Scientists have identified a protein that acts as a kind of traffic controller for fat inside cells, revealing a mechanism that could help explain how the body regulates energy storage and why things go wrong in metabolic disease. The discovery provides a new avenue for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes
Researchers from The University of New South Wales (UNSW) have found that the protein CHP1 is essential for both producing fat molecules and directing them to where they need to go. But first, we need to understand a bit more about how our cells store fat.
Inside cells, fat is tucked away in lipid droplets, which act like tiny storage units that house reserve energy but also play a key role in building and repairing cell membranes. To fill the droplets, cells use a production line known as the glycerol-3-phosphate (G-3-P) pathway. This line makes two important products: triacylglycerols, the main form of stored fat, and glycerophospholipids, which form the scaffolding of cell membranes.
The first step on this line is the most critical, and it’s carried out by enzymes known as microsomal GPATs. Two of these – GPAT3 and GPAT4 – do most of the work in fat-making tissues. Scientists knew these enzymes were key players in cellular function, but until now it wasn’t clear how they were switched on or guided to the right place in the cell.
The UNSW team discovered that CHP1 is the protein that regulates this. It acts as both a stabilizer and an activator of GPAT3 and GPAT4, ensuring they fill their natural roles. But just as importantly, CHP1 also helps guide them to lipid droplets, so they can actually channel new fat molecules into storage. Without CHP1, lipid droplets became significantly smaller, because the machinery that fills them is no longer in place.
Essentially, removing CHP1 led to a dramatic reduction in the size of the lipid droplets, suggesting that this protein is a key regulator of fat metabolism within a cell.
“Our findings provide a clearer picture of the intricate machinery that controls how cells store fat,” said lead author Guang Yang from UNSW’s School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Science. “Understanding this process is a critical step towards developing new strategies to address a range of metabolic disorders like obesity and diabetes.”
While it’s a long way from these findings to treatment, by uncovering how CHP1 drives the activation and direction of these key enzymes gives researchers a promising new target in combatting metabolic disorders.
The study also highlights that lipid droplets – once thought to be inert fat stores – are in fact active organelles that manage how fat is stored and used in cells. Dysfunctional lipid storage underlies a wide range of health conditions, with obesity and diabetes just two of them.
New Delhi, India – In a sprawling market in the Indian capital, Anuj Gupta sits in a corner of his shop as silence hangs over it.
Gupta sources and exports garment accessories – like laces and buttons – to major global brands. But punishing tariffs imposed by United States President Donald Trump have brought Gupta’s business to its knees.
On Wednesday morning, India woke up to 50 percent tariffs imposed on its goods sold to the US, after the Trump administration followed through on its threat of doubling levies from 25 percent over India’s purchase of Russian oil. The White House says Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, among the top buyers of crude from Russia, is financing Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Indian officials have accused Washington of double standards, pointing towards how the European Union and China buy more from Russia and how Washington, too, still trades with Moscow.
In the fashion world, the cycle runs a year ahead, explains Gupta – clothes are being designed and made for autumn 2026 at the moment. So, the hovering uncertainty in the market has “hampered the work badly”, leaving a “big dent”, he said. Up to 40 percent of his business is in the US market.
Gupta said until Wednesday morning, he was still hoping against hope. “Maybe Trump is just bullying us for optics, or maybe Modi’s good relations with the US will rescue the situation,” he thought. “But we were the worst dealt.”
Five rounds of talks have failed to yield a trade deal between Washington and New Delhi, and Gupta said exporters now fear their customers might give up on India altogether. “If these tensions prolong, then buyers would look for alternative markets for sourcing,” he said.
As New Delhi grapples with Trump’s moves that walk the US back from two decades of diplomatic and strategic investments in India, analysts and economic observers say the tariffs could devastate key export-driven sectors of the Indian economy, with hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk.
A worker takes measurements of dresses at a garment manufacturing unit in Noida, India, August 7, 2025 [Adnan Abidi/TPX Images of the Day/Reuters]
‘It’s so helpless’
Ajay Sahai, the CEO of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO), the largest government-backed body of Indian exporters, was cautiously hopeful of help from the Modi administration after meeting the country’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Thursday.
“The government has fully assured us that they will provide all kinds of support needed to navigate this problem, perhaps including an economic package,” Sahai told Al Jazeera.
