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Early signals from ECB wage tracker suggest lower and more stable wage pressures in first half of 2026

17 September 2025

ECB wage tracker updated with wage agreements signed up to end of August 2025; forward-looking horizon extended to end-June 2026
Forward-looking information continues to indicate easing of negotiated wage growth, consistent with data published following July 2025 Governing Council meeting
ECB wage tracker preliminary data suggests lower and more stable wage growth in first half of 2026, with employee coverage remaining limited

The European Central Bank (ECB) wage tracker, which covers active collective bargaining agreements, indicates negotiated wage growth with smoothed one-off payments of 4.6% in 2024 (based on a coverage of 50.1% of employees in participating countries) and 3.2% in 2025 (based on a coverage of 47.9%). The ECB wage tracker with unsmoothed one-off payments indicates negotiated wage growth of 4.8% in 2024 and 2.9% in 2025. The downward trend of the forward-looking wage tracker partly reflects the mechanical impact of large one-off payments (that were paid in 2024 but drop out in 2025) and the frontloaded nature of wage increases in some sectors in 2024. The wage tracker excluding one-off payments indicates growth of 4.1% in 2024 and 3.8% in 2025.

For the first half of 2026, the headline ECB wage tracker stands at 1.7% (down from 2.1% in the second half of 2025 and 4.3% in the first half of 2025), the ECB wage tracker with unsmoothed one-off payments stands at 2.4% (down from 2.6% in the second half of 2025 and from 3.3% in the first half of 2025), and the ECB wage tracker excluding one-off payments stands at 2.5% (down from 3.3% in the second half of 2025 and 4.3% in the first half of 2025). The employee coverage in the first half of 2026 stands at 29.7% (33.3% in the first quarter and 26.0% in the second quarter), down from the 46.3% recorded for the fourth quarter of 2025. The signals from the ECB wage tracker for the first half of 2026 are expected to become more complete as new wage agreements are signed, pushing up the employee coverage indicator from its current relatively low levels. See Chart 1 and Table 1 for further details.

Since the previous data release in July 2025, the ECB wage tracker has been further expanded to retroactively include collective wage agreements in Belgium from January 2013 onwards. The forward-looking horizon has also been extended to the end of June 2026.

Overall, the ECB wage tracker may be subject to revisions, and the forward-looking component should not be interpreted as a forecast, as it only captures the information that is available for active collective bargaining agreements. Moreover, the ECB wage tracker does not track the indicator of negotiated wage growth precisely and deviations are to be expected over time. For a more comprehensive assessment of wage developments in the euro area, please refer to the September 2025 Eurosystem staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area, which indicate a yearly growth rate of compensation per employee in the euro area of 3.4% in 2025 and 2.7% in 2026.

The ECB publishes four wage tracker indicators for the aggregate of eight participating euro area countries on the ECB Data Portal.

Chart 1

ECB wage tracker: forward-looking signals for negotiated wages and revisions to previous data release

Sources: ECB calculations based on data provided by the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique, the Belgian Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, the Belgian National Social Security Office, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Greece, the Banco de España, the Banque de France, the Banca d’Italia, the Dutch employers’ association AWVN, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and Eurostat. The indicator of negotiated wage growth is calculated using data from the Belgian Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Ministerio de Empleo y Seguridad Social, the Banque de France, the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT), the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, Statistik Austria, Haver Analytics and Eurostat.
Notes: Dashed lines denote forward-looking information. The latest observations are for June 2026 for the ECB wage tracker indicators (left panel), June 2025 for the indicator of negotiated wage growth (left panel) and March 2026 for the revisions to the previous data release (right panel).

Indicators between January 2024 and June 2026	Revisions to previous data release
(left-hand scale: yearly growth rates, percentages; right-hand scale: percentage share of employees)	(percentage points)

What do the four different indicators show?

