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Acer Predator Triton 16 was launched at this year's Computex 2023 expo in Taiwan as the latest addition to the company's gaming line. The new laptop is powered by up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. It has Windows 11 pre-installed and features a 16-inch IPS display with a metal chassis design. For thermal management, the gaming-focused laptop packs dual 89-blade cooling fans based on the 5th-Gen AeroBlade 3D Vortex Flow technology. The Acer Predator Triton 16 comes with an integrated fingerprint scanner for added security. The company has also announced a Wi-Fi 6E mesh router. Acer Predator Triton 16 price Price of Acer Predator Triton 16 (PT16-51) starts at $1,799.99 (roughly Rs. 1,48,900) and will be available in North America from September. It is confirmed to go on sale in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa starting in September with a price tag of EUR 2,299 (roughly Rs. 2,03,500 ) As of now, there is no information on the availability of the new gaming laptop in India. Acer Predator Triton 16 specifications The Acer Predator Triton 16 runs on Windows 11 and features a 16-inch (1,600x2,560 pixels) IPS WQXGA display with 240Hz refresh rate, and 500 nits of peak brightness. The display is rated to deliver 100 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. The display has narrow bezels and it supports Nvidia's Advanced Optimus technologies and G-Sync, for improved performance during gaming. The machine has a metal casing and has 19.9mm thickness. Under the hood, the Acer Predator Triton 16 is powered by up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. The laptop can be configured with up to 32 GB of DDR5 memory and there are storage options up to 2TB PCIe M.2 SSD. It supports Nvidia's deep learning super sampling (DLSS 3) that multiplies performance with the help of AI to create new frames and display higher resolution. It also comes with Max-Q technology for optimising power. Acer has also improved upon the thermal capabilities of the Predator Triton 16. The company is using a dual fan system with 5th gen AeroBlade 3D metal fans for enhanced heat dissipation. Acer's Vortex Flow technology which consists of dedicated heat pipes and exhaust vents is claimed to ensure heat emission to keep the machine running at peak performance. The keyboard of the Acer Predator Triton 16 has per-key RGB lighting and gets Intel Killer DoubleShot Pro technology with WiFi 6E 1675i. Connectivity options on the laptop include a USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt 4, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and a microSD card reader. It also includes a fingerprint reader with Windows Hello for authentication. Besides the Predator Triton 16, Acer has unveiled a Connect Vero W6m mesh router. The Wi-Fi 6E router's chassis is claimed to be made of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials. It is powered by a quad-core MediaTek A5 processor with 1GB LPDDR RAM and 4GB of storage. It is said to deliver speeds of up to 7.8Gbps and can also be paired with up to 4 units simultaneously. Acer also announced the expansion of developer tools for its SpatialLabs technology. This would enable developers from various industries to utilize SpatialLabs Pro devices when creating stereo 3D content and applications. https://www.gadgets360.com/laptops/news/acer-predator-triton-16-price-usd-1799-launch-specifications-sale-september-wifi-6e-router-features-4078565

Neural radiance fields (NeRFs) are advanced machine learning techniques that can generate three-dimensional (3D) representations of objects or environments from two-dimensional (2D) images. As these techniques can model complex real-world environments realistically and in detail, they could greatly support robotics research. Most existing datasets and platforms for training NeRFs, however, are designed to be used offline, as they require the completion of a pose optimization step that significantly delays the creation of photo realistic representations. This has so far prevented most roboticists from using these techniques to test their algorithms on physical robots in real-time. A research team at Stanford University recently introduced NerfBridge, a new open-source software package for training NeRF algorithms that could ultimately enable their use in online robotics experiments, This package, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, is designed to effectively bridge ROS (the robot operating system), a renowned software library for robotics applications, and Nerfstudio, an open-source library designed to train NeRFs in real-time. "Recently members of my lab, the Stanford Multi-robot Systems Lab, have been excited about exploring applications of Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs) in robotics, but we found that right now there isn't an easy way to use these methods with an actual robot, so it's impossible to do any real experiments with them," Javier Yu, the first author of the paper, told Tech Xplore. "Since the tools didn't exist, we decided to build them ourselves, and out of that engineering push to see how NeRFs work on robots we got a nice tool that we think will be useful to a lot of folks in the robotics community." NeRFs are sophisticated techniques based on artificial neural networks that were first introduced by the computer graphics research community. They essentially create detailed maps of the world by training a neural network to reconstruct the 3D geometry and color of the scene captured in a photograph or 2D image. "The problem of mapping from images is one that we in the robotics community have been working on for a long time and NeRFs offer a new perspective on how to approach it," Yu explained. "Typically, NeRFs are trained in an offline fashion where all of the images are gathered ahead of time, and then the NeRF of the scene is trained all at once. In robotics, however, we want to use the NeRF directly for tasks like navigation and so the NeRF is not useful if we only get it when we arrive at our destination. Instead, we want to build the NeRF incrementally (online) as the robot explores its environment. This is exactly the problem that NerfBridge solves." NerfBridge, the package introduced by Yu and his colleagues, utilizes images captured by the sensors and cameras integrated in physical robots. These images are continuously streamed into Nerfstudio's powerful NeRF training library, enabling the creation of NeRFs that are constantly updating themselves and improving as the robot captures new images of its surroundings. To demonstrate the potential of their method, Yu and his colleagues used it to train a NeRF based on images captured by a camera mounted on a quadrotor, a drone with four rotors, as it flew around in both indoor and outdoor environments. Their results were remarkable, highlighting the value of NerfBridge for facilitating the use of NeRFs in robotics research. This promising method could thus soon be used by other researchers to train NERFs and test their algorithms on physical robots as they navigate their surrounding environment. Meanwhile, Yu and his colleagues plan to explore additional strategies that could broaden the use of NeRFs in robotics. "Ultimately, we hope that NerfBridge will lower the barrier of entry for other researchers to start looking at applications of NeRFs in robotics, and to test their new algorithms on robots in the real world," Yu added. "Moving forward from NerfBridge, we are going to be looking into methods for improving NeRF training when images come streamed from a robot and demonstrating the concrete advantages of using NeRF-based maps for other tasks in robotics like localization and navigation." https://techxplore.com/news/2023-05-software-package-ease-neural-radiance.html

