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The US is relaxing its Covid travel restrictions, ending an 18-month ban on UK and EU passengers.From November, passengers will be allowed to travel to the US if they are fully vaccinated and undergo testing and contact tracing, the White House said.Donald Trump introduced the travel ban in March 2020.There had been much speculation in recent months about when President Joe Biden would change the rules.White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients announced the "new international air travel system" on Monday, explaining that the country would be opening up to fully vaccinated passengers."This is based on individuals rather than a country based approach, so it's a stronger system," he said.He said vaccines were the "best tool we have in our arsenal" to keep people safe.The new rules don't affect land travel. The order restricting overland travel to the US from Mexico and Canada is still in place.Under the current rules, only US citizens, residents and foreigners with special visas are allowed to enter the US from the majority of European countries.One British official told the BBC that the decision had come completely out of the blue. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been planning to raise it on Tuesday in his meeting in the White House with the president, but with little hope of making progress, the official said.Airline shares rose following reports of the new travel rules. For months a joint working party has been looking at ways to relax the travel ban. The work, I'm told, has been detailed and assiduous.But last Friday in Washington next to no one (not even in the Biden administration) was expecting today's announcement. So what's changed?The Biden administration is aware of the growing disquiet among European allies about a range of issues - Afghanistan notably, but in recent days French fury over the Aukus submarine deal. And remember France is America's oldest ally.This week Joe Biden will be meeting, not only Boris Johnson, but a whole pile of EU leaders during the UN General Assembly in New York. And all had it on their dance cards to raise the travel ban.According to one diplomatic source, the US over the weekend just weighed the countervailing forces: annoy some Americans with a policy that could be characterised as being weak on Covid; or continue to alienate your European allies who are growing increasingly irritable. With the data no longer supporting the ban, this weekend came a decision. Out of the blue in one way, but quite logical in another. Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58628491

i will give you a chance and don't forget to read the rules

Rumors of a new iPhone are a tradition that began as far back as the iPod Photo in 2004, when video was a constant rumor to feature for Apple’s music player.But the one rumor that has built up traction for the iPhone in recent years has been a replacement to the lightning port. While many users want to see USB-C appear, it already seems that it’ll be a useless addition.Recently we’ve seen Apple take strides in wireless charging, first with the industry-standard Qi charging, followed by its own take with MagSafe charging, starting with the iPhone 12 series in 2020.This only looks to be the start of the portless iPhone, but if you already own an iPhone 12 and above, you may already own a portless smartphone without realising it. From the first iPhone in 2007 to the iPhone 4S in 2011, users could only charge these devices with a 30-pin to USB 2.0 wire, in a time where we would manage our content through iTunes on Windows 7 and Mac OS X.But since the iPhone 5 in 2012, a new Lightning port was introduced by Apple, saving space while also allowing for future USB standards to be introduced, such as USB 3.0 and USB-C, bringing in fast charging and faster transfer speeds with newer iPhone in the following years.The iPhone 8 series and iPhone X in 2017 were the first iPhones to bring Qi wireless charging to the devices, giving users another method of charging instead of using the Lightning port.Having spent many hours helping people cleaning out dust and dirt from lightning ports (in a previous job), I can attest to how much more convenient wireless charging was when it arrived – especially when people found their Lightning ports weren’t working well. However, it could be awkward to position the phone on a Qi charging mat, and it’s still slow to charge an iPhone from 0% to 100% with just this method. With the proprietary feature of MagSafe arriving to the iPhone 12 series in 2020, it gave users a much better experience in making sure their phones would charge without fail, and slightly faster, alongside a plethora of accessories that MagSafe enabled. However, rumors have been growing of an iPhone that has no ports at all, with just WiFi and wireless charging to manage an iPhone when the time comes. And that time, reader, has already come – Apple just hasn’t said it out loud yet.You’ve been using a portless iPhone since 2017We manage our content through an internet connection more than ever, whether that’s through Wi-Fi or 5G. We also charge them through the many accessories of Qi charging and MagSafe on our desks, bedside tables or in our vehicles. Stores such as IKEA already offer furniture with Qi charging – we place our devices down on these products and don’t think about it soon after we buy them.It’s the paradoxical need of wanting something without realising it’s already happened. While the lightning port has been in iPhones since 2012, it’s already been abandoned by Apple and countless users alike.Sure, not everybody is using these wireless features yet, but they’re available, and we’re just waiting at this point for Apple to pull the trigger on a smartphone that relies on them entirely.There will almost certainly come a time when a portless iPhone is showcased at an event, with another Apple representative citing the ‘courage’ this takes, in the same vein the company took when the headphone jack was removed in 2016 with the iPhone 7 series. Instead of wondering when USB-C may appear for the device, we should be focusing on when a truly portless iPhone will arrive. Given how easily we can get by without using our current iPhone ports already, we can’t imagine it’ll take too much longer, either.

s there such a thing as a display that's too big? LG's new line of Direct View LED Extreme Home Cinema displays are the latest to test that question, and the most expensive setups cost as much as an actual movie theater, or somewhere around the price of the helicopter you might want to use to airlift your new TV through your roof.Yes, these are real products that LG is selling to anyone with a big enough bank account. And while the power draw, nightmarish upkeep, and need for neck stretches before you play Deathloop are all scary to think about, having a stupidly large television with its own orbit is a hell of a flex. The sizes for this family of theater displays start at a massive 81 inches and go all the way to 589 inches of high fidelity overkill with resolutions ranging from 2K to 8K. They're the most absurd displays we've seen from LG since they showed off an $87,000 rollable OLED TV last year. The thing that makes Direct View LEDs better than your usual LED TV is that they offer higher brightness and contrast and are designed for rooms with lots of windows (you know, like your giant glass mansion) and high ambient lighting. If you're more of an ultrawide enthusiast, you can go with the Dual4K ultra-stretch screens, which combined, span 589 inches of the living room wall or over 70 feet of Doom Eternal if that's an easier visual. Anyone looking to future-proof their mansion's game room should look into the 325" 8K Home Cinema Display and put your local movie theater to shame with its vast 160 degrees viewing angle. The display weighs over 2,000lbs and has a brightness of over 1200 nits. Sunscreen not included. Each screen will ship with a controller loaded with LG's WebOS, LG's high-resolution content playback interface, which is fancy TV talk for a box where you'll plug in your PlayStation 5 or extreme gaming PC or stream all your favorite shows. “This truly is the supercar of home display technologies, offering hand-constructed quality and performance that appeals to those with luxury lifestyles who want something that is not only immersive but also highly exclusive,” said LG Electronics USA’s vice president in charge of DVLED displays, Dan Smith in a press release. “LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema Display technology is rated to last 100,000 hours before reaching half-life, meaning that it could deliver stunning visuals for over ten years."Once installed, you'll be given on-location training, twice a year 'health checks' for three years, and LG Connected Care (which lets LG remotely monitor your display performance), and a five-year warranty. These services are valued at around $30,000, according to LG. You might be wondering how much these ridiculous screens cost? Well, Smith told our buddies at TechRadar that the Extreme Home Cinema will start around $70,000 up to $1.7 million. That's right, for the price of a modest yacht, you too can host the most impressive LAN party in history. Unfortunately, you won't be able to walk into a Best Buy and load one of these displays in the trunk of your car. The LG DVLED Extreme Home Cinema Displays have to be specially ordered through LG, which I'm pretty sure involves a credit check. Jorge is a hardware writer from the enchanted lands of New Jersey. When he's not filling the office with the smell of Pop-Tarts, he's reviewing all sorts of gaming hardware from headsets to game pads. He's been covering games and tech for nearly ten years and has written for Dualshockers, WCCFtech, and Tom's Guide.

