival Horror, DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR

    October isn’t here just yet, but for those of us always on the prowl for the next scary adventure, there’s a new one waiting for us in Steam’s Early Access!

    Many might recognise a game called Don’t Scream, a title that resets your progress if you make a sound into your microphone. Well, DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR (DEADCAM henceforth for brevity) is the next adventure made by the developer!

    In this collection of horror stories, players will experience various stories through found footage. 80s- and 90s-inspired aesthetic await them in the self-contained encounters with their unique narrative and setting.

    Since the game is available on Steam’s Early Access, there’s currently only one available at the time of writing: an atmospheric horror set in an abandoned Japanese high school. Four more encounters are part of the roadmap!

    So, here’s what you can expect from DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR:

    • Various self-contained stories, each with its setting and narrative.
    • Only one encounter is available at the moment (with three endings), with four more planned for the rest of Early Access.
    • An atmospheric adventure in found bodycam footage style.
    • Numerous weapons, from guns to katanas, to use against the various monsters.
    • Limited resources available.
    • Various puzzles to complete.

    Check out the trailer for a closer look! DEADCAM | ANALOG • SURVIVAL • HORROR is available in Steam’s Early Access right now at a 10% introductory discount (leaving it at £6.02) until the 24th of July. Can’t wait to try it? There’s also a demo available.

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  • Scientists detect biggest ever merger of two massive black holes | Space

    Scientists detect biggest ever merger of two massive black holes | Space

    Scientists have detected ripples in space-time from the violent collision of two massive black holes that spiralled into one another far beyond the distant edge of the Milky Way.

    The black holes, each more than 100 times the mass of the sun, began circling each other long ago and finally slammed together to form an even more massive black hole about 10bn light years from Earth.

    The event is the most massive black hole merger ever recorded by gravitational wave detectors and has forced physicists to rethink their models of how the enormous objects form. The signal was recorded when it hit detectors on Earth sensitive enough to detect shudders in space-time thousands of times smaller than the width of a proton.

    “These are the most violent events we can observe in the universe, but when the signals reach Earth, they are the weakest phenomena we can measure,” said Prof Mark Hannam, the head of the Gravity Exploration Institute at Cardiff University. “By the time these ripples wash up on Earth they are tiny.”

    Evidence for the black hole collision arrived just before 2pm UK time on 23 November 2023 when two US-based detectors in Washington and Louisiana, operated by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (Ligo), twitched at the same time.

    The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (Ligo) detector. Photograph: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab

    The sudden spasm in space-time caused the detectors to stretch and squeeze for one tenth of a second, a fleeting moment that captured the so-called ringdown phase as the merged black holes formed a new one that “rang” before settling down.

    Analysis of the signal revealed that the colliding black holes were 103 and 137 times the mass of the sun and spinning about 400,000 times faster than Earth, close to the theoretical limit for the objects.

    “These are the highest masses of black holes we’ve confidently measured with gravitational waves,” said Hannam, a member of the Ligo scientific collaboration. “And they’re strange, because they are slap bang in the range of masses where, because of all kinds of weird things that happen, we don’t expect black holes to form.”

    Most black holes form when massive stars run out of nuclear fuel and collapse at the end of their life cycle. The incredibly dense objects warp space-time so much that they create an event horizon, a boundary within which even light cannot escape.

    Gravitational wave signature detected at the two US instruments. Photograph: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab

    Physicists at Ligo suspect the black holes that merged were themselves products of earlier mergers. That would explain how they came to be so massive and why they were spinning so fast, as merging black holes tend to impart spin on the object they create. “We’ve seen hints of this before, but this is the most extreme example where that’s probably what’s happening,” Hannam said.

    Scientists have detected about 300 black hole mergers from the gravitational waves they generate. Until now, the most massive merger known produced a black hole about 140 times the mass of the sun. The latest merger produced a black hole up to 265 times more massive than the sun. Details are to be presented on Monday at the GR-Amaldi meeting in Glasgow.

    Before the first gravitational wave detectors were built in the 1990s, scientists could observe the universe only through electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, infrared and radio waves. Gravitational wave observatories provide a new view of the cosmos, allowing researchers to see events that were otherwise hidden from them.

    “Usually what happens in science is, when you look at the universe in a different way, you discover things you didn’t expect and your whole picture is transformed,” said Hannam. “The detectors we have planned for the next 10 to 15 years will be able to see all the black hole mergers in the universe, and maybe some surprises we didn’t expect.”

