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  • Respiratory drive and survival in comatose out-of-hospital post-cardia

    Respiratory drive and survival in comatose out-of-hospital post-cardia

    Introduction

    Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a life-threatening medical emergency that requires rapid and efficient resuscitation. Evidence strongly supports the role of a multidisciplinary team in providing thorough post-resuscitation care after the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC).1 Despite advancements in treatment protocols, mortality rates remain elevated, and the majority of patients are discharged with unfavorable neurological outcomes.2

    OHCA survivors frequently develop multiple organ failure resulting from ischemia-reperfusion injury, a condition collectively termed post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS). This syndrome considerably impacts mortality rates.3 PCAS progresses through distinct phases, with the early and intermediate phases, spanning up to 72 h after ROSC,4 representing a critical period for intensive care monitoring and intervention. Previous studies have largely concentrated on the pathophysiology of PCAS with respect to the heart and brain, leaving the respiratory system relatively underexplored. Current guidelines emphasize general respiratory care measures, such as maintaining normal carbon dioxide levels and oxygen saturation levels above 94%.1 Emerging evidence has begun to shed light on the potential role of respiratory dynamics in post-cardiac arrest outcomes. A study involving unconscious OHCA patients who underwent mechanical ventilation and temperature management in the first 72 h identified respiratory rate and driving pressure as key predictors of 6-month mortality.5 Similarly, animal models of post-cardiac arrest have demonstrated an elevated respiratory drive but reduced tidal volumes compared to non-arrested controls.6 This suggests that a mismatch between respiratory drive and ventilation, referred to as ventilation-drive coupling, potentially contributes to alveolar injury.

    Modern ventilators can automatically evaluate the respiratory drive using measurements such as P0.1, which reflects the airway pressure recorded during the first 100 ms of an end-expiratory occlusion. P01 is considered a reliable metric because of its independence from respiratory mechanics and its minimal influence on patient responses during brief occlusions. For patients with critical illness, a P0.1 range of 1.5–3.5 cmH2O is generally considered acceptable.7 However, the optimal range of P0.1 in patients following OHCA remains unclear, and its potential utility as a prognostic tool in this population remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate respiratory drive variations in comatose patients following OHCA and to examine their association with survival.

    Materials and Methods

    Study Design

    This prospective cohort study included patients with OHCA admitted to Songklanagarind Hospital between October 2022 and October 2024. Enrollment was conducted within 24 h of hospital admission, and participants were followed up until discharge.

    Adults aged 18 years or older diagnosed with OHCA and achieving ROSC for at least 20 min were included. Eligibility required unconsciousness with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score below 8 and admission to the medical intensive care unit (MICU) or cardiac care unit (CCU) within 24 h of ROSC. Additionally, patients were required to be on a ventilator capable of measuring P0.1 and were expected to require mechanical ventilation for over 24 h.

    The following patients were excluded: terminally ill patients receiving palliative care, individuals on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, pregnant patients, and those in a pre-cardiac arrest vegetative state or coma.

    This research acquired approval from the Ethics Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University (REC 65–310-14-4) and adhered to the guidelines established in the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent was provided by the patient’s nearest relative or designated individual promptly and subsequently by the patient upon regaining capacity. This study was registered in the Thai Clinical Trials Registry (TCTR20221010003).

    Setting

    Songklanagarind Hospital is an 850-bed tertiary referral center in Thailand. It includes a 12-bed MICU and 6-bed CCU staffed by 5 full-time intensivists and 4 cardiac interventionists available throughout the week. Patients who experienced cardiac arrest were treated following local policy guidelines, which aligned with the American Heart Association 2020 recommendations.1 For comatose patients, targeted temperature management (TTM) was implemented based on physician discretion. Coronary angiography (CAG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) were performed by cardiac interventionists when considered clinically appropriate. Neuroprognostication utilizes a multimodal approach, with brain-death declarations made by a team of neurologists.

    Data Collection

    Electronic medical records provided information on baseline clinical variables, including sex, age, height, weight, underlying diseases, admission date, etiology of cardiac arrest, no-flow time, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) duration (from documented start to stop times), time to ROSC, and initial cardiac rhythm. If no height record was available in the medical chart, the height was estimated from the photograph of the patient’s Thai national identity card, which includes a height scale. The predicted body weight (PBW) was then calculated using the standard formula: 50 + 0.91 × (height in centimeters – 152.4) for males and 45.5 + 0.91 × (height in centimeters – 152.4) for females.8 The height used for PBW calculation was primarily obtained from medical records; when unavailable, height from the identity card was used as an alternative.

    Physiological and laboratory parameters were documented to compute the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) score, utilizing the worst values recorded within the initial 24 h following admission.9 Additional data included vital signs, respiratory and ventilator parameters, arterial blood gas results, sedation, and continuous neuromuscular blocking agent (NMBA) use, Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS), GCS at 24, 48, and 72 h post-admission, and the Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) score at the time of hospital discharge. Circulatory shock was defined as a systolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg for at least 30 min or the need for supportive measures to maintain a systolic pressure ≥ 90 mmHg, accompanied by signs of end-organ hypoperfusion, such as cool extremities, urine output < 30 mL/h, and a heart rate > 60 beats/min.10 The RASS, ranging from +4 (combative) to −5 (unarousable), assigns a score of 0 for patients who are alert and calm.11 For patients on mechanical ventilation, a GCS verbal score of 1 is assigned.12 The CPC scale ranges from 1, indicating good cerebral performance, to 5, representing brain death.13

    P0.1 values and respiratory parameters, including arterial blood gas measurements, were obtained 24, 48, and 72 h post-admission, with a permissible variation of up to 3 h. P0.1 was measured with a Dräger Evita XL ventilator (Dräger Medical, Lübeck, Germany) through an automated maneuver performed four times at 1-min intervals, and the average value was calculated.14 At the time of measurement, all patients received full ventilatory support in either pressure-controlled or volume-controlled mode. The ratio of minute ventilation (VE) to P0.1 was used to evaluate the ventilation-drive coupling.15,16

    Primary Outcome

    The primary outcome was the in-hospital mortality rate. Non-survivors were classified by the cause of death into one of the following categories: withdrawal of care attributed to neurological status, withdrawal of care due to comorbid conditions, refractory hemodynamic shock, refractory respiratory failure, or sudden cardiac death.17

    Statistical Analyses

    In a study by Rittayamai et al,18 the mean P0.1 value for critically ill patients, including those who had experienced cardiac arrest, was 2.6 ± 1.7 cmH2O. For non-survivors, P0.1 value was estimated to be 1 cmH2O lower than the reported mean value of 2.6 cmH2O, resulting in an estimated P0.1 of 1.6 cmH2O. This estimation, along with a standard deviation of 1.70, alpha level of 0.05, and statistical power of 80%, indicated that a sample size of 23 was required to test the population mean.19 To account for a potential 30% dropout rate, the adjusted sample size was calculated to be 30 participants.

    The Shapiro–Wilk test was used to assess the normality of the continuous data. Continuous variables are reported as medians with interquartile ranges (IQR), and the Mann–Whitney U-test was used for comparisons. Categorical variables are summarized as frequencies and percentages, and comparisons were performed using Fisher’s exact test. Repeated measurements over time were analyzed using generalized estimating equations.

