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iQOO Z10R 5G was launched on July 24 and is now available for purchase in India. The handset is powered by the Mediatek Dimensity 7400 SoC, paired with up to 12GB of RAM. It sports a 120Hz quad-curved AMOLED screen and a 5,700mAh battery. Vivo has equipped the iQOO Z10R 5G with several artificial intelligence (AI)-backed tools such as AI Erase 2.0, Photo Enhance, and Circle to Search. It carries IP68 + IP69 protection against dust and water ingress. iQOO Z10R 5G Price in India, Offers The price of iQOO Z10R 5G in India starts at Rs. 19,499 for the 8GB + 128GB RAM and storage configuration. It is also offered in 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 256GB variants, priced at Rs. 21,499 and Rs. 23,499, respectively. The handset is available for purchase starting today via Amazon India and the official iQOO India online store. As part of the launch offers, customers can avail of an instant discount of Rs. 2,000 on select bank cards. Alternatively, they can opt for an exchange bonus of Rs. 2,000 on all models. With this offer, the net effective price of the iQOO Z10R 5G is lowered to Rs. 17,499 for the base configuration. Other variants can be purchased for as low as Rs. 19,499 and Rs. 21,499 as well. Lastly, customers can also avail of no-cost EMI options for a period of up to six months. The iQOO Z10R 5G is sold in Aquamarine and Moonstone colour options. iQOO Z10R 5G Features, Specifications The dual-SIM (nano + nano) iQOO Z10R 5G ships with Funtouch OS 15 based on Android 15. It is promised to receive two years of Android updates and three years of security patches. The handset sports a 6.77-inch full-HD+ (1,080 x 2,392 pixels) quad curved AMOLED screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and 1,800 nits peak brightness.It is powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 7400 chipset, paired with up to 12GB of RAM and up to 256GB of onboard storage. iQOO has onboarded several AI features on the phone. This includes Circle to Search, AI Erase 2.0 and Photo Enhance, AI Screen Translation, AI Note Assist, and AI Transcript Assist. For optics, the iQOO Z10R 5G has a dual rear camera setup, comprising a 50-megapixel Sony IMX882 primary sensor with support for optical image stabilisation (OIS) and a 2-megapixel bokeh shooter. It features a 32-megapixel front-facing camera with support for 4K video recording for selfies and video calls. Connectivity options on the iQOO Z10R 5G include 5G, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 6, GPS, and a USB Type-C port. It has IP68 + IP69 rating, SGS five-star anti-fall certification, and a MIL-STD-810H-certified build. The handset packs a 5,700mAh battery with 44W fast charging support. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/iqoo-z10r-5g-sale-in-india-begins-price-offers-specifications-8972422

It's been a few weeks since Apple's WWDC 2025 event, and while Apple did announce a new Games app that will be included in the new macOS Tahoe later this year, there wasn’t a lot of news on forthcoming titles that Mac gamers can look forward to playing. There was, however, one important games-related announcement during WWDC that might have gone a little bit under the radar. The announcement came from UL Solutions, with the launch of a new Mac version of its 3DMark benchmarking app. This is an important development for Mac gamers, as 3DMark is one of the most po[CENSORED]r tools used to test the graphics performance of gaming PCs - and its arrival on the Mac reflects the fact that Macs are finally being taken seriously as a gaming platform. With that in mind, I'd like to take some time to discuss how exactly you can go about benchmarking the best MacBooks and Macs. And, with A-List games such as Assassin's Creed: Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077 now available for Macs, many of us Mac gamers are wondering how well these games will run on our Macs. As the name suggests, 3DMark does focus specifically on testing performance with games and 3D graphics, but there are other options available that you can use to benchmark your Mac (and also to compare your Mac’s performance with Windows PCs, too). DIY Benchmarking Some games (including the aforementioned AC: Shadows and Cyberpunk) do have their own benchmarking tools already built in, which allow you to test your Mac’s performance and see the frames-per-second (FPS) score that it can achieve while running the game. These tools can be handy as they allow you to experiment with different graphics settings within the game in order to strike the best balance between graphics quality and performance for your particular Mac model. But, of course, these tools only work within individual games, so they don’t give you much indication of how your Mac will work with other games, or how it compares with other Macs or PCs - plus, you'll have to actually buy the game to run the benchmark in most cases. PC gamers who use Steam probably know that the Steam app includes an option for showing framerates in-game. Unfortunately, the Mac version of Steam can be... a little erratic, and its FPS counter went AWOL sometime around 2023. However, another welcome bit of gaming news that arrived during WWDC was Valve’s announcement that it’s currently testing a new version of Steam, updated specifically for the latest Macs with Apple Silicon processors, so hopefully it'll work more reliably in the future. https://www.techradar.com/computing/mac-os/benchmarking-macs-3dmark-and-other-testing-tools-that-make-it-easy-to-test-your-apple-macs-performance

To address concerns about power consumption of systems used for AI inference, hyperscale cloud service provider (CSP) Cloudflare is testing various AI accelerators that are not AI GPUs from AMD or Nvidia, reports the Wall Street Journal. Recently, the company began to test drive Positron AI's Atlas solution that promises to beat Nvidia's H200 at just 33% of its power consumption. Positron is a U.S.-based company founded in 2023 that develops AI accelerators focused exclusively on inference. Unlike general-purpose GPUs that are designed for AI training, AI inference, technical computing, and a wide range of other workloads, Positron's hardware is built from scratch to perform inference tasks efficiently and with minimal power consumption. Position AI's first-generation solution for large-scale transformer models is called Atlas. It packs eight Archer accelerators and is designed to beat Nvidia's Hopper-based systems while consuming a fraction of power. Positron AI's Atlas can reportedly deliver around 280 tokens per second per user in Llama 3.1 8B with BF16 compute at 2000W, whereas an 8-way Nvidia DGX H200 server can only achieve around 180 tokens per second per user in the same scenario, while using a whopping 5900W of power, according to a comparison conducted by Positron AI itself. This would make the Atlas three times more efficient in terms of performance-per-watt and in terms of performance-per-dollar compared to Nvidia's DGX H200 system. This claim, of course, requires verification by a third party. AMD's Instinct MI355X accelerator will reportedly consume 1,400 watts Huawei's brute force AI tactic seems to be working — CloudMatrix 384 claimed to outperform Nvidia processors running DeepSeek R1 Nvidia AI challenger Groq announces European expansion — Helsinki data center targets AI market It is noteworthy that Positron AI makes its ASIC hardware at TSMC's Fab 21 in Arizona (i.e., using an N4 or N5 process technology), and the cards are also assembled in the U.S., which makes them an almost entirely American product. Still, since the ASIC is mated with 32GB of HBM memory, it uses an advanced packaging technology and, therefore, is likely assembled in Taiwan. Positron AI's Atlas systems and Archer AI accelerators are compatible with widely used AI tools like Hugging Face and serve inference requests through an OpenAI API-compatible endpoint, enabling users to adopt them without major changes to their workflows. Positron has raised over $75 million in total funding, including a recent $51.6 million round led by investors such as Valor Equity Partners, Atreides Management, and DFJ Growth. The company is also working on its 2nd Generation AI inference accelerator dubbed Asimov, an 8-way Titan machine that is expected in 2026 to compete against inference systems based on Nvidia's Vera Rubin platforms. Positron AI's Asimov AI accelerator will come with 2 TB of memory per ASIC, and, based on an image published by the company, will cease to use HBM, but will use another type of memory. The ASIC will also feature a 16 Tb/s external network bandwidth for more efficient operations in rack-scale systems. The Titan — based on eight Asimov AI accelerators with 16 GB of memory in total — is expected to be able to run models with up to 16 trillion parameters on a single machine, significantly expanding the context limits for large-scale generative AI applications. The system also supports simultaneous execution of multiple models, eliminating the one-model-per-GPU constraint, according to Positron AI. https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/positron-ai-says-its-atlas-accelerator-beats-nvidia-h200-on-inference-in-just-33-percent-of-the-power-delivers-280-tokens-per-second-per-user-with-llama-3-1-8b-in-2000w-envelope

New, groundbreaking research to protect both animal and human health from antibiotic-resistant infections is underway to develop the world’s first dedicated surveillance system in healthy dogs and cats, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) has announced. Over half of UK adults own pets and live with them in a shared environment, meaning that bacteria, including resistant bacteria, can spread easily between animals and people. All animals and humans have bacteria in their bodies and in many cases these bugs do not cause any harm. However, some bacteria can be resistant to antibiotics which can lead to serious human or animal health consequences if they cause an infection. Through this study, the VMD seek to understand more about the levels of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in household pets across the UK, to better protect public health and the health of our pets. Pet owners across the UK will be contributing to the research programme; the study aims to identify the most reliable methods for understanding AMR in dogs and cats and will include outreach to households and veterinary practices to submit faecal samples from the animals they live with and look after. These samples will generate AMR surveillance data in healthy companion animals for the first time. Scotland’s Royal College (SRUC) will conduct the pilot study over 4 years and bring huge expertise in this field of work, having established surveillance programmes in other countries. Abi Seager, VMD CEO said: Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious global health threats that we face. I am proud to launch this ground-breaking AMR surveillance project in healthy cats and dogs with SRUC, who have a proven track-record of establishing surveillance programmes from the ground-up, and this new study is a truly One Health intervention to tackle AMR. A recent report published by the Public Accounts Committee on AMR, highlighted the need to address surveillance gaps in animals and we are pleased the VMD is already driving progress in this area. John Berezowski, Professor in Disease Surveillance at SRUC’s Rural and Veterinary Innovation Centre (RAVIC) in Inverness, said: This initiative is critical for a better understanding of the transmission and maintenance of AMR in our pets. Our experts have worked hard to develop a practical AMR surveillance system. We plan to follow a team approach, working with pet owners and their vets as we explore how best to collect samples for surveillance throughout the UK. This work will build on existing surveillance programmes in animals, coordinated by the VMD. Currently, in companion animals in the UK, surveillance for AMR only covers a limited number of clinically unwell animals and no country currently has representative national surveillance of AMR in healthy dogs and cats. The work also follows a similar study recently carried out by UKHSA, looking at the levels of resistant bacteria in healthy people. VMD are also working to address gaps in clinical surveillance data from companion animals under veterinary care, by addressing barriers to public-private AMR data sharing. This work is being funded by the Integrated Security Fund Biosecurity Portfolio and is being conducted in partnership with the University of Liverpool and private veterinary laboratories. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-launches-world-first-study-to-assess-antibiotic-resistance-levels-in-healthy-dogs-and-cats

