SAVE $60: As of Aug. 7, the Anker Laptop Docking Station is on sale at Amazon for $139.99. This is 30% off its list price of $199.99, allowing you to save $60.
A docking station is a nice investment if you work from home or just want a way to keep all of your devices connected around your laptop. If you’ve been on the lookout for one, the good news is Amazon’s offering a great discount at the moment on the Anker Laptop Docking Station, which offers a 13-in-1 solution for your connecting needs.
While the Anker Laptop Docking Station is usually listed for $199.99, you can score it for 30% off down to $139.99 right now. This is marked as a limited-time deal, so you’ll want to act fast to get it at this price.
As mentioned before, the Anker Laptop Docking Station is a 13-in-1 station. It includes an 85W USB-C port and 18W USB-C port, a USB-C data port, three USB-A ports, two HDMI ports, a DisplayPort, an Ethernet port, SD/microSD card slots, an AUX port, and a DC input. It also can stream to as many as three monitors in 1080p@60Hz simultaneously, should you need a multi-monitor setup for your laptop.
If you’ve been looking for a connection hub for your desk, don’t miss out on 30% off the Anker Laptop Docking Station at Amazon while the deal is still live.
Mashable Deals
This isn’t the only Anker deal to cross our radar, though. Right now you can also save on the Anker MagGo Power Bank, which is down to its lowest price.
Since July 2025, Guangdong province in China has reported over 7,000 cases of chikungunya virus infection, triggering an urgent public health response. In Foshan, the city most affected by the outbreak, authorities have mandated hospitalization for all confirmed cases, requiring patients to remain hospitalized for at least seven days or until they test negative. Hospitals are also taking extra precautions by installing mosquito nets in inpatient areas to prevent further spread of the virus.1
With thousands of confirmed infections, this outbreak appears to be the largest chikungunya event ever recorded in China, according to César López-Camacho of the University of Oxford. “What makes this event notable is that chikungunya has never been established in mainland China before,” he said in a statement. “This suggests that most of the population had no preexisting immunity, making it easier for the virus to spread quickly.”2
As of early August, at least 12 cities within Guangdong province have reported cases, with nearly 3,000 new infections recorded in the past week alone. Hong Kong has also reported its first case, involving a 12-year-old who had recently returned from Foshan.1
Authorities have emphasized that all confirmed infections have been mild to date, with more than 95% of patients recovering within 1 week. Nonetheless, the outbreak has sparked public anxiety on Chinese social media platforms, where users have expressed concern about long-term joint complications and the unfamiliarity of the disease in the region. 1
In response, Guangdong officials have launched a broad vector control campaign. Residents are being instructed to eliminate standing water sources, such as potted plant trays and household containers. Noncompliance may result in fines up to 10,000 yuan (approximately $1,400). Additionally, authorities have deployed mosquito-eating fish, drones to detect stagnant water, and even “elephant mosquitoes”, a sterile Aedes species that preys on its kind.
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne viral illness that typically causes acute fever and debilitating polyarthralgia. The infection is rarely fatal, but symptoms, particularly joint pain, can persist for weeks to years in some individuals. The virus is transmitted via Aedes mosquitoes, particularly Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus, and is not spread person-to-person.1
While these measures have drawn comparisons to COVID-19, experts caution that chikungunya is not directly comparable. The virus cannot be transmitted through casual contact or respiratory droplets, and its basic reproduction number (R₀) is significantly lower than that of SARS-CoV-2.
What You Need To Know
Foshan leads China’s chikungunya outbreak with thousands of confirmed infections and enforced inpatient care for all cases.
Authorities have deployed aggressive vector control measures including fines, drones, and mosquito-eating fish to curb virus spread.
No treatment or widely available vaccine exists in China, with prevention relying on mosquito bite avoidance and public compliance.
In 2023, the FDA granted accelerated approval to IXCHIQ (Valneva USA Inc), the first single-dose vaccine indicated for the prevention of chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in adults aged 18 years and older who are at increased risk of exposure. Approval was based on immunogenicity data from a pivotal phase 3 study measuring anti-CHIKV neutralizing antibodies, with continued approval contingent upon confirmatory evidence of clinical benefit. While the vaccine offers a promising preventative measure, it is contraindicated in immunocompromised individuals and those with severe allergies to vaccine components.