During a livestream showcasing the Deadlands DLC zone coming to The Elder Scrolls Online, as well as changes being added in its next base-game patch, creative director Rich Lambert mentioned a new tech from Nvidia would debut in the MMO: Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing, or DLAA. It's like DLSS (which The Elder Scrolls Online is also getting), but instead of running at a lower resolution to get a framerate boost while using AI to upscale everything so it still looks shiny, DLAA runs at native resolution while using that same deep learning for extra edge-smoothing. "It's the same kind of concept," Lambert said, about 51 minutes into the livestream. "You won't get a performance boost out of this, but what you will get is absolutely incredible anti-aliasing." If you want to try out DLAA it'll be coming to the public test server, after which it will become an option alongside DLSS whenever update 32 goes live. A decent Nvidia GPU will be necessary, of course. "You need the RTX 2000 or RTX 3000 series cards in order to take advantage of it," Lambert said.Lead graphics engineer Alex Tardif brought up the DLAA debut in a Twitter thread following the stream. "Huge thanks to the team at NVIDIA for humoring and then supporting us releasing this when we brought up and tested this hijacking of their DLSS tech into its own thing", he wrote. "It's not something every game would need, but for ESO it just made sense." pdate 32 will also bring changes to combat, which are intended to dial back some of the game's recent power creep, and especially the continued dominance of builds based around critical hits. As a post on the official forum put it, there's going to be "a hard cap to Critical Damage and Healing." Other alterations will be about "improving proc set balance and continuing the hybridization improvements from previous updates". Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was published in 2015, he edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and actually did play every Warhammer videogame.

Pulling a handle marked ‘eject’ is generally not a good idea, unless you happen to be a jet fighter pilot faced with a sudden need to depart your aircraft’s cockpit. In the case of the Touring Superleggera Arese RH95, pulling the handle so marked is likely to bring on a tinge of regret rather than an otherwise doomed pilot’s gushing relief, because the opening of this car’s door signals journey’s end. And journeying in this car is the thrill and delight you’d have every right to hope for from a car offering 661bhp, a beautifully wrought carbonfibre skin, gullwing doors and the mild sculptural drama of a so-called dorsal scoop.It’s a novel pleasure to find a slice of wit in the labelling of a car’s controls, although you can be assured that the Arese RH95 is a very serious machine indeed. You can immediately see that in the quality of its finish. Its carbonfibre bodywork is beautifully moulded and glass smooth not just outside but inside too, the matt black inner surfacing of the spectacular rear-hinged clamshell presented to a standard that would satisfy any mainstream high-end manufacturer.Inch your way across this car’s intriguing details and you’ll discover that the silver waistband traversing the wing and door is fashioned from a solid billet of aluminium. Every cut line, compound curve, indentation, light and model identifier is perfectly formed, the sizeable carbonfibre opening panels aligning just so. The interior is no less convincing. This particular Arese cabin, specified by its owner, is gloriously furnished in beige and brown Alcantara, subtly highlighted with slender flashes of yellow and long threads of highly accurate stitching. The pattern needled into the seat facings, for example, elegantly repeats the shape of the Touring badge. This colour scheme might sound a little dubious until you see it, but the cabin’s dual-cockpit architecture and the classy fabric hues make this an irresistible space to occupy, and never mind the performance and dynamic treats to come. Back to topBefore they do, you may well be wondering who Touring is and what its somewhat cumbersomely named Arese RH95 is, too. Only if you’re of a certain (depressingly advanced) age or a keen follower of the Italian coachbuilt car industry will you know of Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, an Italian coachbuilder that has enjoyed two lives.The first began in 1926, when Carrozzeria Touring was founded by Felice Bianchi Anderloni. It was not long before this Milanese coachbuilder was winning concours events with its designs, wealthy enthusiasts bringing Touring Alfa Romeos, Isotta Fraschinis, Lancias and BMWs to be clothed. During those four decades, Carrozzeria Touring fashioned some especially beauteous cars, besides developing the Superleggera advanced lightweight body manufacturing technique. Superleggera models, famously including Aston Martin’s DB4, DB5 and DB6, were constructed from elegant latticeworks of small-diameter tubes, over which thin aluminium skin panels were hung. The light, rigid structure lent itself to hand-formed panels and bespoke construction and many famous makers drew on this patented technology, including Maserati, Pegaso and Bristol, as well as Aston.But the advent of monocoque bodyshells, which made bespoke designs much harder to engineer, threatened Touring’s survival. It didn’t go bankrupt, but it was wound up in 1966. What happened next you can discover in the separate story opposite, but the company was re-established in 2006 to produce bespoke, high-end, limited-run cars in the Touring visual tradition.The Arese RH95 is just that, and the last in a series of 21st-century Touring triplets, following the 2016 Alfa Romeo Disco Volante and the 2020 Aero 3. “This is the first exploration of mid-engine, or mid/rear proportions, the other two being front engined,” explains Touring design chief Louis de Fabribeckers. “This car is about agile handling. The three cars share the ‘victory’ grille, the horizontal tail-lights and the smooth, elegant, almost feminine surfacing in combination with very strong details such as the vertical exhausts and the assertive headlights.”