Australia completed a 5–0 sweep of the West Indies in their Twenty20 international series with Ben Dwarshuis's bowling paving the way for a three-wicket victory in Basseterre, Saint Kitts on Monday. Mitchell Owen top-scored for Australia with 37 off 17 balls, while Cameron Green (32), Tim David (30) and Aaron Hardie (28 not out) all made valuable contributions as the visitors reached their target of 171 with 18 balls to spare. The win sealed the first T20 series sweep by an Australian men's team in the West Indies. "I didn't expect 5-0 at the start of the series," Australia captain Mitchell Marsh said. "But we played some great cricket. It was something we spoke about after the fourth game. "We knew no Australian team had completed a clean sweep. We've had guys come in and played different roles for us. "We spoke pre-tour about having flexibility and fluidity as a group. The way T20 is going, teams just keep going now, and it's exciting and hopefully we can continue our power-hitting." West Indies fans must have feared the worst when Australia won a fifth straight toss and bowled the hosts out for 170, a total they reached thanks in large part to Shimron Hetmyer's knock of 52 off 31 balls. Dwarshuis picked up Hetmyer's wicket as well as those of openers Brandon King (11) and Shai Hope (9). "It was a little bit of a slower wicket so we tried to hit the wicket hard and use the slower balls as well," said Dwarshuis, who was named player of the match. "It was definitely a challenge here with two batting line-ups that were ultra-aggressive and some high scores. "It was amazing to be part of this squad and this series victory." Australia return home for a limited-overs series against South Africa, while the West Indies play Pakistan in three T20Is and three one-day internationals. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-29/australia-beats-west-indies-in-final-t20i/105585874

Three in five liver cancer cases globally could be prevented by reducing obesity and alcohol consumption and increasing uptake of the hepatitis vaccine, a study has found. The Lancet Commission on liver cancer found that most cases were preventable if alcohol consumption, fatty liver disease and levels of viral hepatitis B and C were reduced. The commission set out several recommendations for policymakers, which it estimated could reduce the incidence of liver cancer cases by 2% to 5% each year by 2050, preventing 9m to 17m new cases of liver cancer and saving 8 million to 15 million lives. Prof Jian Zhou at Fudan University in China, who led the research, said: “Liver cancer is a growing health issue around the world. It is one of the most challenging cancers to treat, with five-year survival rates ranging from approximately 5% to 30%. We risk seeing close to a doubling of cases and deaths from liver cancer over the next quarter of a century without urgent action to reverse this trend.” Liver cancer is the sixth most common cancer worldwide and the third leading cause of cancer death. The number of deaths is predicted to grow from 760,000 in 2022 to 1.37 million in 2050. Previous analyses have predicted that the number of new liver cancer cases will nearly double from 870,000 in 2022 to 1.52m in 2050, mostly due to po[CENSORED]tion growth and ageing po[CENSORED]tions, with the largest increases expected in Africa. At present, more than 40% of the global liver cancer cases occur in China due to its relatively high rates of hepatitis B infections. One of the fastest growing causes of liver cancer globally is fatty liver disease, and this is expected to rise because of increasing rates of obesity. One-third of the global po[CENSORED]tion is estimated to have metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) – previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, where fat builds up in a person’s liver – though it can be prevented by eating a balanced diet, being physically active and potentially losing weight. Only 20% to 30% of people with MASLD go on to develop the more severe form, metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), which can lead to liver cancer. The commission said the proportion of liver cancer cases associated with MASH was projected to increase from 8% in 2022 to 11% in 2050. The second fastest growing cause is alcohol, with associated liver cases projected to increase from 19% in 2022 to 21% in 2050. In contrast, the proportion of liver cancer cases linked to hepatitis B is expected to decrease from 39% in 2022 to 37% in 2050, while hepatitis C-related cases are projected to drop from 29% to 26%. The commission author Prof Hashem B El-Serag of Baylor College of Medicine in the US said: “Liver cancer was once thought to occur mainly in patients with viral hepatitis or alcohol-related liver disease. However, today, rising rates of obesity are an increasing risk factor for liver cancer, primarily due to the increase in cases of excess fat around the liver.” The commission’s recommendations included that governments boost HBV vaccination and implement universal screening for adults; introduce minimum alcohol unit pricing and sugar taxes along with warning labels; invest in early detection of liver damage and cancer; and improve palliative care for sufferers. The commission author Prof Valérie Paradis of Beaujon hospital in France said: “There is an urgent need to raise awareness within society about the severity of the growing health issue of rising liver cancer cases. “Compared with other cancers, liver cancer is very hard to treat but has more distinct risk factors, which help define specific prevention strategies. With joint and continuous efforts, we believe many liver cancer cases can be prevented, and both the survival and quality of patients with liver cancer will be considerably improved.” Dr Matt Hoare, an associate professor in hepatology at the University of Cambridge’s Early Cancer Institute, said liver cancer was “unlike many other cancers” in that the death rate was still rising, with the causes varying by region. He said public health policy changes have proven effective, since Japan had successfully reduced its death rate by implementing preventive policies and improving detection to find cancers earlier. His team is seeking to identify new ways to spot patients with liver disease who will develop cancer through DNA sequencing of the liver. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jul/28/lifestyle-changes-and-vaccination-could-prevent-most-liver-cancer-cases

Russian air travel chaos as pro-Ukraine hackers claim hit on Aeroflot; drone targets Ukrainian man taking cow out to pasture. What we Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said Donald Trump showed a “clear stance and expressed determination” after the US president said he would cut the 50-day deadline he set for Russia to negotiate peace in Ukraine. Trump on Monday set a new but still imprecise deadline of “10 or 12 days from today” for Russia to make progress towards peace or face consequences. Trump’s previous deadlines to end the war have included “one day … 24 hours” and “about two weeks … within two weeks” as well as “50 days”. Two weeks had already passed since Trump threatened to act within 50 days, leaving 36 days remaining of the original deadline. The new ultimatum of “10 or 12 days” means the US president has given Putin about 25 fewer days to deliberate. Trump has threatened sanctions on both Russia and buyers of its exports unless progress is made. On Monday, Trump indicated he was not interested in talking directly to Putin. “If you know what the answer is going to be, why wait? And it would be sanctions and maybe tariffs, secondary tariffs,” Trump said. “I don’t want to do that to Russia. I love the Russian people.” Zelenskyy said: “I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war … Russia pays attention to sanctions, pays attention to such losses.” At least 20 people were killed and more than 40 wounded in Russian strikes overnight into Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. Sixteen people died when a penitentiary facility in the Zaporizhzhia region was hit, with at least 35 more people injured and nearby private homes also damaged, said the Ukrainian military and Ivan Fedorov, the regional governor. Another four people were killed and more wounded in attacks on the Dnipropetrovsk region, according to regional officials. The Russian airline Aeroflot was forced to cancel dozens of flights on Monday after an established pro-Ukraine hacking group said it had carried out a cyber-attack. Dan Milmo reports how departure boards at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport turned red as flights were cancelled at a time when many Russians take their holidays. Irate passengers vented their anger on social media. One wrote: “I’ve been sitting at the Volgograd airport since 3:30! The flight has been rescheduled for the third time!” Another posted: “The call centre is unavailable, the website is unavailable, the app is unavailable.” A statement purporting to be from a hacking group called Silent Crow said it had carried out the operation with a Belarusian group called Cyber Partisans, and linked it to the war in Ukraine. “Glory to Ukraine! Long live Belarus!” said the statement. Silent Crow said the cyber-attack was the result of a year-long operation that had deeply penetrated Aeroflot’s network, destroyed 7,000 servers and gained control over the personal computers of employers including senior managers. It did not provide evidence. It threatened to shortly start releasing “the personal data of all Russians who have ever flown Aeroflot”. Drone warfare in the Ukraine war – in pictures Pjotr Sauer meanwhile reports how tens of thousands of passengers have seen their travel plans thrown into chaos in recent weeks, as Ukrainian drones repeatedly disrupt Russian airspace. The systematic Ukrainian campaigns aims to bring the war home to ordinary Russians, many of whom have otherwise experienced it only from their television screens. Pjotr Sauer writes that Ukrainian civilians live under the constant threat of being killed by missiles and drones, and Ukrainian officials have emphasised that life in Russia should not be comfortable for “a po[CENSORED]tion that, by and large, continues to support the war. The tactic seems to be bearing fruit: regular airport shutdowns and missed holidays have become a major talking point among the Russian public and a growing source of frustration.” Blackouts took place in parts of Russian-occupied Donetsk during a mass attack by Ukrainian drones on Monday, according to reports. The electricity distributor Donetskenergo said three substations were hit, leaving about 160,000 customers without power. The independent Russian-run Astra Telegram channel said the Donbas Palace Hotel in Donetsk city was also hit. Ukraine’s Sumy region came under Russian attack on Monday into Tuesday evening, local officials reported. A man, 45, was injured by a drone while taking a cow out to pasture in the Krasnopil community, said Oleg Grigorov, head of the Sumy regional administration. A man, 66, was injured when his apartment was shelled. “At around 5.45pm, the Russians attacked the Burynska community with four attack UAVs. The strike destroyed a local store,” Grigorov said. “One of the saleswomen was injured – she was promptly provided with medical assistance and her life is not in danger. Damage was also recorded to residential buildings, a cultural centre, non-residential premises and cars.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/29/ukraine-war-briefing-zelenskyy-praises-trump-for-trimming-putin-deadline-by-about-25-days

