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  • Reduced Parahippocampal Volume Found to Be Related to Major Depressive Disorder in Study Using 7T MRI

    Reduced Parahippocampal Volume Found to Be Related to Major Depressive Disorder in Study Using 7T MRI

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    NEWS BRIEF

    Using new, ultra high field structural imaging in 7 Tesla (7T) MRI technology, a recent study found that cortical thickness in the parahippocampus (PHC) region is correlated with major depressive disorder (MDD) and traits of neuroticism.1 Patients with MDD had significantly lower cortical thickness in the PHC region, and further analysis showed association between neuroticism and PHC thickness. Nießen et al concluded that PHC thickness may serve as a biomarker for depression and provide a neurobiological basis for neuroticism.

    The study compared a group of 43 participants with MDD and a control group of 43 (20 females and 23 males in each group) participants. The MDD group met diagnostic criteria by both the IDC-10 and DSM-5. Ages ranged from 18 to 61, with a mean of 31.4. There was no significant difference for age and sex between groups. Some participants in the MDD group had other diagnoses along with MDD: 8 had a form of personality disorder, 3 had posttraumatic stress disorder, 2 had alcohol abuse issues, 1 had social phobia, 1 had somatoform disorder, 1 had trichotillomania, and 2 had previous psychotic symptoms.

    In investigating potential neuromorphological correlates of MDD and the association between PHC morphology and neuroticism, the study authors used 7T MRI scanning to obtain clearer, more detailed images to examine PHC cortical thickness. Using the NEO Five Factor Inventory scale (also known as the Big Five personality inventory), authors also compared scores on the neuroticism item with PHC thickness. Because of their use of a 7T MRI scanner, this study was able to obtain clearer spatial resolution and tissue contrast of the PHC than previous studies using more standard 1.5 or 3T imaging. Cortical thickness estimate measurements are also more accurate with 7T scans.2,3

    Investigators found that patients with MDD had significantly lower PHC thickness compared with the control group (P=0.002), though this significance was only found for the left hemisphere. Further analysis of the link between neuroticism and PHC thickness revealed a significant association between neuroticism and cortical thickness in both hemispheres (left: P=0.012, right: P=0.08). Participants in the MDD group had significantly higher neuroticism scores than the control group. The investigators posited that reduced PHC thickness may be indicative of a disconnect between the hippocampal formation and cortical regions. The region is associated with memory processing, emotion, and at rest mind wandering; effects of reduced cortical thickness in the PHC may lead to bias in associate memory processing, negative affect, and depressive rumination.4,5 Such structural alterations in the PHC may then play a role in perpetuating the dysfunctional cognitive processes seen in MDD and neurotic personality profiles.

    This study was also the first to employ 7T MRI technology to investigate parahippocampus morphology in MDD cases. The documentation of structural alteration to the PHC provides further evidence that these changes can indicate emotional dysregulation and perhaps represent early manifestation or predispositions to MDD. Evidence of neurobiological changes related to MDD and neuroticism may provide a pathophysiological foundation of MDD, investigators posited. The study authors also note that their results “underscore the importance of multimodal assessments in MDD, potentially contributing to the foundation of individualized clinical decision-making and paving the way towards precision psychiatry.”

    References

    1. Nießen D, Rajkumar R, Akkoc Altinok DC, et al. 7-Tesla ultra-high field MRI of the parahippocampal cortex reveals evidence of common neurobiological mechanisms of major depressive disorder and neurotic personality traits. Transl Psychiatry 2025;15:227.

    2. Scholtens LH, de Reus MA, van den Heuvel MP. Linking contemporary high resolution magnetic resonance imaging to the von Economo legacy: A study on the comparison of MRI cortical thickness and histological measurements of cortical structure. Hum Brain Mapp. 2015;36(8):3038-3046.

    3. Okada T, Fujimoto K, Fushimi Y, et al. Neuroimaging at 7 Tesla: a pictorial narrative review. Quant Imaging Med Surg. 2022;12(6):3406-3435.

    4. Aminoff EM, Kveraga K, Bar M. The role of the parahippocampal cortex in cognition. Trends Cogn Sci. 2013;17(8):379-390.

    5. Li M, Lu S, Zhong N. The parahippocampal cortex mediates contextual associative memory: evidence from an fMRI study. Biomed Res Int. 2016;9860604

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  • The Perseids Meteor Shower Brings Bright Fireballs to the Skies, Starting This Week

    The Perseids Meteor Shower Brings Bright Fireballs to the Skies, Starting This Week

    Skygazers have a lot to look forward to over the next month. A couple of dueling meteor showers will grace the skies later in July, and they will be joined by perhaps the most popular meteor shower of the year. Perseids are known for their bright fireballs and plentiful meteors. The show starts on Thursday, July 17, and will run through Aug. 23. 

    The reason the Perseids meteor shower is so popular is twofold. First, it takes place in the summer, so going outside and watching it is less uncomfortable than other large meteor showers like Quadrantids, which takes place in wintery January. 

