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Children whose mothers stick to healthy lifestyle practices are less likely to be obese than children of less healthy moms, researchers report. 

“Living a healthy lifestyle can not only help adults to improve their health and reduce their risk of developing chronic diseases, but also can exert health benefits to their offspring,” Qi Sun from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Mothers have a powerful influence over their children’s lifestyle choices, but it is unknown whether healthy lifestyle patterns in mothers influence the development of obesity in their children. 

Sun’s team used information from the Nurses’ Health Study II and Growing Up Today Study to clarify the association between the mother’s lifestyle during her offspring’s childhood and adolescence, and their risk of obesity between the ages of nine and 18 years. 

In particular, the researchers considered five low-risk lifestyle factors: healthy diet, body mass index in the normal range, not smoking, light to moderate alcohol consumption and engaging in moderate or vigorous physical activity for at least 150 minutes per week. 

Individually, each maternal lifestyle factor except healthy diet was associated with a significantly lower risk of obesity in offspring, the authors reported in BMJ. 

The risk of obesity in offspring decreased with each additional lifestyle factor in mothers, such that children of women who followed three low-risk behaviours (healthy diet, physical activity and light to moderate alcohol consumption) were 23 per cent less likely to be obese, compared with children whose mothers did not have any low-risk factor. 

Children of mothers who had all five low-risk factors were 75 per cent less likely to be obese than children of mothers who had none of the low-risk lifestyle factors. 

Moms’ healthy lifestyles did not necessarily translate into children’s healthy lifestyles in this study, but when they did, offspring had an 82 per cent lower risk of being obese, compared with when mothers and children had high-risk lifestyles. 

“This study suggests that mothers, by living a healthy lifestyle and thus creating a healthy ‘environment’ for their children, can help curb the risk of childhood obesity,” Sun said. 

“Mothers and parents in general should consider improving their lifestyle early on to maintain good health for themselves and the next generation,” he added.

I was visiting some friends at their home this week, and the topic of WiFi coverage came up in conversation.

Their broadband router was in a home office on the far end of the house, and they were having issues surfing the Internet from their living room a few rooms away. The WiFi signal had trouble travelling through several walls.

As we were looking at a laptop, I showed them how to check the transmission rate of their WiFi router. It turns out they were receiving the signal at just 7 Mbps.

As a comparison, in my living room as I type this column, I am sitting three metre from my router and receiving data at 458 Mbps.

That is hardly a fair comparison. I have upgraded my wireless router, and my friends are using the router provided by their Internet provider.

I have the same internet provider, and when I use the WiFi provided by my broadband modem, I receive data at 54 Mbps.

So adding a better router increased my throughput significantly.

What is the lesson here?

You are not stuck with the WiFi router included with your broadband Internet service.

You can buy a much better one. All you need is an open Ethernet port on the back of your internet modem.

Unbox the new router, plug it into the back of your router and set it up according to the instructions. Make sure you set it up in “bridge mode”.

One of your router’s jobs is to hand out a unique address to all your connected devices. Your old WiFi router is handing out those IP addresses. When you set up the new router, it will also be set to give out IP addresses.

You can tell the new router to not give out IP addresses and to let the old router continue assigning the addresses. This is called bridge mode.

You will have to do a bit of research inside your new router’s settings to set it up, but it will be well worth your time.

You can buy several types of WiFi routers. I’ve been recommending the TP-Link Archer C7 as a good, inexpensive model to consider. I’ve used it in my home, and it works well and had good range.

I have since graduated to a mesh WiFi router system. I have been using the Netgear Orbi, but right now I am testing the new Eero system. 

Most parents believe their adolescents should spend time alone with the paediatrician during routine visits to talk about any concerns or questions, according to a new study. 

“Kids don’t always disclose their health information to doctors and parents, which means they try to negotiate serious health issues without a trusted adult,” said Melissa McKee of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. 

McKee, who was not involved with this study, has researched the challenges of providing confidential care to adolescents. Teens are more likely to seek health care and openly talk to doctors when they are assured of privacy, particularly for issues related to sexual behaviours, substance use and mental health. 

“Kids need a trusted adult as they transition from a setting where health decisions are typically made for them to adulthood when they’re completely in charge of their own health,” she told Reuters Health by phone. 

Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia surveyed 91 parents and teens aged 14 to 17 who attended a routine wellness visit with a paediatrician. During a follow-up phone call two weeks after the visit, parents reported whether their child met with the paediatrician alone, rated the importance of alone time and talked about the barriers of adolescent-paediatrician communication. 

Ultimately, 86 per cent of adolescents had time alone for part of the wellness visit, ranging from five to 30 minutes. Fifty-three parents, or 58 per cent, said this private time had “a lot” of importance, and another 25 parents (27 per cent) ranked it a bit lower but still said it had “quite a bit” of importance. Parents of males were almost twice as likely to agree that alone time with the doctor was important. Parents also said communication barriers included rapport and familiarity with the paediatrician, privacy concerns, emotional comfort, trust and support. 

“We need to start creating opportunities for kids to have autonomy with regard to health issues,” McKee said. “It’s not all or nothing at a certain age. They don’t suddenly become fully in charge of themselves.” 

Future studies should focus on the gender difference, McKee added. She and colleagues found that moms with daughters, in particular, were nervous about losing the leadership role in health decisions and did not want their daughters to be exposed to certain topics related to sexuality. 

“Some mothers believed certain conversations might even be a green light for [their daughters] to be sexually active,” she said. “The gender difference is a consistent pattern we see.” 

To battle the barriers to communication with teens, some paediatricians implement mandatory alone time early and build it into annual visits as patients approach their teen years. 

You probably use Google Translate online service or mobile application every now and then. You also must have noticed the recent online ads that promise to let you learn and speak a new language in a few weeks. How good, how true is all that?

The global, connected world is making it more important than ever to understand, to speak several languages and also to be able to translate between them automatically, instantly. It is all about communication, and the importance of the subject cannot be overstated. Whereas some good digital tools are available to address the need, the result often is mediocre; average in the best case.

The difficulty lies in the fact that speaking or translating involves extremely complex processes, a non-negligible amount of data or knowledge, culture, and finally art, or style as it is better called. The first two elements can be handled by digital tool and computers, and usually are processed relatively well in an automated manner. As for the last two, culture and style, well… we (i.e. computers) are not there yet.

The massive amount of information available in search engines such as Google, and the speed at which it can obtained, typically a mere fraction of a second, has made possible what was absolutely unthinkable only one generation ago. The speed of processing that is commonly found in even the cheapest laptop computer, tablet or smartphone is also  flabbergasting.

The combination of the above two elements has provided digital translation tools that are great, but still cannot replace or compete with what a seasoned, professional translator human being can achieve.

For the time being and until further dramatic development in the technology, automated translation and human translation are living in parallel, each satisfying different needs and demands. If you just want to have an idea of what this text in Dutch means in English, what it is about, and you do not care about syntax, grammar and style, then Google Translate may be a practical solution. Keeping in mind that even in such case significant errors in the meaning of the text may occur from time to time — you know that you must be careful and not use the translation in any formal manner or bet your life on it.

Automated vocal translation can also be helpful if you are in a foreign country where you cannot speak their language and just need directions, for example. Speak your question in your native language in your smartphone’s microphone and the phone will say the answer out loud in the country’s language. Very convenient if you are lost or need basic, simple information!

Still, interpretation at conferences is still handled by human beings.

When it comes to translating formal documents for official use, when perfect grammar and style matter, when you are translating a book, a novel, or doing subtitles for a movie, only human translation is the answer. It is interesting to note the pristine quality of the Arabic subtitles in the movies available on Netflix. The network must be paying well and hiring first-class human translators to do the work. Netflix deserves kudos for that. Excellent subtitles are not often seen in the movies. 

Apart from Google Translate that is made to handle general text, there are specialised online services that are more precise for they take into consideration the context and the specific type of the subject being translated: legal, medical, technical, archaeology, engineering, arts, etc. Linguee is one of them. By analysing the context, Linguee provides more accurate translation, but again, you must be ready to forgo style and perfect syntax.

Online services like Babbel claim they can make you speak a language in three weeks. Naturally, they use digital tools and up-to-date methods to speed up the learning process, and this is understandable. There is also little doubt that thanks to the online, interactive, multimedia tools they can now make you learn any language much faster than before. The rest is a matter of opinion, to say the least.

It still takes years and years to pretend to be able really to properly speak a language, to understand its spirit, its flavour, the idioms, the accent, all the culture and the history behind it, etc. Perhaps Babbel and other similar services can make you “start” to learn a new language in three weeks! Technology is on its way, but you have to know where it starts and where it ends.

