Renewable energy advances in Ukraine with adoption of new secondary legislation on cable pooling, capacity booking, and other key changes to grid connection rules Dentons
The benefits of integrating Ukraine’s energy markets with those of the EU will greatly outweigh the costs of European energy integration. ubn.news
Ukraine Accelerates Implementation of European Commission Recommendations in the Energy Sector Міністерство енергетики України
Bollywood Hungama was the first one to break the viral story about the cuts given to War 2 by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). After the modifications were made, the censor certificate was handed to the makers, Yash Raj Films (YRF), on August 6. A day later, they again approached the CBFC as they wanted to voluntarily make deletions in the film to shorten the narrative. In this article, Bollywood Hungama will focus on these cuts made by the makers of the Hrithik Roshan-Jr NTR starrer.
EXCLUSIVE: 28 scenes, 6.25 minutes – YRF’s post-censor cuts to War 2 REVEALED
YRF has made changes in a total of 28 scenes. Most of the deletions are just a few seconds long. This means that only certain shots have been reduced and the whole scene hasn’t been axed. Out of 22 scenes, 22 deleted shots are less than 10 seconds long. A chase sequence has been reduced by 16 seconds, while another action-packed scene is now 24 seconds shorter. Another sequence has been cut short by 32 seconds.
A certain dialogue between the protagonists has been reduced by 1 minute and 19 seconds, the longest cut given to any scene by the makers. Lastly, the speed of the rolling end credits has been changed, which has led to a reduction of 1 minute 47 seconds of the film’s run time.
In this way, the makers reduced 6 minutes 25 seconds of the film. Earlier, the run time of War 2 was 179.49 minutes, that is, 2 hours, 59 minutes and 49 seconds. The revised length of the film is 173.24 minutes, that is, 2 hours, 53 minutes and 24 seconds.
War 2 stars Hrithik Roshan, Jr NTR, Kiara Advani and Ashutosh Rana. It is directed by Ayan Mukerji. It is the sixth film of the Yash Raj Spy Universe after Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Tiger Zinda Hai (2017), War (2019), Pathaan (2023) and Tiger 3 (2023).
Also Read: Coolie takes a lead of Rs. 70 crores over War 2 at the worldwide box office; Rajinikanth ready to conquer the throne
More Pages: War 2 Box Office Collection
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Over 200 viruses infect humans, and all rely on living host cells to survive. In doing so, they induce striking changes to the cell and its environment. Scientists like Ileana Cristea are investigating these changes to better understand the complex virus–host relationship.
Ileana Cristea
Cristea recently shared her research on the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology webinar Breakthroughs, a series highlighting research from ASBMB journals. A professor of molecular biology and director of graduate studies at Princeton University, she also serves as editor-in-chief of Molecular & Cellular Proteomics. During her talk, sponsored by MCP, Cristea discussed how viral infections reshape organelles and cellular metabolism and how these changes relate to broader disease biology.
One key intracellular change during viral infection, Cristea said, is organelle remodeling. Organelles — such as mitochondria, which drive energy production, and the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER, which synthesizes proteins and lipids — are often disrupted by viruses.
“Diverse viruses that infect so many different types of cells (and) have different replication strategies, different genomes, they’re united by this need to induce organelle remodeling,” she said.
Illustration of human cytomegalovirus virions.
Cristea and colleagues observed that cells infected with human cytomegalovirus, or HCMV, a double-stranded DNA virus, exhibited mitochondrial fragmentation; but, in HCMV-infected cells, it surprisingly increased cellular respiration. The team turned to mass spectrometry-based proteomics and microscopy to investigate.
They discovered a novel organelle–organelle interaction: small mitochondrial fragments induced by HCMV infection became encased in ER pockets. They named these new structures mitochondria–ER encapsulations, or MENCs. Studies across various HCMV strains and cell types confirmed MENCs as a consistent feature of late-stage infection.
Additional work revealed that MENCs helped sustain high cellular respiration, ultimately benefiting the virus. Similar patterns of elevated metabolism despite mitochondrial fragmentation had been seen in other diseases.
