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  • Defending Wimbledon champion Krejcikova escapes again, Rybakina rolls

    Defending Wimbledon champion Krejcikova escapes again, Rybakina rolls

    Two of the last three most recent Wimbledon champions were in action in the second round at the All England Club on Thursday — and both advanced to the third round. 

    But there were different roads to sealing a spot in the Round of 32 for 2022 winner Elena Rybakina and defending champion Barbora Krejcikova.

    What happened

    In a No. 1 Court match between two players who peaked at World No. 3 in the PIF WTA Rankings, No. 11 seed Rybakina rolled past Maria Sakkari 6-1, 6-3 to reach the last 32 at Wimbledon for the fifth consecutive year. 

    After double-faulting twice in the first game of the second set to drop serve, Rybakina didn’t lose another game. 

    She is now 5-1 against Sakkari, whose ranking has slipped to No. 77, all-time, and has won their last four matches.

    Next door on No. 2 Court, No. 17 seed Krejcikova — who dropped the first set of her first-round match against Alexandra Eala of the Philippines on Tuesday — was again stretched to three sets, but had enough to push past American Caroline Dolehide 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

    After two sets in which she hit more errors than winners, Krejcikova saved her best tennis for the third set. She hit 10 winners in eight games, breaking Dolehide twice, and never faced break point herself.

    What they said

    “I think I was playing well on the baseline,” said Rybakina, who hit 23 winners to Sakkari’s five.

    “Overall, I think I found a little bit better my rhythm on the serve later and played pretty confident,” she added, reflecting on losing just two points in her final three service games.

    “[It was] definitely a very tough match today,” Krejcikova said. “Very tough conditions that she’s playing. She’s very difficult player. The match was really up and down, but I’m very happy at the end that I was the won that one and I’m through.”

    What’s next

    Rybakina has, in fact, never lost before the Round of 16 at the All England Club. For a return trip to the second week, she will face either No. 23 seed Clara Tauson of Denmark or Anna Kalinskaya. 

    Krejcikova, meanwhile, has what she dubbed an “interesting” match against No. 10 seed Emma Navarro next. They have never played previously.

    While admitting to not watching any of Krejcikova’s championship run at SW19 12 months ago, Navarro added: “She’s confident on this surface, and she knows she has what it takes to go all the way. But from my end I feel like I have a lot of tools and the ability to sort of combat that.”

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  • Bond Vigilantes Give ‘Worse Than Greece’ Japan A Reprieve

    Bond Vigilantes Give ‘Worse Than Greece’ Japan A Reprieve

    Global bond markets can breathe a little easier following Japan’s successful sales of 30-year debt on Thursday.

    A low bar, perhaps, but then Japanese government bond (JGB) auctions over the last six weeks have tended to make global headlines for all the wrong reasons. Weak demand for a 20-year JGB sale in mid-May rocked markets everywhere.

    That auction attracted the fewest bids since 2012. The fact it happened at a moment when U.S. yields were spiking higher thanks to President Donald Trump’s tariffs amplified the reaction in markets.

    By some measures, it was the sloppiest Japanese sale since 1987. The “tail,” the gap between the average and lowest-accepted price, was the widest in 38 years. Japan’s sale of 40-year bonds later that month didn’t exactly pull in the bids either.

    Clearly, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba didn’t help things by saying in May that Japan’s deteriorating finances are “worse than Greece.” Talk about putting Japan in global headlines for all the wrong reasons.

    Hence the relief this week. The so-called bid-to-cover ratio, a key barometer of demand, was the best since February — 3.58.

    Last month, the Ministry of Finance announced plans to curtail the size of auctions given the risk of more flops. It reduced its offerings of 20-, 30-, and 40-year debt by about $22 billion from now until March 2026. To further smooth things over, the Bank of Japan is scaling back its “quantitative tightening” ambitions.

    Yet, a bull market in uncertainty plagues not just the JGB and U.S. Treasury markets but debt bourses everywhere. That’s because no one knows whether Trump’s trade war is winding down or about to kick into a higher gear.

