The Reds have already had a taste of what increased preparation time can bring throughout Tour 2025, presented by Snapdragon, where the squad have been together in the United States for couple of weeks, allowing for a broader range of sessions.
“It’s something that [Ruben Amorim] reiterated, that we didn’t have enough time on the training pitch,” Maguire continued. “This pre-season, it’s been tough on the legs, but the majority of it has been tactical.
“So, it’s nice to do the drills that are tactical rather than running around poles and running around the pitch.
“It’s been an enjoyable pre-season, but a pre-season that we’ve all learnt from. We know the system a lot better, and we’ve just got to take that into the games now.”
Nearly a year ago, Jaguar unveiled a refreshed brand identity that was supposed to usher in its future. So far, it’s been mostly a headache.
The 102-year-old luxury automaker, once a head-to-head competitor with brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, had been plagued with problems even before the advertising campaign was released, including leadership changes, declining sales amid a stale lineup and stiff competition from the likes of both German luxury carmakers as well as relative upstarts like Tesla.
Now it can add two more problems: misleading headlines about its sales, and outrage from the political right — most notably the US president.
On Monday, President Donald Trump trashed Jaguar for what he called a “stupid” and “seriously WOKE” ad campaign last year, which featured an avant-garde commercial that featured slogans such as “live vivid,” and what appeared to be gender-fluid models, but zero images of its cars or even concepts of a car.
“Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad,” quipped Trump on Truth Social. “The market cap destruction has been unprecedented with BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SO FOOLISHLY LOST.”
Butthe reality is different.
Jaguar Land Rover has been owned by Tata Motors since 2008, when the Indian company bought it from Ford, which meansJaguar doesn’t have a market cap. And Tata itself is doing fine as a massive multinational conglomerate with a wide variety of operations worth about $28 billion.
Plus, Jaguar’s problems are more fundamental. Although most legacy automakers have tried to manage a smooth transition to fully electric propulsion, Jaguar simply ceased making cars entirely in 2024 pulling all of its products off the market as it tries to reinvent itself as an electric vehicle maker.
But that’s enough to establish a narrative in the minds of many. Headlines swirled last month that Jaguar’s sales across Europe were down 97.5% year-over-year in April, citing data from the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association. That makes sense given Jaguar stopped manufacturing cars but the news was enough to draw the wrath of Trump and some conservatives.
Shortly after the ad was released, Jaguar revealed its Type 00 concept car at Miami Art Week — notably, not at a traditional automotive show. While the concept isn’t intended for production, it is meant to show Jaguar’s general future design direction.
Jaguar didn’t respond to a question from CNN about when it will start production again.
Last week, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell announced he was stepping down after 35 years with the brand. He had a largely successful stint, having helped eliminate billions of dollars of debt and withJLRreporting its ninth consecutive profitable quarter in January on the back of strong SUV sales.
Tata Motors on Monday named P.B. Balaji, currently the company’s chief financial officer, as Jaguar Land Rover’s new CEO. He begins in November.
It’s no secret that stress isn’t good for you. But just how bad is it? Well, in the last few decades, scientists have linked psychological stress to changes in our DNA that look a lot like what happens on the molecular level as we age. Today on the show, host Regina G. Barber talks to freelance science journalist Diana Kwon about the latest research on stress and aging, including a new hypothesis for how your brain handles aging — and what science could do about all of it.
Read Diana’s full piece HERE.
Interested in more aging science? Let us know at shortwave@npr.org.
Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.
Listen to Short Wave on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
This episode was produced by Berly McCoy. It was edited by Rebecca Ramirez and fact-checked by Tyler Jones. Jimmy Keeley was the audio engineer.
She stands before us in a blue gingham frock, towering wig and a “hideous yet age-appropriate leisure shoe”. She is Dorothy Blawna-Gale and she is a pantomime dame. The creation of Johnny McKnight – Scotland’s finest proponent of the form – she is sharp-tongued, lascivious and bumptiously lovable.
Unlike her usual festive appearances at the Tron in Glasgow and the Macrobert in Stirling, she is here, out of season, not just to entertain – which she does in abundance – but to educate. In a show that grew out of a lecture at the University of Glasgow in memory of the late academic Alasdair Cameron, a champion of popular theatre, McKnight and director John Tiffany throw in songs, sweets and copious audience interaction to celebrate panto’s radical potential.