Adverse reactions, such as headache, fatigue, myalgia, and arthralgia, were common, and a small subset of recipients experienced severe or prolonged chikungunya-like symptoms. The safety of IXCHIQ during pregnancy is not fully known, and healthcare providers are advised to weigh the maternal risk of wild-type CHIKV exposure against potential risks to the fetus.3
As China confronts its chikungunya outbreak, modeling studies from past epidemics in Réunion and Italy offer important context. These studies estimate the virus’s basic reproduction number (R₀) between 3 and 4, lower than that of SARS-CoV-2 but still capable of significant transmission in regions with a suitable climate and high mosquito density. European experts emphasize that chikungunya’s R₀ is highly sensitive to environmental and entomological factors, including seasonal breeding cycles and vector behavior. As such, they caution against relying on a single R₀ value without supporting mosquito surveillance data, noting that integrated modeling is essential for effective outbreak response.4
References
1.Ng K. China reports 7,000 cases of chikungunya virus. August 5, 2025. BBC. Accessed August 7, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvg0edj332yo
2.What to know about chikungunya, the virus spreading in southern China. PBS. August 6, 2025. Accessed August 7, 2025. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/what-to-know-about-chikungunya-the-virus-spreading-in-southern-china#:~:text=With%20thousands%20of%20confirmed%20cases,he%20said%20in%20a%20statement.
3.FDA Update on the Safety of Ixchiq (Chikungunya Vaccine, Live). FDA. August 6, 2025. Accessed August 7, 2025. https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/safety-availability-biologics/fda-update-safety-ixchiq-chikungunya-vaccine-live
4.Ribeiro Dos Santos G, Jawed F, Mukandavire C, et al. Global burden of chikungunya virus infections and the potential benefit of vaccination campaigns. Nat Med. 2025;31(7):2342-2349. doi:10.1038/s41591-025-03703
It was not meant to be for Nikola Tsolov around the Hungaroring, as a tough Qualifying result practically ended his title hopes before a racing lap was run in Budapest at the weekend.
The Campos Racing driver was left with a fightback from P21 on the grid, but in Sunday’s Feature Race, he delivered one of his best performances of the season, despite the title going away from him.
Speaking in the paddock afterwards, the Red Bull Junior Team driver reflected on what was a tough weekend that ended with a bright spot as he charged through the pack to finish sixth in difficult conditions.
“In the Sprint, with it being a fully dry race, I think it was really difficult to recover places,” he explained. “I had some quick drivers in front of me that could manage their deg pretty well, so it was tough.
“But in the Feature Race, I was hoping for conditions like the ones we got, where you don’t really know what’s going to happen. I think I got on pretty well in the wet, just like in pre-season testing, where we showed great pace.
“Step by step, I managed to come through the field, it’s just a shame that we ended up just shy of the podium in the end.”
It was an impressive drive through the field by the Campos driver in tricky conditions
Reflecting on his approach, Tsolov explained his thinking in pushing early to try and make up as many positions as possible, despite it leaving him with a management job to the end of the race.
He also says the setup Campos went with in relation to the tyres was the right one, allowing him to make moves in the beginning of the Feature while still having the ability to hold onto his Medium Pirellis by the end.
“I used a lot of tyre in the beginning just to try and recover, and then still managed to keep up a decent pace to the end to be fair.
READ MORE: Ferrari’s Jérôme d’Ambrosio on Rafael Câmara’s F3 title and how he’s evolved in 2025
“I think it was the right approach. After all, you need to chalk off everybody you can in the beginning and then see how you can manage things to the end. Obviously, no one knows the conditions and so pressures were a big factor.
“I think everyone thought that maybe lower pressures would have been better, but you never know. I think we managed things pretty well, and although we were just short of the podium, we never expected to be in P6.”
Of course, Tsolov’s sixth-place finish was not enough to prevent title rival Rafael Câmara from sealing the crown last Sunday, though the Bulgarian driver says he was resigned to the eventuality after Qualifying.
