Blog

  • Fritz, Pegula and Navarro lead American charge into US Open third round | US Open Tennis 2025

    Fritz, Pegula and Navarro lead American charge into US Open third round | US Open Tennis 2025

    Taylor Fritz overcame a jittery start, Jessica Pegula extended her run of consistency and Emma Navarro continued to build on last year’s breakout season as all three Americans advanced to the third round of the US Open with convincing victories on Wednesday.

    On a breezy afternoon at Flushing Meadows, Fritz recovered from a sluggish opening set to defeat South Africa’s Lloyd Harris 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-4. The fourth seed, runner-up here last year, was forced to navigate a tricky test against the big-serving Harris, who has been rebuilding his career after injuries saw his ranking plummet outside the world’s top 300.

    Fritz dropped serve early and ceded the first set as Harris’s forehand found its range. But the American steadied behind his own delivery, pounding 17 aces in all, and dominated the second-set tiebreak to level the match. From there he played with the authority expected of a top-five seed, breaking twice in the third set and riding the crowd’s energy in Louis Armstrong Stadium to finish off the win in just under three hours.

    “It’s always difficult when a guy like Lloyd comes out swinging freely,” Fritz said. “He was serving great and putting a lot of pressure on me early. I just had to hang tough, get through the breaker, and then I felt like I found my rhythm.”

    If Fritz was made to sweat, Pegula’s passage was more straightforward. The world No 4, who reached her first grand slam final here a year ago, eased past Russia’s Anna Blinkova 6-1, 6-3 on the Grandstand court. Showing the patience and precision that have become her calling card, Pegula broke serve six times and struck 30 winners to close out the match in a scant 64 minutes.

    The 31-year-old is now the first American woman since Madison Keys to reach the third round in New York for six years running, underlining her reliability at the majors. She will next face two-time major champion Victoria Azarenka, who advanced with a win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

    “I knew if Anna got into a groove she could be really dangerous,” Pegula said afterwards. “I just wanted to take control right away, not let her dictate. I’m pleased with how I kept my foot on the gas.”

    Jessica Pegula returns a shot to Anna Blinkova during Wednesday’s match. Photograph: Brian Hirschfeld/EPA

    Pegula, who has already collected tour-high 20 wins on US soil this season, admitted that the challenge of solving problems on court is what keeps her motivated deep into her career. “You’ve got to be fearless to play this sport, because one of you is going to lose out there in front of everyone. But when you work your way through and win, that feeling is pretty unmatched.”

    The surge of homegrown players was further bolstered by Navarro, the 23-year-old who backed up her semi-final run here last year with a commanding 6-2, 6-1 dismissal of Caty McNally. Navarro, who strugged in Sunday’s first-round win over Wang Yafan, was ruthless in exploiting McNally’s inconsistency, converting seven of eight break points and sealing the victory in just over an hour.

    “It was definitely quicker than I expected, but not easy,” Navarro said. “I feel like there’s something special about being here: the energy, the crowd, it really pushes me.”

    Navarro’s next assignment is a daunting one: two-time major champion Barbora Krejcikova, a player she beat earlier this summer at Wimbledon. Should she advance again, a potential fourth-round clash with 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva looms, while a quarter-final date with close friend Pegula remains a possibility.

    The victories for Fritz, Pegula and Navarro ensured a buoyant day for American tennis, offsetting the disappointment No 30 seed Brandon Nakashima’s 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (10) defeat to Switzerland’s Jerome Kym on Court 12.

    For now, the focus remained on the trio of US contenders who underlined their title credentials. “It’s a long road,” Fritz said, “but days like this, with the support and the atmosphere, it really feels like home.”

    Continue Reading

  • How hard will Trump’s 50% tariff hit India, and what is Delhi doing about it? | India

    How hard will Trump’s 50% tariff hit India, and what is Delhi doing about it? | India

    Donald Trump’s tariffs of 50% have come into force on most US imports from India. The US president followed through on his threat to punish one of the world’s largest economies for its purchases of discounted Russian oil.

    What might the impact be on India’s economy?

    Washington added an extra 25% duty on top of the 25% imposed earlier this month, citing India’s refusal to stop buying Russian crude and defence hardware.

    The duties, which are 16 percentage points higher than China, 31 points higher than most south-east Asian countries and 35 points above South Korea, have pushed US tariffs on Indian goods to levels that the investment house Nomura likened to a “trade embargo”.

