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  • ‘Harmless’ virus might trigger Parkinson’s disease, researchers say

    ‘Harmless’ virus might trigger Parkinson’s disease, researchers say

    July 9 (UPI) — A common virus once thought harmless to humans might be linked to Parkinson’s disease, a new study says.

    The germ, Human Pegivirus (HPgV), was found in half the autopsied brains of patients with Parkinson’s, but not in any brains from healthy people, researchers reported Tuesday in the journal JCI Insight.

    “HPgV is a common, symptomless infection previously not known to frequently infect the brain,” lead researcher Dr. Igor Koralnik, chief of neuroinfectious diseases and global neurology at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said in a news release.

    “We were surprised to find it in the brains of Parkinson’s patients at such high frequency and not in the controls.”

    The virus also appeared to prompt different responses from people’s immune systems, depending on their genetics, Koralnik said.

    “This suggests it could be an environmental factor that interacts with the body in ways we didn’t realize before,” Koralnik said. “For a virus that was thought to be harmless, these findings suggest it may have important effects, in the context of Parkinson’s disease. It may influence how Parkinson’s develops, especially in people with certain genetic backgrounds.”

    Parkinson’s disease occurs when brain cells that produce an important hormone called dopamine begin to die off or become impaired.

    As dopamine levels decrease, people develop movement symptoms like shaking or stiffness, as well as problems maintaining balance and coordination.

    More than 1 million people in the U.S. live with Parkinson’s disease, including actors Michael J. Fox and Alan Alda, singer Neil Diamond and football great Brett Favre. About 90,000 new cases are diagnosed every year, researchers said.

    Most cases of Parkinson’s are not linked to a person’s genetics, raising the question of what might trigger the death of dopamine-producing nerve cells, researchers said in background notes.

    For the new study, researchers autopsied the brains of 10 Parkinson’s patients and 14 people not suffering from the disorder.

    The team found HPgV in 5 out of 10 brains from people with Parkinson’s, but none of the 14 healthy brains. The virus also was present in the spinal fluid of Parkinson’s patients, but not in the control group.

    Further, more brain damage was found in patients with HPgV, researchers said.

    Next, researchers tested blood samples from more than 1,000 participants in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative, a biosample library available for Parkinson’s research. HPgV is a blood-borne virus in the same family as hepatitis C.

    Only about 1% of Parkinson’s patients had HPgV in their blood samples, researchers found.

    But people who had the virus showed different signals from their immune system, particularly those with a Parkinson’s-related gene mutation called LRRK2, researchers said.

    “We plan to look more closely at how genes like LRRK2 affect the body’s response to other viral infections to figure out if this is a special effect of HPgV or a broader response to viruses,” Koralnik said.

    Researchers plan to continue tracking how common the virus is among Parkinson’s patients, and how it might trigger the brain disorder.

    “One big question we still need to answer is how often the virus gets into the brains of people with or without Parkinson’s,” Koralnik said. “We also aim to understand how viruses and genes interact; insights that could reveal how Parkinson’s begins and could help guide future therapies.”

    More information

    The National Institute on Aging has more about Parkinson’s disease.

    Copyright © 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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  • ‘Duster’ Canceled By HBO Max After One Season

    ‘Duster’ Canceled By HBO Max After One Season

    EXCLUSIVE: After a five-year build-up, it was a short run for Bad Robot’s 1970s crime drama Duster as HBO Max is not proceeding with a second season of the series from J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan. The news comes less than a week after the Season 1 finale debuted on the platform.

    It is not entirely surprising because Duster, starring Josh Holloway and Rachel Hilson, wasn’t able to generate a lot of buzz and viewer interest. Those who tuned in, largely liked what they saw — Duster is averaging 92% among critics and 83% among general viewers on Rotten Tomatoes. The series from Warner Bros. and Abrams’ studio-based Bad Robot also remains in the daily Top 10 on HBO Max but it has not been able to get into the Nielsen Top 10 for streaming originals and barely cracked Luminate’s list of Top 50 streaming originals in its fourth week at the last #50 spot.