Lian Li, which makes some of the best PC cases, is rolling out a set of four new chassis this week at Computex 2023, with each having glass on two or even three sides. The company is also showing off a brand new case fan that has an LCD screen in the middle, something we haven't seen before. The O11 Vision, shown on the left in the lead image, has glass on its front, left side and even on the top. There isn't even a support beam in the front left side to block your view. The top panel is a one-way mirror that makes reflections on the inside of the case but is see-through from the outside. You can attach a 240mm radiator and have it vent out of the back. There's also a removable motherboard tray. The O11D Evo RGB, shown at right in the lead image, has a seamless glass view from the front and left side. However, the top can be used to mount radiator fans and case fans can vent out of the bottom or the back. It also has diffused RGB strips on the top and bottom. The O11D Evo XL, shown below, is an e-ATX case with class on both the front and left sides, along with a removable support column. The motherboard tray is height adjustable so you can change its position. The SUP 01 Concept case, shown below, is meant to be tall and thin. In order to achieve its svelte dimensions, you have to mount the GPU upright. It also has three tempered glass glass panels and room for fans to exhaust out the right side. The O11 Vision, O11D EVO RGB, and O11D EVO XL are all due out in Q3 for prices ranging from $139 to $244. The SUP 01 will come in Q4 for $144. Lian Li is also releasing some new coolers and case fans. The highlight is the UNI Fan 2nd Gen TL LCD. Like other UNI fans, this 120mm spinner can connect to its siblings magnetically. However, what makes it stand out is that it has a a screen that can show animated GIFs, MP4 videos, still image or system information. The Uni Fan TL LCD will launch in Q3 for $129. According to Lian Li the screen size is still pending and could be either 2.1 or 1.6 inches. It will r un at up to 2,100 RPM. https://www.tomshardware.com/news/lian-li-computex-2023-case

The nation is days away from defaulting on its obligations. The Republican House speaker, pushed by conservatives in his party, demands deep spending cuts. The president, a Democrat, works on negotiating a package to avert a fiscal calamity. No, it’s not 2023. It’s 2011, when then-President Barack Obama agreed to a debt ceiling deal that called for more than $900 billion in upfront spending cuts and deficit reduction, as well as the creation of a joint congressional committee that would find at least $1.2 trillion in additional belt tightening. The situation is similar to the one President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president, is facing today. He and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, are pushing their parties to swiftly approve their agreement to address the current debt limit drama before the US could start missing payments on June 5. Today’s House Republicans may want to look back at the results of their predecessors’ hard-fought deal. Things didn’t proceed as planned, and a chunk of the reductions was ultimately pared back through a subsequent series of bipartisan bills. “Once Congress took a look at the programs and what was required, they realized they couldn’t make cuts that deep,” said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the right-leaning Manhattan Institute who was involved in the 2011 negotiations. What happened after the 2011 deal was signed The joint committee in 2011 was tasked with finding additional deficit reduction measures to offset a $1.2 trillion increase in the debt ceiling. If members failed in their mission, automatic cuts that would slow the growth of expected spending would kick in over the next decade. The committee did not accomplish its goal, which triggered the spending caps, known as sequestration. However, Congress then watered down the deficit reduction provisions by repeatedly increasing the caps on discretionary spending in the following years – though lawmakers also included other measures to offset some of those changes. “We basically unwound this bill little by little,” said John Diamond, director of the Center for Public Finance at Rice University’s Baker Institute. In the end, spending was curtailed by about $1.5 trillion out of the total $2.1 trillion agreed to in the 2011 deal, Riedl said. This included $855 billion in cuts to discretionary spending over the decade. The reductions affected agencies and programs, including defense, education, justice and the Internal Revenue Service, among others. The deal also slapped a 2% cut in payments to Medicare providers as part of reductions to mandatory spending programs. Today’s deal Fast forward to 2023. One of the major sticking points to ending the debt ceiling impasse was the depth of the spending cuts. The Biden administration had balked at returning spending to fiscal 2022 levels, which the Republicans included in their debt ceiling bill earlier this year, while McCarthy’s team held firm. In the end, the deal announced over the weekend calls for non-defense discretionary spending to be pared back for fiscal 2024, but certain agreed-upon appropriation adjustments would make up nearly all of the difference. Non-defense spending would rise just 1% in fiscal 2025. One important distinction between 2011 and today is that the spending caps back then were Plan B, said Warren Payne, a senior advisor at Mayer Brown, a law firm, who was a senior Republican staffer on the House Ways and Means Committee in 2011. “People were operating under the presumption that the spending caps would never actually happen,” Payne said. Now, the spending caps are among the GOP’s top priorities – and McCarthy succeeded in not limiting funding for defense and not raising taxes, unlike in 2011, he said. But even if Congress passes this debt ceiling package, House Republicans may find it difficult to adhere to the caps when it comes time to actually appropriate funding for the federal government’s operations later this year. “It’s reasonable to expect that at the end of the day, we would end up with the same pressures to increase spending,” Diamond said. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/05/30/politics/debt-ceiling-obama-spending-cuts/index.html

NEW DELHI (AP) — Three cheetah cubs born to a big cat that was brought to India from Africa last year died in central India’s Kuno National Park in the past week, forest officials said, as a heat wave in the region sent temperatures soaring. The cubs were the first to be born in India in more than seven decades. Once widespread in India, cheetahs became extinct in 1952 from hunting and habitat loss. Their mother was among the 20 cheetahs that India flew in from Namibia and South Africa as part of an ambitious and hotly contested plan to reintroduce the world’s fastest land animal to the South Asian country. The first cub died on Tuesday, prompting veterinarians in the national park in Madhya Pradesh state to closely monitor the mother and her three remaining cubs. The cubs appeared weak on Thursday afternoon — a day when temperatures spiked to 47 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) — and authorities intervened to help the cats. They were “weak, underweight and highly dehydrated” and two of them later died, forest officials said in a statement Thursday. The last surviving cub is being treated in a critical care facility. Political Cartoons Officials didn't say what caused the deaths but a scorching heat wave in India is believed to have weakened the cubs. The survival rate of cheetah cubs both in the wild and captivity is low, according to experts. The cats were introduced with much fanfare and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the cats would catalyze efforts to conserve India's neglected grasslands. But of the 20 adult cheetahs imported to India, three — two females and a male — have died. Fewer than 7,000 adult cheetahs remain in the wild globally, and they now inhabit less than 9% of their original range. Shrinking habitat, due to the increasing human po[CENSORED]tion and climate change, is a huge threat. ___ Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. https://www.usnews.com/news/news/articles/2023-05-26/three-cheetah-cubs-die-in-india-amid-sweltering-heat-wave

