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The Division 2 is huge. But unlike so many open-world games, every inch of its enormous approximation of downtown Washington, D.C. is brimming with activity. Raccoons pick through bins, deer spring through the streets, and clusters of survivors can be spotted gathering supplies or battling hostile factions. All of this goes on without you, but where The Division 2 really draws you in is when you slow down the grind for better gear and spend a little time exploring the world, helping out its struggling denizens as you go. Wander over to a group of friendly survivors and they’ll react to your presence, buoyed by the fact that they have a Division Agent backing them up. These NPCs roam the city with actual purpose, so you’ll often stumble across a group who are on their way to gather food and be able to lend a hand. These encounters aren’t initiated through a mission marker or key prompt, though. Instead you might overhear someone voicing concern about venturing into an alleyway covered in graffiti markings from an enemy faction. Step closer and one of the survivors will call you over, telling their comrades it will all be okay because they have a Division Agent with them. Sure enough, when they charge into the alleyway and a skirmish ensues, if you pitch in with a kill or two they’ll also gather up the resources they came for and head back to the nearest settlement. While the narrative that’s delivered through the main campaign missions and cutscenes is practically non-existent, the anecdotes gathered through joining up with groups of scavengers more than filled that gap. That’s not to say the main missions aren’t good, however – in fact, they feature some of the most memorable locations of any third-person action game in recent memory. I was hooked playing through each one, eagerly anticipating every new room and the battles that would unfold there. Throughout the campaign I’ve fought in the National Air and Space Museum, an underground nuclear bunker, Capitol Building, the American History Museum, a television studio, and – most haunting of all – a facility for processing and disposing of contaminated bodies. That last one is still bugging me, picking through rooms where body bags are stacked up to the ceiling and pouring out of elevators – it’s a punchy, unsettling reminder of why the streets are so empty. So far, I’ve managed to clock up over 50 hours in The Division 2, which breaks down roughly into 20 hours spent with the main campaign, ten hours working up to max level, and another 20 hours wading through endgame content and dabbling with PvP. It’s important to stress that I’m still having a blast with the game. I’m still looking forward to every loot drop, still steaming into street skirmishes as soon as I hear gunfire, and still discovering new and interesting locations across Washington, D.C. Compare the experience to Anthem’s stodgy first steps and there’s a gulf where quality-of-life features are concerned. You can change the bulk of your The Division 2 build while in combat, you only encounter loading screens when you first enter the game or fast travel, you very rarely have to visit quest givers, and when you do the game doesn’t force you to march around the whole settlement at jogging speed. It’s odd to sink so many hours into a game in such a short time and still be enjoying every minute of it. A lot of this comes down to the core gameplay experience: Ubisoft and Massive Entertainment have made an exceptional cover shooter in The Division 2. Whether fighting in the confines of the Grand Washington Hotel or in the wide open boulevards of the Federal Triangle, duking it out with the game’s tough AI enemies is a constant delight. Each of the three enemy factions – Hyenas, True Sons, and Outcasts – boasts a bespoke set of tactics and kit that keeps every fight feeling fresh and dynamic. Hyenas prefer to rush and flank with reckless abandon, hurling a steady stream of drugged-out melee grunts after you so you can never settle behind a single piece of cover. The True Sons make the most of their advanced military hardware, deploying heavily armoured elites with LMGs who set up bipods and rain bullets on you while their allies cleverly surround your position. The Outcasts are the most volatile of the lot, mixing the sheer aggression and tempo of the Hyenas with dastardly tactics. These include deploying RC cars that have buzzsaws strapped to them – eat your heart out, Robot Wars – suicide bombers, and flamethrowers. Out in the open world you can even interrupt fights between two factions, which are gratuitously messy. Weapons are punchy and enemies react to every shot, collapsing into a convincing ragdoll as soon as you land the killing blow. There’s a clear emphasis on your skill here, too, rather than combat coming down to gear stats alone. Every enemy has a weak spot that can be targeted to instantly put them on the back foot, while armoured enemies are just as squishy as a standard grunt after you shoot off a piece of their cladding. This helps ground the combat in a game where elite enemies and bosses show up all the time. Overall, time to kill is relatively short compared to the first game, and if you can place your shots it’s possible to down clusters of baddies with a single round. Every conflict feels like a delicate balancing act where you’re always looking out for potential flanking enemies or desperately holding out for one of your skills to cooldown so you can turn the tide of the fight in your favour. I’ve not had the time to play around with every skill and variant yet, but the Incinerator Turret and Oxidizer Chem