r John Cooper Clarke, Salford’s favourite son, arrives in the whitewashed upper room of St John near London’s Smithfield meat market trailing a suitcase. He’s met the fish man on the way in who, like him, has travelled up from Essex this morning, so he can vouch for the freshness of the oysters. Clarke’s come from an appointment with his tailor, though you can’t imagine his sartorial instructions have changed much in the half century in which he has evolved from strung-out punk poet to alternative national treasure: drainpipe kecks, jacket with lapels as skinny as he is, ditto: tie, boots with a bit of a heel, hair with a varied and interesting life of its own, and shades. Today is no different. “The thing about that mod look is you can keep it all your life,” he says, from the survivor’s vantage of 72. “As long as you maintain your silhouette, as I have endeavoured to do.”Clarke’s recent memoir, I Wanna Be Yours, provides, along with many other vivid pleasures, a window on the changing influences on British youth culture from Tony Curtis onwards. “There’s a solid tradition of working-class people dressing up at the weekend for a big night out,” he says. “Whereas the salaried classes might put a cardigan on and mow the lawn.” He starts off his memoir suggesting that its aim is to “fleetingly call up events that best illustrate the flavour of my existence,” but his recollections are far more precise than that suggests. “People always assume that anybody who’s ever had anything to do with narcotics has a faulty memory. You know: ‘If you could remember the 60s you weren’t really there.’ I think that’s bollocks. I can remember all of it. I sometimes wish I couldn’t.”He studies the St John menu, which might have been written for a London chophouse in 1740 and keeps up a commentary while he does so. “There are only three food groups I draw the line at,” he says. “Flapjack, falafel and tripe. Flapjack is just hippy cake. Loads of sugar, but still ultimately nasty. I’ve given falafel too many chances to come good. And tripe, say no more.” He’s a regular here, but suddenly troubled by the carnivorous options on offer. “I’m thinking: this is the Observer. I don’t want to kiss the vegan chick demographic goodbye.” To me: “Tell your readers I’m having the celeriac salad.” To the waiter: “I’m going to go smoked eel starter and devilled kidneys on toast.”Though he’s long since got himself clean of harder narcotics he still likes a glass of wine. “I’ve got to go white in the daytime otherwise I’ll fall asleep,” he says. He chooses a Picpoul, in part, I think, because he enjoys what his Mancunian vowels can do with the word. “With whites my feeling is, always look to the cheaper end, there’s no real complexity. It’s just a refreshing drink.”He’s grateful to lockdown for having given him time off from his never-ending tour dates to get the book written. But he’s glad it’s over. “You know me, I’m Mr Gregarious. I’m a neighbourhood guy.” He knew for sure that “normal” had returned on a trip up to Old Trafford for the first day of the football season. He’s become something of a resident poet at Man Utd, where he first used to go with his old man. “I did some gig for Adidas, and I said: ‘How about getting me and my missus in for a nosh up in the executive box?’ It worked. And we beat Leeds 5-1. Pure magic. Though I had to inform Evie it wasn’t always like that.”That trip up to Manchester was a chance to once again tour his French wife of 30 years around his formative haunts. The book does a magical job of capturing the time and place of his growing up in a high-ceilinged flat carved out of what was once an Italianate villa – “slums to anyone who didn’t live in them” – beside the junction of two of Manchester’s busiest roads. It was a tough place, but clearly in his eyes, I suggest, full of a certain urban glamour?“I’m glad that comes across,” he says, “because I didn’t have a cloth cap kind of childhood. We were solidly working class, but it was a very cosmopolitan corner, mainly because it was a very Jewish area. So, you know, there were neighbours that had contacts all over, Chicago or wherever.” There was no TV until he was 10, but there were seven cinemas within walking distance. “If you took three pop bottles back to the shop for the deposit that was enough to get you into a movie for an afternoon.”From the age of 13, when he was working as a bookie’s runner around the pubs, it was his ambition to be a working poet, though as he says, “The life of a useless flaneur was not encouraged in the 1950s… [and] a generous stipend was out of the question.” If there was a turning point in his career, it was when he first persuaded Bernard Manning to give him a spot as a compere at Manchester’s Embassy club. “Bernard had no equivalent outside of his neighbourhood,” he says. “He’d often pick up the bills for funerals and threaten to break the legs of the undertaker if he divulged the good deed. It was in his interest to be After the working men’s clubs the crowds gobbing on him at punk gigs – he supported the Sex Pistols among others – were a doddle. Since then, and after he recovered from heroin addiction in the 1980s, his unmissable solo act has developed a far more conversational tone, full of mordant digression. It is the closest British live entertainment comes these days to the great music hall acts of the past.“It’s wrong to think that poetry was never show business,” he says. “They all did monologues right up to Stanley Holloway.” He’s justly proud that some of his stuff is on the GCSE syllabus now; it was his teacher at his secondary modern who first sparked a lifelong love of language. Education was always revered. “There was one guy in our entire area that went to university,” he says. “And that was my very sadly recently departed cousin Sid, who studied Russian. When he got in it was like the coronation.” In his own case, he says, he always found ways “to thrive primarily on serial discouragement, and a sense of: this gets me that. I was staying in Belgravia, a couple of years ago, standing outside my hotel having a smoke and a hackney carriage screeched to a halt and the cabbie jumped out to shake my hand: ‘John Cooper Clarke: my favourite poet!’ Nobody could say I haven’t put the hours in. But you can’t buy that feeling.”His memoir is honest both about the initial seductions of his drug habit and its near-fatal destructiveness. It was, in the end, meeting Evie that saved his life, got him straight. They settled not far from Colchester, and had a daughter, Stella, the joy of his life. Reading his story, I say, I was reminded of one of those medieval romances, where the reckless hero, Troilus or whoever, makes all kinds of disastrous choices, before finding a way to tell the tale (admittedly usually postmortem).“We’ve always all liked a happy ending,” he says. “That’s why I hate Ken [CENSORED] Loach. Why can’t you leave us, just once, with a smile, Ken?” Putting his devilled kidneys aside for a moment, he goes into a monologue about the importance of comedy, of storytelling in creating civilisation, an argument that eventually takes in the tragic deaths in the past week of his friend Sean Lock – (“the funniest guy anywhere”) – and two of his abiding heroes, Don Everly and Charlie Watts. “Still, despite everything,” he concludes, “there has never been a better time to be alive. People say: ‘John, prove that to me.’ And there’s only one statistic you need: life expectancy. Who can argue with it?” He eyes the empty wine bottle. “Let’s get another one,” he says, “while we can.”I Wanna Be Yours (Picador, £9.99) and poetry collection The Luckiest Guy Alive (Picador, £10.99) are out now in paperback. To support the Guardian and Observer order your copies from guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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Xiaomi Pad 5 tablet and Xiaomi Smart Pen have launched alongside the Xiaomi 11T series at the company's global event today. The tablet comes with a 120Hz display refresh rate, is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 processor, and offers up to 256GB of storage. Alongside the Xiaomi Pad 5, the company has also unveiled the Smart Pen which comes with buttons to take screenshots and swift shots. The Smart Pen clicks on top of the tablet magnetically, which also doubles up as a charging pad for the stylus. Xiaomi Pad 5 price, saleThe new Xiaomi Pad 5 is priced at EUR 349 (roughly Rs.30,300) for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option. It is priced at EUR 399 (roughly Rs. 34,600) for the 6GB RAM + 256GB storage option. It comes in Cosmic Gray and Pearl White colour options. Sale of the Xiaomi Pad 5 will begin from September 23. An early bird price of EUR 299 (roughly Rs. 25,900) has been introduced for the 6GB RAM + 128GB storage option. It will be available first through AliExpress at 12am PST. Although, the phone will be up for grabs via Amazon, Lazada, and Mi.com as well. Xiaomi Pad 5 specifications Coming to the specifications, the Xiaomi Pad 5 runs on Android 11 with MIUI 12.5 for Pad and features an 11-inch WQHD+ (1,600x2,560 pixel) TrueTone display that has 120Hz refresh rate, 16:10 aspect ratio, as well as Dolby Vision and HDR10 support. It is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 SoC, along with 6GB of RAM as standard. The Xiaomi Pad 5 comes with up to 256GB of onboard storage. The tablet supports Face Unlock, and supports split screen for multitasking. For photos and videos, the Xiaomi Pad 5 comes with a 13-megapixel camera sensor at the back, along with an LED flash, and an 8-megapixel selfie camera at the front with 1080p recording. It packs an 8,720mAh battery that supports 33W fast charging. Xiaomi claims it offers up to 10 hours of gaming, 16 hours of video playback, and 5 days of music playback. Additionally, the tablet comes with four speakers and supports Dolby Atmos. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi , Bluetooth v5, USB Type-C port, and more. The Netflix app is pre-installed on the Xiaomi Pad 5. Xiaomi Smart Pen The Xiaomi Pad 5 supports the newly announced Xiaomi Smart Pen. It comes with two buttons, one which allows users to take swift notes and the other allows for instant screenshots. The Smart Pen comes with 4,096-level prerssure sensitivity and weighs only 12.2 grams. It supports gesture navigation and has TPE soft tips which are replaceable. The magnetic clip-on also doubles up as a wireless charging base for the Xiaomi Smart Pen. Xiaomi claims it takes only 18 minutes to fully charge.