Tsolov’s fightback into the points wasn’t enough to keep him in contention, but he remained proud on Sunday
Still, he paid tribute to his rival’s performances on a Friday in particular, and said that ending this phase of the season with a strong drive regardless was a positive to take into the summer break and Monza.
“Yeah definitely. I think after Qualifying we knew it was over, and the chances were pretty small. So, congrats to Rafa because he did a really good season. He was consistent in every Qualifying session which was quite impressive.
“I think unfortunately, we didn’t have a long title fight let’s say, but that’s how it is. For sure, to finish a race like that just before the summer break is really useful.
READ MORE: BUDAPEST ANALYSIS: How Câmara overcame the odds in Qualifying for crucial pole
“I was struggling a bit and was down let’s say because the last few rounds have been difficult, but drives like that prove what you can do. And, although we didn’t win the Championship, we’re still up there, and that’s what matters so we’ll keep moving forward.
“It’s a big break now, hopefully we’ll come back in good shape at Monza and hopefully we can wrap it up with a top two because now I’m under a bit of pressure from my teammate, but let’s see what we can do.”
Using one of the most detailed sets of observations ever of a galaxy cluster 700 million light-years from Earth, astronomers have captured the faint glow of stray stars in the process of being ripped from their home galaxy and absorbed into another. The ‘bridge’ of diffuse light — spanning roughly a million light years between two galaxies in the cluster Abell 3667 — is the first direct evidence that the two brightest galaxies in the cluster are actively merging.
The findings also imply, the researchers say, that Abell 3667 formed from two smaller clusters, which had themselves merged around a billion years ago.
“This is the first time a feature of this scale and size has been found in a local galaxy cluster,” said Anthony Englert, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University and lead author of a study describing the findings. “We knew that it was possible for a bridge like this to form between two galaxies, but it hadn’t been documented anywhere before now. It was a huge surprise that we were able to image such a faint feature.”
The new images of Abell 3667 were made using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Englert and two colleagues — Ian Dell’Antonio, a professor of physics at Brown, and Mireia Montes, a research fellow at the Institute of Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain — stitched together a record-breaking 28 hours of observations taken over a span of years by DECam. The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
“Because Blanco has been imaging with DECam for the past decade, there is a ton of archival data available,” Englert said. “It was just a happy coincidence that so many people had imaged Abell 3667 over the years, and we were able to stack all of those observations together.”
That extensive observation time is what made it possible to image the dim light of stray stars within the cluster. This type of diffuse light, known as intracluster light or ICL, offers a treasure trove of information about the history of Abell 3667 and the gravitational dance of the galaxies within it.
The ICL imaged by Englert and his colleagues revealed a special type of galactic merger happening in Abell 3667. Normally, Englert says, mergers that involve the largest galaxy in a cluster, called the brightest cluster galaxy or BCG, occur gradually as it steals stars from many smaller galaxies that surround it. But this new research shows something different happening in this case. Abell 3667 is actually made of two galaxy clusters, each with its own BCG, that are now merging together. The ICL bridge discovered by the researchers suggests that the larger BCG is stealing stars from the smaller one — an event known as a rapid or aggressive merger. As the two BCGs merge, so too do the smaller galaxies that surround them, making Abell 3667 the product of two merging clusters. Data from X-ray and radio frequency observations had suggested a rapid merger in Abell 3667, but this is the first optical evidence to back it up.
The appearance of intracluster light in these new images offers a tantalizing preview of what’s to come when the Vera C. Rubin Observatory becomes fully operational later this year or early next. Using a telescope twice the size of Blanco and the largest camera ever built, the Rubin telescope will perform a 10-year scan deep into the entire southern sky, a project called the Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
“Rubin is going to be able to image ICL in much the same way as we did here, but it’s going to do it for every single local galaxy cluster in the southern sky,” Englert said. “What we did is just a small sliver of what Rubin is going to be able to do. It’s really going to blow the study of the ICL wide open.”
That will be a scientific bonanza for astronomers and astrophysicists. In addition to revealing the history of galaxy clusters, the ICL holds clues to some of the most fundamental mysteries of the universe, particularly dark matter — the mysterious, invisible stuff thought to account for most of the universe’s mass.
