G R 4 V E N ⵣ

It's fair to say Kia played a bit of a blinder in the early days of the industry-wide race to build mainstream EVs. In fact few if any manufacturers pounced on the electrification shake-up quite as well. In 2018, ahead of the competition, it introduced the e-Niro crossover, which with almost 300 miles of range, solid ergonomics, surprisingly serious performance and very canny pricing, quickly became the best all-rounder EV sensible money could buy. Sure, it wasn't the most polished product, but it was probably good enough to be considered the brand’s very first class leader. Now that others are catching up, Kia has decided the most effective way forward is probably not to go upmarket (although if you do want to do that, the new 4+ trim level for the e-Niro is worth investigating), where illustrious names such as Mercedes and Polestar lurk. Instead, it has extended the e-Niro range downwards, chiefly by shrinking the car’s lithium ion battery pack from 64kWh to 39kWh, the main consequence of which is to drop the claimed range by 102 miles to 180 miles. This new entry-level model is simply as known as the e-Niro '2', and its arrival is timely. That's because the government recently decided to drop the upper price limit for cars eligible for its £2500 plug-in grant from £50,000 to £35,000. It means the 39kWh 2 is the only model in the e-Niro range to qualify, because it costs £30,345, whereas the e-Niro 3, now without any form of subsidy for buyers, costs £37,100 and the 4+ £39,395. However, even though the 2 is now considerably cheaper relative to the rest of range than Kia originally planned, driving range is not the only attribute owners will sacrifice. Power also drops from 201bhp to a more sedate-sounding 132bhp. Interestingly, torque remains the same, at 291lb ft, which is a healthy figure almost equal to what you will find in the new Volkswagen Golf R. Don’t get too excited, though: kerb weight is still mighty for something of the Kia’s modest dimensions, at almost 1700kg, and the 9.8sec 0-62mph time looks ponderous at best. Alongside the cheaper battery, what also helps the e-Niro 2 to get close to £30,000 is its lower equipment levels compared with the existing 64kWh 3 and 4+ models. Notably, at 8.0in the infotainment touchscreen is smaller and there’s no wireless phone charging, although adaptive cruise control, two-zone climate control, automatic headlights, and a reversing camera are among the amenities still included. Even in its cheapest guise, the e-Niro therefore remains well equipped. What this car doesn’t do, in any real sense, is delight. Without the generous282-mile range of the 64kWh car, you’re left with an ordinary crossover with questionable ride quality, plenty of hard plastics and an appliance-like driving position. In 2018, those were sacrifices plenty of people were willing to make, but in 2021, we have more choice. To its credit, the e-Niro's steering remains reasonably engaging among cars of this ilk, the handling and road-holding is secure, the throttle pleasingly responsive, and the interior is spacious. The range of settings for the regenerative braking also remains usefully broad, and the freewheeling function is very effective. But in truth, with this 39kWh battery the e-Niro’s game-changer status is chamfered away, and even the capacity for 100kW rapid-charging doesn't change that. All that being said, if the smaller battery brings the e-Niro into your purchasing orbit, you should consider it. This car remains a solid stepping-off point into the world of EVs, though the new price-point does also brings uncomfortable competition. Both the Peugeot e-2008 and Volkswagen ID 3 do more to entice at a similar price. And then there's the upcoming Skoda Enyaq, which could well steal the show at in the sub-£35,000 class.

In 1970, Capitol Records’ business was struggling. The Beatles, the company’s top act, were defunct. Hits were scarce among its remaining roster. That year, the company lost $8 million. It needed a saviour, and it found one in Bhaskar Menon, an Indian-born, Oxford-educated executive at EMI, the British conglomerate that was Capitol’s majority owner. He became the label’s new chief in 1971 and quickly turned its finances around, driving a gargantuan hit in 1973 with Pink Floyd’s album “The Dark Side of the Moon.” He later ran EMI’s vast worldwide music operations. Menon, who was also the first Asian man to run a major Western record label, died March 4 at his home in Beverly Hills, California. He was 86. The death was confirmed by his wife, Sumitra Menon. “Determined to achieve excellence, Bhaskar Menon built EMI into a music powerhouse and one of our most iconic global institutions,” Lucian Grainge, the chief executive of Universal Music Group, which owns the Capitol label and EMI’s recorded music business, said in a statement after Menon’s death. Vijaya Bhaskar Menon was born May 29, 1934, to a prominent family in Trivandrum, in south India (now Thiruvananthapuram). His father, K.R.K. Menon, was the finance secretary under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru; the first one-rupee notes issued after India’s independence from Britain bore his signature. Menon’s mother, Saraswathi, knew many of India’s leading classical musicians personally. Menon studied at the Doon School and St. Stephen’s College in India before earning a master’s degree from Christ Church, Oxford. His tutor at Oxford recommended him to Joseph Lockwood, the chairman of EMI, and Menon began working there in 1956. A proud British institution, EMI controlled a wide musical empire, with divisions throughout Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America. While there, Menon assisted the producer George Martin, who later became the Beatles’ chief collaborator. In 1957, Menon joined the Gramophone Co. of India, an EMI subsidiary; he became managing director in 1965 and chairman in 1969. Later in 1969, he was named managing director of EMI International. Capitol, the Los Angeles label that had been home to Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, was reeling from business missteps and declining sales, and EMI installed Menon as its president and chief executive. He slashed Capitol’s artist roster, tightened budgets and pushed for more aggressive promotion of the label’s artists. In 1972, Menon learned that Capitol was at risk of losing the next album by Pink Floyd, which blamed the company for the poor sales of its previous albums in the United States. Menon flew to the South of France, where Pink Floyd was performing and, after an all-night negotiating session, they agreed on a deal. Menon commemorated the terms on a cocktail napkin and brought it back to Capitol’s legal department in Los Angeles, said Rupert Perry, a longtime executive at EMI and Capitol. “The Dark Side of the Moon,” released by Capitol with a huge promotional campaign, was one of the biggest blockbusters in music history; it stayed on Billboard’s album chart for 741 consecutive weeks and has sold more than 15 million copies in the United States alone. Led by Menon, Capitol continued to have success in the 1970s with Bob Seger, Helen Reddy, Steve Miller, Linda Ronstadt, Grand Funk Railroad and others. In 1978, EMI put its music divisions under unified management as EMI Music Worldwide and named Menon chairman and chief executive. He remained in that position until retiring from the music industry in 1990. From 2005-16, he served on the board of directors of NDTV, a news television channel in India. In 2011, an ailing EMI was sold to Sony, which bought its music publishing business, and Universal Music. In some ways, Menon was an outsider in the Southern California music scene. “I was a very unusual and unlikely sort of person to be sent here under those circumstances to take overall executive command of Capitol,” Menon was quoted as saying in “History of the Music Biz: The Mike Sigman Interviews,” a 2016 collection published by the industry magazine Hits. Menon’s wife recalled in a phone interview that when they married, in 1972, Menon told her, “There are only two Indians in LA: Ravi Shankar and me.” She recounted stories of the two men — old friends from India — scouring the city’s exclusive west side in vain for good Indian food. In addition to his wife, Menon is survived by two sons, Siddhartha and Vishnu, and a sister, Vasantha Menon. Although Menon was primarily known as a manager of the business side of the labels he ran, he had the respect of many musicians. In the 2003 documentary “Pink Floyd: The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon,” Nick Mason, the band’s drummer, recalled Menon’s efforts in promoting the band’s breakthrough album, calling him “absolutely terrific.” “He decided he was going to make this work and make the American company sell this record,” Mason said. “And he did.”