    The US is India’s largest export market, worth $86.5bn (£64.1bn) a year. Around two-thirds of shipments are covered by the 50% tariff, threatening jobs and growth across sectors reliant on US demand.

    “No Indian product can stand any competitive edge under such heavy import taxes,” said Garima Kapoor of Elara Securities. Economists say the tariffs could erase up to one percentage point from India’s GDP growth this fiscal year.

    Unemployment is a worry. India’s overall jobless rate stood at 5.6% in June, rising to 7.1% in cities. A major drop in US exports could hit millions of workers, economists say.

    Where will the biggest impact be felt?

    India’s giant generic pharmaceuticals sector and its electronics and petroleum products are exempt from the tariffs. Aluminium, steel and copper remain at 25%, but job-heavy sectors such as textiles, jewellery, seafood and leather are squarely in the line of fire.

    Exports from affected sectors could plunge 70%, from $60.2bn to $18.6bn, while overall shipments to the US could fall by 43%, said Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade official and founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative, a Delhi-based thinktank .

    Companies rushed shipments ahead of the 27 August cut-off. With the tariff wall now up, exporters must either swallow costs, which will be impossible for many, or cede market share to countries such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Mexico.

    India’s $179bn textiles industry includes $37.7bn in exports, with the US buying nearly $10.3bn. Mithileshwar Thakur, of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), said Indian exporters now faced a 30% cost disadvantage compared with Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia. “This is an earthquake,” said Kirit Bhansali, chair of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

    Even if tariffs are lowered later, competitors may have already locked in US market share. “Competitors like China, Vietnam, Mexico, Turkey, and even Pakistan, Nepal, Guatemala and Kenya stand to gain, potentially locking India out of key markets even after tariffs are rolled back,” Srivastava said.

    Can India wean itself off Russian oil?

    India, the world’s third-largest oil consumer and top buyer of Russian seaborne crude, could wean itself off Russian oil over time. But right now it views Russia as an all-weather friend – a vital defence and energy ally amid the trade turmoil that Trump has unleashed. Russia supplies about 40% of India’s oil needs, up from less than 1% before the Ukraine war. Even though discounts on Russian crude have narrowed from $20–$25 below benchmark Brent crude in 2022 to about $2.50 a barrel now, India continues buying because it secures energy reliably and relatively cheaply.

    A sudden reduction could also leave India vulnerable to global price swings. It will continue buying oil from wherever it gets the best deal and take measures to protect its national interest from US tariffs, India’s ambassador to Russia, Vinay Kumar, told TASS at the weekend. He also said India was able to pay for Russian oil in rupees, which meant it didn’t have to use its US currency reserves. “Now, we have a working system of trade settlement in national currencies. There is no problem now in payment for oil imports,” he said.

    Indian firms are calculated to have saved $17bn by buying cheaper Russian oil since the start of the war in Ukraine, but that could be dwarfed by the impact of tariffs on exporters, which could cut India’s US exports by nearly $37bn this financial year, said Srivastava.

    What is India doing to mitigate the impact?

    Narendra Modi’s government has urged Indians to buy domestically made goods. “I appeal to the citizens of our country to prioritise purchasing goods that are made in India,” the prime minister said this week. The government also plans to shake up the nationwide goods and services tax, cutting most rates to 5% or 18% to boost spending.

    Essentials such as food, textiles and cement will become cheaper, while luxury goods remain pricey. The government is reportedly assembling a multibillion-dollar package to free up cash for exporters.

    India has been seeking to diversify its markets and recently signed a free trade deal with the UK. But exporters say much more is needed. The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has called for a state-supported one-year moratorium on repaying the principal and interest on loans to free up cash for diversifying markets. “We are staring at a crisis which will force shutdowns and cause unemployment,” said the FIEO’s president, SC Ralha. The AEPC has appealed for interest relief to counter high borrowing costs of between 8% and 12%, compared with 3% in China and Malaysia.

    India is also cautiously warming up to Chinese investment as part of a strategic pivot in response to escalating US tariffs. Modi is making his first visit to China since relations went into a deep freeze following a brutal clash along their disputed border in 2020 to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit.

