The United States and China agreed to pause tariff hikes on each other’s goods for an additional 90 days, according to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday. Without the agreement, tariffs were set to immediately surge, risking a return to ultra-high levels that had formed an effective blockade on trade between the world’s two largest economies.
The news, first reported by CNBC, comes hours ahead of a 12:01 am ET deadline when tariffs on Chinese goods were set to rise to 54% from 30%, and Chinese tariffs on American exports would return to 34% from 10%.
In a joint statement with the US, China confirmed the 90-day trade truce extension and said it would maintain the 10% tariffs it has imposed on American goods during that period. The statement was based on the bilateral negotiations that took place in Sweden last month, it said.
The extension comes after Trump imposed a slew of “reciprocal” tariffs on trading partners around the world, which have raised the United States’ effective tariff rate to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Higher tariffs on Chinese goods, America’s second-largest source of imports, would have almost certainly raised the costs many American businesses and consumers could pay — or already are paying — because of increased import taxes Trump has enacted.
After meeting in Sweden in July, Chinese negotiators went as far as to say that a deal was reached. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, both of whom attended the meeting, disputed that, saying nothing was final without Trump’s word.
“We’ll see what happens. They’ve been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with President Xi and myself,” Trump said earlier on Monday.
A White House fact sheet on the extension said trade discussions with China have been “constructive” and quoted Trump saying: “We’re getting along with China very well.”
At the conclusion of last month’s meeting with Chinese trade officials, Bessent said he warned his Chinese counterparts that continuing to purchase Russian oil would bring about huge tariffs under legislation in Congress that allows Trump to impose levies up to 500%.
It’s not clear if the administration is prepared to double down on those threats yet. Trump recently threatened India, which also purchases Russian oil, albeit considerably less than China, with a 50% tariff rate if it continues to do so by the end of this month.
The move to penalize India and not other countries purchasing oil from Russia has been widely criticized by the Indian government, which claims it’s being unfairly singled out. Trump suggested that more countries could face similar threats. “You’re going to see a lot more. So this is a taste,” he said last week.
And over the weekend in a Fox News interview, Vice President JD Vance said such tariffs on China are on the table, though Trump had not yet made a decision.
“Given that we seem to be headed toward some type of deal with China leading to some kind of meeting between Xi and Trump, the administration has definitely been more conciliatory towards China in the past few weeks,” said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator who is now vice president of the Asia Society Policy Institute.
Were China to give in to the administration’s desires to stop purchasing Russian oil, it would be done “quietly and gradually” rather than a Trump announcement on social media, she added.
Much remains unresolved
Bessent also said he voiced concerns and regrets about China’s sales of over $15 billion worth of dual-use technology equipment (that is, equipment that has both commercial and military uses) to Russia and its purchase of sanctioned Iranian oil.
Another sticking point between the US and China has been exportations of rare earth magnets. China agreed to increase exports, but Trump says China has not held up its end of the bargain.
The US also wants to find an American buyer for TikTok, which is currently owned by a Chinese company. Congress has set out a timeline for the app to find new ownership or face a US ban.
US stocks closed lower Monday ahead of key inflation data set to be published Tuesday morning.
This story has been updated. An earlier version misstated the tariff rate the United States would have placed on Chinese goods if the pause had not been extended
(Bloomberg) — Wall Street refrained from making big bets ahead of key inflation report, with a rally in stocks stalling near record highs. Bonds wavered. The dollar edged up. Markets barely budged on a news report that Donald Trump is extending a tariff truce with China.
Investors are turning to economic data for clues on whether the Federal Reserve will be able cut rates in September. Meantime, Trump signed an order extending the truce with the Asian nation for 90 days, CNBC reported. The S&P 500 remained below 6,400. Megacaps were mixed, with Tesla Inc. up and Apple Inc. down. The US president signaled he’d be open to allowing Nvidia Corp. to sell a scaled-back version of its most advanced AI chip to China.
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The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.28%. A dollar gauge rose 0.2%. Bitcoin briefly topped $122,000. Gold futures pared losses as Trump said gold imports will not face US tariffs.
Data due Tuesday is forecast to show US consumers saw a slight pickup in inflation as retailers gradually raised prices on a variety of items subject to higher import duties.
“The market’s reaction to any surprises in the numbers could be exaggerated — especially if a significantly hotter-than-expected CPI print leads traders to believe the Fed may not cut rates at its next meeting,” said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley.
The Fed’s two vice chairs, Michelle Bowman and Philip Jefferson, and Dallas Fed President Lorie Logan are under consideration to serve as chair of the central bank when the position opens next year, according to two administration officials. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will interview additional candidates in the coming weeks, said the officials.
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows 18% of investors believe that the market reaction to CPI will be “risk-on,” 43% said “mixed” and 39% “risk-off”.
The core consumer price index, regarded as a measure of underlying inflation because it strips out volatile food and energy costs, rose 0.3% in July, according to the median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists.
“There is no doubt about it, CPI, will not be good tomorrow,” said Andrew Brenner at NatAlliance Securities. “The bigger question is ‘does it matter?’ We think not. Inflation will remain sticky, with potholes, but a weakening employment situation will commandeer the Fed outlook.”
Money markets show traders have priced in more than two rate reductions by December, with an about 80% probability of a quarter-point Fed cut as early as next month.