Courtesy of Ileana Cristea (10.1038/s41467-024-51680-4)
Cartoon representing our findings of mitochondria undergoing peripheral fission at three-way ER–mito–lysosome contacts after HCMV infection, the progenies of which exhibit suppressed mitophagy as well as elevated membrane potential.
“When we thought about this, we immediately thought about cancer, because HCMV is known to be also an oncomodulatory virus, and in cancer, we see mitochondrial fragmentation,” Cristea said.
In metastatic melanoma cells, the team observed the same phenomenon: fragmented mitochondria encapsulated in MENCs with high bioenergetic activity — and MENC formation correlated with greater cancer severity.
In addition to organelle remodeling, viral infection disrupts metabolism, notably increasing levels of the byproduct lactate. While lactate is known to dampen immunity in cancer, its role in viral infection was unclear.
In a recent study, Cristea’s team found that treating cells with lactate enhanced viral replication. Proteomics analysis of cells infected with HCMV, or the herpes simplex 1 virus, called HSV-1, showed lactate-modified host defense proteins. This lactylation, occurring in intrinsically disordered regions, inhibited immune signaling and promoted infection.
Cristea’s research also explores how viruses influence the space outside infected cells. Her team found that viruses can alter the surrounding microenvironment to promote infection. Using a fluorescence-based assay, they observed that infection in one cell disrupted cell division and weakened immune responses in neighboring cells. This priming helped HCMV, HSV-1 and influenza viruses spread more easily.
“We thought initially that (the neighboring cells should) be ready for defense because this cell is becoming infected, but actually they have dampened immunity,” she said.
While much of Cristea’s work has largely focused on viral infections, her lab is now exploring whether the same cellular mechanisms underlie other diseases, including cancer.
In case you missed it, you can watch the full Breakthroughs webinar here.
Maha Ali was determined to one day become a journalist and report on events in Gaza. Now she and other students have just one ambition: finding food as hunger ravages the Palestinian enclave.
As war rages, she is living among the ruins of the Islamic University, a once-bustling educational institution that, like most others in Gaza, has become a shelter for displaced people.
“We have been saying for a long time that we want to live, we want to get educated, we want to travel. Now we are saying we want to eat,” the 26-year-old honours student said.
Ali is part of a generation of Palestinians in Gaza – from primary school through university students – who say they have been robbed of an education by nearly two years of Israeli air strikes that have destroyed the enclave’s institutions.
More than 61,000 people have been killed by Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Gaza health authorities. Much of the enclave, which suffered from poverty and high unemployment even before the war, has been demolished.
Palestinian Minister of Education Amjad Barham accused Israel of carrying out systematic destruction of schools and universities, saying 293 of 307 schools have been destroyed completely or partially.
“With this, the occupation wants to kill hope inside our sons and daughters,” he said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, according to the latest satellite-based damage assessment in July, 97 percent of educational facilities in Gaza have sustained some level of damage with 91 percent requiring major rehabilitation or complete reconstruction to become functional again.
“Restrictions by Israeli authorities continue to limit the entry of educational supplies into Gaza, undermining the scale and quality of interventions,” it said.
Those grim statistics paint a bleak future for Yasmine al-Za’aneen, 19, sitting in a tent for the displaced and sorting through books that have survived Israeli strikes and displacement.
She recalled how immersed she was in her studies, printing papers, finding an office and fitting it with lights.
“Because of the war, everything was stopped. I mean everything I had built, everything I had done. Just in seconds, it was gone,” she said.
There is no immediate hope for relief or a return to the classroom.
Israel plans a new Gaza offensive, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he expected to complete “fairly quickly”, as the UN Security Council heard new demands for an end to the suffering in the Palestinian enclave.
Saja Adwan, 19, an honours student at the al-Azhar Institute who is living in a school turned shelter with her family of nine, recalled how the building where she once learned was bombed.
Her books and study materials are gone. To keep her mind occupied, she takes notes on the meagre educational papers she has left.
“All my memories were there – my ambitions, my goals. I was achieving a dream there. It was a life for me. When I used to go to the institute, I felt psychologically at ease,” she said.
“My studies were there; my life, my future, where I would graduate from.”