    The other reason is that it’s one of the most active meteor showers of the year. During its peak, the meteor shower is known to spit as many as 100 meteors on average, according to the American Meteor Society. These not only include your typical shooting stars, but also a higher chance for fireballs, which are meteors that explode as they enter orbit. Per NASA, fireballs tend to last longer than standard shooting stars and can come in a variety of different colors. 

    Perseids come to Earth courtesy of the 109P/Swift-Tuttle comet. Earth’s orbit around the sun brings it through Swift-Tuttle’s tail every year. The comet itself takes 133 years to orbit the sun. Its last perihelion — the point at which it’s the closest to the sun — was in 1992. It won’t be back until the year 2125. Until then, it leaves behind an excellent tail of dust and debris to feed us yearly meteor showers. 

    How to watch the Perseids meteor shower

    The best time to view the Perseids is during its peak, which occurs on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. During this time, the shower will produce anywhere from 25 to 100 meteors per hour on average. However, since the shower officially lasts for over a month, you have a chance to see a shooting star on any given evening, provided that you’re far enough away from light pollution.

    Thus, if you’re planning on watching this year’s Perseids during their peak, you’ll want to get out of the city and suburbs as far as possible. According to Bill Cooke, lead of NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office, folks in the city might see one or two meteors from the meteor shower per hour, which is pocket change compared to what those outside city limits might see. 

    Regardless, once you’ve arrived at wherever you want to watch the meteors, you’ll want to direct your attention to the radiant, or the point at which the meteors will appear to originate. Like all meteors, Perseids are named after the constellation from which they appear. In this case, it’s Perseus.

    Per Stellarium’s free sky map, Perseus will rise from the northeastern horizon across the continental US on the evenings of Aug. 12 and 13. It’ll then rise into the eastern sky, where it’ll remain until after sunrise. So, in short, point yourself due east and you should be OK. Binoculars may help, but we recommend against telescopes since they’ll restrict your view of the sky to a very small portion, which may hinder your meteor-sighting efforts. 

    The American Meteor Society also notes that the moon may give viewers some difficulty. Perseids’ peak occurs just three days after August’s full moon, so the moon will still be mostly full. Thus, it is highly probable that light pollution from the moon may reduce the number of visible meteors by a hefty margin, depending on how things go.


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  • EU to US: Don’t just sell arms, share the cost for Ukraine

    EU to US: Don’t just sell arms, share the cost for Ukraine

    The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, has urged the United States to share the financial burden of supplying weapons to Ukraine. Her remarks came after President Donald Trump announced a new plan under which European allies would purchase billions of dollars’ worth of American arms—including Patriot missile systems—to send to Kyiv.

    Speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, Kallas welcomed the gesture but criticized the US approach of shifting the cost to Europe, stating that “if you promise weapons but expect others to pay, it’s not really your support.”

    Trump’s plan also gave Russia 50 days to end the war or face tough new economic sanctions. Meanwhile, several European countries including Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands have already expressed interest in joining the arms-purchase scheme.

    While Trump has repeatedly claimed the US has done more than its share for Ukraine, NATO statistics show that European nations now provide the majority of weaponry being sent to Ukraine.

    Kallas’s comments highlight growing European frustration over financial expectations, as the war in Ukraine continues into its third year.


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  • Your OnePlus 13 Will Get a Dedicated AI ‘Mind Space’ in Update Rolling Out Now

    Your OnePlus 13 Will Get a Dedicated AI ‘Mind Space’ in Update Rolling Out Now

    It’s a non-negotiable right now that every phone-maker out there must have a plan for integrating AI into its devices. OnePlus is a little late to the party, but it’s arrived nonetheless. Back in May, the company announced plans for bringing its own vision of personalized AI to OnePlus phones, and from this week, it’s rolling out to the OnePlus 13 and 13R.

    At a launch event in London earlier this year I not only got to see the first AI features to land on OnePlus phones in action, but also learn about what the company’s future plans are for bringing more complex and sophisticated AI features to its phones down the road.

    With all Android phone-makers increasingly making use of best-in-class Qualcomm chips and relying on Google’s Gemini AI, having a strong AI strategy is one way they can set themselves apart from rivals. I was impressed with how far OnePlus seems to be thinking ahead and not rushing into going ham on AI. Its initial AI rollout will likely capture people’s attention, even if its ideas aren’t entirely original.

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    The OnePlus 13’s upcoming “Mind Space.”

    Katie Collins/CNET

    OnePlus’ statement AI tool is called Plus Mind, which can save, suggest, store and search based on what’s currently on your phone screen, ultimately depositing the details in an app OnePlus is calling “Mind Space.” Plus Mind can be activated at any time, either by a dedicated button (if your phone has one) or by a swipe-up gesture. If it spots details of an event or reservation, it will propose creating a calendar entry.

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    Mind Space is a place to “organize your fragmented memories,” said Arthur Lam, the company’s director of OxygenOS and AI strategy. This is a hub where all of your most important content will live. AI search will allow you to find what you need without the information overload you may be used to, or it will automatically translate content into another language to make it accessible and searchable.