“The government has asked us to prepare a report, and then they will come up with a scheme,” he said. “[Sitharaman] has assured that there will be no layoffs – and that’s something we should honour.”
Yet, that’s easier said than done.
Textiles, gems, jewellery, carpets and shrimp are some of India’s biggest exports to the US – and are expected to be among the worst hit by the tariffs.
K Anand Kumar, who manages shrimp exporting company Sandhya Marines and employs nearly 3,500 workers in a coastal town in Andhra Pradesh state on the Bay of Bengal, said that his business is on the verge of collapse.
More than 90 percent of his company’s cargoes head to the US market.
Last year, India exported an all-time high of 1.78 million metric tonnes of seafood worth $7.38bn. Shrimp dominates, contributing 92 percent of the total value. And the US takes in more than 40 percent of India’s shrimp shipments.
“The shrimp industry is a very highly labour-intensive sector, with small farmers,” said Kumar, who also leads the seafood export association’s Andhra Pradesh chapter. Taking everyone into account, Kumar said, nearly two million people are associated with shrimp exports.
Kumar said more than 50 percent of those workers will bear the direct brunt of Trump’s tariffs.
“We are already laying off because we can’t keep paying salaries with no orders in line for us,” Kumar told Al Jazeera. “The small farmers, who peel the shrimp, will be worst affected because there is no work now to employ them.”
Exporter associations estimate that the tariffs could affect nearly 55 percent of India’s $87bn worth of merchandise exports to the US – and benefit competitors such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and China, which have been tariffed at lower rates.
Moody’s Ratings has noted that Trump’s tariffs on Indian imports could slow India’s economic growth. Beyond 2025, the ratings agency said, the much wider tariff gap compared with other Asia Pacific countries would severely curtail India’s ambitions to develop its manufacturing sector and may even reverse some of the gains made in recent years in attracting related investments.
“It is like being in a nightmare,” Kumar said, “where you do not know what new, random tariff number you wake up to next.”
In the last 30 years of business with the US, Kumar said, the crisis feels uncharted. “The US is toying with us, doing whatever they want,” he said. “And we are forced to adjust. It feels so helpless.”
An Indian flag, a 3D-printed miniature model depicting President Donald Trump and the phrase ‘50% tariffs’ are seen in this illustration taken August 27, 2025 [Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Reuters]
‘Embargo on Indian goods’
Nearly 1,000km (620 miles) from Kumar’s factory, fear has taken over Tiruppur, a town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu that is the capital of India’s garment export industry.
Lying on the banks of the Noyyal river and next to rocky hillocks, Tiruppur contributes nearly a third of the total $16bn ready-to-wear garment exports. Tiruppur’s earnings in US dollars have earned it the name of ‘Dollar City’. The world’s top fashion brands, including Zara and Gap, source clothes from here.
But while higher margins in the case of big brands give some businesses temporary breathing space, a prolonged crisis could cripple them, said V Elangovan, managing director of SNQS International Group, which exports garments.
“Wherever margins are lower, the production has been halted altogether,” he said. Elangovan’s company employs 1,500 people. He said about 150,000 workers stand to lose their jobs due to Trump’s tariffs in Tiruppur.
“It is very difficult to find a new customer in this economy,” he said. “Customer diversification is not like a switch, which we can turn on and off. Soon, in the future, we will be looking at cash flow issues, and there will be a lot of retrenchment of the workers.”
India’s Modi has meanwhile taken a defiant stance on the trade war with the US.
India “should become self-reliant … Economic selfishness is on the rise globally and we mustn’t sit and cry about our difficulties,” Modi said in his Independence Day speech on August 15 from the ramparts of New Delhi’s Red Fort.
“Modi will stand like a wall against any policy that threatens their interests. India will never compromise when it comes to protecting the interests of our farmers,” the prime minister had said, referring indirectly to sticking points in trade negotiations with the US, which wants greater market access to India’s agriculture and dairy sectors. Almost half of India’s 1.4 billion people depend on agriculture for their livelihood.
But traders fear that they could be left bleeding in the bargain.
“The government is letting us get punched in one eye to save the other eye,” said Elangovan. “A 50 percent tariff is practically an embargo on Indian goods.”
