XZoro

Accepted DH1 DH2

Game Informations. Developers : Genius Slackers. Publishers : KATNAPPE SP. Z O. O., Sourena Game Studio. Released : Jul 30, 2020. Genre : Adventure, 3D, First-Person. Mode : Single-player. Platforms : Microsoft Windows - PlayStation 4 - Xbox One. Mental health has been a huge topic of discussion as of late, and for good reason. For people living with mental health issues and those around them, more awareness and education is tremendously beneficial. Video games have also taken aim at the lack of advocacy, and What Happened is one such game. It’s a straightforward horror-adventure that showcases the struggle of those suffering from major depression and anxiety. However, it tries its damnedest to leave no stone unturned, stretching itself out too thin as a result. Following the sudden death of this father, Stiles’ life is on a downward trajectory. School days are especially rough, being constant reminders of times past. He’s lost his best friend, his girlfriend, his father, his extracurriculars, and his relationship with his mother — the whole nine yards. He instead spends his days cooped up in a bathroom stall with his endless supply of acid. Escaping into the recesses of his mind, he wrestles with his own thoughts for control over his life. “Wrestling” is perhaps an overstatement. The gameplay of What Happened is as mundane as it gets. You run down an endless stream of corridors, spurred on by Stiles’ intrusive thoughts. When you’re not running, you’re opening drawers and checking corners for whatever key items you need to advance. The game’s horror-tinged adventuring is hopelessly generic, and isn’t conducive to the narrative at hand. Objective after objective, but there’s no indication as to why you do anything you do. The nightmare that is the education system. Mental imagery Puzzles are equally simple — their difficulty a result of What Happened’s vague directions. Prompts that fail to appear and no way to highlight interactables amplified my frustration. Every puzzle is a lull in the experience that has you trialing dozens of door knobs in hopes that one will put you back on track. The attempt is admirable, but the execution is lacking. The gameplay and Stiles’ internal struggle are almost always at odds. And when its horror steps up to the plate, awkward enemy encounters and drab level design ruin what could’ve been powerful story beats. Where What Happened shines is in its cinematography; its gameplay is just a vehicle to get to the next cutscene or visual-focused set piece. There’s special attention put on the mise en scène. Every prop is placed with purpose, and contributes to overall tone of the game. It’s a shame that What Happens shines brightest when the gameplay itself plays second fiddle to the visuals. The lighting itself is occasionally an enemy of the gameplay, choosing to spotlight scene centerpieces over important objectives. Classroom celebrations are embarrassing. Groundhog Day Progress in What Happened is a mystery as confounding as the game’s permanent mouse smoothing. You just meander your way through set piece after set piece. All this while Stiles’ incessant thought vomit clogs up your hearing holes. It’s never clear whether there’s an hour left, or 10. Like a hamster on a wheel, you’re just running with no goal in mind, and no end in sight. Just when you think Stiles’ story is close to its end, What Happened gets its second wind, then its third. It has me conflicted. There seems to be no middle ground between mesmerizing storytelling and faux-artistic nonsense. On the one hand, I want more of the game’s environments and genuinely impressive cinematography — for the sense pleasure, if anything. On the other, with every new set piece, the game continues to water itself down. The game could have wrapped up so many times, but instead, What Happened continues to dilute its story. So much padding just to add on a few razor-thin layers of depth. Things that have already been strongly implied or adequately explored, continue being dug up. To hell and back, then back again. A picture is worth a thousand words What Happened isn’t even a particular lengthy game; it is, at most, a six-hour trek. Beyond an already frustrating puzzling experience, there is no respite from the mountain of dialogue that fill in every single virtual crack in this game. English is not developer Genius Slackers’ primary language, but, with that in mind, What Happened’s writing is fairly strong. There are moments where it’s (overly) flowery language contribute greatly to certain narrative beats. However, the game has a tendency to not let its pithy punchlines breathe. Rather than let its visuals do the heavy lifting, the heaps of unnecessary dialogue are more annoying than insightful. There’s an ever-increasing dissonance between player and character. The borderline pretentious writing, with enough angst to make even the edgiest teenager tap out, reaches laughable levels. This has adverse effects on the experience — this subject is no laughing matter. Everything evaporates from your mind the second after it happens. It’s a trippy ride devoid of any meaning. In an effort to drive home how deep and thoughtful What Happens is, it pushes too far and sullies its message. The lukewarm voice acting compounds the problem, with Stiles’ tone missing the mark at almost every turn. Again, for English as a second language, it is still serviceable. Dear diary, today I solved some puzzles. Odds and ends The cherry on top of What Happened’s odd design is the decision to make the options menu inaccessible during gameplay. Key spots in the environment hog all the light sources, and I found myself in dire need of the brightness slider. Unfortunately, to access anything, you need to in the main menu for reasons unknown. To add insult to injury, the game features no FOV slider nor an option to disable motion blur. With the constant barrage of colors and imagery assaulting the player’s eyes, it’s certainly an oversight. And, that permanent mouse smoothing — another strange touch. Mental health awareness is a worthy cause, and What Happened tries its best to represent a very real, very difficult battle. In its quest for depth and detail, it forgets about brevity. The game is two hours too long, repeating familiar narrative beats like a broken record. Its horror-infused puzzle solving seldom captures Stiles’ internal conflict — its diverse visuals being far more potent. More often than not, What Happened is a better sight-seeing trip than it is an exploration of anxiety and depression. System Requirements: MINIMUM: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS : 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Processor : Intel core i3 4160 / AMD Ryzen 3300x Memory : 8 GB RAM Graphics : GeForce GTX 750 Ti / AMD Radeon R9 270x DirectX : Version 11 Storage : 17 GB available space Sound Card : DirectX® 11.0 compatible Additional Notes : Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system ----------------------- RECOMMENDED: Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system OS : 64-bit Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 Processor : Intel Core i5-6500 (3.2 GHz) / AMD Ryzen 5 1600 Memory : 8 GB RAM Graphics : GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 470 DirectX : Version 11 Storage : 17 GB available space Sound Card : DirectX® 11.0 compatible Additional Notes : Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system