Rabat – The National Office of Railways (ONCF) has signed a protocol with Alstom, designating the French company responsible for maintaining the new generation electric locomotives. Following the contract awarded to Alstom Maroc in 2018, for supplying 30 of the latest generation PRIMA M4 electric locomotives, the company has now officially become responsible for their maintenance. This is in addition to trains already maintained through the Alstom – ONCF joint venture MALOCO, further cementing the French company’s role in Moroccan transport sector. “The signing of this protocol consolidates our partnership with the ONCF and reinforces the mutual trust that unites us… We will continue our long-standing partnership with our client and in the country in order to contribute to the development of the Moroccan railway infrastructure” said Nourddine Rhalmi, Chairman and CEO of Alstom Maroc, in a press release. So far 15 PRIMA M4 locomotives have been delivered, ten of which are currently in service for passenger and freight transport. The press release explains that the new PRIMA M4 locomotives have a power of 5.5 MW, with a maximum operating speed of 160 kilometers an hour, and are supplied with 3 kV DC voltage. While Alstom has been signing deals to supply various countries with their first hydrogen-powered trains, the French daily Le Monde reported on Morocco’s potential interest in the vehicle. The French daily quoted director-general of Alstom Morocco, Brahim Soua, who noted that “potential customers have come forward in the United Kingdom, in the Netherlands, in Belgium, in Denmark, in Spain, [and] in Morocco.” Alstom has supplied the North African country with high-speed trains, as well as tram trains in Rabat and Casablanca. The company has provided 66 trams to Rabat, 124 trams to Casablanca, 12 Avelia Euroduplex trains for the high-speed line between Tangier and Casablanca, as well as 50 Prima locomotives. In Morocco, Alstom also produces railway cables and electrical boxes which are sent to its European factories, and then mounted on trains to be sold worldwide.

Mazda’s innovative 2.0-litre ‘SPCCI’ compression-ignition petrol engine has lately come in for its first major mechanical overhaul, and it gets an outing first in the latest model-year Mazda 3 hatchback, as well as in this: the 2021-model-year CX-30 compact crossover hatchback. The engine has had new, reprofiled intake cams, a lowered compression ratio, new pistons and recalibrated control software. It also gets a new 24-volt belt-driven mild hybrid assistance system that Mazda calls M Hybrid, which mostly works to refine performance rather than to boost it significantly, flattening out the petrol engine’s torque curve and enhancing throttle response at low rpm. Even so, the new engine - now dubbed ‘e-SkyActiv X’ - yields an extra 6bhp and 12lb ft of torque when working hardest, and makes for a CO2 emissions saving of between 5- and 11g/km depending on model. In the CX-30, the engine impresses most for low-load cruising refinement, but is also commendable for part-throttle, low- to mid-range responsiveness, which is much better than you might imagine it might be from a petrol engine without a turbo. The 2.0-litre engine responds crisply at all times, but will accelerate from town speeds in 4th and 5th gears very willingly. It remains a bit boomy and coarse when working hard above 4500rpm, but that’s only so noticeable because the engine has such good mechanical manners at other times. It still lacks the zest for the redline you might hope for in an atmospheric petrol engine, sadly; although it certainly seems to run a little more smoothly than it did before when pulling through the middle of the rev range. For everyday fuel economy, expect to average around 45mpg in mixed short- and long-range use. Engine aside, the CX-30 has been left mainly untouched; and so it remains a very pretty, classy and desirable prospect with the perceived cabin quality needed to take on premium-brand compact crossovers like the Audi Q2 head on (and that’s exactly how it’s priced). And those who wouldn’t imagine that a Mazda which keeps that sort of company would stand much chance of success should check the company’s UK registration statistics, which currently confirm the CX-30 as Mazda UK’s best-selling model. It isn’t the most practical car of its kind. Two adult passengers will just about be comfortable in the back; for three kids, it would be a real squeeze. But those in the front will be impressed by the car’s upmarket ambience and solid material feel. Mirror chrome brightwork is used quite sparingly but well; the driving position is mid-way between feeling perched and couched, but likable for it; and the car’s steering wheel has slim spokes and a well-dimensioned rim that you can run through your fingers very pleasingly. The driving experience is one that’s plainly been sweated over, too. Well-weighted and tactile controls are a fine invitation to explore the car’s surprisingly crisp, precise handling. The CX-30 is comfortable but never soft or wallowy; neat, assured and predictable through corners, but never hyper-responsive. A medium-firm ride that can become just a little bit busy at town speeds, and agitated at greater speed over uneven cross-country roads, seems a small and acceptable price to pay. On most surfaces, this is a car that’s a cut above most of its rivals for its simple, understated, everyday brand of driver appeal. If you’re looking for a smart alternative to one of the obvious premium-branded compact crossover players, consider it seriously. This isn’t the kind of jacked-up hatchback to cram family or cargo into, or to take on high business miles in; and it pretty clearly doesn’t represent the greatest value for money available in its particular niche either (this engine's available in lower trim levels from under £27,000). But as a handsome, versatile and quiet-operating compact car for smart private buyers who are generally turned off by the bluff looked and blunt-feeling handling associated with so many crossover options, it should stand out loud and clear.

Paintings by Pablo Picasso, Rene Magritte and Joan Miro as well as Banksy’s tribute to Britain’s National Health Service are among a selection of artworks going under the hammer this month at auction house Christie’s 20th Century Art sale. Held in London on March 23, the auction counts 55 lots, including Picasso’s Femme nue couchée au collier, which has a price estimate of 9 million pounds – 15 million pounds ($12.50 million – $21 million). Another portrait by the Spanish artist, Femme assise dans un fauteuil noir, is seen selling for 6 million – 9 million pounds. Other lots include a self-portrait by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Amedeo Modigliani’s “Portrait du photographe Dilewski” and Andy Warhol’s “Three Self-Portraits”. “It’s all about 20th century art with some 21st century art thrown in as well … The works in the sale are predominantly fresh to market which is what our clients want,” Keith Gill, co-head of the 20th Century Evening Sale, told Reuters. When asked about the impact of Brexit on art sales in London, he added: “As far as we can tell our sales are going from strength to strength”. Game Changer, by elusive British street artist Banksy and depicting a boy playing with a nurse as a superhero rather than Batman and Spiderman, has a price estimate of 2.5 million – 3.5 million pounds. The painting, unveiled last year at University Hospital Southampton, paid tribute to the frontline workers of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) in their fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. Proceeds from the sale will go to the NHS. Christie’s will also hold its Art of the Surreal auction on the same day. Highlights include Rene Magritte’s “Le mois des vendanges”, which has an estimate of 10 million – 15 million pounds and Joan Miro’s “Peinture”, with a price tag of 9 million – 14 million pounds among the 27 lots. ($1 = 0.7203 pounds).