The headline ECB wage tracker is a tracker of negotiated wage growth that includes collectively agreed one-off payments, such as those related to inflation compensation, bonuses or back-dated pay, which are smoothed over 12 months.
The ECB wage tracker excluding one-off payments reflects the extent of structural (or permanent) negotiated wage increases.
The ECB wage tracker with unsmoothed one-off payments is constructed using a methodology that, in terms of both data sources and statistical methodology, is conceptually similar to, but not necessarily the same as, that used for the ECB indicator of negotiated wage growth.
The share of employees covered is the percentage of employees across the participating countries that are directly covered by ECB wage tracker data. This indicator provides information on the representativeness of the underlying (negotiated) wage growth signals obtained from the set of wage tracker indicators for the aggregate of the participating countries. Employee coverage differs across countries and within each country over time (more details can be found in Table 2).

Table 1

ECB wage tracker summary

(percentages)

	ECB wage tracker			Coverage
	Headline indicator	With unsmoothed one-off payments	Excluding one-off payments	Share of employees (%)
2013-2023	2.0	2.0	1.9	48.9
2024	4.6	4.8	4.1	50.1
2025	*3.2*	*2.9*	*3.8*	*47.9*
Q3 2024	5.0	6.6	4.3	50.1
Q4 2024	5.2	4.2	4.6	49.8
Q1 2025	4.6	2.5	4.4	48.7
Q2 2025	3.9	4.0	4.3	48.6
July 2025	2.7	1.2	3.7	48.1
August 2025	*2.2*	*2.2*	*3.5*	*48.1*
September 2025	*2.1*	*3.1*	*3.4*	*47.9*
October 2025	*2.0*	*3.1*	*3.3*	*46.5*
November 2025	*1.8*	*2.9*	*3.1*	*46.2*
December 2025	*1.8*	*3.0*	*3.0*	*46.0*
Q1 2026	*1.7*	*2.4*	*2.6*	*33.3*
Q2 2026	*1.8*	*2.4*	*2.4*	*26.0*

Sources: ECB calculations based on data provided by the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique, the Belgian Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, the Belgian National Social Security Office, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Greece, the Banco de España, the Banque de France, the Banca d’Italia, the Dutch employers’ association AWVN, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and Eurostat.
Notes: ECB wage tracker indicators reflect yearly growth in negotiated wages as a percentage. Coverage is defined as the share of employees in participating countries as a percentage. Rows with values in italics and bold refer to the forward-looking aspect of the respective indicators. Data are subject to revisions.

Table 2

Employee coverage by country

(share of employees in each country, percentages)

	Belgium	Germany	Greece	Spain	France	Italy	Netherlands	Austria	Euro area
2013-2024	37.7	41.9	10.7	62.1	52.1	48.7	64.1	60.6	49.0
2025 Q1	45.0	44.1	19.3	44.0	56.1	47.3	62.1	77.6	48.7
2025 Q2	45.0	45.0	16.1	43.4	55.8	47.1	61.6	76.6	48.6
2025 Q3	*45.0*	*44.8*	*8.6*	*42.8*	*55.4*	*46.8*	*60.6*	*76.0*	*48.0*
2025 Q4	*44.9*	*44.3*	*8.6*	*42.6*	*49.5*	*46.1*	*59.0*	*71.4*	*46.3*
2026 Q1	*44.8*	*38.4*	*8.4*	*14.4*	*24.5*	*45.1*	*50.3*	*44.2*	*33.3*
2026 Q2	*44.7*	*31.4*	*8.2*	*12.3*	*8.4*	*40.5*	*47.5*	*31.1*	*26.0*

Sources: ECB, the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique, the Belgian Federal Public Service Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue, the Belgian National Social Security Office, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Greece, the Banco de España, the Banque de France, the Banca d’Italia, the Dutch employers’ association AWVN, the Oesterreichische Nationalbank and Eurostat.
Notes: The euro area aggregate comprises the eight participating wage tracker countries. The coverage shows the relative strength of wage signals for each country and the euro area. The historical average is calculated from January 2016 for Greece and from February 2020 for Austria. For the other countries, it is calculated from January 2013 to December 2024. Rows with values in italics and bold refer to the forward-looking aspect of the respective indicators. Data are subject to revisions.

