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Aman Nath, Co-founder and Chairman of the Neemrana Hotels chain who has notably restored ruins and turned them into heritage hotels with the simple philosophy - “see assets in the waste”. Not just a restorer of vintage fortresses, Nath is an author, historian, art curator and, above all, a visionary who sees beyond the usual in everything. Nath’s passion for restoring age-old ruins started at the young age of 27 when he was passing by the ruins of the Neemrana Fort while co-authoring a book with Francis Wacziarg. From that day in 1977, they have successfully restored some 30 heritage properties, turning many into heritage hotels. Having spent over 35 years rebuilding, resuscitating and revitalizing India’s heritage, the latest in his passion being the Tijara Fort-Palace en route to Alwar, this has become an innate talent in him. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Nath is someone without a past who has infused life into the past! Born and brought up in New Delhi, Aman Nath's family arrived as refugees from Lahore, now Pakistan, during the partition of India. For him, starting his journey was everything from scratch and starting from a clean state. And today after 68 years, he has pioneered a different kind of heritage hotels’ movement in India. Restoring old fortresses is not an easy job! It takes huge investments, patience, an unexplainable amount of energy, passion and madness to get the work done, finding the people who would help you live this dream, fighting with the authorities, and so much more. But if you ask Nath, the rewards are simply extraordinary! And he has no regrets! Nath viewed ruins (waste) as opportunities which can be transformed (reused) into properties that not only restore our rich Indian heritage, but also drive employment and revenue. And the same mindset is helping Neemrana Hotels build a workforce of committed and loyal employees Nath’s simple philosophy behind starting his journey of restorations was - ‘against waste’. He shares a story of why he never buys a box of pins and why he feels it is absolutely necessary to reuse things. He says, “While I was in school, I learnt that there are 19 processes before a pin is made. I feel why do you need to buy a box of pins when you can reuse them?” He further says, “You go to eat ice-cream, you take one cone and 5 napkins. We have only one mouth, how many times are you going to use and throw the napkin for one ice cream? Waste is rampant, but I see and create consciousness of it all the time.” Nath viewed these ruins (waste) as opportunities which can be transformed (reused) into properties that not only restore our rich Indian heritage, but also drive employment and revenue. And the same mindset is helping Neemrana Hotels build a workforce of committed and loyal employees. Here are some excerpts from the exclusive interview with the legend who pioneered the heritage hotels movement in India where he shares what makes him see the good in people and how this is helping him build a collaborative and inclusive work culture. It is evident that your workforce is highly engaged and works with you like a family. What does talent mean to you? How do you attract talent and keep them motivated and engaged? People have notions of unequal human beings, but I very deeply and sincerely believe we are all equal. Forget caste, religion and all that, in a company, what is a chairman without a guard, and what is a guard without a chairman? The balance between humans is very crucial for the company. And I personally try to imbibe this balance at our place by respecting everyone. Then one has to be intuitive about the aptitude of each person. Make them do what they enjoy willingly. Sometime back, an employee who has been working here for three years had left in between to join some other place. However, he came back because he felt a familiar belongingness to this place. Respect, trust and a personal connect with your people is as important as everything else in the business and that is what gets you the best people on board. At Neemrana Hotels, our people break all bounds when they are having fun and when they are working, they are working hard. The respect is in the eyes and not in touching feet. That is how we feel equal. And this is our work culture. "Everyone has a personal touch with everyone. If we work somewhere else, people don't know us, but Sir remembers us and knows everything about us and everyone else. He also knows about our families and if we are dealing with any issue, he will somehow manage to find out and help us resolve it."- An employee The balance between humans is very crucial for the company. And I personally try to imbibe this balance at our place by respecting everyone. Then one has to be intuitive about the aptitude of each person. Make them do what they enjoy willingly How do you trust people as you tend to hire raw talent? You don't know whether they will perform. Is it instinctive? I actually only see the good in people. And it is all about sending and receiving the right vibrations. Aren't we all raw, illiterate and nothing when we begin and then we can become something? I think all of us are raw and can be made into something special if you look at them with sympathy. There is this discriminative saying for animals which we happily use for humans: “How can you make a donkey into a horse?” But actually, ignorant and untrained, we all begin as donkeys! I’ll tell you something. I watched a movie where the person in the movie who used to make tyres for his business wanted to shoot an ad film for his product. So, he meets a fresher from a film institute and asks him if he had ever shot an ad film on tyres before. The student counter questioned him and said, “Can I ask you a question Sir, if you don’t mind? Had you made tyres before making tyres?” That’s such a good question. Similarly, it is a stupid question to ask, “Have you cooked