Rabat – Two Moroccan female leaders have been nominated for the Berkeley World Business Analytics Awards in the “Woman of the year” category. The award celebrates individuals who are successful in their field of expertise. Morocco’s Amal El Fallah Seghrouchni, an international expert in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and member of the World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology of UNESCO is one of the nominees. “I am very honored with this nomination for the Berkley World Business Analytics Award, Seghrouchni told state media. Seghrouchni received her Ph.D. from the University Pierre and Marie Curie in the field of Artificial Intelligence. The Fisher Center for Business Analytics (FCBA) organized the Berkeley World Business Analytics Awards for the first time to recognize women who work in innovation ecosystems around the world. FCBA is one of the research centers of the Berkeley Haas School of Business. Ten women will represent the African continent. Sehrouchni expressed satisfaction and pride to be among the nominees, saying that iit is a “great distinction and recognition” not only for her scientific experience but also for her “ethical approach in the field of science and technology and in particular digital and artificial intelligence.” In addition to Seghreouchi, Morocco’s Samira Khamlichi, CEO of WafaCash is also competing in the “Business Analytics projects of the year carried by women” category. Khamilichis Served as the managing director of WafaCash since 2006, specializing in financial services and money transfer. The banker holds a masters in Business Management. She is also a member of several professional organizations such as the General Confederation of Morocco’s Entreprises (CGEM), the professional Association of Financing Companies (APSF), and the Professional Association of Payment Establishments (APEP). The winners of the Berkeley Award are set to receive a Crystal Bear, a symbol of Berkeley University, in recognition of their skills. The winners will also serve as “role models for the youth.” The awards ceremony will take place in October 2021. The ceremony will be in person, but this will depend on the COVID-19 situation.

BMW has shown the final, production-spec version of its new i4 saloon as it gears up to launch the Tesla Model 3 rival three months ahead of schedule. "The decision to launch three months early was easy" according to CEO Oliver Zipse, who outlined how BMW is "picking up the pace" with respect to the electrification of its line-up. Full specifications will be announced in the coming weeks. The i4 will go on sale alongside the i3 electric hatchback, new iX3 mid-sized SUV and iX flagship in BMW's expanding electric line-up. By 2023, the firm will have 12 pure EVs on sale worldwide, with an electric option available in 90% of its current market segments. The i4's production-spec debut comes as BMW unveils a plan to radically overhaul its approach to electric car development from 2025. The 'Neue Klasse' transformation process will see the firm usher in a radically new design approach and place a heightened emphasis on technology and software. A new modular powertrain family will also be introduced, as will more efficient battery technology and greater use of recycled materials in the production process. The final i4 stays true to the design of last year's production-previewing concept, and is clearly visually related to the combustion-engined 4 Series which went on sale late last year. The upcoming 4 Series Gran Coupé will be largely identical to the exclusively four-door i4. Precise technical specs remain under wraps, but we know the range-topping model - likely badged i4 M - will send up to 523bhp to both axles and offer a range of 373 miles. A 0-62mph time of around 4.0secs and top speed of more than 124mph are likely. It is based on a modified version of the CLAR platform which underpins the current 3 Series and 4 Series, accomodating battery packs of up to 80kWh capacity. An entry-level, rear-wheel-drive variant with a smaller battery will also be available, as is the case with the larger iX. The i4 will use BMW's new eighth-generation iDrive operating system, shared with the iX flagship, which allows for over-the-air updates and greatly reduces the number of physical controls in the cabin - though retains the characteristic rotary knob that has been used for every iteration of iDrive since it was introduced 20 years ago.

Even though the Duke of Sussex, Prince Harry, does not live in the UK anymore, and has even snapped association with the royal firm, he still fondly thinks of his mother and remembers her in his own sweet manner. On the occasion of Mother’s Day in the UK on March 14, he had arranged for flowers to be laid on the grave of the late Princess of Wales, as a tribute. According to a report in The Independent, a spokesperson for the Sussexes confirmed this. Princess Diana — who had died in a car accident in Paris in 1997, at the age of 36 only — was laid to rest in Northampton, in the grounds of her family’s home, Althorp House, the outlet mentions. The grave is located “on a tiny island in the middle of a lake”, and is visited by thousands of her fans every year, as well as her sons William and Harry. Harry’s tribute to his mother comes almost a week after his and Meghan Markle’s explosive interview to Oprah Winfrey, in which they had detailed their harrowing experience during their time as senior royals in the UK, and their decision to leave the same. Among other things, Harry had talked about his fears — of how his family was being treated by the tabloids — that of “history repeating itself”, alluding to what had happened to his mother post her divorce, when she was no longer ‘royal’ and did not enjoy the same security. “You know, for me, I’m just really relieved and happy to be sitting here, talking to you with my wife by my side because I can’t begin to imagine what it must’ve been like for [my mother] going through this process by herself all those years ago,” he had said in the interview, adding that he thought his mother would have been “very sad” and “very angry” at the circumstances created for him and his wife, Meghan. It was earlier reported that Prince William’s three children — George, Charlotte and Louis — too, had made sweet cards for their ‘Granny Diana’ on the occasion of Mother’s Day, remembering the iconic global personality for their father, the Duke of Cambridge, even though the kids have never met her.

Rabat – Morocco’s government is determined to continue to strengthen its army with the latest equipment. Emmanuel Levacher, CEO of French group Arquus announced on March 10 that Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR) has ordered 300 VLRA trucks. According to Arquus, VLRA is a “family of light tactical vehicles.” The vehicles feature several assets, including sharing the same all-wheel drive chassis. The vehicles are designed for combat and other military requirements. “VLRA is already in service in numerous countries across the world and is employed in the most demanding theaters of operations,” the group said on the vehicles. Levacher announced that the end of 2020 larjed a “very interesting and promising market of 300 VLRRAs, 4×4 tactical trucs for the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces.” In recent years, Morocco has issued multiple orders of military equipment from its suppliers as part of its plan to strengthen its military equipment and mobilization capabilities. France is among Morocco’s major arms suppliers, in addition to the US and UK. Morocco imports 9.2% of arms from France, according to a recent report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI. The US remains the country’s major supplier of arms (90%), while the UK exports 0.3% of arms to Morocco. The report also identified Morocco among the 40th largest importers of major arms, with the country positioning itself 29th out of 40. Sipri expects Morocco to receive more military equipment in the coming five years if some orders Morocco made are implemented as planned. The latest Global Firepower Index ranked Morocco’s military strength in the 53rd position out of 137 countries across the world. The ranking showed that Morocco climbed three spots from the 2020 ranking.