Oppo Reno 14FS 5G is in development and could be launched in the coming weeks, according to a report. While the company has yet to reveal any plans to launch a new Reno series smartphone, the purported Oppo Reno 14FS 5G is expected to arrive with better specifications than the Reno 14F model that was unveiled last month. The specifications, design, and anticipated pricing of the handset have been leaked online, leaving very little to the imagination ahead of its debut. Oppo Reno 14FS 5G Price, Launch Timeline (Expected) According to a Ytechb report, the purported Oppo Reno 14FS 5G will be launched in Luminous Green and Opal Blue colourways. It is said to be available in a 12GB RAM and 512GB storage configuration. We can also see the design of the handset in a leaked render that shows the blue variant, and it bears a striking resemblance to the Reno 14F 5G model that was launched in June. Meanwhile, a recent report from the same publication claims that the Oppo Reno 14FS will be priced at EUR 450 (roughly Rs. 45,700) in Europe, and the handset will reportedly make its debut by the end of July or early August. Oppo Reno 14FS 5G Specifications (Expected) The Oppo Reno 14FS 5G will be equipped with a 6,57-inch AMOLED screen, with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The leaked render also indicates that it has a centre-aligned hole punch cutout for a 32-megapixel selfie camera. The handset will reportedly be equipped with a Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 SoC and it will run on ColorOS 15.0.2, which is based on Android 15. For photos and videos, the upcoming Oppo Reno 14FS 5G will feature a 50-megapixel primary camera with a Sony IMX882 sensor, alongside an 8-megapixel ultrawide camera and 2-megapixel macro camera, according to the report. It is said to offer support for various AI-powered image mani[CENSORED]tion features, as well as Google's Circle to Search and Gemini AI assistant. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/oppo-reno-14fs-5g-price-design-specifications-leak-8955815

Yale will discontinue free access to Adobe Creative Cloud software, ending a policy that provided students, faculty, and staff with tools such as Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro at no cost. In an email sent Friday, Yale Information Technology Services, or ITS, announced that the University would end its enterprise-wide free licensing for Adobe Creative Cloud and transition to a rate-based model. Starting in August, students, faculty and staff will have to purchase their own individual licenses to the Adobe Creative Cloud through Yale’s IT software catalog. Students quickly took to social media platforms such as Instagram and the anonymous campus forum known as Fizz to denounce the changes. “Your favorite student publications rely on the Adobe Creative Cloud to operate on a day-to-day basis,” The Yale Record, The Yale Herald and Rumpus posted in a joint statement on Instagram. “At a time when freedom of expression on college campuses is increasingly stifled, we are disappointed in Yale’s decision to make these essential softwares an out-of-pocket expense for students.” In an email to the News, ITS said that the change was due to low utilization and would reduce costs for the University. The Adobe licenses cost Yale “hundreds of thousands of dollars each year,” ITS wrote. Under the new pricing structure, students can purchase a discounted annual license for $35.05 for the full Adobe Creative Cloud Suite or $5.15 for Adobe Express, a content creation tool often used for branding. Faculty and staff will pay $41.24 and $25.77, respectively. The standard educational rate for the entire suite exceeds $350 per year. Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard and Princeton provide free access to Adobe Creative Cloud for all students. However, among schools that only provide discounted access to Adobe software, Yale’s discounted pricing is significantly less expensive. The change comes as Yale tightens its budget in anticipation of a higher tax to its endowment earnings by taking measures such as a 90-day hiring pause. Students, faculty concerned about impact on coursework The change has sparked backlash from students across disciplines, particularly among students involved in design-oriented majors that depend on Adobe software. Luke Louchheim ’27, an architecture major, said he was “shocked” when he saw the announcement, noting that free access to the Adobe suite “levels the playing field and ensures that everyone has creative freedom.” Louchheim said that he has been in classes where projects “wouldn’t have been possible” without the tools in the Adobe suite, comparing Adobe to “Google Docs for an English major.” Reese Weiden ’27, a film and media studies major and co-director of the Yale Student Film Festival, said the decision chips away at the seriousness with which the University treats the arts. “It’s frustrating,” Weiden told the News. “It really undercuts the ability of a lot of students to do what they came here to do. Especially in film, Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects are non-negotiable.” Weiden said she plans to pay the $35 fee but noted that for students already paying out-of-pocket for other tools, such as screenwriting software or sound effect libraries, subscription fees add up quickly. Yale faculty members are also concerned. In an email to the News, Professor John Peters, the director of undergraduate studies for Film & Media Studies, said the department had expressed their concerns to administrators “well before this policy came down.” Peters said his department would be “reinitiating talks” to get to an “equitable” solution for his students. Some peer universities choose to provide free access to a limited segment of students. Cornell, for example, requires instructors or departments to request free access for undergraduates each semester. After the University of Pennsylvania’s free access program ended in 2020, Adobe software is still free for graduate and PhD students of its Weitzman School of Design. According to ITS, individual schools may offer alternative options for their students to obtain the Adobe suite. Student organizations worry about barriers to entry, cuts to free expression The change has also drawn criticism from campus publications, particularly humor and culture magazines that rely on Adobe for graphic-heavy issues and social media. “It’s not about the money,” said Oscar Heller ’26.5, co-Editor-in-Chief of The Yale Herald. “It’s the symbolic gesture. It feels like student journalism and creative work are being deprioritized.” Heller said Yale’s decision felt like a “unilateral move” made without consultation from students or publications who rely on Adobe daily. He also voiced concern that the decision could set a precedent for future cuts to creative and journalistic resources — one where “essential resources will be slowly chipped away.” “The scariest part about this is that it’s not as much about the financials as it is about what this could mean precedent-wise for things such as the arts,” Heller said. Terence Harris ’27, the Record’s Print Editor-in-Chief, wrote to the News that the University’s move would “discourage” additional membership and add a financial barrier that would otherwise be “nonexistent.” Meanwhile, AJ Nakash ’26, Editor-in-Chief of Rumpus, added that the change could exacerbate an already existing shortage of student graphic designers. “I use Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign on a daily basis,” Mercuri Lam ’28, a graphic designer for student publications The New Journal and BRINK, said. “To even do anything on campus that is creative, you basically need it. It’s non-negotiable. It feels like anti-intellectualism. You’re stripping away essential resources that enable creative work and academic growth.” Kris Aziabor ’26, co-president of Design at Yale, or DAY, said the Adobe Creative Cloud suite has been essential to both his coursework and creative development, and that Adobe tools were instrumental in launching his involvement with DAY. Both Lam and Aziabor said that losing access to Adobe would not only jeopardize coursework and extracurricular involvements but would also hinder opportunities outside of Yale. Lam said that the ability to access and develop her Adobe skills using Yale’s free software enabled her “to obtain internships in the art sector this summer.” “I was supposed to promote the fact that Yale gave students free Adobe,” said Lam, who previously promoted Adobe as the brand’s campus ambassador. “Now that it’s not free anymore, I don’t even know what the job means.” Moreover, Aziabor told the News that he fears that if “people don’t have those tools,” it could “lead to struggles in attracting new members” to organizations like DAY, and that losing access hurts the organization’s mission to make design most effectively accessible on campus. ITS acknowledged that there are currently “no approved free alternative software options that meet university security requirements,” and later told the News that it is not planning on offering any other alternatives to Adobe software. Some publications, like The New Journal, have already begun subsidizing licenses for their design teams, but Lam said the publication only has the budget to support a few students. Yale Daily News staffers use several Adobe applications to produce print and online content. In recent years, the News has accessed Adobe software through the free accounts provided by ITS. The News is financially independent from Yale University, and plans to purchase Adobe Creative Cloud licenses for its staff, publisher Alyssa Chang ’27 said. https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2025/07/26/yale-ends-free-adobe-creative-cloud-access/

It's safe to say the 3D printing landscape has changed significantly from year to year, with many companies coming and going. A solid few have managed to stick around with notable success but today, however, it looks like one more might be backing down as Anker is reportedly pulling away from the 3D printer market. This information comes to us from an interview with Anker spokesperson Brett White shared by The Verge. Anker has sold 3D printers under the name EufyMake for a while, with the AnkerMake M5 and AnkerMake M5C standing out as their flagship printers. These devices are no longer available, as well as a few critical replacement parts and accessories. Shortages, according to White, are due to supply issues that have made it impossible for Anker to reliably source the critical components they need. While the two printers have been removed from the EufyMake website, you can still find a UV printer available. This is way different from your standard FDM 3D printer. This printer can print onto surfaces like textiles or wood and was recently part of the most successful Kickstarter campaign ever. The components that Anker is unable to source seems, at the moment, isolated to their FDM devices. White confirmed that the AnkerMake M5 and AnkerMake M5C will no longer be made available for sale on an indefinite basis. It's possible that sales may resume in the future if components are more readily available. However, it's just as possible that Anker will no longer support these devices or create new models in the future. White did assure that some accessories will remain available to customers but aren't listed for the public, so they can't be found on the website. Thus, customers need to reach out to EufyMake support (support@eufymake.com) to inquire about replacement components. It is also important to note that the availability of hotends and extruders for the M5C in particular are a hot issue, and these pieces may not be available even through support. If you're looking for something more reliable, check out our list of the best 3D printers to see what we personally recommend. There are staple companies that have great relationships with the community, and this can make a huge difference in your overall 3D printing experience. https://www.tomshardware.com/3d-printing/ankers-eufymake-retreats-from-3d-printer-market-blames-critical-component-supply-chain-issues