It is very funny, but the real soul of this tremendous show lies in the personal story McKnight tells. From his earliest memory of seeing Johnny Beattie at the Ayr Gaiety, when he realised “You don’t just see panto; panto sees you,” he takes us through his first tentative steps as an actor playing the comic silly billy role, hiding behind the character’s asexual charm, and then, in 2006, his first dame.
But something was wrong: in sticking so rigidly to tradition, the tired assumptions, the dated jokes, he was repressing his true self and muting the anarchic possibilities of the form.
It was time to kill the old. In the coming seasons, he upended the cliches, corrected the gender balance and acknowledged his own sexuality. By 2018, he was fielding two male romantic leads in Mammy Goose and audiences did not just accept it: they demanded more. Along the way, he faced sectarianism, homophobia and serious ethical questions, but sticking to the principles of always punching up, thinking his choices through and representing the marginalised, he reclaimed panto’s subversive spirit and made it, hilariously, his own. Oh yes he did.
Where is it? Lake Iro, Chad [10.10150087, 19.41766527]
What’s in the photo? Sunlight reflecting off the lake and the surrounding river
Who took the photo? An unnamed astronaut on board the International Space Station (ISS)
When was it taken? Dec. 21, 2024
This stunning astronaut photo shows a rare phenomenon, known as a “sunglint”, transforming a potential meteor crater lake into a giant silver mirror in the heart of Africa.
Lake Iro, known locally as Lac Iro, is an approximately 7-mile-wide (12 kilometers) body of water in Chad, located around 60 miles (100 km) north of the country’s border with the Central African Republic. The lake lies in the heart of Africa’s Sahel region — an extensive savannah that separates the Sahara Desert and the rainforests of Central Africa.
Iro is partly surrounded by Bahr Salamat, a roughly 125-mile-long (200 km) waterway that splits and feeds into the lake. The river is renowned for being exceptionally windy, especially where it bends around Iro’s southern shore, according to NASA’s Earth Observatory.
The lake and large sections of the river shine brightly in the image as sunlight reflects off their watery surfaces, giving them a metallic-like sheen. If you look closely, parts of its surface appear to have a whiter color than the rest. These areas are most likely reflections of the clouds hanging high over the lake.
This phenomenon is known as a sunglint, and only occurs when the observer is perfectly aligned with the sun, relative to the object reflecting the light. As a result, this effect is best observed from space.
Related: See all the best images of Earth from space
Lake Iro and Bahr Salamat are located in the heart of Africa’s Sahel region. Both bodies of water usually have a greenish hue. (Image credit: Getty Images)
Astronauts are particularly well-suited to capturing sunglints because they can alter their angle relative to the reflecting object, unlike satellites that have a fixed view. In recent years, ISS inhabitants have also spotted a massive sunglint around a pair of Greek islands, which revealed several unusual oceanographic phenomena, and another that painted a “sea of clouds” in a volcanic lake nestled between nesting Russian volcanoes.
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Suspected impact crater
Recent research suggests Lake Iro may lie within an ancient meteor impact crater leftover from when a sizable space rock slammed into Earth millions of years ago.
This theory was first put forward in the 1980s, when geologists discovered bits of ancient crystal in the rocks surrounding the lake, according to a 2014 study reviewing African impact structures.
In a more recent study, published in 2024, researchers investigated the geological features of Lake Iro. They noted that an impact may have significantly altered the shape and direction of Bahr Salamat, which may explain why there are so many twists and turns to the winding river.
Lake Iro is also highly cyclical, meaning that its depth fluctuates seasonally and can almost completely drain during periods of extreme drought, which is a common characteristic among other impact crater lakes.
Based on this evidence, the researchers of the most recent study wrote that Lake Iro “cannot be readily explained by any process other than [a meteor] impact.”
More research is needed to confirm if this is the case, and this “should be a priority” due to its size. The researchers added that evidence of the impact may have been well preserved by the lake.
As well as stealing metal pipes, vandals smashed glass and poured paint over the floors
A youth club that had its government funding for a £1.4m rebuild project withdrawn has been dealt another blow after the building was broken into and vandalised.
Thieves stole metal pipes and caused damage to toilets, fire doors and windows at the Lifstan Boys Club in Southend-on-Sea.
“They’ve smashed it to bits,” said committee member Danny Neville.
The club has been without a home after moving out in anticipation of the rebuild, as has the Southend Amateur Boxing Club.
Stuart Woodward/BBC
Danny Neville – who is also head coach at Southend Amateur Boxing Club – said the vandalism was “gutting”
“They’ve flooded our disabled toilets, which were still running when we went there,” Mr Neville said.