before cooking or can you keep this place clean, when you come from a village home with very different standards? Learning, exposure and correct teaching matters. If a person has no knowledge but the willingness to learn, he or she can do anything in the world. Let’s say if someone comes in for an interview, people look at their resume and ask questions like why have you done this course or why have you scored so little in mathematics? Who is interested in all that? I’m not. I look at it diagonally; I like to look at the person, and understand the personal journey. He may have come for the interview from a far-off city, on a bus and through a lot of struggle. So, you have to be sympathetic towards that person. He’s probably wearing his brother's suit because you know the condition of an average Indian. He’s down here; his hair is all wrong, half-educated, half urban, half rural. The idea is not to look at them with these lenses but with total sympathy and see what they can become tomorrow. When I see someone walk in, I see what they can be in one year from now. Many of the boys who joined Neemrana as labour are HODs, managers – and some even are refined enough to decide our aesthetic. "This feels like a family. I have only worked here; this is my first job and I have worked and learned everything here."- An employee It is certainly a great deal to hire talent based on what you feel they can become. How about training them for the job? Do you have specific programs where you train them? Or do you make it natural? They learn! We have had people come from other countries too – to train our raw staff. You know, monkeys and dolphins can get trained. However, when we speak about human beings, we are can only be that much better. People have brains, language, imitative skills. They can be trained easily. Normal staff at Neemrana are very skilled, and sometimes – too smart! I find that the people are smart, attentive, and they learn fast. There were ten chefs in Neemrana and one little boy who used to do the dishes named Babulal. This young boy learned to make chocolate mousse so well that once there was a French delegation that was amazed by the talent he had. And this was a boy from the village and the delegates said that this was the best chocolate mousse they had ever had. That boy was very smart; he could pick up the recipe from any chef and make it. So, you need to understand how people would want to learn and provide them with the apt resources. The results of the such kind of a learning will astound you, because it is natural and you train people in the way they want to be trained, which in our case is mostly on the job. Being in the hospitality industry that puts a huge emphasis on the attribute of serving, how do you ensure a culture that is transparent and follows no hierarchy? I don’t want our people to feel any form of hierarchy. The hidden hierarchy is always there. Look, if a boss walks in, you will stand up to wish him. But, if you did that all the time, it should make the boss uneasy. So, he would also like the idea that you relax and work normally. And we are at our best when we work like that. If you’re the kind of employer who demands the best behavior when you're there, they will be on their worst behavior when you're gone. I expect consistency. I like transparency in people. So, if an employee has a problem, he should be able to tell me because if he can’t tell me, then who will he tell? Everyone has my cell number, and you know, I sleep in my hotels and never lock my door. Anybody can come at any time, knock on my door and tell me their problems. It’s not as if people only need money, they have all kinds of issues and they should be able to share them with you. How do you manage 18 hotels? We are sure you have a great team but what about Aman Nath as the leader? We have a great team. But for that, you need to love your work. I really love my work. I actually work 20 hours a day but people get the impression that I don’t work at all. Because if you love it so much it doesn’t look like you’re working. In France, people work 35 hours a week, and I said to the then Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, “You French are lazy. In India, we work 35 hours a day!”

Skoda will axe is remaining Scout models in the UK as part of a round of changes to its product line-up. The Kodiaq Scout and Karoq Scout SUVs – launched in 2017 and 2019 respectively – currently remain on price lists, but the company has confirmed to Autocar the models will soon be dropped. OPEN GALLERY Skoda Karoq Scout by Lawrence Allan 29 May 2020 Skoda will axe is remaining Scout models in the UK as part of a round of changes to its product line-up. The Kodiaq Scout and Karoq Scout SUVs – launched in 2017 and 2019 respectively – currently remain on price lists, but the company has confirmed to Autocar the models will soon be dropped. The changes have been made "as a result of customer demand" and as part of model year updates, according to a Skoda spokesman, who admitted the Scout variants accounted for just 2% of the sales mix for the SUVs. Rugged Scout models have been a fixture at Skoda for years, most prominently on the Octavia, offering a raised ride height, four-wheel drive and protective body cladding. A Superb Scout is available in Continental Europe, but the decision was taken not to offer it in the UK at launch. It's unclear whether the new-generation Octavia will be sold here in Scout form. The Kamiq small SUV will also now move to a petrol-only line-up, with the 1.6-litre TDI diesel engine removed from sale. This is due to the model being "predominantly a retail product, the spokesman said, "and in this segment demand for diesel is very low." Further changes include the removal of all manual gearbox options for the Kodiaq, although a manual version of the 113bhp 2.0-litre diesel will be brought in later this year. Skoda has also removed the Edition trim from the Kodiaq range.

Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and two X-ray observatories, the researchers determined that this black hole is more than 50,000 times the mass of our sun and located 740 million light years from Earth in a dwarf galaxy, one containing far fewer stars than our Milky Way. Black holes are extraordinarily dense objects possessing gravitational pulls so powerful that not even light can escape. This is one of the few “intermediate-mass” black holes ever identified, being far smaller than the supermassive black holes that reside at the center of large galaxies but far larger than so-called stellar-mass black holes formed by the collapse of massive individual stars. “We confirmed that an object that we discovered originally back in 2010 is indeed an intermediate-mass black hole that ripped apart and swallowed a passing star,” said University of Toulouse astrophysicist Natalie Webb, a co-author of the study published this week in Astrophysical Journal Letters. The star was probably roughly a third the mass of the sun, Webb said. Webb said scientists have searched for intermediate-mass black holes for four decades and fewer than 10 good examples are known, though large numbers may exist. “So finding a new one is very significant. Also, a black hole swallowing a star happens on average only once every 10,000 years or so in any particular galaxy so these are rare occurrences,” Webb added. The supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way is 4 million times the mass of the sun and located 26,000 light years from Earth. The closest stellar-mass black star is about 6,000 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). Webb called intermediate-mass black holes the “missing link” in understanding the range of black holes. Scientists know how stellar-mass black holes - roughly three to 100 times the mass of our sun - form. They do not know how intermediate-mass black holes form but suspect that supermassive black holes arise from their mid-size brethren. “Without finding such objects, it was impossible to validate this theory,” Webb said. Intermediate-mass black holes have remained elusive. “The best explanation is that they are mostly in an environment that is devoid of gas, leaving the black holes with no material to consume and thus little radiation to emit - which in turn makes them extremely difficult to spot,” said University of New Hampshire astronomer and study lead author Dacheng Lin.

London police will crack down on illegal street parties after officers came under attack for the second night running as they tried to disperse an unauthorisedgathering, the capital's police chief said on Friday. As Britain lifts its coronavirus lockdown, police have had to deal with a number of illegal parties and raves across the country. "It's hot, some people have drunk far too much, some people are just angry and aggressive, and some are plain violent," London police chief Cressida Dick said. The gatherings were unlawful and should not be happening, she said, warning: "We will come and close them down." Her comments came hours after British police officers were attacked in the early hours of Friday while attempting to disperse an illegal party overnight in west London, the second such incident in as many days. Police said officers tried to disperse an unlicensed music event near Colville Gardens, in west London, overnight. "Objects have been thrown at officers dispersing the crowd," police said. "Violence will not be tolerated." Police injured at Brixton illegal event The previous night, 22 police officers were hurt during trouble at an unauthorised music event in Brixton, south London. Two officers and two people at the party were taken to hospital following the "unlicensed music event" in Wednesday night. Four people were arrested during the attack, which the Metropolitan Police described as "totally unacceptable". Scotland Yard said it was undertaking an "enhanced policing operation" across the capital to ensure there was an "effective and prompt responsed to any reports or disorder". said, "Our role is to keep our communities safe and this evening people can expect to see a heightened police presence out in areas where we know these events are taking place." The heightened police presence was "in direct response to concerns expressed by our communities, many of whom were scared and shocked by the events taking place outside their homes," said Javid.