The Tiguan R is what happens when you apply Mk8 Golf R fundamentals to Volkswagen’s big-selling medium-sized SUV. The 316bhp 2.0-litre motor, seven-speed DSG gearbox, go-faster interior and, yes, the same effective R-Performance Torque Vectoring driveline: all transferred to something roughly 200kg heavier and whose centre-of-gravity is quite a bit higher than the machine it was originally intended for. You can even have a titanium Akrapovic exhaust, to go with the standard-fit 21in wheels, just to remove any doubt that this particular Tiguan is quite a different proposition to its pragmatic rangemates, and a fully fledged R product. But even if you don't have any extras, it's fair to say this car is still the most ambitious Volkswagen SUV since the R50 Touareg of 2008 – the extra-butch one with the 5.0-litre V10 twin-turbo diesel. As for price, the Tiguan R costs around £46,000, and so in like-for-like specification, is £6000 or so more for it than its Golf R cousin. Yes, the R is quite expensive relative to the broader Tiguan range, which starts at less than £25,000. However, £46,000 is still less than you would pay for the entry-level, 242bhp Porsche Macan, which might well be the benchmark in this particular niche but is comfortably outperformed by the Volkswagen on paper, and isn't so generously equipped as standard. That the Tiguan R can, with the help of a launch-control programme, fire itself to 62mph in less than five seconds also makes it quicker than the new Mercedes-AMG GLB 35 – probably its closest rival in character and concept, along with the BMW X2 M35i. The outlier in this clique is Audi’s RS Q3, which with five cylinders and 396bhp is considerably more exotic than the VW, but also costs more than £53,000 even in basic form. Apart from the weight-gain, the other key – and obvious – difference between this car and the Golf R is the fact that, on its extended MQB platform, the Tiguan R really does feel much more commodious inside. But even among its crossover peers, the Tiguan has always been spacious, and our test car's optional panoramic roof only adds to the cabin's breezy atmos. It feels a large car even at a standstill. However, despite the new digital displays, it also feels a little dated inside, going as the Tiguan does off an older version of Volkswagen’s interior-design manual. And while the cabin has plenty of sporting R touches, there’s no escaping the thoroughly unsporting architecture, either. Despite their SUV status, several rivals still manage to cosset their occupants, while the Tiguan is laid out for practicality above all else and there's nothing the R treament can do about that. The driving position is therefore conspicuously upright, being commanding but not very engaging, and where the GLB 35 or Macan owner will find themselves feeling hunkered-down behind the dashboard to some extent, that's not the case in the Volkswagen. There’s also the strange juxtaposition of having both an ‘R’ button on the steering wheel, to ramp up the driving modes into something very aggressive indeed, and also the Active Control dial on the transmission tunnel, to set the driveline up for going off-road. The mixture sounds quite fun, I’ll admit, and you'll find a similar combination inside both the Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus. Still, similar to the combination of tall driving position and Alcantara-clad semi-bucket seats, this is just another reminder that the performance SUV sector has never been anything if not contradictory. See also the Tiguan R's aggressively open-worked front bumper, through which you can see a trio of meaty radiators, set against the car's overwhelmingly family-minded, two-box proportions. It's all a little unnatural, though that isn't unique to this Tiguan. And, of course, you might like all that, as plenty of people do. In which case you'll be glad to hear that, on the road, the Tiguan R has then several notable virtues that quickly become apparent, as well as some limitations. Unlike the Golf R, the adaptive DCC dampers are standard-fit, and ride-quality is one of those virtues, despite the R's 10mm drop in ride height compared to the regular Tiguan. The chassis is simply less prone to crashing over rougher surfaces than that of its lower-riding Golf R cousin, yet it sacrifices almost nothing in the way of control until you begin to properly up the ante. The hottest Tiguan is quite distinctive in this way, because despite its added suppleness, its everyday manner still comes over as more serious and uncompromising than those of its many rivals, who sometimes allow you to forget you're driving a full-on performance derivative. The Volkswagen doesn't do that, instead translating the behaviour and taut feel of a hot-hatch to something larger in every direction – just with a little extra give. And like the Golf R, the Tiguan R is damnably fast – more so, it can often seem, than the Golf, though this is due to the faint feeling of precariousness imparted by the higher driving position, rather than real pace, and so is not always that enjoyable. In Sport and Race mode, alongside impressively little turbo turbo-lag for a stressed 2.0-litre four-pot motor, the synthesised exhaust note adds some additional drama, and altogether with the car's acceleration, things can feel frantic. If you want your family crossover to leave passengers slack-jawed, this one will do it, and the new brake package is every bit the engine's equal, with very nicely judged pedal-weight. The Tiguan R is also decently precise and composed when driven down a challenging B-road. It's easy to place, and packs the added surprise of behaving in the same faintly rear-propelled fashion as the Golf R when it comes roaring out of the tighter bends. However, most of the time, the effects of the R Performance torque-vectoring system manifest less with a sense of rear-driven poise than one of four-wheel-drive neutrality, until you really press on, when the slack in the long suspension begins to an invite understeer balance. And that's the part of the problem with the Tiguan R. It's phenomenally, almost soullessly capable most of the time, but then when you really want to go at a road, it can't really raise its game in the same way as the Golf R can. That said, it certainly isn’t one-dimensional, this 316bhp Tiguan, and probably offers the SUV driver in a hurry more to play with in dynamic terms than Volkswagen’s existing R-badged crossover – the T-Roc R. Back to top No serious driver would take the Tiguan R over the Golf R, however. The driving position in the former feels agricultural by comparison, and the steering in the larger car also lacks the communication of the Golf’s helm. These are not superficially effervescent cars we’re talking about; they require some level of commitment to come alive, and the Golf R is more confidence-inspiring in getting to that point, and considerably more rewarding once you get there. If you need the space, wait for the Golf R Estate. Or, perhaps, consider the Macan, though be prepared to pay more than £50,000 after options. Of all the performance SUVs of this kind of size and price, it’s one of only two (the other being the Alfa Romeo Stelvio) whose driveline is naturally biased towards the rear, and you can feel that in both the steering and the handling. Residuals are rock-solid, too, which ought to justify the additional initial outlay.