    He said this week the world was living through an era of “economic selfishness” in which countries pursue their own interests first. “No matter how high the pressure, India will continue to build its strength to withstand it,” he added. “India is ready to pay a very heavy price to protect its interests.”

    Continue Reading

  • Continuous Metabolic Syndrome Severity Score Linked With CKD Risk

    Continuous Metabolic Syndrome Severity Score Linked With CKD Risk

    A patient’s continuous metabolic syndrome severity score (cMetS-S) could help predict chronic kidney disease (CKD) even if other major risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension, are absent, according to a new report.

    The study is believed to be among the first to show how the trajectory of a patient’s cMetS-S score is linked with CKD risk. It was published in the journal Kidney Diseases.1

    Metabolic syndrome changes over time, and previous research has suggested that changes in metabolic syndrome status might be associated with certain health risks. | Image Credit: Aliaksandr Marko – stock.adobe.com

    Previous research has shown that metabolic abnormalities have an important and intricate interplay with renal function and estimated glomerular infiltration rate (eGFR), the authors noted. A meta-analysis published in 2023 found people with metabolic syndrome are at a significantly higher risk of renal dysfunction, including a rapid decline in eGFR, new-onset kidney disease, and end-stage renal disease.2 Not only do those conditions have significant individual health impacts, the authors noted, but they also lead to a significant economic burden for patients and health systems.1 All of that means it is very important to better understand the “several interrelated risks” associated with CKD development, beyond major comorbidities like hypertension, the investigators said.

    The authors noted that metabolic syndrome changes over time, and previous research has suggested that changes in metabolic syndrome status might be associated with certain health risks.

    “However, there is a need to delve deeper into the relationship between MetS (metabolic syndrome) and CKD, particularly in the context of its severity and trajectory,” they said.

    The investigators said the metabolic syndrome severity score is able to capture the dynamism of metabolic syndrome, and thus they said it could be a useful tool to study links between metabolic syndrome and CKD. 

    The authors used data from the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study, a longitudinal population-based study that began enrolling patients in 1999, eventually accruing 4462 participants ranging in age from 20 to 60 years old. The patients were free of CKD at baseline and then followed at 3-year intervals through 2018. For the purposes of the new report, the investigators divided up the study data into 2 periods. The first approximately 9 years of data were used to identify cMetS-S score trajectories for patients, representing the changes seen from baseline in 1999 through the third follow-up visit by 2009. The next 9 years were used to track the incidence of CKD among patients. The data were adjusted for a number of factors, including age, sex, education, family history of diabetes, and obesity, among others.

    The participants were grouped into 3 cohorts based on the trajectory of their cMetS-S scores. Most (50%) were placed in the “medium trajectory” cohort. Another 28.3% were considered to have a low score trajectory. The remaining group (21.7%) had a high trajectory. After adjusting the data for confounding factors, the authors found that people with a high trajectory had an increased risk of CKD (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.04-1.67).

    Notably, the link between a high cMetS-S trajectory and CKD risk held true even if an individual did not have diabetes, obesity, or hypertension. However, the authors also said their association only reached statistical significance in men. It may be possible that estrogen—which has nephroprotective qualities in women—might delay CKD progression, the authors said.

    The study had a strong, population-based prospective design, though the authors noted that it only included people from Iran, and it did not include reliable data on alcohol consumption, which can affect cMetS-S scores. Future studies may be able to mitigate some of these limitations.

    The authors concluded that the findings suggest monitoring metabolic health changes may allow physicians to better manage patient health and encourage meaningful health behavior changes that could help reduce patient risk.

    References

    1. Mehran L, Amouzegar A, Masoumi S, Adib M, Azizi F, Amouzegar A. Trajectory patterns of metabolic syndrome severity score and risk of chronic kidney diseases. Kidney Dis (Basel). 2025;11(1):530-542. doi:10.1159/000545726

    2. Li X, Liang Q, Zhong J, Gan L, Zuo L. The effect of metabolic syndrome and its individual components on renal function: a meta-analysis. J Clin Med. 2023;12(4):1614. doi:10.3390/jcm12041614

    Continue Reading

  • Retail coffee prices have spiked 30% year over year. Can the JDE Peet’s-Keurig Dr Pepper merger bring consumers some relief?

    Retail coffee prices have spiked 30% year over year. Can the JDE Peet’s-Keurig Dr Pepper merger bring consumers some relief?