    “While HBO Max will not be moving forward with a second season of Duster, we are so grateful to have had the chance to work with the amazingly talented co-creators J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan, and our partners at Bad Robot and Warner Bros. Television,” HBO Max said in a statement to Deadline. “We are tremendously proud of this series led by Josh Holloway and Rachel Hilson and we thank them along with our cast and crew for their incredible collaboration and partnership.”

    Duster, which reunited Lost co-creator/executive producer Abrams and star Holloway, was originally ordered in April 2020. It filmed awhile ago, so the options on the cast already had expired and were not extended (which is not highly unusual for HBO Max), sources said.

    Seeing the writing on the wall, I hear WBTV and Bad Robot quietly shopped Duster to other platforms where the adrenaline-heavy series could’ve been a better fit but the effort was unsuccessful.

    Duster follows Nina (Hilson), the first Black female FBI agent, who in 1972 heads to the Southwest and recruits a gutsy getaway driver (Holloway), the first in a bold effort to take down a growing crime syndicate.

    Keith David, Sydney Elisabeth, Greg Grunberg, Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, Adriana Aluna Martinez, and Benjamin Charles Watson also starred.

    “J.J. Abrams and LaToya Morgan delivered a thrilling, multi-dimensional crime drama in Duster, with textured characters that took the audience back to the 1970s in a new and innovative way,” WBTV said in a statement to Deadline. “Those characters were brought to life by a wonderful team led by Josh, Rachel, and an extremely talented ensemble cast, along with an expert crew behind the scenes. We are incredibly proud of the show, and while we wish this journey could continue, we are thankful to our partners at HBO Max for the opportunity to tell Jim and Nina’s story.”

    The first two episodes of Duster were written by Abrams and Morgan and directed by and executive produced by Steph Green. The series was executive produced by Abrams and Rachel Rusch Rich for Bad Robot and Morgan for TinkerToy Productions.

    As HBO Max canceled Duster, the streamer today picked up The Big Bang Theory spinoff series Stuart Fails To Save The Universe, also from WBTV.

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  • The economic burden of malaria in Africa: a systematic review of cost of illness studies | Malaria Journal

    The economic burden of malaria in Africa: a systematic review of cost of illness studies | Malaria Journal

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  • Mattel’s newest Barbie has diabetes

    Mattel’s newest Barbie has diabetes

    Dressed in a matching polka dot tank top and ruffled skirt with blue chunky heeled boots and a mini purse, Mattel’s newest Barbie may look like previous dolls at first glance.

    But this particular doll stands out with a wearable insulin pump on her waist, a glucose monitor on her arm and a phone showing her blood sugar readings, making her the El Segundo-based toy company’s first Barbie with Type 1 diabetes.

    The doll continues Mattel’s expansion of representation across its flagship brand. The Barbie Fashionistas line features more than 175 looks across various skin tones, body types and disabilities, including previous additions like a blind Barbie, a Barbie with Down syndrome and a Barbie with hearing aids.

    The company’s commitment to representation has proved commercially successful. In 2024, the top 10 most popular Barbie Fashionista dolls globally included the blind Barbie and the Barbie with Down syndrome.

    The Fashionistas series also includes dolls with vitiligo, prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs. The wheelchair-using doll has consistently been a top performer since its introduction in 2019.

    Krista Berger, senior vice president of Barbie and global head of dolls at Mattel, said Barbie helps shape children’s early perceptions of the world. Reflecting medical conditions like T1D ensures “more kids can see themselves in the stories they imagine and the dolls they love.”

    The doll was developed with Breakthrough T1D, the leading global Type 1 diabetes research and advocacy organization. The partnership ensured medical accuracy while incorporating diabetes awareness symbols through the clothes’ blue coloring and polka dot pattern.

    Aaron J. Kowalski, chief executive of Breakthrough T1D, said the partnership is about “bringing greater visibility to a condition that affects so many families.”

    The doll launched Tuesday during Breakthrough T1D’s 2025 Children’s Congress in Washington, D.C. The event brings together more than 170 children living with Type 1 diabetes, giving them face time with members of Congress to advocate for ongoing funding for Type 1 diabetes research. This year they asked members of Congress to renew funding for the Special Diabetes Program.