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  • Sales of UK country houses rise as buyers tempted out by lower prices | Housing market

    Sales of UK country houses rise as buyers tempted out by lower prices | Housing market

    Sales of expensive UK country houses rose in June, signalling a possible recovery in demand as buyers are tempted out by lower prices after an extended slump.

    The estate agency Knight Frank said the number of exchanges of contract for sales of country houses – defined as a rural home worth more than £750,000 – was up 7% in June compared with last year as the number of properties for sale rose while prices fell.

    Second-home owners are driving the increase in properties coming to market, the agency said, after recent council tax changes designed to level the playing field for local people living in popular holiday spots. Councils in Wales have the power to quadruple taxes on second homes, while English councils can double taxes.

    The number of country houses coming on to the market was 9% higher in the second quarter of the year compared with last year.

    “Prices are correcting and as a result activity is noticeably picking up,” said James Cleland, the head of the country business at Knight Frank. “June was busy, and a number of deals were agreed in all price brackets, which means the next few months look even better for exchanges. It’s all about pricing. If you get it right, buyers pounce but if you get it wrong, not a lot happens.”

    Covid lockdowns prompted a wave of people to decide to move away from cities in favour of countryside homes five years ago – a trend that resulted in a “race for space” across the housing market.

    Demand, however, subsequently cooled. Average country house prices fell 3.5% in the three months to June, according to the estate agent’s price index. That was faster than the 1.6% decline in the year to March.

    Other factors in the glut of rural homes coming to market were a stock overhang caused by March’s stamp duty cliff edge, and buyers reactivating plans put on hold last year as a result of the political upheaval.

    Knight Frank said there were only 5.9 potential buyers for every new instruction to sell a country house, compared with nearly 19 at the peak of the pandemic exodus from cities. The last time buyers were in such a strong negotiating position was in the second quarter of 2018, during the turmoil over the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU under Theresa May’s Conservative government, it added.

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    Knight Frank judged that it was the “most favourable market for buyers in the country for seven years”.

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  • Astronomers Detect a Black Hole Merger That’s So Massive It Shouldn’t Exist

    Astronomers Detect a Black Hole Merger That’s So Massive It Shouldn’t Exist

    Gravitational waves—ripples in space-time caused by violent cosmic events—travel at the speed of light in every direction, eventually fading out like ripples in water. But some events are so destructive and extreme that they create disturbances in spacetime more like powerful waves than small ripples, with enough energy to reach our own detectors here on Earth. 

    Today, the LIGO Collaboration announced the detection of the most colossal black hole merger known to date, the final product of which appears to be a gigantic black hole more than 225 times the mass of the Sun. Much about this signal, designated GW231123, contradicts known models for stellar evolution, sending physicists scrambling to apprehend how such a merger was even possible.

    LIGO, or the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory, made physics history in 2015 by detecting gravitational waves for the first time, capturing the cosmological echo of two colliding black holes. Since its Nobel-winning discovery, the LIGO Collaboration, an international partnership between LIGO and Virgo and KAGRA in Italy and Japan, respectively, has continued its meticulous surveillance of the galaxy. The collaboration has detected numerous signals from neutron stars, supernovas, and some 300 black hole mergers.

    The LIGO Laboratory operates two detector sites, one near Hanford in eastern Washington, and another near Livingston, Louisiana. This photo shows the Livingston detector site. Credit: Caltech/MIT/LIGO Lab

    But GW231123, first observed on November 23, 2023, seems to be an unprecedented beast of a black hole merger. Two enormous black holes—137 and 103 times the mass of the Sun—managed to keep it together despite their immense combined mass, spinning at 400,000 times the speed of Earth’s rotation to form an ever bigger black hole. To put its size into perspective, the previous record holder for such a merger, GW190521, is roughly 140 times the mass of the Sun.

    Considering the gravitationally chaotic nature of black hole environments, with their pushes and pulls, it’s remarkable that this merger was stable enough for the resulting gravitational waves to reach LIGO, which detected the signals for a duration of 0.1 seconds. Such episodes should be “forbidden” according to standard evolution models, said Mark Hannam, LIGO member and physicist at Cardiff University, in a statement. 

    “One possibility is that the two black holes in this binary formed through earlier mergers of smaller black holes,” he surmised. “This is the most massive black hole binary we’ve observed through gravitational waves, and it presents a real challenge to our understanding of black hole formation.”