    Plus Mind will debut with the upcoming launch of the OnePlus 13S, a phone designed specifically for the Asian market, which comes with a dedicated AI button (the “Plus Key,” as OnePlus is calling it) on the side of the phone. That means for those of us in the US and Europe, we’ll have to wait a little longer to enjoy OnePlus’ vision for AI ourselves. It will eventually be rolling out to the OnePlus 13 as an over-the-air update later this year, although the company is yet to confirm exactly when.

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    The Plus Key on the OnePlus 13S.

    Katie Collins/CNET

    Plus Mind and Mind Space: My first impressions

    On the OnePlus 13, which shipped before the addition of the Plus Key, you instead have to use a three-fingered swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen to activate the AI features. When I tested this in person, it was hit or miss as to whether I could get it to work. There’s definitely a knack to it — you need to start from a couple of centimeters above the lower rim — and there’s a high chance of accidentally displacing what’s on the screen. 

    It’s clear that OnePlus designed Plus Mind to be used with a dedicated button, and no doubt all future OnePlus phones will feature a Plus Key of their own. It is a shame in retrospect, though, that the key is missing from its most widely available 2025 flagship phone.

    After using Plus Mind to save a variety of content, I had mixed opinions on how useful it was. The process of capturing and creating events out of details displayed on screen was seamless, and I found that I was able to use natural language within Mind Space to pull up the details of these events after the fact. But when saving articles I thought were interesting, Mind Space wasn’t able to provide a summary of the entirety of what I’d been reading — only of the specific text that was on screen at the time I activated Plus Mind.

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    OnePlus’ natural language search within Mind Space worked well for me.

    Katie Collins/CNET

    I also struggled to organise the content into collections within Mind Space. This is a manual process, rather than a situation in which the AI takes over to categorize everything you’ve saved. This feels a little like a missed opportunity.

    Like other Android phone makers, OnePlus has the benefit of tapping into the best of Google’s Gemini phone tools, while also choosing what additional features it wants to bring to its phones to make them stand apart from its competitors. That said, its initial foray into AI with Mind Space is bound to draw comparisons to what Nothing is doing with Essential Space — its own dedicated hub for saving content, snippets, links and reminders.

    What’s next for OnePlus AI?

    Plus Mind and Mind Space are just the first part of OnePlus’ three-stage AI strategy. Next up is integrating a large language model into Plus Mind, allowing your phone to understand your habits to create a “persona” it uses to understand you.

    “It will help you understand yourself,” said Lam, and could even help you discover something “surprising” or “enlightening” about yourself.

    Stage 3 is when OnePlus plans to go full AI agent, turning into a personal assistant that can know everything about you. But the company’s not quite there just yet. In the meantime it has a few other ideas in the pipeline.

    Coming first to India (again, not the EU or the US), are AI VoiceScribe, which will provide you with a quick summary after your call on WhatsApp, Snapchat or Telegram, and AI Call Assistant, which provides you with in-call translation in both text and voice.

    On the more playful side, OnePlus is introducing two AI photo tools. The first, AI Best Face 2.0, will allow you to correct the faces of up 20 people in a group photo so that everyone is looking their best (if they have their eyes closed, for example, or what OnePlus describes as a “suboptimal expression”). AI Reframe, meanwhile, will analyze your carelessly shot holiday snaps and suggest creative cropping and framing to make it look like you weren’t three cocktails deep when you shot them.

    These photo features will be come to OnePlus phones this summer, but for the major OnePlus AI tool rollout, you might have to wait a little longer.


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  • OnePlus 13 ‘Plus Mind’ AI update rolls out ‘over the coming weeks’

    OnePlus 13 ‘Plus Mind’ AI update rolls out ‘over the coming weeks’

    OnePlus has just detailed its new “Plus Mind” update for the OnePlus 13 series, alongside a bunch of other new AI features in the pipeline.

    In a press release, OnePlus has announced that its “Plus Mind” feature is coming to the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R “over the coming weeks.”

    “Plus Mind” first launched on the OnePlus 13T/13s earlier this year as an option to use content on screen to gather information, save content for later, or generate AI-powered action items. For example, Plus Mind can automatically recognize details from a poster and create an event. Where the OnePlus 13T and OnePlus 13s use this through the dedicated “Plus Key” (which replaces the Alert Slider), the OnePlus 13 and 13R will use a three-finger swipe upwards on the display.

    OnePlus says this feature will arrive “over the coming weeks” in the US and Canada, and they’re also coming to other regions too.

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    OnePlus’ full announcement follows:

    OnePlus Brings Revolutionary AI Tool, Plus Mind, to OnePlus 13 Series

    Upcoming software update brings Plus Mind, a new AI tool that helps users remember everything, to widely acclaimed OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R
    New York, New York – July 15, 2025 – Global technology brand OnePlus will begin the rollout of Plus Mind, its new personal intelligence tool, to customers using the OnePlus 13 Series globally. Plus Mind, an AI tool designed to help users handle the tidal wave of content they must deal with every day, makes storing, organizing and searching fragmented information easier than ever with the power of OnePlus AI. It will be available for free as part of the latest software update for OnePlus 13 Series, which will be made available on every OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R phone in the U.S. and Canada over the coming weeks.