    On July 9, the globe will wait with bated breath for Trump’s decision on “reciprocal” tariffs. That’s the day his delay on imposing huge import taxes on foes and friends alike expires. Much of the turmoil in debt markets is related to worries that tariffs will send global inflation sharply higher

    Tokyo is already grappling with a 3.7% year-on-year inflation rate, nearly double the Bank of Japan’s 2% target. Anything that exacerbates inflation will put more pressure on the BOJ to continue tightening. Yet with growth contracting 0.2% in the first quarter year on year — and likely to shrink further in the second — big hiking rates could do more harm than good.

    For all the talk of stagflation in the U.S., Japan may be even more susceptible to this most dreaded of dilemmas. If so, the odds of increased government spending rise exponentially. That could put upward pressure on bond yields, boosting borrowing costs for the developed nation with the biggest debt burden.

    There’s an argument that JGBs are less vulnerable than peers because about 88% of outstanding issues are held domestically. This gives rise to a mutually-assured destruction dynamic. If JGB yields rose to 2% or 3%, banks, insurance companies, pension funds, endowments, the postal system and the growing ranks of retirees would suffer painful losses. So, the collective incentive is to hold onto debt issues rather than selling.

    Yet with Trump mulling new shocks to the global financial system, the JGB market is decidedly in harm’s way. So is, by extension, the so-called “yen carry trade.”

    A quarter century of zero rates has made Japan into the top creditor nation. It became common practice for investment funds everywhere to borrow cheaply in yen to bet on higher-yielding assets around the globe. That’s why this trade going awry has been known to blow up hedge funds here and there.

    The good news is that Japan’s debt auctions are now attracting enough demand to calm nerves — and placate the bond vigilantes. The bad news is that all bets could be off if Trump decides to make trade wars great again.

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  • Apple considered providing developers with more cloud services

    Apple considered providing developers with more cloud services

    iCloud is Apple’s main cloud service, but it apparently considered providing developers with more.

    Apple reportedly was considering providing cloud services to app developers, as executives considered the creation of a rival offering to services sold by Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

    Developers often rely on cloud servers for various tasks, ranging from data storage to off-device processing. While the major names in the field include the lies of Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, Apple could’ve been another name on the list.

    According to sources of The Information Apple has internally considered providing server-rentals to developers of iPhone and Mac apps. The deliberations, which have happened over the last few years, have not yet resulted in such a service existing, but there’s a chance one could eventually turn up.

    Executives had envisioned the use of its own chips in servers, used to perform number crunching for clients, including for AI purposes. However, the proponents of the idea thought that Apple’s chips are so efficient that developers could end up saving money versus current-gen cloud services.

    Unknown future

    The internal talks were largely headed up by cloud executive Michael Abbott, who was reportedly the biggest driver of discussions. However, after departing Apple in 2023, talks didn’t die down completely.

    Discussions on the topic apparently took place in the first half of 2024, but it is unknown if any took place after that time. It is also not known if the talks have died completely, or whether they continue at a smaller or more secretive scale.

    Thunderstruck

    The idea of Apple using its own chips to create cloud services is something that has been reported on before.

    A secret project, internally known as “Project ACDC” (Apple Chips in Data Centers), surfaced in May 2024 as Apple’s attempting to develop Apple Silicon specifically for server farm use. The chips would be dedicated to AI processing.

    Part of this initiative was the creation of Private Cloud Compute, which uses Mac chips in Apple’s data centers for AI processing purposes. The Siri team was the first to try them out, with report sources adding that performance improved in terms of accuracy and processing cost versus servers with Intel chips.

    The project then grew to include the Photos and Apple Music teams. It was even referred to internally as a highly private version of Amazon Web Services, the retailer’s major service that is a big part of modern-day Internet infrastructure.

    When it comes to dealing with heavier loads, Apple also has considerable experience, due to using its servers to process Apple Wallet transactions.

    It’s also still working on the idea of making server hardware. In May, it was reported that Apple was still keen on the idea of making new AI server chips, replacing the M2 Ultra currently used for remote Apple Intelligence queries.

    Massive revenue potential

    While it is unknown if Apple will actually go forward with creating a cloud service for use by app developers, it’s a thing that could become quite lucrative for the company. Not to mention saving it money.

    Apple already spends about $7 billion per year on cloud services from Amazon and Google, chiefly for AI training. By building up and using its own infrastructure, it would reduce what goes out of the company in terms of payments, if not necessarily saving money directly.