BMG reported its H1 2025 results earlier today (August 28), with numbers that told a familiar story for the modern music business: complexity beneath the surface.
The Bertelsmann-owned company’s organic revenue dipped 4.4% YoYto EUR €424 million in the period, but said its underlying streaming revenue climbed by high single digits.
Meanwhile, BMG’s EBITDA margin jumped significantly to 28.7% – impacted by what Bertelsmann called a “strategic scaling back of lower-margin activities”.
For Thomas Coesfeld, BMG’s CEO since 2023, these results represent progress toward a more focused, efficient operation.
Under his leadership, BMG has doubled down on its core publishing and recorded music businesses while shedding lower-margin segments, including its involvement in live concerts.
Meanwhile, the company has embarked on its ‘BMG Next’ strategy, bringing digital distribution in-house and leveraging AI-powered tools.
The H1 numbers also reflect BMG’s continued M&A appetite: it pulled off 17 acquisitions in H1 2025, pushing its total music rights investments since 2021 to EUR €1.2 billion.
Notable recent successes at BMG include country superstars Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson breaking through internationally; the firm’s ~$100 million 2017 acquisition of Broken Bow Records/BBR Music Group looks increasingly prescient.
Perhaps most tellingly for the wider industry, BMG’s results come as fundamental questions about music’s value proposition intensify. Spotify‘s recent price increases have sparked fresh debate about streaming economics, while AI companies face mounting legal challenges over their use of copyrighted material.
Here, MBW quizzes Coesfeld on BMG’s strategic direction, the price points of streaming services, and why he believes the wider music industry must work to ensure creators are “paid fairly and credited properly…”
What is the most interesting growth driver for BMG right now, and how can you expand on it?
One of the most interesting growth drivers for BMG right now is our BMG Next strategy, particularly the move to bring digital distribution in-house.
By expanding our direct licensing agreements, we gain improved access to listening data and audience insights, enhanced on-platform marketing opportunities, and greater transparency and control over how our artists’ and songwriters’ works are monetized. These capabilities more effectively promote our repertoire directly at the point of consumption, ensuring optimal visibility and reach.
In addition, the integration of AI-powered tools is already creating new efficiencies and unlocking opportunities for our artists on the Recorded Music side as well as our songwriters in Publishing — our core business and growth driver.
How do you foresee the balance between publishing income and recorded music income changing at the company in the years ahead?
Music publishing will likely remain the primary income driver for our business, and we plan to allocate additional resources to our successful and diversified publishing operations.
“We plan to allocate additional resources to our successful and diversified publishing operations.”
Signings, administration and buyouts remain strong engines of growth, especially as streaming expands globally.
Our strength lies in our focused model — publishing and recordings — which gives us resilience and flexibility as the market evolves.
We hear a lot about ‘expanded rights’ in music these days (merch, gaming, live etc.), often centered on ‘name, image, and likeness’ rights. How is BMG managing opportunities in this area of the business while sticking to your focus on ‘core’ music rights?
Our strategy remains firmly focused on our core businesses of music publishing and recorded music. We have intentionally scaled back from lower-margin segments, but we remain open to selective opportunities in expanded rights where they make strategic sense.
When expanded rights create real value for artists and deepen fan engagement — like gaming tie-ins or brand partnerships — we’ll explore them. What we won’t do is chase distractions that don’t complement our core focus areas.
Your continued investment in US frontline music under Jon Loba continues to bear fruit. Have you noticed a growth in strength of US repertoire around the world in the past year, especially as local hip-hop’s dominance lessens and other genres — country, for one — grows globally?
We’ve seen incredible success with both Lainey and Jelly across key international markets, highlighting a broader trend: the global appetite for country music and other genres once considered US-centric is expanding rapidly. For example, Jelly Roll’sBeautifully Broken and Lainey Wilson’sWhirlwind showcase how our artist-first, international approach is delivering results well beyond the US.
“the global appetite for country music and other genres once considered US-centric is expanding rapidly.”
Jelly Roll is breaking through as a global phenomenon, with chart-topping debuts in the UK, Canada, and Australia, along with his first international tours across Europe, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Lainey Wilson continues to cement her status as country music’s leading global female superstar, with Whirlwind topping the charts in the UK, breaking into the Top 20 in Canada and Australia, delivering multiple international No. 1 singles, and headlining sold-out shows across Europe, with Australia and New Zealand on the horizon.