    The Special Diabetes Program’s current funding expires after September. The program, first allocated by Congress in 1997, faces uncertainty amid recent cuts to federally-funded projects.

    Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition affecting nearly 9 million people globally, with about 352,000 children living with diabetes in the United States. The CDC reports that 1.7 million individuals 20 or older live with Type 1 diabetes and use insulin.

    The new Barbie is available through Mattel Shop and retailers nationwide.

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  • The Salt Path author defends memoir against fabrication allegations | Books

    The Salt Path author defends memoir against fabrication allegations | Books

    Raynor Winn, the author of The Salt Path, has described enduring some of the “hardest days” of her life as she defended her memoir against allegations that parts of it were fabricated.

    The bestselling 2018 book, which was adapted into a film starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, tells how she and her husband, Moth, walked the 630-mile trek along the south-west coast path after losing their home.

    It also recounts how Moth was diagnosed with a neurological condition.

    But the Observer newspaper, which said the couple’s legal names are Sally and Timothy Walker, reported last weekend that Winn may have misrepresented the events that led to the couple losing their home and that experts had cast doubt over Moth having corticobasal degeneration (CBD).

    On Wednesday, Winn posted clinic letters on Instagram addressed to Timothy Walker, which she said showed that “he is treated for CBD/S and has been for many years”.

    She wrote: “The last few days have been some of the hardest of my life. Heartbreaking accusations that Moth has made up his illness have been made, leaving us devastated.”

    In a statement on her website, she said that the article was “grotesquely unfair, highly misleading and seeks to systematically pick apart my life”.

    Winn, 63, continued: “The Salt Path is about what happened to Moth and me, after we lost our home and found ourselves homeless on the headlands of the south-west.

    “It’s not about every event or moment in our lives, but rather about a capsule of time when our lives moved from a place of complete despair to a place of hope.

    “The journey held within those pages is one of salt and weather, of pain and possibility. And I can’t allow any more doubt to be cast on the validity of those memories, or the joy they have given so many.”

    In The Salt Path, the couple lose their house due to a bad business investment. But the Observer reported that the couple lost their home after an accusation that Winn had stolen thousands of pounds from her employer.

    It also said that it had spoken to medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having CBD, given his lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.

    Winn’s publishing house, Penguin, said it “undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence”, including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and a legal read.

    It added: “Prior to the Observer inquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book’s content.”

    PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), said it had “terminated” its relationship with the couple after the Observer article.

    Winn had been scheduled to make numerous appearances this summer, performing with Saltlines, her collaboration with Gigspanner Big Band. However, the band subsequently announced on social media that she will no longer be taking part in the tour.

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  • Canon Unveils New RF75-300m F4-5.6 Telephoto Lens and EOS R100 Kit to Spur Amazing Long-Range Content for Entry-Level Users

    Canon Unveils New RF75-300m F4-5.6 Telephoto Lens and EOS R100 Kit to Spur Amazing Long-Range Content for Entry-Level Users

    Canon Unveils New RF75-300m F4-5.6 Telephoto Lens

    Canon Unveils New RF75-300m F4-5.6 Telephoto Lens

    Melville, NY, July 09, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, has announced the new RF75-300mm F4-5.6 lens, an affordable ultra-telephoto zoom lens that can empower entry-level users to capture standout shots. Also announced today is the EOS R100 Double Zoom Lens Kit, a dynamic package featuring the new RF75-300mm F4-5.6 lens and Canon’s EOS R100 hybrid camera, which come together to provide an unbeatable kit for entry-level users.

    The RF75-300mm F4-5.6 lens is a lightweight telephoto zoom lens that gives entry-level users the ability to experiment with different focal ranges – shooting up to lengths of 480 mm (35 mm equivalent). Telephoto lenses take shooting to the next level, surpassing the range that can be achieved solely with smartphones. For this class of users, the RF75-300mm F4-5.6 lens, coupled with Canon’s EOS R100 or other EOS R series cameras, can enable a greater range of expression and possibilities for shooting sports, landscapes, concerts and live events, and much more.