A row has broken out over plans to host a reptile market at a Blackpool hotel this summer. The event at the Norbreck Castle will see people "buy and sell their surplus animals and offspring", according to the International Herpetological Society (IHS). But some animal charities have condemned the market as a "gross violation" of reptile welfare and have urged Britannia Hotels to cancel it. Blackpool Council said its officers would be at the event to make sure it complied with standards, while the IHS said its markets were "fully compliant with UK law". The IHS, which was founded in 1969, said it was "committed to the ongoing research and propagation of all reptile, amphibian and chelonian species". It added "animal care is paramount" at its events and creatures were "transported and displayed in temporary containers for the animals' safety during the event only". The society added that two veterinary professionals were "always present and any concerns are taken extremely seriously". Plans for a similar market in Doncaster in 2022 were halted by the town's council after complaints from some animal charities. Event controversy Elaine Toland, director of the Animal Protection Agency, said it "strongly urges Britannia Hotels to cancel this event and refuse to be complicit". Laura Walton, campaigns manager at Freedom for Animals, added it "sincerely hoped" the hotel chose not to let the event go ahead. Charlotte Regan, wildlife campaigns manager at World Animal Protection, said the animals were "not products to be bought and sold at makeshift stalls". "These kinds of events are outdated and have no place in modern society." The IHS said it found it "deeply upsetting to be constantly under fire" and none of its previous events had been "cancelled, refused or changed venues due to welfare issues or legal contravention by the IHS". It said the events had instead been called off because of "adverse publicity". Britannia Hotels has been approached for comment. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9dgd8n770zo

Pakistan won the face saving third T20I against Bangladesh but lost the series 1-2. Earlier, Bangladesh create history by winning the T20I series against Pakistan first time ever. Bangladesh won the first game of the series by seven wickets after chasing down a mere total of 111 and after winning the second T20I took an unassailable 2-0 lead with the final match. The third game won by the green shirts by 79 runs. This was Bangladesh’s first T20I series win over Pakistan in four tries. For the record, Bangladesh have won a series against Pakistan. But it was a one-off match in 2015, which the hosts won by seven wickets in Mirpur. Last month, Pakistan had whitewashed Bangladesh in a three-match home T20I series at the Gaddafi Stadium. But Bengal Tigers take revenge immediately by winning the home T20 series. Much like the first T20 game, in the second match, green shirts found them in precarious 30-6 with five having missed out in similar fashion in the previous outing too. In 10th over with all six batters being out for single digits. Pakistan couldn’t have asked for a worse start to their 134-run chase as they slumped to 15 for 5 and their lowest score after losing their first five wickets. The crisis was deepened when the seventh wicket fell at 47 in the 12th over. Pakistan’s young players failed to capitalise the opportunity, Saim Ayub (28 runs), Mohammad Haris (9), Hasan Nawaz (33), Muhammad Nawaz (30), Khushdil Shah (30), all disappointed the new coach. Even skipper Agha Salman also failed to lead from the front as he managed only 24 runs in the series, averaging 12. Opener Sahibzada Farhan avail the chance with quickfire 63 runs including five sixes and six fours in the only game he played. Pakistan’s hopes of building a solid future batting lineup faced a major setback as the young brigade faltered on the bowling-friendly tracks of Bangladesh. Despite entering the series with confidence, the inexperienced batsmen failed to adapt to slow, turning pitches that demanded patience and technique. The new crop of Pakistani batters, expected to fill the shoes of seasoned veterans, struggled to handle the sharp spin and variable bounce. Frequent collapses highlighted technical flaws, lack of temperament, and poor shot selection. While a few managed to get starts, none could convert them into significant scores, leaving Pakistan heavily reliant on its bowlers and senior players. Cricket experts believe the failure reflects a deeper issue i.e. lack of exposure to challenging sub-continental conditions outside home. Domestic cricket’s flat tracks and aggressive T20 mindset have left players ill-equipped for Tests and ODIs abroad. Pakistan’s batting lineup has often been a tale of two extremes—dominant on home soil yet faltering overseas, particularly on seaming conditions. At home, where pitches traditionally favour spin and offer minimal lateral movement, Pakistani batsmen have thrived, posting impressive averages and mammoth partnerships. Batsmen scored on placid pitches in Karachi, Lahore and Rawalpindi. But the story changes dramatically when Pakistan tours countries like England, New Zealand,South Africa, or Australia and now even on Bangladesh pitches. On pitches that assist seam and swing, the batting order often crumbles. The main challenge lies in the technical adaptability required to handle the moving ball under overcast conditions or on hard, bouncy surfaces. Frequent early collapses have been a recurring theme in Test and ODI series abroad. This performance gap at home and abroad is not coincidental. Domestic bowls are dominated by spin, offering minimal exposure to deliveries that move at pace. Seaming tracks abroad require advanced technique—precise footwork, sharper bat pad judgment, and mental grit under swinging conditions. Without rigorous overseas-specific preparation, collapses—especially early in innings—are inevitable. Experts attribute this to a lack of exposure to quality seam bowling in domestic cricket and limited preparation time before overseas tours. While spin dominates Pakistan’s first-class structure, opportunities to face the Dukes or Kookaburra ball in challenging conditions are rare. As a result, when confronted with movement off the seam and through the air, batsmen often struggle with footwork and shot selection, leading to dismissals in the slips and gully. Pakistan cricket is facing a worrying trend as young batsmen failing to fill the shoes of seasoned veterans and struggling on bowling-friendly pitches overseas. While domestic circuits and home conditions offer spin-friendly tracks with low bounce, foreign tours expose technical flaws.One major reason is limited exposure. Pakistan’s domestic structure heavily favours batting on flat pitches, where stroke-making is easy and bowlers rarely generate sustained lateral movement. Youngsters grow accustomed to high scores without developing the defensive skills essential in challenging conditions. Consequently, when faced with the moving ball, indecisive footwork and poor shot selection lead to frequent collapses. To address this, experts urge the PCB to revamp domestic cricket, create seaming tracks, and organise regular exposure tours. Without these measures, Pakistan’s batting woes abroad will persist, leaving a vacuum hard to fill. Pakistan’s batting woes continued as reckless shot selection and mindless aggression led to yet another collapse. Instead of applying themselves on a challenging pitch, the batsmen opted for rash strokes, gifting wickets to the opposition without resistance. Several players fell attempting unnecessary big hits early in their innings, ignoring the need to settle down. Cricket analysts criticised the lack of game awareness, calling it a “self-inflicted disaster.” In conditions demanding patience and smart rotation of strike, Pakistan’s approach was the complete opposite—resulting in quick dismissals and mounting pressure on the lower order. Experts believe this trend stems from an overemphasis on T20-style aggression, which doesn’t translate well in longer formats. Until Pakistan’s batsmen learn to balance attack with responsibility, collapses like these will remain a recurring nightmare for the team. Pakistan’s emerging batsmen have struggled to fill veteran roles, especially on foreign, bowling- friendly surfaces. While domestic tracks offer forgiveness, overseas seaming conditions expose technical weaknesses and impatience. Pakistan’s domestic setup offers almost no seam-friendly preparation. Young batsmen scored lot of runs at home with multiple centuries, have yet to face top-tier pace overseas. This sharp contrast underscores a gap in technique and temperament. To bridge this gap, former players have urged the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) to organize longer conditioning camps abroad and schedule more ‘A’ team tours in seam-friendly nations. Only by facing quality pace in difficult environments can the new generation learn to cope with conditions that have long haunted Pakistani batsmen. Until then, Pakistan’s batting success may remain largely confined to home comforts rather than global consistency. Experts urge the PCB to schedule longer acclimation camps in red ball nations, and send ‘A’ squads on extended tours to adversarial conditions. Until Pakistani batsmen consistently face and conquer the moving ball abroad, their overseas records will continue to lag behind the heaps of runs produced at home. If Pakistan aims to compete internationally, the grooming of young batsmen for tough conditions like Bangladesh is no longer optional—it’s a necessity. Bangladesh Jakir Ali was the top scorer of the T20I series with 71 runs in the series, averaging 35.50 including one fifty. For Pakistan, Sahibzada Farhan scored most 63 runs despite he played only last match. On the bowling side, Pakistan young fast bowler Salman Mirza has taken most seven wickets with the average of 8.42 while Tasken Ahmed of Bangladesh took six wickets. https://www.thenews.com.pk/tns/detail/1331051-pakistans-batsmen-struggle-on-difficult-dhaka-tracks