Launcher have become my offensive go-to. The turret can be placed on the floor and spews out a stream of fire that burns any enemies caught in its path – it’s great for countering rushers and securing a corridor while you focus your gunfire elsewhere. As for the Oxidizer, a single canister will tear off most of a boss’s armour, allowing you to quickly take down a heavy before they can start influencing a fight. Naturally, this shines when fighting alongside other players, especially when your skills compliment one another. For example, directing two healing gadgets at a teammate and sending them into the fray with nothing but two high-damage shotguns, Leeroy Jenkins-style. Endgame amps up the challenge significantly. It introduces a new faction, the Black Tusks, who add a few fresh gadgets for you to figure out, such as Boston Dynamics robots mounted with cannons and exploding drones that home in on you. The arrival of the Black Tusks ushers in a new storyline – albeit one that’s just as insipid as the narrative of the main game – and the group invades all main missions and strongholds. This provides you with a new foe to tackle, but also shifts enemy spawn locations around in each mission and tweaks individual objectives slightly to keep you on your toes. There are also new world events to ensure that everything feels a little different, too. The highlight discovery so far are Chinook-sized drones marauding the skies, laying waste to enemy factions with missiles and miniguns. Take one down and you can expect a decent haul of loot for your troubles, plus the bullet-hell inspired U-turn in gameplay they provide is a lot of fun. 20 hours into the endgame grind and the world is still offering up neat surprises like this, so I’m very excited to see what the upcoming Tidal Basin stronghold and eight-player raids will throw at me. The Dark Zone returns from the first game, although a few key tweaks help level the playing field in favour of ordinary players rather than the gankers who’ve poured all their efforts into making the lives of others miserable. For starters, there are now three Dark Zones instead of one, offering players a chance to escape particularly troublesome crews for a laid back DZ elsewhere. An Occupied Dark Zone rotates around the three DZs for PvP purists who want every aid disabled: no gear normalization, friendly-fire off, and no way to tell if other Agents have gone Rogue. I’ve spent a few hours in the various Dark Zones, conquering PvE landmarks, extracting loot, picking fights with other Agents, and mostly getting my posterior handed to me. When the fight is fair, the Dark Zone feels like a real hunting ground that rewards patient play and good positioning, but too often my plans were scuppered by a squad of Rogues who could surround and kill my buddy and I in a matter of seconds. Thankfully, there’s Manhunt status, which kicks in after the offending group slay one too many Agents, placing a hefty bounty on their head and marking their positions on the map for all to see. Within minutes the entire server has descended on the four doomed players, completely overwhelming them with firepower, and quickly retaking any ill-gotten loot. Once the Manhunt is over I stick with a couple of duos and as a makeshift gang of six we take it in turns to extract our loot, safe in the knowledge that we can defend ourselves should the Rogue squad return. The Dark Zone is a great story generator, but a few issues mar the experience, such as a tendency for AI enemies to spawn in right behind you when you’re in the middle of a skirmish. There’s also the inherent handicap you’ll face if you enter the DZ without a full complement of allies. Away from the Dark Zone there’s Conflict PvP, which can a fun distraction and pretty tense when the teams are evenly balanced. However, when they’re not balanced, and you’re up against a good squad with carefully constructed PvP builds, things can get very miserable. Gear normalization seems to have little effect when it comes to leveling the playing field, and while the rewards from Conflict are reasonably generous, there’s little about the experience that I find myself wanting to return to. Your build absolutely matters in PvP, and if investing tens of hours squeezing every last drop of damage out of your gear isn’t something you like the sound of, then you probably won’t find much joy here.

The best survival games are all about lacking power. They depict a struggle against a world that’s not only uncaring but actively trying to kill you. Where’s the fun in that? It’s usually found in the elation of making it to day 100, whereas before you could barely struggle to day 50 – you learned to tame the environment, better manage your resources, and how to more effectively fight off the immediate threats. These are games about incremental improvement, starting from weakness and growing slowly, from a sap to a survivor and typically nothing more. RPGs, on the other hand, are generally power fantasies. You start as the fated chosen one, or you end up becoming them, and your power is usually unparalleled. Whether you have the ability to turn into a dragon or possess magic blood, you’re often the most powerful being around, and the game world is built to reflect that. Outward is a game that attempts to intertwine these two diametrically opposed genres into one cohesive package. It’s an RPG world, but you don’t play as the hero. In fact, the game begins with me in debt and at risk of having my house repossessed. The first quest is to gather 150 silver so I can continue having a home. This puts a sizeable weight on the flimsy shoulders of my non-hero. It could be a