    As for offering cloud services, a good indicator of what Apple could earn is Google’s revenue. As of 2024, Google Cloud makes up 12% of Alphabet’s revenue, hauling in $43.2 billion in revenue.

    It’s not hard to see how Apple, with its AI-forward hardware, could make a killing on server rental. It just has the massive and expensive task of building up its own infrastructure first.

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  • Why This Country’s Stock Market Is Up 30% This Year – The New York Times

    1. Why This Country’s Stock Market Is Up 30% This Year  The New York Times
    2. Will it become the ‘next IonQ’? Korean ‘Seohak Ants’ can’t sleep amid Circle investment frenzy  bloomingbit
    3. Stablecoin reform drives crypto-related stocks in Korea  Traders Union
    4. What you need to know about stablecoins and stock tokens as Robinhood and Circle pop  MSN
    5. Domestic investors net purchased more than 1 trillion won of stablecoin core related stocks and Coin..  매일경제

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  • Polyphenols in Coffee May Protect Against Type 2 Diabetes

    Polyphenols in Coffee May Protect Against Type 2 Diabetes

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    A new study reports that polyphenols in coffee may offer protection against type 2 diabets. pocketlight/Getty Images
    • Researchers say black coffee can help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes.
    • The findings of a new study suggest that people who regularly drink caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee benefit from some of the beverage’s naturally occurring polyphenols.
    • Experts say the amount of coffee a person can tolerate varies, and you should avoid adding sugar or cream or eating unhealthy breakfast foods with your coffee.

    A new research analysis suggests that black coffee, whether caffeinated or decaffeinated, may help lower the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

    Researchers affiliated with universities in the Republic of Korea say people who drink 3 to 5 cups of black coffee per day benefit from natural compounds known as polyphenols.

    For the study, the researchers compiled data from 149 publications to examine coffee’s effects on the metabolic forces involved in the development of type 2 diabetes. They focused on five hydroxycinnamic acids found in coffee and analyzed the effects these polyphenols had on the small intestines, pancreas, liver, muscle, and tissue.

    The analysis shows that daily consumption of black coffee can help modulate blood sugar levels, suppress inflammation, enhance insulin sensitivity, provide antioxidant properties, and improve glucose metabolism.

    The results were similar for both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee, so the benefits appeared to be derived from compounds other than caffeine. This included a 20–30% lower risk of type 2 diabetes incidence for regular coffee drinkers.

    The scientists say further research is necessary, but the benefits of daily coffee consumption appear to be clear.

    “Coffee and its bioactive compounds, including chlorogenic acid and its hydroxycinnamic acid derivatives… have significant potential in the prevention and management of [type 2 diabetes],” the researchers wrote.

    Zhaoping Li, MD, a professor of medicine and the chief of the Division of Clinical Nutrition at the University of California, Los Angeles, agreed. Li wasn’t involved in the study.

    “Drinking coffee provides natural benefits,” she told Healthline. “You can make coffee part of your healthy lifestyle.”

    Marilyn Tan, MD, a clinical associate professor of medicine at Stanford University in California, had some cautions about the findings. Tan was likewise not involved in the study.

    She said the findings are notable, but added that some of the research reviewed was conducted in lab settings. She said that observational studies don’t always account for external factors such as coffee drinkers’ overall health.

    “[The research] is a very bold statement, as a 20–30% risk reduction is very large and meaningful,” Tan told Healthline. “Interestingly, whether the coffee was caffeinated or not did not seem to make a difference, which suggests it’s not the caffeine driving the benefit, but rather the other components of the coffee.”

    Li explains that coffee is a natural product. If you drink it black, it’s basically just coffee beans and hot water.

    Li said coffee beans contain about 200 compounds, many of which have potential health benefits. In some cases, the mixture of compounds is beneficial.

    Many of these compounds are also similar to the ones found in certain spices.

    “Humans can take advantage of what this [coffee] plant provides,” Li said. “The health benefits of black coffee seem to be obvious.”

    Previous research has indicated that there are other health benefits to regular coffee drinking.

    Another recent study reported that regular consumption of black coffee can reduce a person’s overall mortality risk as well as their risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

    Other studies have associated coffee with improved brain health, lowering the risk of depression, and protecting against certain liver conditions.

    Li cautioned people to be wary of their caffeine intake if they are drinking 3 to 5 cups of coffee per day.