“They’ve smashed the urinals off the walls, loads of copper has been ripped out – they’ve pulled the water tanks out.
“It’s just gutting, isn’t it? We’re already up against it.”
Other damage included paint thrown over the floors and walls, carpets ripped up and a table football set broken.
The club had been awarded £1.4m of funding from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Youth Investment Fund to build a new premises at the site.
But after spending £200,000 on preparatory work and surveys, the rest of the funding was withdrawn by Social Investment Business, which distributes the grants on behalf of the government.
Volunteers said they were hopeful the funding would be restored to avoid having to try to renovate the existing building.
Stuart Woodward/BBC
The Lifstan Boys Club building – which the club moved into in the 1960s – was only meant to last 30 years
“The damage they’ve caused is probably going to double the cost of the refurb,” Mr Neville explained.
He added that the response from the local community and tradespeople to the break-in – offering to help clean up the damage – had been “overwhelming”.
“I’ve had so many messages and phone calls, people commenting on the post,” he said.
The Department for Culture Media and Sport previously said it had invested £145m into youth programmes for 2025-26.
Social Investment Business said it had to be confident projects could be delivered on time and represent “good value for money”.
A decade after the onset of a sea star wasting disease (SSWD) epidemic considered the largest ever documented in the wild, researchers have identified the microbial culprit responsible: a strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida.
In 10 years, the bacterium has ravaged sunflower sea stars (Pycnopodia helianthoides), a large sea star or starfish, along the western coast of North America, with a loss of 5.8 billion since 2013 – or 90% of the total global population. The sunflower sea star is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of critically endangered species.
Previous studies had tested for V pectenicida in tissue samples and yielded inconclusive results. Instead, by examining the sea stars’ coelomic fluid, which acts like blood, researchers were able to confirm with certainty V pectenicida’s role in causing SSWD due to its high abundance there.
A sunflower sea star reduced to goo by sea star wasting disease at Calvert Island, British Columbia, Canada, in 2015. Photograph: Grant Callegari/Hakai Institute/AP
Infection with the V pectenicida strain FHCF-3 begins with exterior lesions, leading to limb loss and contortion, and ultimately kills afflicted individuals by melting their tissues into a white, mucus-like paste. Identifying the disease in afflicted sea stars was impossible without a known pathogen, as sea stars can respond with similar visual signals to other stressors such as low oxygen, salinity variation and extreme heat. The indirect link between rising ocean temperatures and SSWD remains a key area of interest, since V pectenicida is known to proliferate in warm water during seasonal variations and anomalous marine heating events.
The research, published this week in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, was led by Dr Melanie Prentice and Dr Alyssa Gehman, of the Hakai Institute in British Columbia, Canada, as part of a four-year international collaboration involving the University of British Columbia, the University of Washington and the Nature Conservancy, among other parties.
The decline of sunflower sea stars has ramifications for marine ecosystems beyond the loss of a single species. “Identifying the cause of SSWD is incredibly impactful,” Prentice said. “In the absence of sunflower stars, [kelp-eating] sea urchin populations increase, which means the loss of kelp forests, and that has broad implications for all the other marine species and humans that rely on them.”
Without predatory sunflower sea stars, sea urchins proliferate in Hakai Pass, British Columbia, Canada, in 2019. Photograph: Grant Callegari/Hakai Institute/AP
Kelp forests provide a habitat for thousands of marine creatures, support local economies through fisheries and recreation, and are culturally important for First Nations and tribal communities. They also stabilise sediments, protect coastlines from storms, and are an important carbon sink for sequestering carbon dioxide.
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Though the epidemic is still ongoing, the hope is that this breakthrough will aid recovery and treatment efforts for various sea star species across the world and the ecosystems affected by their decline. Methods being explored include captive breeding for resistant individuals and developing probiotic solutions that can be introduced to ecosystems.
“Now that we have found the causative agent of disease, it makes me hopeful that we might actually be able to do something for sunflower sea stars,” says Gehman. “We can be really targeted in how we work with them, and I think that’s going to help us move a lot faster and to try to tackle SSWD.”
An innovative study led by researchers from the Harbin Institute of Technology has unveiled a substantial development in wastewater treatment technology. Published in Engineering, the research introduces an innovative approach to improving denitrification in constructed wetlands (CWs) by utilizing a novel biochar-based substrate, known as β-cyclodextrin-functionalized biochar (BC@β-CD). This breakthrough addresses a critical challenge in wastewater treatment: optimizing nitrogen removal in conditions where traditional methods falter due to low carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratios.