For media queries, please contact Benoit Deeg, tel.: +491721683704

Notes:

The ECB wage tracker is the result of a Eurosystem partnership currently comprising the European Central Bank and eight euro area national central banks: the Nationale Bank van België/Banque Nationale de Belgique, the Deutsche Bundesbank, the Bank of Greece, the Banco de España, the Banque de France, the Banca d’Italia, De Nederlandsche Bank and the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. It is based on a highly granular database of active collective bargaining agreements for Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Austria. The wage tracker is one of many possible sources that can help assess wage pressures in the euro area.
The wage tracker methodology uses a double aggregation approach. First, it aggregates the highly granular information on collective bargaining agreements and constructs the wage tracker indicators at the country-level using information on the employee coverage for each country. Second, it uses this information to construct the aggregate for the euro area using time-varying weights based on the total compensation of employees among the participating countries.
Given that the forward-looking nature of the tracker is dependent on the underlying collective bargaining agreements database, the wage signals should always be considered conditional on the information available at any given point in time and thus subject to revisions.
The results in this press release do not represent the views of the ECB’s decision-making bodies.

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September 17, 2025

Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox review – a cosy state-of-the-nation yarn | Books

Ursula K Le Guin had her Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction; I have my comfy cardigan theory. What Le Guin proposed is that human culture, novels included, didn’t begin with technologies of harm, such as flints and spears, but with items of collection and care, such as the wicker basket or, nowadays, the carrier bag. And so, if we make them that way, novels can be gatherings rather than battles.

Tom Cox’s third novel fashions an escape from the dangerous outside world into something soft, comforting and unfashionable. It might once have been a Neanderthal’s armpit, but now it’s more likely to be a cosy cardigan. Or a deeply comforting story.

This shambling but intricate yarn of friendship, loyalty, alienation and record collecting features a depressed nature writer called Billy Stackpole, who bears a parodic resemblance to such woodcut-on-the-cover authors as Robert Macfarlane and Tom Cox. His debut was called Will the Stone Circle Be Unbroken: A Journey Around Britain Through Deep Time. Billy is sitting around his hand-forged firebowl when he utters the woeful/hopeful plea: “This sounds weird but I’ve never had a big sloppy cardigan and I wish I did … Just something you can throw on, at a time like this. Maybe in a nice earthy green, a bit mossy.”

Within earshot is a magical sea creature capable of passing for a dog, but also of hoovering, gardening and reading Barbara Kingsolver novels

As far as Billy knows, he’s speaking to a group of eight human beings. However, also listening in, incognito, is the novel’s cosiest and most unusual character. How you react now is probably a good indication of whether you’ll like Cox’s affable, quirk-heavy brand of literary knitwear. Because also within earshot of Billy is a long-nosed, sleek-haired magical sea creature with 24 fingers who is capable of passing for a large brown dog, but also of hoovering, gardening, reading Barbara Kingsolver novels, speaking six languages, giving wise life advice, and most excellent knitting. Meet Carl – who, because he’s nice, will secretly knit Billy a cardigan.

Carl is one half of a charming odd couple along with Liverpudlian record dealer Eric. Eric and Carl live peripatetically, though they’ve ended up in rural Dorset; and everywhere they go, and whatever mild scrapes they get into, they meet furiously nice people. Everything Will Swallow You is the story of Eric’s life, without and then with his supernatural companion. But it’s also a materially hopeful “state of England” novel. Our social fabric may be fraying, but we’re still warm and woolly, most of the time.

Eric’s vocation is nicely chosen. Over the years, his personal fortunes follow those of the long-playing record, and we see it become an index for values of decency and kindness. When vinyl is prized, not just priced, things look up in society. The cynical mid-1990s were a low point, but with gen Z’s fond infatuation with analogue, things have been getting better.

One way of reading Cox’s work, from his Stackpolish nature writing in 21st Century Yokel to his recent novels, Villager and 1983, is as a counter to cartoonish Brexitshire views of the countryside. Look beyond the M25, and there’s folklore, nature, history, yes, but most important of all there are nice people; even if increasingly they spend most of their time looking at phone screens and getting angry with one another. His country, he insists, can still be a loving and lovable place.

Like vinyl records, England may go through periods of neglect, but as a nation, as a folk-nature-history-haunted land, there’s still something warm and ultimately dependable about us. As Eric writes in his notebook, and his words equally apply to comfy-cardigan fiction such as Everything Will Swallow You: “Records never did a lot of what I thought they’d do for me. They didn’t make me cooler or more handsome or help me solve the secret of the universe. But they helped get me through some hard times and taught me that magic is real.”

