An anticipated Paris show presenting Dior’s latest men’s collection, set to be released in 2026, and the first designed under ex-Loewe’s Jonathan Anderson direction, made subtle nods to European art and culture.
Dior presented its latest men’s collection at the Invalides, a museum complex centered on French military history, using a large black-and-white image of Christian Dior’s original salon as a backdrop. The display, which stretched across the entrance, was meant to signal the 80-year-old brand’s historic connection to French culture.
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The Dior Homme’s 2026 Spring/Summer collection was the first designed by Anderson after taking up the position last month. He is now overseeing men’s and women’s designs at the house, the first designer in the house’s history to hold both roles simultaneously.
In the Paris show, Anderson, avoiding dramatic changes, mixed some of Dior’s heritage with the present, as first reported by critic Vanessa Friedman of the New York Times. Friedman wrote that the collection meshed “formal and casual, historic and contemporary,” while according to Dazed, Anderson was centering the “aristocrat,” as the show’s main concept, using 18th century European art and English tailoring to deliver the message.
Dazed also noted that the show’s stage was designed to mimic visuals from older museum exhibitions that use velvet as wallpaper, including the Berlin’s Gemäldegalerie gallery and New York’s Frick collection, both holding European art collections.
The Paris show drew from that design choice, covering the Invalides’ interior walls with off-white velvet, and hanging two paintings by 18th century French still-life artist Jean Siméon Chardin that were loaned from the National Galleries of Scotland and the Louvre.
Prior to the debut show, Anderson’s art references were leaking through online. Earlier this month, Dior published famous photographs of social and artistic royalty from Anderson’s “mood board,” on social media: separate polaroids of Lee Radizwill, an American-European princess and fixture in aristocratic circles, and painter Jean Michel-Basquiat, both subject of Andy Warhol.
Radizwill’s connection to Dior’s history began in the 1960s under the label’s then-creative director, Marc Bohan, who used her as a muse. (A 1977 silk robe designed by Bohan, gifted by Radizwill, is in the Met’s collection.)
Anderson’s first women’s collection will be presented in September.
There are a number of iPad apps that can help you explore and express your creativity. Although the iPad started off as a simple device that could be used to stream content or browse the web on the go, Apple has essentially turned its iPads into powerful machines that can be used to do things like create digital art and edit videos.
We’ve compiled a list of some of the best iPad apps for creativity that are available on the App Store.
Before we get into the list, it’s worth noting that although Adobe’s creative apps are often top choices for creativity on the iPad, this list won’t include them because they are already quite well-known. The list will instead focus on somewhat lesser-known apps.
Procreate
Image Credits:Procreate
Procreate is one of the most popular drawing apps for the iPad, and for good reason. The app lets you create digital paintings, sketches, and illustrations using dozens of different types of brushes. Procreate is easy to use and features built-in gesture controls, along with a simple interface.
The app allows for high-resolution canvases up to 16K by 8K on compatible iPad Pros. It also lets you create storyboards, GIFs, animatics, and simple animations. Plus, you can import image files such as JPG, PNG, and TIFF. Procreate includes several features that are designed to help you during the creative process on your iPad, such as QuickShape, StreamLine, Drawing Assist, and ColorDrop.
Once you’re finished creating your piece, you can relive your creative journey with the app’s time-lapse “Replay” feature and share a 30-second time-lapse video on social media.
You can access Procreate with a one-time payment of $12.99.
LumaFusion
Image Credits:LumaFusion
LumaFusion is a great app for editing videos if you’re ready to graduate from iMovie. The app features numerous user-friendly features that make it perfect for aspiring videographers or indie filmmakers on a budget.
With LumaFusion, you can create multiple layer edits with 4K ProRes and HDR media. You can add different effects, choose from dozens of transitions, and record voice-overs. The app lets you create multilayer titles and import fonts and graphics. Plus, you can fine-tune audio with Graphic EQ, Parametric EQ, Voice isolation, and more.
The app lets you create projects with a variety of aspect ratios, including 16:9 landscape, 9:16 portrait, square, widescreen film, anamorphic, and more.
LumaFusion is available for a one-time payment of $29.99. You can also purchase additional features, such as multicam editing and the ability to send your project to Final Cut Pro for Mac.
Canva
Image Credits:Canva
Canva offers a user-friendly platform that allows anyone to create visual content, even without graphic design experience. You can use it to create presentations, infographics, videos, websites, social media posts, and more with over 250,000 templates.
Canva features tools for editing photos, personalizing content with logos and images, adding audio, and cropping and speeding up video.
The platform also has a series of AI features that are designed to make the creation process easier. For instance, you can extend an image using “Magic Switch” or turn ideas into images with “Magic Media.”
Canva is free but offers a $12.99 monthly subscription if you want unlimited access to its AI features, premium templates, and more.
Affinity Designer 2
Image Credits:Affinity
Affinity Designer 2 is a graphic design app that combines vector design, pixel-based textures, and retouching into a single platform. It’s great for professional illustrators, web designers, game developers, and other creatives.
The app lets you create illustrations, branding, logos, icons, UI/UX designs, typography, posters, labels, fliers, stickers, concept art, digital art, and more. It supports Apple Pencil’s precision, pressure sensitivity, and tilt functionality.
Affinity Designer 2 features gesture controls to speed up your workflow, and it lets you customize keyboard shortcuts. You can also do things like create your own custom font and zoom to over 1,000,000% for absolute precision.
You can access the app through a one-time payment of $18.49.
Concepts
Image Credits:Concepts
Concepts is a great app for exploring your ideas and experimenting with designs. You can use the app to sketch plans, make notes and mindmaps, and draw storyboards and designs.
The app features Nudge, Slice, and Select tools that allow you to easily change any element of your sketch without redrawing it. The app features realistic pens, pencils, and brushes that flow with pressure and tilt.