David Rendall, who has died aged 76, was a singer whose bronzed but mellifluous tenorial tones sustained a career lasting 30 years until it was shortened by an onstage accident. He enjoyed successful runs at the major British houses – Covent Garden, English National Opera and Glyndebourne – as well as the Metropolitan, New York, but he was also dogged by misfortune.
Progressing from lighter roles in Mozart and bel canto opera to weightier parts such as Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino and Cavaradossi in Tosca, he finally attained the zenith of many a tenor’s aspirations, the title role in Otello, bringing to the part his characteristic combination of commanding tone, lyrical timbre and skilful phrasing. Of his performance at ENO in 1998, the critic of Opera magazine prophesied: “Given the right opportunities, Rendall’s Otello will surely bestride the world.”
He did indeed go on to sing Otello at La Scala and Dresden, as well as Glyndebourne in 2001 and again four years later, but it was also in 2005 that there occurred a disastrous stage malfunction in a performance of Aida at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen. Sealed in the underground tomb in the final act, he became aware of the stage above going sideways instead of up, resulting in the destruction of the set. “I was knocked down at least 15 feet”, he recalled, “and tried to crawl to safety to avoid being crushed.”
Rendall, in the brown suit, as Cavaradossi in Tosca at English National Opera, 1990. Photograph: Donald Cooper/Alamy
The serious injuries he suffered required a hip replacement, with subsequent knee-joint replacement, and extensive shoulder surgery. His £250,000 claim for compensation against the theatre’s owners, the Danish Ministry of Culture, cited loss of earnings, on the basis that opera companies doubted his ability to achieve the same high standards as previously. He subsequently also sued the surgeon who performed the operation for using a controversial technique of “mixing and matching” hip replacement parts, seriously affecting his mobility.
The Copenhagen incident was not the first time Rendall had been in the headlines for the wrong reasons. At a performance of Pagliacci in Milwaukee in 1998, the blade of the prop knife his character Canio was using to stab his unfaithful wife Nedda and her lover Silvio failed to retract. The baritone playing Silvio, Kimm Julian, narrowly escaped a possibly mortal injury. A farcical element was added when the police who had been called to the scene confused the plot of the opera recounted to them with the real-life scenario, and came to believe that Rendall himself was seeking revenge for a marital infidelity. He was finally released without charge.
Rendall was born in London, the son of Phyllis (nee Tuffin), a nurse, and John Rendall, a stockbroker’s manager. As a teenager he was the vocalist of a covers band called All on Edge, but was working in the BBC’s gramophone library (as it was then called) when he was overheard by Roy Plomley and Ronald Cook, the presenter and producer of Desert Island Discs, singing Questa o quella (a castaway’s choice) from Rigoletto. Disapproving of the choice of singer, he had played the disc 10 to 12 times, by his own account, “learned the tune and a couple of the words”, went into the studio and put it down on tape.
So impressed were Plomley and Cook, listening in an adjacent room, that they made contact on his behalf with two London conservatoires. He was offered a bursary at the Royal Academy of Music.
Rendall as Tristan, with Susan Bullock as Isolde, at the Coliseum, London, in 2003. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
His debut as a soloist was with Glyndebourne Touring Opera in 1975 as Ferrando in Così fan tutte. He graduated to the festival proper in the same role the following year, but was not to return until 1988 as Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, followed by Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress. Meanwhile at Covent Garden between 1975 and 1990, he sang such roles as Count Almaviva, Massenet’s Des Grieux, Matteo in Arabella and Rodrigo in La Donna del Lago, while at ENO between 1976 and 1992 he won acclaim as Leicester in Maria Stuarda, the Duke in Rigoletto, Rodolfo and Pinkerton. To all these roles he brought exemplary diction, an impressive legato line and a thrilling, though seemingly effortless, delivery.
He also flourished at the Met, making his debut there as Ernesto in Don Pasquale (1980) and returning for 10 seasons to sing six of the principal Mozart tenor roles as well as Matteo, Lensky and David in Die Meistersinger. Deciding, with his second wife, the mezzo-soprano Diana Montague, that they would focus their careers on the UK and Europe, in order to enjoy family life with their children, Rendall thereafter declined many offers from America and elsewhere.