Of all the hormones produced by the body, cortisol is the most misunderstood. It’s essential to any number of biological processes, and yet commonly typecast as “the one to do with stress” – an evolutionary adaptation for different times, wildly unsuited to modern living, something to reduce with meditation, reset with ice baths or regulate with red-light therapy. Personal trainers will tell you to avoid long runs in case they result in “cortisol belly”, while influencers diagnose “cortisol face” as a sign of too much pressure in the office. To top it all, social media has recently seen the rise of the “cortisol cocktail” – a combination of coconut water, orange juice, salt, and lemon that TikTokers claim can reduce stress and help with weight loss. But how much of this has any kind of scientific validity – and is worrying about your cortisol levels doing you more harm than good? The first thing to understand is what cortisol is, and what it actually does: and yes, that does include helping to manage our response to external stressors. In situations that the body perceives as fight-or-flight, it helps the body to produce immediate energy – as well as suppressing non-essential functions such as digestion or repair (we’ll get to whether this is a bad thing or not shortly). “Cortisol plays a vital role in blood-sugar regulation, by prompting the liver to produce glucose and helping ensure a steady supply of fuel to the brain and body,” says Hannah Alderson, a nutritionist, hormone specialist and author of Everything I Know About Hormones. “It also helps modulate inflammation, keeping immune responses in check and preventing them from going into overdrive. It’s key in how we metabolise fat, protein and carbohydrate.” It also regulates blood pressure, can act as a mood buffer, and kicks in to help fight infection if we’re recovering from an acute illness. But one of its most vital roles is also its least talked-about. “It’s the hormone that gets us out of bed,” says Angela Clow, emeritus professor of psychophysiology at the University of Westminster. “You get this burst of it in the morning, which is called the ‘cortisol awakening response’. That’s not a bad thing or a stress response – it’s the body’s way of waking up and promoting cognitive function. You’ve probably experienced a time when you have an early flight or a busy day ahead, and your body anticipates it and wakes you up without needing an alarm clock. That’s cortisol priming your brain to be more alert and more active, preparing you for the day ahead.” Rising cortisol levels help us get ready for the day ahead. Photograph: Posed by model; Flashpop/Getty Images Research published earlier this year confirmed that cortisol is already increasing from its lowest point about three hours before you wake up – putting to rest any idea that getting up itself is stressful for the body, and suggesting instead that rising cortisol levels are part of what gets us ready for the day. Like every other higher organism on the planet, we’ve evolved to live in an environment that’s dark for (roughly) half of every day, and so our body needs a way to switch from restoration into activity, which seems to be one of cortisol’s key roles. “A very large proportion of the genes in your body are sensitive to cortisol,” says Stafford Lightman, a professor of medicine at Bristol Medical School and co-author on the recent research. “And so cortisol has a daily rhythm, and that daily rhythm regulates multiple genes in multiple tissues; in your brain, your liver and your immune system.” As part of this process, cortisol levels gradually decline throughout the day, with periodic bursts approximately every 90 minutes helping to maintain proper bodily function. This certainly isn’t a bad thing, but it does make gauging it difficult: you could take two measurements 30 minutes apart and get two wildly differing numbers. Under laboratory conditions, researchers take cortisol readings from blood or saliva multiple times a day to obtain a general picture of how volunteers’ levels fluctuate and respond to stressors. At-home tests are much less useful: if you’re only testing yourself once or twice a day, the only thing you might notice is that your levels are very high or very low. ‘Dad, you’re messing with my hormones!’ Photograph: Posed by models; Ivan Rodriguez Alba/Getty Images So what about the idea that the minor stresses of everyday life are constantly keeping our cortisol levels perilously high? One common characterisation of the way this might work is that our bodies, evolved to deal with sabre-tooth tiger attacks and flash floods, can’t easily distinguish between those sorts of immediate, physical threats and more psychological ones – an argument on the school run, say, or a nasty email from a client. Social stressors, the theory goes, can be insidious: they’re basically ever-present, especially if we’re prone to catastrophise, and if our bodies’ restorative systems switch themselves off every time we encounter them, we’ll never have time for rest and repair. Baboon beta males have shorter lives than alphas. Photograph: Karel Tupy/Alamy In baboon troops – which are very social and hierarchical – this effect is visible, with the lower-pecking-order males suffering with worse immunity and shorter lifespans, as their fight-or-flight systems are constantly prioritised over the rest-and-digest ones. But baboon lives tend to be genuinely far more stressful than human ones – if you’re kicked out of the troop or can’t find a mate, you’re facing a genuine, near-immediate threat to your genes’ survival, rather than just feeling a bit put out. There’s speculation, of course, that our bodies can’t make this sort of distinction, and that we still internally respond to having our birthday forgotten at the office like we would to banishment on the savannah. But is that really true? As it turns out, probably not. To test the effect of short-term bursts of stress, psychologists have developed all sorts of unpleasant laboratory procedures – from cold-water immersion to problem-solving under time pressure, to the Trier Social Stress Test, where volunteers are tasked with delivering a speech and mental arithmetic task in front of an unresponsive panel of evaluators. And the effect isn’t as pronounced as you might have been led to believe. “Trying to stress a human is really difficult,” says Lightman. “Even plunging your hand into freezing-cold water has very little effect. If you’ve got a really important job interview that is going to govern the rest of your life, then yes, that’s probably going to be stressful. But it’s very subjective – some people, of course, actually like giving presentations in front of a crowd. With things like the Trier test, you might get a reaction the first time, and then you won’t again – just understanding what the test is about is enough to destroy the effect.” This means you’re unlikely to be suffering spikes in cortisol from the odd snippy Zoom call or altercation at the self-checkout – and, even if your body sees those situations as a threat to your wellbeing, there are other systems that kick in first. “It’s not just cortisol that goes up in stressful situations,” says Dr Thomas Upton, a clinical research fellow who also worked on the recent study. “There are other hormones – like catecholamines, your adrenaline and noradrenaline – that play key roles in the immediate part of the fight-or-flight response. This is what helps you ‘fight the lion’ and get yourself out of the situation, followed up by cortisol release if the stress is strong enough or long enough. What you’re feeling in a very stressful situation like a jump scare is a rush of adrenaline that makes your heart pound and your mouth go dry and all the rest of it.” Brief, short-term stress is probably not doing you any harm, then. But does this mean heightened cortisol becomes more of an issue when you’re continuously stressed over the long term – for instance, from worrying about a family problem or the mortgage – or even deliberately putting yourself through too many difficult workouts? “That’s a bit trickier,” says Prof Clow. “If you just have a short burst of perceived stress, you will have a little burst of cortisol. That’s fine: your body will speedily return to normal cortisol secretion. But if you’re chronically stressed, repeatedly getting these bursts, that can affect the regulation of your underlying circadian pattern, which is regulated by your biological clock. So that, instead of having a healthy dynamic pattern of cortisol secretion over each 24 hours, you get ‘flat-lining’, which is not able to regulate other processes adequately.” Constant stress, then, is probably bad for your cognitive function and health. But cortisol is unlikely to change how you look, unless there are larger problems at play. “If you had Cushing’s syndrome, which is a rare condition where cortisol levels in the body are very high, for example due to a tumour of the adrenal gland, then yes, you might gain extra weight around the stomach, or notice that your face becomes round and puffy,” says Niamh Martin, a professor of endocrinology at Imperial College London. “But that tends to be with very, very high cortisol levels.” And, while it’s true that something like a long run can elevate cortisol levels over the short term, that doesn’t mean there’s any need to ditch your plans for a new personal best. “Doing, say, a marathon is a massively stressful situation for the body,” says Upton. “You need a cortisol response in that situation, and there’s nothing wrong with it: if you didn’t have that response, the results would probably be terrible. You might actually die.” The good news, then, is that you can happily ignore the most outlandish advice about keeping cortisol in check with cocktails or cold plunges. Unless you’re suffering from a clear medical issue, you probably also don’t need to worry about how your cortisol’s changing on a daily or hourly basis. Several companies are working on methods for continuously monitoring cortisol levels as you go about your everyday life – but even these could do most people more harm than good. “Something that we’ve seen with glucose monitors is that they create a lot of ‘worried well’ people who put one on, have their breakfast and say, oh hell, my blood sugar’s gone up too much,” says Lightman. “And then they start worrying about doing all sorts of things and make themselves ill. If you’re an Olympic sprinter or something, continuous monitoring might be useful. But, among most people, there’s so much individual variation that the range we call ‘normal’ is huge.” There’s one more obvious question here, though: if cortisol isn’t the culprit, why does stress seem to go hand in hand with poor health, immune-system disruption and weight gain? “It’s very difficult to unpick,” says Martin. “For instance, many of us have a complex relationship with food – and there are behavioural reasons why we eat besides being hungry – so it’s easy to blame cortisol if we notice that we’re gaining weight, but it might also be that, because we’re stressed, we’re eating in a different way. Similarly, you might be having a tough time at work and that means you don’t have time to exercise, or you’re not sleeping well because you’re stressed and that’s negatively affecting your cortisol levels, rather than the relationship going the other way. Part of the issue is that we still don’t fully understand the chronic stresses that modern life involves and what their impact is on our bodies over a long period of time.” So what does all this mean for you and your life – stressful or otherwise? “I think the most evidence-backed approach is to treat cortisol as something like a bystander, rather than blaming it for any issues you’re having,” says Martin. “If you’re chronically stressed, that’s something to deal with for health reasons, but it’s not necessarily a question of artificially finding ways to keep your cortisol down – it’s more holistic than that. The most important thing is to look after yourself, rather than reaching for an expensive supplement or a cortisol cocktail or anything like that.” “There are a few things that seem to help keep cortisol well regulated,” says Clow. “The research suggests, for instance, that the earlier you wake – within reason – promotes a healthy and dynamic cortisol rhythm. So getting plenty of sleep and then getting up relatively early seems to be very good for you. There’s increasing evidence that night-time light exposure inhibits your melatonin secretion, which liberates cortisol and allows it to rise while you sleep.” It’s worth mentioning, though, that getting enough sleep – and on a regular schedule – might be more important. Physical exercise seems to keep cortisol well regulated but, if you can’t face the gym, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. “Gentle exercise, like walking, stretching or pilates, can regulate cortisol far better than an hour-long Hiit class on an empty stomach,” says Alderson. “Breath work is amazing and you can do it anywhere. Micromoments of joy are a lot simpler to weave in than grand gestures like week-long yoga retreats – and, even if they’re not directly affecting your cortisol, they matter more than people realise. A laugh, a hug, a walk in nature: this stuff really matters.” Finally, it’s important to remember that, even if modern living does occasionally nudge your hormones outside optimal levels, cortisol is on your side. Your body’s stress response to most things should be good for you. Try to get some exercise every day, sleep on a regular schedule, and eat as sensibly as you can. Don’t worry about the other stuff: you really don’t need the stress. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jul/27/a-hero-among-hormones-why-cortisol-is-something-to-celebrate-rather-than-stress-about