    The odds ratio of in-hospital mortality for P0.1 values considered acceptable in mechanically ventilated patients—which were 1.5–3.5 cmH2O at 24, 48, and 72 h—was assessed using univariable logistic regression. Multivariable analysis was adjusted for established survival predictors, including witnessed arrest, bystander CPR, shockable rhythms, and prehospital ROSC.20

    The association between P0.1 and variables such as VE, tidal volume, compliance, and RASS over time were analyzed using linear mixed models. Variance explained by fixed effects was measured through Marginal R2, while Conditional R2 captured the combined contribution of fixed and random effects.21,22 A significance level of P < 0.05 was applied to all statistical analyses. Data were analyzed using STATA version 16 (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX, USA).

    Results

    Among 59 post-cardiac arrest patients, 29 were excluded, and 30 patients were prospectively evaluated (Figure 1). Of the 16 patients who died, the causes of death included withdrawal of care due to neurological status (8/16, 50%), withdrawal of care due to comorbid conditions (3/16, 18.8%), refractory respiratory failure (2/16, 12.5%), sudden cardiac death (2/16, 12.5%), and refractory hemodynamic shock (1/16, 6.2%).

    Figure 1 Patients enrolled in the study.

    Abbreviations: CCU, cardiac care unit; ECMO, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; ECPR, extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation; MICU, medical intensive care unit.

    The baseline characteristics of patients, categorized by their survival status at hospital discharge, are presented in Table 1. Most patients were male (80%), with a median age of 61 years. While 86.7% experienced witnessed arrest, only 53.3% received bystander CPR. The most common initial cardiac rhythm was shockable rhythm. The median no-flow time was 12 min. Most surviving patients had poor neurological outcomes at discharge, with a median CPC score of 4.

    Table 1 Baseline Characteristics of the Patients

    Regarding respiratory drive and ventilator parameters, the P0.1 values in the survival group were higher than those in the non-survival group (1.34 vs 0.56, 1.63 vs 0.16, and 1.28 vs 0.93 cmH2O), but these differences did not achieve statistical significance (Table 2 and Figure 2). The tidal volume per predicted body weight was significantly lower in the survival group during the first 24 h after admission (P = 0.034). Ventilation-drive coupling (VE/P0.1) was generally lower in the survival group than in the non-survival group, although this difference was not statistically significant (Table 2).

    Table 2 Comparison of Respiratory Drive, Respiratory Parameters, and Sedation Depth Between Survivors and Non-Survivors Over a 72-h Period

    Figure 2 P0.1 trend in the survival and non-survival groups during the 72-h period post-admission.

    Abbreviations: Q, quartile.

    To evaluate the relationship between P.01 values and mortality, patients with P0.1 values of 1.5–3.5 cmH2O were analyzed. Measurements taken 24 h post-admission revealed an independent association with reduced in-hospital mortality (adjusted OR 0.043, 95% CI, 0.003–0.588; P = 0.018) (Table 3). When plotting P0.1 values over time for the survival and non-survival groups, patients in the survival group predominantly had P0.1 values within the range of 1.5–3.5 cmH2O. In contrast, patients in the non-survival group mostly had values below 1.5 cmH2O, falling outside the acceptable range (Figure 3).

    Table 3 Odds Ratio of in-Hospital Mortality for P0.1 Values (1.5–3.5 cmH2O)

    Figure 3 P0.1 values for surviving patients (A) and non-surviving patients (B).

    Linear mixed model analysis showed no statistically significant associations between P0.1 and VE, tidal volume, lung compliance, or RASS over time (Table 4). These findings indicated that changes in P0.1 were not strongly correlated with these parameters during the study period.

    Table 4 Linear Mixed Model Association Between P0.1 and Ventilatory Parameters Over Time

    Discussion

    This study investigated the alteration of the respiratory drive, particularly P0.1, in comatose patients with OHCA and its correlation with sedation levels, ventilation parameters, and patient outcomes. The findings revealed a trend toward higher P0.1 values in survivors than in non-survivors. Additionally, survivors had significantly lower tidal volumes per predicted body weight than non-survivors. Notably, P0.1 levels within the optimum range of 1.5–3.5 cmH2O were significantly associated with reduced in-hospital mortality.

    To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the respiratory drive and its association with outcomes in post-cardiac arrest patients. P0.1 serves as a reliable, non-invasive indicator of respiratory drive, reflecting the neural effort involved in breathing. Previous studies have identified a normal range of 1.5–3.5 cmH2O for P0.1 in mechanically ventilated critically ill patients, with deviations indicating abnormal respiratory drive.23 Our study supports these findings by demonstrating an association between P0.1 values within this range and reduced in-hospital mortality, underscoring its potential as a prognostic tool in this patient population.

    The concept of ventilation–drive coupling, which examines the relationship between respiratory drive and delivered ventilation, holds particular significance in critically ill patients. Post-cardiac arrest patients frequently exhibit a mismatch between the signals from the respiratory center and the mechanical ventilation administered, resulting in suboptimal ventilation strategies. For instance, animal studies, such as the porcine model by Yang et al,6 have shown that post-arrest animals require a higher respiratory drive to achieve the same level of ventilation as their non-arrested counterparts. This uncoupling can contribute to alveolar injury and adverse outcomes. In our study, the survivors demonstrated higher P0.1 values, reflecting a stronger respiratory drive, although the differences were not statistically significant. This discrepancy might stem from variations in the study techniques and settings. Nonetheless, the observed trend suggests that robust respiratory effort may be beneficial in the post-arrest setting.

    The lower tidal volumes observed in survivors, relative to the predicted body weight, align with the principles of lung-protective ventilation aimed at reducing ventilator-induced lung injury. This strategy, commonly used to manage acute respiratory distress syndrome, may also benefit post-cardiac arrest patients. By limiting tidal volumes, the risks of barotrauma and volutrauma can be minimized, potentially reducing mortality.24,25 Our findings suggest that survivors may have received more effective lung-protective ventilation, as evidenced by their lower tidal volumes. Therefore, P0.1 could serve as a critical metric for optimizing ventilator settings by ensuring that respiratory drive is adequately supported without over- or under-assisting the patient’s respiratory efforts, thereby improving outcomes.

    This study also critically examined the relationship between sedation levels, as assessed by the RASS and P0.1. Most patients were deeply sedated, with RASS scores between −5 and −4, indicating unresponsiveness. Despite this, we observed higher P0.1 values among survivors, suggesting a stronger respiratory drive, even under deep sedation. This finding is consistent with previous research conducted by Dzierba et al,26 which demonstrated minimal influence of deep sedation on P0.1 in critically ill patients. The lack of a statistically significant association between RASS scores and P0.1 in our study highlights the reliability of P0.1 as a measure of respiratory drive, even in deeply sedated patients.

    The interaction between sedation and the respiratory drive is complex. While deep sedation can suppress spontaneous respiratory effort, P0.1 captures the neural drive to breathe, which may persist despite sedation. In our study, the higher P0.1 values observed in survivors may indicate better overall physiological recovery, particularly in the brainstem, which regulates autonomic breathing functions. This observation may explain why survivors exhibited a higher respiratory drive than non-survivors, even though their sedation levels were similar to those of non-survivors. It is also plausible that elevated respiratory drive reflects a compensatory response to underlying respiratory or metabolic derangements.27 These findings suggest that P0.1 serves as a reliable prognostic tool independent of sedation depth, offering important insights into a patient’s respiratory status and recovery potential.

    In addition to sedation, the use of NMBAs may also influence the interpretation of P0.1. P0.1 reflects neural respiratory drive and requires intact neuromuscular transmission for accurate measurement. Continuous infusion of NMBAs, commonly used in post-cardiac arrest patients to suppress shivering during targeted temperature management and manage ventilator asynchrony, can reduce inspiratory muscle activity and may eventually lead to low or absent P0.1 values despite preserved central respiratory drive.14 Therefore, caution is warranted when interpreting low P0.1 values in patients receiving neuromuscular blockade.