Babies, as every mom knows, tend to arrive on their own, often mysterious time schedules, but what if there were a cheap way to predict a baby’s birthday accurately, including the risk of a premature baby?

For thousands of years, pregnant women have wondered about that and now a team of researchers may have hit upon a way to do it.

The journal Science reported in its June issue a promising new study of “non-invasive” ways to monitor foetal development, and predict gestational age and pre-term delivery.

Translation: Cheap blood tests that can show the stage of the baby’s development in the womb, including the risk the baby might arrive before full term.

Ultrasound tests, now a familiar gold-standard procedure during pregnancy, can show a foetus’ development, but they’re expensive so, they are not ideal in poor communities around the world. Also, they do not predict spontaneous preterm birth, a leading cause of infant death.

Counting weeks from one’s last period is the age-old method but it depends on memory and is often imprecise. Inaccurate dating can lead to unnecessary decisions to induce labour or to Caesarean sections, requiring extended postnatal care and increased medical costs.

Under the headline, “Towards more predictable birthdays”, the team of researchers described a pilot study of 31 healthy pregnant women. By measuring certain nucleic acids (cell-free RNA transcripts) in maternal blood, they could predict gestational age with comparable accuracy to an ultrasound but at a “substantially” lower cost.

In a related study of another 38 women, all at elevated risk of delivering preterm, the researchers identified seven nucleic acids that accurately classified women who delivered preterm up to two months in advance of labour.

“These tests hold promise for prenatal care in both the developed and developing worlds, although they require validation in larger, blinded clinical trials,” the researchers reported.

These results are preliminary. If larger clinical trials reproduce them, this kind of blood test could help save babies who would otherwise die because they were born prematurely, the researchers say.

This is no small thing: Some 15 million babies are born prematurely every year worldwide, the researchers say. In the United States, premature birth is the leading cause of neonatal death and complications later in life.

The team of 18 researchers from multiple universities was led by Stephen Quake of Stanford University, a pioneer in genomic diagnostics and in developing new approaches to biological measurement. Among other things, he invented the first non-invasive prenatal blood test for Down syndrome.

Modern medicine and science have come far in understanding the stages of human pregnancy since the days of the ancient Greeks, who nevertheless had quite a bit of knowledge about the different stages of foetal development, according to the researchers.

Although science has developed detailed cellular and molecular portraits of both foetal and placental development, there still are not “molecular tests that reliably predict gestational age for individual pregnancies”.

The appeal of such tests is obvious, especially to pregnant women. Current methods to estimate delivery date generally assume normal development and do not account for premature birth.

There are certain houses that are extremely child friendly — here tiny kids run around happily because harmful stuff that can be toppled over, is discarded, all electrical fixtures are fitted higher up on the walls, the sofa upholstery matches the right shade of glucose biscuits, and so on. The inhabitants of such homes usually have small children of their own and this arrangement suits them perfectly. All their energy, in any case, is spent on raising the babies and they have no time for aesthetic contemplation.

Our dwelling was like that for a long time, where no matter how many batches of infants came crawling, nothing was damaged! Ever! The gooey stains of spilled baby-food, milk, soup or juice were easily wiped off and the wooden chairs and tables showed not a sign of wear or tear. From cabinets to doorknobs, everything was childproof and nobody baulked when young parents discussed the precise colour of their offspring’s vomit or diarrhoea. We were immune to it because with a hyperactive toddler at home, it was a norm for us, not an aberration, you see?

Our curtains were brown in order to conceal all the miniscule fingerprint marks, coated with chocolate chip cookies, that were wiped there. Ditto was the state of the couch in the formal lounge, which also doubled up as a crib or a diaper-changing table, as and when the situation demanded. Come to think of it, nothing was used exclusively with the purpose of what it was intended for, as one was compelled to improvise on a continual basis.

Like the most famous opening lines of the novel “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, state: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

Right! With countries like Italy, Portugal, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Mexico and Chile crashing out of the FIFA Word Cup this year, many football fans are experiencing similar sentiments as the one quoted in the passage, but here I digress.

Time passed, and soon we were empty nesters. Suddenly, things started to appear exactly where they were placed earlier. Quite tentatively at first, and then with renewed enthusiasm, cream and pastel furnishings made an appearance in our habitat. From trips to foreign countries, many spear — and dagger-shaped artefacts were purchased and artistically decorated around the sitting room area. Czech crystal and Bohemian glassware were added and my spouse’s collection of Cuban cigars was finally rescued from the locked suitcase under the bed, and displayed on low-lying stools. 

