Patterson entered enemy territory in Canada when he faced Yohan Lainesse, but that didn’t rattle him at all, as he made it look easy, locking up the rear-naked choke victory within two minutes of the first round.
Six months later, Patterson made the walk in front of the Manchester crowd at UFC 304, looking to put on a better performance than he did the last time he competed in the United Kingdom. And it most definitely was a performance that had the crowd on their feet, and celebrating for him. Once again, Patterson showed off his skills on the ground, as he took his opponent, Kiefer Crosbie, to the canvas, locking up the arm-triangle choke in the first round.
READ: Fighters On The Rise | UFC Paris
To kick off his 2025 campaign, Patterson showed off his abilities on the feet when he faced Danny Barlow in the APEX. Heading into the fight, Patterson told UFC.com that he prepared fighting abroad, and being back in Las Vegas and at the APEX felt like home given the success he had on back on Contender Series.
EXCLUSIVE: International K-pop star Jeon Somi is set make her acting debut in upcoming horror-thriller Perfect Girl, joining previously announced cast members Arden Cho (KPop Demon Hunters) and Adeline Rudolph (Mortal Kombat II).
The former BlackList script has been described as “Scream meets Black Swan” and charts the story of a brand-new K-Pop super group preparing for their debut. “With only four spots available in the band and the final cut a week away, the competition is off the charts. When a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced at the last minute, things start to get strange — girls are being hunted and attacked one by one, but who is responsible for the carnage, and more importantly…who will make the final cut?”
Written by Lynn Q. Yu, the film will be directed by Hong Won-ki (Goedam), founder of leading Korean production company Zanybros, and produced by Badlands, John Wick outfit Thunder Road, and Cho.
It will also feature six original tracks “blending the worlds of music and film”. No word yet whether Jeon Somi or actress and singer Cho will contribute to the soundtrack. Production is slated to begin October 27th in Asia.
Upgrade is handling international sales, with CAA Media Finance representing domestic rights. Sales will continue at TIFF market. Additional casting is being locked in now.
Canadian-Dutch-Korean singer-songwriter Jeon Somi rose to fame after winning the hit Korean reality competition Produce 101, going on to debut with the group I.O.I before launching a solo career with chart-topping singles including Birthday, What You Waiting For, and Dumb Dumb.
“We are so excited Jeon Somi is making her film debut in Perfect Girl,” said producer Scott Strauss at Badlands. “She is a one-of-a-kind talent whose chemistry with Arden and Adeline is off the charts. The three will elevate our chills, thrills, and drama and collaborate with Director Hong to ensure an authentic portrayal of Korean culture and the world of K-pop.”
State Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Kheal Das Kohistani (centre) along with NDMA, foreign ministry officials addresses media as Pakistan dispatches humanitarian assistance to quake-hit Afghanistan, September 3, 2025. — PTV News
Aid includes essential food items, medicines, tents, blankets.
Convoy enters Afghanistan via Torkham border, says NDMA.
NDMA holds departure ceremony in Islamabad.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that the federal government dispatched 105 tonnes of humanitarian relief assistance to quake-hit Afghanistan following his telephone call with Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi.
A 6-magnitude earthquake, which struck Afghanistan on Sunday, killed a total of 1,469 people and injured more than 3,700, according to a new toll from Taliban authorities, making it one of the deadliest in decades to hit the impoverished country.
The consignment includes essential food items, medicines, tents, blankets, and bubble mats, aimed at supporting those affected by the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan.
A view of a damaged house following a deadly magnitude-6 earthquake that struck Afghanistan on Sunday, at Lulam village, in Nurgal district, Kunar province, Afghanistan, September 3, 2025. — Reuters
“We extend our deepest condolences and prayers for the victims and wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” FM Dar wrote on X. He affirmed that Pakistan stood in solidarity with the brotherly people of Afghanistan in this difficult time.
The convoy crossed into Afghanistan via the Torkham border, aiming to provide immediate support to communities devastated by the recent seismic activity, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement.
A departure ceremony was held at the NDMA warehouse in Islamabad, with the Minister of State for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony Kheal Das Kohistani as the chief guest.
The ceremony was also attended by senior officials from the NDMA and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
On Wednesday, rescue teams struggled to reach survivors as night approached days after a powerful earthquake in eastern Afghanistan, as access to remote areas remained obstructed.
