Eyewitness video shows SpaceX’s Starship 36 erupting in a huge fireball during a ground test in Texas.
Create Music Group forms joint venture with Star Trak Entertainment, the former label of The Neptunes
Create Music Group (CMG) has formed a new joint venture with Star Trak Entertainment, along with co-founder Rob Walker.
Originally launched in 2001, Star Trak Entertainment was founded by Rob Walker and producer duo Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo of The Neptunes.
The joint venture marks the official relaunch of the imprint.
In addition to co-founding Star Trak, Rob Walker was the longtime manager of The Neptunes, served as a talent agent at UTA, and co-founded Billionaire Boys Club and its Ice Cream clothing line with Pharrell Williams and Japanese fashion figure Nigo.
His decades-long career spans music, fashion, and brand development alongside some of the industry’s most notable acts.
The deal marks the latest in a series of recent partnerships for Create, which was valued at $1 billion following a $165-million investment round last year.
Last month, Create swooped for independent electronic music label Monstercat and launched a joint venture with Ty Dolla $ign and his EZMNY Records label earlier this month.
In April, Create Music Group acquired Berlin-headquartered independent music company !K7.
Through the partnership with Star Trak, Create said it will provide worldwide distribution, technology, and marketing services.
Star Trak quickly rose to prominence through releases with acts such as Clipse, N.E.R.D., and Snoop Dogg.
With RIAA certified hits such as Drop It Like It’s Hot by Snoop Dogg and Pharrell Williams, Grindin by Clipse, and She Wants to Move by N.E.R.D., Create noted that “Star Trak has long been known for shaping early-2000s hip-hop and R&B culture”.
“This isn’t just about bringing Star Trak back – it’s about building a new chapter- rooted in where we’ve been, and built for where we’re headed.”
Rob Walker, Star Trak Entertainment
“This isn’t just about bringing Star Trak back – it’s about building a new chapter- rooted in where we’ve been, and built for where we’re headed,” said Rob Walker, co-founder of Star Trak Entertainment.
“The energy and vision that helped shape a generation is entering a new era. With Create as our partner, we’re giving artists the space to move differently, think bigger, and tap into an ecosystem of brands and collaborators that Star Trak has cultivated over the years.”
“We are honored to partner with Rob as he kicks off the next chapter of Star Trak.”
Kyle Bartelman, Create Music Group
Kyle Bartelman, Director of Global Corporate Development and M&A at Create Music Group added: “We are honored to partner with Rob as he kicks off the next chapter of Star Trak.
“Rob’s creative vision and industry experience will uniquely position our artists for success with their music and beyond. We’re excited to have Star Trak join the CMG family, and we can’t wait to support Rob and the next wave of Star Trak talent.”
Music Business Worldwide
Iranian missile strike targets Israeli hospital
A hospital in the Israeli town of Beersheba has been hit as Iran fired a barrage of missiles at the country, with the conflict between the two nations continuing into a seventh day.
Iran said it had targeted a military site close to the hospital, not the facility itself. With strikes being reported in several locations across Israel, the country’s health ministry said 271 people had been injured.
After visiting the Soroka Medical Centre on Thursday, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said Iran’s supreme leader “can no longer be allowed to exist”.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it had targeted Iran’s nuclear sites including the “inactive” Arak heavy water reactor and Natanz facility.
The conflict began on 13 June, when Israel launched attacks on Iranian nuclear sites and killed several top generals and nuclear scientists.
Israel’s deputy foreign affairs minister said Iran’s hit on the Soroka hospital was “deliberate” and “criminal”.
In a post on X, Sharren Haskel said the site that was the main medical centre for Israel’s entire Negev region.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would “exact the full price from the tyrants in Tehran”.
While Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz told reporters: “[Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei openly declares that he wants Israel destroyed – he personally gives the order to fire on hospitals.”
BBC correspondents in the area described the scale of the damage as extensive, with debris and plumes of smoke floating through the air long after the blast.
Several wards were completely destroyed as fire spread through one of the buildings, causing windows to smash and ceilings to collapse, hospital authorities said.
Around 200 patients will be transferred to other hospitals centres, Prof Shlomi Codish, chief executive of the Soroka said.
“At the moment we don’t know if buildings or other wards might collapse,” he added.
On Thursday morning, an Iranian ballistic missile struck the business district of Ramat Gan, east of Tel Aviv – causing a large sheet of glass to fall several floors from a skyscraper and part of an electrical pylon to crash to the ground.
About 20 people are believed to have been injured by the blast in the area, authorities have said.