    By Myra P. Saefong

    Coffee futures are poised to notch their highest monthly percentage gain in over a decade

    U.S. retail coffee prices in July were up 33% from a year earlier, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    A more than 30% year-over-year rise in retail prices for coffee is staggering – and consumers are not likely to see relief anytime soon, even as a merger between two beverage giants looks to create an entity that can better manage rising costs.

    Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (KDP) announced this week an $18 billion all-cash deal to acquire Dutch-based JDE Peet’s NV (JDEPF). When the deal is completed, Keurig Dr Pepper (KPD) plans to split into two separate U.S.-listed companies: Beverage Co., which will focus on the North American refreshment-beverages market, and Global Coffee Co., a pure-play coffee company.

    “The company’s new, expanded global scale should be a considerable advantage, providing the flexibility to better absorb high costs and the leverage to navigate trade challenges,” said Jake Hanley, managing director and senior portfolio specialist at Teucrium. “This creates a level of ability that can be difficult for smaller competitors to replicate, making the deal a clear move to build a more resilient company in a volatile market.”

    KPD said the acquisition is expected to deliver about $400 million in annual cost savings, and analysts have said the new coffee company would rival that of Nestlé S.A. (NSRGY).

    The new entity is expected to have a more “favorable position in supply-chain negotiations, enhancing its ability to manage costs and navigate volatility in commodity prices,” said Jena Santoro, global head of research and analytics at Everstream Analytics. “This market influence could potentially prevent price increases to consumers,” she said.

    That’s not likely in the short term, however, given the “major issues impacting global coffee prices at the moment,” she said.

    Global climate impacts, such as droughts, and the Trump administration’s tariffs on imported goods – particularly a 50% tariff on some goods from Brazil, which is a major supplier of coffee to the U.S. – are “reducing the availability and increasing the cost of raw materials,” said Santoro.

    Read: Americans more worried about inflation and unemployment after new trade deals leave tariffs at highest level in decades

    The world futures contract benchmark for arabica coffee (KC00) (KCZ25) has gained roughly 30% this month alone, on track for its biggest monthly gain since February 2014, according to a Dow Jones Market Data analysis of FactSet data. Year to date, futures prices have climbed more than 20%.

    Prices settled at $3.853 per pound on the ICE Futures U.S. exchange Tuesday. They had marked their highest settlement on record back on Feb. 10 at $4.291.

    At the retail level, the U.S. city average for ground roast coffee sold for $8.414 a pound in July. That’s up 33% from $6.307 in July 2024, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Coffee prices have climbed sharply over the past few years. Retail prices in July were up 84% from the same month in 2021, U.S. government data showed. More recently, Trump implemented 50% tariffs on some Brazilian imports earlier this month, contributing to the August rally in prices for coffee.

    Three key reasons for the sharp rally in coffee-futures prices are the “weather, the U.S. president’s one-word vocabulary when it comes to trade policy, and continued strong demand,” said Darin Newsom, senior market analyst at Barchart.

    Three key reasons for the sharp rally in coffee futures prices are the ‘weather, the U.S. president’s one-word vocabulary when it comes to trade policy, and continued strong demand.’Darin Newsom, Barchart

    “The first is to be expected given coffee, like other [agricultural] production markets, is a weather derivative,” he told MarketWatch. Meanwhile, the U.S. tariff policy, particularly against Brazil, will raise domestic prices of coffee for the consumer, said Newsom, who’s also president at Darin Newsom Analysis, a commodity commentary and analysis provider.

    It will be interesting to see if retail coffee is reaching a “tipping point where U.S. consumers back off from…drinks every day” to move to cheaper alternatives, he said. Those may include tea, or chicory – a flowering plant whose roots, when roasted, can serve as a substitute for coffee.

    Looking ahead, Newsom said he expects coffee as being in a classic short-supply spike rally – “one that will come to a crashing end once weather improves or high prices shift demand to cheaper alternatives.”

    There have already been increases and declines in a number of markets in the so-called “softs” sector, of which coffee is a part of, such as cocoa, sugar and orange juice, he said. He pointed out that the forward curves for these markets remain in backwardation for the most part, a situation where commodity prices for delivery in the future are lower than current prices.

    “This tells us supply and demand remains bullish, meaning investment money continues to shift based on headlines at the time,” said Newsom.