The Volkswagen ID.Buzz that's coming to the U.S. is teased ahead of next week's debut on Friday, June 2. VW today released a teaser image of the van's front end shrouded in darkness. With the ID.Buzz making its global reveal last March, we've seen what it looks like and know many details about the upcoming American version. The original Volkswagen Type 2 Microbus is a cultural icon, and that's helped fuel interest in the modern interpretation, which was finally revealed to the world back in March 2022. Called the ID.Buzz, the fully electric van is already on sale in other markets, but the version that's coming to the U.S. has yet to make its debut. VW today released a teaser image of the 2025 ID.Buzz's shrouded front end, with the American model scheduled to be revealed via livestream on Friday, June 2. Normally teaser photos are an attempt to build anticipation of a newly designed vehicle, but in this case, most of the buzz around the ID.Buzz's looks has subsided since pictures of its retro-styled exterior and spacious, versatile interior have been visible online for over a year. Still, today's tease is another reminder that the Microbus's successor is that much closer to hitting U.S. roads. While the teaser doesn't tell us anything new about the American ID.Buzz, here's what we know so far. It will have a stretched wheelbase and three rows of flexible seating for seven. Its EPA-estimated driving range is currently unknown, but the van is expected to travel around 260 miles per charge. Customers will have the option to choose between a single-motor, rear-drive powertrain or a more powerful dual-motor, all-wheel-drive setup. Since the ID.Buzz rides on the same Modular Electric Drive (MEB) platform as the VW ID.4 SUV, its likely the van will also share electric motors, meaning the rear-drive model could have 201 horsepower and the all-wheel-drive variant could have 295 horses. Pricing for the U.S. is another question mark, but we think the ID.Buzz will start somewhere in the neighborhood of $40K. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a44016943/vw-id-buzz-microbus-us-debut-june-2/

The Miami Heat halted the Boston Celtics' remarkable fightback in the Eastern Conference Finals, clinching the deciding match 103-84 to reach the NBA finals. Jimmy Butler starred, scoring 28 points, seven rebounds and six assists, as the Heat, who led the seven-game series 3-0 before being pegged back to 3-3, reached this year's showpiece. The first eighth seeds to reach the finals since the New York Knicks in 1999, the Heat will play the the Denver Nuggets in the best-of-seven finals. Game one will be played in Denver on Thursday (01:30 BST Friday). Derrick White's dramatic buzzer-beater in game six had tied the series, giving the The Celtics hope of becoming the first side in NBA history to overturn a 3-0 deficit in a play-off final. But alongside Butler's efforts, Caleb Martin scored 26 points and Bam Adebayo recorded 12 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as the Heat silenced a passionate Boston crowd. Butler, 33, was named MVP of the series after averaging 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists. "We stayed together as a group," he said. "We talked about going to get a tough one on the road and we did just that. [My team-mates] are the reason we're here. I know how good a team we are and we made it happen." Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said he never doubted his squad's resilience. "Sometimes you have to suffer for the things you really want," he said. "This group has shown fortitude when there are inevitable let-downs and failures, but had that perseverance to pick yourself up, that collective spirit to keep on forging ahead." The Heat are seeking a fourth NBA title and first since 2013, while The Nuggets, who beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference play-offs, are in search of a maiden championship. https://www.bbc.com/sport/basketball/65751622