    She said 3 cups daily is probably fine for most people, but some folks may not be able to handle the caffeine load from 4 or 5 servings per day.

    People with certain heart conditions should also carefully monitor their caffeine intake. “Everybody is different,” Li said.

    Tan shared similar concerns. “Three to five cups of coffee is a significant amount,” she said. “If the coffee contains caffeine, excess caffeine may also have other unwanted symptoms, such as headaches, jitteriness, nausea, [and] insomnia. In addition, with certain health conditions (pregnancy, heart disease), this much caffeine may cause physical harm.”

    Li said those who can’t tolerate a lot of caffeine can simply drink decaffeinated coffee. “You remove the caffeine, but the rest of the compounds are still there,” she said.

    People can also drink tea or use spices in their cooking instead of sugar and salt to obtain some of these health benefits, Li added.

    Li said the most important way to derive health benefits from coffee is to drink it black without adding sugar or cream.

    She advised against unhealthy breakfast foods with coffee, such as sugary donuts.

    Li noted that coffee can be particularly helpful if it’s a substitute for other types of liquids, particularly those high in sugar.

    “Black coffee is beneficial, especially if you are replacing sugary drinks with it,” she said.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that nearly 39 million U.S. adults — roughly 15% of the adult population — have diabetes.

    The percentage rises with age, reaching nearly 30% in people ages 65 and older. The condition is also more prevalent in non-white populations and is slightly higher among males than females.

    Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that is characterized by high blood glucose levels, resulting from the body’s ineffective response to insulin or insufficient insulin production.

    The symptoms of type 2 diabetes can include:

    • unusual hunger
    • fatigue or lack of energy
    • excessive thirst
    • frequent urination
    • blurry vision

    There are a number of factors that can raise a person’s risk of type 2 diabetes, such as:

    • genetics
    • excessive weight
    • lack of physical activity
    • a diet high in sugar, refined carbohydrates, and ultra-processed foods

    Li advised people to limit added sugars and monitor the starch and carbohydrates in their daily diets and reiterated the importance of daily exercise.

    Tan agreed that an overall healthy lifestyle can help reduce type 2 diabetes risk. Lifestyle factors that may influence risk include:

    • regular moderate intensity exercise most days of the week
    • reducing carbohydrate intake and minimizing intake of processed foods
    • weight loss if a person has overweight or obesity
    • maintaining muscle mass (being thin alone is insufficient)
    • avoiding tobacco
    • reducing alcohol intake
    • stress reduction
    • sleep quality

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  • EU researchers call for wider use of alternatives to animal testing

    EU researchers call for wider use of alternatives to animal testing

    Researchers examine how the use of animal testing to identify endocrine-disrupting substances in the EU can be reduced. Although it is, in principle, possible to identify such substances without using animals, non-animal methods are still rarely applied.

    A team from the MERLON research project, led by the DTU National Food Institute, has mapped the use of alternatives to animal testing – so-called New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) – in the identification of endocrine disruptors. This required a thorough review of the complex legal framework underlying the EU’s regulation of chemicals in everyday products, ranging from hair shampoo to food.

    The conclusion is that alternative methods are almost never used to demonstrate the harmful effects of endocrine-disrupting substances, even though EU legislation allows for their use in this context. The research has been published in the scientific journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.

    According to the EU law, alternative methods may be used to demonstrate harmful effects of endocrine disruptors if they provide a ‘similar predictive capacity’ as animal tests. The problem is that we currently have only one alternative method that can actually be used for this purpose – namely ‘read-across’, where data from one substance is used to assess another, similar substance.”


    Marie Louise Holmer, Special Consultant at the DTU National Food Institute, and one of the authors of the scientific article

    “Read-across is ready to be used now, and we should apply it as broadly as possible. However, when it comes to other alternative methods, such as computer-based models and cell-based tests, substantial further development is still required.”

    Better for both animals and humans

    Alternative testing methods are, from an animal welfare perspective, clearly preferable. However, these methods are also much faster to carry out, which means that NAMs could significantly increase the efficiency of identifying endocrine disruptors in the EU.

    “This is an area in which we are in urgent need of the support offered by digitalisation and new laboratory techniques. The WHO estimates that over 60,000 chemical substances are in global commerce. With today’s methods, we would not be able to test them all for the many harmful effects associated with endocrine disruptors – not even in 100 years,” says Marie Louise Holmer.