great concept, and it is on paper, but Outward sets out at the wrong pace. This is a game that doesn’t really commit to either of the genres that have influenced it. Instead, it feels a lot like a sim game. The aim isn’t to survive for as long as possible. It’s clear that I’m not meant to save the world – well, at least not in the first ten hours. I just have to continue to exist while trying not to lose all of my health. But I can’t actually die. Even if my health runs out, I’ll awaken somewhere thanks to bandits having kidnapped me, or a mysterious stranger helping me out. This rarely feels good. On my first attempt, I get to the second area in the game, die, then wake up next to the city I was heading to. Hoorah, you might think, but you’d be wrong. I’m so woefully ill-equipped for the area that if an enemy so much as throws an eyelash in my direction I would once again wake up elsewhere, as if spirited away by Loki. If it comes to it then starting a new character is fine. Much like with any other RPG, you understand the systems better on your second attempt. So when I restart, I quickly pay off my debt, and then just mosey about for a bit. I buy a new backpack, some new armour, and even manage to amass a bit of wealth. I get to play around with the world a bit more. I even discover that the magic system lets you lay down runes to power up your feeble spells so you can turn sparks into fireballs. There’s a day-night cycle that has me genuinely losing my way at night, too. The map is static, and you have a compass, but with the landmarks obscured by the pitch black it becomes challenging to navigate. But, you know, challenging in a good way. Unlike some of the other oddities the game throws at you. Take the dialogue for example. What comes out of the mouth of each character never matches up to what’s written in the accompanying text boxes. Why? What kind of reasoning can there be behind that? The world is woefully inconsistent, too. A fall can strip your health entirely, but the same fall will do nothing to an enemy. Those enemies will also engage in fights with each other, but not if they see you first. Apparently I’m the town punch bag. The longer I spend with the game, the more I find these small missteps clawing at my enjoyment of Outward, or at least my Stockholm Syndrome. Plus, even the smallest iota of progress takes literally hours Crossing one of Outwards’ maps takes several unexciting minutes of battling against an ever-depleting stamina bar. The worlds just feel empty, and the survival systems can’t make up for it as they lack a proper sense of threat. Water is plentiful and food is easily won from the smaller fights against hyenas or foraged from bushes. And so you never truly feel in peril in Outward, just mildly inconvenienced. A good survival game has you constantly fearing for your life. If you look at Don’t Starve, you see a game that asks you to master the world in order to progress. You need to constantly keep an eye on your health, sanity, and shelter. Outward has none of that. The only time you really notice your hunger or thirst is after a nap. The quest design is peculiar as well. Once you’ve paid off your blood debt you’re faced with three new destinations. Having followed the path to a cult previously, I decided to head to the small town of Berg, where I then had to help out one of three people. I made a Flame Rag in order to appease one of the people who could vouch for me. After that, I expected to get my next quest. What could it be: a grand adventure to fetch rare materials, or a chance to fight a boss? No, my task was to wait for three days in order for the next step of the quest to begin. What am I supposed to do with so much unwanted spare time? Pacing is important in games as, without it, players can start to lose interest. The creators of Outward don’t seem to understand that. Then it occurs to me. Some games take skill, others take strategy. Outward only asks one thing of you and that is time. You don’t have to be good to get far in Outward. You don’t need to master tactics or clever positioning. You just need to invest an unholy amount of time into it. The game simply doesn’t respect your life outside of it. It has no interest in you as a player, only in itself as a machine to be fed minutes and hours. You can spend four hours working on getting new gear and walk away with a new pair of boots that might reduce the damage you take. It just isn’t worth it. There is some weird charm in how Outward delights in obfuscating progress. I supposed it’d work on me if there was nothing else to play. But there just isn’t enough here to warrant it when so many games do respect your time. If you truly want to give your all to one game then maybe Outward is for you. But, if you’re hoping for a game that you can jump into for a few hours, then actually going outward is a better choice. The only thing that’s truly enjoyable in this game is the music. It managed to send shivers down my spine at times, before launching into an epic orchestral piece that made me feel like Bilbo Baggins. That’s what Outward should be evoking – a grand, dangerous adventure. Instead, it seems constantly at odds with itself. The RPG elements aren’t quite there and neither are the survival elements. It’s a shame because the idea of Outward is enticing. Casting magic using runes, foraging for food, giant lightning bugs, and balancing a web of complex systems should be sweet. But it isn’t. Taken alone, the individual components of Outward all sound fascinating. But the execution is the gaming equivalent of walking into an incredibly messy room and then realising you have to clean it by yourself.