ATHENS: Greece on Saturday requested EU help to battle wildfires that have sprung up in different regions, one of the worst just north of Athens destroying houses and forcing police to evacuate homes. The fires broke out nearly a week into a heatwave, in which temperatures have passed 45C. Strong winds were fanning the blaze near Athens and other sites and the Peloponnese peninsula that juts out west of the capital, fire brigade spokesman Vasileios Vathrakogiannis said. They were also feeding the flames on the islands of Crete, Euboea and Kythera, he added. "The hard part is ahead of us," he told reporters. Several regions were under the highest level of alert — Red Category 5 — meaning an extreme risk of wildfires, due to the hot and dry conditions. Firefighters had brought 44 fires under control out of 52 that had broken out over the past 24 hours, said the brigade spokesman. Greece had requested European assistance through the RescEU mechanism, asking for six firefighting aircrafts to bolster efforts to contain the fires, he added. Firefighting units from the Czech Republic were already operating as part of European assistance. One of the most difficult fronts was just 30 kilometres (20 miles) north of Athens, where authorities ordered the evacuation of a village, Drosopigi, said firefighters. Several houses in Drosopigi were ablaze, as the strong winds pushed the flames through the buildings. One front of the fire had reached Kryoneri, another village farther north, where houses were also burning. Police said they had evacuated at least 27 people from their houses. Five people were taken to hospital. A fireman with burns, three people suffering breathing difficulties and an old woman who appeared to have suffered a stroke. The smell of the burning wood carried as far as the centre of Athens. Another wildfire, on the island of Kythera, trapped dozens of people on a beach who had to be rescued by a coastguard vessel and three private boats. The fire there was burning trees planted after an earlier devastating fire in 2017. The heatwave, which started in Greece last Monday, was expected to last until the coming Monday, the country's weather service said. The National Observatory in Athens said the warmest temperature recorded Friday was 45.8C in the Peloponnese region of Messinia. On Saturday, the temperature reached 45.2C in Amfilohia, in western Greece. https://tribune.com.pk/story/2558064/greece-asks-for-eu-help-in-battling-wildfires

A Minecraft player created four shield concepts and shared their ideas with the community. Minecraft is a po[CENSORED]r game for exploration and exciting combat. To survive mobs, which can be quite strong, players have different weapons and gear at their disposal. At the start of the game, the axe is a highly useful tool for Minecraft players to obtain wood, and it can be improvised as a weapon in the event of an unexpected encounter with a spider or even a Creeper. When Minecraft players find diamonds, one of the first things many do is craft a chestplate, protecting the upper part of their character. Recently, a member of the Minecraft community showed what it would be like if the game had more kinds of gear for players to use in their adventures. A creative Minecraft player makes an impressive shader pack, and shows how it turns Mojang's sandbox into a nostalgic experience. On the Minecraft subreddit, user Diamond_JMS shared their concepts for four types of shields. The first is a buckler, a shield that does not slow down the player and blocks half of melee damage, but does not prevent them from being hit by projectiles. The wooden shield, on the other hand, is ideal for Minecraft's early game because it is inexpensive and still prevents half of all physical damage. The iron shield is largely the same as the shield in the base game, but using it to parry an imminent attack knocks back the attacker and stuns their weapon. Suitable for the late game, the Netherite shield has greater durability, fire resistance, and uses trims instead of banners. Minecraft Player Shows What it Would be Like if the Game Had More Types of Shields In addition to showcasing their shield concepts, the OP gave ideas for four new types of Minecraft enchantments. Pummeling adds an extra knockback to parrying, while Reflection makes the player able to throw projectiles in the direction they were shot from. Stun makes a weapon's stun time longer; if the attacker is a mob, it stuns itself and temporarily forgets about the player. Finally, with the Respite enchantment, successfully parrying recovers a small amount of health. Minecraft players reacted to the post with over 5,400 upvotes and 118 comments, leaving their thoughts on the concepts. One Redditor suggested another type of enchantment that would negate knock back while defending. Others think that replacing Minecraft's banner patterns with armor trims would make Netherite shields less interesting. Mojang does not indicate it has any plans to introduce new shields, but with Minecraft receiving frequent updates, players wait to see if new equipment will be added in future patches. https://gamerant.com/minecraft-new-shields-netherite-bucklers/

With the right words, hand gestures, and offerings, those with an otherworldly talent can pull at the threads of the impossible, weaving them into spells and manifesting them against their enemies… usually to do about 2d6 fire damage. I love a good magic system in a videogame. When it comes down to the choice of getting gradually better at hitting a guy with a sword, or unlocking the secrets of creation itself, I do tend to lean towards the latter. But for any habitual wizard, all those different spells can start to blur together. It's Aard in one game and Telekinetic Blast in another, but really all I'm focused on is whether that goblin is flying off a cliff or not. It can be surprisingly tricky, then, remembering exactly which spells are from which games. And that's exactly what our latest quiz is designed to test.For each question, you just need to pick which is the real spell from that videogame, and which are simply eldritch illusions. If your arcane library is orderly, you should have no trouble with it—but my sympathies with any Wild Magic Sorcerers in our audience. https://www.pcgamer.com/games/how-well-do-you-know-your-videogame-spells-put-your-arcane-knowledge-to-the-test-with-our-latest-quiz/

Contra

iQOO Z10 Turbo+ is confirmed to launch soon. The company teased the arrival of the new Turbo series device in China on Friday. The Vivo sub-brand has also revealed the chipset and battery capacity of the model. The upcoming iQOO Z10 Turbo+ will join the existing Z10 Turbo series, which currently features the iQOO Z10 Turbo and Z10 Turbo Pro models. The former runs on a MediaTek Dimensity 8400 SoC, while the Pro variant is equipped with a Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chipset. iQOO Z10 Turbo+ Launch Confirmed iQOO confirmed via Weibo that the iQOO Z10 Turbo+ is set to launch soon. The upcoming smartphone will be powered by MediaTek's Dimensity 9400+ chipset and pack an 8,000mAh battery. While the iQOO Z10 Turbo+ doesn't have an official launch date, it recently appeared on Geekbench under the model number Vivo V2507A. It was listed with an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 9400+ chip, 16GB of RAM and Android 15. It scored 2,196 in single-core and 8,907 in multi-core tests. As per past leaks, the iQOO Z10 Turbo+ will support 90W fast charging. It is rumoured to come with a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 1.5K resolution and up to 144Hz refresh rate. The phone could feature a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 main rear camera sensor and an 8-megapixel ultrawide shooter. It is likely to carry a 16-megapixel front camera. As per past leaks, the iQOO Z10 Turbo+ will support 90W fast charging. It is rumoured to come with a 6.78-inch AMOLED display with 1.5K resolution and up to 144Hz refresh rate. The phone could feature a 50-megapixel Sony LYT-600 main rear camera sensor and an 8-megapixel ultrawide shooter. It is likely to carry a 16-megapixel front camera. https://www.gadgets360.com/mobiles/news/iqoo-z10-turbo-pro-price-launch-availability-specifications-china-8283568

You may have spotted that the public beta version of macOS Tahoe 26 is now available to install on compatible Macs, with the finished version out later this year. If you're wondering what all the fuss is about, I can tell you: I've been using the developer betas since they were first launched in June. There are a lot of new features to dive into and explore, both in terms of the operating system overall and the individual Apple apps running on top of it. There's also a complete visual overhaul of the interface, making use of the same Liquid Glass theme being introduced on all of Apple's software platforms, including iOS 26. You can either try the public beta now to get the new features ahead of everyone else, or wait for the full release. If you do jump in early, note that you do so at your own risk: beta software can be buggy and cause issues with third-party apps, so we wouldn't recommend it for a Mac you rely on using every day. Ignore the haters – Apple’s Liquid Glass theme is one of my favorite parts of macOS Tahoe I've been using iOS 26 for a month – here are 3 things I love and 1 I don’t Spotlight gets a huge upgrade Spotlight has a new look (Image credit: Future) Spotlight has always been a useful way of launching apps and searching through the files on a Mac, but with macOS Tahoe 26, it gets what is probably the biggest upgrade in its history. There are now four sections to jump between via icons or keyboard shortcuts, covering apps, files, shortcuts, and the macOS clipboard. Those first two options work in a similar way to how they have done previously, though there are more comprehensive browsing options (you're able to see apps sorted by category or name, for example). It's also really helpful to have access to the clipboard history, so you can quickly bring back something you copied recently – it means I've been using Spotlight much more regularly. The really significant upgrade comes with shortcuts, though. Not only can you launch any existing shortcut, you're able to create new ones from right inside Spotlight, and even assign keyboard combinations to them: send messages, start timers, open playlists, and more. On top of that, there's added Apple Intelligence, so you can make calls to various AI features from within Spotlight too. Liquid Glass looks superb The new Liquid Glass Control Center (Image credit: Future) By now, you've probably seen plenty of Liquid Glass screenshots, so you have an idea of the visual changes Apple is rolling out across its various software platforms, including macOS Tahoe 26. However, it's not until you actually start using these operating systems that you realize what a step forward it is in terms of aesthetics. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. I'll admit it took some getting used to, but I'm now very much a fan of Liquid Glass on macOS. With the various demands of tech journalism to keep up with, I've been switching between different versions of Apple's desktop software, and going back to macOS Sequoia 15 feels like entering an old-fashioned, outdated world. Everything looks clean and fresh, and the translucent effects are really well done, without being overbearing or affecting legibility – the Control Center is one of the key panels that looks more modern, for example. You get more in the way of curves and smoothness too, and I think most people are going to be on board with the changes. Live Activities has become a pretty essential feature on the iPhone, keeping you right up to date with real-time information, and it's proved so useful that it's making its way to the Mac as well. Live Activities will now be mirrored at the top of your macOS screen, once they pop up on iOS. You may already be familiar with the convenience of Live Activities for apps that track flights, deliveries, and sports scores. Having these updates available on macOS is a real bonus. It's one of those features where you don't really realize how useful it is until you actually get it. The upgrade builds on the impressive syncing between iOS and macOS that's already in place, including iPhone Mirroring. You're even able to click on a Live Activities widget on your Mac and open up the relevant iPhone app on your macOS desktop, through the mirroring link between your computer and your phone. Macs get even more gaming upgrades macOS is getting another gaming upgrade (Image credit: Apple) Apple has been trying to convince us that it's serious about gaming on the Mac for many years of course, but there's evidence that this time we can believe it. The new macOS update features a new Metal 4 graphics rendering engine, adding in denoising tech and frame interpolation (similar to the equivalent Nvidia offering on Windows). Now admittedly I haven't tested this out extensively – but at the beta stage of proceedings, these improvements aren't likely to be fully operational, especially considering that some tweaks will be needed on the developer side too. This is going to be well worth checking back in on as macos Tahoe 26 rolls out and gets refined. There's also the new Games app, a central hub for launching games, checking your scores and gaming chats, and discovering new titles. It's all neatly done, and looks to be another significant improvement for gamers – with the potential to get a few more users gaming on the Mac. The same hub is going to appear for iPhones and iPads at the same time too. https://www.techradar.com/computing/mac-os/ive-already-been-using-macos-tahoe-26-for-a-month-here-are-4-features-that-make-it-worth-the-upgrade