    Endocrine disrupting substances pose risks to humans, animals and the environment, and can affect health in multiple ways. They may, for example, be carcinogenic, impair fertility, or interfere with the development of the brain and immune system. In the EU, substances can be regulated if testing confirms they are endocrinedisrupting – and such testing has so far primarily relied on animal experiments.

    Animal testing has been widely debated for many years. Following a large public petition, the European Commission is developing a roadmap to outline how all animal testing for chemical safety assessments can eventually be phased out.

    A balanced transition

    The researchers advocate a balanced approach. They argue that there is a need both to develop and validate alternative methods and to explore how these, potentially in combination, can predict harmful effects to the same degree as animal tests. At the same time, animal testing should be refined and optimised to provide as much valuable information as possible.

    “We must ensure that the alternatives are just as effective as animal testing before animal methods can be phased out completely. That is why we also emphasise the continued need for animal testing until alternatives are fully accepted and routinely implemented in chemical regulation,” says Marie Louise Holmer.

    Dialogue to build common ground

    One of the recommendations from the researchers is to bring together all stakeholders affected by the legislation in order to build consensus.

    “We need, among other things, to determine when results from New Approach Methodologies – or combinations of New Approach Methodologies – are sufficiently robust and reliable to predict harmful effects and thus replace animal testing,” says Marie Louise Holmer.

    Stakeholders could include national authorities (such as the Danish Environmental Protection Agency), relevant EU agencies, researchers, industry representatives, and NGOs.

    Facts: Identifying endocrine-disrupting substances in the EU

    Three criteria must be fulfilled to classify a substance as endocrine-disrupting:

    1. It must cause harm (as assessed via animal tests or NAMs – the latter are currently seldom used for this purpose).

    2. It must interfere with hormone systems (NAMs are already used here).

    3. A link must be demonstrated between the hormonal disruption and the adverse effect.

    Facts: What are NAMs?

    NAMs include:

    • In vitro tests – laboratory experiments carried out on cells or tissues outside a living organism.

    • In silico models – computer-based models that predict the properties and effects of chemicals.

    • Read-across – using data from one chemically similar substance to assess another.

    Source:

    DTU (Technical University of Denmark)

    Journal reference:

    Holmer, M. L., et al. (2025). Assessment of endocrine disruptors in the European Union: Current regulatory framework, use of new approach methodologies (NAMs) and recommendations for improvements. Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2025.105883.

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  • T cells take aim at Chikungunya virus – lji.org

    T cells take aim at Chikungunya virus – lji.org

    LA JOLLA, CA—A new study, published recently in Nature Communications, offers the first-ever map of which parts of Chikungunya virus trigger the strongest response from the body’s T cells. 

    With this map in hand, researchers are closer to developing Chikungunya vaccines or therapies that harness T cells to strike specific targets, or “epitopes,” to halt infection. The new study also offers important clues for understanding why many people experience chronic, severe joint pain for years after clearing the virus.

    Aedes mosquito. This species can transmit viruses such as Chikungunya, dengue and Zika. Credit: NIAID

    “Now we can see what T cells are seeing patients with chronic disease,” says LJI Assistant Professor Daniela Weiskopf, Ph.D., senior author of the new study.

    This research comes as many mosquito-borne viruses, including Chikungunya, are moving into new areas of the globe.

    “Historically, Chikungunya was considered an emerging virus. Now all of Latin America has been exposed,” says Weiskopf. “These mosquitoes are traveling further north, and we need to know what’s going on with this virus before it arrives in the United States.”

    T cells jump into action

    Chronic Chikungunya virus disease strikes between 30 to 60 percent of those infected—usually women—and causes severe joint pain. This debilitating joint pain can last for years following the initial viral infection. 

    In a study out earlier this year, Weiskopf and her colleagues showed that these patients have a population of inflammatory CD4+ T cells that closely resembles the T cell signature of rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease.

    “So many people, mostly women, have chronic disease following Chikungunya virus infection,” says Weiskopf. “This has an impact on the workforce and impacts the economy. And there’s no treatment.”