Speaking of which… looking back, that 2017 Broken Bow/BBR acquisition looks like a bargain?!
We’re incredibly grateful to have Jon [Loba] and the BBR team as part of BMG.
BBR has been both a cultural and creative win, proving the strength of our approach in combining entrepreneurial labels with the scale of BMG.
Your M&A strategy: What are the main criteria for catalogs or companies that BMG is looking to buy in the 2025 marketplace? Are you finding that assets are noticeably cheaper than they were 2-3 years ago?
Fueled by Bertelsmann’s Boost program, our investment strategy continues to be a bright spot, with 17 acquisitions in the first half of 2025, bringing total investments in music rights catalogs since 2021 to EUR €1.2 billion and consistently delivering strong returns.
When evaluating catalogs or companies, our main criteria include the quality and lasting relevance of the repertoire, the strength and track record of the artists and songwriters, and the potential to create incremental value.
We continue to take a disciplined, value-driven approach to acquisitions.
You’ve long been both positive and cautionary on how AI will use music. With Suno and Udio now being sued — and Anthropic facing a lawsuit over lyrics — where do you think the ecosystem ends up, and will it be materially additive to music’s bottom line?
Innovation has always been part of BMG’s DNA, and we see real potential for GenAI to accelerate what we can achieve. That said, copyright protection and fair remuneration for artists and songwriters are non-negotiable.
With partnerships such as Google Cloud and OpenAI, we are already using AI to make our operations more effective, while advocating for a framework that ensures AI evolves in a way that is both responsible and additive to the music ecosystem.
These initiatives will help establish much-needed clarity for rights holders, and we welcome regulation that ensures innovation does not come at the expense of the creators’ rights.
Streaming Price rises: We’ve seen a move by Spotify recently, but when you look at the world of audiovisual, is the price of music’s services moving fast enough, often enough?
Spotify’s recent price increases have reignited an important conversation about the value of music and the people who create it.
Every stream reflects the time, talent, and dedication of artists and songwriters, and they deserve fair compensation to build sustainable careers.
“Compared to audiovisual, music has historically been slower to adjust pricing and remains undervalued relative to the value it delivers.”
Compared to audiovisual, music has historically been slower to adjust pricing and remains undervalued relative to the value it delivers. Encouragingly, subscriber numbers have stayed strong even as prices have risen, showing just how deeply people value music.
As an industry, we must continue to evolve pricing models to properly reward creativity and ensure they are fair for all stakeholders.
Outside of price rises and AI, is there any issue in particular you wish the industry could ‘put right’ as things stand today?
One of the industry’s biggest challenges is making sure creators are paid fairly and credited properly.
Too often, revenue flows lack transparency, and inaccurate metadata means royalties don’t always reach the people who earned them.
“we need to go further as an industry to build a system that is fair, accurate, and sustainable for all artists and songwriters.”
Every artist, songwriter, and producer deserves to know how their work is monetized and to see their contributions recognized.
At BMG we’ve invested in better data practices. But we need to go further as an industry to build a system that is fair, accurate, and sustainable for all artists and songwriters.
Some financial media, both in Germany and globally (including THE FINANCIAL TIMES), seem very interested in whether you’ll be crowned the new CEO of Bertelsmann in the future. How can you block out this noise to solely focus on results for BMG?
I remain fully focused on BMG and our incredible team dedicated to serving our artists and songwriters.
“There’s never a question where my priorities lie.”
There’s never a question where my priorities lie, which is delivering the best results for our business, building lasting value for our repertoire, and ensuring BMG continues to grow as an innovation leader in music.
Watch: Minneapolis shooter “wanted to watch children suffer”, says official
Investigators say that the attacker who opened fire on pupils as they were praying at a church in Minneapolis was “obsessed with the idea of killing children”.
Robin Westman, who killed two children and injured 18 others, did not seem to have any specific motive, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara.
The attacker “appeared to hate all of us”, the chief said on Thursday, adding: “More than anything, the shooter wanted to kill children”.
The murdered children have been identified by family as Fletcher Merkel, eight, and Harper Moyski, 10.