Fearful of the near-constant aftershocks rattling the area, people huddled in the open air while others struggled to unearth those trapped under the heaps of flattened buildings.
The vast majority of the casualties — more than 1,450 — were in Kunar province, with a dozen dead and hundreds hurt in nearby Nangarhar and Laghman provinces.
Afghanistan also airdropped commandos to pull survivors from the rubble in areas ravaged by earthquakes, as a UN agency warned that food aid for victims would run out soon without urgent funding.
Dozens of commando forces were being airdropped at sites where helicopters cannot land, to help carry the injured to safer ground, in what aid groups said was a race against time to rescue those still stuck under rubble.
Time was also running out for those who survived the two devastating quakes in the remote eastern region of the impoverished country, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Wednesday.
John Aylieff, the head of WFP in Afghanistan, told Reuters that the agency only has enough funding and stocks for the next four weeks.
WFP funding for Afghanistan this year is just under $300 million, according to UN financial data, down from $1.7 billion in 2022, the first full year the country was ruled by the Taliban.
Resources for rescue and relief work are tight in the nation of 42 million people hit by war, poverty and shrinking aid. It has received limited global help after the disaster.
NREL Researcher Reflects on the Significant Progress of Grid Modeling Approaches To Bridge the Gap Between Transmission and Distribution
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Aadil Latif shares his insights into distribution grid analysis tools.
Fifteen years ago, the planning for a new substation upgrade barely considered how distributed energy resources (DERs) might impact the larger grid. Today, failing to account for them could lead to overloaded transformers, grid instability, or even power outages.
Power system planners have traditionally focused on the bulk power system, but the local distribution system is no longer just a passive delivery system. It is an active, dynamic part of how we generate, use, and balance electricity across the entire power system.
Over my nearly 15 years in power systems research, I’ve watched grid modeling tools evolve dramatically to reflect the growing interactions between transmission and distribution. I’m excited by the sophistication of our distribution tools today and where we are going next.
Phase 1: The Distribution Grid Is a Black Box (2005 to 2015)
When I became a scientist at the Austrian Institute of Technology in 2013, most grid planning tools focused simply on transmission. Anytime a question about distribution came up, we had to build a new tool—and we were getting a lot more questions as new technologies started to be adopted by consumers. We spent significant resources building and validating new capabilities for specific projects, but those tools did not operate well together.
Also, a big challenge we faced at the time was that the distribution system was not well studied, and there are fundamental differences between the distribution and transmission systems.
Electricity travels on three wires (or “phases”) from generation to a substation and then to distribution. Power generation and loads are usually balanced across the three phases. However, once electricity reaches neighborhood streets, it splits into one, two, or three phases. The loads vary across the phases based on the street (e.g., a street with a large commercial building has a bigger load). Utilities have to balance the loads as much as possible, but the North American distribution system is inherently imbalanced.
Given the lack of data on the distribution system, we used stock profiles and attached them to all loads in the system. This of course was an oversimplification that did not allow us to accurately capture the diversity of loads within the distribution networks.
Thankfully, smart meters came into the picture in the late 2000s. These devices automatically send utilities detailed data on home and business electricity usage, voltage, demand, and pricing and gave us more insight into the distribution grid for the first time. That data helped inform tools like OpenDSS, which became an open-source modeling engine for distribution planning and power quality analyses in 2008.
Phase 2: Distribution Simulations Become More Realistic (2015 to 2020)
When I joined NREL in 2018, distribution modeling had grown as a research focus in the past two decades, but we still found ourselves building a new tool for every distribution question.
During this time, smart meters were becoming more widespread, which gave us the insights to make realistic modeling assumptions for the distribution system. As a result, we created PyDSS, the Python Distribution System Simulator, an advanced, open-source platform for distribution system modeling that extends the capabilities of OpenDSS to better represent smart-inverter functions and provide easy support for user-defined controls.
Using PyDSS, we could simulate distribution systems with high levels of DERs, evaluate advanced grid controls, and conduct large-scale scenario analyses for planning and resilience. We also saw a path toward co-simulating distribution and transmission for the first time with tools like the .