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The conventional stage whodunit is about as exciting as a vicarage parlour game. But the great virtue of this slick, highly polished thriller by Francis Durbridge is that almost from the start we know who is going to murder whom: the dramatic excitement, as in Dial M for Murder, lies in watching the net slowly close in on the smug, smooth protagonist. Company Her Majesty’s theatre, London, 19 January 1972 How good is Company? When I saw Stephen Sondheim’s musical 18 months ago in New York, I thought it a marvellously tart, wry, original show that got away from all the lumbering cliches of the formula-bound Broadway musical. Second time round I admire it even more; partly because its surface exuberance seems to conceal a great sadness, partly because it has the whiplash precision of the best Broadway shows plus a good deal of intellectual resonance. Michael Billington’s first Guardian review, on 2 October 1971 FacebookTwitterPinterest ‘As exciting as a vicarage parlour game’ … Michael Billington’s first Guardian review, on 2 October 1971. Photograph: Richard Nelsson/The Guardian Not I Advertisement Royal Court, London, 17 January 1973 If Beckett has a painter’s eye, he also has a poet’s ear. The mouth belongs to a 70-year-old woman whose past life flashes before her, like that of someone drowning, but who transfers her experiences to someone else: the impression is of a buzzing skull, a mouth on fire helplessly attached to a body incapable of feeling. If I had to sum up the play’s theme in a phrase, it would be the anguish of memory at a time when all physical sentience had departed. Billie Whitelaw’s performance is an astonishing tour de force combining frenetic verbal speed with total sensitivity to the musical rhythm of the piece. Ken Dodd Liverpool Playhouse, 17 April 1973 Ostensibly, the intention is to explore the nature of laughter: in reality what we get is a king-sized Dodd-fest. It begins with those wayward teeth spotlit in what looks like a conscious parody of Billie Whitelaw in Beckett; and it goes on to run the gamut of Doddy jokes. Wisely, perhaps, Dodd avoids too much theorising. He quotes Freud’s opinions that a laugh is a conservation of psychic energy; but, as he says, the trouble with Freud is that he never played Glasgow second house on a Friday night. Ken Dodd opens his one-man show, Ha Ha, at the Playhouse in Liverpool in 1973. FacebookTwitterPinterest ‘King-sized Dodd-fest’ … Ken Dodd opens his one-man show, Ha Ha, at the Playhouse in Liverpool in 1973. Photograph: Mirrorpix/Getty Images Brassneck Nottingham Playhouse, 21 September 1973 Brassneck by Howard Brenton and David Hare is an important play. Not since John Arden’s The Workhouse Donkey 10 years ago have I seen any work that attempts to put a whole regional community on stage and show in detail how the provincial power nexus works. Judging by the outraged huffing and puffing near me, it was courageous of Nottingham Playhouse to stage it. Words of Advice Greenwich theatre, London, 5 March 1974 Fay Weldon’s play is tight, tart and alert. In the centre of the ring are Tammy and Julia, a primary schoolteacher and his suffocating wife, who use each other like punchbags. Encircling them are their parents and in-laws who prefer contradictory, self-interesting advice. My gripe about the play is that its horizons are inevitably limited. It scarcely touches on the high cost of loving, on the way social inequity affects private relationships and on the crucial fact that even our emotional crises are carried on against the background of changing public events: only in plays do people have time to suffer in a vacuum. But Miss Weldon can certainly write. The Tempest Advertisement Old Vic, London, 7 March 1974 Fourteen years ago precisely, Peter Hall began his brilliant Stratford reign with an over-decorated, eccentrically cast production of Two Gentlemen of Verona. We should not, therefore, despair if he has begun his National Theatre career with a lethargic, vulgarly spectacular, masque-like production of The Tempest that almost manages to submerge the presence of the greatest living Shakespearean actor, Sir John Gielgud, in opulent excess. Bordello Queen’s theatre, London, 19 April 1974 I have, I suppose, seen worse musicals than Bordello. Indeed I can wincingly remember one about refrigerated corpses and another about premature ejaculation at a certain north London engine shed. But it’s a long time since I’ve seen a show of such extravagant pointlessness or one that deployed such elaborate resources to convey a message that could be comfortably inscribed on the back of a 3½d stamp. Travesties Aldwych, London, 11 June 1974 I find it difficult to write in calm, measured tones about Tom Stoppard’s Travesties: a dazzling pyrotechnical feat that combines Wildean pastiche, political history, artistic debate, spoof-reminiscence and song-and-dance in marvellously judicious proportions. The text itself is a dense Joycean web of literary allusions; yet it also radiates sheer intellectual joie de vivre, as if Stoppard were delightedly communicating the fruits of his own researches.