There’s a 70% chance of further gains in the S&P 500 after the inflation report, according to the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Market Intelligence team led by Andrew Tyler.
They predict the S&P 500 will advance as much as 2% if the data is either in-line or cooler than estimated. A hot report could spark declines of nearly 3%.
“There’s little evidence that tariffs are biting,” said Mark Hackett at Nationwide. “Retail flows remain strong, institutions are hesitant but still buyers, and share repurchase activity is on pace to hit a record.”
He continues to expect a “sideways trend” until a broader reset later this year.
A light print on US CPI data this week could mean small caps and lower quality stocks would “gain more durable footing,” according to Morgan Stanley strategists led by Michael Wilson.
“We think it makes sense for equity investors to stay nimble” around the report.
Meantime, strategists at Citigroup Inc. raised their year-end target for the S&P 500 to 6,600 points from 6,300. Companies have produced “an impressive beat,” while also mostly sticking with their projections for the second-half of the year, the team led by Scott Chronert said.
US companies struck a more positive tone last week on post-earnings conference calls, although there’s still uncertainty around consumer demand and capex, according to RBC Capital Markets strategists led by Lori Calvasina.
“For now, investors are choosing to focus on what they can see in front of them, which is stronger-than-expected earnings growth, a durable AI secular theme, and a still firm economic backdrop,” said Anthony Saglimbene at Ameriprise.
However, Saglimbene said this week’s key inflation data and reads on the consumer could challenge investors’ rather complacent view of the potential risks to growth.
“Yet, until there is more concrete evidence of tariff impacts, investors appear comfortable putting those risks to the side for now,” he noted.
A record share of fund managers see US stocks as too expensive after the sharp rally since April lows, according to a monthly survey by Bank of America Corp. About 91% of participants indicated that US stocks are overvalued, the highest ever proportion in data going back to 2001.
“We think investors already allocated to equities in line with their strategic benchmarks should consider implementing short-term hedges, while those under-allocated can prepare to add exposure on potential market dips,” said Mark Haefele at UBS Global Wealth Management.
Meantime, interest-rate strategists at BofA lowered Treasury yield forecasts in anticipation that recent economic data will drive a shift in the Fed’s assessment of risks.
Strategists led by Mark Cabana cut their year-end forecast for two-year yields to 3.5%, from 3.75% previously. They see 10-year yields at 4.25% by the end of December compared with the previous estimate of 4.5%.
On the geopolitical front, President Trump downplayed expectations for his upcoming meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin as he seeks to end the war in Ukraine, casting it as a “feel-out meeting” and saying he would confer with Ukrainian and European leaders after the sitdown.
Trump also said he hopes China will massively step up its purchases of American soybeans, even as China has yet to book any cargoes for the upcoming season.
Corporate Highlights:
Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. have agreed to pay 15% of their revenues from Chinese AI chip sales to the US government in an unusual deal that threatens to set a precedent for American companies doing business in the Asian nation. Intel Corp. Chief Executive officer Lip-Bu Tan was expected to meet with Donald Trump, four days after the US president called for Tan’s resignation, citing conflicts of interest. Micron Technology Inc. raised its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue and earnings outlook, citing “improved pricing” for a key product. The Trump administration released new guidance outlining how states can use federal funds to build electric-car chargers after a federal court blocked an earlier move to freeze the program. C3.ai Inc. tumbled after a steep sales miss the software company attributed to its founder’s health issues. Rumble Inc. is weighing an offer to buy German data center company Northern Data AG in an all-stock deal valuing the target at about $1.17 billion that would boost the conservative video service’s bid to become a cloud-computing provider. Ford Motor Co. unveiled plans for a new line of budget electric vehicles in a $5 billion bid to achieve the mass appeal that has so far eluded its money-losing EV business. General Motors Co. is seeking to lure back some former employees of its defunct Cruise autonomous-vehicle business as part of a renewed push to develop a new driverless car, according to people familiar with the matter. An explosion at United States Steel Corp.’s Clairton Coke Works plant in Pennsylvania on Monday left dozens of workers injured or trapped, according to multiple news reports. Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Fox Corp. plan to offer a bundled package that will include both of their new streaming services for $40 a month. Paramount has acquired the exclusive rights to show all events from the Ultimate Fighting Championship in the US over the next seven years, the companies announced Monday, a $7.7 billion deal designed to boost the Paramount+ streaming service. Shares of North American lithium producers soared as investors bet that the suspension of a major Chinese mine would ease a supply glut and likely lead to a rebound in prices. Management of Orsted A/S failed to convince analysts and investors that the company is at a turning point after losing nearly one third of its value from announcing it would sell shares. Barrick Mining Corp. posted a net charge of $1.04 billion related to the seizure of its vast Loulo-Gounkoto gold complex by Mali’s military junta. Electricite de France SA was forced to shut four atomic reactors after a swarm of jellyfish clogged up filter drums at its Gravelines power plant. What Bloomberg Strategists say…
“US stocks no longer look like a one-sided market chasing upside, and any rallies driven by expectations for Federal Reserve support are primed for a sharp unwind if the narrative of a dovish pivot is challenged.”
– Michael Ball, Macro Strategist, Markets Live.
For the full analysis, click here.