“Fletcher loved his family, friends, fishing, cooking and any sport that he was allowed to play,” he said.
“Give your kids an extra hug and kiss today. We love you, Fletcher. You’ll always be with us,” he continued, choking back tears.
The parents of Harper Moyski, Michael Moyski and Jackie Flavin, said in a statement that their daughter “was a bright, joyful, and deeply loved 10-year-old whose laughter, kindness, and spirit touched everyone who knew her”.
“As a family, we are shattered, and words cannot capture the depth of our pain,” the said, adding that they hope “her memory fuels action” to stop gun violence.
“No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain…. Change is possible, and it is necessary – so that Harper’s story does not become yet another in a long line of tragedies.”
‘We love you, you will always be with us’, says father of Minneapolis shooting victim
Officials have released few details so far about the suspect’s background, but say Westman previously attended the church’s school and had a mother who had worked there.
The 23-year-old suspect is believed to have approached the side of the Annunciation Church, which also houses a school, and fired dozens of shots through the windows using three firearms. Police also found a smoke bomb at the scene.
Witnesses have described seeing children bleeding as they fled from the church, begging for help from strangers.
In a news conference on Thursday, acting US Attorney General for Minnesota Joseph Thompson said “the shooter expressed hate towards many groups, including the Jewish community and towards President Trump”.
The attacker, who died at the scene of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, left a note, officials said, but they added that a definitive motive may never be known.
“I won’t dignify the attacker’s words by repeating them, they are horrific and vile,” said Mr Thompson.
Westman’s name was legally changed from Robert to Robin in 2020, with the judge writing: “Minor child identifies as a female”. However, some federal officials and police have referred to Westman as a man when discussing the attack.
Chief O’Hara told reporters that news outlets should stop using the killer’s name, because “the purpose of the shooter’s actions was to obtain notoriety”.
He added that she, “like so many other mass shooters that we have seen in this country too often and around the world, had some deranged fascination with previous mass shootings”.
US officials have warned for years that mass shooting can lead to copycat killings, as killers seek to become famous through their heinous crimes.
Several major news organisations have a policy of not identifying mass killers.
CBS
From left: Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, both died in the attack
FBI Director Kash Patel has described the attack as “an act of domestic terrorism motivated by a hate-filled ideology”.
In a post on X, Patel said that the attacker “left multiple anti-Catholic, anti-religious references” written on guns and in notes uncovered by investigators.
“Subject expressed hatred and violence toward Jewish people, writing Israel must fall,’ ‘Free Palestine,’ and using explicit language related to the Holocaust,” he wrote.
The killer also “wrote an explicit call for violence against President Trump on a firearm magazine”.
In their news conference, officials confirmed that the attacker had previously attended the school. Her mother, Mary Grace Westman, previously worked at the school, and has so far not responded to law enforcement’s attempts to contact her.
They also confirmed that three residences associated with the attacker, who was from suburban Minneapolis, have been searched by police.
Getty Images
They said that the church locked its doors before beginning its Mass service, likely saving many lives.
Officials added that the guns used in the attack were all legally purchased, that the killer did not appear on any government watchlist, and that police are not aware of any mental health diagnoses or treatments that she was receiving.
Witnesses and relatives of victims who spoke to the BBC have described harrowing scenes of violence.
Patrick Scallen, who lives near the church, said that he saw three children fleeing the building – one of them a girl with a head wound.
“She kept saying, ‘please hold my hand, don’t leave me’, and I said I wasn’t going anywhere.”
Watch: BBC interviews man who helped children flee Minneapolis church
Vincent Francoual, whose 11-year-old daughter Chloe was in the church when the shooting took place, said he tried not to panic after he heard the news.
He called it “sick” that children in the US are trained to prepare for mass shootings.
“We live in a country where we train kids what to do. And she did what she had to do,” he said.
“Here it’s a pattern. It’s no longer a freak accident,” he said of school shootings in the US.
“I told my wife that every morning, when we drop our kids, we don’t know if she’d be back safe.”
Mr Francoual, who is originally from France, said that Chloe is afraid to return to school or church.
In the wake of the attack, several lawmakers, including the Minneapolis mayor, have called for the state to enact a ban on assault weapons.