Users of Adobe's ecommerce platform will soon be able to accept and process payments as the company plans to add payment services to Adobe Commerce later this year.By adding payment services to Adobe Commerce, merchants of all sizes will have access to an integrated payment solution that they can easily manage from their Adobe Commerce Admin settings as opposed to having to rely on third-party payment gateways. Payment Services for Adobe Commerce will be powered by the PayPal Commerce Platform and Adobe merchants in the US will be able to use them by the end of this year with support for additional territories including Canada, Australia and Western Europe planned for next year.We've built a list of the best ecommerce platforms available todayThese are the best website builder solutions on the marketAlso check out our roundup of the best payment gatewaysVice president of Adobe Experience Cloud product and strategy at Adobe, Amit Ahuja provided further insight on the company's expanded ecommerce offering in a press release, saying: “In today’s fast-moving digital economy, organizations demand flexibility and extensibility in their commerce platform to sustain business growth and deliver seamless experiences for their customers. With the addition of Payment Services, we’re thrilled to expand on our already robust out-of-the-box commerce feature set to help Adobe Commerce merchants compete effectively and win in the digital-first economy.”Payment Services for Adobe CommerceWith Payment Services for Adobe Commerce, merchants will be able to accept a number of po[CENSORED]r payment methods including credit and debit cards, PayPal and Venmo to provide an improved checkout experience for their customers. It's worth noting that merchants will also be able to offer PayPal's buy now, pay later option Pay in 4 in their storefronts. This will likely help drive traffic to their storefronts as the use of buy now, pay later services grew by 88 percent during the first half of this year according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index. Merchants will also be able to leverage PayPal's support for cryptocurrency transactions and local payment methods in the future.Adobe Commerce's Payment Services will also offer comprehensive reporting capabilities to provide merchants with a clear view of the orders and payments in their storefront including details about processed volume, payment balance and transaction-level reporting for financial reconciliation. This will help merchants better run their businesses and spot anomalies in order placements and post-sales flows more efficiently. Payment Services for Adobe Commerce will provide merchants with access to convenient and competitive pricing for transactions with tiered rates based on processing volume. We'll likely find out more about Payment Services for Adobe Commerce ahead of its planned US launch during the fourth quarter of 2021.

It doesn't look like Microsoft will change its mind before Windows 11 ships in three weeks. We're now less than three weeks away from the Windows 11 launch, and as we head into the home stretch, it is looking increasingly likely that Microsoft will stick with its Trusted Module Platform (TPM) 2.0 requirement. At least initially—who knows what Microsoft may decide down the line, if and when this becomes more of a headache than it's worth. For now, however, Microsoft isn't changing course, and instead is attempting to clear up confusion by directing people to a support article on the matter.I missed this when it was first hit Twitter last week, but Microsoft posted a frank message (via Tom's Guide) that, in some respects, amounts to digging its heels into the dirt (and an Office Space spoof). "Ummmm…. yeah.... we need to talk to you about TPM 2.0 and Windows 11. Read the memo," Microsoft wrote, followed by a link to an article describing how to enable TPM 2.0 on your PC.In the article, Microsoft explains that most PCs shipped shipped over the past five years have the ability to run TPM 2.0, as required by Windows 11, but in many cases, they are not configured to do so. This is especially true in the DIY sector—since this has never been much of an issue before, motherboard makers were not in the habit of enabling TPM 2.0 by default "even though it is almost always available" as an option in the BIOS.The article goes on to explain how to enable TPM 2.0 in the BIOS, noting that the option is usually found within sections labeled Advanced, Security, or Trusted Computing.Once there, the option could have one of several different names, including Security Device, Security Device Support, TPM State, AMD fTPM switch, AMD PSP fTPM, Intel PTT, or Intel Platform Trust Technology.It's a bit much for the average PC user to digest, who may have never set foot in the BIOS, or even know what a BIOS is (my parents fall into this category, as do several friends). Be that as it may, it's a necessary step on some PCs. This is the main reason that led Wes to ponder, 'How the hell is Microsoft already screwing up Windows 11 this badly?'. And unfortunately, Microsoft's messaging is less than clear. One week it's cutting off support at Intel's 8th gen CPUs and second-gen AMD Ryzen chips, then the next week it's adding 7th gen Core CPUs to the compatibility list, but only some of them—mostly certain Xeon chips, save for the Core i7 7820HQ, a mobile CPU that just so happens to be employed by Microsoft's Surface Studio 2 system. Go figure.From the outside looking in, there is an arbitrariness to the decision making process. In a separate blog post, Microsoft explains that on unsupported devices, it observed "52% more kernel mode crashes" when testing Windows 11, whereas "devices that do meet the minimum system requirements had a 99.8% crash free experience."Fine and dandy, but does that mean the Core i7 7820HQ is for some reason able to provide a more stable experience in Windows 11 than other 7th gen chips? I seriously doubt it, but if so, why? And if not, why is it exempt while other 7th gen chips are not? So yes, I agree with Microsoft's tweet that it needs to talk with users about TPM 2.0, but the conversation should extend beyond, 'Hey, this is required, go turn it on.' I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime, remember the PC Health Check app that Microsoft released and then yanked offline after people were confused why their PCs were failing the test? Heads up it's available to download again, in preview form.