Constructed wetlands are recognized for their potential to treat effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), yet their effectiveness is often hampered by low C/N ratios in the influent, leading to suboptimal denitrification and insufficient nitrogen removal. The study, led by Xiao-Chi Feng and Nan-Qi Ren, provides new insights into overcoming these limitations through advanced material science and biochemical engineering.
The research team compared three different CW systems: traditional (control), biochar (BC), and β-cyclodextrin (BC@β-CD). The study aimed to assess their performance in treating wastewater with low C/N ratios, specifically ratios decreased from 4 to 2. The findings reveal that the BC@β-CD system outperformed the other configurations, demonstrating a 45.89% and 42.48% higher nitrogen removal rate compared to the traditional system. Additionally, nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, a potent greenhouse gas, were reduced by 70.57% and 85.45%, respectively.
The researchers employed a range of analytical techniques, including metagenomics and enzymatic assays, to understand how BC@β-CD enhances denitrification. These analyses showed that BC@β-CD promotes carbon metabolism and increases denitrification enzyme activities without altering the microbial diversity within the CWs. Notably, BC@β-CD was found to enhance electron generation and transport, crucial for effective denitrification, by increasing the activities of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) dehydrogenase and the electron transfer system (ETS). Further investigation using structural equation modeling confirmed that BC@β-CD’s primary advantage lies in its ability to reallocate more carbon metabolism flow towards denitrification. This strategic reallocation supports denitrification processes even when carbon sources are limited, thereby enhancing nitrogen removal under low C/N ratio conditions.
The study’s results highlight the transformative potential of BC@β-CD in wastewater treatment. By optimizing carbon metabolism allocation, this biochar-based substrate not only improves nitrogen removal efficiency but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. This advancement offers a practical solution to a prevalent issue in wastewater treatment, providing a more sustainable approach to managing low-carbon influent.
The researchers emphasize that the successful application of BC@β-CD in CWs represents a significant step forward in the field of environmental engineering. It offers a promising avenue for developing more effective and eco-friendly wastewater treatment technologies. Future research will focus on scaling up this technology and exploring its application in diverse wastewater treatment scenarios. As the world seeks more sustainable environmental solutions, this study offers a hopeful path forward for cleaner, more effective wastewater management.
The paper “Enhanced Denitrification in Constructed Wetlands with Low Carbon/Nitrogen Ratios: Insights into Reallocation of Carbon Metabolism Based on Electron Utilization,” authored by Hong-Tao Shi, Xiao-Chi Feng, Zi-Jie Xiao, Chen-Yi Jiang, Wen-Qian Wang, Qin-Yao Zeng, Bo-Wen Yang, Qi-Shi Si, Qing-Lian Wu, Nan-Qi Ren. Full text of the open access paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2024.07.020. For more information about the Engineering, follow us on X (https://twitter.com/EngineeringJrnl) & like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/EngineeringJrnl).
When the final leg of the World Surf League (WSL) regular season begins in Tahiti this week, Kelia Mehani Gallina will make history. Just 12 years old, the Tahitian local won the event trials last month to book a spot in the main draw, making her the youngest competitor in WSL history. She will face the current world No 1, Molly Picklum of Australia, and American star Lakey Peterson in the opening round, before celebrating her 13th birthday midway through the event.
The contest site, Teahupo’o, is renowned as being among the heaviest waves in the world. But Gallina is a regular – she speaks to the Guardian by phone with her father, Ryan, from their home in Teahupo’o village. “We can see [the wave] from our bedroom,” says Ryan, who is originally from Hawaii (Kelia’s mother is Tahitian). Such is her local status that Kelia’s Instagram handle is simply @MissTeahupoo.
Gallina surfs a local wave in Tahiti. Photograph: Wendy Cowan
“I’m pretty surprised,” the youngster admits after her trials victory. “I just can’t wait.” Her father shares these emotions. “We’re in shock,” he says. “We always visualised this happening, but not at all did we think it would happen so soon.”
Kelia started surfing when she was three, at the suggestion of her father – himself a passionate surfer. “It’s always fun,” she says. “I have a lot of friends who surf every day too, so I’m just with them, all day, every day.” Barely a decade later, Kelia will surf against the best in the world.