Concepts gives you access to scale and measurement tools that calculate real-world dimensions, and also features a tool wheel or bar that you can personalize to your liking.
The app’s basic features are free. Concepts offers a $4.99 monthly subscription if you want access to additional features, such as the ability to create your own brushes and premium editing tools.
Tayasui Sketches
Image Credits:Tayasui Sketches
Tayasui Sketches is a good, user-friendly sketching and drawing app. It has several different features such as a realistic watercolor brush, digital acrylic brushes, the ability to blend two colors to get the perfect shade, gradient and depth tools, and more.
The app lets you multitask by opening up another app and dragging lawyers and documents between the two. There’s also a “Zen Mode” that lets you create without distractions.
You can also upload your images to incorporate them into your creations. Tayasui Sketches lets you store your creations into personalized folders.
Tayasui Sketches’s basic features are free. The app offers a $2.99 monthly subscription that unlocks unlimited layers, new brushes and markers, an extended brush editor, the ability to backup your drawings, and more.
This story originally published in December 2024 and is updated regularly with new information.
BEIJING, June 30, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd (Nasdaq: TIRX) (the “Company” or “TRX”), a China-based insurance broker, today announced it has completed the acquisition of 100% of issued and outstanding shares of Ucare Inc. (“Ucare”), the sole operator of China’s only cloud-based AI-driven hospital and health insurance risk management platform. The all-stock transaction, valued at US$150 million, marks a major milestone in TRX’s strategy to expand into in-hospital distribution channels and capture new growth opportunities within the health insurance sector.
As part of the closing, TRX has issued 101,486,575 Class A ordinary shares, each with a par value of US$0.025. Powered by the largest hospital database and a cloud-based generative AI platform, Ucare develops innovative healthcare solutions that help providers, payers, and institutions reduce fraud, abuse, waste, and administrative costs. Following the acquisition, Ucare will harness TRX’s robust platform, capital resources, and strategic relationships to advance R&D, embed cutting-edge generative AI into clinical pathways, and broaden its reach from healthcare providers to insurance partners.
Leveraging Ucare’s existing relationships with over 4,000 hospitals and leading AI analytics, TRX will expand business channels and build unique health insurance service offerings. Ucare’s generative AI platform will be integrated into TRX’s underwriting and claims processing health insurance workflows to reduce fraud, streamline operations, and improve pricing precision.
Ms. Sheng Xu, Director, Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer of TRX, stated, “We are thrilled to officially welcome Ucare to the TRX family. This acquisition places us at the intersection of healthcare and insurance, unlocking data-driven insights that will transform how health insurance is designed, sold, and serviced. In the coming months, we are focused on expediting Ucare’s growth by building on the success it’s already achieved, while designing differentiated offerings that align with evolving patient needs and national healthcare priorities. Our long-term goal is to create a seamless insurance-hospital ecosystem that enhances transparency, efficiency, and accessibility for all stakeholders.”
Mr. Wei Zhu, Chief Executive Officer of Ucare, added, “Joining TRX opens an exciting new chapter for Ucare’s mission to reshape hospital and health insurance risk management in China. With TRX’s resources, we are well-positioned to accelerate our platform deployment and deepen integration with insurance services. Together, we will lead the next wave of innovation in medical cost containment and health insurance.”
About TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd, headquartered in Beijing, China, is an insurance broker operating in China through its China-based variable interest entity. It distributes a wide range of insurance products, which are categorized into two major groups: (1) property and casualty insurance, such as commercial property insurance, liability insurance, accidental insurance, and automobile insurance; and (2) other types of insurance, such as health insurance, life insurance, and other miscellaneous insurance.
About Ucare Inc. Ucare Inc. develops innovative healthcare solutions that enable providers, payers, and institutions to reduce fraud, abuse, waste, and administrative costs. Powered by the largest hospital database, Ucare’s cloud-based generative AI platform continuously refines disease models by integrating real-world data, the latest medical guidelines, and real-time intelligence. Ucare’s vision is to ease the burden on patients, expand coverage, and ultimately improve access to healthcare for everyone.
Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and are based on current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that the Company believes may affect its financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Investors can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “potential,” “continue,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations, except as may be required by law. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions investors that actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results and encourages investors to review risk factors that may affect its future results in the Company’s registration statement and in its other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
For investor and media enquiries, please contact: TIAN RUIXIANG Holdings Ltd Investor Relations Department Email: ir@tianrx.com
Water Tower Research Feifei Shen Email: feifei@watertowerresearch.com
Cases of dengue fever, commonly known as “breakbone fever” for the excruciating joint pain that is the hallmark of the disease, have been rising around the world in recent years. More than half the global population is at risk.
“There’s an urgent need for better prevention and treatment for this global threat. Dengue outbreaks can quickly overwhelm local hospitals,” said lead author Priscila Castanha, Ph.D., MPH, assistant professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at Pitt’s School of Public Health.
The course of the disease varies widely from person to person. Some are asymptomatic; others experience dengue’s painful flu-like symptoms and then recover within days or weeks. “But 5% have serious bleeding, shock and organ failure—they can be critically ill within two days,” said senior author Simon Barratt-Boyes, Ph.D., professor of infectious diseases and microbiology at Pitt Public Health and immunology at Pitt School of Medicine.
For decades, epidemiologic studies have documented a puzzling phenomenon: In countries with ethnically diverse populations—like Brazil, Colombia, Haiti and Cuba—people of African ancestry tend to have milder cases of dengue, while people of European ancestry have more severe disease. But no one could explain why.
In this study, the team used a model they developed with samples of human skin that had been donated by individuals who had undergone elective skin-reduction surgeries after profound weight loss. The participants consented to contributing their tissues to this study.