    “OnePlus AI is all about helping you work smart and play harder, and a big part of our work and play is trying to cope with the information overload we face every single day,” said Arthur Lam, Director of OxygenOS and AI Strategy at OnePlus.”Plus Mind has been specifically developed to act as a personal intelligence for our users, helping them remember everything in a secure and private way.”

    How Plus Mind Works

    Plus Mind first appeared on the OnePlus 13s, the new compact flagship device launched in India this past June. While the OnePlus 13s uses a dedicated Plus Key to trigger Plus Mind, users will swipe upwards on their screen with three fingers on the OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R. This will allow users to send any type of information, from webpages to images, messages or social network posts and more, to Plus Mind.

    After swiping, Plus Mind will immediately analyze and suggest appropriate actions to users, including adding calendar events for key dates it spots in the content it captures. It will also make the data it captures available for the user any time they visit their Mind Space, which will be available as a new application on their OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R’s app list; it can also be easily found via natural language searches in their AI Search bar or accessed by swiping down on their home screen. Mind Space uses OnePlus AI technology to understand the content it is seeing and automatically generate descriptions, information and tags for every piece of content, as well as potentially translating the text it sees to a user’s native language.

    For example, a user who uses a three finger swipe up on a picture of an event poster will automatically be prompted to add the event date into their calendar, while Plus Mind also captures all the key data and adds it into the user’s Mind Space on their OnePlus 13 and OnePlus 13R. Meanwhile a three finger swipe up on a fashion website will prompt Plus Mind analyze what it sees on the page and summarize the looks on display. Then, a user can easily rediscover this information in their Mind Space later and return to the webpage with a single tap.

    More to Come from OnePlus AI

    OnePlus announced its AI strategy earlier this year and has dedicated itself to creating personalized intelligence for its users. This strategy was created after hundreds of conversations with OnePlus users around the world to learn about their hopes, dreams, and concerns for artificial intelligence.

    These conversations have led OnePlus to focus on ensuring that every OnePlus user has a phone that truly understands them and can help them work smart and play hard. As part of this, OnePlus has already released a range of AI features in different territories around the world and continues to work on releasing more. These include:

    • AI Translation: Consolidates all translation capabilities – text, live voice, camera-based, and screen translation – into a single, intuitive app, making it easier to understand foreign languages and connect globally.
    • AI Search: Allows conversational, natural language queries, seamlessly searching local files, settings, notes, and calendars for contextually relevant results. Integrated with AI Plus Mind, it enhances productivity through intuitive, interactive searches.
    • AI Reframe: Analyzes photo scenes, identifies the subject, and adjusts composition, generating multiple creative framing options for users to choose from.
    • AI Perfect Shot: Creates the perfect group shot by helping fix any badly timed blinks or substituting facial expressions on photos of up to twenty people.

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  • A Dying Mother’s Inspiration Behind One of the Church’s New Hymns

    A Dying Mother’s Inspiration Behind One of the Church’s New Hymns

    Temple Square is always beautiful in the springtime. Gardeners work to prepare the ground for General Conference. © 2012 Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved. 1 / 2

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    This story appears here courtesy of TheChurchNews.com. It is not for use by other media.

    By Mary Richards, Church News

    Two facts about Alice Warner Johnson were as important as anything else about her time on earth. 

    One, she loved The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her family above all else. And two, she devoted her life — even after it became nearly impossible to carry on — to help others through their trials, explained her obituary in 2019 after she died at age 55. 

    Johnson is the author and composer of “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me,” which was included in the latest batch of new hymns for “Hymns—For Home and Church.”

    She wrote the hymn while suffering from a progressive form of multiple sclerosis, which came with episodes of blindness and numbness and led to increasing, then total incapacity. 

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    Alice Warner Johnson, nee Alice Anne Warner, is pictured in 1982. She wrote several books and hymns, including “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me” in the Church’s new hymnbook. Photo provided by the Johnson family, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.

    The About the Hymns section of Gospel Library states this for this hymn: 

    “Devastated as she declined, Sister Johnson pled with the Lord for more time to serve Him and her family. While learning to trust Him and surrender her will to His, she was inspired to write ‘O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me.’” 

    Her daughter, Katherine Pearse, remembers going into her mother’s office in the basement and watching her “hunched over her keyboard, meticulously working on the melodies and chords. … She spent hours writing and rewriting that beautiful hymn as her disease worsened and became more severe.” 

    The hymn speaks of humbly going to the Lord and offering a sacrifice of a contrite soul and a broken heart. The second verse talks about bearing His yoke. In the end, the hymn says, “Now bind my grateful heart to Thine.” 

    Scripture references in the new hymnbook for this hymn are Doctrine and Covenants 59:8 and Matthew 11:28–30, which include the Lord’s teachings on these themes. 