In his enforced retirement he kept an entertaining blog retailing anecdotes from his life and career, including a temporary loss of sight after being struck on the temple by a singer playing Don Alfonso and an incident involving the New York police department when a dish of curry was emptied over the head of a restaurateur. The picture emerges of a colourful, combative character who, despite setbacks, lived life to the full.
He is survived by Diana, and their three children, Eleanor, Amelia and Huw, and by two children, Edward and Elizabeth, from his first marriage, to Kathryn George, which ended in divorce.
MAKKAH: Saudi Arabia is home to a vast network of caves and geological cavities formed over millions of years. The sites provide dramatic natural formations and rich stories about the region’s history.
With their adventure appeal, scientific value, and environmental diversity, these underground wonders are emerging as a promising tourism frontier, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
In an interview with Arab News, cave researcher and adventurer Hassan Al-Rashidi shared his experiences exploring these hidden landscapes, describing how his passion began in childhood.
Caves attract a diverse mix of local and international visitors, from thrill-seekers to scientists drawn by the chance to study the Earth’s age, examine rock layers, and observe the creatures within. (Supplied)
He said: “The real starting point came in 2018 when I began filming and uploading videos for some friends, which received great interaction from the public. This encouraged me even more, especially after people from across the Kingdom reached out (by) asking to explore unknown sites.”
Among the many sites he has visited, Al-Rashidi enthuses over Abu Al-Waul Cave in Madinah’s Khaybar Governorate, east of Al-Thamad village, as the most remarkable for depth and natural formations.
It lies in the middle of Harrat Khaybar and is surrounded by other notable caves such as Maker Al-Shaiheen, Umm Jersan, Abu Jamajem, and Al-Sibaa Cave.
HIGHLIGHTS
• With their adventure appeal, scientific value, and environmental diversity, caves are emerging as a promising tourism frontier, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
• Cave exploration carries risks such as possible collapses, which may be avoided by steering clear of unstable zones and exiting immediately if danger is detected.
• Some caves in the Kingdom remain closed to the public for safety, or to protect their archeological value.
Abu Al-Waul is the longest cave discovered in the Kingdom so far, stretching 5 km, and is still being studied, Al-Rashidi said.
According to researcher Hassan Al-Rashidi caves are ‘a rare geological, tourism, and environmental treasure that must be preserved.’ (Supplied)
The interiors of caves vary, with stalactites and stalagmites creating unique and stunning visuals.
Wildlife sightings are common, and Al-Rashidi said: “We have observed animals such as foxes, hyenas, and wolves, which use caves as a safe shelter during the day, coming out at night to hunt and bring food for their young.”
He added that cave exploration required careful preparation, from modern distance-measuring devices, and ropes and supports for slippery areas, to food, water, first aid kits, sturdy footwear, helmets, and lighting with spare batteries.
Caves attract a diverse mix of local and international visitors, from thrill-seekers to scientists drawn by the chance to study the Earth’s age, examine rock layers, and observe the creatures within. (Supplied)
Al-Rashidi added that volcanic caves form when the outer layer of lava cools while the inner part remains molten and flows onward, while calcareous sandstone caves date back millions of years and are formed from compacted sand layers shaped by rainfall and other climatic factors.
Cave exploration carries risks such as possible collapses, which may be avoided by steering clear of unstable zones and exiting immediately if danger is detected.
Some caves in the Kingdom remain closed to the public for safety, or to protect their archaeological value.
Caves attract a diverse mix of local and international visitors, from thrill-seekers to scientists drawn by the chance to study the Earth’s age, examine rock layers, and observe the creatures within. (Supplied)
Highlighting their cultural and economic potential, Al-Rashidi called caves “a rare geological, tourism, and environmental treasure that must be preserved.”
He believes Saudi Vision 2030 — supported by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — offers the Kingdom a real chance to develop cave tourism as a sustainable economic resource.
He said: “Caves can be an economic resource through tourism and scientific research, as well as by opening employment and educational opportunities, in addition to (being the basis of) national research for the benefit of the nation’s citizens.”
According to researcher Hassan Al-Rashidi caves are ‘a rare geological, tourism, and environmental treasure that must be preserved.’ (Supplied)
Caves attract a diverse mix of local and international visitors, from thrill-seekers to scientists drawn by the chance to study the Earth’s age, examine rock layers, and observe the creatures within.