Driving in to get clean can involve more than just putting the car into neutral on cars loaded with automatic braking, rain-sensing wipers, and safety tech. Thanks to current safety technology, simply putting your car in Neutral for the carwash isn't as simple as it used to be, and sometimes it's tricky to find the right way to get your car through an automatic carwash. A list on a carwash industry news site shows the problem affects models from across the industry, but usually the higher-trim vehicles with more safety sensors. The solution, as it so often does, lies in double-checking your manual or owner website for the precise solution. Or hand-washing your car, of course. Some experts suggest never taking your car through a carwash, citing the possible damage caused by abrasive cleaning tools. Many drivers suggest those experts should come over with a sponge and bucket, then, because driving through a carwash is easier and takes only a few minutes. We're fans of detailing cars ourselves when possible but understand it's also a good thing to drive through the tunnel with the spinning brushes. Different kinds of carwashes pose different potential problems for your car. Soft-cloth carwashes can damage items that stick out from the car, like loose trim or side mirrors, for example. But not every car fares equally well in automatic carwashes, especially the kinds that drag a car set to the neutral gear through the brushes. An archived article on the Carwash.com industry news site notes a number of models that have particular challenges with the neutral setting, making it clear that owners of vehicles five years old or younger need to learn how to prep them for a ride through the carwash. "There are several models of vehicles [where] there is no provision for the car to be in neutral with the engine off, and that presents a problem," the COO of Autobell Car Wash, Carl Howard, told Carwash.com in 2016. "In those cases, we have had to actually put the customer in that car and change our operation a little bit." We did not get a response from Carwash.com about an updated list of problem vehicles, but the larger problem these days is that some modern advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) will prevent a car from moving forward because it thinks it might hit an object, and the automatic rain-sensing wipers may engage when you least want them to. Starting in 2015, the list noted that the 2015 Acura TLX and some Lincolns and Lexus hybrids, among other examples, need to be turned off in exactly the right way to make sure the car stays in neutral long enough for the car to be moved through the carwash. On some models, drivers need to turn off dynamic cruise control functions to get the car through correctly; on others, such as newer Subarus, you may need to shut off the controls for pre-collision braking, auto vehicle hold, and automatic wipers individually before you enter the carwash. New Volvos with Auto Hold Braking as part of their Pilot Assist technology suite will automatically engage the brakes after three seconds of not moving. This feature makes sense in most situations, such as keeping the vehicle from rolling down a hill, but not at a carwash. That was an issue as recently as 2017, but on newer models, Volvo has updated the technology so that it doesn't trigger when the car is in N now. Best of all may be the Mercedes-Benz GLS-class, which has a one-step "carwash mode" selector on 2020 and newer models. You can't count on knowing what works for every car these days, so check your vehicle manual for any specific instructions related to using drive through car washes. In fact, bottom line: Don't drive into a carwash before you've checked your owner's manual and made sure you know the protocol that will keep your car safe while it's getting clean.