Name: Kode 0 Debut: 2017 Engine: 6.5-Liter V12 Specs: 690 Horsepower / 507 pound-feet Price: $1,500,000+ Before we talk about the car, we first have to talk about the man behind the car: Ken Okuyama. If that name sounds familiar, Okuyma is a career automotive design pro who spent much of his career at Pininfarina. He's credited in helping create vehicles like the original Acura NSX, Ferrari 599 GTB, Ferrari Enzo, Maserati Birdcage 75th Concept, and even the fourth-generation Chevrolet Camaro. Yes, that Camaro. But in 2006, Ken Okuyama left Pininfarina. And after a quick stint starting his own eyewear collection (dubbed Ken Okuyama Eyes collection), he created his first self-titled concept car: the K.O 7 Spider. He debuted the slinky, open-top two-seater in Geneva in 2008, kickstarting a lineage of impressive concepts and one-offs, including the one pictured here. Code To Success: The Lamborghini Aventador-based Kode 0 debuted at Pebble Beach in 2017. The fixed-roof successor to the equally stunning Kode57 Enji uses "dream car proportions" from classics like the Lamborghini Countach, Miura, and the Lancia Stratos Zero in its design. Okuyama implemented a "one motion" technique to create the Kode0's svelte profile. But aggressive details like the edgy front splitter, sharp LED headlights, triangular-shaped exhaust, and 21-inch wheels embody a stark contrast to the otherwise streamlined silhouette. Hiding under that sleek contour is a Lamborghini-sourced 6.5-liter V12 good for 690 horsepower (515 kilowatts) and 507 pound-feet (690 Newton-meters) of torque. With it, the Kode0 sprints to 62 miles per hour (0-100 kilometers per hour) in just 2.9 seconds. The Kode 0 also weighs in at just 3,417 pounds (1,550 kilograms), making it much lighter than the Aventador on which it's based (4,085 pounds / 1,852 kilograms). One And Done The Kode 0 was a hit at Pebble Beach. And it got even more attention visiting Jay Leno's Garage just a few months later; the video has garnered nearly 1.2 million views on YouTube. But Okuyama never intended to produce the Kode 0 on a mass scale. The lone Pebble Beach example cost its owner $1.5 million atop the cost of a new Aventador (about $400,000), and surprisingly, hit the classifieds soon after in 2018 with just 1,368 miles (2,201 kilometers) on the odometer. Though its retailer never revealed the final selling price, our best guess is that it went for more well over one million dollars considering the original allocation cost. It is an Okuyama design, after all. Gallery: Lamborghini Kode 0 By Ken Okuyama:

Certain beers could be considered “very healthy” thanks to the amount of gut-friendly bacteria they contain, according to scientists specialising in gut health. Professor Eric Claassen, who works at Amsterdam University, explained that strong Belgian beers, including Hoegaarden, Westmalle Tripel and Echt Kriekenbier, are rich in probiotic microbes that offer a range of health benefits. Presenting his research at an event held by probiotic drink maker Yakult, Professor Claassen said that unlike most mainstream beers, which go through a single fermentation process, these beers are fermented twice. The second fermentation not only creates a drier flavour and boosts the strength of the beer, but it also uses a different strain of yeast found in traditional pints. This strain of yeast produces acids that kill harmful bacteria in the gut that can make us ill. “You are getting a stronger beer that is very, very healthy,” he said. While the professor stressed that the research does not mean it’s OK to start guzzling pint after pint, it might mean that those who consume these beers in moderation could see major health benefits. “We don’t want to give people a licence to drink more beer,” he added. “Those of us who advocate good health know it’s very difficult for people to stop at one. “In high concentrations alcohol is bad for the gut but if you drink just one of these beers every day it would be very good for you.” The health benefits of probiotics are well-documented. While they can be found in foods such as yoghurt, kimchi and kefir, they are most commonly taken in capsule form as food supplements and are thought to restore the natural balance of bacteria in the gut after periods of illness, when taking a course of antibiotics might’ve irritated the stomach and intestines. The NHS claims that probiotics may also help reduce bloating and flatulence in IBS sufferers.

A 65-year-old man was shot dead on Thanksgiving by a booby trap he set up to protect his home from intruders. Ronald Cyr triggered the homemade device which fired a handgun at anyone attempting to enter through the door. He managed to dial 911 to report that he had been shot at the house in Van Buren, Maine on Thursday evening. Police and paramedics attempted to save his life but he died of his injuries. The state police bomb squad were also called after officers found a series of other unknown devices at the property in St Francis Avenue. Van Buren Police Department said that their investigation found that Mr Cyr had been “shot as the result of the unintentional discharge of one of his homemade devices” In a statement on its Facebook page, the force said: “Officers discovered that the front door of the residence had been outfitted with a device designed to fire a handgun should anyone attempt to enter the door.” The force did not reveal any further details about how Mr Cyr set off his own booby trap. Friends and neighbours paid tribute to Mr Cyr as a “great guy” who was “always there to help if you asked”. Last year an FBI agent was shot by a booby-trapped wheelchair as he attempted to enter a property in Oregon. And in 2013 a marijuana grower died after driving a quad bike into a booby-trap wire at his property in Albany, New York.