A recent Nvidia leak pointed to numerous unannounced games and console exclusives. Sorry, folks: there are still no plans to bring Halo 5: Guardians to PC. At least that's what Halo community director Brian Jarrard said after a recent leak gave fans new hope. "Maybe this was for 'H5:Forge' but I can confirm there are no plans to bring H5 to PC," Jarrard wrote on Twitter. "We know there's some demand for it, but as we've stated before, [it's] not in the cards as the studio is fully focused on Infinite and MCC. Will never say never, but nothing underway currently."Maybe this was for "H5:Forge" but I can confirm there are no plans to bring H5 to PC. We know there's some demand for it, but as we've stated before, not in the cards as the studio is fully focused on Infinite and MCC. Will never say never, but nothing underway currentlySeptember 13, 2021 A recent leak of Nvidia's GeForce Now database contained the titles of unannounced projects and console exclusives, such as God of War and Halo 5: Guardians, which made many think these games were coming to PC. Nvidia shot down those hopes, however, saying the games listed in the leak were "speculative" and just for "testing." It's not uncommon for game developers to use "real" things as placeholders for testing features like UI and functionality. This isn't the first time 343 Industries has said Halo 5 isn't coming to PC. In 2018, franchise director Frank O'Connor confirmed that it's not happening, saying that the only available version of Halo 5 on PC is the Forge mode, which allows for up to 16 players on custom maps and game types. It's a cool tool, but it won't tide over any Halo 5 fans who want the real thing. The reason so many want Halo 5: Guardians on PC is because it was one of the last games Microsoft released before committing to launching all of its first-party games on Xbox and PC day-and-date—with rare exceptions like Gears Tactics, which launched on PC first. Halo 5 is also the only Halo game not currently available on PC. The Master Chief Collection includes Halo: Anniversary, Halo 2: Anniversary, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo Reach, and Halo 4. It's an excellent collection of games that are available for free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers—you can get your first month of Game Pass for only $1.My take? Halo 5: Guardians is a fine game, but you're not missing much if you can't play it. It's one of the least exciting games in the series, and the story didn't do much for me—the future of the series looks far more interesting. It would be nice to have it as part of the Master Chief Collection one day, but I'm not sweating it As for what's next for Halo, fans can expect Halo Infinite on December 8. A series first, the multiplayer will be completely free, while the campaign will require the full game to play. The series' trademark campaign co-op will not be available at launch, instead coming sometime in 2022.

In coupe or convertible form, the Speed adds more power and performance to the already compelling Continental GT package. Its chassis is as capable and borders on witchcraft, especially when the ride and refinement are well beyond anything that its rivals can compete with. Throw in the sublime interior and incredible materials and quality, and it’s a genuinely difficult car to fault.We’ve never had any complaints about the amount of power Bentley’s two-door Continental GT puts out, but that hasn’t stopped its engineers from adding more - at 650bhp, this is the most potent version of the current generation of the car.We’ve already sampled the coupe on a racetrack, so now it’s time to find out if that sharper, more focussed feel we discovered at Silverstone translates onto the road - in convertible and coupe body styles. That headline figure is 24bhp more than the existing W12 model - which the Speed effectively replaces in the UK line-up. The bump in output is achieved courtesy of software tweaks, and similar attention has been applied to the gearbox, resulting in 50 per cent faster shift speeds. Torque remains the same at 900Nm, covering a huge spread of revs from 1,500rpm right the way up to 5,000rpm. Drive is sent to all four wheels. Hard acceleration is accompanied by a deep guttural roar at lower revs, which transforms into an angry howl towards the red line. It’s not as goosebump-inducing as a Ferrari V12, but it still has plenty of presence. Go for the optional Akrapovic exhaust, and it gets more aggressive still, introducing a few crackles from the twin pipes on the overrun.That power is kept in check by new carbon-ceramic brake discs gripped by 10-piston calipers. At 440mm in diameter, they’re the largest fitted to any road car, and only just squeeze behind the (also vast) 22-inch alloy wheels. Not only is their stopping power enormous, but unlike some carbon set-ups which can feel grabby, they offer plenty of progression - they’re just as happy coming to a smooth stop on the road as they are hammering around a race track. They save a significant 33kg of unsprung mass relative to the standard set-up, too.In most situations on the road, it’s hard to believe that the GT weighs as much as it’s claimed to. As before, there’s three-chamber air suspension and a 48-volt electrical system which controls an active anti-roll set-up. For the GT Speed, Bentley has introduced a new electronic rear differential - the first for the brand - rear wheel steering and variable electronic stability control. It reckons all of this should add up to a more agile driving experience, yet one which maintains the typical Bentley stability and control.

I had gone to stay in a camp in the Australian wilderness. One minute, my host was pouring drinks – the next he was on the floor, 90 minutes from the nearest medic was in the back of the back of beyond: a wilderness camp in a lonely north-eastern corner of the Australian continent known by the acronym FNQ: far north Queensland. To reach it, you had to leave a paved road, drive on to a barge, cross a river along which alligators loitered with malevolent intent, and then head north into the density of the rainforest foliage. The camp was six huts on stilts with a general dining and bar area. Its owner was named Mal: an amiable, “good on you, mate” fellow in his late 50s. His wife, Alison, immediately struck me as shy and hyperstressed. Mal had been a builder in Brisbane. The camp was his retirement project. I was one of only three guests there. I sensed: trouble in paradise.I settled in. I took a bush walk. I found myself face to face with a cassowary: a 1.8-metre-tall fowl with a pronounced beak and ferociously pronounced claws, known to kill when happened upon. I froze. I did an about-face. I moved with speed back to the camp.Once there, I ran into the only other guests. They were both in their late 20s. Joan was English, a nurse from the Midlands; Tom was a podiatrist. When I learned that they were on their honeymoon, I turned to Mal and said: “A round on me, please.”Mal went to the bar. He poured the drinks. Placing them on a tray, he walked towards us. Then, suddenly, his face turned beet red. He let out a sound akin to animalistic keening. The tray of drinks went crashing to the ground, followed by Mal himself. Joan was already on her feet, racing towards our now supine host. As soon as she was on top of him, she slammed her fist into his chest. That’s when I realised: Mal had just suffered a massive heart attack.Joan was all frantic business. She ordered me to run and find his wife and get her to call the medics. And she yelled at her husband to give Mal mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while she methodically pumped her hands up and down on his chest.I sprinted to the main door of the lodge, pounding on it repeatedly. Alison finally opened it, looking befuddled, like she had just woken from a nap. When I explained what was happening, she was distraught. I grabbed her two hands, steadying her, asking: “Where are your nearest doctors?” In Port Douglas … two hours from here.”“Flying doctors?” I asked.“It’s night. They can’t land here. There’s a nurse …”She pointed to a landline inside her home, told me that the number was on the bulletin board above it. Then she ran outside, her screaming reaching new heights as she saw her husband on the ground, Joan and Tom frantically working to save him. I punched some numbers into the phone. The nurse answered. She knew the lodge and told me it would be a good 90 minutes before she could get to us.“Keep working on him.”I raced back to the bar. Joan was still pumping Mal’s chest, Tom still giving him mouth-to-mouth, Alison screaming: ‘Don’t stop!’” I told Joan about the medical situation. She was not pleased.“Jesus [CENSORED],” she yelled, then ordered me to take over from Tom. But when I began to give Mal mouth-to-mouth, he began to vomit white bile. I pulled away, spitting out the toxic substance. When I reached back for him, he went very still. Joan felt for a pulse in his neck. She shook her head, then closed his eyes. Alison began to howl: “Please no …” stood up, went over to the bar, grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and used it as a gargle to rid my mouth of Mal’s vomit. Then I spit it out and downed a long dram of the whiskey. I passed the bottle to Joan who passed it on to Tom. I went over and put my arm around Alison and told her I would call anyone who needed calling. She couldn’t stop crying. I later learned they had been together for more than 40 years.Tom pulled a cloth off a table and draped it over Mal’s face. I sat down, put my head in my hands, still reeling from what I had just borne witness to: the way that your entire existence, the narrative that is your life, can be snuffed out in a second, without any warning or premonition whatsoever.Whenever, in the future, I railed against life’s many inequities, I found myself back in the back of beyond, seeing that man alive one moment, dead the next. From then on, I have lived with the idea that mortality is not a future construct. It lurks just around the corner. And as such: the farce of life is a fragile, fleeting one … which is also what makes it so damn precious. Afraid of the Light by Douglas Kennedy (Hutchinson, £13.99) is out now. To support the Guardian and the Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