Phase 3: Co-Simulation Gains Momentum (2020 to present)
The accuracy of our modeling has improved significantly in recent years, but we still needed a way to connect all the tools we created. Having developed HELICS in partnership with other national laboratories through the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, we now had a means to bridge the gaps between many of our grid modeling tools.
HELICS can connect two or more existing tools, allowing them to exchange data in real time during the simulation. It is not limited to distribution tools—it can also connect transmission, grid controls and communications, transportation, water, and gas. That means we could simulate multiple sectors simultaneously under varying conditions for the first time and study an energy system as a whole.
Upcoming Phases
The next exciting iteration of distribution modeling is CADET: Capacity Expansion Decision Support for Distribution Networks. The capacity expansion problem in the distribution space looks completely different than the transmission space—and stakeholders need a tool to make informed decisions about investing in distribution network upgrades. CADET intends to fill this critical gap and is the first capacity expansion tool dedicated solely to the distribution network.
From my 15 years in power system research, I’ve learned we can never have one model to do it all. It’s like building an aircraft: Every part must work together, but you need to study the individual components with specialized tools, like thermodynamics or aerodynamics modeling. The difference now is we have the integrated tools and expertise to make all the components talk to each other.
Our long-term goal is to have one automated workflow for capacity expansion, production cost, and power flow modeling for transmission and distribution. With the momentum we’ve built—and NREL’s unique leadership in energy systems planning—I’m confident we can get there.
Read more from NREL’s Tell Me Something Grid series, and sign up for NREL’s energy analysis newsletter.
Punjab CM visits Head Muhammadwala breaching point, reviews flood damages
Orders more PDMA vans, mosquito sprays, milk and essentials for children in camps
Punjab Police rescue 337,826 people and 488,000 livestock in ongoing massive operation
MULTAN/LAHORE:Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday visited the Head Muhammad Wala Breaching Point near Multan to review the flood situation, oversee relief operations, and assure victims that their damaged homes would be rebuilt.
During her visit, members of Parliament lauded the chief minister for saving Multan city from the worst flood impacts. She personally received families rescued by Rescue 1122 teams, along with their livestock, and shared their grief. Flood victims expressed gratitude, with an elderly woman thanking her for saving their homes. “I have come here to stand with my brothers and sisters in this difficult time,” CM Maryam said, expressing satisfaction over the safe evacuation of people and animals.
Mobile Disaster Watch Vans have been deployed in flood-affected areas, where rescue and relief operations are monitored in real time through drone surveillance, and each effort is meticulously documented through digital means. Punjab is undergoing a tech revolution. pic.twitter.com/vaVcgdiJF6
The Chief Minister observed the victim identification process through a thermal imaging drone and was briefed that its camera could operate at an altitude of up to 8 km for 45 minutes continuously. She also reviewed live updates from the PDMA Disaster Response Van and directed the administration to deploy more such vans in affected areas. Commissioner Multan Aamir Kareem Khan and Deputy Commissioner Waseem Sindhu briefed her on relief measures and flood damages.
It was truly uplifting to see children holding books and learning material in their hands, and teachers making the most of simplest teaching aids. I have made temporary classrooms /education setups mandatory for all relief camps. https://t.co/Rh9VKrAyIj
She was apprised that a 150-foot-wide area of Multan district was directly affected by floodwaters, damaging 138 villages. More than 364,000 people were impacted, while 120,000 livestock were safely evacuated.
Around 7,862 victims are currently housed in 25 relief camps across Multan, where meals are being served thrice daily and round-the-clock medical facilities are available. The Chief Minister directed that mosquito repellents, disinfectant sprays, milk, and other essentials for children be ensured in camps.
Ends deforestation under guise of timber auctions
In a separate development, CM Maryam Nawaz announced a historic ban on the traditional timber auction system to curb deforestation. She ordered an immediate halt to the felling of trees in Punjab and directed the DG Forests, Wildlife, and Fisheries to ensure strict compliance.
She said transparent, technology-based rules will be introduced, with mandatory use of high-quality photos and videos before any future auctions. Environmental experts hailed the decision as a bold step to protect forests and prevent land erosion.