Gusts of more than 80mph have been recorded as Storm Bella is continuing to bring heavy rain and high winds to large parts of the UK. The Met Office has issued an Amber warning for wind - meaning disruption is likely - for much of the south coast of England and parts of Wales. On Saturday evening a gust of 83mph was recorded at Aberdaron, in north Wales. Yellow warnings for rain are in place across much of the UK, as well as two "threat to life" flood notices. Heavy rain has already caused flooding in Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire over the Christmas period. Residents in 1,300 homes by the River Great Ouse in Bedfordshire were advised to move out following high water levels on Christmas Day. Severe flood warnings remain in place in Northamptonshire for the River Nene, at Billing Aquadrome - where more than 1,000 people were evacuated on Christmas Day because of flooding - and at Cogenhoe Mill Caravan Site. Elsewhere, in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, council officials have been providing sandbags for those at risk of flooding due to heavy rain, after more than 70 homes were without power on Christmas Day when an electricity substation flooded. And up to 40 homes were flooded on Christmas Eve in Witney, Oxfordshire, where the Environment Agency has warned that river levels are still rising. The Met Office's amber weather warning for parts of Wales and the south coast of England says travel could be disrupted on Sunday morning. It also warned that flying debris could cause injury or be a risk to life, and buildings could be damaged in the storm. Further yellow weather warnings for wind and rain are in place across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and northern Scotland into Sunday, indicating 60mph winds are likely across the country. Storm Bella is the second period of severe weather to be officially named by the UK's Met Office this winter. Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick urged people to check government advice from bodies such as from the Environment Agency, which asked people to keep away from "swollen rivers and flooded land". A statement on its website said: "It is often deeper than it looks and just 30cm of flowing water is enough to float your car."

The same ease of charging Tesla has had for nearly a decade is coming to other EV networks near you, and we were among the first to try it while testing the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E. Plug and Charge is a new way of automating payment for EV charging, bringing Tesla-style convenience to people who drive something other than Teslas—for instance, the 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E. The Plug and Charge protocol tells the charging station what kind of EV you're plugging in and conveniently bills you. We were inadvertently among the first U.S. drivers to try it out earlier in December. Suppose every time you went to buy gas, you needed a phone app or an RFID fob—and you had to be pre-enrolled with the brand. Drive in, validate the pump, and then learn how much you'd pay for your gasoline. No fob or app? You’d have to call a toll-free number to provide credit-card info over the phone. That's pretty much how electric-car charging works today, for everyone but Tesla drivers. Some EV drivers carry up to six swipe cards, fobs, or phone apps for different networks along their travel routes. There's a better way—and as early as 2012, Tesla showed the U.S. how to do it. You just drive in, plug in to charge, and any billing happens on the back end. That's how it should be, and the company's high-speed Supercharger network now lets you drive a Tesla almost anywhere in the lower 48 states. Like Apple, though, Tesla has the advantage of a closed ecosystem: Only Teslas can charge at Tesla Supercharger sites. The company controls both sides of the transaction. Eight years later, the rest of the EV world—dozens of separate EVs, all of which may charge on dozens of different networks—has started to catch up. Accidental Pioneer Entirely by accident, I may have been the first civilian in the U.S. to experience the future of EV charging. Earlier in December, I drove 480 miles in four days showing a 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E test car to friends and EV drivers. On one trip, I stopped at an Electrify America DC fast-charging station. The machine told me to plug in first, so I inserted its 150-kW–capable connector into the charge port on the Mach-E's left front fender. Lo and behold: I watched the machine quickly identify the car, validate the charge, and start the current flowing. No fob, no app, no toll-free number to call. The magic behind this mundane transaction is the Plug and Charge protocol, which identifies an EV to a charging station. The charging network then validates the car with its maker, which provides billing information that starts the charging. The system I used, all software invisible to me, is similar (but not identical) to a European Plug and Charge protocol already in use by drivers of several EVs on the pan-European Ionity network and others. Half a dozen car brands funded Ionity to make long-distance EV travel practical and seamless through more than a dozen European countries. Plugging in a car and having it charge automatically doesn't sound like much, but the software integration and validation to make it happen are surprisingly complex. Electrify America, for instance, tests dozens of charging stations for compatibility with dozens of the latest electric cars—including prototype EVs in camouflage brought in closed trailers to its test labs in Vienna, Virginia. Plug and Charge is rolling out in the newest generations of EVs sold in the U.S. The Mustang Mach-E and the 2021 Porsche Taycan both started shipping to dealers during December. I guess it's possible some Taycan owner beat me by a day or two, and, if so, I bet that person was just as pleased with the newfound simplicity as I am.