Everything Will Swallow You by Tom Cox is published by Swift (£16.99). To support the Guardian order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

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September 17, 2025
Transfer rumors, news: Man United’s Mainoo eyed by Newcastle

Sep 17, 2025, 04:00 AM ET

Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo is a January target for Newcastle United, while Real Madrid could bring Nico Paz back to the Bernabéu. Join us for the latest transfer news, rumors and gossip from around the globe.

Transfers homepage | Done deals | Men’s grades | Women’s grades

TOP STORIES

– Mourinho in Benfica talks after Lage sacking – sources
– Sources: Amorim still has backing of United board
– Struggling United to reveal scale of financial crisis

Manchester United’s Kobbie Mainoo started the Euro 2024 final, but has lost his place in the England squad with the World Cup less than a year away. Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images

TRENDING RUMORS

– Newcastle United are interested in signing Manchester United midfielder Kobbie Mainoo in January, according to talkSPORT. The 21-year-old expressed a desire to leave Old Trafford in the summer after having fallen out with boss Ruben Amorim, but United blocked any approaches. However, Mainoo continues to be out of the first team, and was not included in the England squad for this month’s World Cup qualifiers. Magpies boss Eddie Howe could test United’s resolve if the midfielder continues to be sidelined. Mainoo has played in three of United’s five games so far, but has only started once, returning to the bench once again for the defeat at Manchester City on Sunday.

– Real Madrid plan to re-sign attacking midfielder Nico Paz next summer, according to Gazzetta Dello Sport. The 21-year-old enjoyed a promising first season with Como in Serie A, scoring six goals, and he has continued that form this term, netting twice in his first three games so far. Los Blancos considered activating their €9 million clause with Paz in the summer but decided he would get more minutes under Como boss Cesc Fabregas. However, they could return at the end of the season to fend off interest from clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur.

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– Barcelona are keen on Portuguese forward Cardoso Varela, but Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb are unwilling to let him leave in the next two seasons, according to Mundo Deportivo. Varela’s agent was reportedly spotted at the office of Barca sporting director, Deco. Barça have been long-term admirers of the 16-year-old, who joined Zagreb from FC Porto. Varela, who has only just signed a contract until 2028, has impressed with a combination of pace, dribbling and a dangerous final ball.

– Chelsea are considering a January move for Crystal Palace midfielder Adam Wharton, TEAMtalk reports. England international Wharton is being lined up for a midseason move by the Blues because of injury concerns over Romeo Lavia. After Palace resisted interest in Wharton over the summer from a number of clubs including Manchester United, they will be resistant to losing one of their key players in the January transfer window.

– Borussia Dortmund and Arsenal are among the clubs monitoring the situation of French midfielder Lucien Agoumé, currently at Sevilla, El Desmarque reports. The dynamic defensive midfielder is attracting interest after having cemented his place in the Sevilla side following a string of impressive performances at the end of last season, and again at the beginning of the 2025-26 campaign. Working hard off the ball, and contributing one goal in his first four games so far, the 23-year-old continues to be watched by scouts across Europe.

EXPERT TAKE

OTHER RUMORS

– Monterrey striker Germán Berterame is attracting interest from clubs in the MLS and Saudi Pro League. The 26-year-old Argentine could be valued at around €10m. (Ekrem Konur)

– In-form defender Jan Paul van Hecke is considering swapping the south coast for the Champions League, with Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur both interested in landing the 25-year-old centre-back from Brighton. (Football Insider)

– Atlético Madrid are hoping to persuade versatile 30-year-old Marcos Llorente to sign a contract extension to 2029 in an effort to fend off interest from Saudi Arabia. (Nicolò Schira)

– Andreas Christensen wants to fight for his place at Barcelona and extend his current contract, which runs out on June 30. The Dane rejected offers from England, Spain, Germany and Saudi Arabia in the summer. (Mundo Deportivo)

– Chelsea are keen to make a move for in-form Juventus midfielder Kenan Yildiz in January, but the Bianconeri are likely to rebuff any interest. The Blues saw a £70m bid rejected in the summer, and the 20-year-old remains a key part of Juve boss Igor Tudor’s plans. (Football Insider)

