Global Biodefense Unusual spike in human infections highlights ongoing risks at the human-animal interface and the need for cross-sectoral public health action. Between January and July 2025, Cambodian health authorities reported 11 laboratory-confirmed cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N1), including six fatalities. Notably, seven of these cases occurred in June alone—an unusual monthly spike. These recent infections are part of a broader resurgence that began in February 2023, after nearly a decade without reported human cases in the country. Since that re-emergence, Cambodia has confirmed 27 human infections, with a case fatality ratio (CFR) of 44%.
The recurrence of H5N1 in humans underscores persistent vulnerabilities at the human-animal interface and raises critical concerns about surveillance, biosecurity, and pandemic preparedness in regions where the virus remains endemic in animal populations.
Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister Aqeel Malik on Wednesday warned that the government could deny entry to the sons of PTI founder Imran Khan if they travelled to Pakistan and “spread discord”.
Imran’s sons — Suleman Khan (28) and Kasim Khan (26) — had called attention to their father’s incarceration in a rare public appearance in May. Imran, imprisoned since August 2023, is serving a sentence at the Adiala Jail in the £190 million corruption case and also faces pending trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the May 9, 2023 protests. It was the first time the two had publicly talked about their father’s incarceration.
On Monday, Kasim uploaded a post on X calling for his father’s release, saying that the PTI founder had been imprisoned for 700 days and cut off from his family and even his personal physician.
Imran’s sister Aleema Khan told reporters a day ago outside Adiala Jail that the two would join an upcoming PTI protest movement. She claimed that the sons would go to the United States to present their father’s case before coming to Pakistan to join the movement.
Addressing the matter on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, Malik said the government had no issue with Kasim and Suleiman entering Pakistan, provided they do not engage in protests or political activity.
Malik noted that, being British nationals, Kasim and Suleiman could not legally participate in Pakistani political activity. He alleged that the boys are “coming to spread discord and there is no permission for this”.
“If they intend to get a visa to visit Pakistan, the concerned authorities in the interior ministry will look at their purpose of visit … But their aunt (Aleema) said … that they are coming to join the PTI movement,” the minister asserted.
“We have no issue with them coming here, but we have an issue with them participating in political activity as foreign nationals.”
He further said: “I do not believe that they will actually come here … If they had any family values, they would have come to see their father earlier.”
Malik said the PTI needed to “perform a political stunt” and the party, Aleema and Imran were “using these boys as trump cards”. “This is their last option,” he added.
On a different note, Minister of State for Interior Talal Chaudhry said while talking to reporters earlier today: “His children should come and get to know what their father has done with the country. It is a very good thing but they won’t come.”
However, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah stated in an interview on the ARY News show ‘Khabar’ a day ago that the sons could face arrest.
“Their coming here [will achieve nothing] except difficulties for them and then the UK Embassy will have to get them released and take them back.”
Questioned if he meant they could be arrested upon participation in the PTI protest, Sanaullah said: “Why won’t they be arrested? If they come here to lead a violent movement, then what will be the consequence of that?”
Asked about his supposing the movement to be violent, he said the PTI could no longer be trusted after the events of its past protests.
The wireless carrier, which is seeking FCC approval on two deals, bowed the pressure from the White House.
Wireless carrier T-Mobile says it is ending its diversity, equity and inclusion programmes, under pressure from the Trump administration as it seeks regulatory approval for two major deals.
The Washington state-based company said in a letter to Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr, made public on Wednesday, that the wireless company is ending its DEI-related policies “not just in name, but in substance.”
T-Mobile said it will no longer have any individual roles or teams focused on DEI, is removing any references to DEI on its websites, and has removed references to DEI from its employee training materials.
Carr said he was pleased with the changes. “This is another good step forward for equal opportunity, nondiscrimination and the public interest,” according to the news agency Reuters.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, a Democrat, criticised T-Mobile’s action, saying, “In yet another cynical bid to win FCC regulatory approval, T-Mobile is making a mockery of its professed commitment to eliminating discrimination, promoting fairness, and amplifying underrepresented voices.”
T-Mobile is awaiting FCC approval to buy almost all of regional carrier United States Cellular’s wireless operations including customers, stores and 30 percent of its spectrum assets in a deal valued at $4.4bn, and a separate transaction to establish a joint venture with KKR to acquire internet service provider Metronet, which reaches more than 2 million homes and businesses in 17 states.