The Israeli military said it told people living in the cities of Iranian cities Arak and Khondab, which are near the reactor, to leave the area “as soon as possible,” in a post on X, prior to the attack.
The nuclear facilities that were attacked include a partially-built heavy-water research reactor.
Heavy-water reactors produce plutonium, which – like enriched uranium – can be used to make the core of an atom bomb.
Iranian media reported two projectiles hitting an area near the facility. There were no reports of radiation threats.
In a separate announcement, Israel’s military said it also struck a site in the area of Natanz, which it said contains “unique components and equipment used to develop nuclear weapons”.
Israel has alleged Iran has recently “taken steps to weaponise” its enriched uranium stockpile, which can be used for power plants or nuclear bombs. Iran has always claimed that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful.
Iran’s armed forces said their response to the Israeli attack will have “no limits.”
It has lodged a complaint with the UN nuclear watchdog, accusing Israel of “continuing its aggression and actions contrary to international laws that prohibit attacks on nuclear facilities,” Iranian state media reported.
ReutersThe latest attacks come at a critical time, as President Trump considers the possibility of direct American involvement in Israel’s campaign.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi warned the US that Tehran will have “no other option but to use its tools to teach aggressors a lesson” if it intervenes in support of Israel.
The Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected Trump’s calls to surrender, and Iran has threatened to strike American military interests in the Middle East in response.
Trump, so far, has given no clear indication of his next move. According to the BBC’s partner CBS, he has approved plans to attack Iran but has held off on a final decision about striking the country.
On Wednesday, Trump said, “I may do it, I may not do it”, when asked a question about US involvement in Iran.
Additional reporting by Tom Bennett in Jerusalem
Auburn Signs Top Recruit Mack Schumann for 2025-26 Season
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Mack Schumann, who hails from Nashville, Tennessee, is headed to Auburn University to swim and study in the class of 2029. At the time of his verbal commitment a year ago, he wrote on social media:
“I am blessed to say that I will be continuing my academic and athletic career at Auburn University. I want to thank my parents, my brother, my teammates, and my current and future coaches for helping me make this decision! War Eagle🦅”
Schumann trains year-round with Nashville Aquatic Club and specializes in distance. We named him one of the “Best of the Rest” distance freestylers in the class of 2025. In prep swimming, he won the 200/500 free double –with PBs of 1:37.66 and 4:22.38– during his junior year at Donelson Christian Academy at the 2024 TISCA State Championships.
Then, during his senior year of high school, he dropped 10.6 seconds in the 200 breast, 7 seconds in the 200 IM, 2.7 in the 400 IM, and .6 in the 100 breast. He still has impressive freestyle times but this breaststroke/IM development gives him more options at Auburn.
Schumann had a strong showing at Winter Juniors East, where he was runner-up in the 400 IM and placed 9th in the 500 free and 10th in the 200 breast. He picked up new times in all three events. He added PBs in the 100 breast and 200 IM at Southern Premier two months later, while winning the 500 free (4:23.75) and 400 IM ( 3:50.79) and placing 2nd in the 100 breast (54.79) and 3rd in the 200 IM (1:47.58).
In LCM, he earned most of his PBs last summer in July at the Lakeside Aquatic Club Summer Senior Showdown. Those included 200 free (1:54.51), 50 breast (29.43), 100 breast (1:04.12), 200 breast (2:18.99), and 200 IM (2:06.76). He also scored a Summer Nationals cut in the 400 IM (4:25.62) in June.
Schumann will suit up for the Tigers next fall with Brody Singley, Finnley Conklin, Luke Bedsole, Luke Waldrep, Maston Ballew, and Paul Hong. He would have been the 3rd-fastest on Auburn’s roster last year in the 200 breast and 400 IM, 4th in the 500 free, and 5th in the mile.
Best SCY times:
- 200 breast – 1:57.85
- 100 breast – 54.42
- 400 IM – 3:45.98
- 200 IM – 1:47.58
- 1650 free – 15:11.83
- 1000 free – 9:30.30
- 500 free – 4:21.29
- 200 free – 1:37.66
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Parkinson’s Early Signs May Be Detected Through Ear Wax Test
Catching the onset of Parkinson’s Disease early can be critical to slowing the disease’s progression and improving a patient’s life. A new test that uses nothing more than a sample of someone’s ear wax is set to do exactly that.
Despite the fact that an estimated 10 million people live with Parkinson’s Disease, there is currently no definitive test to spot the condition in its early stages. To identify someone with Parkinson’s, doctors rely on cognitive and motor skill testing, which can be inexact and have a degree of bias involved. Other tests include imaging, which can rule out other conditions rather than confirm a Parkinson’s diagnosis, and a response to Parkinson’s medication – in which people who might not have the disease take a prescription designed to combat its effects.