– West Ham United and Everton are both contemplating reigniting their interest in Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma when the transfer window reopen in January. The 29-year-old rejected the chance to move to Turkey in the summer in the hope of staying in the Premier League, and a move from north London now appears certain. (Football Insider)

– Wolverhampton Wanderers are hoping to secure a contract extension for manager Vitor Pereira. Wolves have endured a poor start to the season, but Wolves executives want to keep 57-year-old Pereira beyond his current contract, which finishes at the end of the season. (talkSPORT)

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September 17, 2025
Ebony & Ivory review – definitely not Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder in silly, surreal indie comedy | Film

Jim Hosking is the wacky deadpan surrealist of indie cinema who has now created another bizarre stoner comedy, a two-hander and a bit lower budget than his earlier works such as The Greasy Strangler and An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn. It is like an epic-length Mitchell and Webb sketch in fact, the kind of film you find yourself laughing along to, just a bit, in a spirit of throwing in the towel – a spirit of not quite being able to believe that two actors, mugging and gurning at each other, really are saying these same lines to one other, over and over again.

The setting is Mull of Kintyre in 1981, and a pop star called Paul, with a strangely familiar but also entirely ersatz Liverpool accent, is welcoming a visitor, who arrives implausibly by rowing boat through the choppy grey sea. This is a blind Black pop legend called Stevie, who appears nonetheless to be able to see (and derisively imitate) Paul’s quirkiest mannerism whenever he gives it: a perky thumbs-up. (They are played, respectively, by Hosking’s regulars Sky Elobar and Gil Gex.)

After a cup of tea, some whisky and a “doobie-woobie”, they have conversations that might be those of two space aliens from separate planets. They seem alternately wary, hostile, and yet finally willing to tolerate and even welcome each other’s existences. This is a relationship which survives going swimming together in the icy sea (are these penile prostheses, incidentally?), dressing up as sheep and saying “Baaaaa!”, and other peculiar adventures.

Is this encounter really going to foment the personal and creative atmosphere in which two great talents are going to create one of the most pro-racial-harmony pop singles in history? Maybe. Never at any time do they get down to the business of talking about this song, or trying out some melodies or lyrics – legal and copyright restraints would otherwise certainly become an issue. But it is funny when Stevie repeatedly and angrily shouts the words “Scottish cottage” in his American accent. Silliness of this purity is rare.

Ebony and Ivory is in UK and Irish cinemas from 19 September.

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September 17, 2025
Scientists Find A Unique Way to Increase Battery Health to 1500 Cycles

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin and the Technical University of Berlin have developed a breakthrough material that could address one of the key limitations of lithium sulfur (Li S) batteries, their relatively short lifespan.

A newly engineered radical cationic covalent organic framework, known as R TTF•+ COF, appears capable of trapping harmful polysulfides and converting them back into active sulfur, allowing Li S batteries to sustain more than 1,500 charge discharge cycles with minimal capacity loss.

Li S batteries are considered promising next gen alternatives to lithium ion cells, thanks to their higher theoretical energy capacity and use of low cost, abundant sulfur. However, one of the major drawbacks has been that polysulfides generated during cycling tend to dissolve and migrate, causing rapid degradation.

The new COF material addresses this problem by anchoring those polysulfides within its highly porous structure. Its built in catalytic units, containing tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and radical anions, help facilitate chemical reactions that convert the polysulfides back to usable sulfur rather than letting them leach away.

Experiments show the material exhibits excellent performance: over 1,500 cycles with only about 0.027% capacity loss per cycle. That’s significantly better than many prior organic catalysts and marks a major improvement in durability for Li S technology.

This innovation could bring Li S batteries one step closer to practical applications in electric vehicles, grid energy storage, and other sectors where both high energy density and long life are vital. By reducing cost, since sulfur is cheap and abundant, and improving lifespan, the material opens doors for more sustainable and affordable battery technologies.

Still, challenges remain. Scaling up production of this COF material, integrating it into full battery systems, and ensuring stability under a variety of environmental conditions are steps that will require further research. But the early results are promising.