    Gw231123 Diagram Ligo
    Infographic on the binary black hole merger that produced the GW231123 signal. Credit: Simona J. Miller/Caltech

    “The black holes appear to be spinning very rapidly—near the limit allowed by Einstein’s theory of general relativity,” explained Charlie Hoy, LIGO member and physicist at the University of Portsmouth in England, in the same release. “That makes the signal difficult to model and interpret. It’s an excellent case study for pushing forward the development of our theoretical tools.”

    Scientists will present their findings about GW231123 next week at the 24th International Conference on General Relativity and Gravitation (GR24) and the 16th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, held jointly as the GR-Amaldi meeting in Glasgow, U.K. Following that, the data will be out for public scrutiny, kicking off the race to unravel GW231123’s mystery—though it’s unlikely we’ll have a clear answer any time soon.

    “It will take years for the community to fully unravel this intricate signal pattern and all its implications,” added Gregorio Carullo, also a LIGO member and physicist at the University of Birmingham, England. “Despite the most likely explanation remaining a black hole merger, more complex scenarios could be the key to deciphering its unexpected features. Exciting times ahead!”

    Physicists first conceived of gravitational waves as early as the late 19th century, but the idea gained popular momentum thanks to Albert Einstein. As one of the few observational methods that doesn’t need light to “see” cosmic phenomena, gravitational waves are unmatched in their potential for helping humanity uncover the many mysteries of black holes, ancient stars, and even dark matter. So, indeed—exciting times ahead!

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  • Stop scaring the young witless about cancer

    Stop scaring the young witless about cancer

    There have been countless reports recently warning of the ‘explosion’ of various forms of cancer among young(ish) people. Prompted by research documenting the rising rate of cancer diagnoses among people under 50, media outlets and politicians, from the Guardian and the BBC to RFK Jr, have been eagerly speculating and fearmongering about the likely causes.

    What’s often missing from this discussion, however, is the crucial context of year-on-year improvements in cancer incidence and mortality, and substantial declines in the age-standardised death rates. Among people of the same ages, the cancer mortality risk has fallen by about one-third since 1990.

    Collectively, the evidence suggests that true increases in early-onset cancers, especially gastrointestinal cancers and breast cancer, are real, but they still account for only around 10 per cent of all cancer diagnoses. The remaining 90 per cent occur in people over 50. Early-onset cancers are certainly distressing, not least because of the emotional toll, protracted treatment and associated side effects like infertility. But their public-health significance depends not just on how serious they are, but also on how many people they affect.

    Plenty of causes have been proposed for the uptick, but the usual suspects dominate: rising levels of obesity, excess alcohol consumption, lack of exercise and poor sleep. In the US, obesity roughly doubled from the early 1990s to 2017. That timing makes for an awkward fit: today’s 30- to 50-year-olds were largely too old to have grown up during the peak of that surge, and most cancers – especially solid tumours like those in the gastrointestinal tract – have long latency periods. Even if we were to assume obesity is the cause, that still leaves many other early-onset cancers unaccounted for. Gastrointestinal cancer represents only about 10 per cent of the increasing cancer incidence. The rest includes cancers like thyroid, testicular and melanoma, which have no strong lifestyle links.

    Then there are many other possible causes to explore. Rising parental age, increased childlessness and reduced breast feeding may shape early-life biological risk and contribute to an increased incidence of breast cancer in women. There is ongoing speculation about the role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals, antibiotics and other environmental exposures. There is also the intriguing possibility that the sharp decline in smoking means those genetically predisposed to cancer are not developing typical smoking cancers, but other forms, such as gastrointestinal cancer.


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    Of course, the expanded use of screening – alongside broader access to healthcare, insurance and routine checks – inevitably leads to more cancers being caught earlier. The fact that mortality remains flat even as incidence rises supports the idea that overall, we’re seeing more diagnosis, not more disease.

    It is an entirely reasonable endeavour to try to reduce all incidences of cancer, but there are limits to what current public-health advice can achieve. Even if everyone ate mostly plants, drank little or no alcohol, exercised daily and slept soundly, cancer incidence might drop by 30 to 50 per cent at most. That is because the modifiable risk factors, while not irrelevant, aren’t especially powerful.

    Obesity is associated with a two- to four-fold increase in the risk of developing certain cancers – most notably endometrial, esophageal, colorectal, kidney and postmenopausal breast cancer. For most cancer types, however, the increased risk associated with obesity is below two-fold. Far more impactful is excessive alcohol consumption, which roughly doubles the risk of liver and esophageal cancers, and increases breast and colorectal cancer risk by 30 to 60 per cent. Even these numbers pale in comparison with smoking. Smoking increases the lifetime risk of lung cancer by about 25 times, doubles the risk of serious illness in middle age and triples or quadruples the risk of fatal cancers overall. The effects of other lifestyle factors, like sleep, stress and physical inactivity – which increasingly crop up in cancer-related headlines – are very small.