    We explored various ventilatory parameters, including VE, lung compliance, and tidal volume, to evaluate their relationships with P0.1. Although no statistically significant associations were identified, the findings suggested that P0.1 remained relatively independent of respiratory mechanics. This independence can be attributed to three factors: (1) P0.1 was assessed at end-expiratory lung volume, making the airway pressure drop unaffected by lung or chest wall recoil; (2) maneuver was performed without airflow, eliminating the influence of flow resistance on the measurement; and (3) lung volume was preserved during occlusion, minimizing the impact of vagal volume-related reflexes and the force-velocity relationships of respiratory muscles.14

    Various ventilatory parameters, such as driving pressure, respiratory rate, and mechanical power, have been studied in relation to outcomes in post-cardiac arrest patients.28 Among these parameters, mechanical power has emerged as a particularly noteworthy metric, as it integrates multiple aspects of ventilator-induced stress. Mechanical power has been associated with clinical outcomes in post-cardiac arrest populations; however, its calculation requires specific inputs, such as driving pressure and respiratory rate, and its clinical interpretation can be complex. To date, no randomized controlled trials have established a definitive cutoff value for mechanical power in this specific patient group.28

    The characteristics of our patients also reflect the typical cardiac arrest population in Thailand. Although 86.7% of arrests were witnessed, only 53.3% of patients received bystander CPR, which is consistent with previous national surveys.29 Interestingly, the proportion of patients with prehospital ROSC was lower in the survival group (7.1%) than in the non-survival group (31.2%). While this finding appears to contradict the established literature,20 it likely reflects a selection bias and the limitations of our small sample size. Additionally, differences in the quality and timeliness of pre-hospital emergency care in our setting may have contributed to this unexpected finding.

    This study has some limitations. First, this was a single-center observational study with a limited sample size, which restricted its ability to establish causal inferences. Although advanced methods such as marginal structural models30 may help address time-varying confounding in future research, our sample size was insufficient for causal modeling. Second, most post-arrest patients experienced prolonged no-flow times, with approximately 53% receiving bystander CPR, both of which could potentially influence neurological outcomes. Third, our focus was exclusively on patients with OHCA; the applicability of P0.1 in in-hospital cardiac arrest warrants further exploration, as these cases differ in characteristics and prognosis. Fourth, approximately one-quarter of patients received neuromuscular blockade, which may suppress inspiratory effort and lead to falsely low P0.1 values. Lastly, while we used P0.1, measured automatically by a specific ventilator, studies suggest that measurements from different machines are interchangeable.31

    Conclusion

    This study indicated a trend of higher respiratory drive in survivors than in non-survivors. A P0.1 value between 1.5 and 3.5 cmH2O within the first 24 h was independently linked to reduced mortality. Survivors also demonstrated lower tidal volumes than non-survivors did. Given its simple measurement, P0.1 may serve as a neuroprognostic tool in patients following cardiac arrest. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

    Data Sharing Statement

    The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

    Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

    This research was authorized by the Human Ethics Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkhla University, and was carried out in line with the Declaration of Helsinki (REC 65-310-14-4). Informed consent was provided by the patient’s nearest relative or designated individual promptly and subsequently from the patient upon regaining capacity.

    Acknowledgments

    We extend our sincere gratitude to the MICU and CCU nurses for their invaluable support and assistance in facilitating this research. We would like to thank Editage (www.editage.com) for English language editing.

    The abstract of this paper was presented at the European Resuscitation Council Congress – Resuscitation 2024 as a poster presentation with interim findings. The abstract was published in the Poster Presentation section of Resuscitation (DOI: 10.1016/S0300-9572(24)00691-9).

    Author Contributions

    All authors made a significant contribution to the work reported, whether that is in the conception, study design, execution, acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation, or in all these areas; took part in drafting, revising or critically reviewing the article; gave final approval of the version to be published; have agreed on the journal to which the article has been submitted; and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

    Funding

    The Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University provided research funding to support this study (grant number: 65-310-14-4).

    Disclosure

    The authors declare that they have no competing interests in this work.

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    31. Beloncle F, Piquilloud L, Olivier P-Y, et al. Accuracy of P0.1 measurements performed by ICU ventilators: a bench study. Ann Intens Care. 2019;9(1):104. doi:10.1186/s13613-019-0576-x

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    He has built a hugely successful career on Jamaica’s dancehall sound, and boosted his global profile by collaborating with Beyoncé on her 2019 song Already.

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    The seizure of Wale’s Lamborghini is part of a broader operation – Ghana has been working with the US to dismantle an international fraud network that targets Americans.

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  • Huge and bright fireball burns over Japan; turns the night sky into daylight; watch |

    Huge and bright fireball burns over Japan; turns the night sky into daylight; watch |

    Fireball light sup the nigh sky in Japan (Photo: Geology page @x)

    The night sky full of stars and other dazzling celestial bodies has fascinated human beings, whether a child or an adult. These rare, dazzling phenomena remind us of the dynamic nature of space and the continuous interaction between our planet and celestial objects.While the Perseid meteor season is around the corner, an extremely bright fireball-like object recently burned over Japan’s sky, which was no less than a breathtaking moment when a bright fireball lit up the sky, briefly turning night into day.

    A bright fireball turns the night sky to daylight!

    On the night of August 19, a fireball illuminated the skies over southern Japan, creating a beautiful display visible from hundreds of miles away. The event occurred at 11:08 p.m. local time and was spotted streaking southwest above cities like Kagoshima and Kumamoto. The fireball was so bright that it was also seen as far east as Osaka’s Kansai Airport, approximately 200 kilometers from the initial sighting.

    This moment was captured on several CCTVs

    Multiple surveillance cameras and dashcams captured the fiery showdown, showing the meteor flashing with vivid green-blue lights. According to footage shared on social media, the fireball’s brightness was intense enough to temporarily overwhelm some camera sensors. It ended with a final burst of orange-red light before breaking apart near the horizon over the Pacific Ocean.

    What are meteors?

    Meteors commonly called “shooting stars,” are bits of space debris left over from the formation of the solar system. When these particles enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speeds, friction causes them to heat up and burn, creating a bright streak of light visible to observers on the ground. Larger fragments that glow even more brightly are known as fireballs, often outshining the brightest planets in the night sky.At the time of this event, two meteor showers were active, the Perseids, famous for producing brilliant fireballs, and the weaker kappa Cygnids (KCG). However, it remains unclear if the August 19 fireball was linked to either of these showers or was simply a sporadic meteor, when a random piece of space debris entered Earth’s atmosphere.


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  • Dongji Rescue and the true story of a forgotten act of WW2 heroism

    Dongji Rescue and the true story of a forgotten act of WW2 heroism

    “As the ship went down, sea water got into the boiler room, there was a huge explosion, and that drew the attention of the fishermen on the island,” Finch tells the BBC. “The explosion had thrown bales of cloth into the sea, and the islanders were an incredibly poor community. They rowed out for the cloth, but when they saw people floating around too, they started picking up people instead. This turned into a professional rescue operation. And there is no doubt, and this is testified by the survivors of the sinking, that once the Chinese fishing fleet appeared and could bear witness, the Japanese army stopped shooting and started picking up the survivors too. Dennis Morley was rescued by the Japanese, but he said he owed his life to those Chinese fishermen.” 

    Eight hundred and twenty-eight British servicemen died that day, but the rest were saved. This story, and the role their country played in their rescue, resonated with the Chinese public when the documentary was released there last year, and it made more than $6m at the box office, rare for a factual film. Now the action feature Dongji Rescue also hopes to capitalise on the interest. 

