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  • Ricci hails ‘impressive’ Câmara following ‘special’ title triumph in Budapest

    Ricci hails ‘impressive’ Câmara following ‘special’ title triumph in Budapest

    TRIDENT Team Manager Giacomo Ricci is full of praise for Rafael Câmara, after he claimed the 2025 Formula 3 title with a dominant win from pole in the Budapest Feature Race.

    The Brazilian sealed the Championship with a round to go, holding off Campos Racing’s Mari Boya in Qualifying and across all 23 laps of racing on Sunday.

    Câmara’s Feature Race victory made him the third consecutive TRIDENT driver to win the title, and Ricci is more than delighted with the achievement.

    READ MORE: Rafael Câmara’s Budapest Championship Debrief

    “It’s special for us, for the team, winning the title with one round left, with a new car, it’s amazing feeling,” said Ricci.

    “In my opinion, he was the quickest this year. He was on top in every condition. The downside on our side, especially on the first part of the season, we did not score points in the Sprint Race.

    “That’s why the guys that were usually qualifying P12, P13, P9, they were scoring points over us, so the gap was staying quite close. But the last two rounds, being able to score in both, opened up the gap a bit more.

    Câmara became the third consecutive driver from TRIDENT to win the F3 title

    “Today he did an exceptional job, he was under pressure from Boya, especially in the first part of the race. Speaking with him, he was keeping things under control and keeping the tyres alive, but Boya was extremely close and the DRS was available.

    “But once he opened the gap, he managed things perfectly on the restarts. He was always on it, he did not make a mistake and in the last phase of the race he was managing and keeping the tyres alive.”

    READ MORE: Thoughts of a Champion – Rafael Câmara

    Câmara’s season was not without its challenges, as while his statistics read five Pole Positions and four Feature Race victories, he had a couple of rounds where he struggled.

    The Scuderia Ferrari Driver Academy member scored just seven points across the Monte Carlo and Silverstone weekends, but for Ricci those were caused by things outside of Câmara’s control.

    “In my opinion, his form never went down,” said Ricci. “It was simply sometimes small things can make a difference. The track time is limited, finding traffic in qualifying, people are backing off in front of you even if you organise the strategy perfectly.

    Câmara was forced to hold off Boya in Qualifying and also in the Feature Race
    Câmara was forced to hold off Boya in Qualifying and also in the Feature Race

    “But for me here and Spa we were back on top with him. His overall talent is impressive. I remember in Melbourne, he didn’t know the track, of course he did the simulator, but he didn’t know the track and from the second push lap, P1 and then he did pole position in Qualifying.

    “It’s like for him, sometimes things come quite easy.”

    READ MORE: Round 9 Post Feature Race Thoughts of the Top 3

    Câmara’s run to Pole Position on Friday in Budapest was one of those things. The 20-year-old had his first time deleted for exceeding track limits, before going up to fifth on his next lap.

    But as he prepared to set off for his final attempts of the day, while battling for track position, he wound up in the pitlane.

    This forced TRIDENT to switch their plans around to give a chance to go for pole, and he did just that, rounding the track at the chequered flag to complete a 1:32.510, beating Boya by just 0.008s.

    Câmara won the title with one round to go in Monza
    Câmara won the title with one round to go in Monza

    “Of course, we were ready to do the classic out and push, but then unfortunately he had been pushed inside the pitlane just before starting the push lap,” recalled Ricci.

    “At the moment he opened the radio and said, ‘I am coming to the pitlane’ we were quite surprised. Then we decided quickly to go to Plan C, to align him with the strategy being used by Campos.

    FEATURE RACE: Câmara seals 2025 title with commanding Budapest win

    “It was quite risky because statistically towards the end of Qualifying, it’s easier to find a Red Flag or other problems. With like four warmup laps before starting a push lap being able to deliver a fantastic lap, he was on pole position.

    “It was very tight because Boya was extremely close but again, he collected the two points and it was impressive.”