    Weiskopf and her colleagues are working to understand why these CD4+ T cells linger and cause problems long after a person clears the virus. For this study, they investigated whether people who develop chronic disease produce T cells that naturally target a different set of epitopes on Chikungunya virus.

    Would a different “flavor” of T cells be more likely to stay in the body after infection?

    Weiskopf and her team used a “peptide pool” approach to assemble a map of key T cell epitopes on Chikungunya virus. The researchers broke up the virus into very small amino acid sequences, called peptides. Then they took T cells from people with chronic Chikungunya virus disease and exposed these cells to the pool of peptides.

    By stimulating the T cells, the researchers discovered exactly which parts of the virus are most likely to be recognized by T cells. These “immunodominant” regions may prove to be good targets for future Chikungunya treatments.

    Rimjhim Agarwal, a UC San Diego graduate student and member of the Weiskopf Lab, spearheaded experiments to learn more about these T cells. Agarwal received funding from The Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards for Innovations in Immunology to take a closer look. 

    For her project, funded through the generosity of the Rosemary Kraemer Raitt Foundation Trust, Agarwal  compared CD4+ T cells from people with chronic Chikungunya virus disease to people who cleared the virus quickly with no lasting symptoms.

    Agarwal found that both patient groups had T cells that targeted the same viral epitopes. People who developed chronic disease did not recognize different proteins of the virus.

    Now the question is—why do these T cells stick around to cause inflammation in some but not all people? Weiskopf and Agarwal are now looking at where Chikungunya virus might hide in the body to stimulate a long-term T cell response.

    The LJI team also hopes to help other laboratories shed light on how to fight the virus. “Identifying the immunodominant T cell epitopes could seed new research into Chikungunya-specific T cell responses,” says Agarwal.

    Additional authors of the study, “Identification of immunogenic and cross-reactive chikungunya virus epitopes for CD4+ T cells in chronic chikungunya disease,” included Calvin Ha, Fernanda H. Côrtes, Yeji Lee, Amparo Martínez-Pérez, Rosa Isela Gálvez, Izabella N. Castillo, Elizabeth J. Phillips, Simon A. Mallal, Angel Balmaseda, Eva Harris, Claudia M. Romero-Vivas, Lakshmanane Premkumar, Andrew K. Falconar, Alba Grifoni, and Alessandro Sette.

    The research was supported by LJI’s Tullie and Rickey Families SPARK Awards for Innovations in Immunology, the National Institutes of Health (grants 75N93019C00065 and 75N93024C00056), La Jolla Institute for Immunology, Kyowa Kirin, Inc. (KKNA-Kyowa Kirin North America), and ARPA-H (grant 1AY1AX000039).

    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-60862-7

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  • Apple is right to ditch iPad Fold in favor of the iPhone Fold

    Apple is right to ditch iPad Fold in favor of the iPhone Fold

    Apple has long been rumored to be working on the iPhone Fold and a foldable iPad. A new report claims that the iPad project is “paused,” and I am convinced that it’s the right decision.

    The folding device rumors have been plentiful in recent years, and the general belief was that something would be released in 2026 or thereabouts. Whether that would be a phone or some sort of tablet-laptop hybrid was unclear, depending on which analyst you listened to.

    It’s important to remember that this latest report, courtesy of DigiTimes, doesn’t say that the foldable iPad has been canceled. Rather, it says that Apple has “decided to pause progress” on the project.

    Of course, this is from DigiTimes. These are the guys who said that the Pro Display XDR was an iMac, so anything and everything they say needs to be taken with not just a grain of salt, but an entire salt lick.

    If accurate, just how long that pause will last, we’ll have to wait and see. After all, a foldable screen iSomething has been rumored to be a next-year product for the last seven.

    Who’s waiting for a foldable iPad, anyway?

    If there was any potential at all for the foldable iPad to hamper Apple’s plans for a foldable iPhone, in design, engineering, shipping, or production, I think that Apple did the right thing by giving the iPhone priority.

    Why that is comes down to expectations, demand, and the market around Apple in 2025. The lack of a foldable iPhone is… something for Apple, especially as other phone makers continue to iterate at lightning speed. Whether or not it’s a real issue depends very much on your iPhone use case.

    The foldable phone market is spendy, and relatively niche. Most folding smartphones cost more than an iPhone 16 Pro Max, and that’s a giant pill to swallow for most Android folks. Any customer — especially high-end ones — lost to Android because they aren’t being catered to, is one too many.