    ‘A different viewpoint’

    The lavish blockbuster, filmed in Imax and costing $80m to make, is co-directed by Guan Hu (who made 2024’s Cannes prizewinner Black Dog) and TV director Fei Zhen Xiang. It takes a different approach to the documentary. While it was filmed in the historical location of the sinking of the Lisbon Maru, with film sets built on Dongji island, nearly half the film was made underwater, and it weaves a fictional story, where the narrative centres on two heroic brothers (played by Wu Lei and Zhu Yilong) one of whom discovers and sets the British prisoners free, and a woman (Chinese actress Ni Ni) who leads the rescue party. None of this happened in reality.

    Trinity Filmed Entertainment Limited Lavish Chinese blockbuster Dongji Rescue weaves a fictional story into the narrative of the Lisbon Maru sinking (Credit: Trinity Filmed Entertainment Limited)Trinity Filmed Entertainment Limited
    Lavish Chinese blockbuster Dongji Rescue weaves a fictional story into the narrative of the Lisbon Maru sinking (Credit: Trinity Filmed Entertainment Limited)

    “Some of the relatives [of the British troops] I’ve spoken to who saw the film said they were quite upset by the idea that the fishermen opened the hatches, and this was denigrating the courage and efforts of the prisoners themselves,” Finch says. The film also shows the islanders taking revenge against their brutal Japanese occupiers, something that Finch adds also “never happened, those islands weren’t occupied, although I do understand though that Japanese brutality would have been very real in those parts of China under occupation.”

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  • Trippy Image From Deep Space Shows Earth and Moon From 180 Million Miles Away

    Trippy Image From Deep Space Shows Earth and Moon From 180 Million Miles Away

    The Psyche spacecraft is on a six-year journey to reach a metal-rich asteroid by the same name. Well into its voyage, the probe looked back at its home planet and captured a rare view of Earth, accompanied by its Moon, as a mere speck engulfed by the dark void of space.

    NASA’s Psyche mission launched on October 13, 2023, and is assigned to explore a distant target in the main asteroid belt that’s believed to be the exposed core of a protoplanet. Before it reaches its destination, the imaging team behind the mission is testing the spacecraft’s ability to capture objects that shine by light reflected from the Sun. The target objects of these tests are awfully familiar—our very own planet and moon—but they were taken from a rather unfamiliar perspective.

    In July, scientists on the imaging team snapped multiple, long-exposure photos of Earth and the Moon. The pair is seen amidst a dark background littered with several stars in the constellation Aries. Earth appears as a bright dot, with the Moon sitting right above it. The image was taken from about 180 million miles (290 kilometers) away and offers a rare look at our planet as seen from deep space.

    The photo brings the famous Pale Blue Dot to mind, an image of Earth captured by the Voyager 1 spacecraft in 1990. That image was taken from a distance of 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers), with Earth appearing as a mere speck amid the cosmic backdrop.

    Although it wasn’t captured from the same distance, Psyche’s recent image is a similar reminder of Earth’s place and size in the solar system. The spacecraft is equipped with a pair of cameras, designed to collect pictures in wavelengths of light that are both visible and invisible to the human eye, to help determine the composition of the metal-rich asteroid.

    Psyche needs to travel a total of around 2.2 billion miles to reach the main asteroid belt and enter asteroid Psyche’s orbit in late July 2029. The 173-mile-wide (280-kilometer) asteroid orbits the Sun in the outer part of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists believe the space rock might be an exposed core of a planetesimal, or an early planetary building block, which was stripped of its outer layer during the early formation of the solar system.

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  • Trump steps back from Russia and Ukraine peace talks for now, sources say | Donald Trump

    Trump steps back from Russia and Ukraine peace talks for now, sources say | Donald Trump

    Donald Trump intends to leave Russia and Ukraine to organize a meeting between their leaders without directly playing a role for now, according to administration officials familiar with the situation, taking a step back from the negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The next stage in Trump’s eyes to end the war in Ukraine remains a bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, the officials said.

    Trump has told advisers in recent days that he intends to host a trilateral meeting with the two leaders only after they have met first, although whether that initial conference takes place remains unclear and Trump does not intend to become involved in that effort.

    In a phone interview with talk show host Mark Levin on WABC on Tuesday, Trump also said he thought it would be better for Putin and Zelenskyy to meet without him in the first instance. “I just want to see what happens at the meeting. So they’re in the process of setting it up and we’re going to see what happens.”

    Trump’s reluctance to push Putin and Zelenskyy to a meeting comes as he has acknowledged in recent days that ending the war in Ukraine has been more difficult than he had anticipated, after saying on the campaign trail last year he could achieve it in 24 hours.

    He has since sought a quick peace agreement after his deadline for Russia to end the war expired this month and said after his meetings with Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House on Monday that he had initiated steps for a bilateral meeting.

    A senior administration official characterized the situation as Trump taking a “wait-and-see approach” to whether a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting could be scheduled. But there have been few tangible signs in recent days of progress and the White House does not have a shortlist of locations where the meeting could take place.

    In a statement, the White House said: “Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukranian officials towards a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war… It is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly.”

    After the meetings at the White House, Trump spoke to Putin on a call that lasted around 40 minutes. Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, later said the two leaders agreed that more senior negotiators would be appointed for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine.

    That statement signaled that a bilateral meeting could remain some way off, even as the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, expressed optimism it could happen within two weeks and Putin has rejected previous attempts by Zelenskyy to meet face-to-face since the start of the war.

    At a news conference on Monday night after the White House meetings, Zelenskyy said that the European leaders’ meeting with Trump centered on security guarantees for Ukraine in any peace agreement to ensure Russia did not resume its invasion.

    Trump offered to contribute to security guarantees, but has since ruled out deploying US troops to be part of a military force on the ground in Ukraine. Any US assistance is expected to come in the form of intelligence sharing or possibly US air support.

    Previously, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, had said on CNN’s “state of the union” after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska that Putin agreed the US could offer Ukraine a security guarantee that resembled Nato’s Article 5 collective self-defense mandate.

    “We were able to win the following concession: that the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in Nato,” Witkoff said.

    But Putin’s acceptance of Nato-like security guarantees may not be as straightforward. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, has also suggested that Russia should be one of the security guarantors for Ukraine – a proposal the White House has privately scoffed at, one official said.

    “The Ukrainian side proposed, and our delegation at that time agreed, to work out security guarantees that would involve all permanent members of the UN security council – that is, Russia, the People’s Republic of China, the United States, France, and the United Kingdom,” Lavrov said.

    After the White House meetings, Zelenskyy also outlined a plan to purchase $90bn in American weapons through Europe to win security guarantees, and for the US to buy drones from Ukraine. It was not immediately clear whether that was part of the Ukraine weapons deal Trump announced last month.

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  • 16 fall TV shows to watch: ‘Task,’ ‘Black Rabbit,’ ‘DMV’ and more

    16 fall TV shows to watch: ‘Task,’ ‘Black Rabbit,’ ‘DMV’ and more

    This fall, there are more than a few mysteries to be uncovered, whether it’s by a group of retired amateur sleuths, an FBI task force, a group of children living in small-town Maine or the only unhappy woman in the world — trust us, the last isn’t as dour as it seems (there are donuts). If you would rather stay grounded in reality, streaming documentaries with subjects ranging from Sarah McLachlan to Martin Scorsese to the American Revolution will do just the trick while giving you perspective about the music and film industries and America’s Founding Fathers. But if you prefer to detach and have some laughs, there are several comedies and dramedies that will do just that. And that’s the democratic nature of television — there’s something for everyone.