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  • Reality Defender and ActiveFence Partner to Strengthen AI Safety Infrastructure

    Reality Defender and ActiveFence Partner to Strengthen AI Safety Infrastructure

    Reality Defender’s deepfake detection API integrates with ActiveFence’s Real Time Guardrails to provide comprehensive safeguards against synthetic media threats

    NEW YORK, Aug. 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Reality Defender, the RSA Innovation Award-winning deepfake detection platform, and ActiveFence, a leading provider of AI security and safety solutions for online experiences, today announced a strategic partnership to integrate deepfake detection capabilities into ActiveFence’s AI safety infrastructure.




    ActiveFence x Reality Defender






    ActiveFence x Reality Defender

    The collaboration enables ActiveFence clients to seamlessly detect and prevent synthetic media threats across video, audio, image, and text formats through Reality Defender’s API. By combining Reality Defender’s best-in-class deepfake detection technology with ActiveFence’s real-time guardrails, AI firewall and threat intelligence capabilities, the partnership provides comprehensive protection against the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-generated threats.

    As generative AI tools enable threat actors to create increasingly sophisticated synthetic content at scale, enterprises face mounting security and reputational risks from deepfake impersonations, AI-generated fraud, and synthetic misinformation campaigns. This partnership addresses the critical need for multi-layered AI safety infrastructure that can detect, moderate, and remediate harmful synthetic content in real time.

    “Deepfakes are no longer isolated threats, they’re part of a broader wave of GenAI-enabled manipulation that demands multi-layered defenses,” said Noam Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder of ActiveFence. “By integrating Reality Defender’s deepfake detection with ActiveFence’s real-time guardrails, we’re adding a powerful capability for the comprehensive protection enterprises need to safeguard users, platforms, and reputations against synthetic media abuse.”

    “We want to make enterprise-grade deepfake detection accessible to any developer — not just to government agencies or Fortune 500 companies,” said Ben Colman, CEO and Co-Founder of Reality Defender. “That ambition drives this partnership with ActiveFence — also trusted by Fortune 500 companies and a large pool of developers alike — allowing us to extend that impact into real-world protection. Companies and regulators are realizing that when it comes to GenAI, safety can’t be reactive. It needs to be built in by design and through an integrated approach combining detection, moderation, and intelligence. That’s what we’re building together.”

    The integration will soon be available to ActiveFence clients, enabling them to leverage Reality Defender’s proven deepfake detection models within their existing safety and security guardrails. This partnership represents a significant step forward in providing enterprises with the built-in, comprehensive AI safety infrastructure needed to protect against the full spectrum of synthetic media threats.

    About Reality Defender

    Reality Defender is an award-winning cybersecurity company helping enterprises and governments detect deepfakes and AI-generated media. Utilizing a patented multi-model approach, Reality Defender is robust against the bleeding edge of generative platforms producing video, audio, imagery, and text media. Reality Defender’s API-first deepfake detection platform empowers teams and developers alike to identify fraud, disinformation campaigns, and harmful deepfakes in real time.

    About ActiveFence

    ActiveFence is the leading provider of AI security and safety solutions for online experiences and AI applications, safeguarding more than 3 billion users, top foundation models, and the world’s largest enterprises and tech platforms every day. As a trusted ally to major technology firms and Fortune 500 brands that build user-generated and GenAI products, ActiveFence secures applications against prompt injection and other attacks with Real-Time Guardrails and continuous Red Teaming. Powered by deep threat intelligence, unmatched harmful-content detection, and coverage of 117+ languages, ActiveFence enables organizations to secure their applications, deliver engaging and trustworthy experiences at global scale while operating safely and responsibly across all threat landscapes.

    Contact

    Scott Steinhardt
    Reality Defender
    [email protected]
    +17188645744

    Noam Bar
    ActiveFence
    [email protected]
    +972529242711

    SOURCE Reality Defender

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  • CrowdStrike Secures AI Agents Across the SaaS Stack

    CrowdStrike Secures AI Agents Across the SaaS Stack

    Falcon Shield adds visibility and governance to OpenAI GPT-based agents – including those built with ChatGPT Enterprise and OpenAI Codex – expanding support for 175+ SaaS applications and the AI agent identities reshaping the modern attack surface

    AUSTIN, Texas and Black Hat USA 2025, Las Vegas – August 5, 2025 – CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD) today announced a new integration with the OpenAI ChatGPT Enterprise Compliance API, designed to add visibility and governance for AI agents that are redefining how work gets done. CrowdStrike Falcon® Shield now discovers GPTs and Codex agents created in OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise, expanding support for more than 175 SaaS applications. As cybersecurity’s platform innovator for the AI era, CrowdStrike helps organizations strengthen governance of AI agent identities and the human identities behind them.