    Foldables are here to stay, and getting those customers back might take something very special indeed.

    I’m still not sure how many people are clamoring for a foldable iPad that can turn into a MacBook of sorts, when traditional MacBooks continue to sell gangbusters.

    Ultimately, following the launch of Apple Vision Pro, I’m not sure Apple wants another comparatively low-volume launch — compared to non-folding iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches, at least.

    Apple is behind the competition

    Apple might not have entered the foldable fray just yet, but others haven’t been waiting to take the lead. Big-name players like Samsung and Motorola have years of experience in foldable smarphones behind them, and their wares are starting to show it.

    Even flaming data that you get from failures is data. Both Samsung and Motorola have that, in scores of creased screens, seized hinges, and famously, high-profile reviewers peeling off the screen film.

    Samsung is, in fact, getting ready to announce refreshed foldable models. But Apple’s really being shown up by the likes of Oppo and Honor, and I think that’s a problem.

    The Oppo Find N5 is an incredible foldable phone. It’s impossibly thin, super-fast, and looks great. The brand-new Honor V5 is even thinner, albeit by just 0.1mm.

    The Oppo Find N5 is one thin foldable phone.

    Both of these phones have fancy hinges that are designed to deal with known foldable issues. Those issues? Prominent creases and dust ingress that can cause chaos, which I’ve alluded to before.

    Both phones are rated as being dust and water resistant as a result of the new hinge, and both have almost invisible creases. Oh, and both have gorgeous 120Hz OLED foldable panels, too.

    It has long been assumed that Apple is late to the foldable market because it didn’t want to deal with the issues that plagued these devices. But those issues have (mostly) been dealt with, and we may already have a look at what Apple is planning for the crucial hinge.

    That leaves the obvious, uncomfortable, lingering question: If Oppo and Honor can do it, why can’t Apple?

    Why it’s taken so long for Apple to get here, we don’t yet know. It may not want to yet, because we know it has the technology and the research. Maybe that’s a question that will be answered when the iPhone Fold is finally announced.

    But probably not. Apple is monolithic in its silence about matters like this — until it decides in its interminable wisdom that it’s time not to be.

    I hope I’m wowed and that the wait suddenly makes sense.

    iPads are iPads, and MacBooks are MacBooks

    With Apple’s iPhone Fold maybe desperately needed, and craved by a few high-rollers, what of the iPad Fold?

    While there are Windows PC versions of something similar to the rumored iPad Fold, they are far from mainstream. I liken them to the Tablet PC of the late 1990s — they’re cool, but ultimately don’t answer a real need for enough people.

    Apple’s iPad lineup is full of popular products, and the same goes for the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lineups. Mixing the two together seems an odd decision. Not least because we don’t know whether it would run iPadOS or macOS.

    Ultimately, it comes down to a simple question of priorities and resources. One of Apple’s rumored foldable devices was always going to come first, the only question was which one it would be.

    For me, there was only ever one option. The iPhone Fold should have been in Apple’s lineup years ago. I still don’t see where an iPad Fold fits into it.

    Apple isn’t hurting for money. It can wait forever if it needs to, and folks that remember the iPod or iPhone taking off right out of the gate are remembering history wrong. It took a few years for both, and the iPad and Apple Watch even longer. We’re in the midst of that “what is this for” for Apple Vision Pro right now.

    But lost sales are lost sales. War chest or not, shareholders expect everything to be done to make more of it.

    With that in mind, Apple seems to have made the obvious decision. Concentrate on the product people are likely to buy while pausing the one they aren’t.

    I can’t wait to see what a foldable iPhone has to offer. And who knows, maybe it’ll get me excited for a foldable iPad as well.

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  • Radiation Physics and Safety in Fluoroscopy: A Clinician’s Guide to Principles and Practice

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  • ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Actor Was 67

    ‘Reservoir Dogs’ Actor Was 67

    Michael Madsen, the rough-and-tumble actor best known for his work in the Quentin Tarantino films Reservoir Dogs, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2, The Hateful Eight and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, died Thursday morning. He was 67.