The Volkswagen Atlas was VW's first swing at a three-row midsize SUV, and the automaker knocked it out of the park. Its roomy cabin and comfortable ride helped place it near the top of the pack when it debuted in 2018. But new competitors and a rapidly evolving market mean Volkswagen feels the need to offer some updates to keep the Atlas fresh. On the outside, the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas gets restyled headlights, bumpers, taillights and a new grille. The interior receives some mild changes such as a new steering wheel and the addition of new driver aids including a system that can scan traffic signs. This latter feature can help you know what the speed limit of the road you're on, even if you didn't see the sign yourself. Alas, the Atlas is powered by the same engines as before: a turbocharged 235-horsepower four-cylinder and a 276-hp six-cylinder engine. We think Volkswagen missed an opportunity here to add some power under the hood since even the optional six-cylinder lacks the power to get this big SUV moving with any real authority. Overall, though, the 2021 VW Atlas is still a compelling contender among three-row family SUVs. What's it like to live with? Want to know even more about the Atlas? Edmunds added a 2018 Volkswagen Atlas SE with Technology to our long-term road test fleet. Our editors spent a year driving Volkswagen's biggest SUV, racking up more than 20,000 miles. Check out our VW Atlas long-term test coverage to read more about what we learned, from real-world fuel economy to reliability. Note that while the 2021 Volkswagen Atlas differs slightly from our long-term 2018 model, nearly all of our observations still apply. Which Atlas does Edmunds recommend? We think the SE with Technology trim gives you the best of the Atlas' features while keeping the price reasonable. You can also select the panoramic sunroof and second-row captain's chairs if you desire, or check the box for the R-Line package, which gives the Atlas a sporty appearance. Acceleration from the four-cylinder and V6 engines is similar, so there's little reason to upgrade to the V6. Volkswagen Atlas models The 2021 Volkswagen Atlas is a midsize three-row SUV sold in eight trim levels. It is powered by your choice of two engines, though their availability across trims is quite confusing. The base engine is a turbocharged 235-horsepower four-cylinder engine. It comes standard on S and SE levels, plus the front-wheel-drive SE with Technology and all-wheel-drive versions of the SEL and SEL Premium. All other configurations are powered by a 276-hp V6. Front-wheel drive is standard and all-wheel drive is optional. S Standard features of the base Atlas S include: 18-inch alloy wheels LED headlights A 60/40-split second-row bench seat and 50/50-split third-row bench 6.5-inch touchscreen Six-speaker audio system Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity In-car Wi-Fi hotspot Volkswagen's Car-Net app services The S also comes with these safety features: Forward collision mitigation (warns you of an impending collision and applies the brakes in certain scenarios) Blind-spot monitor (alerts you if a vehicle in the next lane over is in your blind spot) Rear cross-traffic alert (warns you if a vehicle behind you is about to cross your vehicle's path while in reverse) SE The SE adds a host of convenience features, including: Power liftgate Keyless entry and ignition Three-zone automatic climate control Power driver's seat Heated front seats Simulated leather upholstery Second-row USB ports Manual rear window sunshades 8-inch touchscreen Voice controls Wireless charging pad SE with Technology The SE with Technology primarily adds driver assistance features, but a few other extras are included as well: 20-inch wheels Hands-free tailgate Remote engine start Household-style power outlet Adaptive cruise control (maintains a driver-set distance between the Atlas and the car in front) Front and rear parking sensors (alerts you to obstacles that may not be visible behind or in front of the vehicle when parking) There are several options packages starting at this level, including: Second-row captain's chairs Panoramic sunroof Towing package with 5,000-pound towing capacity (V6 models only) SE with Technology R-Line This trim comes standard with the V6 engine. It also adds: Dark gray wheels Restyled bumpers and lower door trim Sporty interior accents SEL The SEL builds off the SE with Technology trim. A panoramic sunroof is standard at this level, as is the Towing package when you opt for a V6 engine. Other add-ons include: Digital instrument panel Heated steering wheel Driver-seat memory settings Power passenger seat Navigation system Lane departure mitigation (warns you of a lane departure when a turn signal isn't used and can automatically steer to maintain lane position) Adaptive headlights (swivel as you turn the steering wheel for better illumination in curves) SEL R-Line The SEL R-Line essentially marries the SEL trim with the R-Line's styling upgrades and standard V6. It also includes 21-inch wheels. SEL Premium The SEL Premium is the most feature-packed Atlas available. It starts with SEL content and all-wheel drive, then adds: Ventilated front seats Heated second-row seats Leather upholstery Ambient interior lighting 12-speaker Fender premium audio system Automated parking system (steers into a parking spot with no driver intervention) 360-degree camera (gives you a top-down view of the car for tight parking situations) SEL Premium R-Line This top-of-the-line trim pairs the SEL R-Line's upgrades with SEL Premium's features.