Progress in diagnosing the disease is happening, however. Earlier this year, we even reported on how a simple eye test might help spot the condition early.
One of the more promising ways to spot Parkinson’s early has to do with the way in which the disease impacts the oily layer of our skin known as sebum. In 2021, a team of scientists found 10 biomarkers that were heightened or lowered in patients with Parkinson’s by analyzing sebum collected with non-invasive skin swabs. Using that data, the researchers were able to distinguish between those who had the condition and those who didn’t with an 85% rate of accuracy.
Understanding that our skin is exposed to environmental conditions that can alter its composition but seeing the value in using sebum to detect Parkinson’s, researchers led by scientists from a range of universities and research institutes in China turned to a different source of sebum: ear wax. Unlike our skin secretions, ear wax is more protected and therefore offers a more pure read on our sebum composition.
To conduct their study, the researchers swabbed the ears of 209 adults, 108 of whom had Parkinson’s disease. After analyzing the wax using gas chromatography and mass spectrometry, they identified four different volatile organic compounds (VOC) that were significantly lower in Parkinson’s patients than in those without the condition. Next, the team trained a sniff-enabled AI system on the data. Once the training was complete, the system was able to distinguish Parkinson’s patients from non-Parkinson’s patients with an accuracy rate of 94%.
Such a successful test, say the researchers, could provide doctors with an inexpensive, non-invasive early diagnostic tool in identifying Parkinson’s Disease. However, they say more research is needed.
“This method is a small-scale single-center experiment in China,” says study co-author Hao Dong. “The next step is to conduct further research at different stages of the disease, in multiple research centers and among multiple ethnic groups, in order to determine whether this method has greater practical application value.”
The study has been published in the journal Analytical Chemistry.
Source: American Chemical Society
Amid Uncertainty in the Middle East, Bank of England Maintains Interest Rates at 4.25%
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The Bank of England has held interest rates at 4.25 per cent but signalled a possible cut as soon as August after recent data showed a weakening jobs market.
The six-to-three vote by the Monetary Policy Committee followed a quarter-point cut in May amid concerns over the impact of US President Donald Trump’s aggressive tariff policy.
“Interest rates remain on a gradual downward path, although we’ve left them on hold today,” said Andrew Bailey, the BoE’s governor.
Thursday’s widely expected decision came as policymakers wrestle with persistently strong inflation and the additional uncertainty posed by the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, and its potential impact on oil prices.
“The world is highly unpredictable,” Bailey added, adding that the central bank would pay careful attention to the impact on inflation of the weak labour market.
Deputy governor Dave Ramsden joined external MPC members Swati Dhingra and Alan Taylor in calling for an immediate further cut in rates to 4 per cent.
Gordon Shannon, a fund manager at TwentyFour Asset Management, said the voting pattern was “marginally more dovish” than investors had been expecting.
The MPC predicted a “significant slowing” in pay growth, a sign that another rate cut will be on the table as soon as its August 6 meeting, while also noting that “underlying UK GDP growth appears to have remained weak”.
A report from the BoE’s network of regional agents found business hiring intentions to be “mildly negative” as companies in sectors including manufacturing, retail and construction warned they were not expecting much improvement in customer demand until 2026.
The MPC acknowledged that problems with the UK’s labour market data continued to be a concern, but noted that May’s 109,000 fall in the UK’s official estimate of payrolled employees was the largest monthly contraction since May 2020.
It added that an internal BoE measure suggested a “subdued rate of near-zero employment growth”.
“Labour market developments suggest that the economy is weakening faster than expected,” said Tomasz Wieladek, chief European economist for fixed income at asset manager T Rowe Price.
Earlier this week, data from the Office for National Statistics showed UK consumer price inflation for May at 3.4 per cent, well above the BoE’s 2 per cent target. The central bank expects CPI inflation to remain just under 3.5 per cent for the rest of the year, with a brief rise to 3.7 per cent in September.
The pound was flat against the dollar at $1.341 after the MPC’s decision.
Traders kept their bets on further rate cuts largely unchanged, expecting two quarter-point reductions by the end of the year, according to levels implied by swaps markets.
The BoE emphasised that policy was not on a preset path, adding that it was closely watching “elevated” inflation expectations.
As the worsening conflict in the Middle East risks pushing oil prices higher, the MPC said it would remain “sensitive to heightened unpredictability in the economic and geopolitical environment”, noting recent increases in energy costs.