    The Canon EOS R100 camera is Canon’s most affordable, compact, and lightweight EOS R camera ever. Designed for new, first-time mirrorless camera or existing interchangeable camera users who previously enjoyed EOS Rebel or EOS M cameras, these users will enjoy that the power of lens selection grants as an advantage over using a smartphone camera. The camera touts key features such as a 24.2 megapixel APS-C size sensor, the DIGIC 8 image processor, 4K (Cropped) and Full HD (Full-Width) video at up to 24 and 60 frames-per-second respectively, Autofocus with eye and face detection, and Bluetooth™ and Wi-Fi® connectivity capabilities.

    Pricing and Availability

    The RF75-300mm F4-5.6 lens is currently scheduled to be available in July 2025 for the price of $219.99*. The Canon EOS R100 Double Zoom Lens Kit with the new RF75-300mm F4-5.6 lens is currently scheduled to be available in July 2025 for $799.99*. For additional information, please visit www.usa.canon.com.

    About Canon U.S.A., Inc.

    Canon U.S.A., Inc. is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean markets. With approximately $29.4 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc., as of 2023 has ranked in the top-five overall in U.S. patents granted for 38 consecutive years. † Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. To learn more about Canon, visit us at www.usa.canon.com and connect with us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/canonusa.

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  • Video: Four babies in Gaza crammed into one ICU cot struggle to stay alive – CNN

    Video: Four babies in Gaza crammed into one ICU cot struggle to stay alive – CNN

    1. Video: Four babies in Gaza crammed into one ICU cot struggle to stay alive  CNN
    2. ‘Critical point’: UN pleads for fuel for Gaza amid Israeli blockade  Dawn
    3. Gaza’s starving men and women chase trucks, face death to feed families  Al Jazeera
    4. “Wombs Under Siege: Gaza’s Pregnant Women Face Starvation and Medical Collapse”  وطن. يغرد خارج السرب
    5. Gaza Humanitarian Response Update | 22 June – 5 July 2025  ReliefWeb

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  • Big Take: OPEC+ Bets Big on Global Oil Demand

    Big Take: OPEC+ Bets Big on Global Oil Demand

    OPEC+, a coalition of some of the world’s top oil producers, surprised markets over the weekend with plans to boost production by more than half a million barrels a day. The increase comes at a time when investors are worried about oversupply. So what was behind the decision? Bloomberg’s Joumanna Bercetche breaks it all down with Big Take host David Gura from Vienna, where members of the oil cartel and executives from around the world are gathered for the Ninth OPEC International Seminar.

    Jul 09, 2025

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  • Bitcoin rises to fresh record above $112,000, helped by Nvidia-led tech rally

    Bitcoin rises to fresh record above $112,000, helped by Nvidia-led tech rally

    The logo of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin can be seen on a coin in front of a Bitcoin chart.

    Silas Stein | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

    Bitcoin hit a fresh record on Wednesday afternoon as an Nvidia-led rally in equities helped push the price of the cryptocurrency higher into the stock market close.

    The price of bitcoin was last up 1.9%, trading at $110,947.49, according to Coin Metrics. Just before 4:00 p.m. ET, it hit a high of $112,052.24, surpassing its May 22 record of $111,999.

    The flagship cryptocurrency has been trading in a tight range for several weeks despite billions of dollars flowing into bitcoin exchange traded funds. Bitcoin purchases by public companies outpaced ETF inflows in the second quarter. Still, bitcoin is up just 2% in the past month.

    Stock Chart IconStock chart icon

    Bitcoin climbs above $112,000

    On Wednesday, tech stocks rallied as Nvidia became the first company to briefly touch $4 trillion in market capitalization. In the same session, investors appeared to shrug off the latest tariff developments from President Donald Trump. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite notched a record close.

    While institutions broadly have embraced bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative, it is still a risk asset that rises and falls alongside stocks depending on what’s driving investor sentiment. When the market is in risk-on mode and investors buy growth-oriented assets like tech stocks, bitcoin and crypto tend to rally with them.

    Investors have been expecting bitcoin to reach new records in the second half of the year as corporate treasuries accelerate their bitcoin buying sprees and Congress gets closer to passing crypto legislation.