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All eyes are on Rome in the early Classical era. The superpower has rivals to the east in Egypt, Phrygia, and Macedon, and internal squabbling to contend with among its own aristocracy. With the threat of civil war never far over the horizon, mighty Rome nevertheless expands at a rate that’s terrifying to its enemies, swallowing Etruria to the northwest and Sabinia to the east within years. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away on the Indian subcontinent, a new ruler is appointed in Kamarupa. Bordering mighty Maurya, their potential for expansion is minimal. But what the highfalutin officials of Maurya don’t know is that Kamarupa couldn’t care less about aggressive expansion penalties. From this starting point, or dozens of others according to your nation of choice, an entire alternative history plays out in Imperator: Rome. And it does so in such flabbergasting detail that you could give an hour-long TED talk on each play session – if only you could find an auditorium of people enraptured by the diplomatic ebb and flow of your imaginary empire. Like its Clausewitz engine contemporaries Europa Universalis and Crusader Kings – and although I haven’t played Hearts of Iron, that too – Imperator: Rome is a historical strategy sandbox with vast scale and microscopic detail, It’s a game that fosters real fascination for the historical era it depicts, and despite those virtues, it’s a game that’s easy to get lost within and find yourself rudderless in a mess of menus and numbers. Not that this is anything controversial or out of the ordinary to say about a Paradox grand strategy game. Diehard fans of any of the aforementioned series would tell you that you get out of these games what you put in; invest the time and you’re richly rewarded later on for pushing past your early befuddlement. And I’m inclined to agree with that. I can’t imagine what else might have prompted me to research the Kamarupans in my free time, after all. Those on the flip side, however, the ones with 0.8 hours of Crusader Kings on their Steam accounts, would tell you that these Clausewitz Engine games buckle under the weight of their complexity and don’t do enough to let you in on their systems. I’m inclined to agree with that too. A tutorial does exist in Imperator: Rome, giving you the reins to Rome 450 years after its foundation and gently encouraging you towards a few empire management and expansion tasks. And in many ways it does convey the broad strokes of a proper campaign, but it also leaves out huge swathes of details and functions you’ll have to learn for yourself later on – or otherwise do some homework on YouTube. So it was that my Kamarupan power was thrust into the campaign with no explicit objectives. And, indeed, I had no real grasp of how well I was managing my empire for hundreds of years. Simple tasks such as invading another empire’s land require a very specific diplomatic approach – usually fabricating a claim to their land, then using that as an excuse to declare war, then occupying their land, and finally negotiating peace but demanding that occupied land in return. Imperator: Rome’s tutorial encourages you to invade other territories, but it doesn’t get into the weeds as to how to achieve it. Without prior knowledge of Paradox grand strategy games you’ll struggle to navigate protocols like this. There’s a huge amount of complexity to the numbers and systems that govern combat, and Imperator: Rome’s UI doesn’t do a stellar job of depicting it. It’s easy to miss the tactics selections of both your own army and that of your enemy, and the various buffs to certain units and attack types they create. It’s also difficult to get a read on how a battle’s actually going, dice roll by dice roll, because that data’s sandwiched away in an info-heavy battle screen. You could level the same criticism at many other aspects of Imperator: Rome. Your various currencies – money, manpower, civic, religious, and oratory power – have a complex relationship with your actions and with each other. It’s even possible to convert these powers into gold if you’re cash-poor, a bit like those cities you designate to farm gold in Civ at the expense of growth and happiness. They’re the lifeblood of the game, but there’s no easy way to get a visual overview of those relationships. You have to delve into a lot of menus, keep tabs on all the bonuses and penalties you’ve acquired, and figure out why you have them, in order to really stay on top of your empire. In many ways, that’s the game – it’s not supposed to be easy to preside over a Classical era superpower. But there’s a difference between mastering the inherent complexity of the task and wrestling the game into coughing up the info you need. This visual approach seems hard-baked into games running on this engine, but over in Stellaris there’s a more experimental and more easily understood method of giving you an overview of the many complicated systems interacting within your control. But if you have sufficient interest in the Classical era, and/or are sufficiently taken by the gorgeous world map – full of long-forgotten borders that thousands of men died for and featuring names you’ve never heard before – you push on. And Imperator: Rome rewards you for doing so. One of the best ways it does this is how it gives you random virtual dice rolls that form narratives about your subjects. I’ve had a consul who became depressed after freezing up at a public speech and losing reputation, who languished for years before eventually making a full recovery. I had another consul go stark raving mad, speaking in tongues and foaming at the mouth. Another one learned the secret of contentment, proclaiming to his court, “Simply stop wanting more.” The numerical impact of these micro-narratives wasn’t huge: my depressed consul dented my oratory power slightly, and my mad consul was a bit disloyal. Nothing to tear down a nation’s economy. But the stories stayed with me. It rewards you in the slow-burning accomplishments you tick off over time, too. Gaining new territory is a long and arduous task that requires plenty of planning and close micromanagement while you do all the actual war-waging business, the movement of troops, and diplomacy. So when you zoom out on the map and just look at how big your humble empire’s grown, the reward feels deeper than it might in a 4X game, where battles handle themselves and diplomacy is a softer touch. Inherently, it also rewards you with fluency in its systems. Since this is the sort of game played in tens of hours – perhaps hundreds – eventually your eye knows exactly where to look when you need to check what your relationship’s like with the Mercantile faction, or want to perform a ritual sacrifice to restore stability to your pops. So by virtue of it being a long-form experience, the reservations listed above do diminish over time. It’s like learning to drive, in that way. What a confounding and awkward thing a clutch pedal is when you first operate one. But how often do you even think about it after 100 hours behind the wheel? And without it, you wouldn’t have driven anywhere at all – unless you just bought an automatic. So it goes here: if you want to see the Classical era unfold in minute detail according to your actions on a beautiful world map, you need to spend a bit of time finding the biting point. It’s just a shame that Imperator: Rome can’t find a way to be more accessible without losing its wonderful depth – not everyone has the time or the attention span to glean the enjoyment on offer here from that imposing front end.