    As organizations embrace agentic AI to drive automation at scale, an explosion of agents is transforming SaaS environments. Organizations can have limited visibility into what the agents are doing, what systems and data they can access, or who created them. These autonomous agents have non-human identities with persistent privileges and can be hijacked when a human identity is compromised – enabling adversaries to exfiltrate data, manipulate systems, or move laterally across critical business applications. By expanding the number of identities, accelerating access, and increasing the blast radius of a single compromise, these agents are redefining the attack surface. 

    Falcon Shield’s integration with ChatGPT Enterprise adds governance for this new layer of AI-driven automation in the SaaS stack – mapping each agent to its human creator, surfacing risky behavior, and helping to enforce policy in real time. Combined with Falcon® Identity Protection, CrowdStrike helps deliver unified visibility and protection across every human and non-human identity – helping organizations strengthen the oversight of AI agents.

    “AI agents are emerging as superhuman identities, with the ability to access systems, trigger workflows, and operate at machine speed,” said Elia Zaitsev, chief technology officer, CrowdStrike. “As these agents multiply across SaaS environments, they’re reshaping the enterprise attack surface, and are only as secure as the human identities behind them. Falcon Shield and Falcon Identity Protection help secure this new layer of identity to prevent exploitation.”

    Falcon Shield secures AI agents across the SaaS stack by:

    • Discovering AI Agents Across SaaS: Surfaces GPTs, Codex agents, and other embedded AI tools across platforms like ChatGPT Enterprise, Microsoft 365, Snowflake, and Salesforce – giving security teams added visibility.
    • Mapping Agents to Human Creators: Links agents to their human owner to support accountability, trace access, and govern privileges with context – while Falcon Identity Protection helps secure the human identities behind them.
    • Detecting Risky Behavior: Flags overprivileged agents, GPTs with sensitive action capabilities, and unusual activity by analyzing identity, application, and data context.
    • Containing Threats Automatically: Uses Falcon® Fusion, CrowdStrike’s no-code SOAR engine, to automate actions like blocking risky access, disabling compromised agents, and triggering automated response workflows to mitigate issues quickly.
    • Unifying AI Agent Protection, Powered by the Falcon Platform: Combines Falcon Shield, Falcon Identity Protection, and Falcon® Cloud Security to provide end-to-end visibility and control over AI agent activity – from the human who created it to the cloud systems it can access.


    To learn more about how CrowdStrike secures AI agents across the SaaS stack, read our blog, visit us online, or stop by the CrowdStrike Black Hat booth #2733. 

    About CrowdStrike

    CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD), a global cybersecurity leader, has redefined modern security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform for protecting critical areas of enterprise risk – endpoints and cloud workloads, identity and data.

    Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud and world-class AI, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack, threat intelligence, evolving adversary tradecraft and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities

    Purpose-built in the cloud with a single lightweight-agent architecture, the Falcon platform delivers rapid and scalable deployment, superior protection and performance, reduced complexity and immediate time-to-value.

    CrowdStrike: We stop breaches.

    Learn more: https://www.crowdstrike.com/

    Follow us: Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

    Start a free trial today: https://www.crowdstrike.com/free-trial-guide/

    © 2025 CrowdStrike, Inc. All rights reserved. CrowdStrike and CrowdStrike Falcon are marks owned by CrowdStrike, Inc. and are registered in the United States and other countries. CrowdStrike owns other trademarks and service marks and may use the brands of third parties to identify their products and services.

    Media Contact

    Jake Schuster

    CrowdStrike Corporate Communications

    press@crowdstrike.com



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  • German soccer club cancels signing of Israeli striker amid fan backlash over Gaza

    German soccer club cancels signing of Israeli striker amid fan backlash over Gaza

    German second-division soccer club Fortuna Düsseldorf on Tuesday canceled its planned signing of Israeli national team striker Shon Weissman, citing public backlash from supporters who condemned the player’s political views as extreme.