“We used skin because it is an immunologic organ and the body’s first line of defense against dengue infection,” said Barratt-Boyes. When maintained in culture under proper conditions, the tissue samples used in this model can survive and carry out their normal immune functions for days, providing a unique opportunity for scientific study, he added, “because the skin is where the story begins with all mosquito-borne diseases.”
The study focused on samples from individuals who had self-identified as having European or African ancestry. First, the researchers objectively measured the ancestral geographic origins written into the skin samples’ DNA by analyzing genetic markers known as single nucleotide polymorphisms. The team then injected each sample with dengue virus, observed the samples’ subsequent immune responses over a 24-hour period and compared them.
The team found that the inflammatory response was much greater in skin from people with higher proportions of European ancestry. And unfortunately, in severe dengue, this immune response is prone to “friendly fire.” The virus infects inflammatory cells, actually recruiting them to spread the infection instead of fighting it off. This dynamic is believed to be what is so damaging to blood vessels and organs in severe cases of dengue fever.
In the samples from donors of European ancestry, the team saw this friendly fire in action as myeloid cells mobilized to confront the virus, then themselves became infected. The turncoat cells then moved out of the skin and spread out into the dish—similar to how they would spread within the body, traveling through the bloodstream and into lymph nodes.
The team further showed that the problem was not the skin itself—it was indeed the inflammatory response. In the samples from individuals with higher proportions of African ancestry, the researchers added inflammatory molecules called cytokines, and the friendly fire ensued. Then, when the team blocked the inflammation within those same samples, the virus’s rate of infection in the cells plummeted.
“It makes sense that, in parts of the world where ancient populations were exposed to deadly mosquito-borne viruses—like the one that causes yellow fever, which is related to dengue viruses and has been around for a very long time—those with a limited inflammatory response had an advantage,” said Barratt-Boyes. “They then passed that advantage down to their descendants.” Ancient Europeans’ descendants, however, lack that ancestral exposure and the evolutionary adaptation it made possible.
The authors hope that, eventually, the mechanism they’ve identified could be exploited for precision medicine approaches to things like risk assessment, triage in an outbreak, therapies and vaccines. In future studies, they hope to describe this mechanism in further detail, including which specific gene variants contribute to protection from severe dengue. The current study’s broader analysis of geographic ancestry could be an important first step to that end.
“Ancestry does affect biology. Evolution has made its mark on everyone’s DNA,” said Castanha.
Other authors on the study are Michelle M. Martí, M.S., Parichat Duangkhae, Ph.D., Jocelyn M. Taddonio, M.S., Kristine L. Cooper, M.S., Megan Wallace, M.S., Gwenddolen Kettenburg, M.S., Geza Erdos, Ph.D., Hasitha Chavva, M.S., Aleena Alex, M.S., Pharm. D., J. Peter Rubin, M.D., Simon C. Watkins, Ph.D., Louis D. Falo, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., and Jeremy J. Martinson, Ph.D., all of Pitt; and Ernesto T. A. Marquesa, M.D., Ph.D., of Pitt and Instituto Aggeu Magalhães.
This research was supported by Pitt, the Institute for Precision Medicine, the Richard K Mellon Foundation for Pediatric Research and the National Cancer Institute (P30CA047904).
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Washed foraminifera being picked for computer tomography and geochemical analysis
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Credit: University of Southampton
27 June 2025
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 20:00 UK TIME (15:00 U.S. EASTERN TIME) ON MONDAY JUNE 30, 2025
Scientists at the University of Southampton have developed a new way of analysing fossils allowing them to see how creatures from millions of years ago were shaped by their environment on a day-to-day basis for the first time.
The research published today [30 June] in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences could revolutionise our understanding of how character traits driven by environmental changes shaped evolutionary history and life on earth.
It could help scientists to understand how much of a species’ evolutionary journey is down to ‘nature vs nurture’.
Researchers from the University of Southampton studied the fossilised remains of prehistoric plankton using high-resolution 3D scanning, like a medical CT scan, to examine tiny fossil shells about the size of a grain of sand.
These plankton, called foraminifera or ‘forams’ for short, are tiny floating seashells that still live in the ocean today. Their shells are made of calcium carbonate and grow every few days by adding a new chamber to their shell in a spiralling pattern.
These chambers act a little like the rings of a tree trunk, providing a permanent record of the growth and lived environment of forams over time.
The shells’ chemical composition also tells us about the conditions the organism lived in, including the chemistry, depth and temperature of the water.
“The fossil record provides the most powerful evidence of biodiversity change on Earth, but it traditionally does so at a scale of thousands and millions of years,” says Dr Anieke Brombacher, lead author of the paper how carried out the research at the University of Southampton and now works at the National Oceanography Centre.
“These fossils however act a bit like chapter summaries of a species’ evolutionary story. This new way of analysing them lets us read the pages within each chapter – allowing us to see how individual organisms adapted to their changing environment, not over the course of generations but within an individual life span at day-to-day resolution.”
The key advance the researchers developed was to combine highly advanced CT scanning with chemical analysis by laser ablation techniques. This combination of methods meant the team was able to ‘zoom in’ and ‘read’ the individual pages of those chapters to reveal how the forams grew and estimate the environment they experienced while growing.
The growth rates of all three species were similar at low temperatures, but one species grew much faster in higher temperatures despite reaching the same average size.
“If you’re a foram, temperature appears to be a bigger determinant of your growth rate than even how old you are,” says Dr Brombacher.
“Temperatures change throughout the depth of the ocean water column so being able to optimise growth at different temperatures would have allowed each foram to live in a greater variety of habitats.”
James Mulqueeney a PhD researcher from the University of Southampton and co-author of the study said: “We also found that of the two species with similar environmental sensitivities, one was able to reach the same size but with a thinner shell, indicating a lower energetic cost and potential evolutionary advantage.”