Scouted as a model in her 60s, at first Saskia Sarginson found it difficult to see herself as anything but ‘a granny’. Here, she shares what shifted her perspective – and explains why older women are no longer invisible Saskia Sarginson Sun 28 May 2023 12.00 BST Ihate having my picture taken. As soon as the lens finds me, I freeze. I’m not part of the selfie generation. I’m old school. I don’t document my every move with photographic evidence of me living my best life, my face angled just so to catch the light. As soon as someone whips out an iPhone, I frown and duck. So, it’s odd that on this grey London day I’m sitting in a studio looking down a large lens with several people gathered behind it, scrutinising the real me, and then looking at the frighteningly large image of me appearing on a screen behind the camera, whispering about what they see and pointing at parts of my face. A year ago, while walking my dogs in my local park, a young woman approached me with a business card. “I’d like you to join my modelling agency,” she said. “Who? Me?” I said, aware that I was over 60, dressed in muddy jeans with no makeup on and dirty hair. “Er… I don’t think so,” I told her. “I’m a granny,” I added, as if that explained everything. But it turns out older faces are in demand. My wrinkles could actually earn me money. It turns out that being over 60 and a granny and a model are not mutually exclusive After a few minutes of existential angst I decided that – hell, yes, I could. I’d be mad to turn down the chance of what seemed to me at the time to be free money. The life of an author (unless they go by the title of JK Rowling) is very similar to the myth of the scribe in the garret, hunched over a flickering candle, pen in hand, hunger snapping at the door. There’s not really a living wage in it, which is why most writers, including me, supplement it with whatever they can get their hands on: teaching, editing, journalism. So why not modelling? I’m not proud, I thought, if they want me for a chairlift ad, I’ll do it. But as with all things that seem too good to be true, it was. The journey from being handed the card to the studio in London was not a speedy one. Part of the problem was that I went off to castings dragging impostor syndrome with me. As soon as I walked in the door, words of apology spilled out of my mouth. “I’m not really a model,” I’d confess to the receptionist, casting agent, or anyone who’d listen: “I’m a granny.” And I’d get up photos of the cherubic child on my screen to prove it. I felt that if I got it in first, it would save everyone the embarrassment of having to explain that I wasn’t wanted. Because, obviously, I was too old. I felt ridiculous, standing on a taped X in a dark room, being asked to repeat the same line over and over, about how fabulous my hair looked now that I’d used a particular product, which I’d been directed to show to the camera while expressing extreme joy. “Could you hold the tube the right way up, love?” “Could you not cover the name with your hand?” “Could you do that all over again without blinking?” Holding a tube up and smiling at the same time is surprisingly difficult. I got “heavy pencilled”, for jobs – a good thing. But the actual jobs themselves eluded me. My impostor syndrome grew garrulous – see, told you, you’re not a model, you’re a wrinkly fraud. “I’m not really a model,” I’d confess to the receptionist, casting agent, or anyone else who’d listen I won’t pretend that the rejections didn’t hurt, even if my impostor syndrome was lapping them up. Criticism and rejection are part of my day job. But there’s only so much of it a person can take. Still, I persisted; the thought of all that lovely cash and not wanting to disappoint my agent, spurring me on. Since the pandemic, lots of auditions are self-taped. And thank goodness for that, because embarrassment and self-respect are checked at the door while following instructions like: stare at a pretend dog and cry! Dance like nobody’s looking! Tell a funny story and bring lots of energy! My facial tics were scary on that one. And then came a live audition in which I had half my face painted in heavy-duty foundation. I felt quite glamorous while the makeup artist was dabbing away at my skin – but a quick glance in the loo mirror told me I looked like an unfinished ancient geisha girl. But I got the job. A real beauty job advertising makeup. As they didn’t let me know until the day before, I’d presumed it was another “no” and eaten my bodyweight in chocolate over the weekend. But they didn’t care about my spare tyre; they just wanted my face, wrinkles and all. Tell a funny story and bring lots of energy! My facial tics were scary on that one The job entailed having more makeup applied than I thought possible – all manner of bronzers and blushers and highlighters – and then false eyelashes, and black stuff inside my eyes, something called “top lining” I discovered. My reflection in the mirror peered back at me, a bit blurry without my glasses, but, wow, I thought, who knew what makeup could do? When my hair and makeup had been finished, an assistant handed me what appeared to be a white handkerchief: “You all right wearing this?” she asked airily. “What, you mean this belt?” “It’s a boob tube,” she explained, helpfully. The reply that crossed my mind was, “Honey, if I was a stone thinner and 30 years younger, maybe.” But out loud I tried for a more subtle, “Um. You know. Er. It’s not really… me.” We compromised on a flesh-coloured vest to be touched out later. Positioned on a stool close to the camera, I tried to remember the “smize” thing, smiling with your eyes, that I’d heard about on a reality TV programme. It’s quite hard to do under a tonne of makeup that’s making your eyeballs feel as if they’ve been rolled in vinegar. But I tried. My image popped up on a huge screen every time the photographer pressed the button. I could just glimpse myself on it – the expanse of my features magnified and then examined by three makeup artists, a hairdresser, the woman from the company, her assistant, the photographer and his assistant. They huddled over every shot, discussing in urgent whispers, then some of them would rush over and do things to me. At one point I had three people attending to my eyebrows with great concentration. It took at least 15 minutes. At one point I had three people attending to my eyebrows with great concentration. It took at least 15 minutes My impostor syndrome took over, of course, especially when they were considering my face and frowning. They’re wondering how to tell you to go home, the voice in my head sneered. They’ve booked you by mistake. But I got to the end of the day, and everyone had been kind and treated me like a professional. They removed my makeup and I left, feeling elated that I’d got away with it. Nobody realised I wasn’t a model, I thought in amazement, as I cycled away. It turns out that being over 60 and a granny and a model are not mutually exclusive. After all, a model just means to represent something, so why not older women? The UK po[CENSORED]tion is an ageing one, with more than 15.5 million people aged 50 and over. I don’t think that including older models (known as “mature”, as in cheese, or “classic”, as in car) is just a cynical move to pander to the Grey Pound – although that must be part of the strategy. I’m hopeful that it’s also a genuine recognition that women past childbearing age are not redundant. My own insecurities about my drooping jowls and crows-feet come from growing up in a world where young, wrinkle-free women with perfect features were held up as the only image worth aspiring to, the only look that had any value. But public perception changes over time and our understanding of identity has become more complex than ever before. Older women, once considered undesirable hags who should stay hidden, are finally being recognised and seen. Our wrinkles are proof that we’ve lived, learned, suffered, grieved, celebrated, and loved. They are marks of wisdom, strength and experience. We can shrug off the embarrassment that plagues younger people. “Who cares what anyone else thinks?” is something I hear my older friends say all the time. And that mindset gives freedom. We’ve often been perceived as a threat precisely because we’re not going to stay quiet and behave. Being asked to work as a model thrust me into a world where looks seemed to be the only currency that counted. I had to remind myself that I was representing my age group, not pretending to be 20, or even 40. Older women are a powerful force; they do so many important things, from providing childcare for grandchildren and volunteering to being CEOs and professionals of all kinds. We may not care about making fools of ourselves, but we do care about our health, looks and lives; we are a valuable part of our families, communities and, yes, the marketplace. We are not invisible. So, count me in; I’m up for modelling jobs – be it an ad for a chairlift or a faceful of makeup. But, if anybody wants me to wear a white boob tube, sorry, that won’t be happening. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2023/may/28/saskia-sarginson-could-my-wrinkles-earn-me-money

Russia has accused Ukraine of launching an early morning drone attack on Moscow, the first time the city has been targeted by multiple drones since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Russian defence ministry said Kyiv had staged a "terrorist attack" using at least eight drones and causing minor damage to several buildings. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said no-one was seriously injured. Ukraine has denied carrying out the drone strikes. Presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kyiv was not directly involved, but that Ukraine had enjoyed watching events unfold and predicted an increase in such incidents. Russia's defence ministry said all eight drones had been intercepted. "Three of them were suppressed by electronic warfare, lost control and deviated from their intended targets. Another five drones were shot down by the Pantsir-S surface-to-air missile system in the Moscow region," the ministry said. Follow live coverage Earlier Russian media reports had said as many as 30 drones were involved. Authorities have also said several of them fell on buildings after being downed. Mr Sobyanin said that some residents had been evacuated but were later allowed to return home. Two people had sought medical assistance, he said. The BBC's Russia editor Steve Rosenberg in Moscow heard an explosion in the distance at 06:24 local time (03:24 GMT) in north-west Moscow, with the windows of his home shaking from the blast. Another explosion was heard at 06:58, he says. Judging by the conversations on social media, a lot of people in the Moscow area heard the explosions too, he adds. For many in the Russian capital the war in Ukraine had been something that was happening a "long way away, it was something that they saw on television". The strikes on Moscow follow an overnight drone attack on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in which at least one person was reported killed. Ukrainian officials said falling debris set buildings on fire as Ukraine's air defences intercepted more than 20 drones. The head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Gen Kyrylo Budanov, had warned of a swift response to a series of Russian missile strikes on Kyiv. Dr Jack Watling, an expert on land warfare from the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that Ukraine had struck airfields in Russia before, but not the capital. An alleged drone attack on the Kremlin took place in early May. At the time, unverified footage circulated online showing smoke rising above the the complex, while a second video showed a small explosion above the site's Senate building. Russian authorities claimed it was an attack ordered by Kyiv, while Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky denied his country was involved in the incident. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65751632