Spain has announced to trial a four-day working week with the government agreeing to launch a pilot project for interested companies. According to The Guardian, a small leftwing Spanish party Más País had on February 7 announced that the government had accepted its proposal to test out the idea. The concept of a four-day working week has been tried out by other countries in the past few years, citing several advantages. Besides improving work-life balance, researchers have suggested that a shorter working week could increase overall work satisfaction while reducing stress, as was reportedly recorded by Perpetual Guardian, a New Zealand company, in 2018. In 2019, Microsoft in Japan also reported a 40 per cent rise in productivity, while saving on production costs. Here are some countries that have advocated for four-day weeks: Utah: In 2008, Utah state government employees began working from Monday to Thursday for 10 hours, with the aim to cut down on operating costs like electricity, air conditioning and gasoline for state-owned vehicles. It was ended in 2011, with the Utah Legislature overriding Governor Gary Herbert’s veto of five-day workweek legislation. New Zealand: In 2020, new Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern suggested employers consider four-day working week and flexible working options to cope with work-life balance issues. In a Facebook video, she also talked about how it could boost domestic tourism and thereby the economy. “I hear lots of people suggesting we should have a four-day workweek…as I’ve said there’s just so much we’ve learnt about Covid and that flexibility of people working from home, the productivity that can be driven out of that,” she was quoted as saying. Germany: In the same year, Germany’s largest trade union IG Metall — representing 2.3 million employees in the metal and electrical sectors — reportedly proposed for a shift to a four-day working week model in a bid to secure jobs against economic fallout amid the coronavirus crisis and structural shifts in the automobile industry. Union leader Joerg Hofman had said that if companies agreed to cut working time, employees should not necessarily see their salary cut by the same amount or they would not be able to afford to work fewer hours. Meanwhile, it would allow companies to retain skilled workers and save redundancy costs. Finland: Sanna Marin, the 34-year-old politician who was appointed Finland’s prime minister in December 2019, had suggested a four-day workweek with six-hour workdays, even before she came took office. “It is important to allow Finnish citizens to work less. It is not a question of governing with a feminine style but offering help and keeping promises to voters,” Marin had reportedly said. Finland already operates under Working Hours pact of 1996 that allows workers to adjust their work hours by starting or completing three hours early or later. In India too, the government recently said it was considering flexible work hours for companies, reducing working days from five or six to four. The working hours limit of 48 hours for a week, however, would not be altered, Labour and Employment Secretary Apurva Chandra had said, thereby leading to longer working hours.

Rabat – As mobile technology and the internet become increasingly inseparable from our daily lives, cybersecurity is becoming an ever-increasing global concern, Kaspersky notes in its annual report. Morocco and Algeria are both in the top five countries which are most affected by the share of users attacked through mobile malware. Iran leads the way as the most affected country, where Kaspersky detected that 67.78% of mobile users in the country were attacked by mobile malware. Algeria follows in second place, with a reported 31.29% of mobile users affected, and Bangladesh comes third, where 26.18% of mobile users were attacked. Morocco came in fourth place, with 22.67%, and Nigeria followed in a close fifth, where 22% of mobile users were afflicted. According to the study, in 2020 Kaspersky products detected 5.7 million malicious installation packages, 156,710 new mobile banking Trojans, and 20,708 new mobile ransomware Trojans. Despite the fact that earlier in the year Morocco ranked among the top ten countries for the highest volume of malware attacks, according to another study by Kaspersky, the company noted that the majority of people in Morocco were indifferent about cybersecurity at the time. Only 8% of people questioned reported that they use any kind of antivirus software. 18% indicated that they do not update their mobile phones, and at least three out of four internet users have one password across different applications and devices. Twelve of twenty-two types of mobile threats showed an increase in the number of detected installation packages in 2020 when compared to 2019. The most significant growth was demonstrated by adware, rising from 21.81% to 57.26% of all mobile threats. Overall, Kaspersky saw a decrease in the number of attacks during the first half of the year, “which can be attributed to the confusion of the first months of the pandemic,” since “the attackers had other things to worry about.” Nonetheless, the second half of the year saw a sharp rise in cybersecurity threats, particularly “an increase in attacks involving mobile bankers,” concludes the study.

Being a successful car maker has suddenly become unfashionable. Thriving companies worth billions, employing hundreds of thousands and developing technology that has been at the heart of society’s advancement for more than 100 years suddenly earns the damning ‘legacy’ label. That word is beloved by those at the heart of change, especially in electrification but also digitisation, autonomous driving and more. Inevitably, then, it’s particularly favoured by advocates of Tesla – a company that has yet to make an annual profit. Today, for some parts of society, if a firm makes cars powered by engines, no matter how (relatively) clean, it’s a part of the problem, regardless of its previous achievements. There are positives to this, of course; the electrification path is based on science, and anything to sway opinion in this direction should be celebrated. Where it becomes uncomfortable, though, is when it’s applied inconsistently or facts are swept aside by the broad brush of good and bad. One example might be the tarring of Nissan as a legacy car maker, despite the fact that the Leaf was, until last year, when Tesla’s Model 3 surpassed it, the world’s best-selling EV. In tailpipe terms, if not in headlines, Nissan was a world leader (albeit while selling plenty of petrol and diesel cars too). Where this really comes into focus, though, is with the negativity thrown at Toyota. No question, it has been slow to market with EVs, having maintained – not unreasonably – that neither the tech nor market was mature enough until recently. But given that Toyota has pioneered hybrid tech since at least 1997 and consequently has sat at the lower end of emissions charts for at least a decade, calling it an environmental laggard is surely misguided. No question, hybrids are a stop-gap on the route to full electrification, but so successful has Toyota been in leading the transition that today it stands as one of a handful of manufacturers that isn’t having its hand forced by a scramble to hit strict emissions targets – to the point that it has been able to announce that it will launch a new fuel-burning city car. This is a seismic decision, because just about every other car maker has given up on this small, light and efficient category as they battle other challenges. The decision will inflame EV evangelists, but it caters for common sense. The goal is transition, not overnight transformation, and – in full expectation of being labelled a legacy journalist henceforth – offering low-emissions alternatives to EVs shouldn’t be derided.