Al-Rashidi said that developing the sector will require improved infrastructure and the imposition of strict safety measures, in addition to providing engaging visitor experiences while encouraging strong public awareness of preserving the natural sites.
“Browse securely now,” Microsoft warns Windows users installing Google Chrome. “Microsoft Edge runs on the same technology as Chrome,” it says, “with the added trust of Microsoft.” This warning is not new, but it’s about to ramp up.
Chrome remains the de facto default browser for most Windows users, with almost six-times the market share of Microsoft’s Edge browser. The ongoing campaign to push Windows users to the Edge has not relented in years. Just as with Bing versus Google itself or Copilot versus Gemini, Microsoft wants its Windows users to go all-in.
Microsoft warns Chrome users
Windows Latest
If there are any remaining doubts that Microsoft is specifically targeting Chrome users, urging them to switch to Edge, then a new report from Windows Latest might put those to rest. A targeted campaign that “makes it obvious that Microsoft really wants you to stop using Google Chrome and open Edge instead.”
This latest ruse includes taskbar flags now in Canary (pre-release) which “pin Edge when you close the browser.” Per Windows Latest, this approach “isn’t exactly new, but the flags have a specific mention of Google Chrome.”
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Those flags include “msOptimizeChromePBSignalForPinningOnCloseCampaigns,” which triggers when exiting the browser. But more starkly, a new flag is called “msPinningCampaignChromeUsageGreaterThan90Trigger” and pushes users to pin Edge to their taskbar “when Chrome’s usage is greater than 90%.”
“The intent is clear,” Windows Latest says. “Microsoft wants to show a ‘pin to taskbar’ pop-up for Edge if you use Chrome most of the time.” And this “exit-time nudge” will have “a hard trigger at a ‘>90% Chrome usage’ threshold.
Microsoft recommends users to stop using Chrome
Windows Latest
These flags are in development for now, and perhaps this publicity will tone them down before anything is generally released. But the Chrome installation alerts and advice to change browser in attack notifications are already live in the real world.
Google has accused Microsoft of dirty tricks before, as it tries to steer Windows users away from Chrome. It’s a battle that is not yet making much difference to browsing behaviors. But many enterprise users will know that Microsoft’s approach also includes mandating Edge as the browser in secure company ecosystems.
I have approached both Microsoft and Google to get any views on this latest twist, as the browser war between the two dominant tech giants continues unabated.
The creator of Fortnite, Epic Games, has won a partial victory in the Australian federal court against Apple and Google over restrictions in app stores and failing to allow for competition for in-app payment options, but it could be a long time before any changes are made in Australia.
Fortnite was kicked off the Google and Apple app stores in 2020 after Epic Games offered its own in-app payment system that bypassed the one used by the platforms, and cut out the fees Apple and Google receive for in-app payments.
Epic fought the ban by launching legal action against the two in multiple jurisdictions.
In the Australian cases, Epic Games alleged that Apple’s control over in-app purchases – preventing users from downloading apps outside the app store and preventing developers from running their own app store on iOS – were a misuse of market power, which substantially lessened competition in app development.
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The company also alleged Google harmed app developers and consumers in Australia by preventing choice over app distribution and in-app payments on Android devices.
Apple’s iOS and App Store are completely closed and controlled by Apple: if an app is on your phone, and there is a payment through that app, it has to go through Apple.
Similar rules apply on Google’s Android operating system for the Play Store, but Google also allows “side-loading” of apps – meaning apps installed directly on the phone without using the app store. It also allows for phone manufacturers such as Samsung to have their own app stores. Fortnite is still available on Android, but only through side-loading or through the Samsung store.
Each company charges fees for transactions in their app stores. Google Play charges a 15% fee for the first US$1m earned by developers each year, increasing to 30% above that. Apple developers pay a 15% fee if the revenue generated the previous year is lower than $1m, but pay 30% if they earn more than that.
Fees are common in the industry – Epic’s own store charges developers a 12% fee.
Epic argued that it should be able to offer its own store as competition to Apple’s store, and also offer alternative payment options within their app in the official Games Store.