A cold winter day" by Luca Cornago Luca Cornago/Agora Speaking to Agora, Cornago said his hands were frozen while photographing the Neuschwanstein Castle in Schwangau, Germany. "The architecture of this castle is stunning," he told the photography app. "It reminded me of my childhood and Walt Disney." "Cairo" by Banu Diker Banu Diker/Agora Diker found this building in Cairo, Egypt, and was captivated by its colour. "The rustiness of the building was the only different colour in the picture, because the reflection on the windows reflected the same blue as the sky," she told Agora. "When I realised this, I thought the contrast was beautiful and I took the photo." "Low fog in Moscow" by Sergei Poletaev Sergei Poletaev/Agora As its name suggests, this image was taken in Moscow, Russia. Poletaev told Agora that he used a drone to get the shot, and did so around 3 a.m. "The fog was very dense, so I didn't even see the tower itself from my vantage point," he said. "But when I took off my drone, I saw this striking picture: a thin sky needle above the sea of fog, with a shadow that makes it endless. It was the best sunrise of that summer." "Golden Bridge" by Tran Tuan Viet Tran Tuan Viet/Agora It's no surprise that Viet's photo of the Golden Bridge in Vietnam was named the winner of Agora's #Architecture2020 contest. Not only does it show a unique bridge that's held by larger-than-life hands, but it also captures the beauty of its surrounding landscape. "The Vessel" by Katharina Imhof Katharina Imhof/Agora The Germany-based photographer took this shot of The Vessel, a tourist attraction, while in New York City. "One of the best moments of my life" by Talha Arshad Talha Arshad/Agora "Every year, millions of pilgrims head to Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims, for the Hajj pilgrimage - which is one of the five pillars of Islam," Arshad told Agora. "When I went there, I could feel Allah at every heartbeat. It's a place of unity, equality, and peace. I consider myself so lucky that I experienced this beautiful moment."

The three men arrested after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a young black jogger in the southern United States, were formally indicted on murder charges by a grand jury on Wednesday. Arbery, 25, was shot dead on February 23 while running in a residential area of Brunswick, Georgia, which has a long history of segregation. For more than two months, local police did not make any arrests. It was only when video of the killing went viral on social media at the beginning of May that the investigation began in earnest. Retired police officer Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, who were visible on the video, were arrested on May 7. The man who filmed the killing, William Bryan, 50, was arrested two weeks later. The indictment was formalized on Wednesday by a grand jury, a group of citizens appointed to weigh how valid a charge is ahead of a trial. Nine counts, including murder, aggravated assault and false imprisonment were laid against the three men. They “caused his death by unlawfully chasing him... in pickup trucks and shooting him with a shotgun,” the document said “This confirms what Ahmaud’s father has been saying for months—that this was a lynching,” Ben Crump, a lawyer for Arbery’s family, said in a statement Wednesday. “This is a significant step on the road to justice and while nothing will bring back Ahmaud Arbery’s life, it is important that a Grand jury recognized his life had value and was wrongly and ruthlessly ended,” he said, calling for a “successful prosecution” and proportionate sentences. Arbery’s name has been chanted for weeks all over the United States during giant demonstrations protesting violence and systemic racism against African Americans. He joins a list including George Floyd, who suffocated beneath the knee of a white police officer and whose killing on May 25 kicked off the protests; and Breonna Taylor, shot dead as she slept at her home in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13 by police who burst into her apartment during a so-called no-knock warrant.