The government is discussing plans for supermarkets to introduce a cap on the price of basic food items to help tackle the rising cost of living. A voluntary agreement with major retailers could see price reductions on basic food items like bread and milk. Food prices rose by 19.1% in the year to April - its second highest rate in 45 years. Downing Street sources have stressed that there are no plans for a mandatory price cap. The idea of a cap or freeze on basic food items, as first reported by the Daily Telegraph, is said to be at the "drawing board stage". Supermarkets are expected to be allowed to select which items they would cap and only take part in the initiative, modelled on a similar agreement in France, on a voluntary basis. Health Secretary Steve Barclay told BBC One's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that "this is about having constructive discussions with supermarkets about how we work together, not about any element of compulsion". He added that the government was also keen to protect "suppliers who themselves face considerable pressures". For Labour, shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth told the same programme that the reports were "extraordinary", saying "Rishi Sunak is now like a latter day Edward Heath with price controls". Why food bills aren't shrinking - five things to know Food prices 'worryingly high' as sugar and milk soar Some supermarket food prices 'should fall' soon However there is some doubt over what impact a price cap of food will have. The British Retail Consortium says that the government should focus more on cutting red tape rather than "recreating 1970s-style price controls". "This will not make a jot of difference to prices. High food prices are a direct result of the soaring cost of energy, transport, and labour, as well as higher prices paid to food manufacturers and farmers," says Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the BRC."As commodity prices drop, many of the costs keeping inflation high are now arising from the muddle of new regulation coming from government. Rather than recreating 1970s-style price controls, the government should focus on cutting red tape so that resources can be directed to keeping prices as low as possible." Earlier this week the boss of the Sainsbury's denied that his supermarket had been profiteering. Simon Roberts said his business was "absolutely not" putting prices up to bolster profits - known as "greedflation". He told the BBC that Sainsbury's and other grocery chains had spent money to "battle inflation" and avoid passing all of the rising costs onto consumers. The competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority, has said it will look at how the grocery market is operating. At a meeting with food manufacturers last week the chancellor Jeremy Hunt stressed widespread concern about prices and agreed to engage with the industry on possible measures to ease pressure on household budgets. Mr Hunt has said he would back an increase in interest rates if it curbed higher prices and soaring inflation - even if that risked plunging the UK into recession. "Businesses don't have a price cap like consumers do and yet some smaller businesses buy energy like consumers do so it's been really hard for them to keep going," Shevaun Haviland, director general of the British Chamber of Commerce, told the same programme. The rate of inflation can be calculated in various ways, but the main measure is the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) - which tracks the prices of everyday items in an imaginary "basket of goods". The last figure for CPI was 8.7% in the year to April, down from 10.1% in March and 11.1% in October. Soaring prices of some food products has meant inflation has not come down by as much as many predicted. Experts have warned that expensive food is set to overtake energy bills as the "epicentre" of the cost-of-living crisis. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65736944

Conservationists say forest areas that include 41,000 hectares of nationally important koala habitat have been identified for potential logging on the north coast of New South Wales in the region’s 12-month logging plan. The analysis, by the North East Forest Alliance, comes as pressure grows on the NSW government to cease logging of native forests after the Victorian government announced logging in its native forests would end in December, six years earlier than planned. “Both the NSW and commonwealth governments have got to stop logging in areas they have identified as the most important koala habitat,” Dailan Pugh, the president of the North East Forest Alliance, said. Beyond saving the koala: environmental challenges that will confront the next NSW government Read more Pugh analysed a supplementary report to the national koala recovery plan that identified areas of habitat that were considered of national importance. The threat status of koala po[CENSORED]tions in NSW and Queensland was upgraded to endangered in 2022 in recognition of the species’ continued decline due to land clearing and catastrophic bushfires. Pugh said 41,000 hectares of nationally important koala habitat was found in compartments identified for potential logging on the north coast, including areas of the proposed great koala national park and large areas of forest outside it such as Double Duke state forest. He said about 9,000 hectares of this were in areas where there was active logging. “These areas continue to be logged despite being identified as the most important koala habitat we know of,” he said. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup The analysis also references a 2017 report by the NSW environment department that identified “koala hubs” – significant areas of koala habitat – in the state and notes state governments had not acted since that time to protect these areas. The Greens MLC Sue Higginson, who has attended forest protests in northern NSW, called on the “NSW and federal Labor governments to act immediately to protect the 40,000 hectares of nationally important koala habitat”. She said the Victorian government had set an example to follow. “Koalas are listed as threatened with extinction at both the state and federal level and without intervention will be extinct in NSW by 2050,” she said. “The NSW government has all of the tools and information that they need to end native forest logging now, at a very minimum they need to work with their federal colleagues to protect vital koala habitat from profitless logging.” Guardian Australia revealed this week that the Perrottet government found native logging could be ended in NSW without costing the budget. The new NSW environment minister Penny Sharpe said Labor had committed to no logging moratoriums before the election and “I stand by that promise”. “The government wants to create the Great Koala national park as soon as possible. During the election we laid out a process for its creation.” As the process is being established, the [Environment Protection Authority] is engaging with Forestry Corporation of NSW to encourage them to take a precautionary approach to conducting forestry operations in areas with highly suitable koala habitat.” Federal environment minister Tanya Plibersek said regional forest agreements would have to comply with new national environmental standards being developed as part of broader reforms to national environmental laws. “We are committed to reforming Australia’s environment laws. These laws are broken,” she said, adding native forests were valuable for their carbon storage and habitats. “Endangered animals like koalas, Leadbeater’s possums and greater gliders are all affected by native logging,” she said. “We also know there are economic benefits from protecting native forests. It can increase carbon storage and water production, allow for co-management with First Nations and create jobs through feral animal control and forest restoration.” A spokesperson for the NSW forestry corporation said its operations went through detailed planning processes, including ecological surveys and mapping “to identify and protect environmental features”. “Each year around one per cent of the areas available for timber production are harvested and regrown, which in a normal year is about 10,000 hectares on the north coast including native forests and hardwood timber plantations,” they said. “Operations in native forests are always selective, thousands of habitat and feed trees are protected throughout operations specifically for koalas, and every tree harvested is regrown.” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/28/more-than-40000-hectares-of-nationally-vital-koala-habitat-marked-for-potential-logging-in-nsw