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 was little changed as of 3:03 p.m. New York time The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.1% The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.4% The MSCI World Index fell 0.2% Bloomberg Magnificent 7 Total Return Index rose 0.2% The Russell 2000 Index was little changed Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2% The euro fell 0.3% to $1.1611 The British pound fell 0.1% to $1.3433 The Japanese yen fell 0.3% to 148.14 per dollar Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin rose 1.1% to $119,678.58 Ether rose 1.8% to $4,293.07 Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.28% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.70% Britain’s 10-year yield declined four basis points to 4.57% The yield on 2-year Treasuries was little changed at 3.76% The yield on 30-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.84% Commodities
Water is essential for life on Earth. So, the liquid must be a requirement for life on other worlds. For decades, scientists’ definition of habitability on other planets has rested on this assumption.
But what makes some planets habitable might have very little to do with water. In fact, an entirely different type of liquid could conceivably support life in worlds where water can barely exist. That’s a possibility that MIT scientists raise in a study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
From lab experiments, the researchers found that a type of fluid known as an ionic liquid can readily form from chemical ingredients that are also expected to be found on the surface of some rocky planets and moons. Ionic liquids are salts that exist in liquid form below about 100 degrees Celsius. The team’s experiments showed that a mixture of sulfuric acid and certain nitrogen-containing organic compounds produced such a liquid. On rocky planets, sulfuric acid may be a byproduct of volcanic activity, while nitrogen-containing compounds have been detected on several asteroids and planets in our solar system, suggesting the compounds may be present in other planetary systems.
Ionic liquids have extremely low vapor pressure and do not evaporate; they can form and persist at higher temperatures and lower pressures than what liquid water can tolerate. The researchers note that ionic liquid can be a hospitable environment for some biomolecules, such as certain proteins that can remain stable in the fluid.
The scientists propose that, even on planets that are too warm or that have atmospheres are too low-pressure to support liquid water, there could still be pockets of ionic liquid. And where there is liquid, there may be potential for life, though likely not anything that resembles Earth’s water-based beings.
“We consider water to be required for life because that is what’s needed for Earth life. But if we look at a more general definition, we see that what we need is a liquid in which metabolism for life can take place,” says Rachana Agrawal, who led the study as a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “Now if we include ionic liquid as a possibility, this can dramatically increase the habitability zone for all rocky worlds.”
The study’s MIT co-authors are Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a professor in the departments of Physics and of Aeronautics and Astronautics, along with Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Weston Buchanan, Ana Glidden, and Jingcheng Huang. Co-authors also include Maxwell Seager of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, William Bains of Cardiff University, and Janusz Petkowski of Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, in Poland.
A liquid leap
The team’s work with ionic liquid grew out of an effort to search for signs of life on Venus, where clouds of sulfuric acid envelope the planet in a noxious haze. Despite its toxicity, Venus’ clouds may contain signs of life — a notion that scientists plan to test with upcoming missions to the planet’s atmosphere.
Agrawal and Seager, who is leading the Morning Star Missions to Venus, were investigating ways to collect and evaporate sulfuric acid. If a mission collects samples from Venus’ clouds, sulfuric acid would have to be evaporated away in order to reveal any residual organic compounds that could then be analyzed for signs of life.
The researchers were using their custom, low-pressure system designed to evaporate away excess sulfuric acid, to test evaporation of a solution of the acid and an organic compound, glycine. They found that in every case, while most of the liquid sulfuric acid evaporated, a stubborn layer of liquid always remained. They soon realized that sulfuric acid was chemically reacting with glycine, resulting in an exchange of hydrogen atoms from the acid to the organic compound. The result was a fluid mixture of salts, or ions, known as an ionic liquid, that persists as a liquid across a wide range of temperatures and pressures.
This accidental finding kickstarted an idea: Could ionic liquid form on planets that are too warm and host atmospheres too thin for water to exist?
“From there, we took the leap of imagination of what this could mean,” Agrawal says. “Sulfuric acid is found on Earth from volcanoes, and organic compounds have been found on asteroids and other planetary bodies. So, this led us to wonder if ionic liquids could potentially form and exist naturally on exoplanets.”
Rocky oases
On Earth, ionic liquids are mainly synthesized for industrial purposes. They do not occur naturally, except for in one specific case, in which the liquid is generated from the mixing of venoms produced by two rival species of ants.
The team set out to investigate what conditions ionic liquid could be naturally produced in, and over what range of temperatures and pressures. In the lab, they mixed sulfuric acid with various nitrogen-containing organic compounds. In previous work, Seager’s team had found that the compounds, some of which can be considered ingredients associated with life, are surprisingly stable in sulfuric acid.
“In high school, you learn that an acid wants to donate a proton,” Seager says. “And oddly enough, we knew from our past work with sulfuric acid (the main component of Venus’ clouds) and nitrogen-containing compounds, that a nitrogen wants to receive a hydrogen. It’s like one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”
The reaction could produce a bit of ionic liquid if the sulfuric acid and nitrogen-containing organics were in a one-to-one ratio — a ratio that was not a focus of the prior work. For their new study, Seager and Agrawal mixed sulfuric acid with over 30 different nitrogen-containing organic compounds, across a range of temperatures and pressures, then observed whether ionic liquid formed when they evaporated away the sulfuric acid in various vials. They also mixed the ingredients onto basalt rocks, which are known to exist on the surface of many rocky planets.