A boat accident on Lake Albert on the border of Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo has left at least 26 people dead. A "strong wind" caused the vessel to go under water, a local official told AFP news agency. Dozens of people were on board and at least 21 people were rescued, Ashraf Oromo said. A marine officer said poor safety and fast-changing weather meant accidents were common on the lake. The boat was travelling between two locations on the Ugandan side on Wednesday when strong winds blew up and it capsized. Rescuers did not expect to find any more survivors, Mr Oromo said. However, local media quoted the chief of the locality who suggested that the search was ongoing Both Congolese and Ugandan nationals were on the boat and were among the victims, Mr Tchovidong said. "Because of failure to adhere to safety measures and fast-changing weather patterns, Lake Albert has many accidents," regional police marine officer Samuel Onyango told AFP. One official said that many of the victims were trying to return illegally to the Democratic Republic Congo (DRC) to avoid the coronavirus restrictions that have stopped most traffic between the DRC and Uganda, according to the Associated Press news agency. Vital Adubanga, president of the Wangongo chiefdom in eastern Congo's Ituri province, said that night boats were prohibited but the ban was frequently ignored. Many of those on board were traders attempting to reach a weekly market, Mr Adubanga as well as Ugandan website The Daily Monitor said. Lake Albert, which is Africa's seventh-largest lake, has been the scene of considerable loss of life in previous boat accidents. In 2014, more than 250 refugees died when a vessel capsized while carrying far more people than its capacity. And in another Christmas accident, in 2016, 30 members of a Ugandan football team drowned on the lake when a boat sank.

DH1 DH2

Welcome To NewLifeZm , Enjoy .

DH2, rhythm + melody .

Game Informations. Developers : Ovid Works. Publisher : All in! Games. Released : Aug 12, 2020. Genre : Adventure, Action. Mode : Single-player. Platforms : Microsoft Windows - PlayStation 4 - Xbox One - Nintendo Switch. One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transposed into a video game adaptation of Franz Kafka’s oft-referenced The Metamorphosis. While the game has very little to do with its source material, it certainly has a great many charms. The visuals are excellent, the sense of scale is wonderfully executed, and the events on display are typically amusing. Still, the game can feel a bit rote, plus it’s rather short and the narrative fizzles out unsatisfactorily. Regardless, there’s plenty to enjoy about Metamorphosis, provided you know what you’re getting into. Out of the bed and into the drawers Although Metamorphosis is very upfront about where it draws inspiration from, it hardly resembles the famous story from where its name is taken. While Kafka’s story begins with Gregor Samsa waking up in his bed to find that he has transformed into a gigantic insect, this doesn’t happen in the game. Instead, Gregor gets out of bed as I’d imagine he does every day. In the first couple of minutes, everything appears to be perfectly standard. But it doesn’t take long for him to shrink into a tiny insect. The narrative of Metamorphosis focuses on Gregor being led to the headquarters of an organization called Tower. He’s told it’s the only way to become human again. The early part of the game takes place in the home of his friend Josef and Gregor even tries to get his attention. Josef is being hounded by two police officers for unspecified reasons, but Gregor has to focus on getting to Tower. The majority of the story sees him figuring out the way there and acquiring the documentation that will allow him inside. The dialogue is well-written and the story itself is fairly engaging, even if many of the tasks you’re meant to accomplish for progress’ sake can seem a tad bit perfunctory. Metamorphosis takes you to some very interesting places, including the law office of an elderly lawyer, a large bug city, and Tower itself. But the story ends anticlimactically, unfortunately. There are two endings that you can select via an enduringly po[CENSORED]r binary choice mechanic. But both endings are too brief and don’t do much to hammer home the game’s themes or put a satisfying conclusion on Gregor’s tale. The game honestly just feels fairly rushed, with a major late-game event being treated as a “That’s it?” punchline more than anything else. Crawling on all fours I’m reluctant to refer to Metamorphosis as a walking simulator, but that’s basically what it is. However, that label alone doesn’t give it enough credit. You could get away with referring to it as a guided puzzle-platformer as well. The game is played from a first-person perspective and you can typically see your front legs. Since you’re a bug, you move like one too. Gregor can jump fairly high and walk up steep inclines. The controls are mostly tight and the game does a very good job of making you feel like a bug. You’ll also be able to walk in various pools of liquid that grant you the ability to walk up walls or objects by holding down a button. You can’t walk upside down, though. There are some puzzles to be found in Metamorphosis but they’re typically very simple. For the most part, you’ll be using your legs to move contraptions backwards and forwards. There are a few more literal puzzles, but they’re extremely infrequent. The platforming is quite solid, though. The game’s most frequent challenge is that you’ll need to navigate the environment by carefully jumping on things to get around. These sections are certainly enjoyable, despite the game being in first-person. Most of the time, however, you’re going to simply be heading from Point A to Point B.You can press the tab key at any time, which will zoom out and show you the entire area you’re in. The place you’re meant to go is then highlighted for you and you just need to figure out how to get there. Because of the way the camera zooms out, it can be a bit difficult to tell which direction to head in. In larger areas, navigating can be obnoxious due to this. Do all the things! It doesn’t help matters that most of the game feels like a series of fetch quests. You need to get a thing in order to progress. Naturally, this means you have to talk to other bugs, find one that needs a favor, do a separate task for them, and then you’ll get to move on. A solid two-thirds of Metamorphosis focuses on these sorts of jobs. But at least many of the situations and locations are unique and interesting enough to keep the game palatable. For instance, at one point you need to get a certificate. You go to a lawyer’s office to acquire it, only to have to take a detour into a bug night club on your way. Afterward, you then have to go deep into the lawyer’s desk. All of the game’s locations are po[CENSORED]ted with other bugs, many of whom you can talk to. They’ve frequently got amusing things to say too, so they’re well worth interacting with. The world of Metamorphosis are what steals the show in the end, though. While the game is far from a state-of-the-art marvel, the environments all look excellent. Everything is suitably cartoony, yet twisted and Burton-eque. Everything has a real sense of place and a praiseworthy attention to detail that makes the world a joy to inhabit. And the game really makes you feel tiny as you walk by huge books and pieces of machinery. One area has papers flying through the air. If you fall, you’ll land on one and it’ll drop you right where you were before. Change (in the house of flies) Metamorphosis is an entertaining experience. It controls well, looks great, and has a story that’ll hold your attention. However, the plot that doesn’t really go anywhere and the overall lazy conclusion dulls the experience. Plus, it’s extremely short. It’s easy to complete the game in two-and-a-half hours or so, of which I couldn’t help but be disappointed. I think the game is worth a look due to the zany world and dreamlike visuals, but don’t expect it to keep you busy for long. System Requirements: OS : Windows 7 Processor : Intel Core i5 (2nd gen) or AMD FX 6350 Memory : 8 GB RAM Graphics : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD R9 270X Storage : 12 GB available space ----------------------- RECOMMENDED: OS : Windows 10 Processor : Intel Core i5 (4th gen) or AMD Ryzen 5 Memory : 8 GB RAM Graphics : NVIDIA GeForce 970 or AMD RX 570 Storage : 12 GB available space