    It is morally dubious to give the impression that one’s health is entirely under one’s personal control because (with the exception of chronic smoking) it isn’t. More than that, trying to optimise your health above all else often means giving up the kind of life most people actually want to live. If you find joy in military-grade dietary discipline, precision-tuned workouts and lifelong abstinence, then fine – you might gain an extra two to four years of life. But scaring people into conformity because of a modest rise in early cancer is unreasonable.

    Yet that’s exactly where some interventions courted by healthcare bodies are headed. The ‘health belief model‘, for example, urges people to see themselves as high-risk and to absorb that risk as a personal concern. This way, they can be more readily nudged into preventative health behaviours. Applying that logic to adolescents means fuelling fresh anxieties in a generation already spooked by crime, climate collapse and economic doom.

    For years, the medical authorities have inflated health risks beyond proportion, fuelling an unhealthy obsession with staying well. But health at all costs is too high a price. It’s frankly anti-social to stoke panic over a modest rise in early-onset cancers just to herd everyone under 30 into bland diets, joyless workouts, routine screenings and a state of constant bodily surveillance. That’s not healthy living, it’s lifestyle asceticism for zealots. Most people accept a little risk in exchange for a life that’s actually worth living. What they reasonably reject is misery now in return for a few extra years at the end – years that are never guaranteed to be gained and are always guaranteed to end.

    Stuart Derbyshire is an associate professor of psychology at the National University of Singapore.

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  • Love Island Trio Leah, Serena, JaNa Get Vulnerable on Beyond the Villa

    Love Island Trio Leah, Serena, JaNa Get Vulnerable on Beyond the Villa

    For Love Island USA fans who have been missing their favorite girl group, PPG (Powerpuff Girls), worry no longer: Leah Kateb, Serena Page and JaNa Craig are back together in Peacock spinoff Love Island: Beyond the Villa.

    The trio skyrocketed to fame during season six of Love Island USA last year, which became a cultural sensation thanks to plenty of iconic moments between the Islanders in the Villa as they all searched for love. Kateb, Page and Craig found just what they were looking for — they’re all still together with the men they met on the show, Miguel Harichi, Kordell Beckham and Kenny Rodriguez, respectively — and more, as the trio also formed a close-knit bond as friends that America also became obsessed with.

    Now, fans are getting a closer look at their lives outside of the Villa as they navigate new careers, evolving friendships, newfound fame and complex relationships in Los Angeles in Beyond the Villa, which premiered on Sunday. Craig describes season one of the spinoff as a “beautiful roller coaster,” adding, “It’s gonna be so much fun. There’s a lot of vulnerable moments. You get to see more and more of our personal lives.”

    Beyond the Villa also features season six Islanders Aaron Evans, Kaylor Martin, Connor Newsum, Liv Walker and Kendall Washington, as well as appearances from other former Islanders.

    Below, Kateb, Page and Craig open up to The Hollywood Reporter about how they maintain their close friendship, navigating their relationships a year later and what Love Island USA fans can expect from the rest of season one of Beyond the Villa.

    ***

    How do you navigate keeping a close bond between you three while also having your own lives and relationships?

    CRAIG Thank God for group chat. 

    PAGE Right, group chats, and it’s like any other adult long distance, not even long distance because she’s [JaNa] basically 45 minutes away. So it’s like any like adult relationship you would navigate. You text, you catch up when y’alls schedules align, y’all go to dinner. It’s like any regular like friendship. But we actually probably spend a hell of a lot of time together. 

    CRAIG We have dinner after this. 

    Serena, you mentioned in episode one of Beyond the Villa that you have some separation anxiety with Kordell when he travels for work. How do you balance growing your relationship while also each chasing your personal goals?

    PAGE Actual separation anxiety was a stretch and a bit dramatic (Laughs). We’ve been away from each other all of two weeks total, so let’s just put that into perspective. I was being dramatic. But it’s weird to have him not around. We both feel weird because we’ll both have a full day of work, but we usually come to one of our houses by the end of the night.  So it’s weird when we’re in different states, but it’s work. I’ve done a long-distance relationship before; communication is key. 