    “With crypto week on the horizon next week in DC, and a likely flood of positive momentum heading into the dog days of summer, bullish sentiment and thinner trading volumes could see prices gap up to $120,000 or higher by the end of next week,” said Ryan Gorman, chief strategy officer at Uranium Digital, a focused on the uranium market through tokenization. “How far we rally through the summer is anyone’s guess, but open call interest outweighs puts, which normally reveals traders are bullish and expect upward price momentum to continue.”

    Don’t miss these cryptocurrency insights from CNBC Pro:

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  • 300,000-year-old wooden tools found in China reveal early humans’ plant-based diet and cognitive abilities in East Asia

    300,000-year-old wooden tools found in China reveal early humans’ plant-based diet and cognitive abilities in East Asia

    An important cache of 35 wooden tools, dated at an estimated 300,000 years ago, has been unearthed at the Gantangqing site in Yunnan Province, southwest China. This discovery sheds new light on the technological progress and plant subsistence behaviors of early hominins in East Asia. Preserved in oxygen-poor clay sediments on the banks of an ancient lake, the tools are the oldest wooden artifacts ever found in the region and represent a world-class archaeological find.

    A wooden tool unearthed during excavations at the site in China. Credit: Bo Li, University of Woolongong

    The tools, made of pine and other hardwoods, include digging sticks, hooks, and small pointed devices likely employed in the harvesting of underground plants such as tubers, rhizomes, and roots. The majority of them still bear signs of wear, scraping patterns, and even microscopic plant and soil residues. Micro-wear analysis shows that 32 out of 35 exhibit deliberate modification at their tips or edges, implying purposeful design and use.

    “This discovery is exceptional because it preserves a moment in time when early humans were using sophisticated wooden tools to harvest underground food resources,” the lead author of the study, Professor Bo Li of the University of Wollongong (UOW), stated in a statement released by the University of Wollongong. “The tools show a level of planning and craftsmanship that challenges the notion that East Asian hominins were technologically conservative.”

    Professor Li’s team used infrared-stimulated luminescence—a technique he helped pioneer—to date potassium feldspar grains, alongside electron spin resonance analysis of a mammal tooth. These methods dated the tools to between 250,000 and 361,000 years ago. The sediments in which the tools were found also contained animal fossils, antler soft hammers, stone tools, and plant remains, suggesting a complex prehistoric ecosystem and a community adept at woodworking.

    300,000-year-old wooden tools found in China reveal early humans’ plant-based diet and cognitive abilities in East Asia
    One of the wooden tools being excavated at the site. Credit: Bo Li, University of Woolongong

    Unlike European Paleolithic finds such as the hunting spears of Schöningen, Germany, the Gantangqing tools were employed primarily for the gathering of plant foods. This suggests another strategy for living: whereas European hominins hunted large mammals, their East Asian contemporaries were targeting plant-based resources, revealing high behavioral adaptability.

    The research, which was published in the journal Science, was a collaborative effort by University of Wollongong scholars, Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers, researchers from the Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and several other institutions. The results contradict the usual notions that prehistoric societies in East Asia were behind Africa and Europe in technological development—a belief previously based on discoveries in the region that had largely consisted of simple stone tools.

    “The diversity and sophistication of the wooden tools also fill a significant gap in the archaeological record,” said Professor Li. They show that early humans in East Asia had highly developed cognitive skills and a deep knowledge of their environment.

    In addition to shedding light on toolmaking, the discovery also provides unique insight into the diets of early humans in the area. While plant residues on the tools were too decomposed to be positively identified, other remains at the site include pine nuts, hazelnuts, kiwi fruit, aquatic tubers, and berries. The presence of such plant food items indicates that these early hominins possessed knowledge of edible flora and undertook strategic foraging trips to the lakeshore with accompanying tools.

    Publication: Liu, J.-H., Ruan, Q.-J., Ge, J.-Y., Huang, Y.-J., Zhang, X.-L., Liu, J., … Gao, X. (2025). 300,000-year-old wooden tools from Gantangqing, southwest China. Science (New York, N.Y.), 389(6755), 78–83. doi:10.1126/science.adr8540


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