iPhone 13 series is expected to launch at Apple's 'California Streaming' event on Tuesday, September 14. A fresh leak ahead of the launch has now tipped the storage options that will be offered with the upcoming range of smartphones. The Cupertino-based tech giant is said to be releasing four smartphones in the iPhone 13 lineup. Alongside the new iPhone models, Apple is also said to announce the AirPods 3 at the event and sell them alongside the AirPods 2. Apple's launch event can be livestreamed via its website or YouTube Channel.Market analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said in a research note, accessed by MacRumors, that the storage capacity of the upcoming iPhone 13 models will start at 128GB and go up to 1TB. The vanilla iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini smartphones are said to get 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage options. While the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are said to come with 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage options. The 1TB storage option will be the largest storage capacity offered on any iPhone model yet.For comparison, the iPhone 12 and the iPhone 12 mini storage capacity starts at 64GB and only go up till 256GB. The iPhone 12 Pro and the iPhone 12 Pro Max storage options max out at 512GB.Epic Appeals Ruling in Lawsuit That Gave Apple a Narrow WinKuo has also reportedly said that Apple will launch the AirPods 3 alongside the iPhone 13 lineup at the 'California Streaming' event. The analyst predicts that AirPods 3 will either be priced higher than the AirPods 2 or will have the same price as the last-generation model, which will then get a price cut. In both scenarios, Kuo says Apple will continue to sell the older AirPods for the people who prefer that design over the Airpods Pro-like in-canal fit expected in the newer model.Apple's 'California Streaming' event is scheduled to take place on September 14 at 10am PDT or 10:30pm IST. You can watch the event through Apple's event page or through its official YouTube Channel. iPhone 13 series specifications, features (expected)Previous rumours suggest that the iPhone 13 series smartphones may feature a smaller display notch than the previous iterations and also larger camera sensors. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max are said to come with better ultra-wide cameras. iOS 15 Key Features Teased via Tips App Ahead of iPhone 13 LaunchThe vanilla iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 mini are reported to come in Black, Blue, Pink, Purple, (PRODUCT) RED, and White colour options. The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max may come in Black, Bronze, Gold, and Silver colour options.The entire iPhone 13 lineup may get heftier and thicker than before. iPhone 13 Pro Max is reported to get an 18-20 percent larger battery capacity compared to its predecessor. The Pro Models may also get 120Hz refresh rate displays and may work at 60Hz refresh rate in low-power mode.Previous leaks also suggest that the iPhone 13 may come with a portrait cinematic video feature that uses an electronic image stabilisation (EIS) system, also known as "Warp". This will let users blur the background while recording a video. The optical image stabilisation (OIS) and Night Mode features are also said to get optimised in the new models.WhatsApp May Soon Let Android Users Move Chat History to iOS: ReportThe iPhone 13 models are also reportedly getting a new satellite feature, that is said to allow users to transmit short emergency texts and send SOS distress signals in the event of a disaster. It may only work in areas with no cellular network and only in select markets.The prices of the upcoming iPhone range were earlier expected to rise due the global chip shortage, but recent reports suggest this may not be the case. Apple is also reportedly working on improving its FaceID tech. The upcoming iPhone 13 models may also come with Always-On Display along with the integration of Wi-Fi 6E

New command bar will make it easier to find files and access primary commands Finding the right files in Microsoft's cloud storage service will soon be even easier as the software giant is currently working on a new interface for OneDrive. According to a new post on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, OneDrive will soon be getting a new command bar later this month.We've assembled a list of the best cloud storage available These are the best cloud backup services on the market Also check out our roundup of the best portable SSDWith this update, OneDrive users will easily be able to “identify the right file and access primary commands”. However, the simplified view in OneDrive's new interface will also help boost productivity as it allows users to focus on the content they're working on as they won't be distracted by additional menus.In two separate posts, Microsoft also revealed that OneDrive will also be getting a new sharing experience in November of this year. The company is updating OneDrive's Share menu to provide easy access to additional sharing options such as email, copy link, Teams chat as well as manage to access settings.However, the “Copy link” button is set to be replaced by a footer where users will be able to set permissions before copying links and sharing them with recipients.After releasing the 64-bit version of OneDrive earlier this year, Microsoft has continually updated its cloud storage service and it will be interesting to see how these visual and sharing updates pan out.

You may not need to upgrade your PC to run Windows 11 after all, just your BIOS Asus is in the process of testing and validating BIOS updates for dozens of older motherboards based on Intel's 200-series and 100-series chipsets, that would allow users to run Windows 11 on a system with an unsupported CPU. So if you're sitting pretty on a 6th generation Skylake or 7th generation Kaby Lake processor, there's hope yet.The fact that Asus is able to do this only adds to our bewilderment of how Microsoft is already screwing up Windows 11 this badly, in terms of support requirements and less than clear messaging. Adding to the confusion, it's a fluid situation in which Microsoft is prone add more CPUs to the support list on a whim.Microsoft did exactly that a couple of weeks ago, adding around a dozen more CPUs to its official Windows 11 compatibility list. The ones it added are all from Intel's 7th generation Core series, though all but one are Xeon chips for workstations. The lone standout is the Core i7 7820HQ, a mobile CPU that happens to be in Microsoft's Surface Studio 2 system. Coincidence? Not likely.Beyond those chips, official Windows 11 compatibility only extends back to Intel's 8th gen processors, AMD's second generation Ryzen CPUs, and some Qualcomm chips. Why is that? Only Microsoft truly knows. Microsoft attempted to clarify its criteria in a recent blog post, where it noted that unsupported devices "had 52% more kernel mode crashes," compared to "devices that do meet the minimum system requirements had a 99.8% crash free experience." It also doubled down on security, and specifically the Trusted Platform Module 2.0 requirement that it is staunchly sticking to.Most modern processors have built-in TPM 2.0 support. That's true for Intel chips dating back to Skylake, and AMD processors going back to Zen+. On Intel boards, the TPM trigger is labeled PTT (Platform Trust Technology), and on AMD platforms, the option is listed as fTPM (firmware TPM).Circling back to Asus, its Windows 11 microsite now lists a whole bunch of motherboards based on Intel's Z270, Q270, H270, B250, Z170, H170, Q170, B150, and H110 chipsets as being "compatible with Windows 11 under current testing." While BIOS updates are not available for the entire lot, they are for more than 30 boards, in beta form.All these BIOS updates presumably do is enable PTT by default, so Windows 11 can recognize that the required security protocol is present and turned on. I can't say for sure, but I don't think the BIOS updates do anything beyond that. If they do, they're not listed in the release notes. They simply state, "Support Windows 11 by default, no settings changes required in the UEFI BIOS," followed by a disclaimer on the beta status.