Want a Fiat 500? You'll be able to buy a brand-new 2024 Fiat 500e after November. But if you want an original, a company in Italy is doing restomods of the 1957–1975 classics. Builds start under $10,000—including the car—and Real Italian Cars is willing and able to ship completed cars anywhere in the United States. City-car fans, mark your calendars for November 2023. That's when Fiat North America is unveiling the American version of the 2024 500e. But as exciting as that is for buyers of stylish EVs—as well as Fiat's current U.S. lineup—it's not the only Cinquecento resurrection. A new company in Italy is building classic 500 restomods, and unlike Singer's 911s or Cyan Racing's Volvo P1800s, buying one won't require a second mortgage. It's hard to find clearer, more apt names in the automotive business than Real Italian Cars. Firstly, the new shop is headquartered in the Tuscan city of Lucca in Italy. Secondly, the business's focus is restoring an Italian automotive legend: the original Fiat Nuova 500. And thirdly, co-founders Amedeo Provenzali, Anthony Peacock, and Mattia Vita all have ties to Italian automotive culture. Vita, for example, is an active rally driver, and Peacock has consulted for Pirelli Media and written stories for numerous car publications. "We've been friends a long time," Peacock recently told Car and Driver over the phone, and he expressed their fondness for vintage 500s. Yet while "millions and millions of these Fiats were produced, they're a little bit of a dying breed," he said. The trio wanted to keep the ones that remained around, "to preserve something for the future." It started as a hobby, with the initial clients being mutual friends asking for repairs. But "without realizing it," he said, "we were trying to set up a business, one that encourages more people, particularly future generations, to get into classic car ownership." Regarding that business, Real Italian Cars takes on any 1957–1975 Fiat 500 model, from the base 500D all the way to the wonderfully wicker-seated open-air 500 Jolly. The shop's services range from simple cosmetic corrections as well as interior and engine work all the way to a full restoration or custom overhaul. That includes sympathetic modern touches like an Apple CarPlay–equipped stereo. And before you ask, yes, the shop has already gotten requests for Abarth re-creations. If you don't want to go full scorpion, you can also have Real Italian Cars swap the original air-cooled 499cc two-cylinder engine and crash gearbox for a Fiat 126 powertrain. That brings more grunt, courtesy of the bigger powerplant (594cc or 652cc, depending on the donor's model year) and gear synchros. Peacock's personal 500 has the 126 swap, and he attests, “The extra power and synchromesh really make a difference.” Considering a stock 1957 500 can't even hit 60 mph and has a quarter-mile time longer than some YouTube ads, we're inclined to believe him. Plus, thanks to the synchros, you don't need to grind and double-clutch to drive your classic car around town. All the better and easier to enjoy your daily dose of vintage dolce vita. It might be getting even easier in the future. Peacock told us that Real Italian Cars is currently prototyping and testing an EV-swapped Nuova 500 build. "The only thing that's been a headache so far are the brakes," he said, owing to the extra weight of the batteries. But otherwise, the classic Fiats "are perfect, perfect cars to become EVs," he claims, due to their simple mechanical nature. If all goes well, the EV conversion option might be available by the end of summer 2023. If that schedule holds, come November, there'll be two electric Fiat 500 options to choose from in the U.S. You read that right: Real Italian Cars is taking orders from American clients and can even arrange shipping. Peacock said the company already has someone from Florida requesting a build, as well as a California resident who wants to take an Italian summer road trip in his new little Fiat. While the registration process for a restored 1957–1975 500 will vary from state to state, these cars are all good under the 25-year rule. So are all but the last of the 126s, while the earliest ones are exempt from California's smog inspections. Basically, if you have the money, you shouldn't have a problem driving one of these restomods in the U.S. Speaking of money, you won't need crazy amounts of it. As was the case when the business was just a hobby for friends, you're paying "mates' rates" (Real Italian Cars has a base in London, we can use U.K. slang). The shop's builds start at €9000; that's about $9800 at today's exchange rates. That includes the cost of the donor car. As with other restomod operations, the more you customize, the more you pay. And starting prices vary based on the specific 500 model. An original Jolly restoration, for example, starts at a little over $27K. But considering an original non-wicker Nuova 500 typically goes for $10,000 to $20,000 these days, these prices are surprisingly reasonable. We wonder how much re-creating Lupin III's 500 will cost? https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a43908286/fiat-500-real-italian-cars-accessible-classic/