Researchers say the same analysis techniques could be applied to other creatures which preserve their environmental and lifespan information including ammonoids, corals and bivalves like clams, oysters and mussels.
“This sort of data is routine in how we study adaptation in modern populations but has only now been gathered for fossils. By bringing together experts and facilities across the University of Southampton, we’ve been able to make progress on a foundational question in biology that wouldn’t have been possible within a single discipline,” says Prof Thomas Ezard, supervising author on the paper from the University of Southampton.
The research is part of a wider project which aims to scale up the analysis across a wider sample of two thousand plankton specimens to determine if a species’ adaptive flexibility is likely to lead it to diverge into separate, distinct species over time.
Detecting environmentally dependent developmental plasticity in fossilised individuals is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is available online.
The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
Ends
Contact
Steve Williams, Media Manager, University of Southampton, press@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 3212.
Notes for editors
Detecting environmentally dependent developmental plasticity in fossilised individuals will be published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. An advanced copy is available upon request.
For Interviews with Prof Thomas Ezard please contact Steve Williams, Media Manager, University of Southampton press@soton.ac.uk or 023 8059 3212.
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All images and videos should be credited to University of Southampton
Additional information
The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world’s challenges. We are among the top 100 institutions globally (QS World University Rankings 2025). Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 22,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. www.southampton.ac.uk
Detecting environmentally dependent developmental plasticity in fossilized individuals
Article Publication Date
4-Jul-2025
COI Statement
None declared
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Fieldwork at an exposed fossilized Caribbean reef located in the Dominican Republic
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Credit: Sean Mattson
When we think of fossils, giant prehistoric creatures like dinosaurs may come to mind. But the fossil record also holds the remains of smaller organisms, such as fish and corals, that tell us about our oceans’ past.
Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) recently studied exposed fossilized coral reefs from Panama’s Bocas del Toro Province and the Dominican Republic, comparing them with nearby modern reefs. These exceptionally well-preserved reefs date back 7,000 years, offering a unique window into what Caribbean reefs looked like before human impact. Within the fine sediments of these ancient reefs, the team discovered thousands of tiny fish ear bones and shark scales, allowing them to reconstruct entire ancient fish communities.
The results revealed a dramatic shift in fish communities over time: sharks have declined by 75% and human-targeted fish have become 22% smaller. But the real surprise came from the prey fish species — those eaten by predators like sharks. These have doubled in abundance and grown 17% larger on modern reefs. This study provides the first historical evidence for the “predator release effect” — where removing top predators allows their prey to flourish. Whilst scientists have long predicted such an effect, evidence for it was scarce without knowing what reefs looked like before human impact. Remarkably, the tiniest reef fish that shelter in coral crevices, showed no change in size or abundance over millennia. Their stability suggests a remarkable resilience to the multitude of changes occurring on reefs at higher layers of the food chain.
To compare fossilized and modern reefs, scientists collected, quantified and measured thousands of skeletal remains, including the tiny tooth-like scales that give shark skin a sandpapery texture, called dermal denticles.
To study the abundance and size of prey fish and small coral reef-sheltered fish (also known as cryptobenthic fishes), they also examined fish otoliths — the calcium carbonate structures found in fishes’ inner ears. Because otoliths grow in layers, scientists can estimate a fish’s size at death. In total, the team examined 807 denticles and 5,724 otoliths.
The behavior of some organisms can also leave a fossil record. In this study, scientists measured the frequency and size of damselfish bite marks on coral branches from both fossilized and modern reefs. They found that the number of bites has increased in modern reefs — also indicating the rise in prey fish populations.
These results illustrate an important change in food webs of modern Caribbean reefs: with fewer sharks and other predatory fish to control the population of exposed prey fishes, they have become bigger and more abundant, reflecting release from predation. On the other hand, small reef-sheltered fish remained unchanged in size and abundance over thousands of years, suggesting that the degradation of water quality and habitat in the region did not drive the changes in community structure.
This study demonstrates the power of the fossil record for future conservation. By revealing what reefs looked like before intensive human fishing, these 7,000-year-old fossils provide the missing baseline critical to understand the food webs of pre-human coral reefs, and document which elements of reefs changed and which are resilient.
This research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS, was a collaboration among scientists from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), the Sistema Nacional de Investigación (SENACYT) in Panama, the Marine Science Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, the Center for Biodiversity Outcomes at Arizona State University, the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, The Nature Conservancy, the Biodiversity Research Center at Academia Sinica in Taiwan, the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Boston College, and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Article Publication Date
30-Jun-2025
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
The Middle East has in recent weeks witnessed one of its most intense military confrontations in decades: a full-scale war between Iran and Israel that has transformed regional dynamics in ways few could have predicted. This conflict, which was designed to weaken the Iran-led “Axis of Resistance” and consolidate Israel’s regional hegemony, has produced outcomes entirely contrary to what its planners in Washington and Tel Aviv envisioned. Israel’s military superiority, intended to strengthen its geopolitical position, has not only failed to achieve that goal but has also pushed Arab states away from normalizing ties with Israel and toward diplomacy with Iran. These developments are the direct result of unilateral, short-sighted policies that relied on military power instead of diplomacy and ignored the complex geopolitics of the Middle East. This report argues that the new Middle East, contrary to American and Israeli expectations, is being reshaped to the advantage of their rivals—revealing the strategic failure of their aggressive policies.