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The Paris art critic for The Christian Science Monitor recounts a visit with Pablo Picasso at his home. By Carlton LakeThe year 1895, when Pablo Picasso was thirteen, brought his initiation into two mysteries—the mystery of power and the mystery of death. On January 10 his seven-year-old sister, Conchita, died of diptheria. Picasso watched her deteriorate from the smiling little girl with the blonde curls whom he had so tenderly drawn to the ghost of herself that he drew just before death snatched her away. He watched the desperate comings and goings of Dr. Ramon Perez Costales, a friend of his father's. He watched his parents' struggle to save his sister; and he watched bewildered as they celebrated Christmas and Epiphany and gave presents to the children, trying to shield Conchita from any knowledge of approaching death. In his anguish Picasso made a terrible pact with God. He offered to sacrifice his gift to Him and never pick up a brush again if He would save Conchita. And then he was torn between wanting her saved and wanting her dead so that his gift would be saved. When she died, he decided that God was evil and destiny an enemy. At the same time, he was convinced that it was his ambivalence that had made it possible for God to kill Conchita. His guilt was enormous—the other side of his belief in his powers to affect the world around him. And it was compounded by his almost magical conviction that his little sister's death had released him to be a painter and follow the call of the powers he had been given, whatever the consequences.This article appears in the June 1988 issue.Check out the full table of contents and find your next story to read.See MoreAfter Conchita’s death the family moved from Corunna, in the northwest corner of Spain, to Barcelona. During his early days there Picasso did a revealing drawing, Christ Blessing the Devil, which was evidence of the deep conflict raging within him. Christ, with a shining aura around his head, is blessing with his left hand an overwhelmed Devil. At the same time he painted The Holy Family in Egypt and Altar to the Blessed Virgin. In 1896 came an abundance of religious pictures: Christ appearing to a nun, Christ being adorned by the angels, the Annunciation, the Last Supper, the Resurrection.A year after he drew Christ Blessing the Devil, he gave tender expression to some of the most powerful symbols of religious worship, but he also did a picture of Christ with no face—impersonal, unreal, and with no answers. Catholicism, with its emphasis on ethical rules and the rewards of heaven, held no answers for Picasso, with his growing passion for freedom and this world. He would reject the Church, but he could not stop himself from returning throughout his life to the figure of Christ, as a symbol of his own suffering, in the same way that he would bury his transcendent longings but could not extinguish them.Talk of nihilism, catalanism, anarchism, and modernism filled the smoky air of Els Quatre Gats, Picasso's main haunt in Barcelona. Els Quatre Gats was from the beginning a huge success, "a Gothic tavern for those in love with the North," where Uerillo staged puppet shows, where Rusinol, Casas, and Nonell, among other painters, showed their work, and where anyone with an apocalyptic gleam in his eye would gravitate to discuss the new ideas. Enthusiasm contended with a sense of futility, and the urge to create with the compulsion to destroy. The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin was one of the imported heroes of Els Quatre Gats: "Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life. The urge to destroy is also a creative urge."Such was the intellectual milk that nourished Picasso in Barcelona at the turn of the century. Uneducated but quick to learn, he devoured ideas and philosophies through his friends who had read and absorbed them. Nietzsche's Will to Power struck an especially powerful chord in Picasso's heart. Power was the only value set up by Nietzsche to take the place of the transcendent values that had lost their meaning for modern man. And Picasso, for whom transcendent values were associated with Spain's repressive Church, found that Nietzsche's philosophy admirably suited his own needs and dreams of power.Picasso arrived in Paris just a few days before his nineteenth birthday, speaking no French and having no place to stay. At the beginning it did not seem to matter where he lived. Most of his time was spent on the streets, at cafés, in the Louvre, at the Universal Exhibition, at the Grand and Petit Palais, in the odd whorehouse.In the Summer of 1901 Ambrose Vollard, the dealer of Cezanne and Gauguin, put on a Picasso exhibition. There were prostitutes and society ladies, portraits and landscapes, interiors and street scenes. The exhibition was a success, but even more significant for Picasso's life, it led to his meeting the man who for the next few years would fulfill two of his three most constant and urgent needs. Max Jacob would become his caretaker and his worshipper. As for Picasso's third need, for constantly and effortlessly available sex, he would no doubt have been eager to meet that too, if only Picasso had been willing. Max Jacob went to see the Vollard show and soon after, struck by Picasso's "fire" and "real brilliance," arrived at the boulevard de Clichy, where Picasso was living, to pay his respects to the young master.Jacob was twenty-five years old when he met Picasso. He had come to Paris from Brittany three years earlier, determined to become