    Weissman, 29, had reportedly finalized terms with the club and passed a medical exam earlier this week, but was unexpectedly instructed not to report to Tuesday morning training. The club’s management, which had held weeks of negotiations with the player, convened an emergency meeting and informed his representatives that the deal was being called off.

    “We conducted a thorough review of the player, but ultimately decided not to sign him,” the club said in an official statement.

    The move follows protests from sections of the fanbase who opposed Weissman’s arrival, citing comments he made after Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel. At the time, Weissman had posted messages interpreted as calling for the destruction of Gaza, remarks that drew criticism during his stint in Spain’s La Liga and resurfaced amid the recent transfer speculation.

    1 View gallery

    וייסמן

    Israeli national team striker Shon Weissman

    (Photo: Oz Moalem)

    Late Monday night, amid a flood of tagged posts on the club’s X (formerly Twitter) account, the club’s social media manager appeared to address the uproar, posting: “What is going on here? I’m getting messages nonstop after work. Judging people you don’t know based on their Wikipedia page? That’s not in line with our values.”

    According to reports in German outlet Bild, Weissman had made a strong impression on club officials and had been in talks with Fortuna Düsseldorf for several weeks. The club was aware of the controversial posts, since deleted, before entering negotiations. Nevertheless, officials ultimately reversed course in response to the intensifying public pressure.


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  • Personalized CPAP treatment could reduce cardiovascular risk in sleep apnea patients

    Personalized CPAP treatment could reduce cardiovascular risk in sleep apnea patients

    Findings suggest a personalized approach to recommending CPAP machines to patients with obstructive sleep apnea may decrease adverse cardiovascular events.

    Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), where blockages in the airways cause breathing to uncontrollably stop and start during sleep, is a common sleep-related breathing disorder. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines can reduce interrupted sleep for patients with OSA. While CPAP improves symptoms, it has been unclear whether CPAP also reduces the risk of heart disease. A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham aimed to understand if using a CPAP machine could also protect the heart and brain from cardiovascular events in people with OSA. Their findings, published in European Heart Journal, suggest that a more personalized approach for treating patients is needed-one that focuses on CPAP treatment for those who stand to gain the most, while exercising caution for those who may not benefit and could even be harmed.

    Through our study, we found a subgroup of patients who experience cardiovascular benefits from CPAP use. This is the first step in making better therapeutic recommendations for patients with obstructive sleep apnea in the future to reduce their risk of heart attack, stroke, and death.”


    Ali Azarbarzin, PhD, first author of the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders at Brigham and Women’s Hospital

    The research team analyzed data from three previous trials of patients with OSA and cardiovascular disease. The study included 3,549 total patients with a median age of 61 years-half using CPAP, half not. They tracked the patients for three years on average, looking at incidence of cardiovascular mortality, stroke and heart attack.

    Overall, 16.6% of patients using CPAPs had major cardiac events, compared to 16.3% of patients not using CPAPs. While there was no statistically significant difference between outcomes for patients split between CPAP and no-CPAP, a statistically significant difference did appear when these patients were further split into those with sleep study markers of high- and low-risk OSA. Patients were classified as high-risk if they had large drops in blood oxygen levels or their heart rate spiked during breathing disruptions.

    For those with high-risk markers, CPAP use lowered cardiovascular risk by about 17%. For those with low-risk markers, CPAP use was associated with an increased cardiovascular risk by about 22%. When the high- and low-risk groups were further sorted based on their daytime symptoms-asymptomatic non-sleepy or symptomatic sleepy-those trends were even stronger. Non-sleepy patients with high-risk markers experienced 24% fewer cardiovascular events, while non-sleepy patients with low-risk markers experienced 30% more cardiovascular events.

    “Changing the clinical practice is going to require a further prospective study to validate our findings,” said Azarbarzin. “In the meantime, patients with OSA should speak with their doctors to weigh the potential risks and benefits of different treatment options. These conversations can begin the process of personalizing obstructive sleep apnea care and reducing cardiovascular events in this vulnerable population.”

    Source:

    Brigham and Women’s Hospital

    Journal reference:

    Azarbarzin, A., et al. (2025) Cardiovascular benefit of continuous positive airway pressure according to high-risk obstructive sleep apnea: a multi-trial analysis. European Heart Journal. doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf447.