    Pearse said that even in the worst moments, her mother remained positive and continued to share and serve in whatever way she could. 

    “Most importantly, her faith never wavered,” Pearse told the Church News. “She gave thanks to God constantly, she looked to Christ as her support, and she lived by the Spirit in hopes that she could find ways to reach out to others in need.” 

    ‘The perfect way to honor her legacy’ 

    Johnson grew up in Provo, Utah, as the oldest of 10 siblings. She showed remarkable gifts from a young age, including learning to read by the age of 3 and teaching herself to play piano. She performed in many musicals, wrote stories, sang in the University Singers at Brigham Young University and served a full-time mission to Taiwan. 

    After college, she landed a prestigious job in Boston, Massachusetts, and had always aspired to become a wife and mother. After moving back to Utah in her 30s to help her dad start a new company, a mutual friend set her up with Paul Johnson, and they were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple in 1996. 

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    Alice-Warner-Johnson-04.jpg

    Paul, Alice, Annie, Katie, Sam and Molly Johnson are pictured in 2006. Before dying in 2019, Alice Warner Johnson wrote the hymn “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me,” which is included in the Church’s new hymnbook. Photo provided by the Johnson family, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.

    Two months after her second daughter, Pearse, was born, Johnson woke up in the morning to sudden blindness. She learned that she had an advanced form of multiple sclerosis. 

    “This devastating blow did not stop my mom,” Pearse said. Johnson continued to pursue and share her musical and writing talents from her home in Lindon, Utah. Several of her hymns won Church music contests at this time. Later, moving to Eagle, Idaho, Johnson directed ward choirs and made it a joy for people to participate, Pearse said. 

    Despite the danger that the disease would progress more rapidly with more children, the Johnsons — after much deliberation, prayer and priesthood blessings — had two more children. 

    Soon, Johnson was unable to walk or drive. Pearse said she continued to write books and hymns from her bed and would call people to say she was thinking about them, offering ways to help them. Relief Society sisters who visited her would often leave saying they felt served by her instead. 

    After five years of being completely bed-bound, Johnson passed away. Her funeral included a choir with people from her childhood and her wards in Boston, Lindon and Eagle singing in her honor. 

    “Her life was filled with loving friends and family, incredible experiences, and so much music,” Pearse said. 

    Alice-Warner-Johnson-05.jpg
    Alice-Warner-Johnson-05.jpg

    Alice Warner Johnson and her children, Annie and Katie, play music together in 2004. Johnson wrote the hymn “O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me,” which is in the Church’s new hymnbook. Photo provided by the Johnson family, courtesy of Church News.All rights reserved.

    While Johnson received many awards and accolades throughout her life, she would say her crowning jewel was being a mother to her four children. While all of them are also musical, they strive to honor her by remembering her words — “kindness is the most important thing.” 

    “Her hymn being included in the hymnbook is the perfect way to honor her legacy,” Pearse said. “The lyrics follow her story of terrible loss, but giving it over to the Lord. She truly did lay her burdens at His feet, trust His will, and even feel profound gratitude for her many blessings.” 

    O Lord, Who Gave Thy Life for Me 
     
    1. O Lord, who gave Thy life for me, 
    I come now in humility 
    And here my sacrifice impart: 
    A contrite soul, a broken heart. 
    Oh, may Thy love in mercy shine 
    And bind my sorrowing heart to Thine. 
     
    2. My burden at Thy feet I lay— 
    My pride, my hurt, each willful way, 
    The weight of all my sin and care— 
    And in its place Thy yoke I’ll bear. 
    Oh, may Thy love my soul refine 
    And bind my trusting heart to Thine. 
     
    3. My heart is full of love for Thee, 
    Because I know Thou first loved me. 
    Now by that love I’ll seek to live; 
    Like Thee, I freely would forgive. 
    Oh, may Thy love my life define 
    And bind my willing heart to Thine. 
     
    4. And as I strive to thus endure 
    With cleaner hands and heart more pure, 
    In all around I see Thy face 
    And feel the bounties of Thy grace. 
    O Savior, may Thy love divine 
    Now bind my grateful heart to Thine. 
     

    Learn more about all the new hymns in the “About the Hymns” resource in of Gospel Library. 

    Copyright 2025 Deseret News Publishing Company.


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  • Justin Bieber is a chill, God-fearing bro on messy, beautiful ‘Swag’

    Justin Bieber is a chill, God-fearing bro on messy, beautiful ‘Swag’

    Every half-decade or so, Justin Bieber sloughs off the callused skin of the pop superstar he became at age 15 to reveal the tender and quirky R&B singer he’s always been at heart. He did it in 2013 with his album “Journals,” then in 2020 with “Changes.”

    Neither project did anything like the numbers of his shinier, smilier teen-idol stuff, though each seemed like a crucial reset for a guy battling the pressures of early onset celebrity. Now, at 31, he’s done it again with “Swag,” the surprise LP he dropped last week just hours after revealing it existed.