    Madsen was found unresponsive by deputies responding to a 911 call at his Malibu home and pronounced dead at 8:25 a.m., a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

    Liz Rodriguez, his rep at EMR Media Entertainment, told THR “we understand Michael had a cardiac arrest.”

    Madsen’s official bio notes that he “balanced intensity with introspection … whether delivering chilling dialogue or quietly capturing a moment behind the camera, his commitment to storytelling remained constant. He brought both edge and soul to every role, and his enduring influence on American cinema is undeniable.”

    His big screen body of work included WarGames (1983), The Natural (1984), The Doors (1991), Thelma & Louise (1991), Free Willy (1993), Species (1995), Donnie Brasco (1997), Die Another Day (2002), Sin City (2005) and Scary Movie 4 (2006).

    He has 346 acting credits in IMDb in a career that began in the 1980s.

    “Fame is a two-edged sword,” he told THR’s Scott Roxborough in 2018. “There are a lot of blessings but also a lot of heavy things that come with it. I think it has a lot to do with the characters I’ve played. I think I’ve been more believable than I should have been. I think people really fear me. They see me and go: ‘Holy shit, there’s that guy!’

    “But I’m not that guy. I’m just an actor. I’m a father, I’ve got seven children. I’m married, I’ve been married 20 years. When I’m not making a movie, I’m home, in pajamas, watching The Rifleman on TV, hopefully with my 12-year-old making me a cheeseburger. I sure as hell had my rabble-rousing days, but sooner or later you have to get over that and move on.”

    He appeared in dozens of films in the past five years alone, many of which were forgettable.

    “Well, sometimes people forget that sometimes you have to pay the mortgage, sometimes you have to put your kids through school,” he said. “You can’t always pick the greatest script. And you pick a project you probably shouldn’t be involved in and then you have to live with it all your life.”

    One of three kids, Madsen was born in Chicago on Sept. 25, 1957. His father, Calvin, was a firefighter with the Chicago Fire Department, and his mother, Elaine, was an author turned filmmaker who won an Emmy in 1983 for producing the documentary Better Than It Has to Be, about the history of movie-making in the Windy City. His folks divorced when he was 11.

    Inspired by Robert Mitchum in the war movie Heaven Knows Mr. Allison (1957), Madsen began his career at the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago, where he learned from John Malkovich and appeared in Of Mice and Men as Carlson, the ranch hand who kills an innocent dog.

    After moving to Los Angeles and working as a mechanic at a gas station in Beverly Hills, he appeared in two episodes of NBC’s St. Elsewhere in 1982, then played a cop in WarGames, directed by John Badham.

    In Tarantino’s directorial debut film, Reservoir Dogs (1992), Madsen landed the role of the ultra-cruel Mr. Blonde. He said he really wanted to play Mr. Pink because he had more lines with the veteran Harvey Keitel, but Steve Buscemi got that part. It was Mr. Blonde or nothing, Tarantino told him.

    “I had never met Quentin before,” he told The Independent in a 2016 interview. “I walked in the room at the 20th Century Fox lot and he was standing there with his arms folded, Harvey sitting on the couch in bare feet.” He did get to cut off a cop’s ear in the movie, however.

    For Tarantino’s follow-up, Pulp Fiction (1994), Madsen declined the role of Vincent Vega, which went to John Travolta in what would be an Oscar-nominated turn. Madsen instead starred as the mobster Sonny Black in the crime film Donnie Brasco, directed by Mike Newell.

    In the martial arts action films Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2, released in 2003 and 2004, Madsen portrayed the assassin Budd (code name Sidewinder) and strip club bouncer who is an early target of the avenging Bride (Uma Thurman).

    He then was the quiet cowpoke Joe Gage in The Hateful Eight (2015) and Sheriff Hackett on Bounty Law, the fictional 1960s TV show at the center of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019).

    Survivors include his younger sister, Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen. One of his children with wife DeAnna Madsen, Hudson, died by suicide in 2022.

    Madsen also was a published poet and accomplished photographer, and he has a book, Tears For My Father: Outlaw Thoughts and Poems, due out next year.

    Writes Tarantino in the foreword: “For me, the real journey that Michael the writer is exploring is what it means to be a man in a world where the notions of manhood that some of us grew up with are barely remembered. But then if everybody embarked on the hero’s journey, everybody would be a hero, wouldn’t they?”

    Hilary Lewis contributed to this report.

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