    ‘The Thursday Murder Club’

    (Netflix, Aug. 28)

    Three older people standing around a board covered in photos, newspaper clippings and a map.

    Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan in Netflix’s “The Thursday Murder Club.”

    (Giles Keyte / Netflix)

    The first of Richard Osman‘s wonderful series of novels concerning a group of British retirees who recreationally solve murders has become an almost-straight-to-Netflix feature with a cast that in olden times would have guaranteed a long theatrical ride. Helen Mirren plays Elizabeth, with a background in intelligence; Pierce Brosnan is Ron, a combative ex-trade unionist; Ben Kingsley plays Ibrahim, a shy former psychiatrist; and Celia Imrie is Joyce, the chirpy newcomer, with Naomi Ackie as Donna, the bored police officer who falls under their collective spell. (Plus David Tennant, Richard E. Grant and Jonathan Pryce, if that isn’t enough British thespian firepower for you.) As a fan of the books, I will approach it with some trepidation, but I will absolutely approach it. — Robert Lloyd

    ‘Task’

    (HBO, Sept. 7)

    Four people in kevlar vests stand in a road with weapons drawn.

    Mark Ruffalo leads HBO’s “Task,” created by Brad Ingelsby of “Mare of Easttown.”

    (HBO)

    Crime dramas are a dime a dozen, but sometimes one stands out from the crowd and keeps you hooked. The latest HBO series from Brad Ingelsby, who famously brought us Kate Winslet in a Delco accent in “Mare of Easttown,” may well do that. Like “Mare,” it is also set in Pennsylvania, but this time the story revolves around an FBI agent named Tom played by Mark Ruffalo, who is charged with leading a task force to uncover who is behind a string of robberies. Parallel to his story is that of Robbie (Tom Pelphrey) and his best friend Cliff (Raúl Castillo), sanitation workers who are trying to make ends meet. Secrets, twists and turns lie ahead that bridge their stories together and make you question the gray areas between good, bad, wrong and right. — Maira Garcia

    ‘Black Rabbit’

    (Netflix, Sept. 18)

    A man with a beard and shoulder-length shaggy hair looks at a man as they stand outside near a roadway.

    Jason Bateman stars opposite Jude Law in Netflix’s “Black Rabbit.”

    (Netflix)

    Between TV series (“Ozark”), films (“Carry-On”), podcasts (“SmartLess”) and commercials (State Farm Insurance), Jason Bateman is one of the busiest performers in Hollywood. He returns to Netflix in a limited series, “Black Rabbit,” which teams him with Jude Law. The project features Law as Jake Friedkin, the owner of New York’s popular Black Rabbit restaurant and VIP lounge who runs into trouble when his brother Vince (Bateman) returns years after going on the lam after running up a mountain of gambling debts. Bateman also directs the first two episodes, and is an executive producer along with Law. — Greg Braxton

    ‘Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery’

    (Hulu, Sept. 21)

    A woman, seen from the back, standing on stage in front of a large crowd in a stadium.

    Paula Cole on stage at Lilith Fair. Hulu’s “Building a Mystery” takes a look back at the pivotal music festival.

    (Merri Cyr / Hulu)

    Sweet nostalgia. Lilith Fair was the first music festival I ever attended as an awkward, introverted teen, and it was the first time I was surrounded by thousands of (mostly) women who I knew felt absolutely free to be themselves. Of course I’d want to relive that. For those who need a refresher, Lilith Fair was a traveling music festival founded by Sarah McLachlan and others to prove the sexist standards that existed in the music industry in the 1990s were morally and financially wrong. Featuring artists like Sheryl Crow, Liz Phair, Queen Latifah, Sinéad O’Connor, the Indigo Girls and many others, the festival made more than 130 stops over its original three-summer run. Directed by Ally Pankiw and touting Dan Levy as one of its producers, “Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery” mined over 600 hours of never-before-seen footage and features interviews with the festival’s organizers, musicians and fans. — Tracy Brown

    Fall Preview 2025

    The only guide you need to fall entertainment.

    ‘The Lowdown’

    (FX, Sept. 23)

    Ethan Hawke and Ryan Kiera Armstrong in FX's "The Lowdown."

    Ethan Hawke and Ryan Kiera Armstrong in FX’s “The Lowdown.”

    (Shane Brown / FX)

    Sterlin Harjo, who last gave us “Reservation Dogs,” is back with another Oklahoma-set series, a noir excursion loosely based on citizen journalist Lee Roy Chapman. Ethan Hawke, here called Lee Raybon, is a Tulsa amateur “truthstorian” and rare book dealer, working and living in a store where the cool people hang out. His yen to cure civic rot in the light of day brings him into the orbit of a powerful family, including a suicide (Tim Blake Nelson), a widow (Jeanne Tripplehorn), and a candidate for governor (Kyle MacLachlan). Kaniehtiio Horn, the Deer Lady on “Rez Dogs,” plays his ex-wife because in a show like this, any wife is bound to be an ex, with Ryan Kiera Armstrong as their Nancy Drew of a teenage daughter, and Keith David bringing his formidable Keith David-ness. — R.L.

    ‘Slow Horses’

    Season 5 (Apple TV+, Sept. 24)

    A man with glasses in a loosened tie and jacket stands near a brightly colored wall in the dark.

    Gary Oldman and his Slough House misfits are back for Season 5 of “Slow Horses.”

    (Jack English / Apple TV+)

    The long, and for some of us agonizing, wait is over for the best spy drama on TV. Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his MI5 Slough House misfits are at it again, bumbling into all manner of international and inner-departmental intrigue, with their signature results of mess and mayhem. Computer-genius man-child Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) plays a central figure in this year’s race against time, River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) continues to agonize over the plight of his aging grandfather (Jonathan Pryce) and his own determination to get back to the Park, where Second Desk Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) remains under the authority of twitchily incompetent First Desk Claude Whelan (James Callis, having a grand old time.) Pulling everyone’s strings is, of course, Lamb — whether goading his assistant Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves), locking horns with Taverner or talking his way out of virtually any situation, Lamb is the most noisome, flatulent, stringy-haired super spy ever to grace any screen and it is impossible to imagine a world without him. — Mary McNamara

    ‘House of Guinness’

    (Netflix, Sept. 25)

    A man sitting at a table with a white linen cloth pours a dark beer into a glass from a beer bottle.

    Louis Partridge in Netflix’s “House of Guinness.”

    (Ben Blackall / Netflix)

    Arthur Guinness, the founder of the world’s most iconic beer, had 21 children. Only 10 of them survived to adulthood and only four represent the family in this Netflix series. But in the hands of creator Steven Knight, best known for “Peaky Blinders,” four appear to be quite enough. Following their father’s death, Arthur (Anthony Boyle), Edward (Louis Partridge), Benjamin (Fionn O’Shea) and Anne (Emily Fairn) must navigate all manner of tensions and threats, including the draconian terms of their father’s will, violent Fenian protests (Guinness senior was a Protestant who believed in Catholic rights but not Irish self-rule) and various affairs of the heart — Anne smolders early on at the sight of brewery overseer Sean Rafferty (James Norton). Many creative liberties were taken, no doubt, but the inevitable “Succession” meets “Peaky Blinders” (by way of “Rebellion”) description is apt enough. As the adverts for the black stuff say, it is a lovely day for Guinness. — M.M.

    ‘IT: Welcome to Derry’

    (HBO, October)

    Three children looking intently at something out of view.

    Mikkal Karim-Fidler, Clara Stack and Jack Molloy Legault in HBO’s “IT: Welcome to Derry.”