“ICL is quite important for cosmology,” Dell’Antonio said. “The distribution of this light should mirror the distribution of dark matter, so it provides an indirect way to ‘see’ the dark matter.”
Seeing the unseeable — that’s a powerful telescope.
The Victor M. Blanco Telescope and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory are operated by NOIRLab, the U.S. national center for ground-based, nighttime optical astronomy operated by the National Science Foundation. The research was funded by NSF (AST-2108287), the U.S. Department of Energy (DE-SC-0010010) and the NASA Rhode Island Space Grant Consortium.
Image Details
Jellyfish galaxy JO171 Similar to the iconic Hoag’s Object, JO171 is an example of a ring galaxy, characterized by a completely detached ring of young stars surrounding a central old spheroid. JO171’s fall into the dense Abell 3667 galaxy cluster is stripping it of gas, creating the striking jellyfish-like tendrils seen trailing off to one side of the galaxy. Analysis of the galaxy’s stellar population and its gas and stellar dynamics shows that the origin of the ring is related to an interaction with another galaxy in the distant past, prior to its accretion onto Abell 3667. More recently, since infall into the cluster, the gas in the ring has been stripped by ram pressure, causing the quenching of star formation in the stripped half of the ring. This is the first observed case of ram-pressure stripping in action in a ring galaxy. Both of the events (accretion and stripping) caused dramatic transformations in this galaxy.
Jellyfish galaxy LEDA 64246 LEDA 64246 is another example of extended galaxy tails formed by ram-pressure stripping. Their blue glow indicates that the stripping has triggered star formation in the trails.
Brightest cluster galaxy IC 4965 and infalling group The central galaxy in this cutout is referred to as the brightest cluster galaxy (BCG). The formation of BCGs has been an astronomical mystery for decades. The mystery has been partially answered by the detection of intracluster light, which provides evidence that BCGs generally form through the gradual stripping of stars from less massive galaxies in the cluster, which then accrete onto the BCG.
NGC 6862 NGC 6862 is a Seyfert galaxy that is partially obscured by Milky Way cirrus, or integrated flux nebulae.
A new study evaluating national electronic health record data from more than 310,000 children and adolescents found that pharmacotherapy use for pediatric obesity increased following the release of the 2023 American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) clinical practice guideline. However, absolute treatment rates remained low, with nutrition counseling still far more common.1,2
Published in Pediatrics Open Science, the retrospective observational cohort study analyzed data from January 2021 through December 2024 across 30 US health systems contributing to the Truveta data platform. The study focused on children aged 8–11 years and adolescents aged 12–17 years who had a body mass index (BMI) in the ≥95th percentile and no prior diagnosis of type 2 diabetes.1
The AAP guideline emphasized early evaluation and treatment of obesity, including the recommendation of intensive health behavior and lifestyle treatment (IHBLT) as first-line therapy and pharmacotherapy for adolescents aged 12 years or older in select cases. The guidelines did not recommend pharmacotherapy for younger children unless individually warranted.
To assess real-world impacts, investigators examined incident treatment initiation, either nutrition counseling or referral within 14 to 90 days or pharmacotherapy prescribing within 14 days, before vs after the January 2023 guideline release. Patients with recent obesity treatment were excluded to isolate new interventions.
Among the 310,503 patients included, 36.9% were children and 63.1% were adolescents. The mean (SD) BMI percentile was 97.4 (1.6), and 35.7% had severe obesity. Nutrition counseling or referral occurred in 9.7% of eligible patients, while only 0.4% initiated pharmacotherapy. Use of both treatments varied by demographics and provider specialty. Patients seen by pediatricians were more likely to receive counseling or referral.
Following the guideline release, there was no immediate increase in nutrition treatment (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.98–1.12), but a small monthly trend increase was observed (OR, 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00–1.01). In contrast, pharmacotherapy prescribing showed both a significant immediate increase (OR, 1.65; 95% CI, 1.23–2.21) and sustained growth over time (monthly OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.03–1.07).