    Like those earlier albums, the 21-track “Swag” comes after a period of change and tumult for Bieber. In 2022, citing the need to focus on his health, he called off a world tour behind the previous year’s “Justice” album; in 2023, he parted ways with his longtime manager, Scooter Braun; last year, he and his wife, Hailey Baldwin, had their first child together. (Somewhere in there he also sold the rights to his music catalogue for a reported $200 million.) More recently, he’s been caught on video in a series of confrontations with paparazzi that started people talking about his well-being.

    “It’s not clocking to you that I’m standing on business,” he tells a photographer in one clip that went viral last month — so viral, in fact, that Bieber excerpts it on “Swag,” which puts his luscious crooning over spacey, cooled-out grooves full of pillowy synths, twanging electric guitars and reverbed chillwave-’80s beats.

    What distinguishes “Swag” from “Journals” and “Changes” is that this album feels much rawer and more improvisatory than the earlier ones; the production throughout is murky and smeared, and the record includes a couple of demo-like tracks that suggest Bieber simply AirDropped unfinished voice memos from his phone to whomever was sitting behind the computer in the recording studio. (One of them, a gorgeous little gospel-blues ditty, is titled “Glory Voice Memo.”) The idea that “Swag” puts across pretty sympathetically is that a messy life — let’s not forget that Bieber is also involved in a Christian organization that some have compared to a cult — yields messy music.

    “When the money comes and the money goes/ Only thing that’s left is the love we hold,” he sings in the thrumming “Butterflies,” which samples another of those paparazzi run-ins. “Walking Away,” a lightly psychedelic soul-rock jam, has him describing the challenges of his highly scrutinized marriage with an endearing frankness about his desire to wise up emotionally. (Braun, whom Bieber is said to have paid millions of dollars recently to settle an old debt, wrote on Instagram that “Swag” “is, without a doubt, the most authentically Justin Bieber album to date.”)

    In un-polishing his music, the singer is also adapting to the scrappy and proudly idiosyncratic vibe of modern pop as found on records by the likes of SZA, Charli XCX, Lana Del Rey, even Drake — A-plus stars who’ve achieved domination in the streaming era not by honing a streamlined vision but by pursuing odd impulses and allowing the listener to feel like part of the journey. One of Bieber’s key collaborators here is Mk.gee, the mysterious guitar virtuoso whose 2024 debut made him perhaps the most talked-about musician’s musician of the last few years. “Swag” feels shaped by the way Mk.gee thinks about how a great pop song should balance novelty and familiarity. Other members of the creative team Bieber gathered for loose jam sessions at his home in Los Angeles include Dijon, a frequent partner of Mk.gee’s, and Carter Lang, who’s worked closely with SZA.

    Given Bieber’s attentive nature and his good taste — think of his relatively ahead-of-the-curve participation in remixes of Wizkid’s “Essence” and “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee — it probably figures that in 2025 he’d make a record that imagines Phil Collins sitting in with Scritti Politti. Yet as a tinkerer luxuriating in rough edges, Bieber stands alone among his fellow white male pop stars (or at least the few of them who remain near the centre of the conversation): Benson Boone is doing well-rehearsed back flips on every awards show stage that will have him, while Ed Sheeran has said his upcoming album represents a return to his old hit-seeking ways after a spell in the folky wilderness. And then there’s Morgan Wallen, whose thematically gloomy “I’m the Problem” is so sonically dialed in that you almost fear what the album’s enormous success will end up doing to the guy.

    Does Bieber relish his outlier status? In one of several very cringe interludes on “Swag,” the internet comedian Druski tells the singer that, although his skin is white, his soul is Black — to which Bieber, clearly operating without the guidance of a strong manager, responds, “Thank you.” Still, you can’t argue with Druski’s assessment that he can “hear the soul” on this album: Bieber’s singing has never sounded more instinctual than in songs like the crunchy “Daisies” and the country-soul “Devotion,” and even when they’re bad, his lyrics have an awkward charm, as in “Go Baby,” in which he plugs the iPhone-case-slash-lip-gloss-holder sold by his wife’s beauty brand, and “405,” a song about flirting with Baldwin in the car that rhymes “Hit the gas” with “Spider-Man on your ass.”

    Shaggy, disarming, often quite beautiful, the LP argues that swag is not something to be taught (as indeed Bieber once famously enlisted someone to do) — neither a skill nor a technique to be perfected and deployed. It’s a state of mind, bro. Is that clocking to you?

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  • Chartmetric’s new Make Music Equal report tracks gender representation across 1 million artists

    Chartmetric’s new Make Music Equal report tracks gender representation across 1 million artists

    MBW’s Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry. This week’s Stat Of the Week comes from the series’ long-time supporter, music data analytics firm Chartmetric.

    Music analytics company Chartmetric has published its 2025 Make Music Equal Report, which presents the company’s analysis of pronoun data from a database of over one million artists across 230 countries and territories.

    First released in 2018, Chartmetric says that its Make Music Equal initiative began as a “data-driven approach for measuring and improving the structural inequities of today’s music industry”.

