Trial suggests monoclonal antibody can help retain lean body mass when losing weight with GLP-1 medicines

A drug that promotes muscle growth could significantly reduce the loss of lean body mass when using slimming jabs, research suggests.

While GLP-1 based jabs such as Wegovy and Mounjaro have proved highly effective at helping people who are overweight or obese, experts have warned it is not only fat that is lost. Studies suggest 25-40% of total weight loss is down to a reduction in lean body mass – non-fat components of the body, including muscle.

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Launchers that shoot ‘bullet-like missiles’, chemical irritants and stinger grenades: experts say these weapons can cause serious injury or even death. But they are deployed by police against crowds with little scrutiny

Projectiles that release powder designed to burn the eyes and throat. Flashbang grenades. Teargas. Launchers that resemble semi-automatic rifles.

In Victoria, police have refused to publicly provide the make and model of their rubber bullets and other weapons even to the state’s parliamentarians due to “operational and community safety considerations”.

Contracts worth millions for these weapons are often with third-party distributors rather than the manufacturers, obscuring what police have access to.

During coronial inquests, after baton rounds and other weapons may have contributed to deaths, Victoria police have sought suppression orders that bar media from describing any details of weaponry.

In some states, details about Tasers have been suppressed during inquests, including the training materials given to officers.

Guardian Australia approached each force in the country for a list of the manufacturer and model of their less lethal weapons but all declined to provide one, with most citing operational safety.

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From high-altitude training to made to measure kits, teams have resorted to all manner of things to adapt to conditions at the tournament

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The heat and the altitude worried everybody. The 1970 World Cup in Mexico would not be a normal one. So the Bulgarian authorities sent their squad south of Sofia to get used to playing several thousand feet above sea level. Which seemed a great idea until somebody noticed that the temperature in the Pirin Mountains was not in the mid-20s celsius as it is in Mexico but somewhere near freezing. How then could they replicate the effect of playing in intense heat? By restricting water intake so that the players got used to performing while dehydrated.

The plan was not a great success. Bulgaria lost their first two World Cup games in 1970 and had already been eliminated by the time they drew with Morocco. It’s safe to assume that preparations for this World Cup will be rather more sophisticated than they were 56 years ago. Most countries back then seemed to take the view that training at altitude was the logical way to prepare for games in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara. Israel went to Ethiopia and Colorado. Uruguay played in Quito and Bogotá. Mexico themselves held a five-month training camp that featured 13 friendly internationals in four months before a pair of games against the Scottish side Dundee United.

This is an extract from Soccer Desk: World Cup edition, a newsletter from the Guardian US that will run regularly during the tournament. Subscribe for free here.

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With roots in Armenia, Syria and Saudi Arabia, the singer-songwriter now lives in the US. But despite her Carole King-style sound, her homelands are never far from her mind

The title song to Azniv Korkejian’s fourth album as Bedouine, Neon Summer Skin, recreates a perfect day from childhood. “Being taken to the pool, where my only worry is being dragged away when the sun’s setting,” she says, calling from Los Angeles. “Later on, mom and dad wash me in the tub and put me to bed.” Steeped in dreamy 70s soft pop, the track isn’t merely an exercise in nostalgia. “I wanted to paint a picture of what it’s like to feel safe,” she says. “So much of the record is about not having the luxury to not consider your own safety. I think about this a lot when it comes to the children in Palestine and Lebanon, who are not afforded that right.”

The conflicts that have ravaged the Middle East are context for Neon Summer Skin, but the album’s themes of displacement, identity and insecurity – wrapped in the deceptively soft sound of 1970s-style MOR pop – are also personal. Korkejian’s family are Armenian, but she and her parents were born in Syria, while her brothers were born in Saudi Arabia, where the Korkejians lived, “on a US compound that was like a gated community”, until 1995. That year, unnerved by the proximity of the recent Gulf war, the family successfully applied for the green card lottery and relocated to the US. “And thank God, because we would eventually have had to return to Syria,” Korkejian says. “I don’t know what would have happened to us then.”

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U schreef ons over de kracht van AI bij bezuinigingen, hoe je met een gezonde levensstijl depressie te lijf gaat, poesiealbums en, uiteraard, over de val van Donald Pols.

Acht jaar na de toewijzing van de ‘FIFA World Cup 2026’ ziet de wereld er heel anders uit. De Iraanse nationale ploeg speelt zijn groepswedstrijden in Los Angeles en Seattle, maar moet direct na het douchen weer het land uit.

Altijd leuk: een conceptnotitie van de gemeente Amsterdam die uitlekt. In dit geval een notitie van Femke Halsema over de 'scheiding van kerk en staat' naar aanleiding van politie-iftars een aan de burgemeester gerichte brandbrief van Amsterdamse kerken over een 'gebrek aan ruimte' in de stad. Het bekende recept; niet de kerken maar de moskeeën zijn kind van de rekening en wel vanwege "de stigmatisering van een religieuze gemeenschap van overheidswege". Daarna maakt Halsema nog ff van de gelegenheid gebruik om in de Jodenjacht-vlek te wrijven. Ze neemt in de notitie dapper AFSTAND van uitspraken van het kabinet-Schoof over de jacht op Maccabi-supporters in 2024. "Zij schrijft dat bewindslieden moslims verantwoordelijk hielden zonder dat daarvoor aanwijzingen bestonden." Terecht natuurlijk. Die jongens op scooters waren vooral Hindoes en Mormonen!

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Yeah, I’ll read the hell out of a Wesley Morris profile of Steven Spielberg. “Spielberg has always known that his movies are attempts to understand his boyhood and his parents, to try to heal them through fiction and illuminate parts of himself.”

For Isack Hadjar the Monaco GP was a weekend of extremes. It began in the worst possible way when the Red Bull driver had a heavy crash in FP1, costing him valuable track time and denting his confidence.