The Monaco Grand Prix was a weekend of illusions. It started with a feeling within Formula 1 that this could be the race at which Red Bull could finally be threatened seriously by another team, perhaps even beaten. That sense lasted through qualifying and for a large part of the race, but in the end Max Verstappen and his car did what they always did - crushed those hopes under the sheer weight of their superiority. Before the race, it was perceived that Red Bull faced two potential threats. One was Ferrari, and particularly Charles Leclerc, and the other was Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin. Verstappen beats Alonso to win rain-affected Monaco Hamilton and Mercedes close to agreeing new deal No Alonso fairytale, but there's bromance in the air If Leclerc could put his Ferrari on pole - as he had the past two years in Monaco, as he had in fact at the Baku street circuit two races ago - perhaps he could hold on ahead of the Red Bulls for a win. And Alonso, outstanding all year, has a car whose strengths would be accentuated by Monaco and its weaknesses not exposed. Perhaps he could be the man to finally unseat Red Bull. The Ferrari challenge faded quickly. Even Leclerc's renowned skills on one lap, and especially on street tracks, were only good enough for third on the grid, which became sixth after a penalty for impeding in qualifying. That was the end of that. Alonso's threat lasted a good while longer. He was on pole until a spectacular final sector of his final lap from Verstappen wrested it from him. And in the race he was the only driver who kept in touch with Verstappen. Aston Martin chose an alternative tyre strategy that made life uncomfortable for Verstappen. And some even felt that had the team gone for intermediate tyres rather than slicks when they stopped on lap 54 as rain began to intensify around Monaco, Alonso might have taken the lead, for Verstappen had not pitted and faced a lap on a wet track on slick tyres. But that, too, was an illusion. Not fitting intermediates was a 'misjudgement' Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack admitted after the race that not fitting intermediates at that point was, in hindsight, "a misjudgement", although Alonso himself disagreed. But that's not the same as the decision making any difference to the outcome. The theory doing the rounds was that, had Alonso put on wet tyres at this point, with Verstappen still out on slicks and the rain coming down harder and harder and over more and more of the track by the second, the Spaniard might have made up enough time to be ahead by the time Verstappen had slithered around to the pits. This impression was heightened by the fact that Verstappen hit the barrier at Portier on that lap. The numbers give no clear answer. Verstappen was just over eight seconds ahead of Alonso when the Aston Martin pitted. The Spaniard gained a remarkable five seconds on his in-lap but even so that's a lot of time to bleed to lose the lead. And Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says that, according to their live data, even if the risk was there if things had gone badly wrong, Verstappen was never vulnerable. "We had enough margin that even five or six seconds off the pace we'd still have been three or four up the road," Horner said. "I was surprised they took the medium tyre, so that totally let us off the hook and then it was: 'OK, Max, just get it to the pits.'" However, a close look at what was going on suggests it could have been mighty close. Even on his fresh mediums, Alonso was four seconds quicker than Verstappen in his middle sector alone on his one lap on them. Yuki Tsunoda in the uncompetitive Alpha Tauri and Alpine's Esteban Ocon, who stopped on the same lap as Alonso and did put on inters, both gained seven seconds on Verstappen in the middle sector of the lap alone. Alonso, one would have to assume, could have at least matched their performance - although George Russell, who also stopped and put on inters and then promptly made a mistake and went down an escape road, proved nothing could be taken for granted in these conditions. Alonso himself rejected the theory, and said he was "surprised" by the question. He said that on his in-lap, he felt slicks were the right choice. "I didn't live the race from the cockpit as you probably saw on the outside," he said. "For me, it was very clear that the track on that lap we stopped was completely dry, apart from Turns Seven and Eight. So, who will put the inters? "The weather forecast we had as a team said it was a small shower, and a small quantity of rain as well, and we had a lot of margin behind us to put the dry tyres and, if necessary, the inter tyres. "Maybe it was extra safe, I don't know. But that minute and a half that it took to go through Turns Five, Six, Seven and Eight again, it changed completely, so the out-lap on the dry tyres, it was very wet when I got to those corners, but the lap that we stopped, it was completely dry." Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said his team had a different view. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who stopped on the same lap as Alonso and did put on intermediates, had told Mercedes it was definitely time for inters, and that they could have put them on a lap earlier. But ultimately it doesn't matter whether it was the right choice, too conservative or otherwise, if Verstappen was never in a position where he had bled enough time to lose the lead anyway. Even after that, after Alonso had stopped again on the next lap and did fit inters, there was another brief sense of threat. Alonso was now 22 seconds back from Verstappen, but he reduced the gap by five seconds over the next five laps. He couldn't catch him, could he? No. On lap 61, Verstappen upped his pace, extended the lead by two seconds, and the final illusion was put to bed. "It was just that I had a big lead," Verstappen said, "and I didn't want to risk trying to be the same pace or faster and then end up in the wall. "You have to be a little bit more careful. It's just not take too much risk but at the same time, of course, not drive too slowly. I think I had Lando [Norris' McLaren] in my gearbox as well. So at one point, I was like, 'Well, I do need to speed up a bit.'" Alonso said: "We are P2 so we are very happy, very happy with the race, because the P1 was very fast today. On any tyre, in any condition, Max was always 15 or 20 seconds in front of us. There was no chance to win today." In reality, it was quite the achievement from Alonso to even vaguely threaten Verstappen in Monaco. Verstappen and Alonso were in a league of their own all weekend, something Horner pointed out after the race. The qualifying lap that Verstappen had to produce to beat Alonso was something else. Horner said: "It will go down as one of the great laps of Monaco - it was win it or bin it and it was stunning. It was one of the best laps of his career." And Aston's decision to first the hard tyre for the start of the race made life uncomfortable for Red Bull, who had chosen mediums for Verstappen. With rain on the horizon, it meant they were forced to extend their first stint much longer than they wanted - pretty much double, Verstappen said - because they could not afford to pit and come out behind Alonso on a track where overtaking is impossible if both were then going to have to stop for wet tyres. So Verstappen had to eke the life out of his tyres and wait for the rain. Alonso, in a slower car, always made sure he was close enough that Verstappen could not pit and come out ahead, even if there was a safety car that pretty much halves the time-loss of a pit stop. "You have to take your hat off to Fernando this weekend," Horner said. "I thought Max and he were outstanding this weekend. "The rest of the field were a long way behind. Only Fernando was able to stay in touch with Max and keep within a pit-stop window; be dancing around that safety car window as well. "Both those guys were head and shoulders above the rest of the field. It's great to see Fernando's confidence and the way he's driving the car. He and Max are very similar in many respects, the way they drive how tenacious they are. They are always pushing and you can see they enjoy the fight." Krack, for his part, said Alonso had been "fantastic" all weekend. Second place for Alonso was his best result of the year, and he is now just 12 points behind Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez in the championship, after a dire, error-strewn weekend from the Mexican left him 16th at the finish. Verstappen is a further 39 ahead, but Alonso is discounting nothing. "We didn't have the best car [with Ferrari] in 2010 and we arrived leading the championship in Abu Dhabi," he said. "We didn't have the best car in 2012 and we still fight for the championship until the last lap in Brazil. "So the championship is long. We will not give up. We will need weekends where Red Bull has some issues like Sergio had here with the DNF or zero points. And if Max has one or two of those, we will be a little bit closer in the championship. "This is motorsport. Anything can happen. On pure pace I think we don't have the chance yet, but we will not give up for sure. "I'm not getting obsessed with this to be honest. I will be happy fighting for the championship with all second places until the end of the year or fighting for the championship next year. "This year is just a gift, what we are having every weekend is just a celebration on the team. We didn't expect this and this is just a build up into next year so hopefully good things are coming." After his fourth win in six races, though, and now a second poor weekend from Perez to follow the one he had in Australia back in March, Verstappen is in total control of the championship. Monaco was his 39th Grand Prix victory, which surpasses Sebastian Vettel as Red Bull's most successful driver. He is two short of Ayrton Senna's career total, and 12 away from Alain [CENSORED]'s. After that, only Michael Schumacher and Lewis Hamilton are ahead - albeit a long, long way. "If you have a good car for a while, you can break these kinds of numbers," Verstappen said. "It's great. I mean, I would have never thought that I would be in this position in my career. "When I grew up, I wanted to be a Formula 1 driver and winning these races is amazing. It's better than I could have ever imagined, for sure." https://www.bbc.com/sport/formula1/65741145