    The good news is that KDP’s acquisition of JDE Peet’s will put further pressure on small and mid-size roasters and café suppliers, while giving the pure-play coffee company that’s created from the merger “more leverage to stabilize pricing and supply chains,” said Ben Newsom, an analyst at Darin Newsom Analysis.

    Long term, this merger is “more about stability and bargaining power rather than cheaper coffee for consumers,” he said. “It likely slows the rate of future price hikes rather than rolling prices back.”

    -Myra P. Saefong

    This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. 

    
  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
    

    
  08-27-25 1755ET
    

    Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

    Continue Reading

  • Google Says GSC Sitemap Uploads Don’t Guarantee Immediate Crawls

    Google Says GSC Sitemap Uploads Don’t Guarantee Immediate Crawls

    Google’s John Mueller answered a question about how many sitemaps to upload, and then said there are no guarantees that any of the URLs will be crawled right away.

    A member of the r/TechSEO community on Reddit asked if it’s enough to upload the main sitemap.xml file, which then links to the more granular sitemaps. What prompted the question was their concern over recently changing their website page slugs (URL file names).

    That person asked:

    “I submitted “sitemap.xml” to Google Search Console, is this sufficient or do I also need to submit page-sitemap.xml and sitemap-misc.xml as separate entries for it to work?
    I recently changed my website’s page slugs, how long will it take for Google Search Console to consider the sitemap”

    Mueller responded that uploading the sitemap index file (sitemap.xml) was enough and that Google would proceed from there. He also shared that it wasn’t necessary to upload the individual granular sitemaps.

    What was of special interest were his comments indicating that uploading sitemaps didn’t “guarantee” that all the URLs would be crawled and that there is no set time for when Googlebot would crawl the sitemap URLs. He also suggested using the Inspect URL tool.

    He shared:

    “You can submit the individual ones, but you don’t really need to. Also, sitemaps don’t guarantee that everything is recrawled immediately + there’s no specific time for recrawling. For individual pages, I’d use the inspect URL tool and submit them (in addition to sitemaps).”

    Is There Value In Uploading All Sitemaps?

    According to John Mueller, it’s enough to upload the index sitemap file. However, from our side of the Search Console, I think most people would agree that it’s better not to leave it to chance that Google will or will not crawl a URL. For that reason, SEOs may decide it’s reassuring to go ahead and upload all sitemaps that contain the changed URLs.

    The URL Inspection tool is a solid approach because it enables SEOs to request crawling for a specific URL. The downside of the tool is that you can only request this for one URL at a time. Google’s URL Inspection tool does not support bulk URL submissions for indexing.

    See also: Bing Recommends lastmod Tags For AI Search Indexing

    Featured Image by Shutterstock/Denis OREA

    Continue Reading

  • A Retrospective Study of Disparities in Mortality Due to Diabetes Mellitus Over a 22-Year Period in the United States

    A Retrospective Study of Disparities in Mortality Due to Diabetes Mellitus Over a 22-Year Period in the United States


    Continue Reading

  • Bankrupt owner puts thousands of music fans refunds at risk

    Bankrupt owner puts thousands of music fans refunds at risk

    Martin Graham

    BBC Scotland News

    Sharon McMahon A blue event poster which reads 'In the city' celebrating 850 years of Glasgow.Sharon McMahon

    The event was due to take place at Glasgow Green on Saturday and Sunday

    Music fans have been left out of pocket following the last-minute postponement of a festival in Glasgow organised by a man who has been declared bankrupt.

    In the City festival was due to be held on Glasgow Green on 23 and 24 August, featuring acts including Unkle, Huey Morgan and Grandmaster Flash.

    Ticketholders were told the event was being postponed just days before, and refunds would only be made available once a new date was announced.

    In an email to would-be festival goers, the organisers said the cancellation was due to a lack of ticket sales. Promoter Brian Traynor has been contacted for comment.

    Norry Wilson, from Glasgow, paid out more than £180 for three tickets to the event after being sold on the idea of attending a festival close to home.

    The 59-year-old told BBC Scotland News: “I wanted to see Don Letts, I haven’t seen him DJ-ing for years. The mix of old school hip hop and funk was what appealed to me about the bill.

    “They only let us know last Tuesday. It would be worse for people from out of town who’ve paid for travel and accommodation.”