Investors did not respond well to the news. As of 2:30pm ET (18:30 GMT), the company’s stock, traded under the TMUS, is down 1.3 percent since the market opened.
T-Mobile joins a growing list of companies bowing to pressure from the Trump administration that face regulatory approval.
Last week, Paramount agreed to pay a $16m settlement after the president claimed CBS News’ show 60 Minutes misleadingly edited an interview with then Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris, as Paramount seeks regulatory approval for the proposed merger with Skydance.
Nature Since Spring 2024, new genotypes of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b have been identified in the United States (US). These HPAI H5N1 genotypes have caused unprecedented multi-state outbreaks in poultry and dairy farms, and human infections. Here, we discuss the current situation of this outbreak and emphasizes the need for pre-pandemic preparedness to control HPAI H5N1 in both poultry and dairy farms in the US. The highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1) was first detected in chickens in Scottland in 1959 and has since circulated globally1. In 1996, the HPAI H5N1 virus was reported in domestic waterfowl in Southern China, known as A/Goose/Guangdong/1/1996 or Gs/Gd lineage, resulting in the first known human infections, responsible of 18 human cases, including 6 deaths in 1997 in Hong Kong2. For almost 30 years, the virus spread via migratory birds in waves to the terrestrial avian hosts and mammalian species throughout the world leading to significant diversities in evolutionary virus lineages and clades2.
At Samsung Galaxy Unpacked this year, company president TM Roh took the stage in Brooklyn, NY, to tout the transformative nature Galaxy AI. The presentation talked about how Samsung’s AI tech customizes information and systems to become your personal companion. It gives you morning briefs, synthesizes your health information and can integrate across different form factors, like foldables, VR and wearables.
I am an active user of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 phone, but I’ve never once seen any of Samsung’s Galaxy AI features surface in my daily use. And it’s not like I’m not looking out for this stuff, I’m literally an AI reporter at CNET. So what am I missing?
Part of the reason I never notice Galaxy AI is that it’s hampered by the defaults of Google’s open source Android operating system. Unlike Apple, Samsung doesn’t control the software running on its devices. Instead, it uses Android.
I’ve used a Galaxy Z Fold 6 for the last year or so.
Lisa Eadicicco/CNET
Samsung and other smartphone makers can add their own software features on top of Android. Google, however, doesn’t allow Android partners to completely delete Google’s included apps. So, if partners want their own interpretations of a calling app or text messaging app, it has to live alongside Google’s versions.
Years ago Samsung did attempt to launch its own mobile operating system called Tizen, but, like with Windows Phone and other mobile operating systems, getting app developers on board proved challenging.
Where’s my AI, Samsung?
I have yet to see any of the AI features Samsung touts. Apart from Samsung’s daily brief there’s a host of editing features, including audio eraser for clearer audio, auto trim for video editing and generative edit, which lets you use AI to retouch images. On Samsung’s Galaxy AI website, the company says there’s call transcript, writing assist and interpreter features.
I’m personally not a big photo bug, so I don’t spend too much time snapping pics and setting aside time to edit photos for Instagram. So, being blind to these features is on me.
But I am reporter, so the transcript and interpreter features are particularly handy. Well, they should be if I’d ever seen them. I jumped on an impromptu call with my co-worker Corin Cesaric to test if these transcript features would activate. They didn’t.
I went into the settings to double-check if any of the AI features were enabled. Apart from Note Assist, all of them were turned on in the settings. The problem was perplexing. Turns out, it comes down to which apps you set as default when setting up your device.
It’s all about defaults
To get Samsung’s AI features, you have to use Samsung’s apps. But when I first set up my phone, I guess I clicked the box for Google’s suite of apps, maybe because I was coming from a Google Pixel device. For example, there’s separate versions of the phone, messages and photo apps, one from Google and one from Samsung. The Samsung Messages app wasn’t even installed on my device as Samsung made Google Messages the native app back in 2021. I had to go to the Samsung Store (yes, Samsung has a separate app store on Android) to install it.
The bicameral nature of Samsung devices running Google’s operating system is to blame for all this confusion. Many Samsung and Google apps have the exact same names, making the issue even more confusing.
I think Google has tacitly acknowledged this division as a problem. Google advertises its Pixel-line of devices as having software that’s embedded deeply with Google DNA, mixing design and AI in ways that just work. If Google wants Samsung and other partners to have that same kind of clean integration, it needs to allow them to have greater control. Otherwise consumers will simply conclude that Samsung, OnePlus or Motorola are to blame.