    (HBO)

    You just can’t put a terrifying clown down. Almost 40 years have passed since Stephen King terrified readers with “IT,” his massive novel about a vicious clown named Pennywise who targets the children of Derry, Maine. A 1990 miniseries and two theatrical films followed. “Welcome to Derry” continues the “IT“-verse as a prequel set in the 1960s before the “IT” and “IT Chapter 2” films. Bill Skarsgård reprises his portrayal of Pennywise as the series unveils the origins of the menacing clown, while also spotlighting a group of residents wrestling with their own fears and demons. Andy Muschietti, who directed the “IT” films, helped develop the series and is one of the executive producers. The cast includes Jovan Adepo and Taylour Paige. — G.B.

    ‘Boots’

    (Netflix, Oct. 9)

    A group of men in yellow T-shirts with USMC in red across them and red shorts jog on a path.

    Liam Oh, left, and Miles Heizer in Netflix’s “Boots.”

    (Alfonso “Pompo” Bresciani / Netflix)

    Choosing to join the military can be construed as a major act of patriotism, but oftentimes it is a very personal decision that involves a lot of a sacrifice — choices like where you will live, what you do on a day-to-day basis and who you work with are dictated. Enter Cameron Cope (Miles Heizer), a gay, bullied high school graduate who isn’t sure what’s next until his best friend Ray McAffey (Liam Oh) — the only person he’s come out to — suggests they join the Marines. Cameron imagines the military to be like summer camp, until reality sets in. This dramedy is set in the ‘90s, when being gay in the military was still grounds for discharge, so not only does Cameron have to endure the brutality of boot camp, he has to keep his sexual orientation a secret. The series is based on “The Pink Marine,” a memoir by Greg Cope White, who serves as a writer. — M.G.

    ‘DMV’

    (CBS, Oct. 13)

    Six people sitting or standing at a grey counter with blue signs hanging above them.

    Molly Kearney, Gigi Zumbado, Tony Cavalero, Alex Tarrant, Harriet Dyer and Tim Meadows star in CBS’ “DMV.”

    (Matt Barnes / CBS)

    Your local department of motor vehicles may seem like the very last place to get a laugh, but CBS has managed to pull it off. Its new workplace comedy centers on a ragtag group of employees who work at an East Hollywood DMV: Gregg (Tim Meadows), a former English teacher; Colette (Harriet Dyer of “Colin From Accounts”), a driving examiner with few boundaries; Vic (Tony Cavalero), a former bouncer; Cici (Gigi Zumbado), an outspoken photographer; and Noa (Alex Tarrant), a handsome surfer whom Colette has her eye on. They’re led by newly minted manager Barbara (“SNL” alum Molly Kearney, delightful to see onscreen again), who becomes dismayed when some consultants arrive — no matter where you work, that’s never a good sign. Despite work and interpersonal turmoil, they make a fun and funny team that should be a welcome addition to CBS’ fall lineup. — M.G.

    ‘Mr. Scorsese’

    (Apple TV+, Oct. 17)

    A man in a hat and coat standing near a building wall.

    “Mr. Scorsese” is a five-part documentary directed by Rebecca Miller.

    (Brigitte Lacombe / Apple TV+)

    Among the biggest challenges for documentary filmmakers of major figures is figuring out not only how to gain access but also the trust of your subject. The ability to get them to open up can turn an interesting documentary into a great one. And when the subject is Martin Scorsese, one of America’s great auteurs, you want the full portrait of a director who helped shape cinema with iconic films like “Taxi Driver,” “Goodfellas,” “Gangs of New York” and, most recently, “Killers of the Flower Moon.” Director Rebecca Miller (“She Came to Me,” “Personal Velocity”) seems up for the task, having created a five-part docuseries that’s billed as the definitive portrait of 82-year-old Scorsese and will premiere at New York Film Festival this fall. — M.G.

    ‘Nobody Wants This’

    Season 2 (Netflix, Oct. 23)

    Three women sitting on bleachers in a gymnasium.

    Justine Lupe, Kristen Bell and Jackie Tohn return for Season 2 of “Nobody Wants This.”

    (Erin Simkin / Netflix)

    There will inevitably come a time when the drip-drop of wholesome, rom-com-level video content of Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson on their “Naked Gun” promotional tour will loosen its grip on my social media algorithms, and I’ll return to longing for a fictional romantic comedy to fill the void. That’s where Adam Brody — who really propelled the art of the neck-hugging smooch combo — and Kristen Bell come in. The first season made millennial hearts squeal with its pairing of Brody and Bell — two decades after they rose to fame in the early aughts on teen dramas “The O.C.” and “Veronica Mars,” respectively — in a delightful will they/won’t they set in L.A. Bell is Joanne, a woman who often regales about her single life on the podcast she co-hosts with her sister Morgan (Justine Lupe), while Brody’s Noah is a progressive rabbi who is newly single. But can their relationship make it past hurdles that include their careers, family and religion? The first season ended with a showstopping kiss that suggested they’re willing to give it a try. The sophomore outing promises to unpack what that looks like. Let’s just hope no one in this couple-with-obstacles is proposing a five-year waiting period to deal with personal matters before really giving it a go. (IYKYK.) Plus, “Gossip Girl” alumnus Leighton Meester, Brody’s wife IRL, joins the fun, playing Joanne’s childhood nemesis. — Yvonne Villarreal

    ‘Star Wars: Visions’

    Vol. 3 (Disney+, Oct. 29)

    An animated still of a woman and a droid manning a spacecraft.

    Sevn and IV-A4 in a scene from the “Star Wars: Visions” Vol. 3 short “The Bounty Hunters.”

    (Lucasfilm Ltd. / Disney)

    Dave Filoni’s rise at Lucasfilm is proof enough that some of “Star Wars’” best storytelling has happened in animation. My favorite has been “Star Wars: Visions,” an anthology series where international animation houses have been given the freedom to explore their ideas about the Force and the galaxy far, far away outside of the constraints of the franchise’s existing canon. For the first season, Lucasfilm tapped Japanese anime studios for nine shorts, which featured a range of stories including those that centered an ex-Sith ronin, a Jedi Padawan turned lead singer of a rock band and even a Force-wielding droid. The series went even more global for its second season, with studios from Europe, Asia and South America being among those that were enlisted for their takes. The upcoming third season brings the focus back to Japanese anime, with sequels to three of the shorts from Season 1 — including my favorite, “The Village Bride” — among the lineup. — T.B.

    ‘Last Samurai Standing’

    (Netflix, November)

    A man in a blue robe seen from the side as he stands in a crowd.

    Netflix’s “Last Samurai Standing” is based on the historical novel series “Ikusagami.”

    (Netflix)

    When I saw this series described as “‘Shōgun’ meets ‘Squid Game,’” I had two competing reactions. There was the part of me that was slightly skeptical seeing a logline that leaned on two of the biggest Asian-led shows ever, but the part of me that grew up on a steady diet of chanbara is excited by the idea of a battle royale with samurai — and that part has completely won out. Based on the historical novel series “Ikusagami” by Shogo Imamura, the Meiji-era set “Last Samurai Standing” will involve 292 warriors assembled at a temple in Kyoto for a deadly game with a massive cash prize. Considering the Meiji period was when the samurai became obsolete, the potential for social commentary mixed in with high-stakes combat seems pretty high. — T.B.

    ‘Pluribus’

    (Apple TV+, Nov. 7)

    Rhea Seehorn stars in Apple TV+'s "Pluribus," her upcoming series from Vince Gilligan.

    Rhea Seehorn stars in Apple TV+’s “Pluribus,” her upcoming series from Vince Gilligan.