“We were just astonished that the ionic liquid forms under so many different conditions,” Seager says. “If you put the sulfuric acid and the organic on a rock, the excess sulfuric acid seeps into the rock pores, but you’re still left with a drop of ionic liquid on the rock. Whatever we tried, ionic liquid still formed.”
The team found that the reactions produced ionic liquid at temperatures up to 180 degrees Celsius and at extremely low pressures — much lower than that of the Earth’s atmosphere. Their results suggest that ionic liquid could naturally form on other planets where liquid water cannot exist, under the right conditions.
“We’re envisioning a planet warmer than Earth, that doesn’t have water, and at some point in its past or currently, it has to have had sulfuric acid, formed from volcanic outgassing,” Seager says. “This sulfuric acid has to flow over a little pocket of organics. And organic deposits are extremely common in the solar system.”
Then, she says, the resulting pockets of liquid could stay on the planet’s surface, potentially for years or millennia, where they could theoretically serve as small oases for simple forms of ionic-liquid-based life. Going forward, Seager’s team plans to investigate further, to see what biomolecules, and ingredients for life, might survive, and thrive, in ionic liquid.
“We just opened up a Pandora’s box of new research,” Seager says. “It’s been a real journey.”
This research was supported, in part, by the Sloan Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation.
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The discovery of seven stone tools at Calio on the island of Sulawesi has changed our understanding of early hominin movement across Southeast Asia.
Researchers from Griffith University dated the tools at 1.04 million years old, which suggests that Sulawesi was populated far earlier than was previously believed.
Previous excavations on Sulawesi had revealed stone tools that were dated to around 194,000 years ago, making this latest discovery the earliest direct evidence of hominin presence by far.
In the Early Pleistocene, Calio was a riverside area where tool-making likely took place. The latest tools consisted of seven stone flakes that were crafted from chert, suggesting that early hominins actively selected this material.
Sulawesi rocks locked in time
Calio lies in South Sulawesi’s Walanae Depression, which was formed by tectonic collisions. The tools were recovered from sandstone layers of the Beru Member Sub-Unit B.
This layer belongs to the broader Walanae Formation, known for its river-deposited sediments and rich fossil record.
The Calio excavation revealed complex layering of river-deposited sandstones, conglomerates, and gravel beds.
Among these were the bones of extinct animals, including a maxilla from a suid called Celebochoerus heekereni. This specimen helped confirm the site’s age.
The research team used two powerful dating methods: paleomagnetic analysis and US-ESR dating. Magnetic signals from the sediments showed reversed polarity, giving the tools a minimum age of 773,000 years.
US-ESR dating of fossilized teeth yielded ages between 1.20 and 1.43 million years. This provides a minimum age of 1.04 million years for the stone tools, and possibly as early as 1.48 million years.
The consistency between the results obtained using these methods strengthens the case.
These early tools were not crude. The flakes were struck using hard-hammer freehand percussion. Many show signs of skilled reduction techniques, such as platform rotation and flake-on-flake knapping.
One tool, a Kombewa flake, shows evidence of deliberate retouching along its edge. All tools were made from river-sourced chert and showed signs of expert craftsmanship.
Their larger average size compared to surrounding unmodified pebbles confirms deliberate selection and transport of raw material by the early toolmakers.
Stone tools were excavated from Calio, Sulawesi, and dated to over 1.04 million years ago. The scale bars are 10 mm. Click image to enlarge. Credit: M.W. Moore/University of New England
Humans crossed the sea to Sulawesi
“This discovery adds to our understanding of the movement of extinct humans across the Wallace Line, a transitional zone beyond which unique and often quite peculiar animal species evolved in isolation,” said Professor Adam Brumm of Griffith University.
This crossing required a major ocean voyage. It suggests hominins, possibly Homo erectus – reached islands like Flores, Sulawesi, and Luzon without any land bridges.
Evidence from Luzon and Flores aligns with these findings, but Calio now provides the earliest known date for Wallacean hominin activity.
“It’s a significant piece of the puzzle, but the Calio site has yet to yield any hominin fossils; so while we now know there were toolmakers on Sulawesi a million years ago, their identity remains a mystery,” said Brumm.
Homo floresiensis, found on nearby Flores, is a possible clue. That species may have descended from Homo erectus that reached the island and later became smaller in size due to island isolation. Whether the same happened on Sulawesi remains an open question.
Island life shaped evolution
“Sulawesi is a wild card – it’s like a mini-continent in itself,” said Brumm.
“If hominins were cut off on this huge and ecologically rich island for a million years, would they have undergone the same evolutionary changes as the Flores hobbits? Or would something totally different have happened?”
With Sulawesi being over 12 times larger than Flores, evolutionary outcomes may have diverged. The island’s scale, diversity, and isolation make it an exciting focus for future research.
Sulawesi tool discovery rewrites history
The tools at Calio reveal a chapter of human migration that is not just older, but more complex than we imagined.
These findings don’t just place hominins on Sulawesi over a million years ago – they also highlight their adaptability, tool-making skills, and capacity for long-distance sea travel.
What happened after they arrived? Did they thrive, evolve, or vanish without a trace? We don’t yet know. But each stone flake tells us they were there – getting on with the business of survival.