Military superiority, diplomatic defeat
In its recent war with Iran, Israel once again demonstrated its military capabilities. Precision strikes on Iranian military infrastructure, backed by US logistical and intelligence support, did achieve a relative weakening of the defensive stronghold of the Axis of Resistance. At first glance, this military success seemed like a major victory for Israel. However, this superiority, which was expected to reinforce Israel’s position in the region and advance the process of normalisation with Arab states, has had the opposite effect. The scale of the attacks and their human toll—including widespread destruction and civilian casualties—sparked a wave of anger and resentment among Arab publics. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which had previously taken steps toward normalization with Israel under the Abraham Accords, now find themselves under domestic pressure to reassess these policies.
Analysts argue that this outcome stems from the Israeli and American policymakers’ disregard for the social and political realities of the region. They assumed military dominance would break resistance to normalization, but this assumption does not align with today’s complex Middle Eastern realities. Instead, this display of force has pushed Arab countries closer to Iran, which, by leveraging its role as a supporter of the Palestinian cause, has managed to garner more regional sympathy. This paradox shows that military victories without diplomatic foundations not only fail to achieve political objectives but can also lead to diplomatic isolation.
Arab states pivot toward diplomacy with Iran
One of the most unexpected consequences of the war has been the growing inclination of Arab states toward diplomacy with Iran. Following the conflict, reports emerged of secret talks between Iran and several Arab countries—including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman—aimed at restoring diplomatic relations and expanding economic cooperation. This shift, particularly among Gulf Cooperation Council members, reflects a new understanding of the need to balance regional relationships. Arab states, having witnessed the failure of military-centered policies to bring regional stability, now see engagement with Iran as a way to reduce tensions and bolster their standing in a reshaped Middle East.
This diplomatic pivot is especially notable in the case of Saudi Arabia. After years of fierce rivalry with Tehran, Riyadh has concluded that continuing hostile policies could lead to its diplomatic isolation. Talks to restore bilateral ties, which had repeatedly stalled in the past, are now moving forward with renewed momentum. These developments indicate that US and Israeli aggressive strategies have not weakened Iran but rather enhanced its diplomatic position in the region. Iran, seizing these new opportunities, has positioned itself as a reliable partner for Arab states seeking to lessen their dependence on Western powers.
The limits of America’s unilateralism
As Israel’s main backer in this conflict, the United States played a central role in planning and executing military operations against Iran. But this support—intended to consolidate U.S. regional hegemony—has yielded paradoxical results. Instead of reinforcing America’s standing in the Middle East, Washington’s unilateral policies have eroded its influence among traditional allies. Arab countries that once depended on US military and economic support are now actively diversifying their foreign relations to reduce this dependence. This trend is particularly evident in countries like Egypt and Jordan, long-standing US partners.
America’s short-sighted policies, which focused on unconditional support for Israel, have come at the cost of its diplomatic credibility. Ignoring the humanitarian consequences of the war and dismissing Arab calls for mediation have severely undermined trust in the US as an impartial broker. This vacuum has opened the door for other actors—including China and Russia—to play a more active role in regional diplomacy. These shifts underscore America’s strategic failure in the Middle East, where an overreliance on military power over diplomacy has, in the final analysis, diminished its influence.
Rebuilding a new Middle East: Opportunities and challenges
The new Middle East emerging from the Iran–Israel war is taking shape in ways very different from what the United States and Israel anticipated. The region is moving toward multipolarity, where no single player can impose its hegemony. Iran, through active diplomacy and its championing of the Palestinian cause, has managed to strengthen its role as a key regional actor. Meanwhile, Israel, despite its military superiority, faces increasing diplomatic isolation.
A major feature of this new Middle East is the rise of regional diplomacy. Arab states that once depended heavily on external support are now working to build alliances more independent of Western powers. Although this process faces challenges such as historical disputes and economic rivalries, it holds the potential to ease regional tensions. For the US and Israel—who had expected the war to solidify their dominance—this amounts to a strategic defeat.
A critique of the hegemonic illusion
The recent war between Iran and Israel has laid bare a harsh truth: the illusion that military superiority can deliver geopolitical hegemony has not only failed to achieve American and Israeli goals but is actually strengthening their rivals and reshaping the Middle East against their interests. The unilateral, aggressive policies of Washington and Tel Aviv—crafted with little regard for the region’s social, political, and cultural complexities—have ended up boosting Iran’s diplomatic standing and drawing Arab states closer to Tehran. This strategic failure is the direct result of prioritising hard power over diplomacy and ignoring regional realities.
The new Middle East, contrary to US and Israeli expectations, is a multipolar region where diplomacy and regional cooperation take precedence. Arab countries, recognizing the futility of militarized approaches, are redefining their ties with Iran and reducing their reliance on Western powers. These developments serve as a stark warning to American and Israeli policymakers: continuing down the current path, built on the illusion of military victory, will only lead to greater isolation and weakened influence. This new Middle East is not a product of Washington and Tel Aviv’s designs, but rather the outcome of regional resistance to their short-sighted, unilateral strategies.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.
The ocean around Antarctica is rapidly getting saltier at the same time as sea ice is retreating at a record pace. Since 2015, the frozen continent has lost sea ice similar to the size of Greenland. That ice hasn’t returned, marking the largest global environmental change during the past decade.
This finding caught us off guard – melting ice typically makes the ocean fresher. But new satellite data shows the opposite is happening, and that’s a big problem. Saltier water at the ocean surface behaves differently than fresher seawater by drawing up heat from the deep ocean and making it harder for sea ice to regrow.
The loss of Antarctic sea ice has global consequences. Less sea ice means less habitat for penguins and other ice-dwelling species. More of the heat stored in the ocean is released into the atmosphere when ice melts, increasing the number and intensity of storms and accelerating global warming. This brings heatwaves on land and melts even more of the Antarctic ice sheet, which raises sea levels globally.
Our new study has revealed that the Southern Ocean is changing, but in a different way to what we expected. We may have passed a tipping point and entered a new state defined by persistent sea ice decline, sustained by a newly discovered feedback loop.