It seems that the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette's starting price of under $60,000 was just too good to be true. No, not for us, but for GM, and they're totally okay with that. A source from GM has talked to Motor Trend about an interesting revelation; GM will continue to lose money on every all-new Chevrolet Corvette they sell under $80,000. The source also confirmed that the price of the 2020 Chevrolet Corvette would rise by 2021, with rumored additional increases in the following years. But would it be high enough to cover the costs in the long run? Gallery: 2020 Chevy Corvette Stingray Coupe most expensive version: We've heard about other manufacturers taking a risk by selling halo cars with weird specs or market pricing, taking a loss on them, and hoping that the bread and butter models take on the burden, so this isn't something totally new. What's interesting is the supposed strategy of GM. You see, according to the source, the budget set for the C8 project was pegged at $79,995, taking into consideration the new configuration and redesign. This is a huge jump from the previous C7 pricing, and in order for customers not to complain, Chevy is okay with taking the loss. They're also hoping that with an extensive list of accessories and extra bits, buyers would turn their $60,000 Corvette into something a little bit closer to $80,000. Also important is the pricing for the upcoming Z06 and ZR1. The Source says that the sweet spot for profit and sales volume is between the $80,000 and $100,000 mark. Naturally, once the car breaks into the more expensive six digit territory, volume drops considerably. We just have to wait and see how Chevrolet and GM play the game with their high price, low volume cars, and hope they don't ruffle too many feathers or lose too much on a risk.

This year, summery floral patterns and prints won’t be wilting as we descend into the winter months. Dark, moody floral homewares and accessories are this season’s must-haves, and there are many ways to incorporate the trend into every room in the house. Although not overwhelmingly renowned for his interior design acumen, in the essay “Return to Tipasa” (1952), Albert Camus writes beautifully about an insurmountable happiness within himself: “In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was within me an invincible summer.” As a big fan of the brooding philosopher, I hate to trivialise this sentiment, but there is something to be said for acknowledging in yourself an invincible summer as the nights draw in, not relinquishing joyous, playful florals to the annals of SS19. The simplest way to add a floral hit to your home is through accessorising to bring in accent patterning. Liberty’s interiors emporium on the third floor of the Fitzrovia department store has just welcomed Floribunda, a new collection by 12 leading female designers and advocates of the year-long floral. The dynamic, chintzy range features contrasting gingham and Liberty print cushions by Edit 58, hand painted glassware by Petra Palumbo and embroidered floral napkins by Cressida Jamieson. Switching up your lampshades to honour the winter floral is also an option, as included within the collection are Liberty-print inspired lampshades by Frances Costello and a selection of Matilda Goad’s insta-famous scalloped table lamps. Bryony Sheridan, Liberty’s Interiors Buyer, says: “Floribunda is a celebration of maximalist interiors and florals - our print has long set the standard for bold and artistic design. Life shouldn’t be bland - it should be full and spirited.” Floral ceramics are also fantastic for accessorising with such patterns, and there is a plethora on the market. Mix and match with vintage or charity shop finds, or invest in a beautiful dinnerware set from Burleigh or Zsuzsanna Nyul, who is also represented within the Floribunda collection at Liberty. Alison Howell, Design Development Manager at Burleigh, says: “Gone are the days of simple, minimalist dinnerware. Break out your boldest floral patterned tableware. It may seem counter intuitive but even simple dishes look better on a dark, lush pattern. It even makes the chucked-together-in-three-minutes-salad feel like an event, especially when dining in during the longer evenings.” Accessorising with artwork is an undervalued way of adding pattern into the home. We often discuss the ways art can bring personality and colour to a space, but its capacity for adding pattern is overlooked. Floral artworks will lift the mood of the space, and often fill the niche of a real bouquet. Andrew Martin’s ever-expanding gallery of artwork is a great place to start, as is Anthropologie for more painterly styles. For more contemporary options, Partnership Editions has a range of artists in its portfolio that make beautiful floral art, including Julianna Byrne and Camilla Perkins. For those that want to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to the winter floral, the breadth and diversity of exquisite fabrics, wallpapers and furniture available is impressive. Mind the Gap, a Transylvanian design brand, offers a captivating range of maximalist options. Its new collection, Transylvanian Manor, is truly a floral fancy of wallpapers, printed velvets and linens, celebrating the illustrious history of Romanian nobility in the 16th Century and the beauty of Renaissance-style gardens. The new range has been designed to be layered, meaning you needn’t limit yourself to a statement sofa or wallpaper, but can create depth by combining and clashing prints and colours. Sofa Workshop’s floral upholstery offering has become even more exciting with its recent collaboration with the V&A. The British sofa manufacturer has partnered with the leading museum of art and culture to produce a range of fabrics and new models inspired entirely by the archives. Within the new collection are some fabulously vibrant yet classical floral