In other words, our home, slowly but surely, turned into a major safety hazard zone for children. It was now completely unsafe for them.

“Listen, this couple has small kids,” I exclaimed recently, reading out the guest list.

“How can that be? They are our age,” my husband responded.

“Procrastination of procreation,” I guessed.

“They will mess up the house,” our housemaid said. 

“The house might mess them up more,” I alleged.

“What should be done?” I was beginning to panic.

“Un-invite them,” my housemaid quipped.

PARIS — For decades, plastic straws have been essential props for cocktail makers, smoothie lovers and fast food addicts.

But that may be starting to change, thanks largely to vigorous environmental campaigning.

Under pressure from activists, the European Union, Britain, India and even fast food giants like McDonald’s have all made some headway towards bringing the use of plastic straws to an end.

And with public pressure growing on governments, particularly in Europe, to ban single use plastics, manufacturers are feeling the heat.

According to peer-reviewed US journal Science magazine, 8 million tonnes of plastic are dumped into the Earth’s oceans and seas each year — 250 kilogrammes every second.

For years, the focus of environmentalists has been on plastic bags. But plastic straws have now come into the spotlight, thanks in part to images that have gone viral on the Internet.

One online video about the danger posed by seemingly innocuous straws shows a sea turtle rescued off Costa Rica getting one removed from its nostril.

Baby steps

The British government in April said it planned to ban the sale of single-use plastics, including straws.

The European Union followed suit in late May.

In India’s commercial capital Mumbai, Burger King, McDonald’s and Starbucks were fined for violating a ban on single use plastics, an official said earlier in June.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged to make his country free of single use plastic by 2022.

Some corporations are also taking steps.

In the UK and Ireland, McDonald’s has pledged to complete a transition to paper straws by 2019.

In France, the burger giant is testing alternatives.

The Hilton hotel giant in May vowed to remove the offenders from its 650 properties by the end of 2018.

“Laid end to end, the straws saved each year in [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] would exceed the length of the River Seine,” the hotel chain said in a statement.

Pasta and 

bamboo sticks

There are alternatives to plastic straws, but they are much pricier.

The five-star Monte Carlo Palace hotel in Monaco has introduced biodegradable straws.

Others are using raw pasta and bamboo sticks.

The United States is resisting change while Europe takes the lead with biodegradable plastics made either from fossil fuels or crops such as potatoes and corn.

Some 100,000 tonnes of bioplastics were produced in 2016 in the world, according to Germany’s specialist Nova-Institute.

In 2017, biodegradable plastic production capacity rose to 800,000 tonnes globally, the European Bioplastics industrial group said.

And while this may appear to be a step in the right direction, manufacturers are concerned about the impact outright bans would have on their sales.

“It’s not a very good sign,” said Herve Millet, technical and regulatory affairs manager at PlasticsEurope, the region’s leading plastics manufacturers’ association.

“But... big corporations also have concerns over their image and they must at least try to find a way to respond to society’s expectations.”

No miracle cure

Europe’s top plastic straws manufacturer Soyez, which is based in France, is also uncertain about how to make the transition.

“The problem isn’t new and it’s serious, so we obviously need to find alternatives,” the company’s Director Pierre Soyez said.

“We’ve been working on this for several months,” he said, adding that it was “really complicated” to try to make the shift overnight.

Experts, meanwhile, warn that biodegradable plastics may not be a miracle solution anyway.

“People think that biodegradable means nothing is dumped in nature. But that’s not the case at all,” engineer Virginie Le Ravalec of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency.

A separate collection system for bioplastic waste would need to be set up in order for the shift to really work, and that would involve millions in investment from states.

Activists fear, however, that biowaste may end up in the oceans — much like plastic has for decades.

“Over periods of days, weeks or even months, a bioplastic item could present just as much threat to marine life as a conventional plastic item,” Fiona Nicholls of Greenpeace warned.

As such, Nicholls says humanity’s only hope is to reduce our use of plastics.

“Swapping one plastic for another... is not a fix to the plastic pollution problem that our oceans and waterways face.”