Memory chip manufacturing giant SK hynix has confirmed that it’s preparing to roll out higher-capacity GDDR7 memory modules later this year. In its latest earnings call, the company said that it will be increasing the maximum capacity of its GDDR7 from 16GB (2GB per module) to 24GB (3GB per module). While the comment was made in reference to AI GPUs, it is hard not to dwell on the potential for these new memory chips in future consumer-grade GPUs. Having more VRAM doesn’t necessarily mean better performance; however, in recent years, it has become clear that 8GB or even 12GB is just not enough for many modern games, especially at higher resolutions or when enabling ray tracing. Additionally, generative AI tools have become more common in creative and productivity workflows and benefit heavily from additional memory. From a practical standpoint, this move could also help bring higher VRAM capacity to slightly more affordable GPUs, not just the flagship models. Using 3GB modules would potentially make it easier to build a 24GB card with just eight memory modules instead of 12, which would essentially help in reducing power, thermals, and cost. SK hynix’s plans to introduce higher capacity GDDR7 memory modules coincide with recent rumors surrounding Nvidia’s next consumer GPU lineup. According to a recent report, the potential RTX 50 Super series could arrive with refreshed models featuring 24GB and 18GB of video memory. Meaning that these 3GB GDDR7 modules would be perfect if Nvidia wants to avoid stacking extra modules at the back of the PCB. Notably, Nvidia began using SK hynix GDDR7 chips only recently for its current-generation of RTX 50-series Blackwell graphics cards. Of course, none of this is official confirmation. Nvidia hasn’t announced a Super refresh yet, and even if it does, there’s no guarantee whether it’ll make use of higher VRAM modules on every single SKU. But when your memory supplier starts talking about higher-capacity modules, it’s a strong hint that something bigger is on the table. Beyond GDDR7, SK hynix says that it is pushing across its memory portfolio in response to the accelerating AI demands. It is preparing next-generation LPDDR memory modules for servers to enable energy-efficient AI inference in data center environments. It’s also continuing to lead in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), with high-volume production of 12-layer HBM3E alongside plans to introduce HBM4 later this year. Meanwhile, the company is also on track to release enterprise-grade 321-layer NAND SSDs in the second half of 2025, targeting high-capacity storage solutions for AI and hyperscale workloads. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/sk-hynix-confirms-3gb-gddr7-memory-modules-are-in-the-works-higher-capacity-could-pave-the-way-for-fabled-rtx-50-series-super-cards-with-24gb-vram

As the Trump administration looks to reshape biomedicine, it is taking aim at one of the most universal ways scientists study disease and determine whether drugs are safe and may work in people: animal research. The National Institutes of Health, the nation’s premier funder of biomedical research, announced in July that, effective immediately, it will no longer offer new funding opportunities based solely on animal testing. Instead, the agency will promote the adoption of so-called new approach methodologies, or NAMs, alternatives that range from artificial intelligence to lab-grown cell structures meant to mimic specific organs. The move comes after the Food and Drug Administration announced its own plans to reduce and possibly replace animal testing in drug development. These agencies’ plans, which have the potential to transform basic research and drug development, have sparked wide-ranging reactions in the scientific community. STAT spoke with more than 10 researchers across fields including cancer biology, immunology, neuroscience, and microbiology. Some said the administration’s pivot has the potential to make research more efficient and to ensure that early-stage findings are more likely to hold up in clinical trials. But others lamented that the change is premature and ignores the inherent limits of alternate approaches. Many experts were somewhere in the middle, in part because it’s unclear precisely how the FDA and NIH will implement their plans. https://www.statnews.com/2025/07/25/nih-fda-alternatives-to-animal-testing-new-rules-breakdown/

Manchester City are set to re-sign England Under-21 goalkeeper James Trafford for £27m, two years after he left to join Burnley. The 22-year-old City academy graduate signed for the Clarets in a deal worth up to £19m in July 2023. He impressed last season as Scott Parker's side won promotion back to the Premier League - keeping 29 clean sheets across 45 Championship games - and was named in the division's team of the year. City had a buy-back clause for Trafford and also matching rights, allowing them to match any offer from another club. They have done so following Newcastle's £27m bid - and Trafford has opted for a return to Manchester. He is expected to sign a five-year contract with the option for another year at Etihad Stadium. He will be the fourth goalkeeper at manager Pep Guardiola's disposal, with Ederson, Stefan Ortega and Marcus Bettinelli already at the club. It is anticipated Trafford will challenge Brazil's Ederson, who has been first choice for eight years, for the number one spot. Ederson is in the final year of his contract and has been linked with a move to Galatasaray, but last month described rumours of a departure "99% fake news". City have not received any bids for the 31-year-old, but there are doubts about the future of German Ortega given the increased competition for game time once Trafford arrives. Trafford signed for City's academy in 2015 but did not make a first-team appearance and spent time on loan at Accrington Stanley and Bolton Wanderers. He has appeared for Burnley 73 times, including 28 in the Premier League in the 2023-24 season. Trafford has represented England from Under-17 to Under-21 level, and was part of the winning European Championship squad of 2023, during which he kept six clean sheets and did not concede a goal. He received his first senior international call-up in 2024 but has yet to make his debut at that level. If he returns to the Etihad he will be City's sixth signing of the window after midfielders Tijjani Reijnders (initial fee of £46.5m), Rayan Cherki (initial fee of £30.5m) and Sverre Nypan (£12.5m); left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri (£31m) and Bettinelli (nominal fee). They also spent £200m in the January transfer window to boost their squad following significant injuries. https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgk3k0654x6o