    (Apple TV+)

    If you thought the grainy footage of Ariana Grande surreptitiously licking a doughnut inside an L.A. shop a decade ago sent shivers down your spine — health codes matter, people! — the first teaser for Vince Gilligan’s new TV opus is just as chilling to behold. Ditching “Better Call Saul’s” signature cinnamon roll pastry for the hole-y American staple, the trailer for the new series takes place in the dead of night at an office building and settles on a woman, in a pink uniform, licking the tops of doughnuts one by one — ASMR at its eeriest — before placing them back in their box as a sign that reads “Help yourself!” with a smiley face comes into focus. Uh, what? The series reunites Gilligan with “Better Call Saul’s” Rhea Seehorn, who was the show’s beating heart with a ponytail as Kim Wexler, a skilled lawyer who gets caught up in the antics and schemes of Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman. In this genre-bending sci-fi drama, she is the most miserable person on Earth who must save the world from happiness — it’s the sort of TV premise that feels like it was tailor-made for my 2025 fatigue. In addition to Seehorn, the series stars Karolina Wydra (“Sneaky Pete”) and Carlos-Manuel Vesga (“The Hijacking of Flight 601”), and guest stars Miriam Shor (“American Fiction”) and Samba Schutte (“Our Flag Means Death”). It’s already been picked up for a second season so you can go in knowing there are no commitment issues. — Y.V.

    ‘The American Revolution’

    (PBS, Nov. 16)

    A painting of a men sitting in a gallery as several men stand around documents.

    John Trumbull’s “The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.” Ken Burns’ latest PBS docuseries will focus on the American Revolution.

    (Yale University Art Gallery/PBS)

    The combination of PBS and Ken Burns (with co-directors Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt and writer Geoffrey C. Ward) returns again to improve your mind and remind you that history is not something that can be edited to suit the whims of a king or dictator, but also that it is made up of a variety of stories from a spectrum of participants. In these parlous times, when conspiracy theories are mistaken for truth and experts for enemies, those who might most profit from “The American Revolution” are perhaps least likely to watch it, but in the course of this six-part, 12-hour foundational tale, anyone is bound to learn something. It will certainly have things to say about how Black and Indigenous people participated in this long moment. And if you have it, send money to your local public broadcaster, who needs it more than ever. — R.L.

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  • Who can follow Dudamel at the Bowl? Daniil and Daniel

    Who can follow Dudamel at the Bowl? Daniil and Daniel

    The obvious fact that Gustavo Dudamel is a hard act to follow is something that has been concerning for the Los Angeles Philharmonic the last two and a half years. Dudamel has but one more season as music and artistic director before moving on to the New York Philharmonic, and the search for a new music director remains ongoing, the L.A. Phil clearly carefully taking the time to get it right.

    In the meantime, interesting, predictable and unpredictable, stuff happens as it has lately at the Hollywood Bowl. Dudamel made the hard-act-to-follow business nearly an impossible act to follow during the first of what was supposed to be his two weeks at the Bowl this month. He had to cancel his second week, which was to have featured the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, thanks to new U.S. government travel restrictions for the Venezuelan orchestra.

    The L.A. Phil filled in with two talented conductors who were Dudamel fellows and are now enjoying prospering careers, Elim Chan and Gemma New. But there were further disappointments. Yuja Wang, who was scheduled to appear with Bolívars in Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, canceled, and the world premiere of Arturo Marquez Concerto Trumpet No. 2, which the L.A. Phil commissioned, had to be postponed.

    But perhaps the greatest challenge of all was living up to Dudamel’s astonishing performance of Mahler’s First Symphony at his second Bowl concert. Dudamel has conducted this symphony many times in L.A., including at his first concert in Walt Disney Concert Hall as the orchestra’s music director. That youthfully exciting and at times wild 2009 performance by the 28-year-old Dudamel attracted international attention and can be revisited on DVD.

    At the Bowl this time, Dudamel reached new and surprising interpretive depths. There was a sense of being in the moment in every detail. There was an electric connection between Dudamel, the orchestra and the large audience that expressed its love for Dudamel, chanting “Gustavo! Gustavo!”

    The next two evenings at the Bowl, when Dudamel accompanied a screening of “Jurassic Park” with the score performed live by the L.A. Phil, demonstrated just how much John Williams makes the movie. For Dudamel, there is no equal anywhere to this combination of orchestra, audience, opportunities and venue, and he seemed to very much know that during his brief week in town.

    For Chan’s program a few nights later, she led a colorful, lively evening of Tchaikovsky (the Violin Concerto with James Ehnes as soloist), Britten (Four Sea Interludes from “Peter Grimes”) and Stravinsky (“Firebird” Suite). For some time, Chan has been rumored to be a candidate in the L.A. Phil’s music director search. She has become a regular guest conductor and opened the Bowl season last summer. Audiences respond to her verve and so do the players. All of that came across at the Bowl. She returns to Disney in January.

    Wang’s cancellation, however, meant another hard act to follow. Two years ago, the pianist and Dudamel presented a Rachmaninoff festival at Walt Disney Concert Hall that resulted in a bestselling and well-deserved award-winning recording of the composer’s four piano concertos and “Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.” The set also proved direct competition with the widely hailed one by the Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov with the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

    This week at the Bowl is Rachmaninoff week, with Trifonov performing two concertos (Nos. 2 and 3) and British conductor Daniel Harding leading the Second Symphony. A 22-year-old Trifonov made his L.A. debut in 2013 at the Bowl in Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto. A dozen years later the Russian pianist who now lives in New York is a star whose playing can be compared with Rachmaninoff’s own.

    Rachmaninoff played his Second Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl in 1942. Suffering poor health, he had moved to Beverly Hills that May and died the following March. Before the concerto, Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” was performed as a “prayer for victory,” the U.S. having entered World War II.

    Rachmaninoff, who by many accounts (and backed up by his recordings) was one of finest (some said the finest) pianists of his time, was reported to have been in superb form at the Bowl. His performance of his most famous and most romantic concerto was said to embody the seriousness of the times. Four years earlier, he had recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra, led by Leopold Stokowski. The sound is rough even for its time, but the playing comes from inside. You barely notice the extraordinary virtuosity, so natural is the sentiment.

    I’ve never heard another pianist match that organic quality as closely as Trifonov does, and without ever restraining his own personality. Wang is the spine-tingling opposite, pure electricity, pure Yuja Wang, the closest we have today to Vladimir Horowitz, who happened to be Rachmaninoff’s Beverly Hills neighbor and favorite pianist.

    Two weeks after the composer’s appearance at the Bowl, Horowitz played Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto in the amphitheater, and Rachmaninoff famously greeted him afterward backstage by saying that Horowitz played the killer concerto exactly the way he wanted to hear it.

    The Rachmaninoff recordings of Dudamel and Wang remain preferable but not for the soloists, both of whom are extraordinary and authentic with no need to compete. Trifonov is undercut, though, by ostentatious conducting, whereas Dudamel and Wang jibe. For what it’s worth, Wang also made her Hollywood Bowl debut with a Rachmaninoff concerto (No. 3) and a famous little orange dress that together helped launch her stellar career.

    Tuesday at the Bowl, Harding sensitively supported Trifonov, allowing space for the essence of his playing. A little Stokowski-like pizzazz that accompanied Rachmaninoff’s recording might not have hurt in the long Second Symphony, but even so, this was, like Chan’s concert, a fulfilling Bowl evening.

    These concerts give hope and reaffirm that life goes on. All acts, no matter the challenge, must be followed.