Back in the 1960s, some of us were taking drugs, scrambling genders and sampling global religions to shake ourselves loose from what we saw as Western-style binary thinking, a view of the world based on strictly held good-bad, right-wrong opposites: white versus Black, straight versus gay, us versus them. Five decades later, such thinking still rules in a red-blue nation, which makes the retrospective of Lorraine O’Grady’s career at the Brooklyn Museum a major corrective event. The artist flags her own resistance to either/or in the very title of her show: “Lorraine O’Grady: Both/And.” As, over a long career — she’s now 86 — she has consistently shaped her art on a different model, one of balanced back-and-forth pairings: personal and political; home and the world; anger and joy; rock-solid ideas and a light formal touch. Although the show’s organizers — Catherine Morris, a senior curator at the museum; writer Aruna D’Souza; and Jenée-Daria Strand, a curatorial assistant — have braided her art through several galleries on four floors, we’re not in blockbuster country here. The bulk of this survey could probably be squeezed into a couple of carry-on suitcases. Most of her major works were one-off performances that survive now as photographs and handwritten notes. Writing is an important element in her work. Her earliest project, dating from 1977 and marking her debut as a visual artist, is a set of collage-poems composed of phrases clipped from issues of The New York Times. Their presence, along with cases of archival material — yellowing letters, lists, charts, statements — makes the show a slowdown experience, a fiber-rich meal after a pandemic year favoring eye-candy online. And her art is the product of a textured personal history, one with few straight-ahead lines. O’Grady was born in Boston, the second daughter of Jamaican immigrants. She grew up in Roxbury, a neighborhood of newly arrived Black, Irish and Jewish po[CENSORED]tions, located just blocks from the city’s main branch of the Boston Public Library and the Museum of Fine Arts. As a kid, O’Grady spent lots of time in both, with her early interest leaning toward literature. After graduating from college, where she majored in economics and languages, she embarked on an episodically writing-centered career. She worked as a researcher and translator for the Labor Department in Washington, then moved to Europe to start a novel. In the early 1970s, she was in New York City contributing rock reviews to The Village Voice and teaching courses on Dada and surrealist writing at the School of Visual Arts. Hers was a distinctly “both/and” life, to which, in 1977, she added artmaking. This began almost accidentally. After a medical procedure that year, she thanked her doctor with a gift of a homemade valentine: a multipage collage-poem of phrases she clipped from the Sunday New York Times. Then, for herself, over the next six months she made two dozen. Three of the originals are on the fourth-floor Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, where most of the show is installed. In this context, they seem emblematic of a life that was, to this point, itself a collage of interests and influences. The next logical step was to introduce herself to the professional scene. What she encountered were levels of de facto segregation. The predominantly white mainstream art world had no time for her as a self-described Caribbean African American. The small, tightly knit, mostly male Black art world had little room for her as a woman. The white, middle-class feminist art movement granted entry but kept her at arm’s length. Characteristically, her response was to strike out rather than retreat, and she did so through art: guerrilla-style performances in the persona of Mlle Bourgeoise Noire (“Miss Black Middle Class”), an aging but feisty and mouthy beauty queen who dressed in a gown stitched from formal white gloves and turned up, uninvited, at public art events. In this guise, in 1980, she crashed an opening at Just Above Midtown, a Manhattan gallery with an all-Black roster, shouting “Black art must take more risks!” She followed this up with an appearance at the opening of an all-white show of performance art at the New Museum, where she challenged the institution’s claim to be an “alternative space” and declared that “an invasion” was imminent. Mlle Bourgeoise Noire’s white-glove gown is in the Brooklyn show, as is a series of photographs documenting her New Museum appearance. Radiating high outrage and sly humor, these now-classic gestures of Black feminist space-claiming feel years ahead of their time, as does a second major performance work a couple of years later. In 1983, after being told by a colleague in the feminist movement that “avant-garde art doesn’t have anything to do with Black people,” O’Grady decided to demonstrate otherwise by participating in the Afro-American Day Parade in Harlem. For a performance piece titled “Art Is …” she hired a float and performers to ride on it, each carrying an empty gilded picture frame. As the float made its way up Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, the performers descended into the street and invited spectators to pose for photographs within the frames, to be turned into art. The piece was a hit. People who had their portraits made were — you can see it in photos — exuberant. (And it is still a hit: It inspired a video produced by the 2020 Biden-Harris campaign.) O’Grady was on the float, too, smiling, watching this very public work of conceptual art unfold. My favorite of her performance pieces, though, dates from a year earlier, and was more private. Titled, “Rivers, First Draft, or The Woman in Red,” it’s a kind of semi-autobiographical “Pilgrim’s Progress.” Staged on a summer day, in a remote corner of Central Park, the piece symbolically reenacts scenes from the artist’s life. An actor all dressed in white plays her aloof, impeccable mother; another plays O’Grady as a dreamy, bookish child. And the artist, dressed in passion-red, plays a version of her changing adult self. Traumas are enacted — romantic losses, political clashes, even a rape — but the narrative, paced like a medieval mystery play and captured in 48 color photographs, ends with a ritualistic wade through healing waters and what feels like a state of peace. Family is this artist’s recurrent subject. And “Miscegenated Family Album” (1980/1994), maybe her most familiar work, is made up of paired images of two of them: Queen Nefertiti and her children depicted in 18th-dynasty sculptures, and O’Grady’s older sister, Devonia, who died in 1962, leaving children behind, as seen in family photos. On display in the museum’s third-floor Ancient Egyptian Art galleries, the piece is a meditation on human connections — sisterhood, motherhood, aging — across time. But it’s also about an undying history of racism: Western historians have traditionally viewed ancient Egyptian culture as too “Classical/white” to be African, and too “African/Black” to be European. O’Grady and her biracial Jamaican-Boston family are assigned to a similar limbo, left floating among identities — African, American, African American, Caribbean — without being anchored in any one in an either/or world. The fact that they participate in all these identities, and that that is a source of their beauty and strength, seems to be the message of the show’s single video, “Landscape (Western/Hemisphere),” made in 2010/2011. Installed on the Arts of the Americas galleries on the fifth floor and set between grand, land-grabbing New World vista paintings by Frederic Church and Thomas Cole, the video looks at first to be a continuous image of dense, rustling foliage. In fact, it’s a close-up shot of O’Grady’s “mixed-race hair,” to borrow D’Souza’s description in the catalog. With its shades and colors dark and light and its textures curled and straight, it’s an embodied example of “both/and.” In addition to being the retrospective’s co-curator, D’Souza is editor of “Lorraine O’Grady: Writing in Space, 1973-2019,” a book of the artist’s writings published by Duke University last year. It’s an absorbing cover-to-cover read, no surprise considering the artist’s roots in literature. And the dates of its contents and those of the works in Brooklyn pretty much coincide, with the exception of the show’s most recent piece. Titled “Announcement of a New Persona (Performances to Come!),” and dated 2020, it’s a photographic series featuring the artist herself in the guise of a knight errant entirely — indeed, invisibly — encased in a suit of medieval-style armor on the third floor. Does the armor signal readiness for battle or self-protective retreat? You see it and think “conquistador” (bad), until you spot a miniature palm tree (good) sprouting from the helmet, suggesting her Caribbean/Jamaican heritage. Precise meanings, like the promised performances, have yet to be revealed. But clearly, something “both/and” is up, conceived with the moral acuity, wit and humane gallantry that have always marked the standard this artist carries into the field.