This article was updated at 8 pm PT Sunday to reflect that the ghosts have been busted.For parts of this weekend, many Rainbow Six Siege players were unable to access Ranked, Unranked, and other game modes due to an issue related to lobbies and player account levels. "We are not having a good weekend," tweeted Siege creative director Leroy Athanassoff on Sunday.The issue was that Siege seemed to think everyone was partied up with a brand new account, which meant they couldn't join most playlists. There was no one to kick from the squad to fix it, because that low-level 'ghost' squadmate didn't really exist. Two Siege players at PC Gamer experienced the bug first hand. Morgan took the screenshot above, showing a level 205 account being informed that its empty squad doesn't meet the level 50 requirement for a Ranked game. Spooky. (And frustrating.)Reports from players on social media indicate that the bug started Saturday at a smaller scale, but has been spreading since. This weekend was a free weekend for Siege, which just started a new season. Some players reported hearing the sound effect that indicates that a player has joined their lobby; the 'ghost' causing the problem. A bot on Siege's official Discord also attributed the bug to ghost players, but Ubisoft's official forum post and tweet about the issue didn't mention it.At about 4 pm PT on Sunday, the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account said that the developers were working on two separate issues, "one impacting matchmaking on PC" and "one impacting online infrastructure on Xbox." The Xbox issue was resolved first, and few hours later the account reported that an update had been deployed to fix the PC version. UPDATE: We're happy to report that the issues affecting matchmaking on PC have been successfully resolved.As some of you have reported, there was an emerging issue preventing console players from joining Squads. We have addressed this and things should be returning to normal.September 13, 2021 "We'll continue to closely monitor the game's performance to ensure these fixes hold," said Ubisoft. "Over the next week, we will implement more robust long-term measures to prevent this from happening again." We're not exactly sure what it is Ubisoft will be working on preventing. A bug? An exploit? A mundane server issue? Some players have claimed that a hacker was behind it all, but that rumor hasn't been substantiated, and Ubisoft hasn't acknowledged it. We'll look for more info on that, but for now, the good news is that Siege is returning to normal.

Our spy photographers have snapped the new Volkswagen Aero B on the road tackling its development programme. The electric large hatchback will make its debut in 2023, rivalling the Tesla Model 3 and acting as an electric alternative to the Passat. The Aero B is the production version of the ID.Vizzion concept that was unveiled at the 2018 Geneva Motor Show – and, at the show, Volkswagen bosses said the finished car would be capable of driving up to 600km (or 327 miles) on a single charge. If Volkswagen’s current battery technology is anything to go by, this range figure should be easily achievable, especially when considering the Aero B’s more aerodynamic shape. The ID.4 Life, when fitted with the brand’s 77kWh battery and rear-mounted 201bhp electric motor, can cover up to 323 miles between charging stops.The Aero B will likely use the same battery, electric motors and MEB platform as the rest of Volkswagen’s ID. models, as suggested by the proportions of this prototype. The nose is relatively short and low; the panelling around the C-pillar is broad and tall, and the driver sits quite far forward, as the cabin and bodywork have been mani[CENSORED]ted to make space for the electric motor on the rear axle. We can also expect a four-wheel drive (potentially GTX-branded) version of the Aero B, with an electric motor on each axle and a combined output of 295bhp and 310Nm of torque. The same powertrain is already on sale in the hot. Eventually, Volkswagen will launch an estate version of the Aero B, too, as previewed by the ID. Space Vizzion concept from the 2019 LA Motor Show. The concept was also fitted with a dual-motor electric powertrain, which produces a more potent 335bhp. It remains to be seen whether this powertrain will make it into production, though. The ID.X concept (which spawned the ID.4 GTX), had its output trimmed back to 295bhp by the time it reached production, so it’s likely that Volkswagen will do the same with the Space Vizzion.Inside, we expect the Aero B will share the same compact digital dashboard and 10-inch infotainment system as the rest of Volkswagen’s MEB models. It also looks like there’ll be plenty of space in the rear, with the high angle of these spy shots giving a clear look at the car’s rear bench seat and footwell.Now click here to read about the upcoming Volkswagen ID.3 GTX electric hot hatch.