The Southern Ocean surrounds Antarctica, which is fringed by sea ice.Nasa
A surprising discovery
Monitoring the Southern Ocean is no small task. It’s one of the most remote and stormy places on Earth, and is covered in darkness for several months a year. Thanks to new European Space Agency satellites and underwater robots which stay below the ocean surface measuring temperature and salinity, we can now observe what is happening in real time.
Our team at the University of Southampton worked with colleagues at the Barcelona Expert Centre and the European Space Agency to develop new algorithms to track ocean surface conditions in polar regions from satellites. By combining satellite observations with data from underwater robots, we built a 15-year picture of changes in ocean salinity, temperature and sea ice.
What we found was astonishing. Around 2015, surface salinity in the Southern Ocean began rising sharply – just as sea ice extent started to crash. This reversal was completely unexpected. For decades, the surface had been getting fresher and colder, helping sea ice expand.
The annual summer minimum extent of Antarctic sea ice dropped precipitously in 2015.NOAA Climate.gov/National Snow and Ice Data Center
To understand why this matters, it helps to think of the Southern Ocean as a series of layers. Normally, the cold, fresh surface water sits on top of warmer, saltier water deep below. This layering (or stratification, as scientists call it) traps heat in the ocean depths, keeping surface waters cool and helping sea ice to form.
Saltier water is denser and therefore heavier. So, when surface waters become saltier, they sink more readily, stirring the ocean’s layers and allowing heat from the deep to rise. This upward heat flux can melt sea ice from below, even during winter, making it harder for ice to reform. This vertical circulation also draws up more salt from deeper layers, reinforcing the cycle.
A powerful feedback loop is created: more salinity brings more heat to the surface, which melts more ice, which then allows more heat to be absorbed from the Sun. My colleagues and I saw these processes first hand in 2016-2017 with the return of the Maud Rise polynya, which is a gaping hole in the sea ice that is nearly four times the size of Wales and last appeared in the 1970s.
What happens in Antarctica doesn’t stay there
Losing Antarctic sea ice is a planetary problem. Sea ice acts like a giant mirror reflecting sunlight back into space. Without it, more energy stays in the Earth system, speeding up global warming, intensifying storms and driving sea level rise in coastal cities worldwide.
Wildlife also suffers. Emperor penguins rely on sea ice to breed and raise their chicks. Tiny krill – shrimp-like crustaceans which form the foundation of the Antarctic food chain as food for whales and seals – feed on algae that grow beneath the ice. Without that ice, entire ecosystems start to unravel.
What’s happening at the bottom of the world is rippling outward, reshaping weather systems, ocean currents and life on land and sea.
Feedback loops are accelerating the loss of Antarctic sea ice.University of Southampton
Antarctica is no longer the stable, frozen continent we once believed it to be. It is changing rapidly, and in ways that current climate models didn’t foresee. Until recently, those models assumed a warming world would increase precipitation and ice-melting, freshening surface waters and helping keep Antarctic sea ice relatively stable. That assumption no longer holds.
Our findings show that the salinity of surface water is rising, the ocean’s layered structure is breaking down and sea ice is declining faster than expected. If we don’t update our scientific models, we risk being caught off guard by changes we could have prepared for. Indeed, the ultimate driver of the 2015 salinity increase remains uncertain, underscoring the need for scientists to revise their perspective on the Antarctic system and highlighting the urgency of further research.
We need to keep watching, yet ongoing satellite and ocean monitoring is threatened by funding cuts. This research offers us an early warning signal, a planetary thermometer and a strategic tool for tracking a rapidly shifting climate. Without accurate, continuous data, it will be impossible to adapt to the changes in store.
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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Alessandro Silvano is a Natural Environment Research Council (United Kingdom Research and Innovation) Independent Research Fellow.
Treatment with the combination of the first-in-class Bicycle drug conjugate (BDC) zelenectide pevedotin (BT8009) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) was safe and generated antitumor activity in patients with previously untreated, cisplatin-ineligible, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, according to data from the phase 1/2 Duravelo-1 trial (NCT04561362).
Findings presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting showed that at a median follow-up of 7.1 months (range, 1.0-13.2), evaluable patients treated with the combination (n = 20) achieved an overall response rate (ORR) of 65.0% (95% CI, 40.8%-84.6%), comprising a complete response rate of 25.0% and a partial response rate of 40.0%. The stable disease rate was 25.0%, and the disease control rate (DCR) was 90.0%. Duration of response (DOR) data were not mature.
Regarding safety, any-grade treatment-emergent adverse effects (TEAEs) occurred in all patients (n = 22), and 72.7% experienced grade 3 or higher TEAEs. Treatment-related AEs (TRAEs) of any grade were reported in all patients, including 68.2% who had grade 3 or higher TRAEs. Any-grade and grade 3 or higher zelenectide pevedotin–related TRAEs occurred at rates of 90.9% and 59.1%, respectively. These rates were 95.5% and 50.0%, respectively, for pembrolizumab.
Serious AEs were reported in 54.5% of patients, including 50.0% who had grade 3 or higher serious AEs. TEAEs led to dose reductions and dose discontinuations of zelenectide pevedotin in 50.0% and 4.5% of patients, respectively. These rates were 0% and 9.1%, respectively, for pembrolizumab.
“These data support a randomized, multicenter, open-label, phase 2/3 trial [NCT06225596] of zelenectide pevedotin as monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab vs chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced/metastatic urothelial cancer,” lead study author Patrizia Giannatempo, MD, of Fondazione IRCCS – Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy, and colleagues wrote in a poster presentation of the data.