As investors and companies shift their focus to sustainability and climate change, the massive carbon footprint left behind by cryptocurrencies risks becoming a red flag—specifically that of Bitcoin. Research has shown that cryptocurrency will consume just as much energy as all the data centers worldwide. The renewed surge of Bitcoin’s price since the beginning of 2021, could result in it having a carbon footprint comparable to that emitted by all of Argentina or New Zealand. With companies such as Tesla and individual stakeholders racing to stock up on the cryptocurrency, the digital token has become a precious commodity as the average Bitcoin transaction is worth about $16,000 in comparison to the $46.37 worth of a Visa transaction. According to the Digiconimist, one Bitcoin transaction is the “equivalent to the carbon footprint of 735,121 Visa transactions or 55,280 hours of watching YouTube,” leading to the creation of a Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index, created by Dutch economist Alex de Vries. The index is a systematic attempt to calculate the energy use of the Bitcoin network. In a nutshell, bitcoins are made by “mining” coins which are produced by computers that carry out complex calculations. There is a positive correlation between the number of bitcoins created and the time it takes to mine new ones. The more bitcoins mined, the more electricity used. De Vries estimates that around 60% of the Bitcoin mining cost is devoted to the amount of electricity used. Nonetheless, the economist explains that in cryptocurrency, energy use lags behind as it takes more time for miners to get their hands on new hardware. Without a doubt, this is expected to lead to a substantial increase in energy use in the short term due to Bitcoin’s recent price surge and as a result, established miners are expected to further invest in hardware to expedite the process. Bitcoin’s value is continuing to increase and so are its investors in corporate America, entailing a market cap of more than $1 trillion as its price is above $54,000. However, skeptics alongside Bill Gates are seriously concerned and are questioning whether it’s worth the huge environmental cost. Bill Gates proclaimed that “Bitcoin uses more electricity per transaction than any other method known to humankind”, adding, “it’s not a great climate thing.” This undoubtedly raises a crucial question that several companies are battling to determine: Is Bitcoin’s success threatened by the movement of stakeholders and investors, who are lenient towards investing in companies that prioritize social, environmental, and governance matters? Large companies such as BlackRock, the largest money manager in the world, have announced that their investments will be evaluated predominantly on the basis of how they intend to meet the climate challenge. More importantly, investors are increasingly calling upon the companies to fully disclose their carbon footprint as global standards are starting to be set. Other companies, such as Jack Dorsey’s Square and Elon Musk’s Tesla, which have heavily invested in Bitcoin, would then be faced with questions on how their Bitcoin holdings could affect their respective sustainability scores. This is especially true since Tesla’s essential premise is to contribute to the reduction of climate change through lowering carbon emissions.

Mercedes-Benz has released images of the upcoming SL roadster undergoing winter testing, ahead of its official reveal later this year. The reborn convertible, which is set to be unveiled this summer, will square off against the Porsche 911 Cabriolet with a range of hybridised straight-six and V8 engine options. These latest images show multiple SL variants side by side in minimal disguise, highlighting two different fabric roof options. This confirms Autocar’s previous reports that the SL will arrive with a traditional fabric hood in place of the folding hard-top arrangement that has been used for the past two incarnations. Mercedes also confirmed that the 2+2-seat SL will be sold under the AMG brand only and will be offered with fully variable 4Matic+ all-wheel drive. While much of the SL's development was handled virtually, final on-road testing will soon include the north loop of the Nürburgring, hinting at the car's sporting ambition. Previous spy images gave clues as to how different model variants will be told apart: prototypes with circular exhaust outlets are believed to be an entry-level hybrid variant - likely the SL 450 EQ Boost - while ones seen with more aggressive-looking pipes and raised rear spoiler are expected to be the top-rung SL 63 AMG. The prototypes bear a strong resemblance to that which featured in official images released by Mercedes last year. The SL shows a clear family resemblance to the Mercedes-AMG GT, with a rounded rear end, long bonnet and a pair of slim horizontal rear light clusters. The SL is set to be revived as a lighter, faster and more engaging model partly inspired by the brand’s motorsport roots, which is why overall development duties have been assigned to the AMG performance division. It will be the first time AMG has overseen development of any SL across its previous seven generations. Last year, then-AMG boss Tobias Moers confirmed that the SL, which will go on sale by 2021, will be “aligned” with the next AMG GT. The duo's shared aluminium-intensive platform, known as the Modular Sports Architecture (MSA), will increase the economies of scale and overall profitability of two of Mercedes’ most exclusive model lines. “We’re bringing back the historic DNA of the SL," he said. "It's far sportier [this time round]. It will have a perfect compromise between driving dynamics and comfort, because it’s still kind of a cruiser, too.” He also confirmed that the eighth-generation SL will be offered only as a roadster, like its predecessor. It is expected to go on sale in the UK towards the end of 2021. SL and GT sharing As well as sharing a common platform structure, the two upmarket Mercedes sports cars are expected to share axle assemblies, suspension, steering systems, 48V electric architecture and hybrid drivetrains, among other components, in a move to cut costs and boost production efficiency. The new SL and GT will be built alongside each other at Mercedes’ plant in Sindelfingen, Germany. Early plans to base a successor to the smaller SLC off the same underpinnings have been abandoned following a recent decision not to replace the junior Mercedes roadster due to dwindling sales. Early prototypes of the new SL were spied testing on track with the new platform underneath a shortened S-Class Coupé body. They gave away little about the car’s mechanical set-up, which is rumoured to run a transaxle arrangement with a dual-clutch automatic gearbox integrated within the rear axle assembly, like on the GT. However, the overall dimensions of the engineering mules suggest the production version will be slightly larger than the existing SL, which is 4630mm long, 1870mm wide and 1310mm tall. The adoption of the MSA platform is claimed to have had a positive effect on the styling of the new SL, whose proportions are said to be more in keeping with earlier incarnations of the classic roadster than the current model, which shares a platform with saloon models such as the C-Class, E-Class, CLS and S-Class. A Mercedes source told Autocar: “The new platform has given us more freedom. There’s more distance between the front axle and the front firewall. This gives it more traditional proportions.” The decision to replace the folding hard-top of today’s SL with a more compact fabric hood is also said to have provided greater scope in the styling of the rear of the new model. “It’s much more shapely, especially at the rear, because it is no longer dictated in height and width for the packaging of the hard-top roof,” the source added. In a further departure from today’s model, it is also expected that Mercedes will provide the 2021 SL with a 2+2 seating layout. Autocar has been told that AMG is keen to give the new SL the same sort of practicality as the Porsche 911, with a set of rear seats capable of accommodating adults for short journeys or, alternatively, luggage as an extension of its boot. SL to get hybrid line-up Mercedes plans to offer the SL with a limited range of hybridised in-line six-cylinder and V8 petrol engines in a line-up that’s likely to include both standard and AMG models. The range is understood to start with an SL 450 EQ Boost model running a turbocharged 3.0-litre in-line six-cylinder developing around 365bhp, along with an added 22bhp in combination with an integrated starter motor. Further up will be the SL 53, which will run a more powerful AMG-tuned version of the SL450 EQ Boost’s mild-hybrid drivetrain with around 430bhp and added 22bhp through electric assistance. Among the V8-powered models will be the SL 500 EQ Boost. It is due to receive a turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 with a similar power output to the SL 53, but significantly more torque. Topping the range will be the SL 63. It is likely to be offered in two states of tune, with the most powerful model running a turbocharged 4.0-litre V8 capable of in excess of 600bhp and more than 30bhp of electric boost. It is unclear if Mercedes will continue with the V12-powered SL, although, given the potential output of the SL 63, it would seem unlikely. All engines for the new SL will come as standard with Mercedes’ nine-speed automatic gearbox, with the AMG variants set to adopt the Speedshift electronics package for faster shift times. Suggestions are that Mercedes could offer 4Matic four-wheel drive alongside standard rear-wheel drive, although this has yet to be confirmed. Despite the SL’s market repositioning, it won’t completely abandon the luxury focus, so expect the interior to be almost as opulent as Mercedes’ other high-end models. It will be more driver-focused than cars such as the S-Class Coupé, but there could still be plenty of the brand’s latest driver assist systems drafted in, including its semi-autonomous Drive Pilot function.