A recent study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, evaluated the feasibility of Nutri, a user-centered digital platform designed to support personalized, evidence-based diet goal setting during routine primary care visits for patients with type 2 diabetes. Findings show that primary care providers (PCPs) who used the system consistently, found it usable and satisfactory, and that patients were able to engage with the intervention effectively.
Researchers conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial across a network of federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) in Texas. Sixteen PCPs and 30 of their adult patients with diabetes or prediabetes participated in the study. Nutri synthesized patient dietary recall data using a rules-based expert system, prioritizing key dietary issues and guiding collaborative goal setting between provider and patient within a standard primary care visit.
Results showed that PCPs used Nutri in 100% of eligible appointments, with a satisfaction score of 3.8 out of 5 and above-average usability ratings. Patients, most of whom were from underserved communities, engaged with the intervention successfully, with 81% reporting that they set a diet goal with their provider and over half initiating that goal within one week.
Lead author Marissa Burgermaster, PhD, assistant professor of population health at Dell Medical School and assistant professor of nutritional sciences at the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin, said, “PCPs are on the front lines of diabetes care but often lack the time and training for effective nutrition counseling. Nutri integrates into the visit workflow and supports shared decision-making, making it easier for providers and patients to set actionable dietary goals.”
The study provides a strong foundation for a future large-scale trial to evaluate Nutri’s effectiveness in improving diet quality and clinical outcomes. Researchers note that digital tools like Nutri may help close nutrition care gaps, particularly in low-resource settings, by making dietary counseling more efficient, accessible, and personalized.
Source:
Journal reference:
Burgermaster, M., et al. (2025). Pilot Trial of Nutri, a Digital Intervention for Personalized Dietary Management of Diabetes in Safety-Net Primary Care. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2025.03.015.
It seems the therapists Olivia Rodrigo found for her band really helped.
The 22-year-old “Vampire” singer and her tour manager Marty Hom provided free and accessible therapy for the entire “Guts” tour crew, rhythm guitarist Daisy Spencer revealed on “The StageLeft Podcast.”
“I have never had anything like that,” Spencer, 31, told host Chris Simpson. “And that reignited the importance of therapy to me because I had kind of fallen off for so long.”
Rodrigo and Spencer just wrapped the 102-date “Guts” world tour July 1 and completed a successful headlining set at Glastonbury, where they were joined on stage by the Cure’s Robert Smith. While on the podcast, Spencer described Rodrigo as “the dreamiest boss of all time” and opened up about taking care of her mind and body on the road.
“Suddenly I had this free resource of incredible therapists and I utilized the crap out of that,” she said. “I was going, you know, once a week, once every other week, whenever I could. And it was even during the off time — we also still had access to this resource.”
Rodrigo’s dad, Chris Rodrigo, is a family therapist, and the singer has been very open about starting therapy at 16.
“That was a really big, life-changing moment,” she told CBS Sunday Morning in 2021. “I’ve learned so much about myself.”
And she’s not the only musician promoting therapy. Lewis Capaldi, who returned to the stage after a two-year break from performing to focus on his all-around health, announced Monday that he’s partnering with BetterHelp to provide 734,000 hours of free online therapy. Ariana Grande has also partnered with the virtual therapy platform several times in the past.
Though the “Guts” tour has concluded, Rodrigo still has several festival engagements lined up for the summer, including a headlining set Aug. 1 at Lollapalooza.
Raynor Winn released a 2,300-word statement responding to the Observer’s allegations
Author Raynor Winn has hit back at a newspaper investigation that claimed she gave misleading information about her life story in her 2018 book The Salt Path.
The Observer reported she had misrepresented the events that led to she and her husband losing their house and setting off on a 630-mile walk. The investigation also cast doubt over the nature of her husband’s illness. Winn denied the allegations and said she was taking legal advice.
In a lengthy statement posted on her website on Wednesday, Winn responded in detail to the claims made in the Observer.
She provided documents that appeared to confirm her husband Moth had previously been diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD).
She also stood by her description of how the couple came to lose their house and denied the couple had any outstanding debts.
However, Winn acknowledged making “mistakes” earlier in her career, after the Observer said she had defrauded her previous employer of £64,000. She said it had been a pressured time.
“Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry,” she said, but added the case had been settled between her and her ex-employer on a “non-admissions basis” and although she was questioned by the police, she was not charged.
BBC News has contacted the journalist who wrote the Observer article for a response.
How has Raynor Winn responded to the allegations?
The Observer said it had spoken to several medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having CBD, also known as CBS, given his long survival after diagnosis, lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.
Winn shared photographs of documents that appeared to show medical experts acknowledging or referring to Moth’s condition or symptoms.
One letter appears to show that Moth had previously been considered as having an “atypical form of corticobasal degeneration”, but further examination suggested he may have “an even more unusual disorder, perhaps monogenetic”.
Winn said a CBS diagnosis does not come from a simple test, “but rather from a long and complex route of observation, where sufferers may have symptoms for many years before they finally reach a diagnosis”.
She added: “We will always be grateful that Moth’s version of CBS is indolent, its slow progression has allowed us time to discover how walking helps him.”
Winn said she had documented Moth’s illness “with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations”, adding: “My books have become a record of his health.”
The Salt Path described how Moth’s condition appeared to improve during and after the walk. But in her statement, Winn said: “I have never sought to offer medical advice in my books or suggest that walking might be some sort of miracle cure for CBS, I am simply charting Moth’s own personal journey and battle with his illness, and what has helped him.”
The Observer said the couple had not lost their home in a bad business deal as Winn originally suggested, but after they were unable to repay £100,000 they had borrowed to repay money she had been accused of stealing from a previous employer
Winn acknowledged a dispute with her previous employer but said that was separate to the court case described in The Salt Path involving their friend, whom she had referred to as Cooper, which ultimately lost the couple their home.
Reiterating the events described in the book, Winn said Moth made an investment in Cooper’s property portfolio, and when the investment was due to mature, Cooper said it had failed due to low occupancy.
Winn said Cooper promised to eventually pay the money back, and the couple asked for it to be returned in 2008. Instead, she said, Cooper offered them a loan through his company, assured against their home, with 18% interest, which he said he would cover.
But Winn said his company later went into liquidation without the charge on their home having been removed. As a result, the author said, their house was repossessed.
Getty Images
Left to right: Raynor and Moth Winn with actors Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, who portrayed them in a film adaptation
The Observer alleged Winn had stolen £64,000 from her previous employer while she was working there.
Winn acknowledged working for the employer before the economic crash of 2008, saying it was a “pressured time”.
“It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry,” she said.
Winn said her employer had gone to the police, accusing her of taking money from the company. “I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions,” she said.
“I reached a settlement… because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened. The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties.”
She said her employer was equally keen to reach a private resolution as she was, and the money she paid was on a “non-admissions basis”.
The Observer said the couple owned property in the south-west of France, but added it was not in a habitable state and reported locals saying the couple only camped on the land when they visited
Winn said: “What we own in France is an uninhabitable ruin in a bramble patch, on the boundary of a family member’s property.
“It has missing walls, a collapsed roof, no running water, drainage, or electricity… We have never lived there, that would be impossible, and we haven’t been there since 2007.”
She said the insinuation that the pair were not homeless, the central premise of the book, was “utterly unfounded”.
Winn said the couple did try to sell the land in 2013, around the same time as events depicted in the book, “but the local agent said it was virtually worthless and saw no point in marketing it”.
Elsewhere in the statement, Winn disputed any suggestion that the couple had outstanding debts, and said a credit check would have proved this.
She said after receiving an advance for the book and over the subsequent years “I tracked down our remaining debts and now believe I have tracked down and repaid everyone”.
Winn also explained why she and Moth are not known by their legal names of Timothy and Sally Walker.
The author said Winn was her maiden name, and she disliked her first name of Sally and decided to use her family name Raynor as a pen name. She also noted Moth was short for Timothy.
She denied the couple were “hiding behind pseudonyms” and said their friends use “Sal and Tim interchangeably with Ray and Moth”.
An estimated 4 million children undergo surgical procedures in hospitals across the U.S. each year. Although postoperative complications, such as infections, can pose significant health risks to kids, timely detection following hospital discharge can prove challenging.
A new study published in Science Advances — and led by researchers at Northwestern University, Shirley Ryan AbilityLab and University of Alabama at Birmingham — is the first to use consumer wearables to quickly and precisely predict postoperative complications in children and shows potential for facilitating faster treatment and care.