    The promoters have contacted customers to say they can retain their tickets to use at the re-scheduled event, or wait until the new event is announced, then get a refund.

    Sharon McMahon a man with grey hair and glasses wearing a green jacket and red top.Sharon McMahon

    Norry Wilson was due to attend the festival with two friends

    BBC Scotland News understands that the festival’s promoter, Brian Traynor, is subject to a sequestration order over unpaid debts, meaning that the event is unlikely to take place at all.

    Sequestration is when bankruptcy is enforced by a creditor.

    Records at the Scottish government’s Accountants in Bankruptcy show that the order was requested in April this year, then enforced on 10 July, well ahead of the planned festival.

    In the City promoters began giving away free tickets for the festival to community groups in late July and early August.

    Four white In The City festival tickets on a black wooden surface. The tickets have black text, barcodes and blue logos on them.

    Some tickets for the festival were given away for free

    Mr Traynor also promoted an event called Playground at Rouken Glen park in 2021. It was beset with problems, including cancellations by artists and allegations of staff not being paid.

    Glasgow DJ duo Optimo refused to begin their set until funds reached their bank accounts. They also reported witnessing bullying behaviour towards other artists.

    Consumer rights expert Martyn James said that ticket holders can claim a refund immediately.

    He told BBC Scotland News: “If a gig or event is cancelled, you don’t need to wait for the rescheduled event – you can ask for your cash back straight away if you want.

    “If you are worried about not getting your money back, or you’re concerned about the organiser going under, you can ask your bank or card provider to ‘charge back’ the money.

    “Explain your concerns and they’ll explain what will happen next.”

    The Broadcasting Entertainment Communications and Theatre Union (Bectu) trade union has called for a change in the law following the cancellation to make it harder for promoters with a poor track record to get licences for events.

    Scottish organiser Paul McManus said: “The current application system for entertainment licences in Scotland is not fit for purpose to help tackle this endemic issue.

    “Bectu has engaged with local authorities on the matter, who are unable to refuse licences based on previous complaints or known issues with the applicant.

    “The Scottish government must therefore amend the legislation to introduce more robust criteria for securing a licence.”

    Continue Reading

  • HRT for Menopause May Come With Memory Benefits

    HRT for Menopause May Come With Memory Benefits

    Brain fog — a term encompassing a range of cognitive problems, including memory issues — is a common complaint of women going through menopause.

    “There are currently no recommendations to use hormone therapy for cognitive issues, even though brain fog is frequently a reported symptom during the menopausal transition and beyond,” says a coauthor of the study, Liisa Galea, MD, a senior scientist at the center for addiction and mental health at the University of British Columbia in Canada.

    Dr. Galea says she and her research team wanted to explore the cognitive effects of hormone therapy using estradiol, the most potent form of estrogen, levels of which drop off dramatically in the body during menopause. The goal was to find out if this therapy improves certain types of memory, and whether it matters what type of estradiol-based hormone therapy a person undergoes.

    Continue Reading

  • Photographs That Depict Alzheimer’s With Dignity

    Photographs That Depict Alzheimer’s With Dignity

    In photographer Alicia Vera’s portrait of her mother, Concepcion, she gazes skyward, her expression somewhere between curious and awestruck. The image has enough stylistic mottling and grain to obscure any sort of background, but Concepcion is clear: broad cheekbones, bejeweled ears, eyes full of wonder—maybe. Vera is a deeply humanistic image-maker, and it’s impossible to differentiate between a posed subject and a candid one. She approaches both with generosity.

    Isolated, the phrase “va a llover toda la noche,” which translates in English to “it’s going to rain all night,” feels like a snippet of poetry or song. A few years ago, it was a note left on Vera’s door by her mother. Now, it’s the title of Vera’s new project, and a self-published book of the same name, documenting Concepcion’s Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis and Vera’s experience processing it. “Every time I go home to Miami, I stay in my childhood home,” Vera shares. “My mom loves to leave notes on the door. I kept this one; a year or so later, when I was taking out all this material I had, I thought, ‘this is exactly what this feels like.’” The portrait of her mother is one of many in Va a Llover Toda La Noche (2025); alongside Vera’s portraits, the book includes archival images of Concepcion over the last several decades, text messages, emails, and other personal ephemera.