Acting on the Chief Minister’s directives, Punjab Police have intensified rescue and relief operations. Inspector General Dr. Usman Anwar said police are working round-the-clock to protect and rehabilitate flood victims, using drone-mounted thermal cameras to trace stranded citizens and livestock.
So far, police have evacuated 337,826 people—including 131,883 men, 100,177 women, and 105,766 children—from flood-hit areas, along with 488,000 livestock worth millions of rupees. More than 5,000 people and 900 animals were rescued in Multan alone, while 29,400 people were shifted to safety in Khanewal.
Over 15,000 police personnel, 700 vehicles, and 40 boats are participating in the operation. The IG praised the extraordinary courage of police teams and directed enhanced security, patrolling, and relief services in evacuated zones, ensuring shelter, medicines, food, and protection for flood victims.
The cosmetics retailer Lush has closed its UK shops, factories and website in protest over starvation in Gaza.
A statement appeared on its website and on posters on shop windows, which read: “Stop starving Gaza, we are closed in solidarity”. Its flagship spa on London’s Oxford Street was marked as “temporarily closed” on Google Maps on Wednesday.
In an interview with LBC radio, the co-founder Mark Constantine said the company’s estimated losses as a result of the closure would be about £300,000. While offering his support for the decision, he added: “It would be nice to be able to pay for food to go into Gaza, rather than just sacrificing [profits].”
The statement released on the Lush website asks for customers’ forgiveness for any inconvenience, but claims that “many of our customers share the same anxiety about the situation in Gaza”. It calls on the government to bring an end to “death and destruction” as well as stop arms sales to Israel. “The UK government is losing a day of tax contributions from Lush,” the statement notes.
In 2024, the UK-founded luxury cosmetics brand produced 102m products and had a turnover of £690m. It operates 869 stores globally, with the most stores in the UK.
It says that its fundraising product, Watermelon Slice soap, has been the most successful single fundraising product in its history, with profits going towards mental health services for Palestinian children.
The company has previously taken stands on other issues – it launched a “#Spycops” campaign in 2018 to highlight abuses by undercover police officers in the UK, and boycotted some social media apps in 2021, citing their negative effects on the body image for teenagers.
Lush has also sent cheques to direct action climate campaigning groups, including RoadBlock and anti-aviation group Clear the Skies. However, it opposed the placement of a “Boycott Israel” poster on a Dublin store shopfront in October 2023, saying it did not represent the Lush ethos that “All Are Welcome. Always.”
A spokesperson for Lush told the PA news agency staff are being paid for the closure day.
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The prime minister last month said the UK will recognise a Palestinian state later in September unless Israel agrees to meet certain conditions, including addressing the humanitarian crisis, implementing a ceasefire and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
In a statement on the Middle East to the House of Commons on Monday, foreign secretary David Lammy told MPs Gaza is experiencing a “manmade famine” as the war continues.
Rashid Khan etched his name in the history books |courtesy – Aafghanistan Cricket Board
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Rashid Khan set a massive world record
Rashid Khan is leading Afghanistan in T20Is
Rashid achieved a huge captaincy feat
Rashid Khan etched his name in the history books during the ongoing T20I tri-series taking place in Sharjah, where the Afghanistan cricket team are competing against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan in what is a dress rehearsal for the 2025 Asia Cup, which will take place from September 9 to 28.
After Afghanistan lost the opening game of the tournament to Pakistan, the Rashid-led side made a strong comeback on Monday and Tuesday (September 1 and 2) by beating the UAE by 38 runs before winning the reverse fixture against the Men in Green by 18 runs, which has put them on the cusp of making the final.
Rashid Khan Creates History
Rashid was key to the victories on back-to-back days as his side certified their claims as a strong contender to win the Asia Cup. In the match against the UAE, Rashid took a three-wicket haul while conceding just 21 runs in his spell of four overs. Against Pakistan, the 26-year-old took a two-wicket haul while giving away 30 runs in four overs
As a result, Rashid set a world record by becoming the first captain from a full-member nation to take 50 wickets in T20Is. The record previously belonged to Shakib Al Hasan, which the Afghanistan skipper had broken in December against Zimbabwe.