“There is no reason that someone should be able to reel off 30 shots before they even have to reload,” said Mayor Jacob Frey, also calling for a ban on high-capacity ammo magazines.
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle here. We’re talking about guns that are built to pierce armour and kill people.”
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Here are the key events on day 1,282 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 29 Aug 202529 Aug 2025
Here is how things stand on Friday, August 29:
Fighting
Russian missiles and drones ripped through apartment blocks in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Thursday, killing at least 23 people, including four children, authorities said, in an attack the United States warned undermines peace efforts.
Ukraine’s air force said Moscow fired at least 629 drones and missiles, making it the second-largest overnight barrage of the entire war, according to Kyiv’s data.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that aside from residential buildings, the deadly Russian attack also hit the Embassy of Azerbaijan, the European Union delegation, the British Council, and a Turkish enterprise in the capital city.
Ukraine’s military struck a small missile-carrying Russian warship in the Sea of Azov, causing damage, Ukrainian military intelligence said. The ship had the potential to launch missiles in the Temryuk Bay area of the Azov Sea, Ukraine said.
A fire broke out at a unit of the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region following a Ukrainian drone attack, local authorities said. The extent of damage was not immediately clear at the refinery, which, together with the Krasnodar refinery, processed an estimated 7.2 million metric tonnes of crude oil in 2024.
Ukraine’s national power grid operator said Russia’s overnight attack on Thursday damaged energy facilities in several regions, prompting local power cuts. The attack on critical infrastructure in central Ukraine’s Vinnytsia region cut power to 60,000 consumers, regional official Natalia Zabolotna said.
Politics and diplomacy
President Zelenskyy denounced the Russian attack on Kyiv, noting that it was Moscow’s answer to diplomatic efforts to end the war.
US President Donald Trump said he “was not happy” about the Russian attack and planned to talk more about the subject later, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
The Kremlin said the attack targeted Ukrainian military sites, and insisted it was still interested in diplomacy to end the conflict, but that its strikes would “continue”.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the attack and urged for a ceasefire.
The EU and British government have summoned Russia’s ambassadors after the overnight attack on Kyiv damaged buildings of the EU’s mission and the British Council.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “sabotaging hopes of peace”, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said “Russia showed its true face” with the latest strikes.
French President Emmanuel Macron slammed Russian “terror and barbarism”, saying on X: “This is Russia’s idea of peace.”
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen spoke with both Zelenskyy and Trump following the attacks, insisting afterwards that “Putin must come to the negotiating table”.
Rescuers carry a casualty at the site of a building that was hit during Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv on Thursday [Thomas Peter/Reuters]
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on X that “we need to ensure Ukraine has what it needs to defend itself & secure a lasting peace”.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Russia’s attack demonstrates that it is not interested in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv had summoned Hungary’s ambassador over what he called the Budapest government’s “discrimination” against ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said his country was issuing an entry ban against the Ukrainian military commander, Robert Brovdi, who carried out “an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty, endangering our energy security”. Brovdi is an ethnic Hungarian who commands Ukraine’s drone forces.
Peace talks
Zelenskyy told a group of European leaders that it was important to produce a clear definition of security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any plan to secure a peace settlement with Russia.
Zelenskyy also said he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine with Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter hosted Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko in Bern for a courtesy visit, the Swiss government said in a statement. The talks focused on the peace process and the reconstruction of Ukraine, it said.
Military aid
The US Department of State has approved a potential sale of air-launched cruise missiles and related equipment to Ukraine for an estimated $825m, the Pentagon said. The 3,350 Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) missiles have a range of “several hundred” kilometres, according to a manufacturer.
Regional security
Russia or its proxies have flown surveillance drones over routes that the US and its allies use to transport military supplies through eastern Germany, according to a New York Times report. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed the report, describing it as “another newspaper fake”.
When a South Korean monk performed a Buddhist ritual for a wildly popular K-pop boy band, it was the most unusual ceremony he had ever held.
His mission: to guide the souls of the band to peace and rebirth.
The band were long gone – or rather, they had never been alive, except in the fictional world of the animated Netflix hit K-pop Demon Hunters.
Still, the YouTube video went viral.
Although cast as villains, the Saja Boys have won a devoted following for their gorgeous looks and swagger. Even their name – saja – translates to “angel of death”, among other things.