Despite low absolute use, pharmacotherapy initiation was more likely among adolescents, female patients, and those with higher BMI percentiles. Among prescribed medications, metformin use declined while semaglutide prescribing increased from 2.5% of patients during the preguideline period to 26.8% postguideline (P < .01).
“These study findings suggest a gradual adoption of AAP pharmacotherapy guidelines over time,” the authors noted. “However, the timing of the AAP guideline release coincided with surging national interest in GLP-1–based antiobesity medications.”
The study acknowledged concerns regarding potential overuse of pharmacotherapy, particularly GLP-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), but emphasized that prescribing remained conservative. Researchers also noted that nutrition counseling may have been undercaptured in EHRs and is not exclusive to obesity treatment.
Several factors may explain the higher use of nutrition counseling relative to pharmacotherapy, including limited access to GLP-1 RAs, cost barriers, caregiver hesitancy, and clinician reluctance. “Further research is needed to understand clinician-level factors including communication about obesity treatment options,” the authors wrote.
Limitations of the study include reliance on EHR documentation, lack of data from children’s hospitals, and potential underreporting of counseling delivered outside clinical systems. Nonetheless, the study offers insight into practice shifts following a major guideline update and highlights implementation challenges in translating pediatric obesity guidance into care.
“Future research should explore clinician and family preferences for obesity treatment options and understand how families balance trade-offs between treatment attributes such as time, cost, safety, uncertainty, and short- and long-term effectiveness,” the authors concluded.
References:
Rodriguez PJ, Do D, Gratzl S, Goodwin-Cartwright BM, Stucky NL, Wright DR. Shifts in US Pediatric Obesity Treatment After the AAP Guidelines. Pediatrics Open Science. 2025;1(3):1-12. doi:https://doi.org/10.1542/pedsos.2025-000623
Hampl SE, Hassink SG, Skinner AC, et al. Clinical practice guideline for the evaluation and treatment of children and adolescents with obesity. Pediatrics. 2023;151(2). doi:https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-060640
Head coach Bryan Easson has named Scotland’s 32-player squad for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025, which gets underway in Sunderland, England on 22 August.
Captain Rachel Malcolm leads a selection comprising 18 forwards and 14 backs for a Pool B campaign where Scotland will face an opening match against Wales in Salford on 23 August, before further ties against Fiji and world number two, Canada.
Hooker Lana Skeldon is the most-capped member of the squad with 81 matches for Scotland, while nine players have amassed more than 50 appearances.
Flanker Malcolm is one of 21 players to have appeared at Rugby World Cup 2021, which was played in 2022 due to Covid. Other than the captain, the other forwards selected for their second Rugby World Cups are Leah Bartlett, Molly Wright (props) Elis Martin, Lana Skeldon (hookers), Jade Konkel, Rachel McLachlan (back row), Eva Donaldson, Sarah Bonar and Emma Wassell (second row). Among the backs returning for a second Rugby World Cup are vice-captain Helen Nelson (fly-half), Coreen Grant, Rhona Lloyd (wings), Emma Orr, Evie Wills, Lisa Thomson (centres) and Caity Mattinson (scrum-half).
Emma Wassell’s selection caps a remarkable personal comeback, having made her way back to international rugby after recovering from a benign tumour in her chest last September.
Walker and Clarke sisters create headlines for Scots
At the other end of the experience spectrum, wing Hannah Walker is the only uncapped player selected, while Hannah Ramsay earned her first two caps during Scotland’s summer tests against Italy and Ireland. The other players preparing for Rugby World Cup debuts are Becky Boyd, Adelle Ferrie (second row), Lisa Cockburn, Molly Poolman (props), Beth Blacklock (fly-half/centre), Leia Brebner-Holden, Rhea Clarke (scrum-half), Francesca McGhie, Hannah Walker (wings), Hannah Ramsay (flay-half) and back row duo Evie Gallagher and Alex Stewart.
Meanwhile, Elliann and Rhea Clarke make history as the first Scottish sisters to be selected for the same Rugby World Cup tournament.
The 32-player strong group contains five players who have featured for Edinburgh Rugby in the 2024/25 season of the Celtic Challenge.
