Preliminary results from Sweden’s general election suggest the center-left opposition has a three-seat lead over the right-wing ruling bloc that had promised ministerial seats to the far-right. The final result is unlikely to be announced until tomorrow or Thursday, but “weeks of uncertainty” and protracted coalition talks are expected, said the Financial Times.

Who’s competing?
The country’s center-right prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, is fighting for reelection on a platform of cutting asylum numbers and reducing gang shootings. His main rival, Magdalena Andersson (pictured above with Kristersson), the leader of the center-left Social Democrats, has been focusing on the economy, the welfare state, and suppression of the country’s growing far-right faction.

Sweden uses a “mandate distribution” voting system, a type of proportional representation that means “coalitions are the norm” and “smaller parties often have outsized influence,” said Politico. With the “razor-thin victory margin” currently projected for the left, that will be “true again this time.”

Why has this election been so tight?
The friction between the two main blocs has been growing since the right-wing coalition “broke a long-standing taboo” by partnering with the Sweden Democrats, an anti-immigration party with “neo-Nazi roots,” said The Guardian. With a campaign slogan of “Make Sweden Sweden again,” the party touts policies that include banning headscarves and expanding a “repatriation grant” worth $35,900 to immigrants who are already Swedish citizens. And Kristersson has promised cabinet positions to Sweden Democrats members if the right-wing bloc is reelected, which has led to an “unusually heated and polarized” election campaign.

What should we take from the results so far?
The final result, and the fate of the far-right, will be closely watched elsewhere in other European countries where similar nationalist movements are gaining ground. But if Europe’s centrists were hoping to take lessons from Sweden on how to beat the populist right, these “confusing” results leave the situation “far from clear,” said The Economist. 

Although Sweden Democrats have suffered their first decline in support since their party’s founding, they won’t be “too unhappy,” said the outlet. Previously ostracized, they have now “attained mainstream acceptance that was once unthinkable.”

A pharmaceutical company claims to have used artificial intelligence to discover a drug that reverses the impacts of aging. The finding highlights how the technology could make the drug discovery process easier or at least faster.

Beating the ‘aging clocks’
Last year, Insilico Medicine, a company that “aims to accelerate drug discovery” using artificial intelligence, announced that a clinical trial of one of its drug candidates suggested AI could help treat a chronic lung disease, said The New York Times. The disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, or IPF, is sometimes referred to as Alzheimer’s of the lungs. Now, new data from the same clinical trial shows an even “more intriguing possibility”: The drug, called rentosertib, could “also slow the aging process.” 

The company used AI to assist in generating rentosertib’s molecular structure. The drug may be capable of reducing the biological markers of age as measured by six separate “aging clocks,” or AI technology “designed to predict a person’s morbidity and mortality,” said a new study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology,

‘Not replacing scientific intuition’
The results of this study are the first to show “very clearly” that “predicted biological age can be reduced,” said Vadim Gladyshev, a Harvard Medical School professor who helped build one of the aging clocks, to the Times. Still, Gladyshev acknowledges that the study is far from conclusive, citing the small sample size and the unreliability of aging clocks. 

Most notably, Insilico’s drug has “not yet been tested in healthy patients,” said the Times. Because the company conducted its clinical trial solely with IPF patients, the results may be specific to this condition.

The idea of “reducing aging” has become the “obsession of some tech bro-types,” but the “actual utility of aging clocks is up for debate,” said Gizmodo. While some researchers believe that such “catch-all measurements” could be useful, there’s still a “long way to go before they become truly meaningful markers.” 

AI is not “replacing scientific intuition,” and it’s “unlikely to do so anytime soon,” said Forbes. But it can “make the costly time-consuming R&D work” of preparing for clinical trials “more efficient.”

Protesters burn tires and block roads in the Syrian city of al-Bab. Demonstrations over the government’s decision to increase fuel prices are taking place across the country in the first major unrest since longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad was ousted in 2024.
Bakr Alkasem / AFP / Getty Images

We have officially reached past the halfway point of the year, and it’s time to say goodbye to summer. Before you move on to the next season and start preparing for cooler autumn days, here are a few of the best podcasts the summer had to offer.

Paper Trail (ProPublica)
The new podcast from the nonprofit ProPublica newsroom covers some of its “most important long reads,” said Podcast Review, such as a piece about “whether people who kill their abusers should walk free.” Host Jessica Lussenhop “acts as a guide” as “new leads are followed, sources are interviewed and truths are revealed.” (Apple Podcasts, ProPublica, Spotify)

Search Engine: A Road Trip Through the Data Center Debate (Independent)
Jasmine Sun, a tech worker turned independent journalist, spent 10 days traveling through Wisconsin and Michigan investigating data centers. Her trip, also chronicled on her Substack, “produced a vivid picture” of how people are “dealing with major tech companies bulldozing through their communities” to build massive data centers to serve their “highly lucrative AI ambitions,” said Vulture. (Apple Podcasts, Spotify)

Where the River Took Us (Texas Monthly)
This docu-podcast covers the tragic flood of the Guadalupe River that occurred on the Fourth of July. In this “beautifully crafted yet distressing series,” Texas Monthly senior editor Aaron Parsley tells a story that “begins with a peaceful family holiday and ends with the death of his nephew,” said Podcast Review. (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Texas Monthly)