Originally separate, the Australian cases were combined into a single monolith. Justice Jonathan Beach decided to hear the two cases and an associated class action at the same time to avoid duplication of witness evidence.
On Tuesday, Beach found that Apple had engaged in conduct likely to diminish competition, in breach of section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act over preventing side-loading of apps on iOS, and by preventing developers using alternative payment methods for digital purchases.
For Google, it was found to breach section 46 of the Competition and Consumer Act for the similar Google Play billing system, and over Google’s Project Hug, a project that allegedly saw developers enticed to keep their apps in the Play Store.
Epic did not succeed in its other claims against the two companies.
In a post on X, Epic Games stated that its app store and Fortnite would come to iOS in Australia, but noted there were 2,000+ pages of findings that “we’ll need to dig into to fully understand the details”.
“This is a WIN for developers and consumers in Australia!”
A spokesperson for Google said the court recognised the “stark difference between Android’s open platform and Apple’s closed system” and welcomed the court’s rejection that Epic sought to run an app store within the app store.
However Google disagreed with “the court’s characterisation of our billing policies and practices, as well as its findings regarding some of our historical partnerships, which were all shaped in a fiercely competitive mobile landscape on behalf of users and developers”.
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“We will review the full decision when we receive it and assess our next steps,” the spokesperson said.
Powerful corporations ‘must play by the rules’
Any potential changes to the app stores and payment systems for Apple and Google in Australia are likely to be a long way off.
Beach delivered a summary of his judgment in the long-running case on Tuesday in a marathon hour and a half reading to cover the two Epic cases and two class actions, ahead of a full judgment being released with redactions to account for commercial sensitivities at a later date.
The Apple and Google judgments run to over 900 pages each, with the class action judgment running over 100 pages, Beach indicated.
The two class action cases were successful. Brought by app developers against Apple and Google, the cases focused on whether the companies had overcharged developers over app store purchases given their market dominance. The amount that developers would have otherwise been charged by the two companies, and the relief they will see from the case will be determined at a later hearing.
“This judgment is a turning point,” said Kimi Nishimura, principal at Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, the firm representing the app developers.
“It sends a clear message that even the most powerful corporations must play by the rules and respect the rights of consumers and developers alike.”
The case was heard over four months, finishing just over one year ago.
Fortnite has returned to the Apple app store in the US, and users can download via the Epic Games app store in Europe but the app still remains unavailable to download in Australia.
The deadly heatwave fanning wildfires across the Mediterranean region has claimed at least three lives and forced thousands of people from their homes.
Firefighters continued to battle blazes on Tuesday and authorities braced for further damage as temperatures in some areas surged well past 40C. In Spain, a Romanian man in his 50s died after suffering 98% burns while trying to rescue horses from a burning stable near Madrid on Monday night.
A four-year-old boy who was found unconscious in his family’s car in Sardinia died in Rome on Monday after suffering irreversible brain damage caused by heatstroke. And in Montenegro, one soldier died and another was seriously injured when their water tanker overturned while fighting wildfires in the hills north of the capital, Podgorica, on Tuesday.
Scientist have warned that the heat currently affecting large parts of Europe is creating perfect conditions for wildfires and serving as another reminder of the climate emergency.
“Thanks to climate change, we now live in a significantly warmer world,” Akshay Deoras, a research scientist at the University of Reading’s meteorology department told Agence France-Presse, adding that “many still underestimate the danger”.
The fire in Tres Cantos, near Madrid – which had been fuelled by winds of 70km/h (45mph) and which has devoured 1,000 hectares of land – was still not under control on Tuesday evening, when further strong gusts were expected. The regional government said it had recovered 150 dead sheep and 18 dead horses from the area.
More than 3,700 people were evacuated from 16 municipalities amid dozens of reported blazes in the north-western region of Castilla y León, including one that damaged the Unesco world heritage-listed Roman-era mining site at Les Médulas.
Authorities in neighbouring Galicia said the largest wildfire of the year had burned through 3,000 hectares of land in Ourense province. In the southern town of Tarifa, firefighters on the ground and in planes battled a fire that broke out on Monday, with 2,000 people evacuated.