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September 17, 2025
Renewable energy and human rights benchmark 2025
The 2025 Benchmark looked closely at four key areas essential for the sector to drive a rights-respecting energy transition:
- Responsible mineral sourcing;
- Respect for Indigenous Peoples’ rights;
- Commitment to shared prosperity; and
- Respecting and protecting human rights defenders.
The climate crisis is the greatest global challenge humanity has ever faced – and rolling out renewable energy capacity at pace is critical. Respect for rights and shared prosperity is imperative – but Indigenous Peoples’ rights are not and never were a barrier to responsible wind and solar projects’ deployment.
On the contrary, Indigenous Peoples are pioneers in the fight against climate change, and are the allies of progressive actors respecting our rights and dignity.
It starts with a commitment – not mere lip service to respect rights, especially when legal protections are weak. This takes leadership, as demonstrated by a few companies in this year’s Benchmark.”

Joan Carling, Indigenous Peoples Rights International Executive Director

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September 17, 2025
Four arrested after images of Trump and Epstein projected on to Windsor Castle ahead of president’s visit | Donald Trump

Four people have been arrested after images of Donald Trump alongside deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were projected on to Windsor Castle, where the US president is set to be hosted by King Charles during his state visit to Britain.

Trump arrived in Britain late on Tuesday for an unprecedented second state visit, and will be greeted by Charles on Wednesday for a day of pomp at Windsor Castle, about 25 miles west of London.

Earlier on Tuesday, protesters unfurled a massive banner featuring a photograph of Trump and Epstein near Windsor Castle, and later projected several images of the two on to one of the castle’s towers.

The police said in a statement four adults were arrested on suspicion of malicious communications after an “unauthorised projection” at Windsor Castle, which they described as a “public stunt”. The four remain in custody.

An inscription reading “To Jeff, you are the greatest!”, is projected on to Windsor castle. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

Democrats in the US House of Representatives last week made public a birthday letter Trump allegedly wrote to Epstein more than 20 years ago, though the White House has denied its authenticity.

The letter was also projected on to the castle, along with pictures of Epstein’s victims, news clips about the case and police reports.

The release of the letter has brought renewed attention to an issue that has become a political thorn in the president’s side.

Though he has urged his supporters to move on from the topic, appetite for details about Epstein’s crimes and who else may have known about them or been involved with him has remained high.

Trump was friends with Epstein before becoming president but had a falling out with the former financier years before his 2019 death in prison.

The birthday letter contained text of a purported dialogue between Trump and Epstein in which Trump calls him a “pal” and says, “May every day be another wonderful secret.” The text sits within a crude sketch of the silhouette of a naked woman.

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September 17, 2025
Prada Galleria campaign: Ritual Identities

Milan, 16^th September 2025 – The annual campaigns celebrating Prada’s emblematic Galleria handbag have become a vehicle for deeper exploration – the Galleria reinterpreted through the distinct filmmaking style of some of the greatest auteurs of twenty-first century cinema.

After last year’s Jonathan Glazer short film featuring Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson, in 2025 it is award-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos to reframe the character of both the Prada Galleria and Johansson through his singular cinematic universe, in a motion image campaign that brings together this world-renowned actor and director for the first time.

A reflection of Lanthimos’s signature narrative complexity and surrealism, this campaign film is itself a microcosm of a feature movie, like a prototype or blueprint, the plot of a broader story implicit. Within, we experience Johansson enacting complex and mysterious rituals – strange actions, within archetypical settings of modern life. Through these processes, she can become legion – multiple versions of herself appear, renewed and transformed over and over.

Throughout, the Prada Galleria is central – a totem, a talisman, an amulet central to the ritual and the everyday performance of life itself, a vessel for magical change. It reflects the fact that the Galleria itself is ever-changing – reinvented season after season, it is forever shifting. And in as such, this film is an investigation of the fluidity of persona – first of Johansson, then of Prada.

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September 17, 2025
Will Pakistan play today’s Asia Cup match against UAE?

Pakistan may have withdrawn the threat to pull out of the Asia Cup but their objection to match referee Andy Pycroft still stands and the PCB has shot off another letter to the ICC demanding that the Zimbabwean be swapped with Richie Richardson for the team’s remaining games.