Zelenectide Pevedotin and Duravelo-1 Background
Zelenectide pevedotin features a highly selective Nectin-4–targeting bicyclic peptide that is conjugated to a monomethyl auristatin E payload via a cleavable link. Bicycle molecules have the manufacturing and pharmacokinetic properties of small molecules with the high binding specificity of a biologic agent.
Duravelo-1 enrolled adult patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who were ineligible for cisplatin per Galsky criteria and were naive to systemic therapy in the advanced setting. Patients needed to meet at least 1 of the following criteria to be deemed ineligible for cisplatin:
a creatinine clearance of 30 to 59 mL per minute
hearing loss of at least 25 decibels at 2 contiguous frequencies
New York Heart Association heart failure of class III or higher
an ECOG performance status of 2, with a hemoglobin level of at least 10 g/dL, a creatinine clearance of at least 50 mL per minute, and no NYHA class III heart failure
The study evaluated zelenectide pevedotin as monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab. For the combination, zelenectide pevedotin was given at 5 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 of each 21-day cycle, and pembrolizumab was administered at 200 mg on day 1 of each cycle.
The trial’s primary end point was investigator-assessed ORR per RECIST 1.1 criteria. Safety, DOR, and DCR were secondary end points.
As of the January 3, 2025, data cutoff, patients in the combination cohort (n = 22) had a median age of 77 years (range, 61-85). The majority were male (68.2%) and White (81.8%). Patients had an ECOG performance status of 0 (22.7%), 1 (31.8%), or 2 (45.5%). Baseline creatinine clearance was below 60 mL per minute for 54.5% of patients.
Additional Safety Findings
Grade 4 TRAEs of hypomagnesemia and neutropenia were each reported in 1 patient. No grade 5 TRAEs occurred.
The most common TRAEs reported in at least 20% of patients given the combination included asthenia (any-grade, 63.6%; grade ≥3, 9.1%), anemia (59.1%; 0%), diarrhea (50.0%; 9.1%), decreased appetite (40.9%; 4.5%), increased aspartate aminotransferase levels (36.4%; 4.5%), nausea (36.4%; 4.5%), rash (31.8%; 4.5%), increased alanine aminotransferase levels (27.3%; 13.6%), neutropenia (27.3%; 13.6%), pruritus (27.3%; 0%), alopecia (22.7%; 0%), hyperglycemia (22.7%; 0%), and vomiting (22.7%; 4.5%).
Reference
Giannatempo P, Galsky M, Duran I, et al. Phase 1/2 Duravelo-1 study: Preliminary results of nectin-4–targeting zelenectide pevedotin (BT8009) plus pembrolizumab in previously untreated, cisplatin-ineligible patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2025;43(suppl 16):4567. doi:10.1200/JCO.2025.43.16_suppl.4567
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is known as a chronic and potentially serious disorder in which the upper airway repeatedly collapses during sleep, causing intermittent drops in oxygen levels. It results from a combination of neuromuscular dysfunction during sleep and anatomical predispositions. OSA can affect patients of all genders, ages, ethnicities, and body types including those without obesity, and is estimated to impact 80 million patients in the United States. Despite the sleep disorder’s prevalence, up to 80% of cases remain undiagnosed and untreated.1
Individuals with OSA may experience hundreds of breathing disruptions each night, leading to reduced oxygen levels that impair essential cellular functions. If left untreated, OSA can significantly increase the risk of long-term health issues such as cardiovascular disease, cognitive decline, metabolic disorders, and early death. However, most diagnosed patients either do not initiate, discontinue, or inconsistently use current treatments. Presently, there are no approved pharmacologic therapies that directly target the neuromuscular dysfunction central to the disorder.
The investigational oral therapy AD109 (Apnimed), a combination of aroxybutynin and atomoxetine, is currently being evaluated in the phase 3 LunAIRo study (NCT05811247), a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 1-year parallel-arm study of patients with mild to severe OSA. The trial, enrolling at least 660 participants aged 18 years and older from 64 clinical centers across the US, is designed to examine the efficacy and safety of the investigational agent compared with placebo.2 The study’s primary end point includes measuring the proportion of participants who experience a reduction in apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) via polysomnography at 6 months and 1 year.
Patrick Strollo, MD, FACP, FCCP, FAASM
If successful, AD109 could become the first medication to address both the nighttime airway obstruction and oxygen deprivation central to OSA, as well as its daytime symptoms, such as fatigue. Taken once nightly at bedtime, this potential first-in-class combination targets neurological pathways involved in activating upper airway dilator muscles to help keep the airway open during sleep. Designed for use across varying levels of disease severity, AD109 offers the promise of a safe, effective, and more user-friendly alternative to current OSA treatments, which are often invasive or difficult for patients to tolerate.
Eligible participants of the trial were adults aged 18 years or older who met specific polysomnography parameters, including an AHI greater than 5, with no more than 25% of events classified as central or mixed apneas and a periodic limb movement arousal index of 15 or less. Individuals also needed to report significant fatigue, as indicated by a PROMIS-Fatigue raw score of at least 17. Additional requirements included intolerance to or refusal of positive airway pressure therapy and a body mass index ranging from 18.5 to 40 kg/m² for men or up to 42 kg/m² for women.
Participants were excluded if they had a diagnosis of narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, or REM sleep behavior disorder. Those with insomnia marked by difficulty falling or staying asleep, or recent use of medications targeting insomnia symptoms, were also ineligible. Other exclusions included the presence of craniofacial syndromes such as Pierre Robin or Treacher Collins, or grade 3 or higher tonsillar hypertrophy. Individuals with clinically significant heart conditions, such as unstable coronary artery disease or ventricular arrhythmias, were excluded although stable atrial arrhythmia was permitted. Neurological exclusions encompassed neuromuscular disorders, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson, Alzheimer, or related conditions.