A dealer source tells us that the Land Cruiser will be gone next year, but it's likely to make a triumphant return sometime soon. The Toyota Land Cruiser won't return to the U.S. market for the 2022 model year, according to a dealer source. It may return later on in redesigned form, but we don't know how long of a hiatus it will take. The 2021 model year will be the last for the current 200-series model. Earlier this year, a rumor surfaced that the Toyota Land Cruiser, beloved behemoth and longtime owner of the Fanciest Toyota title, was getting axed after the 2021 model year. Since we prefer not to fan unverified Internet rumors, we refrained from jumping into the fracas on that one until we could get some confirmation—which, of course, was unforthcoming from Toyota. But now we've spoken with a partner in a large dealer franchise who confirmed that 2021 is the end of the trail for Toyota's iconic SUV. But, thankfully, maybe not for long. "It's gone for 2022, but I think it'll be back soon, and way more modern and luxurious," he told us. The current Land Cruiser—the 200-series, in Cruiser parlance—dates to the 2008 model year and is (over)due for major improvements, especially on the fuel-economy front, where its 14 mpg EPA combined rating is doing Toyota's fleet average no favors. Toyota also has a habit of dropping nameplates and reviving them later on, and not always at multi-decade intervals like the Supra. The Venza went on a walkabout in 2015 and returned for 2021, and we'd suspect that the Land Cruiser won't be gone for six years. One reason for the decision would appear to stem from sales, or lack thereof. In 2019, Toyota sold 3536 Land Cruisers, which represents a 9.7-percent sales increase over 2018 but still amounts to a rounding error for a company that sold about 2.4 million vehicles in each of the prior two years. Still, if we modestly estimate that Toyota makes $10,000 per Land Cruiser—and, given the age of the platform and the shared Tundra engine, we'd suspect it's much more than that—$35 million a year isn't a bad take for a niche vehicle. But if the Land Cruiser is to become more than a niche player, it needs a wholesale overhaul. Do we see an 300-series with a hybrid powertrain ambling over a pass out there on the horizon? Let's hope so. And let's hope the Land Cruiser isn't gone for as long as the Supra (or the Bronco, for that matter). A redesign can be exciting, but everybody loves a comeback.

