A new generation of drugs may transform the lives of people affected by narcolepsy – and could form the basis of future treatments for other neuropsychiatric disorders, including ADHD and depression.

The US Food and Drug Administration has, this month, approved Oveporexton, the first orexin-agonist treatment for narcolepsy. But “the excitement is not just about narcolepsy”, said The Economist. Drugmakers are “betting” that orexins could “follow a similar path” to Ozempic and Mounjaro, the GLP-1 receptor agonists initially developed as diabetes medication before their wider applications were unlocked.

What are orexins?
Peptides (chains of amino acids) produced in the brain that carry messages between neurons relating to the body’s sleep-wake system, as well as reward and motivation. These cells seem to die off in people with type-1 narcolepsy. That means their brains lose “the ability to control” when their body sleeps, said Time.

How do orexin agonists work?
In 2011, researchers at Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda, found a chemical compound that turned the orexin receptor off and could therefore become a treatment for insomnia. But “the bigger prize may lie not in blocking orexin’s signal, but restoring it”, said The Economist. Oveporexton, also developed by Takeda, “activates the orexin pathway” and “restores the brain’s ability to remain alert”, said Time.

Narcoleptic volunteers who took Oveporexton in a clinical trial were able to stay awake up to 25 minutes longer than those who hadn’t taken it, and also had fewer episodes of cataplexy, loss of muscle control, hallucinations and irregular sleep. “It was the first time I felt somewhat alive in the last 10 years,” one 19-year-old trial participant told Nature. “It’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

What might the future hold?
Around 1 in 2,000 people in the US and Western Europe suffer from narcolepsy. Orexin-agonist-based medicines for narcolepsy and other sleep disorders could generate £11.7 billion a year by 2035, according to Morgan Stanley estimates.

And Oveporexton’s success “opens the door to the use of orexin-mimicking drugs for other conditions associated with low levels of the chemical”, such as ADHD and depression, said Smithsonian Magazine. This is “just the beginning”, said Andy Plump, Takeda’s president of research and development.

Paramount chief David Ellison is threatening to move his studio’s headquarters from Hollywood to Tennessee or Texas, in a bid to force California, and other US states, to end their lawsuit challenging Paramount’s planned merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

‘Anti-trust’ crusade
Ellison’s threat is an “attempt to blackmail the regulators”, said California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is leading the lawsuit brought by a dozen other Democratic attorneys general. If the deal is not complete by 1 October, Paramount must pay a daily £5 million “ticking fee” to Warner Bros. shareholders. 

“Should the merger collapse,” an already-weakened Hollywood TV and movie production system “stands to lose the most”, said Reason magazine. California would stand to “lose $500 million annually in corporate tax revenue”, as well as “thousands” of Paramount jobs. Bonta is working against the “economic interests” of his state in order to “bolster” his reputation “as an anti-trust crusader”.

‘Hollywood for conservatives’
The vow to abandon Hollywood is “obvious brinksmanship”, said The Hollywood Reporter. Ellison is in the “talent business,” and a critical mass of creative TV and movie talent is “largely based in Los Angeles and New York”. This is “more a temper tantrum than a master plan,” said Talking Points Memo. Ellison is a “guy who wanted to become a movie mogul” and now finds his ambitions complicated.

“No one really wants to move from Beverly Hills to Nashville,” said The New York Times. But it would perhaps fulfill the right’s “dream” to “create an alternative to left-leaning Hollywood”. Tennessee, after all, is already home to the country-music industry, and has long been seen as a potential “Hollywood for conservatives”. Business needs might win out over ideology in the end, however. “No one wants this chaos.”

A man, a boy and a dog huddle together after escaping a residential building in Kyiv struck by Russian missiles. At least 15 people are confirmed to have died in the overnight bombardment of the city, with dozens more injured. 

Tetiana Dzhafarova / AFP / Getty Images

A family day out in London often comes with a hefty price tag but there are actually some ways for all ages to enjoy the capital without spending a penny.

Go museum-hopping
Get your “cultural fix” at London’s free museums and galleries, said Secret London. Children will love the “glittering jewellery” and “ancient sculptures” at the V&A, and the “weird and wacky” objects at the Horniman Museum in Forest Hill.

Catch an outdoor show
“If you’re running out of juice towards the end of the summer hols,” try the Greenwich + Docklands International Festival, said Time Out. Running until 6 September, it’s “absolutely free” and includes a jam-packed line-up of “spectacular” outdoor theatre and dance for all ages.

Visit a city farm
No need to “head deep into the countryside to experience rural life”, said Which? At the Surrey Docks Farm in southeast London, kids can “make new furry and feathery friends”. For £3 each, you can also book a “meet the small animals” session and get up close to the rabbits, ferrets and guinea pigs.

Relax at a pop-up beach
The Costa del Croydon is open until the end of August on the level-3A rooftop of the multi-storey car park at the Centrale and Whitgift shopping centre. Entry to this “urban beach” is free, said MyLondon. Kids can “enjoy creative workshops” and play in the splash zones and sandpit.

Will Andy Burnham call an early election?
Ailbhe Rea in The New Statesman
Our prime minister “prides himself on being a smooth political communicator” but occasionally “his body language gives him away”, writes Ailbhe Rea. When the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg asked if there would be an early general election, he started “furiously rubbing his chin”. And then he “blushed” as he said no. That “told us, wordlessly, that the question of whether to call a snap election” is an “uncomfortable one”, and “perhaps not quite as settled as he or his aides insist”.

If ADHD is a myth, what do psychotherapists like me do now?
James Barnes in The Independent
Channel 4’s documentary suggesting ADHD is not a brain disorder but a social construct has “generated a fierce reaction”, writes psychologist and counsellor James Barnes. But beyond the “fury and disbelief”, there’s “something important”. I think “two truths can be held together”: “people’s experiences are genuine and consequential”; “diagnostic constructs can be misleading” and “contestable”. The TV “controversy” could help us “move beyond the usual polarisation” and clarify the distinction between “lived struggle” and “diagnostic status”. It’s “more honest” and “more useful”.

There’s no future for a nation that hates its own history
Robert Tombs in The Telegraph
“Periods of national gloom are nothing new,” writes history professor Robert Tombs. But there’s recently been “a steep and sudden fall” in “pride in being a British citizen”. Those “most un-proud” of our history seem those “most exposed” to educational and cultural institutions that “share and propagate” a “distorted, partial” and “depressing vision” of our past. We need to revise our national curriculum to “face up to our history”, yes, but also to “inspire gratitude for what we have inherited”.