A looted mosaic that once decorated a ship of the Roman Emperor Caligula and ended up as a coffee table in New York City finally returned home Thursday, as details emerged about the lucky break in the investigation that got it there. Officials unveiled the mosaic at the Museum of Roman Ships, which was built in the 1930s specifically to house the treasures of two huge ceremonial ships Caligula commissioned in around AD 40. The ships eventually sank and were excavated from the depths of Lake Nemi, in the Alban hills south of Rome, starting in the late 1890s. The mosaic, a 1.5 square-meter geometric print in rich green, reddish-purple and white stone, was part of an inlaid floor on one of the ships, which were designed and decorated essentially as floating palazzi in a testament to Caligula’s greatness. It’s unclear when the mosaic passed into private hands or under what circumstances. But eventually, it was purchased by a New York antiquities dealer and her Italian journalist husband, who shipped it back to New York and made a coffee table out of it for their Park Avenue apartment. And there it sat, relatively undisturbed, until Oct. 23, 2013. That night, at the Bulgari jewelry store on Manhattan’s 5th Avenue, marble and stones expert Dario Del Bufalo was giving a lecture and book signing for his new book Porphyry, on the rare reddish-purple stone preferred by the Roman emperors, that was attended by New York’s cultural elite. As he was signing books, Del Bufalo said he overheard two women who were leafing through his book exclaim “This is Helen’s mosaic! This is Helen’s mosaic!’” after seeing a photograph of the work. “I didn’t understand,” Del Bufalo said Thursday as the mosaic was put on display at the Nemi museum. “There were a lot of art experts and I asked ‘Who is Helen?’ And they told me she is a woman who has a house on Park Avenue and this same mosaic.” Helen was Helen Fioratti, the antiquities dealer, and soon she would be caught up in the investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, the Italian culture ministry and carabinieri art squad, all of which were hunting down antiquities that had been looted from Italy and ended up in private collections and top U.S. museums. The Manhattan DA’s office in October 2017 announced it had seized the mosaic and turned it back over to Italian consular authorities, who repatriated it to Italy. It has been on temporary exhibition since then in Italy but on Thursday was returned to the Nemi museum, with the other artifacts from Caligula’s ships. Fioratti told The Associated Press at the time of the seizure that she had bought the mosaic in good faith more than 40 years earlier while she was living in Italy and had been told it belonged to the aristocratic Barberini family. She was never prosecuted, and decided not to contest the seizure because she believed it would cost too much and take too long. “It was an innocent purchase,” she said then, adding that the sale had been brokered by an Italian art historian known for his work recovering art stolen by the Nazis. “We were very happy with it. We loved it. We had it for years and years, and people always complimented us on it.” Del Bufalo said the district attorney’s office eventually asked him to authenticate the mosaic. He said he immediately recognized the round porphyry pieces used, as well as the restoration of a vertical crack. “When they showed me the photos of the mosaic belonging to this woman who was living in New York, I told them; ‘Yes, it is exactly that same one,’” he said. Del Bufalo suggested the mosaic might never been exhibited in the museum, which was turned into a bomb shelter during World War II and then was damaged by fire. Unlike other relics, he noted, the mosaic shows no evidence of fire damage, suggesting it had either been spirited out before or during the war, or had never been there and had been in private hands since it was excavated. Nemi Mayor Alberto Bertucci said the city was proud to be welcoming the mosaic back home. “The mosaic testifies how important and luxurious these imperial ships were,” he said at the unveiling Thursday. “These ships were like buildings: They were not supposed to sail and they confirm the greatness of this emperor who wanted to show the greatness of his rule of the Roman empire through these ships.”

Rabat – The Naval Group, a major French defense contractor, has been discussing a possible order of French submarines with Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (FAR), reports Africa Intelligence. Morocco’s military acquisitions often fascinate and reach foreign and international media headlines. This time it is due to the last missing piece in FAR’s arsenal, namely the submarine. There is no confirmation of a sale as of now, especially considering that Morocco has also looked at offers from Russia, Greece, and Portugal before. Russia was offering its Amur class submarine, a fourth-generation machine with diesel-electric propulsion. Meanwhile, Morocco was in talks with both Portugal and Greece over the acquisition of the European countries’ second-hand submarines. While negotiations for military contracts are most often kept secret, there are several classes of submarines that the Moroccan Royal Navy could feasibly integrate. The direct contender to Russia’s Amur 1650 is the diesel-electric Scorpene-class submarine, which the Naval Group developed in partnership with the Spanish state-owned Navantia. Unlike its Russian counterpart, the French submarine has already found buyers. Among them are the navies of Chile, Malaysia, Brazil, and India. From the Scorpene family of submarines, the Scorpene Compact might be a good fit for Morocco’s arsenal. It is suitable for coastal waters, and the Mesma anaerobic submarine system makes it a particularly discreet vehicle. The integrated French combat system and a fully automated centralized platform control system maintain a high level of diving safety, while also carrying a smaller crew. The last time Morocco’s dealings surfaced on international media, Spanish news outlet El Confidencial Digital noted that the purchase of a submarine is “an old aspiration of the Royal Navy” that has remained unachievable to date despite successive attempts. After years of rumors, speculations, and negotiations, the arms race seems to have entered into full swing.