The BoE reiterated its existing guidance that it would take a “gradual and careful” approach to future rate reductions, which investors have interpreted as pointing towards quarterly cuts.
Additional reporting by Ian Smith
Israeli Hospital Engulfed in Smoke Following Iranian Missile Attack
Smoke billowed from the Soroka Medical Center after its old surgical building was directly hit, according to the hospital’s director general.
Dollar strengthens amid Middle East tensions, Norges Bank cuts rates unexpectedly
Dollar firms as Mideast worries cast shadow, Norges Bank delivers surprise cut
Israel targeted by Iranian missiles striking hospital and residential buildings
Iran launched a missile attack against Israel, causing severe damage and striking Israel's main hospital in the south.
Political Crisis in Thailand Erupts as Prime Minister’s Phone Call with Former Cambodian Leader Leaked
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra apologized Thursday for a leaked phone call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen that has provoked widespread anger and put her government on the brink of collapse.
Her main coalition partner has quit and calls are mounting for her to resign or announce an election, throwing the kingdom into a fresh round of political instability as it seeks to boost its spluttering economy and avoid U.S. President Donald Trump’s swinging trade tariffs.
The conservative Bhumjaithai party pulled out on Wednesday saying Paetongtarn’s conduct in the leaked call had wounded the country and the army’s dignity.
As pressure grew on Thursday Paetongtarn, the daughter of Thaksin Shinawatra—Thailand’s most influential but controversial modern politician—apologized at a press conference alongside military chiefs and senior figures from her Pheu Thai party.
“I would like to apologize for the leaked audio of my conversation with a Cambodian leader which has caused public resentment,” Paetongtarn told reporters.
In the call, Paetongtarn is heard discussing an ongoing border dispute with Hun Sen—who stepped down as Cambodian prime minister in 2023 after four decades but still wields considerable influence.
She addresses the veteran leader as “uncle” and refers to the Thai army commander in the country’s northeast as her opponent, a remark that sparked fierce criticism on social media.
The loss of Bhumjaithai’s 69 MPs left Paetongtarn with barely enough votes to scrape a majority in parliament, and a snap election looks a clear possibility—barely two years after the last one in May 2023.
Two other coalition parties, the United Thai Nation and Democrat Party, will hold meetings to discuss the situation later Thursday.
Paetongtarn will be hoping her apology and show of unity with the military are enough to persuade them to stay on board.
Losing either would likely mean the end of Paetongtarn’s government, and either an election or a bid by other parties to stitch together a new coalition.
Resignation calls
Thailand’s military said in a statement that army chief General Pana Claewplodtook “affirms commitment to democratic principles and national sovereignty protection”.
“The Chief of Army emphasized that the paramount imperative is for ‘Thai people to stand united’ in collectively defending national sovereignty,” it added.
Thailand’s armed forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics, and politicians are usually careful not to antagonize them.
The kingdom has had a dozen coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932, and the current crisis has inevitably triggered rumors that another may be in the offing.
If Paetongtarn is ousted in a coup she would be the third member of her family, after her aunt Yingluck and father Thaksin Shinawatra, to be kicked out of office by the military.
The main opposition People’s Party, which won most seats in 2023 but was blocked by conservative senators from forming a government, urged Paetongtarn to call an election.
“What happened yesterday was a leadership crisis that destroyed people’s trust,” People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said in a statement.
The Palang Pracharath party, which led the government up to 2023 and is headed by General Prawit Wongsuwan—who supported a 2014 coup against Paetongtarn’s aunt Yingluck—said the leaked recording showed she was weak and inexperienced, incapable of managing the country’s security.
Hundreds of anti-government protesters, some of them veterans of the royalist, anti-Thaksin “Yellow Shirt” movement of the late 2000s, demonstrated outside Government House Thursday demanding Paetongtarn quit.
Awkward coalition
Paetongtarn, 38, came to power in August 2024 at the head of an uneasy coalition between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties whose members have spent much of the last 20 years battling against her father.
Growing tensions within the coalition erupted into open warfare in the past week as Pheu Thai tried to take the interior minister job away from Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul.
The loss of Bhumjaithai leaves Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a handful more votes than the 248 needed for a majority.
The battle between the conservative pro-royal establishment and Thaksin’s political movement has dominated Thai politics for more than 20 years.
Former Manchester City owner Thaksin, 75, still enjoys huge support from the rural base whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s.
But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilizing.
The current Pheu Thai-led government has already lost one prime minister, former businessman Srettha Thavisin, who was kicked out by a court order last year that brought Paetongtarn to office.