The live-streamed service, a genuine Buddhist rite known as Chondojae usually performed by monks for grieving families, lasted more than two hours and drew more than 4,000 viewers – more people than he had ever seen for a ceremony, even offline, says the monk, a virtual YouTuber who prefers to remain anonymous.
This was no joke. The BBC confirmed that he is a registered monk. But he could not guarantee salvation for the Saja Boys, not even for the lead, Jinu.
“That would depend on his good karma. I can guide him, but I can’t promise.”
As K-pop Demon Hunters tops every chart – Netflix says it has become its most watched movie ever – Koreans are revelling in the moment. Made and voiced by Korean-Americans, and produced by US studios Sony and Netflix, the film’s inspiration is deeply Korean.
It’s a tale about mythical demon hunters whose power comes from their music – in this case, that’s a sassy K-pop girl band called Huntrix. And of course, the soundtrack that fans across the world are now singing along to every day is rooted in South Korea’s biggest export: K-pop.
All of this has sparked a frenzy in South Korea, like in so many other places, a fascination with the Korean culture the movie centers, and even a little bit of FOMO – because unlike in the US and Canada, there are no plans yet to release the movie in cinemas here.
@illegalmonk_v
A screenshot of the virtual altar, featuring illustrations of the Saja Boys and offerings of food to comfort their souls
“Seeing all the sing-along clips [online] at cinemas… I’m jealous of Americans!” wrote a fan on social media. Another vowed, “I’ll even take a day off if KDH comes to cinemas” – a big promise in South Korea’s gruelling work culture.
Part of the fandom is driven by respect. Many Koreans are wary of clumsy depictions of their country on screen, especially given how popular the culture is right now. And to have such a global hit get it wrong would have stung.
“I’ve seen plenty of films and dramas that touched on Korean culture, but they were always full of errors. They would confuse it with Chinese or Japanese traditions, show actors speaking awkward Korean, and reduce everything to a shallow imitation,” says Lee Yu-min, a woman in her 30s.
“But I was genuinely astonished at KDH’s portrayal of our culture.” Pointing to the opening scene, she says: “A thatched-roof house from the Joseon Dynasty, ordinary people in hanbok [traditional Korean clothing] with their distinct hairstyles – the details were almost perfect.”
She says she had “never imagined” that it would capture hearts across the world the way it has.
Songs from the movie have become some of the most streamed on Spotify, while the track Golden hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
The fandom in South Korea is no less. Surprisingly, one of the biggest beneficiaries has been the National Museum of Korea, which carries traditional Korean artifacts that are featured in the film.
Already the most visited museum in Asia, it now has queues stretching outside before the doors even open. It recorded more than 740,000 visitors in July, over twice as many as it had during the same time last year.
“I arrived there at 10am sharp, that’s when the museum opens, but there were already about a hundred people waiting,” says Lee Da-geon who hoped to avoid the weekend rush by going on a Monday.
But she still left empty-handed: “Everything I wanted sold out.” Her wishlist included a badge featuring a tiger and a magpie – the movie’s animal characters Derpy and Sussie, which are inspired by folk painting.
News1
People have been lining up at the National Museum since K-pop Demon Hunters’ release
The soaring sales are a boost for people like Choi Nyun-hee, who runs the craft business Heemuse. “My revenue has jumped about five-fold,” she says, adding that her products are now being exported to the US and Australia.
She says she discovered K-pop Demon Hunters when the tiger-shaped “norigae”, a traditional pendant, with mother-of-pearl, “suddenly started selling out”.
Choi had previously worked at a museum, where she developed educational programs on Korean artifacts. After watching the film, she thought “Korean culture was well-displayed and weaved together into a story”.
For others, it’s not just the imagery and symbolism that resonated. “Rumi, the heroine, hides her true self out of embarrassment and shame. I related to that,” says Lee Da-geon. “In Korea, people worry far too much about what others think.”
Park Jin-soo, a YouTuber who has worked in the Korean film industry, admits he initially dismissed the movie as “a bizarre animation based on K-pop,” but when he finally watched it, he found that he thoroughly enjoyed it.
“I would personally like to see KDH on screen, especially at a time when South Korean cinema is desperately in need of blockbuster movies,” he says.