“Today, consumer wearables are ubiquitous, with many of us relying on them to count our steps, measure our sleep and more,” said senior author Arun Jayaraman, professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, medical social sciences and physical therapy and human movement sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a scientist at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. “Our study is the first to take this widely available technology and train the algorithm using new metrics that are more sensitive in detecting complications. Our results suggest great promise for better patient outcomes and have broad implications for pediatric health monitoring across various care settings.”
How the study worked
As part of the study, commercially available Fitbit devices were given to 103 children for 21 days immediately after appendectomy — the most common surgery in children, which results in complications up to 38% of the time. Rather than just using the metrics automatically captured by the Fitbit to identify signs of complications (e.g., low activity, high heart rate, etc.), Shirley Ryan AbilityLab scientists trained the algorithm using new metrics related to the circadian rhythms of a child’s activity and heart rate patterns.
We have an opportunity to change the paradigm of postoperative monitoring and care,”
Study author Dr. Fizan Abdullah
In the process, they found such metrics were more sensitive to picking up complications than the traditional metrics. In fact, in analyzing the data, scientists were able to retrospectively predict postoperative complications up to three days before formal diagnosis with 91% sensitivity and 74% specificity.
“Historically, we have been reliant upon subjective reporting from children — who often have greater difficulty articulating their symptoms — and their caregivers following hospital discharge. As a result, complications are not always caught right away,” said study author Dr. Fizan Abdullah, who at the time of the study was an attending physician of pediatric surgery at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and a professor at Feinberg. “By using widely available wearables, coupled with this novel algorithm, we have an opportunity to change the paradigm of postoperative monitoring and care — and improve outcomes for kids in the process.”
What’s next?
This research is part of a four-year National Institutes of Health-funded project. As a next step, scientists plan to transition this approach into a real-time (vs. retrospective) system that analyzes data automatically and sends alerts to children’s clinical teams.
“This study reinforces wearables’ potential to complement clinical care for better patient recoveries,” said Hassan M.K. Ghomrawi, vice chair of research and innovation in the department of orthopaedic surgery at University of Alabama at Birmingham. “Our team is eager to enter the next phase of research exploration.”
Circana has published its May 2025 US sales recap, revealing Elden Ring: Nightreign was the best-selling premium game of the month and the eleventh best-selling game of 2025 to date. FromSoftware’s Elden Ring spin-off was the best-selling game across PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.
The projected US spend in May 2025 on video game hardware, content, and accessories topped $4.1 billion, up 1% year-on-year. However, year-to-date spending fall 6% behind 2024 at $21.8 billion.
Total video game sales in May 2025: $4,052m (+1% year-on-year)
Total video game content/software in May 2025: $3,726m (+2% YoY)
Total video game hardware sales: $172m (-13% YoY)
Total video game accessories sales: $154m (-6% YoY)
Total video game sales in 2025*: $21,838m (-6% YoY)
* year to date
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 re-entered the monthly best-selling titles chart at 12th place, and fifth across PC aggregated storefront tracking. That’s up from 135th place the previous month.
Monopoly Go! once again tops mobile consumer spending, followed by Royal Match and Last War: Survival. Candy Crush Saga, Whiteout Survival, Township, Coin Master, Pokémon TCG Pocket, Evony, and Gossip Harbor: Merge & Story round out the top ten.
Monster Hunter: Wilds remains 2025’s biggest game in the US by dollar sales.
Here are the top 20 best-selling games from the period May 4 to May 31, 2025, data courtesy of Circana:
Rank
Last month rank
Title
1
NEW
Elden Ring: Nightreign
2
NEW
Doom: The Dark Ages
3
2
Forza Horizon 5
4
1
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion: Remastered
5
5
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
6
3
MLB: The Show 25^^
7
4
Minecraft^
8
15
Grand Theft Auto 5
9
9
NBA 2K25
10
14
EA Sports FC 25
11
6
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
12
135
Star Wars: Battlefront 2
13
10
Split Fiction
14
16
Red Dead Redemption 2
15
NEW
F1 25
16
34
Helldivers 2
17
13
The Last of Us: Part 2
18
8
WWE 2K25
19
NEW
Capcom Fight Collection 2
20
11
PGA Tour 2K25
^ Digital sales on Nintendo platforms not included
^^ Digital sales on Nintendo and Xbox platforms not included