US President Donald Trump has pardoned former campaign manager Paul Manafort, ex-adviser Roger Stone and the father of Trump's son-in-law. Manafort was convicted in 2018 in an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Trump has previously commuted the prison sentence of Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress. They are among 29 people to benefit from Mr Trump's latest clemency spree before he leaves office next month. Twenty-six of them received full pardons while another three received commutations. A commutation usually takes the form of a reduced prison term, but does not erase the conviction or imply innocence. A pardon is an expression of the president's forgiveness that confers extra privileges such as restoring the convict's right to vote or serve on juries. His pardon for Manafort spared his former campaign chairman from serving most of his seven-and-a-half year prison term for financial fraud and conspiring to obstruct the investigation into him. He had been serving his term under home confinement since being released from federal prison in May over fears of coronavirus, but is now a free man. The grateful political operative responded by tweeting: "Mr President, my family & I humbly thank you for the Presidential Pardon you bestowed on me. Words cannot fully convey how grateful we are." Another pardon went to Charles Kushner, a real estate magnate who is the father of Ivanka Trump's husband, Jared Kushner, a White House adviser. Kushner Snr - whose family boasts a portfolio of 20,000 properties from New York to Virginia - was sentenced to two years in prison in 2004 for charges including tax evasion, campaign finance offences and witness tampering. The witness tampering charge arose from Kushner Snr's retaliation against his brother-in-law, who was co-operating with authorities against him. Kushner Snr hired a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law, recorded their encounter and sent it to his own sister. Former Trump adviser Chris Christie, who as a New Jersey prosecutor jailed Kushner Snr, told CNN it was "one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes" he had come across. It was the president's second wave of clemency orders in as many days. On Tuesday night he pardoned 15 people and gave commutations to five others. They included two other figures who were convicted in the US special counsel inquiry into alleged Russian election interference, three ex-Republican members of Congress, and four Blackwater military contractors who were involved in a 2007 massacre in Iraq. In November, Mr Trump pardoned former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was also convicted in the special counsel's Russia inquiry. Mr Flynn had admitted lying to the FBI before attempting to retract his guilty plea. Special counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month inquiry concluded in May last year that it could not determine Mr Trump or any of his aides had conspired with the Kremlin to sway the 2016 election in his favour. The president regularly condemned the investigation as a witch hunt and he has now pardoned five figures convicted as a result of that probe.

The one-off Supra Sport Top is based on the big-winged Heritage Edition from last year's show and has two removable roof panels that are stored in the trunk. Toyota built a one-off 2021 Supra Sport Top for the virtual SEMA show this year, based on the Heritage Edition from last year's show. A shop in Fort Worth, Texas, cut off the roof, and Toyota's North America R&D center in Michigan provided 3D-printed roof panels. The Supra Sport Top is powered by a 3.0-liter inline six with a modified factory turbo. Toyota built a one-off 2021 Supra Sport Top, which is essentially a targa-top variant, for the virtual SEMA aftermarket trade show this year. The car pays homage to the open-roof A80 Supras of the 1990s. When asked if the build should get our hopes up for a coming open-top variant for the current-gen Supra, which is a 2021 10Best winner, Toyota told Car and Driver that it's "just an awesome one-off concept. Nothing forward-looking to announce." The Supra Sport Top is based on the Heritage Edition that was shown at SEMA last year, huge wing and all, but KC's Paint Shop in Fort Worth, Texas, chopped off the roof, while the two contoured roof panels, which can be stored in the trunk, were 3D printed at Toyota Motor North America R&D headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The team in Plano, Texas, added the latches and clamps and also reinforced the body to account for the roof loss. Additionally, the paint shop finished off the custom bodywork and coated the Supra in a paint mix to match the factory option Absolute Zero white. It's equipped with round taillights, 19-inch HRE wheels wrapped in Toyo Proxes rubber, and Brembo brakes. A turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six sourced from BMW powers the Supra, and for the 2021 model year it produces 382 horsepower and 368 pound-feet of torque, up 47 horsepower and 3 pound-feet from the 2020 model. The more powerful Supra 3.0 launched to 60 mph in 3.8 seconds in our testing and raced through the quarter-mile in 12.1 seconds at 117 mph. A Toyota spokesperson explained that the Sport Top “doesn’t go as extreme as the Heritage Edition,” for “the kind of customer that simply wants to bolt things on, in this case, a downpipe and a full exhaust.” It doesn't have the Heritage Edition's modified factory turbo, though it has a dual center-exit exhaust and a more efficient rear diffuser. We hope that Toyota eventually adds a removable-roof option to the fifth-generation Supra, mostly because we want to amplify the cracks and pops of the exhaust without suffering from its buffeting with the windows down. That's only one of our few gripes with the new Supra, though. This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