Scotland squad
(Caps) * played the last Rugby World Cup
Forwards Leah Bartlett – Leicester Tigers (45)* Becky Boyd – Loughborough Lightning (3) Sarah Bonar – Harlequins (47)* Elliann Clarke – Bristol Bears (22)* Lisa Cockburn – Gloucester Hartpury (34) Eva Donaldson – Sale Sharks (17)* Evie Gallagher – Bristol Bears (37) Adelle Ferrie – Edinburgh Rugby/Corstorphine Cougars (6) Jade Konkel – Harlequins (71)* Rachel Malcolm – captain – Trailfinders Women (58)* Elis Martin – Loughborough Lightning (22)* Rachel McLachlan – Montpellier (53)* Molly Poolman – Edinburgh Rugby/Watsonian FC (5) Lana Skeldon – Bristol Bears (81)* Alex Stewart – Edinburgh Rugby/Corstorphine Cougars (13) Emma Wassell – Trailfinders Women (69)* Molly Wright – Sale Sharks (24)* Anne Young – Loughborough Lightning (21)*
Backs Leia Brebner-Holden – Loughborough Lightning (11) Beth Blacklock – Saracens (4) Rhea Clarke – Bristol Bears (1) Coreen Grant – Harlequins (17)* Rhona Lloyd – Sale Sharks (59)* Caity Mattinson – Trailfinders Women (33)* Francesca McGhie – Trailfinders Women (22) Helen Nelson – Loughborough Lightning (71)* Hannah Ramsay – Edinburgh Rugby/University of Edinburgh (2) Chloe Rollie – Toulon Provence Mediterranee (77)* Emma Orr – Bristol Bears (30)* Lisa Thomson – Trailfinders Women (71)* Hannah Walker – Edinburgh Rugby/University of Edinburgh (Uncapped) Evie Wills – Sale Sharks (6)*
Aug. 7 (UPI) — SpaceX is scheduled to lift off on Thursday with more Project Kuiper satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station for its 100th mission of the year.
This mission will be the fourth launch for Project Kuiper. The rocket will be carrying 24 satellites, bringing the total number of satellites in the constellation to 102. Once finished, it is planned to consist of more than 3,200 spacecraft.
The launch window begins at 10:01 a.m. EDT with a 27-minute window with an 80% chance of favorable weather for lift off. Although there is a concern with cumulus clouds, which are prevalent in the late morning hours.
“The combination of onshore flow, higher low-level moisture, and warm temperatures will support earlier formation of cumulus clouds. Isolated to scattered showers are expected to develop by late morning and persist into the early afternoon hours,” a launch weather officer said.
The rocket will be equipped with a new first stage booster, B1091.
This will be the second out of the three Amazon-purchased Falcon 9 rockets to fly into orbit; the company hasn’t announced when its third will launch.
The rockets will all be deployed about 56 minutes after liftoff over a span of 7.5 minutes.
In July, the government stopped processing asylum requests from migrants arriving from North Africa by sea for three months in an effort to curb arrivals from Libya to Crete Plevris said he could not rule out an extension to the suspension if there was a “new crisis“
ATHENS: Greece could extend a suspension on examining asylum applications passed by parliament last month if migrant flows from Libya start rising again, Migration Minister Thanos Plevris said on Thursday.
In July, the center-right government stopped processing asylum requests from migrants arriving from North Africa by sea for at least three months in an effort to curb arrivals from Libya to the Greek island of Crete.
In an interview with public broadcaster ERT, Plevris said he could not rule out an extension to the suspension if there was a “new crisis.”
Arrivals of irregular migrants in Crete declined rapidly after the new legislation took effect from 2,642 in the first week of July to 900 in the whole period since then.
New legislation is being prepared that will clearly define that “whoever comes into the country illegally will face a jail term of up to five years,” Plevris said, referring to those who are not fleeing armed conflict, who could qualify for asylum.
Human rights groups accuse Greece of turning back asylum-seekers by force on its sea and land borders. This year, the European Union border agency said it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece.
The government denies wrongdoing.
“All European countries now understand that it is not possible to have open borders, it’s not possible to welcome illegal migrants with flowers,” Plevris said.