Mark Humphries has moved house five times in the past seven years. First was the place in the Sydney suburb of Turramurra he had to vacate because it was, “forgive me for saying this – leaking like a giant breast from the ceiling”. Next came a house so damp, mushrooms began growing under the carpet; a small flat that was OK except for being utterly freezing, and another one-bedroom apartment where the rent went from $500 to $660 a week, forcing his exit. It’s of no comfort to the comedian and TV presenter that he’s not alone in having found it extremely difficult to secure an affordable and liveable home. “This is the common experience,” he sighs. “It’s been extraordinary seeing everyone I know go through rental increases [over the past few years] … I feel like every one of us needs to start a GoFundMe just for our daily existence.” Housing affordability is a topic Humphries is angry about. And, perhaps ironically, that emotion can be a very useful tool for a comedian. View image in fullscreen Humphries began his career in TV satire as an intern on the ABC current affairs program Hungry Beast. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian “I have found with a lot of my work that it’s easier if you’re angry about something,” he says – like, say, those political texts we all received in the lead-up to the election, or all things Mark Latham. “Even if you’re just doing comedy sketches, if you are genuinely annoyed by what has happened, you can channel that into something amusing.” Recently, Humphries has channelled his rage “not just for myself, but everyone” over the housing crisis into a new documentary called Sold! Who Broke the Australian Dream? Out on Binge, it’s a one-hour look at the problems with Australia’s housing market, and how we’ve landed in a situation where, as he puts it in the documentary, even a “D-grade celebrity like me can’t afford a home”. We’re discussing all this in the incongruous setting of a quaint cafe specialising in tea and scones – Humphries’ choice of venue. This was meant to be a quick bite before a walking interview but the moment the scones hit the table, we’ve lost all motivation to stand up again. Humphries, he proudly tells me, eats a lot of baked goods. He even once auditioned to host The Great Australian Bake Off, a job that “would have been heaven”. That particular gig wasn’t to be, but Humphries has nonetheless carved out a very busy career on our screens, largely as the tall, blond and affable face of Australian news satire. You’d probably recognise him from appearances on programs such as SBS’s The Feed and Channel Ten’s The Project (the recent cancellation of which is a “great loss” for Australian comedy, whatever you think of the show itself, he says). ‘We’re so obsessed with property in this country, and it’s become worse especially in the last 25 years.’ Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian Unlike most comics, Humphries has never been one for standup – he has done it, he can tell me very specifically, only 12 times in his life and found each one “immensely stressful”. In fact, he’s more reserved and strait-laced than the typical comedian, deflecting attention by asking me as many questions as I ask him. Rather than seeking out the stage, Humphries spent his early years after school working at a Blockbuster video store and then a warehouse. The video store may have been every millennial’s teenage dream job, but it wasn’t all roses. “I got held up at knife-point three times when I worked in a video store,” Humphries recalls. “It was awful. I had to leave that job after the third one, because I was so affected by it.” He can still see the humour in that formative trauma – such as when he went to the police station to do an identakit after one of the robberies and described the knife-wielding assailant as “surprisingly handsome”. Or the time his unfailing politeness kicked in as he was being held up and he asked his attacker if he’d like a bag for all that cash. Or that after he finally quit and booked a ticket to London to try and decompress, as he stepped off the tube from the airport, a fellow holidaying Australian recognised him and exclaimed “Hey, Blockbuster Crows Nest!” But through every odd job, Humphries was quietly nursing dreams of breaking into comedy. His career eventually began 13 years ago when he called up the satirical current affairs program Hungry Beast and asked for an internship, unsure of how else to get started in the industry given “there’s no university degree in comedy”. His turn as a comic came to the surprise of those closest to him. ‘Get angry about it’: Mark Humphries’ doco Sold! unpacks Australia’s housing crisis Read more “I was talking about how I’d always wanted to be a comedy writer [in a recent interview] and my dad said to me, ‘I spoke to your mother about how you said you’d always want to be a comedian. We were gobsmacked, because you never said anything funny to us.’” Humphries’ dad, who actually does very much support his son’s career, gamely appears in the new documentary – to decline him any financial assistance cobbling together a house deposit, because, as the elder Humphries puts it, “I’m renting too.” “We’re so obsessed with property in this country, and it’s become worse especially in the last 25 years, where the idea of accruing multiple properties has become something that people aspire to,” Humphries says. “And it’s a line that I use in the doco, but I think it’s true – when did the Australian dream go from owning your own home to owning somebody else’s?” Winter in The Rocks in Sydney. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian What makes the situation harder to fix, Humphries thinks, is the fact the majority of Australians do actually own a home. “Owners outnumber renters two to one,” he says. “So it’s very hard to get huge change on something that the majority of people benefit from. House prices going up if you own a house is great, but for everyone else, it’s a nightmare. And so the challenge is, how do you get people who are benefiting from the current system to ultimately make a sacrifice for the greater good, so that we don’t end up with this two-tier system of the homeowners and the renters? Which is essentially what we have, and it’s only getting worse.” At this point the anger Humphries had spoken of is starting to show, tea and scone neglected as fires up and rattles off the issues with Australia’s housing market. ‘If you are genuinely annoyed by what has happened, you can channel that into something amusing.’ Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian Obviously, supply is part of the housing crisis, Humphries says – so it’s great that the federal government has pledged to build 1.2m new homes by 2030. “But the issue with the supply argument is that it doesn’t take into account the other part of that, which is demand. So again, if you have this system where people are able to tap into these tax incentives and buy multiple properties, increasing supply doesn’t really solve that. It ends up with a whole bunch of people owning even more properties.” Humphries points out he doesn’t begrudge investors for taking advantage of the tax system – “but that system shouldn’t exist”. Couldn’t the government, I proffer casually while Humphries finally gets the chance to take a bite, just put a cap on the number of properties people can own? “Humphries nods furiously as he bites through his scone,” he narrates after a pause to chew and swallow. Ultimately, he says, to fix the housing crisis we need to rid ourselves of the idea that property prices should perpetually climb higher, and allow the value of homes to ‘Walk with’ actor and comedian Mark Humphries around the Rocks, Sydney. 4 July 2025. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian So, I ask, does Humphries ever see home ownership in his future? “Bizarrely, at age 39 I just bought a home – I just moved in yesterday,” he admits with the mix of sheepishness and amusement now typical to any millennial who manages to get a foot on the property ladder. “But I maintain the rage!” He is lucky, Humphries says, to have got enough work in the last year to secure a mortgage on a two-bedroom apartment near the airport, together with his partner. The irony of having used the salary from a documentary about not being able to afford a home to buy a home is not lost on him. And he insists being a very newly minted homeowner hasn’t changed his perspective on the problem at hand. “Like, I used to work in retail, and I’m still as annoyed today about rudeness towards service workers as I was when I was in the video store,” he shrugs as we dust off the scone crumbs and wrap up our conversation so that he can head home to start unpacking boxes for what is hopefully the last time. “I’m thrilled, obviously, to get to that next stage of my life,” he adds. “But it’s something that, growing up, I thought I would have done 10 years ago, and it just felt like the possibility of it just kept moving further and further away. And I don’t go into it with the idea of, now I can’t wait for this to increase in value. I haven’t bought a place because I want to make money. I bought a place because I want to live in a place.” Really, he’s mostly just very grateful to not have to move again anytime soon. “I’m excited to have a bit of stability,” he says, before pausing to consider the implications of this very momentous life change. “And just to be able to stick a nail on the wall.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jul/26/mark-humphries-walk-with-interview

France defended its decision to recognise Palestinian statehood amid domestic and international criticism on Friday, including against the charge that the move plays into the hands of Hamas. President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that his country would formally recognise a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September, the most powerful European nation to announce such a move. Macron’s announcement drew condemnation from Israel, which said it “rewards terror”, while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it “reckless” and said it “only serves Hamas propaganda”. Mike Huckabee, US ambassador to Israel, quipped that Macron did not say where a future Palestinian state would be located. “I can now exclusively disclose that France will offer the French Riviera & the new nation will be called “Franc-en-Stine”, he said on X. Hamas itself praised the French initiative, saying it was “a positive step in the right direction toward doing justice to our oppressed Palestinian people”. But French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on Friday argued that Macron’s initiative went against what the militant group wanted. With its decision, France was “backing the side of peace against the side of war”, Barrot added. Domestic reactions ranged from praise on the left, condemnation on the right and awkward silence in the ranks of the government itself. ‘Counter-productive’, ‘pointless’ The leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), Jordan Bardella, said the announcement was “rushed” and afforded Hamas “unexpected institutional and international legitimacy”. On the other side of the political spectrum Jean-Luc Melenchon, boss of the far-left France Unbowed party, called Macron’s announcement “a moral victory”, although he deplored that it did not take effect immediately. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a right winger whose relationship with Macron is tense, declined on Friday to give his opinion, saying he was currently busy with an unrelated “serious topic” linked to the “security of French people on holiday”. But the vice president of his party, Les Republicains, Xavier Bellamy, blasted the decision as possibly “counter-productive” or, at best, “pointless”. The move risked “endangering Israeli civilians” as well as “Palestinian civilians who are victims of Hamas’s barbarism”, he said. Bellamy said that Macron’s move was a departure from the president’s previously set conditions for recognition of Palestine, which included a Hamas de-militarisation, the movement’s exclusion from any future government, the liberation of all Israeli hostages in Gaza and the recognition of Israel by several Arab states. “None of them have been met,” he said. While France would be the most significant European country to recognise a Palestinian state, others have hinted they could do the same. Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he would hold a call on Friday with counterparts in Germany and France on efforts to stop the fighting, adding that a ceasefire would “put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state”. Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia all announced recognition following the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, along with several other non-European countries. Once France follows through on its announcement, a total of at least 142 countries will have recognised Palestinian statehood. https://www.dawn.com/news/1926526/france-defends-move-to-recognise-palestinian-state

Some Fortnite players are asking Epic Games to add a glider with a flying animation that can be used universally, as all current flying gliders are tied to specific skins like Superman and Captain Marvel. Fortnite is currently nearing the end of Chapter 6 Season 3, which introduced iconic DC heroes like Superman and Robin to the po[CENSORED]r battle royale. Epic Games recently revealed that players will be able to claim a wide variety of free rewards during Fortnite's Summer Road Trip, which begins on July 22 at 9 AM ET. While players will be able to earn a pickaxe, wrap, and more, the star of the show appears to be the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 bundle, which gives players a free skin to use with sports cars. Vehicles have become a large part of Fortnite, as they give players a lot of mobility and allow them to show off a bit of flair with fresh cosmetics. Players looking to claim all the Summer Road Trip rewards will need to act fast, as the quests will only be available through August 7.In a recent post on Reddit, PresYapper4294 questioned why Epic Games hasn't released a universal glider that makes it look like a character is flying. Currently, only specific skins have access to gliders that make them appear as if they're flying through the air while gliding. While the original Superman skin released as part of the battle pass for Chapter 2 Season 7 has access to one of these gliders, the Chapter 6 Season 3 version of Superman in Fortnite does not. Instead, his current glider makes it appear as if he's holding up the globe from the Daily Planet as he slowly descends toward the island. Many fans were hoping that the current version of Superman would be compatible with the original's glider, but that doesn't appear to be happening. Players responded to the post with enthusiasm, asking Epic Games to add a universal flying glider to the title at some point in the future. They also suggested that the game would benefit from a universal pickaxe that allows skins to use their fists while harvesting. Fortnite is always adding new cosmetics, which means that Epic Games could introduce something like this in the future. A recent leak suggested that a po[CENSORED]r gameplay mechanic could be returning to Fortnite during Chapter 6 Season 4. According to leakers, mud could be making a return, which previously allowed gamers to slide faster and conceal themselves from thermal weapons. If true, this could mean that thermal weapons will be making a serious comeback in the upcoming season, which will launch in August. With so much content to enjoy and even more just around the corner, many fans are feeling optimistic about the future of Fortnite. https://gamerant.com/fortnite-players-want-new-universal-flying-glider-superman/