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  • Israeli cabinet meeting postponed as tensions rise over Netanyahu’s occupation plan | Gaza

    Israeli cabinet meeting postponed as tensions rise over Netanyahu’s occupation plan | Gaza

    An Israeli security cabinet meeting, which had been expected to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for the “full occupation” of Gaza, has been postponed amid mounting tensions over whether the plan is feasible.

    Amid a stalling of ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, Israeli officials had briefed local and international media that the prime minister was considering an expansive offensive, aimed at taking full control of the Palestinian territory after 22 months of war against the militant group Hamas.

    However, senior Israeli military officers and former senior commanders warned the plan would endanger the lives of the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas, risk further international isolation of Israel and require Israeli soldiers to administer a population in which Hamas fighters were still present.

    Any move towards full occupation is likely to be strongly resisted by large parts of the international community, already horrified by the conduct of Israel’s military campaign.

    Israel’s scorched-earth campaign has already obliterated large parts of Gaza, killing more than 60,000 people, mostly civilians, forcing nearly all of Gaza’s more than 2 million people from their homes and causing what a global hunger monitor last week called an unfolding famine.

    That has caused widespread international anger and prompted several European countries to say they would recognise a Palestinian state next month if there was no ceasefire, amid mounting calls for sanctions against Israel.

    The disquiet follows briefings to Israeli journalists on Monday saying that Netanyahu had decided the expanded offensive was a foregone conclusion.

    “The die has been cast. We’re going for the full conquest of the Gaza Strip – and defeating Hamas,” the unnamed sources said, quoting Netanyahu.

    By Tuesday, however, evidence had emerged of deep splits between Netanyahu and senior military officials, including the chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, who reportedly voiced opposition to the plan, prompting calls for his dismissal.

    Military analysts in the Israeli media, channelling some defence officials, were also sceptical. Writing in Yedioth Ahronoth, the military affairs commentator Yossi Yehoshua described the risks of the proposal. “Hostages … will die, large numbers of IDF [Israel Defense Forces] soldiers will be killed as well as a serious logistical problem – where to house the roughly 1 million civilians who are now in Gaza City.

    “Currently, Israel simply doesn’t have legitimacy either to continue to fight in Gaza or to establish a city of refugees on its ruins.”

    Israeli officials have said Netanyahu discussed a plan with the White House as it attempted to portray Hamas as having walked away from ceasefire negotiations, a claim denied by Hamas, which blamed Israel for the protracted impasse.

    While the Trump administration has not commented on the Netanyahu proposal, it has been given some credence by leaked comments made by the US envoy Steve Witkoff to Israeli hostage families at the weekend, suggesting his proposal for a ceasefire in exchange for the release of half of the remaining living hostages had failed.

    Witkoff added that Donald Trump “now believes that everybody should come home at once. No piecemeal deals,” adding they were now pursuing an “all or nothing” plan.

    At the centre of the Netanyahu plan is the notion that, by surrounding areas where hostages are believed to be held, Israeli forces can raid those areas and rescue the captives, a policy that has broadly failed during the past two years of war.

    Amid questions over the practicality of a wider offensive, some have speculated that Netanyahu’s call may be more rhetorical than real in substance, aimed at keeping onboard far-right ministers who have demanded they be allowed to build settlements in Gaza.

    A Palestinian official close to the talks and mediation said Israeli threats could be a way to pressure Hamas to make concessions at the negotiation table.

    “It will only complicate the negotiation further, at the end, the resistance factions will not accept less than an end to the war, and a full withdrawal from Gaza,” the official told Reuters, requesting not to be named.

    Practically, too, it is unclear whether Israel has the capacity for the kind of expanded operation described.

    The IDF has struggled with manpower issues as the war drags on, with reservists being repeatedly called up amid concerns over a mental health crisis that has included a number of suicides.

    On Tuesday, during a visit to Gaza, Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, suggested a less comprehensive long-term Israeli occupation, saying that Israel would maintain a permanent IDF presence in a “security buffer zone” in strategic areas of Gaza to prevent future attacks on Israeli communities and arms smuggling into the strip.