    Work by Alicia Vera in Va a Llover Toda La Noche (2025), with the caption: “Mom and her orchids in Miami”

    Vera, who is based in Mexico City, is an award-winning editorial and commercial photographer, and her personal projects feature some of her most captivating images. In “Basketball in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca” (2018), she captured the Copa Mixe, a basketball tournament for Indigenous Mixe youth in Sierra Norte; for “Stripped” (2009–11), she spent years documenting strippers in Miami and the Bay Area. Her photos are devoid of the voyeuristic quality often visible in like-minded series by other artists; instead, she seems warmly welcomed, like a relative. She’s been photographing her own family, too, “since forever,” she says. “I think I knew deep down, one day, everything’s going to be so different. Every time I would go home, I would take a ton of pictures.”

    Concepcion was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2018, which prompted Vera to begin photographing her more. In a Spanglish epilogue to the book, Vera writes, in English: “After my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, I felt devastated, overwhelmed, anxious and helpless.” In Spanish, she adds: “Mi mamá se me iba a ir. En mi desesperación de entender lo que le estaba pasando y porque nunca realmente sentí que la conocí, empecé este proyecto llamado, Va a Llover Toda La Noche” (My mom was going to leave me. In my desperation to understand what was happening to her, and because I never really felt like I knew her, I started this project called Va a Llover Toda La Noche.) Vera’s understanding of her mother’s own personhood was limited by the challenges of their relationship—a too-common dynamic among mothers and daughters, and one that Vera has long hoped to correct. “She grew up in Mexico and I grew up in the US, so there were a lot of cultural differences,” she says. “In my 20s, I moved away and realized, ‘I really miss my mom.’ We started having these phone calls, and it hit me that my mom was an entire human … I remember trying to make an effort to get to know her, asking her really specific questions. When my mom got diagnosed, I was like, ‘Wait, but I’m just starting to get to know you.’”

    Work by Alicia Vera in Va a Llover Toda La Noche (2025), with the caption: “My mother as a child runs through a field with her brother in Mexico. / A prayer card found in my mother’s room.”

    In Va a Llover Toda La Noche, she continues getting to know her. There are childhood photos of little Concepcion, messages she’s sent to Vera, pages of Vera’s own journals: “My mom, mi hermosa, who I’ve been terrible to for so many years, has Alzheimer’s. Mi mami …. There’s medicine, pills, and patches, but she’s refusing to take anything despite her telling us that she would do everything possible …. Mi bella madre ….” The last sentence is interrupted by a drawing. Vera repeats mi madre, my mom, like an incantation. She finds parallels between their lives in Mexico City, decades apart — a selfie of Vera in the grass sits side-by-side with a similar photo of Concepcion at nearly the same age; both are in the same pose, perhaps on the same beach.

    In contemporary portraits, Concepcion opens a pair of sliding-glass doors, holds two halves of a peach, watches the lush treetops of her Miami backyard, blocks the sun with the shade of her palm. Vera was committed to not portraying her mother from a photojournalistic distance, especially because she hasn’t shown her the project. “Even though she’s pretty advanced now, my mom continues to be my mom … She can perceive if I’m sad. If I were to give her the book, she’d sense I’m grieving her, and I don’t want to cause her any stress.” Consent is a touchstone of Vera’s practice; in its absence, she emphasized Concepcion’s dignity. “The projects on dementia and sickness that I was finding — it felt like I was seeing the same pictures over and over: a hospital bed, medicine. I knew my mom would not like that.” Vera’s mother is beautiful — and, Vera says, a proud Leo. “My mom talks about having been ‘the hottest person in the room.’ If I didn’t get her consent, what would she say if she saw a picture of herself looking ill? She’d be pissed off. For me, her dignity was front and center.”

    Work by Alicia Vera in Va a Llover Toda La Noche (2025), with the caption: “Mom opens the curtains to let the morning light in at her home in Miami, FL.”

    Vera recognizes, as well, the lack of dialogue around how families and caretakers process the experience of illness, which led to her partnership with the Patient Caregiver Artist Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to advocacy, storytelling, and patient support. They partner with patients, artists, healthcare organizations, and media to highlight more intimate perceptions of the patient and caregiver experience. “The founders felt that the images healthcare providers and media outlets were using to talk about illness were often cliché stock photography. They want to promote photographers who are doing something different.” Vera has given a public talk with the organization, who continue to support and promote her project.