It has been reliably learnt that late on Tuesday evening, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) sent another mail to the ICC reiterating the demand to remove Pycroft from all its games but as of now, it hasn’t been obliged by the world body.

Pycroft is due to officiate Pakistan’s must-win game against the UAE later this evening.
The controversy began after Indian players led by skipper Suryakumar Yadav refused to shake hands with the Pakistan team at the end of their match on Sunday. Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha didn’t attend the post-match presentation ceremony in protest.

PCB blamed Pycroft for the fiasco, saying that he asked Salman not to shake hands with Suryakumar and also did not allow the exchange of team-sheets between the two skippers as is the norm.

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Suryakumar, on his part, stated that the decision to avoid handshakes with the cross-border rivals was a gesture of solidarity towards the victims of the Pakistan-backed Pahalgam terror attack and the Indian Armed Forces which carried out Operation Sindoor in retaliation. Pakistan, however, labelled Indian players’ actions as “unsporting”, while blaming Pycroft for acting in a partisan manner. The accusations were followed by a pullout threat and a formal demand to have Pycroft removed by the ICC, which rejected the plea. Pakistan stand to lose close to USD 16 million if they act on the threat and it would also be very poor optics for the country’s cricket board which is headed by the current chair of the Asian Cricket Council, Mohsin Naqvi.

In its initial letter to the ICC, PCB had stated: “The match referee failed to discharge his responsibility: to ensure that respect was extended and maintained amongst the captains as well as between the two competing sides; and to create a positive atmosphere by his conduct and encourage the captains and participating teams to do likewise.

“In fact, the match referee’s instructions to the two team captains were entirely directed towards achieving the opposite result. This misconduct violates Article 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Match Officials, which specifically makes it an offence for the Match Referee to conduct himself in a manner, which is contrary to the spirit of game and violates the MCC Laws.”

“Given the gravity, political nature/background, and far-reaching consequences and repercussions, the misconduct has also caused disrepute to the game.”

As per article 2.1.1 of ICC’s Code of Conduct, “spirit of the game may be defined by reference to the Preamble to the Laws of Cricket and involves respect for, amongst others (a) the role of the umpires and (b) the game and its traditional values.”

However, handshakes between rival players is a mere convention and not prescribed under any laws of the game.

Pakistan’s leading daily, ‘Dawn’ has quoted a PCB source as saying that Pakistan team director Naveed Akram Cheema had been told that Pycroft was acting at the behest of BCCI.

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“A Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) source, requesting anonymity, told Dawn.com on Monday that Cheema had also approached tournament director Andy Russell with his concerns, upon which he was informed that the match referee had been acting at the behest of the BCCI,” the report stated.

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September 17, 2025
Long noncoding RNA LOC646029 functions as a ceRNA to suppress ovarian cancer progression through the miR-627-3p/SPRED1 axis

Researchers from Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, et al. have conducted a study entitled “Long noncoding RNA LOC646029 functions as a ceRNA to suppress ovarian cancer progression through the miR-627-3p/SPRED1 axis”. This study was published in Frontiers of Medicine, Volume 17, Issue 5.

Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play a crucial regulatory role in the development and progression of multiple cancers. However, the potential mechanism by which lncRNAs affect the recurrence and metastasis of ovarian cancer remains unclear. In the current study, the lncRNA LOC646029 was markedly downregulated in metastatic ovarian tumors compared with primary tumors. Gain- and loss-of-function assays demonstrated that LOC646029 inhibits the proliferation, invasiveness, and metastasis of ovarian cancer cells in vivo and in vitro. Moreover, the downregulation of LOC646029 in metastatic ovarian tumors was strongly correlated with poor prognosis. Mechanistically, LOC646029 served as a miR-627-3p sponge to promote the expression of Sprouty-related EVH1 domain-containing protein 1, which is necessary for suppressing tumor metastasis and inhibiting KRAS signaling. Collectively, these results demonstrated that LOC646029 is involved in the progression and metastasis of ovarian cancer, which may be a potential prognostic biomarker.

This study was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China and the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences. For more detailed information, the full paper is available at: https://journal.hep.com.cn/fmd/EN/10.1007/s11684-023-1004-z.

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September 17, 2025

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