“Right now, they are at war over sharing the same pie, but streaming and cinemas each have their own purpose. If they shape trends together and if it goes viral, won’t the pie they’re fighting over ultimately grow larger? I think KDH can play that role.”
To him, the “sing-along” experience – which is something that only a cinema can offer – is one way of turning a streaming hit into a box office blockbuster.
Choi Nyun-hee
Choi says her business has been thriving because of the renewed interest in Korean craft
More than two months after its release, the film’s momentum hasn’t slowed – in fact, it’s spilling into cinemas. In North America, special “sing-along” screenings have made K-pop Demon Hunters Netflix’s first number one film at the box office.
Now South Korean fans are clamouring for the same experience, with so many of them saying online and offline, “I want to sing KDH in a cinema!!”
The movie will show at the Busan International Film Festival in September, which has announced limited sing-along screenings this year, though tickets are expected to be scarce.
Lee Yu-min, who has watched the film more than five times on Netflix, says she’s determined to go if it arrives in the cinema: “I’ll definitely drag my husband along – he hasn’t seen it yet.”
“I’m rooting for KDH screening in South Korea,” declares a fan online. “I know nothing has been confirmed, but I’m already starting to memorise all the lyrics.”
Another asks: “K-pop Demon Hunters is screening in North America, Canada and the UK… so why not in the home of K-pop?”
The U.S. housing market’s inventory is growing, putting pressure on prices and slowing new construction, according to fresh research from the Bank of America Institute. As of June, existing-home supply reached 4.7 months, the highest level since July 2016. New-home supply surged even further to 9.8 months—its highest point since 2022—highlighting how quickly inventory is building across the housing market.
The influx of available homes reflects sluggish demand, with builders citing weak buyer urgency, affordability challenges, and lingering job instability. The Institute noted new-home inventory is now at its highest level since 2007, the year before the housing market collapse that led to the Great Financial Crisis.
ResiClub co-founder Lance Lambert told Fortune that the rising inventory tells us that “homebuyers are gaining leverage” as slack in the housing market is increasing. “The Pandemic Housing Boom saw too much housing demand all at once, home prices overheated too fast in many markets, and underlying fundamentals got too stretched.”
Lambert characterized the last few years as a “recalibration period” where the housing market is smoothing out that excess. Mounting inventory sucks out appreciation in more markets—and even causes outright corrections in some markets’ home prices. He said he expects the underlying fundamentals to slowly improve as that happens and incomes keep rising. “It takes time.” This period is different from 2007, he said, because that window saw a far greater weakening of the housing market and upswing in resale inventory, along with unsold, completed newbuild homes.
BofA Research
One striking shift: The median price of a new home has actually fallen below that of an existing home—a reversal of the usual market dynamic. BofA said this pricing inversion underscores how builders are being forced to discount amid rising supply and softer demand. “Builders are starting to pull back on new home starts in many markets,” Bank of America wrote. While the slowdown is broad-based, conditions vary regionally, with some areas such as the Midwest proving more resilient than others.
“Since the Pandemic Housing Boom fizzled out in 2022, and the affordability squeeze was fully felt,” Lambert told Fortune, “the national power dynamic has slowly been shifting from sellers to buyers as homes have a harder time selling and active inventory for sale builds.”
Still, Lambert noted the inventory picture varies significantly across the country. For instance, it remains most limited across notable sections of the Midwest and the Northeast, although still growing, he said. On the other hand, active inventory has neared or surpassed pre-pandemic 2019 levels in many parts of the Sun Belt and Mountain West, and he said that is where homebuyers have gained the most leverage.
The trend comes as the Federal Reserve has begun trimming interest rates in an effort to support both broader economic growth and housing affordability. Whether those cuts will be enough to reignite demand remains an open question.
For now, the data signals a market in transition: high inventory, moderating prices, and builders caught between a cautious consumer and the need to manage supply.
For this story, Fortune used generative AI to help with an initial draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publishing.
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new video loaded: Egypt Recovers Ancient Artifacts From Underwater City
By Amogh Vaz and Jamie Leventhal•
As part of a major archaeological operation, Egyptian officials uncovered underwater remnants from a 2,000-year-old “party town” known as Canopus. Archaeologists believe that the city may be larger than previously thought.