In recent years, Kelia has been a regular participant in Rising Tides – a WSL program that sees pro surfers guide and mentor young locals during a competition stop. “My birthday is 10 August, so it’s always been around my birthday,” she says. “It’s the best birthday present ever. It’s super inspiring to surf with [defending world champion] Caity Simmers, Molly Picklum, all those girls. I’m excited to have them in a heat.”
WSL Rising Tides participants before the 2023 Tahiti Pro at Teahupo’o. Photograph: Matt Dunbar/World Surf League
On a big swell, Teahupo’o is fearsome – waves track thousands of kilometres across the Pacific before unloading on to a shallow Tahitian reef. For a decade and a half, the women’s side of the WSL did not feature a leg in Tahiti; the event was discontinued in 2006 reportedly due to injury fears, a decision that was criticised at the time as sexist. That was reversed in 2022 after the WSL men’s and women’s calendars were integrated.
Last year, that decision was more than vindicated when the top female surfers looked at home in heaving 8-10ft Teahupo’o barrels. “It definitely gives me reasons to want to go on the bigger waves,” Kelia says. “I feel like the level of the girls is getting way better every year. I’m really happy to be part of that next generation.”
Gallina waits for a wave. Photograph: Richard Seehausen
The youngster started surfing Teahupo’o at four and a half years old – she can’t recall whether she was fearful at first. “I think so,” she says with a laugh. “It’s kind of hard to remember.” Ryan admits he continues to harbour some concerns, but, he says, “nothing out of the ordinary for a parent.”
“Of course you worry,” Ryan says. “Like you worry when they’re crossing the street, or riding around in town, there’s always somewhat of a worry that comes with being a parent. But I’ve been about 23 years out at this wave, and feel I know it pretty intimately – so I pride myself in knowing when is a good time [for Kelia to surf].”
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The pair often surf together. In bigger waves – Kelia says she has previously surfed 12ft faces – Ryan will stay close in the water and help guide his daughter into the waves. “They’re not going to allow that [during competition],” he says. So the Mehani Gallina family are hoping the swell is good, but not too good, come competition day. “We’re praying the waves aren’t too big,” he adds. The family also take peace of mind from the fact that “the best life-saving water patrol in the world” will be close to hand, Ryan says.
Gallina in the water at Teahupo’o. Photograph: Damien Poullenot/World Surf League/Getty Images
Not yet a teenager, Kelia says she wants to qualify for the WSL in the future – even if her debut appearance came earlier than expected. “That’s definitely the goal, to make it on tour,” she says. The Mehani Gallina family are trying to manage expectations, though. “We acknowledge that it is extremely difficult to make it to that level,” Ryan adds. “It’s a goal, but not the goal. Surfing is a lifestyle for us, so whether or not that happens, it’s just about being in the ocean, getting better every day and having something you’re passionate about.”
In the coming days, when the buzzer goes to begin her heat, Kelia will make history – even before she surfs a wave. Could an upset be on the cards? “I’m just going to wait until the moment,” says Kelia.
But Ryan is hoping that age and relative inexperience could work in his daughter’s favour. “There is really no pressure on her to do anything – no one expected her to get this far,” he says. “[Kelia] is the biggest underdog ever – the pressure is on [the other surfers in the heat]. You don’t want to lose to a 12-year-old girl.”
Ahead of iOS 26 launching this fall, Apple Music for Android is beta testing version 5.0.0 with new features and design tweaks.
The Android app does not get a Liquid Glass redesign with the same bottom bar and docked Now Playing controls as before. It’s unfortunate from a cross-platform parity standpoint, but hopefully a future update will introduce it.
That said, there are some design tweaks like pill-shaped buttons throughout the app replacing the rounded rectangles. For example, shuffle, repeat, and autoplay at the top of your queue have been updated. The Play and Shuffle buttons in albums also get the same treatment. There are no changes to homescreen widgets.
You can now “Pin Music to Your Library: Elevate your most played music to the top of Library for easy access.” You’ll find Pin Song, Album, Playlist, or Artist in various overflow menus throughout the app. These sync with your Apple devices, though you might have to pin/unpin one item to get the rest to show up.
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Once set, you can long-press from the Library tab to unpin, as well as customize the Tap Action: Go to Album, Play, or Shuffle. You can have pins automatically download, though this can be disabled in Settings.
The redesign splash screen also highlights:
Lyrics Translation & Pronunciation: Understand the lyrics and sing along across languages.
Replay in the App: Check out your month-by-month and year-end stats easily in-app.
You can access the Apple Music 5.0 beta by joining on this page.
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