fabrics that lean towards chintz with a contemporary twist. Jodie Hatton, Creative Designer at Brintons, believes that you should treat your floor as a fifth wall and experiment with pattern and colour where you least expect it. The carpet manufacturer’s new collaborations with Timorous Beasties and Laura Ashley have been incredibly successful, and it has reported a dramatic rise in sales since the introduction of these dark floral options. Another unexpected way to introduce a statement floral into your home is through some new floral bedlinen. Your bed takes up much more space, physically as well as emotionally, than you might expect it to. You want to ensure it looks inviting and relaxing, but it’s also crucial to realise that the linen you choose will have a huge impact aesthetically. A double bed, in many spaces, can have the same dimensions as one of the four walls of your bedroom, so it’s important to consider what pattern you choose. Especially for renters, choosing floral bedlinen is a much more viable way to incorporate this trend over buying a new sofa, fitting carpet or hanging wallpaper. Sheridan’s Autumn Winter collection is a melange of painterly florals, inspired by Australian wildlife and the robust architecture of magnolia petals, while John Lewis also has a range of almost gothic, blooming floral bedlinen designs in partnership with Designers Guild. It seems the design world isn’t quite ready to let go of floral homeware as we edge towards the festive period. New collection launches suggest the end of summer does not necessitate the end of beautiful floral home buys, so let’s embrace the invincible summer within and start with some scatter cushions...

President Donald Trump‘s decision to nominate an official involved in the Pentagon‘s post-9/11 use of harsh interrogation techniques to the State Department’s top human-rights post has sparked a standoff in the Senate that has extended a nearly three-year vacancy in a key diplomatic position. Mr Trump’s nomination in January of Marshall Billingslea as undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights raised immediate alarms among the activists and former government officials who believe his confirmation would send a dismal message about America’s commitment to human rights abroad. A September confirmation hearing has intensified those concerns, with several officials accusing Mr Billingslea of improperly minimising his role in the interrogation debate inside of the George W Bush administration. From 2002 to 2003, Mr Billingslea served as the Pentagon’s point man on military detainees housed at Guantanamo Bay under defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In that position, according to a 2008 Senate report, he played a role in promoting interrogation techniques that congress later banned as torture – including the use of hoods or blindfolds, sleep deprivation, prolonged standing, the shaving of beards, the removal of clothing and the use of military dogs to intimidate detainees. “To put it mildly, I believe that Mr Billingslea is one of the worst possible candidates for this critical senior leadership role overseeing human rights policy for the Department of State,” wrote Thomas Romig, a retired major general who at the time in question served as judge advocate general of the Army, in a recent letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Trump administration and key congressional Republicans have stood by the nomination, however, arguing that Mr Billingslea’s role in the approval of the torture techniques has been overstated and that he has been an aggressive and effective advocate in his current position as the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for terrorist financing – a position that, in light of the State Department vacancy, has effectively made him the top US official travelling the world opposing corruption and promoting human rights. Among those vouching for Mr Billingslea is Juan Guaidó, the leader of the Venezuelan opposition to president Nicolás Maduro, who praised Mr Billingslea in a September letter to the Senate for leading the US effort to sanction members of the Maduro regime. “Mr Billingslea has been on the front lines fighting against human rights abuses and corruption around the world,” treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. “From leading the charge against hunger profiteers in Venezuela, to thwarting Hezbolloh’s exploitation of Lebanon and calling to account systemic corruption in South Sudan, Mr Billingslea has been instrumental in advancing human rights globally and is more than equipped to continue this charge ... at the State Department.” But the nomination remains in limbo. Following the 19 September hearing, in which Mr Billingslea faced sharp questioning about his record and repeatedly denied being an “advocate for torture”, senator Robert Menendez, accused Mr Billingslea of having “misrepresented his role” on interrogation policy and called on the Pentagon to declassify and release additional records related to his tenure as principal deputy assistant secretary of defence. The concerns have been bipartisan: Kentucky senator Rand Paul, also expressed misgivings about Mr Billingslea’s Pentagon record at the hearing and has joined Democrats in requesting more documents. If party lines otherwise hold in the closely divided Foreign Relations Committee, Paul could block the panel from favourably advancing the nomination to the Senate floor. Mr Paul said in a recent interview that he has asked the Trump administration for any documentation from Mr Billingslea’s time in the Pentagon showing “where he was arguing against widening the ability to do torture”. “I haven’t seen any of that yet, and unless I do, I’m very troubled,” he said. The Foreign Relations Committee has not moved forward with Mr Billingslea’s nomination since the hearing. In a brief interview earlier this month, chairman