ne day last September, Ann Halloran made her way to her nearest bus stop in Hove, East Sussex, with a 15kg rucksack. She had done plenty of travelling but, at 65, was setting off alone on her first backpacking adventure. Somewhere between her first stop in Turkey and her final destination – a yoga retreat in Mazunte, Mexico – she found a new perspective. In Nepal, climbing the 5,400m (17,575ft) Gokyo Ri in the Himalayas, Halloran broke her walking stick. She has osteoporosis, which makes bones more likely to break, so the stick was an essential piece of trekking kit in the mountains. Losing it was a blow, but she found reserves of inner strength: “I challenged myself,” she says. The setback was surmountable, a new stick was found. “It gave me confidence that at my age I could go up to that height.” Now, she says: “Whenever I get scared, I think of myself on top of that mountain, looking out over Lake Gokyo – and beyond that, Everest. I say, if you can do that, you can do anything.” Halloran’s career in HR has enabled her to pick up tools for personal growth. “I always told my kids about the comfort zone,” she says. “You’ve got to keep stretching it all the time. As you get older, that’s even more important because you get more fearful, and I want to fight against that.” Now 66, Halloran has loved mountains since she was five or six, when her mother took her to Ireland, to visit family in County Kerry during the summer holidays. They lived overlooking Annascaul lake on the Dingle peninsula. “It’s a lovely viewpoint. I used to sit there as a child. I loved the freedom of going up the mountain alone, when I was nine or 10. I cried for days going back to London because I felt I was in a rabbit hutch.” At 23, she moved to Bellharbour, County Clare, where her uncle had a farm “on the side of the mountain”. She worked in Galway, “where the multinationals were just setting up”, and began to specialise in talent management and leadership programmes. In the evenings after work she would climb up the mountain. It was around this time that Halloran met her husband, a farmer, and they married a few years later before starting a family. Life settled into a comfortable rhythm. But then their four-year-old son died in a car accident; six years later, her husband died. Halloran was 42, and her children three, five and seven. Looking back, she can see that she took refuge in work. After the loss of her son, she “became a workaholic. The week he died, I went back to work. I started at 5am, and worked until eight in the evening. I’d put the kids to bed, then go into the office at 10pm and work till 2am. It was my stability.” She worked as a self-employed HR consultant so that she could take two months off every summer to travel with the children. She took them to France, Spain, Seattle, New York and Vancouver. Since the backpacking adventure, she understands more fully the role that work played in her life for so long. “Work was reliable. I knew what I was doing. I’m a workaholic to this day,” she says. “I’ve just realised on this yoga retreat that I have to let go of all that. The penny is dropping for me now.” It was in Mazunte, where Halloran was one of 35 people on the yoga retreat, that one of her fellow participants suddenly became ill with a rare and potentially life-threatening condition. Halloran busied herself during meditation sessions by evaluating the centre’s systems. “I wanted to sort it all out,” she says. Then she realised that no one else was thinking about the practicalities – and it was a revelation. “All these people around me were so in touch with their emotions – and I was thinking about policies and procedures. They were feeling the emotions of this person. I knew I had [the capacity], but it was buried. It was interesting to watch myself,” she says. Along with the sudden insight, she felt a growing self-awareness “which I’ve never had before”. It was always: “Make enough. Bring up the children. Get enough in the pension.” Meditation presented a different sort of challenge: she has had to slow herself down. “I don’t regret it,” Halloran says of the work ethic that carried her through life for so long. But, as she has travelled and met new people, most of them under 40, and made plans to reconnect on subsequent trips, something has changed. “From now on, in the few years I’ve got left, I want to shift. Shift a bit,” she says. “I feel as if I’ve washed up on the shore and it’s a new venture.” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/may/29/a-new-start-after-60-backpacking-in-the-himalayas-i-found-the-courage-to-change-my-life

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's supporters celebrated well into the night after Turkey's long-time president secured another five years in power. "The entire nation of 85 million won," he told cheering crowds outside his enormous palace on the edge of Ankara. But his call for unity sounded hollow as he ridiculed his opponent Kemal Kilicdaroglu - and took aim at a jailed Kurdish leader and the LGBT community. The opposition leader did not explicitly concede victory. Complaining of "the most unfair election in recent years", Mr Kilicdaroglu said the president's political party had mobilised all the means of the state against him. President Erdogan ended with just over 52% of the vote, based on near-complete unofficial results. Almost half the electorate in this deeply polarised country did not back his authoritarian vision of Turkey. Ultimately, Mr Kilicdaroglu was no match for the well-drilled Erdogan campaign, even if he took the president to a run-off second round for the first time since the post was made directly elected in 2014. But he barely dented his rival's first-round lead, falling more than two million votes behind. The president made the most of his victory, with an initial speech to supporters atop a bus in Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul, followed after dark by a balcony address from his palace to an adoring crowd that he numbered at 320,000 people. "It is not just us who won, Turkey won," he declared, calling it one of the most important elections in Turkish history. He taunted his opponent's defeat with the words "Bye, bye, Kemal" - a chant that was also taken up by his supporters in Ankara. What to expect from newly emboldened Erdogan Why Erdogan's victory matters for the West Mr Erdogan poured scorn on the main opposition party's increase in its number of MPs in the parliamentary vote two weeks earlier. The true number had fallen to 129, he said, because the party had handed over dozens of seats to its allies. He also condemned the opposition alliance's pro-LGBT policies, which he said were in contrast with his own focus on families. The run-up to the vote had become increasingly rancorous. In one incident, an opposition Good party official was fatally stabbed in front of a party office in the northern coastal town of Ordu. The motive for Erhan Kurt's killing was not clear, but a leading opposition official blamed youths celebrating the election result. Although the final results were not confirmed, the Supreme Election Council said there was no doubt who had won. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65743031

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