    Today, according to Chartmetric, the initiative exists as three parts, including a free and fully accessible database of over 1 million artist pronouns across the world; a live and regularly updated dashboard that offers a snapshot into the current state of diversity in the music industry; and an artist Identification Tool that lets users check and verify an artist’s pronoun data.

    Chartmetric added in its report that “rather than assigning gender to artists,” which it says is “a problematic method regardless of accuracy,” the company has “relied on the pronouns that artists and their teams include in their bios on digital streaming platforms”.

    The company explained further: “This has grown into a database of over 1 million pronouns. We use this data to analyze pronoun distribution across genres, playlists, and charts, aiming to highlight the industry’s gender disparities and identify where improvements are most needed.”

    For the most recent report, which you can read in full here, Chartmetric has divided its research into 10 key segments. Below are a few key findings that stood out

    Chartmetric has pronoun data on more than 1 million artists from 230 countries and territories. Of this 1 million, over 728,000 are solo acts. Today, according to Chartmetric’s research, 79% of these solo acts use he/him pronouns, while 18% use she/her pronouns and 3% use they/them and other pronouns.

    Meanwhile, among the top 100 artists by ‘peak Chartmetric score’, women now make up 33% of this elite tier, representing a significant increase from just 26% in 2020 (see chart below).

    While men still dominate with 56% of the top spots, the seven percentage point gain suggests female artists are increasingly breaking through into the industry’s most visible ranks.

    The report highlights disparities in the sync licensing world, with video games showing the greatest gender imbalance.

    While TV syncs demonstrate relatively balanced representation with 29% male artists and 26% female artists, video games feature 49% male solo artists compared to just 6% female artists in their soundtracks.

    Festival and concert data reveals an interesting trend linked to rising touring costs. Between 2019 and 2024, the percentage of she/her artists performing at festivals rose by 3% while he/him acts saw a modest 2% increase.

    This growth appears to be driven by a notable decline in bands on festival lineups – from 47% to 41% for concerts and 50% to 40% for festivals (see below) – as the “rising global cost of touring” makes individual artists more economically viable for promoters.

    The report identified significant regional variations in gender representation.

    Taiwan emerged as the country with the smallest gender gap among solo artists, with male artists representing 63% compared to 34% female artists – a 29 percentage point difference.

    At the opposite extreme, Bangladesh showed the largest disparity with 92% male artists and just 6% female artists.

    One of the most significant data points revealed within Chartmetric’s report is the power of female audiences in driving artist success.

    Among the Top 10 male artists by Chartmetric score, female followers outnumbered male followers for all except three artists – Drake, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar. Meanwhile, female artists saw female fans dominate “across the board.”

    The report concludes that this pattern “highlights the strength and consistency of female fandom culture, particularly their roles in driving artist engagement on social platforms.”Music Business Worldwide

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  • Israeli strike in Gaza kills 19 members of a family, health officials say

    Israeli strike in Gaza kills 19 members of a family, health officials say

    Israeli strikes overnight and into Tuesday killed more than 90 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip, including dozens of women and children, health officials said, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s timeline to land a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel keeps drifting.

    One strike in the northern al-Shati refugee camp killed a 68-year-old Hamas member of the Palestinian legislature, as well as a man and a woman and their six children who were sheltering in the same building, according to officials from Al-Shifa Hospital, where the casualties were taken.

    One of the deadliest strikes hit a house in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa district on Monday evening and killed 19 members of the family living inside, according to Al-Shifa Hospital. The dead included eight women and six children. A strike on a tent housing displaced people in the same district killed a man and a woman and their two children.

    There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.

    Gaza’s Health Ministry said in a daily report Tuesday afternoon that the bodies of 93 people killed by Israeli strikes had been taken to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, along with 278 wounded. It did not specify the total number of women and children among the dead.

    Mourners pray beside the bodies of Palestinians who were killed Tuesday by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at a funeral outside Al-Shifa Hospital. (Jehad Alshrafi/The Associated Press)

    The Hamas politician killed in a strike early Tuesday, Mohammed Faraj al-Ghoul, was a member of the bloc of representatives from the group that won seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the last election held among Palestinians, in 2006.

    Hamas won a majority in the vote, but relations with the main Fatah faction that had long led the Palestinian Authority unravelled and ended with Hamas taking over the Gaza Strip in 2007. The legislative council has not formally convened since.

    The Israeli military says it only targets militants and tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants operate in densely populated areas.

    The latest attacks came after Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held two days of talks last week that ended with no sign of a breakthrough in negotiations over a ceasefire and hostage release.

    At least 875 killed near aid points, convoys, UN says

    The UN rights office said on Tuesday it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) sites, a U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and convoys run by other relief groups.

    The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF aid hubs, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

    The GHF uses private U.S. security and logistics companies to get supplies into Gaza, largely bypassing a UN-led system that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

    The GHF, which began distributing food packages in Gaza in late May after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade, previously told Reuters that such incidents have not occurred on its sites and accused the UN of misinformation, which it denies.