“There should be a clear message that countries have borders, (that) Europe has exceeded its capabilities and will not accept any more illegal migrants.”
Greece has sent two frigates to patrol off Libya and has started training Libyan coast guard officers on Crete as part of a plan to strengthen cooperation and help the two countries stem migrant arrivals.
Greece was on the European front line of a migration crisis in 2015-16 when hundreds of thousands from the Middle East, Asia and Africa passed through its islands and mainland.
Since then, flows have dropped off dramatically. While there has been a rise in arrivals to the outlying islands of Crete and Gavdos, sea arrivals to Greece as a whole dropped by 5.5 percent to 17,000 in the first half of this year, UN data show.
The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) on Thursday notified a decrease of Rs1.89 in the uniform tariff for the next three months.
A notification dated August 7 and available with Dawn.com said that the authority “decided to allow the application of instant quarterly adjustments on the consumers of K-Electric as well, with the same applicability period.
“Accordingly, the instant quarterly adjustment of negative Rs1.8881/kWh (per kilowatt hour) shall also be charged from the consumers of K-Electric except life line and prepaid consumers, to be recovered in a period of three months [from] August 2025 to October 2025.”
Nepra stated that this discount will be applied to bills for the applicable period issued before the notification, adding that distribution companies (Discos) will comply with court orders.
Meanwhile, Nepra also notified a negative fuel cost adjustment (FCA) of Rs0.78 per unit for consumers of all ex-Wapda distribution companies (XWDiscos) except for K-Electric (KE) in their bills for August.
According to a separate Nepra notification — also dated August 7 and available with Dawn.com — the authority decided on an FCA of Rs0.78 for the month of June 2025 based on variations in fuel charges in the approved tariffs of XWDiscos.
Nepra decided that the FCA “shall be applicable to all consumer categories except lifeline consumers, protected consumers, Electric Vehicle Charging Stations (EVCS) and pre-paid electricity consumers of all categories who opted for pre-paid tariff”, the notification read.
The notification stated that XWDiscos would reflect the June FCA in the billing month of August 2025, which would be shown separately on consumers’ bills based on the units billed to them in June.
“In case any bills of August 2025 are issued before the notification of this decision, the same may be applied in [the] subsequent month,” Nepra added.
“While effecting the Fuel Charges Adjustment, the concerned XWDiscos shall keep in view and strictly comply with the orders of the courts, notwithstanding this order.”
In another notification from today, Nepra replied to a request from the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA-G) seeking a monthly FCA for June, finding that based on the information provided, the actual pool fuel cost was Rs.7.68 per kilowatt hour (kWh) against the reference fuel cost component of Rs.8.3341 per kWh
“The actual fuel charges, as claimed by CPРА, for the June 2025 decreased by Rs.0.65 per kWh as compared to the reference fuel charges,” the notification read.
Today’s notifications come in the wake of a Nepra hearing discussing complaints of overbilling and requests for a negative FCA.
The regulator had called the public hearing on the request of XWDiscos seeking a negative quarterly adjustment of Rs1.80 per unit to refund about Rs53.4 billion to consumers from August to October. The refund stems from savings in capacity payments during the fourth quarter (April-June) of FY2025.
Are all frameworks the same? Not exactly, according to developer and educator Ankita Kulkarni.
Kulkarni compared TanStack Start, React Router v7 and Next.js, identifying the best uses for each. She presented her findings at React Summit 2025 (free registration required), which was hosted by GitNation in June. The video of the presentation was released late last month.
What’s particularly interesting about her presentation is that she didn’t just compare the frameworks; she suggested the particular situations where each JavaScript framework excelled.
Next.js
What makes Next.js special, according to Kulkarni, is that it provides an easy way to integrate search engine optimization (SEO).
“We get a serverless platform out of the box,” she said. “We have different data fetching mechanisms.”
This makes it ideal for e-commerce sites, marketing sites, landing pages, SaaS dashboards, blogs and documentation sites, she said. She added that it’s good for serving a lot of static content, or even hybrid content, meaning dynamic as well as static content. (Note: many industry experts would disagree it’s suitable for blogs or other simple content sites, due to the complexity of React-based frameworks.)