Most Wickets By A T20I Captain Among Full Member Nations
Player
Wickets
Country
Rashid Khan
54
Afghanistan
Shakib Al Hasan
46
Bangladesh
Tim Southee
43
New Zealand
Shahid Afridi
40
Pakistan
Sikandar Raza
40
Zimbabwe
Full Member Nations: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Ireland, Pakistan, New Zealand, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Zimbabwe
Overall, if associate nations are also counted, Rashid is the sixth captain to take over 50 wickets in T20 cricket after Jersey’s Charles Perchard (83), Kuwait’s Mohammad Aslam (76), Rwanda’s Clinton Rubagumya (58), Namibia’s Gerhard Erasmus (54), and Austria’s Aqib Iqbal (50).
Over the last two days, Rashid also went past Tim Southee and became the highest wicket-taker in T20Is and broke New Zealand cricket legend Tim Southee’s record, who had 164 wickets. Rashid has 167 wickets in the shortest format, out of which 165 have come for Afghanistan and two for ICC XI.
The great Canadian filmmaker David Cronenberg once told me that the problem with movie sex scenes is that the movie just stops while we watch the actors have sex. I feel that way about action scenes, especially on TV. Although a handful of directors can make them thrilling — Kathryn Bigelow, Jackie Chan, George Miller — I nearly always find myself waiting for the chase to end or the gunfire to die down so we can get back to the story.
A case in point is Butterfly, a new Prime Video series starring Daniel Dae Kim as a spook who comes out of hiding to save his long-lost daughter. Loosely adapted from a graphic novel by Arash Amel, this labyrinthine six-parter sends its heroes and villains racing all over South Korea. The result is an intriguing, frustrating hybrid in which a spy thriller plays leapfrog with a K-drama about fathers and daughters, mothers and sons.
Kim plays David Jung, a former U.S. government spy who once owned a big private security and intelligence company, Caddis, with his partner, Juno — that’s Piper Perabo — a woman with the ethics of a spitting cobra. Everything changed when somebody sold David out during a mission. Fearing this enemy would harm his teenage daughter, Rebecca, he decided to fake his own death and hole up in South Korea.
Now, nine years later, his plan has worked out oddly. With Juno acting as a kind of surrogate mother, Rebecca (Reina Hardesty) has grown up to be Caddis’ leading assassin. She has a genius for mayhem. In this, she’s the opposite of Juno’s son, Oliver (Louis Landau), who’s weak and always currying his mother’s favor.
Even as David emerges to rescue his daughter from her life as an assassin, Rebecca has been ordered to kill a mystery man — who, of course, turns out to be the father she thought dead. This sets in motion a predictably implausible plot rife with killings, kidnappings and double crosses. There’s an ambitious U.S. senator, Seoul’s cockiest hitman — who seems to be channeling Johnny Depp — and a cute little girl we worry might get killed.
In ways both good and bad, Butterfly joins Reacher, Bosch and Jack Ryan in Prime Video’s enjoyable lineup of shows aimed at modern dads, men traditional enough to like their heroes hyper-masculine, yet cool enough to like kickass heroines.
Although its plot twists are largely standard issue, it’s fun having an American series show us today’s booming, self-confident South Korea with its neon streets and brutalist bridges. And I’m delighted to see Kim, who spent years playing third bananas on shows like Lost and Hawaii Five-0, finally get his chance to carry a series. He does it splendidly, even if there’s more than a little patriarchal sentimentality in the conception of his character.
Butterfly‘s story is intriguing enough that you find yourself asking all sorts of teasing questions. What does it reveal about David that he not only founded a private security firm — a dodgy line of work at best — but did so with Juno, who’ll betray her country for a buck? Exactly how many people is David prepared to kill to save his daughter from being a killer? What if Rebecca prefers being an assassin to reuniting with her old man? And is the show making a point about Juno, a ruthless matriarch who adores her son Oliver, but in such a way that she crushes his soul?
What makes the show frustrating is that it never gets around to digging into such big questions on its way to its season ending cliff-hanger. Butterfly is always on the verge of becoming really compelling, only to have the drama interrupted by another shoot out, martial-artsy brawl or race through the streets of Seoul or Busan. Instead of revelations, we get twists.
Maybe the show will try to address its heavy questions in season two. Then again, maybe not. As Kim surely learned while doing Lost, the key to making a hit TV show lies not in nailing the landing — but in finding ways to keep kicking the can down the road.
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