The blazes have led the interior ministry to declare a “pre-emergency phase” to help coordinate emergency resources.
Firefighters work to extinguish a forest fire in Lamas de Olo, in the Alvao natural park, Portugal. Photograph: Pedro Sarmento Costa/EPA
The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered his condolences to the family of the man who died after the Tres Cantos fire, and thanked the emergency services for their “tireless efforts”.
He urged people to recognise the seriousness of the situation. “We’re at extreme risk of forest fires,” he said in a message on X on Tuesday. “Let’s be very careful.”
In neighbouring Portugal, firefighters were battling three large wildfires in the centre and north of the country.
Authorities in Greece requested EU help as fires, fuelled by gale force winds, ripped across vast swathes of the western Peloponnese and emergency services ordered the evacuation of thousands of residents.
Firefighters were also trying to contain blazes on the popular Ionian tourist islands of Zakynthos and Kefalonia. With gusts hampering firefighting efforts, emergency services ordered all hotels in the region of Agala and Keri on Zakynthos to temporarily close, forcing suitcase-wielding holidaymakers to flee and relocate to other areas.
A house burning during a wildfire that erupted in a forest near the village of Agalas on Zakynthos. Photograph: Costas Synetos/EPA
By late Tuesday, dozens of firefighters, supported by 15 fire trucks and eight water-bombing planes and helicopters, were still trying to douse the fast-moving flames.
“Everything that civil protection can offer is here but there are very strong winds and the fires are out of control,” said the island’s mayor, Giorgos Stasinopoulos. “We need a lot more air support, it’s vital.”
The fire service said it was also dealing with blazes farther north in Epirus, around Preveza and in the central region of Aetolia-Acarnania.
Despite temperatures nudging 43C in some parts of the Peloponnese region of southern Greece on Tuesday – and the prolonged drought, which has produced highly flammable conditions on tinder-dry soil – officials described the outbreak of so many fires as “suspiciously high”.
Faced with an estimated 63 blazes erupting and firefighters confronting flames on 106 fronts, fire officers dispatched specialist teams to several of the stricken regions to investigate possible arson.
In Albania, hundreds of firefighters and troops had subdued most of the nearly 40 fires that flared up in the past 24 hours, the defence ministry said, but more than a dozen were still active.
Since the start of July, nearly 34,000 hectares have been scorched nationwide, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. Police say many of the blazes were deliberate, with more than 20 people arrested.
The aftermath of the blaze in Çanakkale, Turkey, on Tuesday. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
In Croatia, about 150 firefighters spent Monday night defending homes near the port city of Split.
In the north-western Turkish province of Çanakkale, more than 2,000 people were evacuated and 77 people treated in hospital for smoke inhalation after fires broke out near the tourist village of Güzelyalı, authorities said.
Images on Turkish media showed homes and cars ablaze, while more than 760 firefighters, 10 planes, nine helicopters and more than 200 vehicles were deployed to battle the flames. Turkey this year experienced its hottest July since records began 55 years ago.
In southern France, where temperature records were broken in at least four weather stations, the government called for vigilance.
The south-western city of Bordeaux hit a record 41.6C on Monday, while all-time records were broken at meteorological stations in Bergerac, Cognac and Saint Girons, according to the national weather service, Météo France.
Influenza, and not the antiviral treatment for it, is responsible for increased neuropsychiatric risks in pediatric patients, new research suggested.
The risk for these events was about 50% lower in children treated with oseltamivir (Tamiflu), the most widely prescribed antiviral for influenza, compared to no treatment, investigators found.
Oseltamivir currently carries a warning label about increased risk for neuropsychiatric events, including seizure. However, the label is based on low-quality studies, lead investigator James W. Antoon, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, told Medscape Medical News.
The findings of the study, which Antoon said is the most rigorous of its kind to date, suggest that the warning label may no longer be necessary.
“Our main finding was that oseltamivir prevents neuropsychiatric events and that neuropsychiatric events during periods of influenza is really driven by influenza itself,” he said. “This influenza antiviral is safe and effective and should be used as early as possible in the course of influenza illness.”
Definitive Answer?