LONDON — London-based Babylon Health says its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, in tests, has outperformed most physicians in assessing disease symptoms, throwing down a challenge to doctors, some of whom doubt its true abilities. 

Babylon, which was founded by entrepreneur Ali Parsa in 2013, is one of a number of start-ups tapping into the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) to help patients and doctors sift through symptoms to come up with a diagnosis. 

It aims to offer health advice of family-doctor quality by using AI delivered through a smartphone chatbot app — potentially a big saving for governments as they struggle to fund healthcare for growing and ageing populations. 

In a representative sample of questions set by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) for its final exams to qualify as a family doctor, the Babylon app achieved an 81 per cent success level, well ahead of the average pass mark over the last five years of 72 per cent, the company said. 

But Martin Marshall, vice chairman of the RCGP, said AI systems could not be compared to highly-trained medical professionals. 

 “No app or algorithm will be able to do what a GP does,” he said. 

“An app might be able to pass an automated clinical knowledge test but the answer to a clinical scenario isn’t always cut and dried, there are many factors to take into account, a great deal of risk to manage, and the emotional impact a diagnosis might have on a patient to consider.” 

Babylon showed off its AI technology in a public demonstration on Wednesday evening. 

In a separate test against seven highly experienced primary care doctors, Babylon’s AI correctly diagnosed 80 per cent of illnesses, against a range of 64-97 per cent for the professionals, it said. 

Parsa said the results demonstrated Babylon’s AI could help bring healthcare to millions of people who have no access to even basic services, adding he was “saddened” by the criticism as the app was never designed to replace doctors. 

“Even in the richest nations, primary care is becoming increasingly unaffordable and inconvenient, often with waiting times that make it not readily accessible,” he said. 

“Babylon’s latest artificial intelligence capabilities show that it is possible for anyone, irrespective of their geography, wealth or circumstances, to have free access to health advice that is on-par with top-rated practicing clinicians.” 

Malcolm Grant, chairman of the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) in England, said the service was looking at a range of new technologies, including AI. 

Underscoring the pressure on costs, the British government this month announced an extra £20 billion ($26 billion) a year for the NHS by 2023, but critics said that still wouldn’t be enough to keep up with demand. 

Babylon, which secured a $60 million investment last year, is working with smartphone maker Samsung and Chinese Internet firm Tencent to roll out its technology. Rival AI health apps available in the UK include Ada and Your.MD. 

Smartphone diagnosis is only one way in which AI is being harnessed in healthcare. 

Elsewhere, medtech companies are already using the pattern-spotting power of computers to help interpret medical images, while many drug companies are increasingly investing in AI-driven techniques in drug discovery. 

Babylon’s app is allowing users in London to book NHS appointments with family doctors in seconds, it said, and have a video consultation typically within two hours. 

It is also helping more than 2 million people in Rwanda access digital healthcare, which it said gives the East African nation the highest penetration of digital health in the world. 

Elderly people with major depressive disorder may be more likely to suffer severe and persistent symptoms than younger adults with the same mental health diagnosis, a Dutch study suggests. 

Researchers examined data on 1,042 adults with major depressive disorder who ranged in age from 18 to 88. The researchers studied how depression developed over time by comparing symptoms at the start of the study to symptoms two years later. 

Compared with participants ages 18 to 29, people aged 70 and older were two to three times more likely to still have a diagnosis of major depressive disorder after two years, and to have had symptoms during most of that period, the study found. 

Elderly people also took longer to achieve remission or to experience improvements in the severity of their depression. 

One theory for why this might be the case is that elderly people are more likely to have risk factors for depression like multiple chronic illnesses, loneliness or unhealthy lifestyles. But depression had an outsize impact on elderly people even after researchers accounted for these factors, said senior study author Brenda Penninx of VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam. 

It is also possible that the aging brain has less plasticity, or ability to rebound from mental illness, due to underlying inflammation or metabolic processes in the body that are different than what is typical earlier in life, Penninx said by e-mail. 

Prevention, as well as early diagnosis and treatment, are essential, Penninx said. 

“Obviously preventing is better than treating,” Penninx added.

“Everything that works [e.g. healthy lifestyle, social activities, taking care of one’s health as much as possible] in preventing depression is good,” Penninx advised. “In addition, if a depression occurs, seeking adequate treatment is important because there is — especially among older adults — quite some under-recognition of depression.”