    “This is the main lesson of October 7,” said Katz. “As in other sectors, here too the IDF must stand between the enemy and our communities – not only to fight the enemy, but to separate it from our civilians.”

    Inside Gaza on Tuesday, Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians, local health authorities said, including five people in a tent in Khan Younis and three aid seekers near Rafah in the south.

    Israeli tanks pushed into central Gaza earlier on Tuesday, but it was not clear if the move was part of a larger ground offensive.

    Agencies contributed to this article

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  • EBRD and ENEF II support Kosovo’s recycling sector

    EBRD and ENEF II support Kosovo’s recycling sector

    • EBRD and ENEF II loan to support Rec Kos’s expansion in Kosovo’s recycling sector
    • Project to finance new processing facility and advanced equipment for metals and e-waste recycling
    • Project supported by the TaiwanICDF through the HIPCA special fund

    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), in partnership with the Enterprise Expansion Fund II (ENEF II), is providing a €6 million loan to Rec Kos, a leading Kosovo-based recycling company.

    The EBRD and ENEF II are each providing €3 million, with the EBRD’s portion of the loan featuring a €1 million concessional tranche provided by the TaiwanICDF (International Cooperation and Development Fund) through the EBRD’s High-Impact Partnership on Climate Action (HIPCA) special fund,* reflecting the project’s strong green credentials.

    The financing, which is 100% GET eligible, will support the construction of a new processing facility near Drenas Industrial Park, close to Pristina, a wastewater treatment plant and the acquisition of advanced recycling equipment, such as machines for processing tires, aluminium, cables, iron, plastics and batteries. The project aims to enhance operational efficiency and environmental sustainability in Kosovo’s recycling sector.

    Sergiy Maslichenko, EBRD Head of Kosovo, said: “We are proud to support Rec Kos in scaling up its operations and advancing Kosovo’s circular economy. This investment demonstrates our commitment to strengthening local small and medium-sized enterprises and promoting sustainable industrial development through green finance.”

    Adriatik Shaqiri, owner of Rec Kos, said: “The new facility and advanced equipment will significantly improve our processing capacity and environmental performance. We are proud to contribute to the country’s transition towards a circular economy, while strengthening Kosovo’s position in regional and European recycling markets.”

    Established in 2008, Rec Kos operates in several parts of the recycling value chain, including collection, sorting, processing and trading. The company is the second-largest exporter in Kosovo.

    The loan will help to address some of the structural challenges faced by Kosovo’s small and medium-sized enterprises, which continue to struggle with a lack of competitiveness, constrained access to financing and a weak legal environment. By supporting Rec Kos’s expansion, the investment will also contribute to the development of Kosovo’s underutilised recycling sector, an increasingly important driver of exports and a key enabler of the country’s transition to a circular economy.

    The ENEF II fund has the following investors: the EBRD, the European Union (under the Western Balkans Investment Framework), Italy’s Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Banca Intesa and Germany’s Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau. The fund is advised by the EBRD and focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-cap companies in the Western Balkans. It has built on the successes of its predecessor, ENEF, which helped dozens of companies in the region to grow and expand their businesses.

    The project, fully aligned with the EBRD’s Green Economy Transition (GET) approach, also benefits from technical cooperation support for legal due diligence, which is co-financed by ENEF II technical cooperation funds.

    The EBRD is a leading investor in Kosovo, having invested €803 million through 125 projects to date.

    *Active donors to the HIPCA include Austria, Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the TaiwanICDF, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

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  • Siniakova takes Warsaw title, second WTA 125 of career

    Siniakova takes Warsaw title, second WTA 125 of career

    Katerina Siniakova captured the second WTA 125 singles title of her career over the weekend in Warsaw by defeating Viktorija Golubic in the final of the T-Mobile Polish Open, 6-1, 6-2. 

    The sixth-seeded Czech stormed to her second career WTA 125 — her first came last year in Lleida, Spain — with the loss of just set for the week. After escaping Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee 6-1, 1-6, 7-5 from a break down in the third set in the first round, she lost a combined 16 games in her next four matches. 

    Against Golubic, against whom she was 0-3 previously, the dominant trend continued. She saved all four break points she faced in the 1 hour and 18 minute final, and never trailed on the scoreboard. 