    One image of Concepcion and Vera together, from the early aughts, is particularly striking; it is faded, and the two women’s faces look nearly identical. It’s overlaid with text: “Today was the first time she didn’t recognize me. Something broke in me.” In our conversation, I asked Vera what she’d learned about her mother through the process of putting the book together. After a particular amount of time shared with another person, becoming a caregiver is nearly inevitable; it is also complicated. “No matter how angry she ever was, she always came back to loving me,” she replied. “I’m grateful for the way she showed up for me all these years and continues to show up for me, even though she’s sick. She’s shown me how expansive love can be.”

    Work by Alicia Vera in Va a Llover Toda La Noche (2025), with the caption: “Emails from my mom, dated 2009-2013. One of the first signs of dementia is the loss of cognitive function that can cause seniors to struggle with the use of technology. These days, she has forgotten how to use a computer, and her cell phone causes her anxiety.”

    Va a Llover Toda La Noche (2025), with text and images by Alicia Vera, is self-published by La Chancleta Voladora. It is available for purchase on the artist’s website.

    Continue Reading

  • This Plant-Inspired Molecule Could Be the Key to Artificial Photosynthesis

    This Plant-Inspired Molecule Could Be the Key to Artificial Photosynthesis

    As with natural photosynthesis, the new molecule temporarily stores two positive and two negative charges. Credit: Deyanira Geisnæs Schaad

    Swiss researchers have designed a plant-inspired molecule that mimics photosynthesis and can hold four electric charges when exposed to light.

    This ability to store multiple charges could be the key to creating solar fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, or synthetic petrol — fuels that would be carbon-neutral because they release only as much CO2 as was used to produce them.

    Harnessing Plant-Inspired Solar Power

    Plants capture sunlight and use it to transform carbon dioxide into sugars that store energy. This process, known as photosynthesis, underpins nearly all life on Earth. The sugars produced by plants serve as fuel for animals and humans, who release the stored energy by breaking them down. That process returns carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, completing the natural cycle.

    Scientists hope to use this same principle as a guide for developing clean fuels. By copying the way plants convert light, researchers aim to generate energy-rich compounds directly from sunlight. These solar fuels include hydrogen, methanol, and synthetic petrol. When burned, they would release only the same amount of carbon dioxide that was originally required to create them. In effect, the entire process would be carbon-neutral.

    A Molecule That Stores Four Charges

    In Nature Chemistry, Professor Oliver Wenger and doctoral student Mathis Brändlin describe an important advance toward this goal of artificial photosynthesis. They have engineered a specially designed molecule that, when exposed to light, can hold four charges at the same time – two positive and two negative.

    Being able to temporarily store several charges is a crucial step in turning sunlight into usable chemical energy. Those charges can then be applied to trigger reactions, such as splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.

    The molecule itself is built from five linked components, each with a distinct role. On one end, two parts release electrons and in doing so become positively charged. At the opposite end, two other parts absorb those electrons and turn negatively charged. At the center, the researchers placed a light-sensitive unit that captures solar energy and initiates the electron transfer.

    Two Flashes of Light, Four Charges

    In order to generate the four charges, the researchers took a stepwise approach using two flashes of light. The first flash of light hits the molecule and triggers a reaction in which a positive and a negative charge are generated. These charges travel outward to the opposite ends of the molecule. With the second flash of light, the same reaction occurs again, so that the molecule then contains two positive and two negative charges.

    Works Even in Dim Light

    “This stepwise excitation makes it possible to use significantly dimmer light. As a result, we are already moving close to the intensity of sunlight,” explains Brändlin. Earlier research required extremely strong laser light, which was a far cry from the vision of artificial photosynthesis. “In addition, the charges in the molecule remain stable long enough to be used for further chemical reactions.”

    That being said, the new molecule has not yet created a functioning artificial photosynthesis system. “But we have identified and implemented an important piece of the puzzle,” says Oliver Wenger. The new findings from the study help to improve our understanding of the electron transfers that are central to artificial photosynthesis. “We hope that this will help us contribute to new prospects for a sustainable energy future,” says Wenger.

    Reference: “Photoinduced double charge accumulation in a molecular compound” by Mathis Brändlin, Björn Pfund and Oliver S. Wenger, 25 August 2025, Nature Chemistry.
    DOI: 10.1038/s41557-025-01912-x

    Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.

    Continue Reading