Almost one in five adults will experience a bout of major depression at least once in their lifetime, but the course of these episodes can be highly variable, the study team notes in The Lancet Psychiatry. 

Major depression affects people of all ages, but the risk is highest between ages 45 and 65, said Tze Pin Ng of the National University of Singapore, author of an accompanying editorial.

Although the risk of developing major depression is lower in older people, partly because of their better ability to cope with stress and emotional regulation, elderly adults who do develop depression tend to have worse cases than their younger counterparts, Ng told Reuters Health by e-mail.

“The current study goes further than other studies so far in establishing the poorer clinical course and worse treatment outcomes of depression in late life,” Ng said.

Particularly when people develop depression for the first time after 65, they are more likely to have damage to small blood vessels in the brain and greater degrees of cognitive impairment than might have been the case earlier in life, Ng added. 

Risk factors for heart disease and stroke like obesity, high blood sugar and high cholesterol can also cause damage to the blood vessels in the brain, Ng said.

While more research is needed to determine the exactly how age may influence the course of depression, elderly people can still take steps to protect themselves, Ng said.

“It is reasonable to suggest that older people can help themselves to reduce their risk of becoming depressed or their severity of depression by giving attention to adequate levels of physical and social activities and healthy dietary habits to reduce their metabolic and vascular risks of developing heart disease, dementia and depression all at the same time,” Ng advised.

LOS ANGELES — Though new entries “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and “Uncle Drew” scored higher debuts than expected, “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” still reigns supreme at the domestic box office.

“Fallen Kingdom” picked up $60.9 million from 4,485 locations in its second outing, bringing its domestic tally to $265.7 million. Even with a 59 per cent drop, the dinosaur tentpole has nothing to fear. To date, the Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard-led sequel has pocketed $932 million globally and is well on its way to crossing $1 billion. Overseas, the Universal and Amblin Entertainment blockbuster pulled in $56.1 million this weekend.

“Sicario: Day of the Soldado” bowed with $19 million in 3,055 locations, while fellow newcomer “Uncle Drew” racked up $15.2 million from 2,742 theaters. Meanwhile, the third outing of “Incredibles 2” stayed at No. 2 with $44.6 million from 4,410 locations. That takes the Disney-Pixar sequel’s domestic total up to $438.8 million in three weeks.

“Ocean’s 8” continues to stay in the top five, stealing another $8.3 million from 2,345 theaters this weekend. In four weeks, the Warner Bros. heist film has amassed $114 million at the domestic box office.

Earlier in the week, “Sicario: Day of the Soldado” and “Uncle Drew” were targeting openings between $10 million and $13 million. The follow-up to Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario” scored a better debut than its predecessor, which opened with $12 million in 2015. The critically acclaimed original film — which scored three Oscar nods — picked up $84 million globally during its theatrical run. The sequel has not gathered the same praise, earning a B CinemaScore and an average 64 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. To compare, “Sicario” received a 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, critics praised Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro for their performances. Stefano Sollima took over directing duties for “Soldado”, while Taylor Sheridan returned to pen the script.

Like “Sicario 2”, Lionsgate’s sports comedy “Uncle Drew” — based on the Pepsi commercial starring NBA icon Kyrie Irving — also served as counterprogramming against a series of superhero tentpoles. The film received an A CinemaScore, though its Rotten Tomato average was slightly less enthusiastic at 67 per cent. As expected, the audience was 59 per cent male, while 58 per cent of moviegoers were over the age of 25.

At the specialty box office, Neon’s “Three Identical Strangers” made $163,000 when it opened in just five theatres. That’s a per screen average of $32,000 — a solid start during a summer where documentaries have fared exceptionally well.

Another documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbour”, ranked in the top 10 at the domestic box office again. Morgan Neville’s film, focusing on beloved children’s show host Mister Rogers, made another $2.4 million from 654 theatres in its fourth frame. In total, it has grossed $7.5 million.

The 2018 box office, which just hit $6 billion in record time, is up 9.3 per cent, according to ComScore. Meanwhile, the summer box office remains a force, up 15.3 per cent compared to last summer, which was the lowest popcorn season in over a decade.

Next weekend sees the release of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp” starring Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly. The superhero sequel is currently tracking between $68 million and $80 million.

“The much-anticipated debut of Disney’s ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp’ will get the momentum train rolling again with what will be the latest in an impressively long line of box office and critical hits for the Marvel brand,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box office analyst at ComScore.