“The LunAIRo study is a complimentary study to SynAIRgy, a 6-month trial looking at safety and efficacy [of AD109]. LunAIRo is looking at safety and efficacy of [AD109] in a fairly similar population of over 600 participants,” Patrick Strollo, MD, FACP, FCCP, FAASM, professor of medicine and clinical translational science at the University of Pittsburgh, told NeurologyLive® in a recent interview. “We’ll get additional insights in terms of safety and efficacy over 1 year with a fairly similar demographic group.”
“We’re also doing some substudies within LunAIRo looking at a more robust analysis of cardiovascular impact. There’s a substudy that we’ve done looking at ambulatory blood pressure. Those data are not fully analyzed. I imagine probably very shortly there will be an announcement of the topline results of LunAIRo, but right now I can’t really speak about results,” Strollo said. “But that’s the difference between LunAIRo versus SynAIRgy, and they should be complementary in terms of helping us understand safety and efficacy and also reassuring the FDA when the company goes to the agency, probably in early 2026.”
AD109 first demonstrated therapeutic potential in the phase 3 SynAIRgy trial (NCT05813275), which tested the agent across a broad range of patients with mild, moderate, and severe OSA. In the study, the treatment met its primary end point in reducing AHI over a 26-week treatment period. Based on these findings, Apnimed noted that it plans to submit a new drug application (NDA) to the FDA in early 2026 for AD109 as a potential treatment of OSA.1
Considered the largest such drug trial for OSA, SynAIRgy included 646 adults with the disease who were intolerant of or currently refusing continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). Coming into the study, 34.4% of patients had mild OSA, 42.4% had moderate, and 23.2% had severe. Overall, treatment with AD109 led to a statistically significant change in AHI, the primary end point, over a 26-week period relative to placebo (P = .001).
In SynAIRgy, patients underwent a polysomnogram on treatment at week 4. Overall, treatment with the oral agent led to meaningful improvements in oxygenation, as assessed by hypoxic burden (P <.0001), and oxygen desaturation index (P = .001). Furthermore, 51.2% of treated patients experienced a reduction in OSA disease severity, and 22.3% achieved complete disease control, defined as an AHI of fewer than 5 events per hour.
“Existing data suggests that up to 50% of patients with sleep apnea cannot or will not tolerate CPAP in the long term. There’s a huge unmet need for all of these patients with sleep apnea, and there’s a range of different treatment options being developed. AD109 is one of them that really is targeting neuromuscular function,” study chair Sanjay R. Patel, MD, MS, professor of medicine, epidemiology, & clinical and translational science at University of Pittsburgh, told NeurologyLive® in a recent interview. “There has been exciting data in the phase 2 short term studies and we’ve already very quickly filled enrollment for the phase 3 trial with 660 patients, which I think is just a testament of how many patients out there are interested in a pharmacologic treatment like this. We’re hopeful that we’ll get the results out there in about a year from now and, fingers crossed, there’s some promising results that give patients another treatment option.”
In a previous phase 2 trial, dubbed MARIPOSA (NCT05071612), treatment with AD109 demonstrated statistically significant improvements on both objective and subjective outcomes in patients with OSA. The study featured 211 patients (41% female) with a median age 55 (48-60) years and BMI of 32.2 (28.0-35.2) kg/m2 who were randomized to AD109, atomoxetine, or placebo. All told, AHI4 was reduced from a median of 20.5 to 10.8 events/hour in the AD109 2.5mg/75 mg dose (P <.001 vs placebo).3
Additional data showed that 41% of participants who completed the study achieved an AHI below 10 when treated with AD109, 44% had greater than 50% reduction from baseline, and 15%. Of treated patients had an 80% or greater reduction. Notably, atomoxetine, dosed as a monotherapy, did not improve daytime OSA symptoms, and statistically significantly worsened nighttime sleep subjectively and by the measurement of total sleep time, indicating that atomoxetine alone is an inappropriate therapy for OSA.
AD109-treated patients also demonstrated statistically significant improvements vs placebo in PROMIS-Fatigue, a scale of daytime functioning (P <.05). The investigational agent also showed a trend towards statistically significant on scales measuring other important OSA symptoms such as PROMIS-Sleep Impairment and PROMIS-Sleep Disturbance.
REFERENCES 1. Apnimed Announces Positive Topline Results in the First Landmark Phase 3 Clinical Trial of AD109, an Investigational Once-Daily Oral Pill for Obstructive Sleep Apnea. News Release. Apnimed. Published May 19, 2025. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://apnimed.com/article/ad109phase3toplineresults/ 2. Apnimed Announces Completion of Enrollment in Phase 3 LunAIRo Study of AD109, the Potential First Nighttime Oral Treatment for Obstructive Sleep Apnea. News Release. Apnimed. Published May 9, 2024. Accessed June 25 2025. https://apnimed.com/article/apnimed-announces-completion-of-enrollment-in-phase-3-lunairo-study-of-ad109-the-potential-first-nighttime-oral-treatment-for-obstructive-sleep-apnea/ 3. Apnimed Presented Positive Phase 2b Results on AD109, an Investigational Oral Drug for Obstructive Sleep Apnea, for the First Time at ATS 2023. News release. Apnimed. May 21, 2023. Accessed June 25, 2025. https://apnimed.com/article/apnimed-presented-positive-phase-2b-results-on-ad109-an-investigational-oral-drug-for-obstructive-sleep-apnea-for-the-first-time-at-ats-2023/
The study focused on samples from individuals who had self-identified as having European or African ancestry. First, the researchers objectively measured the ancestral geographic origins written into the skin samples’ DNA by analyzing genetic markers known as single nucleotide polymorphisms. The team then injected each sample with dengue virus, observed the samples’ subsequent immune responses over a 24-hour period and compared them.