    WATCH | UN voices concern about how many Palestinians have died near aid sites:

    Missile kills children at Gaza water station, Israel blames a malfunction

    Israel says a missile malfunction caused it to strike a water station in Gaza over the weekend, killing six children. But the United Nations is voicing concern about how many Palestinians have died near aid distribution sites.

    The GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the latest UN figures.

    “The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

    The United Nations has called the GHF aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

    The Israeli army previously told Reuters in a statement that it was reviewing recent mass casualties and that it had sought to minimize friction between Palestinians and the Israel Defence Forces by installing fences and signs and opening additional routes.

    Israel has killed more than 58,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 139,000 others in its retaliation campaign since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. Slightly more than half the dead are women and children, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its tally.

    Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after its attack 20 months ago, in which militants stormed into southern Israel and killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli tallies. They abducted 251 others, and the militants are still holding 50 hostages, less than half of them believed to be alive.

    Israel’s air and ground campaign has destroyed vast areas of Gaza and driven some 90 per cent of the population from their homes. Aid groups say they have struggled to bring in food and other assistance because of Israeli military restrictions and the breakdown of law and order, and experts have warned of famine.

    Attacks against Palestinians in West Bank intensify: UN

    There has been an increase in killings of and attacks against Palestinians by settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

    “Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks,” Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.

    About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its “Iron Wall” operation — contributing to the ongoing consolidation of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, the OHCHR said.

    A wall barrier winds around the outskirts of a refugee camp.
    The Israeli barrier winds around the outskirts of the East Jerusalem refugee camp of Shuafat. (Ammar Awad/Reuters)

    In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in more than two decades in the West Bank.

    Since January, there have been 757 settler attacks on Palestinians or their properties, which is a 13 per cent increase on the same period last year, OHCHR said.

    At least 964 Palestinians have been killed since Oct. 7, 2023, by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Fifty-three Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and in Israel in reported attacks by Palestinians or in armed clashes, the office added.

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  • Birmingham Sikh charity leader recognised for selfless service

    Birmingham Sikh charity leader recognised for selfless service

    Simran Sohal & Amrit Singh Cheema

    BBC News

    Nishkam Media A group of MP's standing next to Bhai Sahib Ji who is wearing a white turban, black coat and white cloth around his neck. He holds and award being handed to him by Seema Malhotra MP who wears a red jacket and dotted top. Nishkam Media

    Bhai Sahib says he is “humbled and happy to be honoured” for his life long selfless service

    The leader of a Birmingham-based Sikh charity has been recognised for his dedication to selfless service at an event in Parliament.

    Bhai Sahib, Professor Mohinder Singh, spiritual leader of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha and chairman of the Nishkam Group of Charitable Organisations, has helped a variety of sectors grow across the UK and around the world.

    Bhai Sahib Ji was presented with the award “In recognition of his lifelong selfless service to the community” by British Sikh parliamentarians on Monday night.

    Rooted in Sikh principles, the charity has focused on interfaith dialogue and transformative community work in education, healthcare, heritage, and global humanitarian aid.

    Nishkam Media A group of Sikhs standing on steps in Parliament. Behind them is a large stain glass window.Nishkam Media

    Preet Gill MP thanked Bhai Sahib Ji for their visionary leadership especially across education and health sectors

    Labour MP Jas Athwal called Bhai Sahib Ji a “true embodiment of humility, leadership and service”.

    Speaking in Parliament, Bhai Sahib Ji said: “I am greatly overwhelmed and embarrassed to take any credit for what I have managed to do in my life.

    “As Sikhs, we are lovingly advised to adopt the following strategy for spiritual and worldly success.

    “Pray, work, share. To serve selflessly, sing, listen to and absorb divine praise.

    “In a way we become what we serve. To serve the creator through serving creation is the path to living in God’s image when done in tandem with prayer and devotion.”

    Three people dressed in white clothing playing traditional Indian instruments. To the left a woman in a brown headscarf and Bhai Sahib Ji who wears a white turban are sat.

    Gurbani kirtan – Sikh sacred music – was performed as part of the event

    Volunteers spoke of Bhai Sahib Ji’s service, namely the creation of the peace charter for forgiveness and reconciliation in 2019, which promotes clemency as a way to pave the way for global peace.

    A trustee of the charity said: “We are celebrating 30 years, but it is not 30 years; it is a lifelong dedication.”

    And added that “the whole foundation is built around humility”.

    The Sikh charity has its headquarters in Birmingham and operates in cities across the UK, in India and in Kenya.

    In Handsworth, West Midlands, the charity helped regenerate 13 acres of inner-city land.

    The launch of Zero Hunger and Nishkam SWAT (Sikh Welfare and Awareness Team) has fed thousands and is continuing to do so.

    Bhai Sahib Ji is the first Sikh to be awarded a Papal Knighthood of St Gregory the Great, which is usually reserved for Catholics, honouring his interfaith work.

    A volunteer described him as a reminder to “uplift and to unite”, while he inspires others to “live truer and serve” through honouring the legacy of the Sikh Gurus.

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