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  • The Eames House, after Palisades fire, opens studio for first time

    The Eames House, after Palisades fire, opens studio for first time

    On the second harrowing night of the Palisades fire in January, the security cameras surrounding the Eames House went dark.

    “It was a long night,” said Eames Demetrios, grandson of designers Charles and Ray Eames and chairman of the board for the Charles & Ray Eames Foundation. “And then later that day the signal came back on.”

    The house — a midcentury modern landmark designed and built in 1949, also known as Case Study House No. 8 — was still standing. But Demetrios soon went back to worrying. A neighbor who had stayed to battle the blaze with a garden hose reported that a nearby tree had caught fire.

    “I thought, ‘OK, this is it. It’s coming,’” said Eames.

    But the water-dropping helicopters came first and then — mercifully — the wind died down.

    Eames Demetrios, left, and Adrienne Luce in the Eames House studio, which is where Demetrios’ grandparents spent much of their time working on creative projects. “We’re often asking, ‘What would Charles and Ray do?’” Luce said, explaining why they are opening the studio to the community.

    (Josh White / Eames Office, LLC)

    The Eames House was saved, but it was covered in soot and sustained a substantial amount of smoke damage. The residence, with its 31,000 historic objects, closed for five months while it underwent extensive cleaning and repairs — the most intensive of which involved hiring a disaster recovery team to hand-wipe the fragile structure while wearing protective gear.

    The compound finally reopened late last month for tours on an appointment basis — and it unveiled its adjacent studio to the public for the very first time. The two structures are connected by a narrow walkway, and the Eameses often left doors and windows open, creating a natural flow between the spaces. As the creative nerve center of the site, the studio is where the Eameses spent the bulk of their time working on various projects. It will serve as a multipurpose staging ground for exhibitions, workshops and panel discussions, as well as a place for the community to gather and hold events, said Demetrios.

    This notable change comes with another major announcement: the launch of a new and expanded Charles & Ray Eames Foundation, which unites the cultural and educational programming formerly done by the Eames Office — run by all five of the Eames grandchildren — with the preservation efforts of the Eames House Preservation Foundation.

    The new foundation’s executive director, Adrienne Luce, was in the process of being hired when the fires hit, and she recalled being told before her last interview, “Look, if the house does not survive, they’re still building this new global, international foundation.”

    Luce said she sees the new foundation as “the connective tissue between scholars and important collections globally.” Next year she’s planning to host a conference or summit in order to gather “diverse stakeholders from all over the world to advance thinking around the Eames’ design legacy” and to hopefully collaborate on future projects.

    What Luce, Demetrios and the board of directors could not anticipate before the fire was how much this new era of the foundation’s — and the house’s — existence would be affected by issues of preservation in the face of mounting ecological and climate disasters, as well as the community engagement that became increasingly urgent and necessary in the wake of the fires.

    The exterior of the Eames House

    The exterior of the Eames House.

    (Chris Mottalini / Eames Office, LLC)

    Luce said there are plans to offer free admission to first responders as well as to residents of Pacific Palisades and Altadena, which was ravaged by the Eaton fire. With the grounds and studio now open, the foundation has invited the Palisades Library to hold family storytimes and book clubs onsite. It has also hosted a wide variety of community-driven events.

    Of particular note, the foundation welcomed a gathering for a new nonprofit called Case Study: Adapt, which was co-founded by Dustin Bramell, whose house burned down in the Palisades fire. The organization partnered with Architectural Digest to recruit 10 L.A.-based architecture firms to pair each with one to two families who lost their homes in the fires in order to build inventive houses under 3,000 square feet, surrounded by fire-safe landscaping.

    This, of course, mirrors how the Eames House was built. The original Case Study homes were commissioned by Arts & Architecture magazine in the wake of World War II to spark architectural innovation by challenging architects to utilize new materials and technologies to design progressive — but modest — homes in Southern California.

    The Eames House is a raised steel-and-glass structure built into a hillside on the edge of a sun-dappled meadow in a eucalyptus grove on North Chautauqua Boulevard, with a view of the Pacific Ocean. The husband and wife duo — architect Charles and painter Ray — approached the project with the holistic, multidisciplinary thinking that they put into all their design work.

    “Charles and Ray really felt that the best design addresses real human need,” noted Luce, which is perhaps why their most famous creations are the Eames lounge and dining chairs. But the pair also excelled at photography, film, graphic design and even whimsical toys and sculptures.

    In 1957 they created the so-called Solar Do-Nothing Machine, which harnessed solar energy to power an aluminum toy that joyously whirled and spun. They made short films about many of their projects. Demetrios is particularly fond of “Toccata for Toy Trains,” which was created in 1957 and inspired by a toy locomotive gifted to the couple by director and friend Billy Wilder. The film features footage of toy trains running on a track with music by Elmer Bernstein, who frequently collaborated with the couple on their movies.

    1

    Ray and Charles Eames sort and select photographic slides.

    2

    Ray and Charles Eames balance on the steel framing of the Eames House.

    1. Ray and Charles Eames sorting and selecting photographic slides at the Eames Office in the late 1960s. 2. Ray and Charles Eames balancing on the steel framing of the Eames House in Pacific Palisades in 1949. (Eames Office, LLC)

    Demetrios pulled up the video on YouTube. Charles narrates the film in a calm voice tinged with the comforting fuzz of an old recording.

    “Most of the trains we have used are old. Some are quite old. The reason for this is perhaps in the more recent years, we seem to have lost the knack of making real toys,” he says. “Most old ones have a direct and unembarrassed manner that give us a special kind of pleasure, a pleasure different from the admiration we may feel for the perfect little copy of the real thing. In a good old toy, there is apt to be nothing self-conscious about the use of materials. What is wood, is wood. What is tin, is tin. What is cast, is beautifully cast.”

    That, declared Demetrios, closing out of the video, “is the most Eamesian narration ever.”

    The idea raised by the film, he said, is the honest use of materials.

    “That’s why they were able to not be too fussy about the past, while at the same time loving it and still embracing the future,” he said. “I mean, they made the first plastic chair. They made the first molded plywood chair. They were the first to use aluminum in a certain way.”

    The new foundation seeks to build on the depth and breath of Charles and Ray Eames’ multidisciplinary legacy — and the technically stunning and deeply beautiful home they built. Plus, the couple’s ideas about sustainability — preserving natural landscapes and integrating them into their designs, rather than razing or altering them — have never been more resonant.

    “One of the unique things about this place is that the grounds are authentic. Think the contents are authentic. The structure is authentic. The landscape’s authentic,” said Demetrios. “And important people did important work here.”

    The Eames House is one of only two heritage sites in North America, along with the Salk Institute in San Diego, that the Getty Conservation Institute has worked with to create a comprehensive preservation plan for the next century — and that work, which is compiled in an extensive book, became crucial to the restoration process after the fire.

    “There’s been a lot of rigorous scholarly studies and thinking behind all of the different conservation aspects of the site,” said Luce.

    The Eames House has achieved a level of international renown reserved for some of the world’s most revered historic destinations. The scholar who devised the climate control plan for the house did the same thing for King Tut’s tomb.

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  • Acceleration in business activity growth in Japan masks mixed sectoral demand trend – S&P Global

    1. Acceleration in business activity growth in Japan masks mixed sectoral demand trend  S&P Global
    2. S&P Global Flash Japan PMI: Overall business activity expands at quickest pace in six months  Forex Factory
    3. Japan’s Private Sector Growth Hits A 2025 High  Finimize
    4. apan’s Manufacturing Activity Contracts Again As Export Demand Stutters Amid Trump Tariffs, S&P Survey Shows  MSN
    5. Japan Manufacturing Shrinks Less than Expected  TradingView

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