Oseltamivir is currently the most commonly prescribed antiviral for influenza for both children and adults and is particularly beneficial during the illness’ early stages.
The FDA added the warning label to the drug packaging after safety concerns were raised in 2006. However, the researchers noted that “it is important to note that these warnings were placed on the basis of case reports rather than studies on associated risks for these events.”
No randomized study to date has shown a significant association between the medication and neuropsychiatric events in pediatric patients, and there have been conflicting results from observational studies, they added.
Antoon said he first became aware of the warning during his medical residency. However, upon reviewing the studies examining the link, he found that there was little high-quality research on the topic.
Once he began practicing, he noted that parents frequently expressed concerns about these risks.
“Even for children at high risk for influenza complications, who would benefit from treatment, parents would decline it. So we chose to do this study to be the definitive answer of whether oseltamivir is associated with neuropsychiatric events or is it the underlying influenza that’s really driving the alterations in children’s behavior,” Antoon said.
The retrospective cohort study assessed data from influenza seasons in 2016-2017 and 2019-2020. It included 692,295 children and adolescents aged 5-17 years (median age, 11 years; 50.3% girls) enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid.
Each person-day of follow-up was stratified into one of five exposure groups: no exposure (to influenza or oseltamivir), untreated influenza (up to 10 days after diagnosis), treated influenza, posttreatment (time between oseltamivir completion to end of influenza period), and influenza prophylaxis (oseltamivir treatment without influenza).
The primary outcome was any neuropsychiatric event that required hospitalization.
Helpful, Not Harmful
Results showed that 129,134 individuals had 151,401 influenza episodes, and 66.7% of those episodes were treated with oseltamivir. Among the participants deemed to be at high risk for influenza-related complications, 60.1% received oseltamivir treatment.
There were 898 neurologic and 332 psychiatric events during 19,688,320 person-weeks of follow-up.
The most common serious neuropsychiatric adverse events were mood disorders (36.3%) and suicidal or self-harm behaviors (34.2%), followed by seizures (13.7%). The overall incidence rate ratio (IRR) was 6.25 per 100,000 person-weeks for a serious neuropsychiatric event.
The risk for these events was significantly lower during periods where influenza was treated with oseltamivir (adjusted IRR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.33-0.88) and during posttreatment (adjusted IRR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.24-0.74) than during untreated influenza.
“Sensitivity analyses suggest misclassification or unmeasured confounding would not explain these findings,” the investigators wrote.
Subanalyses showed that the adjusted IRRs for neurologic and psychiatric events separately in the treated group were 0.45 (95% CI, 0.25-0.83) and 0.80 (95% CI, 0.34-1.88), respectively.
Antoon noted that neurologic events are more common than psychiatric events in young patients and that the lower number of those outcomes overall may have led to a smaller decrease in psychiatric events.
“All of the results together suggest that oseltamivir is not associated with neuropsychiatric events and, in fact, may be helpful in preventing these events in children,” Antoon said.
‘Double-Edged Sword’
Commenting for Medscape Medical News, Soonjo Hwang, MD, associate professor of psychiatry and from the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Department at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska, noted that although the study provides important and reassuring information, he wouldn’t necessarily say it provides the definitive answer on this topic.
Hwang, who was not involved with the research, noted that the study was a retrospective cohort review with several confounding variables that were not controlled for, including various socioeconomic factors and how amenable the parents were to the treatment options.
Additionally, he pointed out that medication warning labels for pediatric populations are often based on case reports because of the difficulty in conducting clinical trials in an ethical way in such a young group.
“It’s kind of a double-edged sword. You want to use the medicine as safely as possible, but you also don’t want to limit the access to treatment options just because there are no sufficient data available,” Hwang said.
So what should clinicians do while waiting for additional research?
“I think, as a clinician, you need to have an informed conversation with parents of young children about the risk and benefit of any treatment option and make the best judgement you can case-by-case. But, indeed, we really need more clinical trials to make sure we’re using them in a safe way but also in an effective way,” he concluded.
The study was funded in part by the US National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Antoon reported having received personal fees from serving on an AstraZeneca Scientific Advisory Board. A full list of relevant conflicts for the other investigators are provided in the original article. Hwang reported having no relevant financial relationships.