James Risch said he supported Mr Billingslea’s confirmation but declined to say when he plans to move forward with it. “I think that he’s laid out exactly what the situation was, and everybody has to vote on it the way they think is appropriate,” he said. The post of undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights has been vacant since Mr Trump took office in 2017. It was established during the Obama administration to consolidate various State Department bureaus with the intention of creating a voice in the top echelon of the Foggy Bottom bureaucracy to promote those interests alongside, and occasionally against, the more transactional concerns that hold sway elsewhere in the foreign policymaking bureaucracy. “The very fact that there hasn’t been an undersecretary arguing for these positions has allowed for them to lose out in many a policy debate thus far,” said Rob Berschinski, who served as a deputy assistant secretary of state and now serves as senior vice president of policy for Human Rights First, a group opposing Mr Billingslea’s confirmation. “From the human rights community, people are very interested in having that position filled, but only with somebody whose background would allow them to speak authoritatively on the issues,” he said. Mr Billingslea and his allies have argued that his work in the Treasury Department has made him singularly qualified for the more senior State Department position, pointing to his extensive global travels promoting anti-corruption and human-rights issues and his work to impose financial sanctions on members of rogue regimes. The conservative foreign policy establishment has praised his work targeting the regimes in Venezuela and Iran with sanctions, as well as people associated with abuses in Myanmar, Nicaragua, and other countries. They have also defended him against attacks on his Pentagon record and noted that mR Billingslea’s Treasury nomination was supported by the late senator John McCain the pre-eminent congressional voice criticising the Bush administration’s use of torture. “In my years knowing Mr Billingslea, I have found him to be open-minded, a person of immense integrity, committed to human rights of all people, dedicated to upholding our laws and thoroughly devoted to the values Americans hold dear,” said Toby Dershowitz, a senior vice president at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Political disagreements are legitimate and part of America’s tradition. But I have found the other objections some have put forth to be unfounded.” To human rights advocates, Mr Billingslea’s record at Treasury is besides the point: If named to the State Department post, they argue, he will simply lack the credibility to advocate for his portfolio inside the Trump administration and abroad. “The senior most US official responsible for human rights policy should be disqualified if they have a pro-torture background – that is not a high bar,” Mr Berschinski said. “He’s not going to have any credibility walking into a foreign ministry in Beijing or Riyadh or Cairo. He’ll get the exact same message: Who are you to lecture me?” At his confirmation hearing, Democrat senator Ben Cardin, asked Mr Billingslea how he would handle just that scenario, where he was confronted on his credibility by a foreign counterpart who raised his torture record. Mr Billingslea said that he would “advocate for and respect” congress’s 2015 decision to ban torture techniques across the government. “We have to talk to our counterparts about the fact that we are a nation of law, and we learn from our mistakes, and we evolve,” he said. “And therefore, we will expect that other countries understand this and learn with us on these matters.” But Mr Billingslea’s other claims at the hearing, suggesting that he was merely a bureaucratic functionary relaying decisions up the chain of command, only intensified the criticism from officials he dealt with at the time. Mr Romig, in his letter, said Mr Billingslea “went out of his way to advocate for using abusive interrogation techniques against detainees in our custody ... despite being told that his positions were wrong, counterproductive, and unlawful by a group of senior military lawyers.” Mark Fallon, a former senior Naval Criminal Investigative Service official who opposed the use of torture techniques as a leader of an investigative task force at Guantanamo, said the decisions Mr Billingslea supported contributed to the difficultly of bringing its detainees to justice and closing the facility for good. “Marshall Billingslea was our biggest obstacle within the Pentagon trying to dissuade policymakers from going down a road that we believed was illegal, immoral and ineffective and would derail the ability to bring forth justice,” he said. “So it’s disingenuous for him to claim that he was some type of passive participant.” The lead investigator for the 2008 Senate Armed Services Committee report, Joseph M Bryan, also disputed Mr Billingslea’s claim that he “never supported torture nor anything resembling torture” in a letter sent to the Foreign Relations panel the day after the hearing. “The record established in the [2008 Senate] investigation does not support that assessment,” Mr Bryan wrote, adding that Mr Billingslea recommended “interrogation techniques that included, among other measures, hooding detainees, slapping them, and threatening to transfer them to a third country that the detainee was likely to fear would subject him to torture or death”. Benjamin Haas, an attorney for Human Rights First who has advocated against Mr Billingslea’s nomination, said the post-hearing outcry should give the Senate pause. “As if Mr. Billingslea’s pro-torture record isn’t bad enough, it’s shocking that he also brazenly misled the Senate,” Haas said. “On this basis, senators should nix Mr Billingslea’s nomination.”

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