The study is published in the journal Nature.
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Newly published findings in Frontiers in Immunology showed lower soluble CD83 (sCD83) levels in patients with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorders (NMOSD) and those with relapsing myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease (MOGAD), suggesting sCD83 as a potential prognostic biomarker for these diseases. In contrast, results showed an increase in sCD83 levels after IVIG and immunosuppressive therapy, potentially reflecting either a direct effect of the treatment or a compensatory rebound response following immune suppression.1
Researchers enrolled 231 untreated participants into the study, which included 64 patients with MOGAD, 56 patients with NMOSD, 47 patients with MS, and 64 healthy controls (HCs). Findings in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) analysis revealed that sCD83 levels were lower in NMOSD compared with MOGAD (0.44 [±0.22] RQ vs 1.16 [±0.92] RQ, P = .02) and HCs (0.44 [±0.22] RQ vs 1.07 [±0.91] RQ, P = .05). Notably, patients with NMOSD had a reduced sCD83/CD83 expression ratio compared with HCs (0.71 [±0.16] vs 1.04 [±0.48], P = .02), patients with MOGAD (0.71 [±0.16] vs 1.02 [±0.39], P = .04), and those with MS (0.71 [±0.16] vs 1.16 [±0.45], P = .006).
“In conclusion, our study consistently identified lower sCD83 levels in NMOSD patients compared to those with MOGAD and HCs,” lead author Ariel Rechtman, a PhD student in Medical Bioscience at Hebrew University, and colleagues wrote.1 “These findings highlight sCD83 as a promising biomarker for assessing disease severity, treatment response and early signs of disease activation. Given the risk of irreversible neurological damage associated with relapses, a rapidly responsive biomarker like sCD83 could aid timely therapeutic decision-making. Collectively, our results support sCD83 as both a therapeutic target and a biomarker in CNS demyelinating diseases.”
In an attempt to assess CD83 expression in patients with NMOSD and those with MOGAD as well as its correlation with disease activity, researchers extracted RNA from PBMCs of each group of participants and then analyzed their CD83 expression levels. Authors then used ELISA to quantify sCD83 levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum of the groups of patients. In addition, researchers evaluated the impact of therapeutic agents used for central nervous system demyelinating diseases on sCD83 expression levels.
READ MORE: Mayo Clinic Study Uses MRI Characteristics to Differentiate MOGAD From MS With High Accuracy
In the CSF analysis, NMOSD had significantly lower sCD83 levels compared with MOGAD (215.20 [±202.80] pg/mL vs 44.77 [±47.84] pg/mL, P = .02) and other noninflammatory neurological disorders (311.30 [±411.80] pg/mL vs 44.77 [±47.84] pg/mL, P = .002). Furthermore, sCD83 expression was significantly lower in patients with relapsing MOGAD compared with those with monophasic disease (0.62 [±0.60] RQ vs 1.36 [±1.03] RQ, P = .04). Similarly, sCD83 levels in the sera were significantly reduced in relapsing patients compared with those with the monophasic form (3049.57 [±4621.34] pg/mL vs 10694.80 [±9846.70] pg/mL, p = 0.0009).
Additional findings displayed a significant positive correlation between serum sCD83 levels and normalized total brain volume of patients with MOGAD (r = 0.66, P = .0004). Researchers also reported a significant negative correlation between serum sCD83 levels and the visual evoked potential (VEP) score2 in patients with NMOSD who had optic neuritis (n = 27; r = -0.50, P = 0.00). Moreover, IVIG significantly increased sCD83 concentrations in the serum of those with MOGAD and NMOSD (n = 12, from 3650.21 [±6523.94] pg/mL to 9937.99 [±11710.02] pg/mL, P = .002).
“Limitations of this study include the relatively small number of participants, which can be attributed to the rarity of these disorders. Another limitation is that different treatments can affect sCD83 levels in varying ways; therefore, serum samples intended for disease monitoring should be collected prior to the initiation of therapy,” Rechtman et al noted.1 “Further research with larger cohorts is necessary to validate the use of sCD83 as a biomarker for CNS antibody-mediated demyelinating disease severity and as a potential therapeutic target for these disorders.”
REFERENCES 1. Rechtman A, Zveik O, Shweiki L, et al. Reduced tolerogenic factor sCD83 in NMOSD and relapsing MOGAD: a potential new therapeutic pathway. Front Immunol. 2025;16:1620069. Published 2025 Jul 24. doi:10.3389/fimmu.2025.1620069 2. Raz N, Shear-Yashuv G, Backner Y, Bick AS, Levin N. Temporal aspects of visual perception in demyelinative diseases. J Neurol Sci. 2015;357(1-2):235-239. doi:10.1016/j.jns.2015.07.037
Public health professionals have long dreamed of mounting evidence-based social media campaigns that can cut through the misinformation and resonate with the people who need help. But media campaigns like these are often unscientific and stuck with using untested messages. There hasn’t been a systematic way to generate health messages that resonate with a community.
Their work focused on a high-priority group, Men Having Sex with Men (MSM), who are hard to reach and crucial to the government’s goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030.