The body of Karima Baloch, a Pakistani human rights activist, has been found in Toronto, Canada, where she had been living for five years in exile. Ms Baloch, 37, a campaigner from the restive region of Balochistan in western Pakistan, was a vocal critic of the Pakistani military and state. Toronto police issued an appeal after she went missing on Sunday and later confirmed that her body had been found. Police said there were "not believed to be any suspicious circumstances". In 2016, Ms Baloch was named in the BBC's annual list of 100 inspirational and influential women for her work as a campaigner. She left Pakistan in 2015, after terrorism charges were levelled against her. She continued to campaign in exile for the rights of people in Balochistan, both on social media and in person. And the threats followed her, according to Lateef Johar Baloch, a close friend and fellow activist who also lives in Toronto. He told the BBC that Ms Baloch had recently received anonymous threats warning someone would send her a "Christmas gift" and "teach her a lesson". Ms Baloch's sister told the BBC Urdu service on Tuesday that her death was "not only a tragedy for the family, but also for the Baloch national movement". "She didn't go abroad because she wanted to, but because... open activism in Pakistan had become impossible," Mahganj Baloch said. Balochistan province has been host to a long-running separatist insurgency. Ms Baloch was a well-known activist in the region; she was the first female head of the Baloch Students' Organisation (BSO) - a banned activist group. Her first public exposure as an activist was in 2005, in Balochistan's Turbat area, where she attended a protest over missing persons carrying the picture of one of her missing relatives. Activists in Balochistan say thousands of campaigners have gone missing in recent years. The Pakistani military denies accusations that it's brutally suppressing the region's aspirations for autonomy. Several members of Baloch's extended family had been linked to the Baloch resistance movement over the years, and two of her uncles - a brother of her mother and a brother of her father - had gone missing. Their dead bodies were later found. She rose to the head of the BSO in 2006, but many of the group's activists were either "disappeared" or went into hiding in the following years, and in 2013 the government banned the group. Baloch went into exile in 2015 after terrorism charges were filed against her. After relocating to Toronto she married a fellow activist, Hamal Baloch. She remained active in exile both on social media and in human rights activities in Canada and Europe. Reacting to the news of Baloch's death, the Balochistan National Movement (BNM) announced a 40-day mourning period.

Game Informations. Developers : Kyle Thompson. Publisher : Kyle Thompson. Released : Aug 26, 2020. Genre : Action, Platformer, 2D. Mode : Single-player. Platforms : Microsoft Windows. Sometimes less is more. Sure, it’s plenty of fun to farm enemies for rare drops and hit walls while hoping for secrets, but there’s a lot to love about a game that has no issue with cutting all the fat. Sheepo only takes a few hours to complete, but its difficulty is so finely-balanced and its pacing is so tight and focused that I wouldn’t want it longer. I even liked the complete absence of combat. If you’re in the market for an extremely lean, yet enjoyable, Metroid-like then look no further. Sheepo‘s premise is simple. You’re a sheep of some sort and you’re also an astronaut! You’ve been sent out on an assignment to touch down on a planet and collect six eggs containing the future offspring of some native creatures. You’re instructed by someone on a walkie-talkie. Where the sheep is keeping the walkie-talkie and how the walkie-talkie even works over such a long distance is beyond me. Must be a sheep thing. You’ll come across occasional NPCs, too. There are a shop and an art gallery, plus inhabitants out in the field. Most of them are birds and a couple of them muse that you’re certainly the strangest bird they’ve laid eyes upon. They’re definitely not wrong. The dialogue is silly and entertaining. There isn’t a ton of it, but what’s here is well written and charming. Sheepo‘s visuals are much the same. The game is simple but colorful with a very chill aesthetic. Safe in my skin When I said that Sheepo had no combat, I meant it. Well, mostly. You have no attacks whatsoever. Which is all well and good, as there are typically no enemies. Most of the challenge is based around platforming and boss battles. What? I said “mostly.” The platforming is rather good and very responsive. You’ll typically be jumping from spot to spot, wall-jumping up steep areas, and dodging dangerous spiked traps and the like. Many individual sections remind me of Super Meat Boy, and, while getting through them without getting hit can be challenging, you can take a few hits and the invulnerability time afterward is quite generous, meaning that you can brute force your way through the tougher parts if you’re not up to them. There’s a good variety to the platforming as well. There are two kinds of objects that you can interact with in mid-air. One is just a white orb that allows you to stop upon making contact before picking a direction and launching yourself in it. The other is a blue square whose trajectory is based on which direction you reach it from. One of the biggest hooks in Sheepo is the shapeshifting mechanic, though. Beating a boss will net you one of its eggs. The sheep has an ability where touching an egg just once gives him the ability to briefly transform into that creature whenever he makes contact with one. You’ll see birds around that you can change into in order to briefly fly around. Burrowing worms similarly allow you to tunnel underground. There are four of these and they flow together very well. They also lead to some enjoyable and memorable gameplay sections. Don’t make me hurt you Since you have no offensive abilities in Sheepo, you’ll naturally have to deal with bosses without directly attacking them. For the most part, you simply dodge them. Their attacks are often of the bullet-hell variety and they have unique gimmicks. One boss destroys the ground and leaves a rancid pool of harmful liquid in its place and you have to force it to break every bit of the floor. Another rolls on walls while creating slime before getting closer and closer to you with each additional pass. You do usually kill these bosses, but you do so using their own attacks or by making them harm themselves on the environment. A couple of bosses make use of a homing attack that lodges itself into the walls or floors when it misses you. Just jump above it and aim it at the boss and you’ll send the sucker back where it came from. The boss battles have roughly the same kind of difficulty as the platforming sections do. They can seem tough at first, but it won’t take more than a few tries before you know exactly what to do and get past them without issue. Truthfully, Sheepo nails its difficulty curve in a way that I don’t see all that often. It really does feel just right, challenging enough to keep you paying attention but never so much that sections get old. Everything moves at a steady clip. It’s very much designed to keep you moving as opposed to wasting your time, which I very much appreciated. Save me Saving is handled much like most other Metroid-likes. There are statues all over the place that heal you. At first, you can only take a few hits but there are six heart containers you can find to take two more. Three containers net you a new heart, but I found that having just the one extra hit was the sweet spot. Aside from those few containers, there are feathers you can find all over the game world. These aren’t typically hard to locate but getting them while staying in one piece can be a challenge. Towards the end of the game, they’re all marked on your map. Speaking of which, the map is a simple, grid-based affair that gets the job done. It marks the locations of save points and teleport statues as well. It also designates the different areas with colors. As long as you’re paying attention, it’s hard to get stuck, as you’ll just go back to a square that has an exit you haven’t found. If I have any real complaint about Sheepo, it’s that the level design is actually rather flat and unmemorable. All the locations feel the same, even if they do look different. The platforming and shapeshifting sections stick out, but you’ll be hard-pressed to remember most rooms just by looking at them. For something so hand-crafted, it’s easy to expect landmarks and some more varied areas, but what you see is what you get. Short but sweet There’s a door that’s locked unless you get 100% completion, but even that likely won’t take more than an extra half hour of your time. I beat Sheepo at nearly three hours on the dot, give or take a minute. Its length works well with it, though. There’s practically no padding to be found, just an enjoyable, well-crafted Metroid-like that only wants to entertain you for a little while. The level design may be pedestrian, but everything else is of very high quality. I can certainly see myself playing through this one again. Who wouldn’t like a shapeshifting sheep, anyway? System Requirements: MINIMUM: OS : Windows 7 or Newer Processor : Intel Core i3 M380 Memory : 2 GB RAM DirectX : Version 5.2 Storage : 500 MB available space