The Next.js ecosystem is superior compared to other frameworks, she said, but the learning curve is a bit steeper. For example, developers have to learn two different types of routers with Next.js: App router and Pages router, which is a legacy offering. It’s also complicated by server actions, server components, different behaviors and versions, and different rendering methods. “There’s definitely a steep learning curve here,” she said.
She noted that Next.js “has come a really long way” in terms of developer experience.
Next.js has also embraced React Server Components (RSCs) early, “giving us a glimpse into what full-stack React could look like before most frameworks were ready,” she said.
Kulkarni recommends choosing Next.js when you:
Want built-in optimization or to use server components (RSC).
Need granular caching controls.
Have no custom webpack builds.
Want wide adoption and community support.
React Router v7
React Router v7 became a framework when the core features of Remix were merged into React Router v7‘s framework mode.
What sets it apart is it bets on web standards, she said.
“What it does is it unifies the client and server with web standards, so you can think less about your code and more about your product,” she told audiences. “Whenever you try to Google anything — for example, a form component — you can straight up go to the MDN docs to look for how the APIs are going to look. They’re going to lean on web APIs directly, instead of adding a wrapper on top of a form component that a lot of other frameworks do.”
React Router v7, as a framework, also incorporates the flexibility of using React Router, she added. This makes it easy to create a standard CDN-hosted (content delivery network) single-page application (SPA). A web developer could easily migrate that and add server-side rendering hosted on any server, she said, adding, “That’s the beauty of it.”
React Router and Tanstack use Vite for the build system, which is incredibly fast, she added.
“Because both of them use Vite, it’s already a good start” for developer experience, she said. Vite uses a plugin-based system that makes it easy to add functionality. “You can think of it as Lego boxes that you can pick and choose from,” she said.
Where React Router can slow developers down is that it’s tightly coupled with web standards, so it can get a little tricky because of the tight coupling, she said.
“You have to make a lot of decisions here whenever you go with React Router and overall, it’s just the experience is better,” she said.
Choose React Router v7 when you:
Care about progressive enhancements, web standards and ALLY (at least in a React context).
Want deep nested routing.
Want no limitations for integration to cloud platform.
TanStack Start
TanStack Start is a full-stack React framework powered by TanStack Router and supported by an ecosystem of TanStack tools.
“What makes TanStack really special is that it’s fully typed,” Kulkarni said. “I can’t remember the number of times I have changed routes in other frameworks and everything breaks, and I have no idea a lot of times what’s working and what’s not.”
TanStack will help with that because it’s fully typed, she added. It also has isomorphic loaders, which means loaders that run on the server initially, then on the client for client-side navigations. TanStack also offers server functions, which make it easier to make server-based calls, she added. It comes with React Query integration, so it can be used right out of the box.
Kulkarni discussed building a SaaS application. For the dashboard interactivity, she would need lot of client rendering, she said. For that, TanStack is “really powerful and useful.”
In particular, she had a bubble with a lot of interactivity on the page.
“In this case, maybe I could have used Next.js or React Router, but ideally, TanStack is the best contender for this one,” she said. “Because this is a client-heavy application, it will have a lot of caching, a lot of changes that TanStack Start is just going to manage.”
For any type of interactive dashboards, admin panels, and so on, TanStack is a great start, she said.
However, TanStack Start is not ideal if the frontend developer’s goal is a server-rendered site with zero JavaScript or minimal client-side interactivity, or the developer wants an RSC framework — although she added that support for RSC is coming soon.
She also noted that TanStack Start is still in beta.
“It’s already so powerful, so I cannot even imagine how powerful it would be after its full release,” she said.
Choose TanStack Start when you:
Already use React Query/TanStack Router.
Have the client heavy apps.
Need streaming + SSR without complex abstractions.
The slides for her presentation are available for free viewing, although this seems to be an older version of the presentation because, instead of TanStack, it offers an evaluation of Astro.
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Loraine Lawson is a veteran technology reporter who has covered technology issues from data integration to security for 25 years. Before joining The New Stack, she served as the editor of the banking technology site Bank Automation News. She has…