The researchers—Dr. Albarracín is the Amy Gutmann University Professor while Dr. Chan is a Research Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication—developed a training dataset of HIV tweets from keyword searches and expert accounts involving federal agencies, nonprofit groups, and HIV/STI researchers. They used Artificial Intelligence to identify the posts that were most relevant and actionable. They then recommended those messages to health officials in 42 U.S. counties who chose the messages to post on their social media accounts.
The system’s recommended messages were six times more likely to be posted compared to a control group of traditional posts, according to their recent article in the journal PNAS Nexus.
“This is a game changer,” Albarracín said. “We developed a process that could generate a “living” campaign. This is critical to stay ahead of an epidemic and to remain relevant in any communication context.”
Any group could set up a similar pipeline, especially if they collaborate with other agencies, the researchers believe. Groups would have to replicate the social media pipeline, which is publicly available, gather some human data to train their models, and launch their campaign.
“We have not estimated the cost,” Albarracín added. But “I can’t imagine it’d be expensive relative to designing messages that have no evidence of efficacy one by one.”
Their next project is running a randomized controlled trial that tests the system with Philadelphia residents. For more on this project, read the Q&A below with Dr. Albarracin, who directs Penn’s Social Action Lab.
What motivated you to do this study? Why is it important?
Albarracín: With notable exceptions, public health messages and interventions have always been designed through a slow and expensive combination of policymakers’ insights, community input, and creatives from advertising agencies. The design and efficacy are both part of the black box, which seemed intellectually and practically unsatisfying. The campaigns also become outdated very quickly, resulting in a limited message volume in the public sphere.
Therefore, in 2014, I began to work on using AI to design a process to design campaigns that (a) were theory- and evidence-based, (b) were generated in real time, and (c) were community-based. My collaborator, Sally Chan, came on board for that, and we developed a process that could generate a “living” campaign. This is critical to stay ahead of an epidemic and to remain relevant in any communication context.
Public health campaigns are costly, their effectiveness is seldom systematically assessed, and no systematic methods existed to build health campaigns in real-time. This is a game changer.
What are the main components of your “Living Method?” Can other groups do it?
Albarracín: The pipeline is like this: (1) Obtaining continuous access to social media messages, using an API or social media aggregator. (2) Selecting messages based on topic and adaptability to different contexts. (3) Using Artificial Intelligence (e.g., neural networks or now generative AI) to select messages that are acceptable and actionable based on theory and ground truth data from human participants. (4) Recommending the messages to an agency, such as a health department. (5) Having agency staff vet messages, select, and send messages as either quotes or adaptations to a particular format (e.g., agency or area), acknowledging the message’s source. (6) Posting the messages from the agency on social media. (7) Receiving the messages within communities.
In our case, the topic was HIV prevention. Any group can implement a similar process. Sally and I are available to answer questions.
What role did AI/machine learning play in this study?
Albarracín: AI was used to learn what makes a message persuasive and actionable from human data and to then process hundreds of thousands of messages and select appropriate ones in real time.
This is the first automated, adaptive system to automatically gather and recommend HIV prevention and testing messages in the U.S. Why is that significant?
The main significance is to attempt to develop a standardized, testable, theory-based approach to develop virtually any campaign. The second significance is the overwhelming impact and buy-in of government and community agencies. The method also increased the volume of messages posted by agencies in a dramatic way, thus facilitating social media operations.
What do you think are your most important findings and why?
Albarracín: The most important findings are that (a) participants find the selected messages persuasive and want to share, and (b) government and community agencies in 42 US jurisdictions are 6 times as likely to post the messages selected with the experimental method versus a less targeted selection.
The map shows the counties that were jurisdiction of the agencies involved in the study.
Counties with participating agencies. Source: Living health-promotion campaigns for communities in the United States: Decentralized content extraction and sharing through AI, Figure 3.
How could public health groups use your system? How much would it cost? Can it be scaled up?
Albarracín: Any group could set up a similar pipeline, particularly in collaboration with other agencies. This was tested in 42 jurisdictions. It should be best practice to design public health campaigns that set ambitious coverage and timeliness goals. We have not estimated the cost. I can’t imagine it’d be expensive relative to designing messages that have no evidence of efficacy one by one.
Could other groups spreading misinformation use your techniques to spread their falsities? How can you protect against that?
Albarracín: Yes, any scientific theory and technology can be used for good or evil. The protection against evil use will come from (a) platforms regulating misinformation, as private businesses; (b) audiences leaving platforms where misinformation prevails; and (c) government agencies ensuring effective and frequent science-based messaging.
What is your next area for research?
Albarracín: The studies did not test whether a recipient changes behavior but whether the behavior of agencies is affected. For recipients, we measured precursors of behavior, and the next step is a randomized controlled trial where the system is tested with residents of the City of Philadelphia.
You chose this group because of the CDC’s HIV goal. Could this be used in other groups?
Albarracín: The study was done to prevent HIV, a key interest for my team and a public health area where the U.S. has traditionally been ahead. In particular, the U.S. has been embarked on the initiative to eradicate HIV by 2030, a program that Anthony Fauci began. The initiative involves reducing infections in the groups with more frequent infections, with MSM being a priority group. The initiative requires an active role by public health agencies and organizations and provides an opportunity to innovate in this domain.
This could be used by any group. They would need to replicate the pipeline, which is publicly available, gather some human data to train their models, and start their campaign. I would recommend re-gathering human data every few years or more frequently, if the issue is volatile. The agency would have to train its staff person to vet the content, which is critical for any serious health campaign.