It should be alarming to be up this high, but it’s weirdly calming. Is it possible I’m forming an emotional bond with Bumble loved my driving theory test. It involved a video game of old people and dogs, the idea being I had to try not to kill them, like a reverse Grand Theft Auto. I assumed that driving a horse would involve a similar amount of sit-down theory, perhaps an instructional DVD. Yet, within minutes of my arrival at Silvermere Equestrian Centre in Surrey, instructor Charly Press has told me to throw my leg over and sit on top of Bumble, a real horse. I’m not qualified for this, and, incidentally, never passed my actual driving test. I’m too good at Grand Theft Auto.“Don’t you have any trousers?” Press asks. It’s a hot day, and I don’t. “I guess we’re doing this cowboy-style.” She doesn’t mean I have the swagger of a vaquero – in my shorts, helmet and polo top, I look like I’ve been airlifted off a mountain at the taxpayers’ expense. I climb some little circus steps, and get on to a horse for the first time in my life. It feels so wrong. I grew up in south London where only the police or imagined aristocrats rode horses. But times are changing, and the number of people who tried horse riding in 2019 rose to 3 million. (That statistic is from the British Equestrian Trade Association, though obviously one wishes it had been Gallup.) There’s also a less “proper journalism” reason for my visit. I’ve heard that horses are excellent therapists, and my usual therapist is away for the month. I tell the brown-and-white beast to walk, and miraculously, it does. I’m riding! A horse! It’s more comfortable than I’d imagined. Bumble has a broad back, a slow wave of a gait. I hadn’t anticipated this, the easy rise and fall, the sleepy smell of sweaty flank. It should be alarming to be up this high, but it’s weirdly calming. Does being lifted from ground level elevate your attention, to a stratum where larger thoughts reside? I smell clean air. I whisper into Bumble’s fluffy fetlock: “I don’t know if I want children.”Without warning, he stamps his foot, three, four times. I’m pitched up and down. What can this obscure communication mean? Humans have an emotional relationship with horses. They personify freedom, pride and power, their liquid eyes reflecting deep understanding – or maybe we’re guilty of hopeless anthropomorphism, projecting mystical depth on to everything they do. Plus, horses are weird. I read that all racehorses are born on New Year’s Day. I’ve been told all horses have at least two names. I heard that every horse’s favourite song is Ride Wit Me by Nelly, who was actually an elephant. “You’ve had a scratch now, stop that,” Press commands Bumble.Press teaches me posture, stirrup position, how to nudge with my heels to keep up the pace. Bumble knows the contours of this lesson inside out. Aware he doesn’t have a firm rider on board, he slows down, cuts corners, takes a nap. I find this very relatable. Still, I can’t believe how quickly we’re progressing. Within 20 minutes, Press has taught me to post: to rise and fall in time with Bumble’s trot. I hadn’t grasped how rhythmic this all is, the move between tempos, the syncopation. I bet DJs would make excellent riders. Maybe that’s why they’re so fond of horse tranquillisers. Politics is depressing, but apathy is moral dereliction. How do I care for myself and the world? I lament into Bumble’s back. He veers right, worryingly. I was meant to direct him to do this – to cross the arena from one alphabetised point to another – but forgot, so he’s more or less teaching me at this point. But I can pretend I’m in control, and I’m starting to get the hang of posting, catching the music of the ride. When I do, we’re the Marlboro Man and Tiger Roan. For a flourish, Press tells me to ride a full length of the ring, alone, at a trot. The scent of a post-lesson snack in his nostrils, Bumble obligingly gets us there. I laugh out loud. Impossible to rein in this elation, standing in the saddle, in tune with a gentle giant. And all in a 30-minute lesson. Forgetting to keep my head up, I watch the noble flanks working beneath me, ground streaming by. It’s moving in more ways than one.As a child, I blamed God for the mess down here on earth, I think. Now I know it’s people that are to blame, and I don’t know which is the lonelier feeling. Bumble comes to a halt, as if to say: give it a rest. He’s been right about everything. While our path is rarely clear, it’s important to move together. Children or no, there’ll be ups and downs. As for theological torment, the answer is to lift your head and see that it’s a sunny day. The meadowsweet is in flower. Does Bumble have another name? I ask. “Yes, Ladywell Boy,” Press replies. I’m stunned. It’s the same name as the tiny area of south London where I grew up. I’m a Ladywell Boy, too – maybe I do belong here. It’s a symbolic, even mystical moment. I just wish I wasn’t wearing shorts for it. Another triumph of proper journalismI’ve just looked up equine-assisted therapy and it’s nothing to do with riding a horse or telling it your problems. Will be discussing this with my penguin counsellor.

A BBC Panorama investigation has found evidence that suggests one of Britain's biggest companies paid a bribe to the former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe. Documents show British American Tobacco (BAT) was involved in negotiations to pay between $300,000 and $500,000 to Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in 2013. The documents also reveal BAT was paying bribes in South Africa and using illegal surveillance to damage rivals. BAT says it is committed to the highest standards of corporate conduct. President Mugabe's 37-year rule was secured through elections marred by allegations of fraud and violence. He was ousted in 2017 and died in 2019. The ruling party Zanu PF is now under new leadership. Robert Mugabe: From liberator to tyrantCannabis part of the future says tobacco giant in a joint investigation with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism and the University of Bath, Panorama obtained thousands of leaked documents.They show how BAT funded a network of almost 200 secret informants in southern Africa. line Watch BBC Panorama: Dirty Secrets of the Cigarette Business on BBC One on Monday at 19:30 BST line Most of this work was outsourced to a South African private security company called Forensic Security Services FSS was officially tasked with fighting the black-market cigarette trade, however former employees have told the BBC that they broke the law to sabotage BAT's rivals. The Zimbabwe connection Internal documents show in one operation, FSS staff were instructed to close down three cigarette factories run by BAT's competitors in Zimbabwe. FSS paid a local firm to conduct surveillance on a Savanna Tobacco factory in 2012, but the company got caught. Three of its directors were charged in connection with illegal surveillance. The arrests prompted the then president, Robert Mugabe, to make a speech condemning the men's actions and BAT's suspected involvement. However, Panorama has found that behind the scenes, contractors working on behalf of BAT were talking to Zimbabwean officials. The man who was sent in to negotiate a deal, who wishes to remain anonymous, told Panorama he bribed a number of government officials to secure a meeting to discuss the men's case.He said: "I had to make it clear that they're going to expect a nice thick envelope of notes."lineWhat is British American Tobacco?British American Tobacco is one of the world's largest tobaccocompaniesIt is one of the UK's ten biggest companiesIt owns major cigarette brands including Lucky Strike, Camel and Pall MallLast year, it sold close to 650 billion cigarettes lineDocuments seen by the BBC confirm that the man was provided with the equivalent of US$12,000 in local currency. They also suggest the money for the bribes was provided by BAT.An internal memo outlines the deal that was proposed. The Zimbabwean official said that with the upcoming presidential elections, a donation to Mugabe's party - Zanu PF - would help.The memo said: "With this donation, they could then go back to the President" to try to get the problem sorted out."The amount of the donation would have to be in the region of between USD300,000 to USD500,000 to Zanu PF," it said.The documents do not show whether the bribe was in the end paid, but Panorama has spoken to three sources who have confirmed that BAT was aware of the terms of the deal on offer.Within days of the deal being offered, all three directors were free.BAT declined to answer Panorama's questions about the Zimbabwe payments, but it did not deny paying a bribe to Robert Mugabe.It is against UK law for a British company to pay bribes, no matter where the payment takes place.The wider network FSS worked for BAT in southern Africa between 2000 and 2016.Evidence strongly suggests they bribed customs officials and police officers, and that BAT secured access to information from the police camera network, which was used to spy on its rivals.FSS tapped the phones of BAT's competitors, placed tracking devices on their delivery vehicles and bribed staff to hand over information.Documents show senior staff from BAT's London HQ personally recruited and paid some of the informants working at competitors' factories. BAT staff would also load cash onto currency cards in London and the informants could then withdraw the money anonymously in South Africa. It is a payment system sometimes used by organised crime groups to evade detection.

Galaxy A52, and Galaxy A72, as per the report. Samsung first introduced the Galaxy A52s 5G in the UK in August and later unveiled the handset in India on September 1.As per a report by SamMobile, the update comes with firmware version A528BXXS1AUHA and brings the September Android security patch to Galaxy A52s 5G handsets in Europe. It is said to fix the vulnerabilities related to privacy and security. Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G users in Europe will get the latest update automatically. They can also manually check for the update by heading to Settings > Software update > Download and install. Users are recommended to update their phones while they are connected to a strong Wi-Fi network and put on charging. Samsung first introduced the Galaxy A52s 5G in the UK with a sole 6GB + 128GB storage variant. Later on September 1, the company launched the smartphone in India with two storage models — 6GB + 128GB and 8GB + 128GB. Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G features quad rear cameras and a hole-punch display design. It carries a 120Hz AMOLED display and supports Dolby Atmos sound with its stereo speakers. Under the hood, Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 778G SoC, along with up to 8GB of RAM. The smartphone has 128GB of internal storage that can be expanded with a microSD card (up to 1TB). Samsung Galaxy A52s 5G packs a 4,500mAh battery that supports 25W Super Fast Charging.