Australian states and territories have begun enforcing entry bans on Sydney residents amid a growing coronavirus outbreak in the nation's largest city. The border closures outside New South Wales (NSW) have dashed Christmas plans and family reunions for many people. Airlines cancelled several flights leaving Sydney Airport on Monday, following a midnight deadline. The city has recorded 83 cases so far in this outbreak, all linked to Sydney's Northern Beaches region. Speaking from Canberra on Monday, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "2020 is not done with us yet." "The events of the past few days... are incredibly frustrating and disappointing for people all around the country who had plans in place to get together and move in between states." However, he and others welcomed the dip in new case numbers reported on Monday. NSW state authorities recorded 15 new infections - half the previous day's numbers - out of a record 38,000 tests conducted in 24 hours. Many viewed the numbers as encouraging that the virus had not spread further beyond the Northern Beaches, which is subject to a local lockdown. But authorities warned that one day's results were not enough to determine a trend. "Obviously, we have halved the number of cases overnight, but in a pandemic, there is a level of volatility, so we'll closely monitor what happens," said NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian. he said it was too early to tell whether wider restrictions for the city's five million residents would ease in time for Christmas. Australia - currently seeing all but no cases outside Sydney - has become known for its swift and aggressive response to outbreaks this year. In Sydney, indoor gatherings have been limited to 10 guests, and all residents have been told to minimise their social activity and to wear a mask in public spaces. Those living in the Northern Beaches will remain in lockdown until at least Wednesday. On Sunday, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory announced bans on Sydney residents entering their state, adding to bans in other places. Those states' residents were told to return within a 12-hour window or face 14 days in quarantine upon arriving home. Anticipation of these orders prompted an exodus from Sydney on the weekend, with many residents leaving the city before the border shutdowns. Australia so far has recorded 908 deaths and 28,200 cases in the pandemic - a level far lower than seen in many other nations. The country took early decisions to close the nation's borders and mandate hotel quarantine for returning travellers from overseas. But experts have also credited its success on states acting quickly to lock down hotspot areas and conduct rapid contact tracing and testing processes.