The study, “Living Health-Promotion Campaigns for Communities in the United States: Decentralized Content Extraction and Sharing Through AI,” was published on June 17, 2025, in PNAS Nexus. Authors include Man-pui Sally Chan, Haesung Jung, Alex Morales, Angela Zhang, Devlin O’Keefe, Sarah Joseph, Anthony Hron, Janet Davis, Tito Terry, Tiffany Peterson, Corey Herrman, Melissa Phillips, Jennifer Osborne, Kelley G. McBride, Martin Hensley, Adriana Todorov, Alain Morrissette, Georgett Watson, Ethan Knox, Erin Lark, Elisa Long, Carolina Guerrero-Lara, Timothy Rissel, Michele Raymond, Patrick Sullivan, Sophie Lohmann, Aashna Sunderrajan, Marta R. Durantini, Travis Sanchez, Chengxiang Zhai, Dolores Albarracín.
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While we’re all desperate to know what this new deal is really worth in dollars and pounds, one thing I can tell you for certain is that Prince Harry and Meghan want us to know they’re delighted that Netflix again wanted to get a deal done.
“Absolutely over the moon” is how it was described to me.
But they’ll also be aware of the attention it’ll attract as we all try to pick apart what it means.
Image: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. Pic: Jake Rosenberg/Netflix
Firstly because of that ongoing fascination in how they’re making money since stepping away from royal life and losing financial support from the King, but also because of the recent reports that Netflix were intending to cut ties.
Yes this is a different type of deal from their original one in 2020. Some have argued that a “first look deal” looks like a demotion from what they previously signed up to.
With no real clarity on how much their original deal was worth, and no numbers being publicly thrown around this time, that is hard to judge.
But talking to those who know something about these kinds of deals you do get a sense it could potentially be more lucrative than it looks on face value.
With first look deals, yes there is often financial commitments from the likes of Netflix to get that first exclusive look at projects and first refusal.
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Harry claims: War of words continues
But there could be other significant monetary incentives for the Sussexes to sign.
For example, when the Obamas signed a first look deal with Netflix, the streaming service agreed to pay the operational costs for their production company “Higher Ground”.
Could it be that Netflix are also now covering the costs of Archewell Productions?
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It’s stating the obvious to say that Harry and Meghan continue to divide opinions, some wanting to watch their programmes from a place of respect and fondness, others as a reason to grumble about them.
But signing on this latest dotted line shows Netflix still sees them as a power couple, who attract significant attention and are worthy of investment, whatever that really adds up to.
University of Georgia researcher Scott Harris holds a chunk of the McDonough Meteorite (Image credit: University of Georgia)
A meteorite that survived atmospheric entry and smashed through the roof of a Georgia home earlier this year may have formed before Earth itself, according to a scientist from the University of Georgia who analyzed fragments of the wandering solar system object.
Residents of several southeastern U.S. states were dazzled on Jul. 26 when they witnessed a rare daytime fireball — bright enough to be registered by an orbiting satellite — blazing Earthward.
The ancient asteroid shard at the heart of the event weathered the intense friction of atmospheric entry to punch a hole through the roof of a house in the city of McDonough, Georgia, shattering the floor a mere 14 feet (4 meters) from an unsuspecting resident.
How old is the McDonough Meteorite?
23-grams-worth of the fragmented meteorite — the name given to meteoroids that reach the ground intact — were later transported to the University of Georgia (UGA), where scientists set to work unravelling the secrets of its origins. “This particular meteor that entered the atmosphere has a long history before it made it to the ground of McDonough, and in order to totally understand that, we actually have to examine what the rock is and determine what group of asteroids it belongs to,” said UGA researcher Scott Harris.
The newly named McDonough Meteorite is thought to be a Low Metal (L) ordinary Chondrite — one of the most ancient forms of rock known to exist in the solar system — that likely formed some 4.56 billion years ago, potentially making it slightly older than Earth.
The impact site of the McDonough Meteorite after it punched a hole through the ceiling of a house in Georgia. (Image credit: University of Georgia)
“It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid about 470 million years ago,” said Harris. That destructive event could have shunted the McDonough asteroid into an Earth-crossing orbit that would eventually see it partially redecorate one Henry County home.
Harris aims to publish a paper detailing the composition of the meteorite along with information about its atmospheric entry later this year. Shards of the McDonough Meteorite are also due to be displayed at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia.
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Water is essential for life on Earth. So, the liquid must be a requirement for life on other worlds. For decades, scientists’ definition of habitability on other planets has rested on this assumption.
But what makes some planets habitable might have very little to do with water. In fact, an entirely different type of liquid could conceivably support life in worlds where water can barely exist. That’s a possibility that MIT scientists raise in a study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
From lab experiments, the researchers found that a type of fluid known as an ionic liquid can readily form from chemical ingredients that are also expected to be found on the surface of some rocky planets and moons. Ionic liquids are salts that exist in liquid form below about 100 degrees Celsius. The team’s experiments showed that a mixture of sulfuric acid and certain nitrogen-containing organic compounds produced such a liquid. On rocky planets, sulfuric acid may be a byproduct of volcanic activity, while nitrogen-containing compounds have been detected on several asteroids and planets in our solar system, suggesting the compounds may be present in other planetary systems.