    Can you all tease what viewers are in for during the rest of this season of Beyond the Villa?

    CRAIG A beautiful roller coaster. It’s gonna be so much fun. There’s a lot of vulnerable moments. You get to see more and more of our personal lives. It’s a lot, you’ll see. 

    A year after leaving the Love Island USA Villa, what do you make of how far you all have come as friends as well as in your individual relationships? And what do you hope for the future? 

    PAGE Going forward, we each have such amazing opportunities and aspirations, so honestly just being each other’s biggest cheerleaders. Same goes with our men and vice versa, and just rooting for each other and taking it day by day, because you never know what the next week will bring. There will probably be something in a few days that one of us has to announce. 

    What’s your favorite part about showing a new side of your lives in Beyond the Villa?

    KATEB It’s been really fun being able to see us in different ways and honestly different clothes even (Laughs). We get to wear jeans, a lot more casual. It’s still the same us but it’s in a different setting, so you still feel that familiar feeling with us, but it’s all different. We’re doing different things like it’s really fun. 

    Are there any moments this season that you’re most excited for fans to see?

    PAGE Malibu Wines. 

    KATEB It was a PPG day and that was really fun. My favorite days of filming. We got to drink. 

    ***

    Love Island: Beyond the Villa is currently streaming on Peacock, with new episodes dropping every Thursday.

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  • Disappointment as Drake’s final Wireless set ends after 40 minutes

    Disappointment as Drake’s final Wireless set ends after 40 minutes

    Drake’s three-day residency at London’s Wireless Festival concluded on a sour note after the rapper’s headline slot ended after 40 minutes.

    Appearing on stage ten minutes earlier than scheduled, he told the crowd he would perform until his microphone was cut off – referencing the strict 21:30 curfew.

    Fans were also left feeling shortchanged after the 38-year-old’s set featured just three special guests – Popcaan, Rema and Vybz Kartel.

    Saturday night’s show, which ran for 90 minutes, featured 13 special guests, while Friday’s show also had a similar runtime and included six surprise acts.

    Earlier in the day, the official setlist had advertised two Drake sets – one at 18:25 and one at 20:55.

    The first mysteriously disappeared from the schedule during the course of the afternoon, with planned performances from Vybz Kartel and Burna Boy going ahead in their allotted time slots.

    Fans appeared surprised when Drake entered the stage just minutes after Burna Boy had finished, with the Canadian announcing himself to the crowd by speaking to fans.

    He appeared agitated, which was a departure from his more upbeat attitude from Friday and Saturday night.

    Drake started his set by playing an unreleased collaboration with British rapper Central Cee, who did not appear on stage to perform but instead mouthed the words from his position in the front row, which was projected across the big screens.

    The Toronto rapper and singer appeared apologetic throughout, promising to play some of his biggest hits to win over the crowd.

    He told the crowd: “London, I will love you for the rest of my life,” as he raced through a medley of tracks.

    They included Controlla, Find Your Love and One Dance, which were remixed and updated for 2025, but felt slightly rushed, with their new arrangements making it difficult for fans to sing along.

    A surprise appearance from Nigerian rapper Rema raised spirits in the crowd, with tracks Calm Down and Fever proving a highlight.

    But after a brief cameo from Jamaican dancehall artist Vybz Kartel, who had performed to a huge crowd earlier in the day, there was only time for two more Drake solo songs.

    For the third night in a row, he climbed onto a crane to wave to the 50,000 attendees as Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You blasted through the speakers.

    After gaining social media traction over the weekend, fans quickly realised it signalled the end of a disappointedly short headline set.

    Drake already fell victim to the 22:30 curfew on Friday night, with organisers cutting both his and Lauryn Hill’s microphones off and replacing show graphics with information on local train stations.

    He did a better job of keeping timings in check during Saturday’s show, but it is unknown whether it was his decision to start his Sunday evening set 45 minutes before the event was due to end.

    Fans around us expressed their discontent as they shuffled to the exits, with many unaware of the strict local curfews that operate in the park.

    Some even told us they had spent longer queuing to get into the venue than they’d seen Drake perform.

    Whilst attempting to leave, we were alerted to scenes of distress at the accessible exit.

    Fans could be seen and heard pleading with security to let them leave after being told they would have to be held in a restrictive space for ten minutes or until other security gave them the green light.

    This led to hysteria, with fans attacking the barriers, shouting and pleading that they were disabled and needed to leave.

    Wireless Festival’s organisers have been contacted by the BBC for comment.

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