    The former doubles World No. 1 now owns seven career singles titles between Hologic WTA Tour and WTA 125 levels — and at all levels, she has now won six of her last seven singles finals and a singles title every year since 2022.

    She is also now 10-4 in main draws of her last five recent events solo — which included a three-set upset of No. 5 seed Zheng Qinwen at Wimbledon, and a quarterfinal run in Prague — after posting just six main-draw singles wins from the start of the season through the Libéma Open in early June and dropping down to No. 89 in singles in the PIF WTA Rankings.

    However, the 29-year-old’s doubles season has once again been strong, as she came to Warsaw on the heels of winning the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon — her 10th Grand Slam title overall. 

    While the singles draw saw a champion from neighboring Czech Republic, the home crowd had something to cheer about in the doubles event.

    Unseeded Pole Weronika Falkowska and her Czech partner Dominika Salkova were winners over another Polish player, Martyna Kubka, and Dutchwoman Isabelle Haverlag 6-2, 6-1 in the final. The two countrywomen had partnered each other to win the title on home soil in 2024, but found themselves on opposite sides of the net a year later — guaranteeing another Polish champion.

    The winning duo previously upset No. 1 seeds Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden in the semifinals on their way to their first WTA 125 title together. 

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  • Deadly Cloudburst in India Sweeps Away Village in Flash Flood

    Deadly Cloudburst in India Sweeps Away Village in Flash Flood

    The Indian Himalayan state of Uttarakhand is bracing for more heavy rain, after flash floods on Tuesday washed away an entire village and killed at least four people in the region.

    “A massive mudslide struck Dharali village in the KheerGad area near Harsil, triggering sudden flow of debris and water through the settlement,” the Indian Army said in a post on X. Troops were immediately mobilized and have reached the site to undertake rescue operations, it said.

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  • Research seems to show how PM2.5 damages airways, and how the effects might be reversed

    Research seems to show how PM2.5 damages airways, and how the effects might be reversed


    Japanese researchers say they have discovered the mechanism by which exposure to PM2.5 air pollution causes airway dysfunction, and how the resulting damage might be reversed.

    A large portion of natural and human-made air pollutants fall under the PM2.5 category, which relates to airborne particles below 2.5µm diameter. It includes dust, vehicle exhaust and wildfire smoke. When inhaled, it is believed to cause severe airway damage and respiratory diseases. To understand how exactly air pollution particles affect the respiratory system, the researchers ran a series of experiments on mice. They exposed the mice to environmental pollutants and then examined their respiratory tracts for changes in structure and function.

    “Our results were quite informative. We found that PM2.5 air pollutants negatively affect mucociliary clearance, a major protective mechanism in the respiratory tract,” said lead author, Noriko Shinjyo of the University of Osaka, which led the research. “Mucociliary clearance basically involves trapping pollutants in a sticky mucus and then sweeping the pollutants out the airway with hair-like projections called cilia.”

    The researchers’ findings seemed to confirm that the pollutants caused oxidative injury in the airways, which facilitates the formation of lipid peroxide-derived aldehydes. This substance is a reactive aldehyde that damages the protective cells in the airway, including airway cilia. As damaged airway cells and cilia can no longer move debris and pollutants out of the airways, the risk of infection is increased.

    The team also attempted to ascertain how to restore normal cellular function and reverse damage. For this, the researchers investigated how one gene from the ALDH family, known to protect the body against harmful aldehydes, may counter the effect of airway pollutants.

    “Aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH1A1) is an enzyme that plays an important role in protection against aldehydes. We used experimental mice that lacked ALDH1A1 to investigate the impact of air pollutants without the gene,” said Yasutaka Okabe, senior author. “As expected, the mice had impaired cilia formation and function and high levels of aldehydes.”

    The research team also appeared to find that the absence of ALDH1A1 left the cells at a higher risk of serious respiratory infection when exposed to air pollutants. The importance of ALDH1A1 was further emphasized when it was also found that drug-enhanced ALDH1A1 levels improved the mice’s mucociliary function in response to pollutants.

    These findings appear to reveal how PM2.5 pollutants disrupt the lungs’ self-cleaning system. The work also offers a potential therapeutic target: the enzyme ALDH1A1.

    The results were published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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