Ionic liquids have extremely low vapor pressure and do not evaporate; they can form and persist at higher temperatures and lower pressures than what liquid water can tolerate. The researchers note that ionic liquid can be a hospitable environment for some biomolecules, such as certain proteins that can remain stable in the fluid.
The scientists propose that, even on planets that are too warm or that have atmospheres are too low-pressure to support liquid water, there could still be pockets of ionic liquid. And where there is liquid, there may be potential for life, though likely not anything that resembles Earth’s water-based beings.
“We consider water to be required for life because that is what’s needed for Earth life. But if we look at a more general definition, we see that what we need is a liquid in which metabolism for life can take place,” says Rachana Agrawal, who led the study as a postdoc in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. “Now if we include ionic liquid as a possibility, this can dramatically increase the habitability zone for all rocky worlds.”
The study’s MIT co-authors are Sara Seager, the Class of 1941 Professor of Planetary Sciences in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and a professor in the departments of Physics and of Aeronautics and Astronautics, along with Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Weston Buchanan, Ana Glidden, and Jingcheng Huang. Co-authors also include Maxwell Seager of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, William Bains of Cardiff University, and Janusz Petkowski of Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, in Poland.
A liquid leap
The team’s work with ionic liquid grew out of an effort to search for signs of life on Venus, where clouds of sulfuric acid envelope the planet in a noxious haze. Despite its toxicity, Venus’ clouds may contain signs of life — a notion that scientists plan to test with upcoming missions to the planet’s atmosphere.
Agrawal and Seager, who is leading the Morning Star Missions to Venus, were investigating ways to collect and evaporate sulfuric acid. If a mission collects samples from Venus’ clouds, sulfuric acid would have to be evaporated away in order to reveal any residual organic compounds that could then be analyzed for signs of life.
The researchers were using their custom, low-pressure system designed to evaporate away excess sulfuric acid, to test evaporation of a solution of the acid and an organic compound, glycine. They found that in every case, while most of the liquid sulfuric acid evaporated, a stubborn layer of liquid always remained. They soon realized that sulfuric acid was chemically reacting with glycine, resulting in an exchange of hydrogen atoms from the acid to the organic compound. The result was a fluid mixture of salts, or ions, known as an ionic liquid, that persists as a liquid across a wide range of temperatures and pressures.
This accidental finding kickstarted an idea: Could ionic liquid form on planets that are too warm and host atmospheres too thin for water to exist?
“From there, we took the leap of imagination of what this could mean,” Agrawal says. “Sulfuric acid is found on Earth from volcanoes, and organic compounds have been found on asteroids and other planetary bodies. So, this led us to wonder if ionic liquids could potentially form and exist naturally on exoplanets.”
Rocky oases
On Earth, ionic liquids are mainly synthesized for industrial purposes. They do not occur naturally, except for in one specific case, in which the liquid is generated from the mixing of venoms produced by two rival species of ants.
The team set out to investigate what conditions ionic liquid could be naturally produced in, and over what range of temperatures and pressures. In the lab, they mixed sulfuric acid with various nitrogen-containing organic compounds. In previous work, Seager’s team had found that the compounds, some of which can be considered ingredients associated with life, are surprisingly stable in sulfuric acid.
“In high school, you learn that an acid wants to donate a proton,” Seager says. “And oddly enough, we knew from our past work with sulfuric acid (the main component of Venus’ clouds) and nitrogen-containing compounds, that a nitrogen wants to receive a hydrogen. It’s like one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.”
The reaction could produce a bit of ionic liquid if the sulfuric acid and nitrogen-containing organics were in a one-to-one ratio — a ratio that was not a focus of the prior work. For their new study, Seager and Agrawal mixed sulfuric acid with over 30 different nitrogen-containing organic compounds, across a range of temperatures and pressures, then observed whether ionic liquid formed when they evaporated away the sulfuric acid in various vials. They also mixed the ingredients onto basalt rocks, which are known to exist on the surface of many rocky planets.
“We were just astonished that the ionic liquid forms under so many different conditions,” Seager says. “If you put the sulfuric acid and the organic on a rock, the excess sulfuric acid seeps into the rock pores, but you’re still left with a drop of ionic liquid on the rock. Whatever we tried, ionic liquid still formed.”
The team found that the reactions produced ionic liquid at temperatures up to 180 degrees Celsius and at extremely low pressures — much lower than that of the Earth’s atmosphere. Their results suggest that ionic liquid could naturally form on other planets where liquid water cannot exist, under the right conditions.
“We’re envisioning a planet warmer than Earth, that doesn’t have water, and at some point in its past or currently, it has to have had sulfuric acid, formed from volcanic outgassing,” Seager says. “This sulfuric acid has to flow over a little pocket of organics. And organic deposits are extremely common in the solar system.”
Then, she says, the resulting pockets of liquid could stay on the planet’s surface, potentially for years or millenia, where they could theoretically serve as small oases for simple forms of ionic-liquid-based life. Going forward, Seager’s team plans to investigate further, to see what biomolecules, and ingredients for life, might survive, and thrive, in ionic liquid.
“We just opened up a Pandora’s box of new research,” Seager says. “It’s been a real journey.”
This research was supported, in part, by the Sloan Foundation and the Volkswagen Foundation.