an "artist"—a poet and a painter. "Stick to poetry" was Picasso's advice, and to a very large extent Jacob took it. He called Picasso "my little boy" but listened carefully to what the little boy had to say. This short, prematurely balding intellectual, who wore a monocle with the sensuality of a woman wearing a garter belt, had already gained considerable influence in the demimonde of poets and painters which he had made his home. He would launch some and help the careers of others already launched, but none would he love as deeply and as unconditionally as he loved Picasso.The summer of 1901 was a demonically creative one for Picasso. The art critic Francois Charles cautioned him "for his own good no longer to do a painting a day," but Paris had unleashed a surge of experimentation in him. It was a summer of reveling in the city, of celebrating his freedom from Spanish conventional morality, of flower still-lifes, cancan dancers, the races, pretty children, and fashionable ladies. Yet a noticeable change was beginning to take place in both his mood and his work. "I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green," Van Gogh wrote in 1888, and in 1901 Picasso, spurred by his inner turmoil, switched his focus to the solitude and pain of humanity and tried to express them by means of blue. So began the procession of beggars, lonely harlequins, tormented mothers, the sick, the hungry, and the lame. And in their midst was Picasso himself, his own suffering on display in a blue self-portrait.In January of 1902 he returned for a time to Barcelona, where the sometimes despairing, sometimes bitterly tender expressionism of the Blue Period became still more intense. The destitute women of Paris appeared in their Barcelona incarnation utterly crushed by life and a hostile world. In Two Sisters, his painting of a whore and a nun, Picasso expressed for all time his starkly divided vision of women as madonnas or whores. And in his life, having idealized his mother to the point where he could not even bear to talk to the real, imperfect Dona Maria, he spent his time watching, sleeping with, and painting women who in his mind occupied the space reserved for whores. Two of the smaller nude drawings he would keep for his Private collection. On one of them he had written, "Cuando tengas ganas de joder, jode"—"When you are in the mood to screw, screw." In his struggle to define himself as a man, lust seemed the most appropriate emotion toward women.In October Picasso returned to Paris. All his hopes were now pinned on a new show organized by Berthe Weill. The other artists in the show were Lauriay, Pichot, and Girieud, and the catalogue praised Picasso's "indefatigable ardor to see and show everything" and the "wild light" that permeated his work. But nothing was sold, and Picasso's mood became even more nihilistic.His despair was there for all to see in his work. Charles Morice focused on it in an essay he wrote for the Mercure de France while the Weill show was still on.It is extraordinary, this sterile sadness which weighs down the entire work of this very young man. His works are already numberless. … He seems a young god trying to remake the world. But a dark god. Most of the faces he paints grimace; not a smile. His world is no more habitable than lepers' houses. And his painting itself is sick. Is this frighteningly precocious child not fated to bestow the consecration of a masterpiece on the negative sense of living, the illness from which he more than anyone else seems to be suffering

The new boss of luxury EV maker Automobili Pininfarina has told Autocar that the 1900bhp Battista hypercar is on course to reach customers this year – and said that new technology partnerships will accelerate the firm’s subsequent plans. Industry veteran Per Svantesson was recently appointed Automobili Pininfarina CEO as part of a management reshuffle. The Swede, who had served as chief operating officer since 2018, replaced Michael Perschke. Former Ferrari and Maserati engineer Paolo Dellachà’s role has been expanded to chief product and engineering officer, replacing Christian Jung, while a new sales boss has also been appointed. OPEN GALLERY Pininfarina Battista 2020 front three quarters Just 150 examples of the £1.7 million Pininfarina Battista will be made – using a 1900bhp Rimac powertrain Pininfarina EV design sketch Pininfarina's first EV will be a 1000bhp SUV costing around £275,000. It will be previewed by the Pura Vision concept later this year Pininfarina CEO Per Svantesson Industry veteran Per Svantesson was recently appointed Automobili Pininfarina CEO Pininfarina Battista 2020 front three quarters Pininfarina EV design sketch Pininfarina CEO Per Svantesson James Attwood, digital editor by James Attwood 9 June 2020 The new boss of luxury EV maker Automobili Pininfarina has told Autocar that the 1900bhp Battista hypercar is on course to reach customers this year – and said that new technology partnerships will accelerate the firm’s subsequent plans. Industry veteran Per Svantesson was recently appointed Automobili Pininfarina CEO as part of a management reshuffle. The Swede, who had served as chief operating officer since 2018, replaced Michael Perschke. Former Ferrari and Maserati engineer Paolo Dellachà’s role has been expanded to chief product and engineering officer, replacing Christian Jung, while a new sales boss has also been appointed. Despite the reshuffle, Svantesson said the focus for the firm is unchanged: “Our brand is based on what Pininfarina stands for, which is design. Our plan is to offer amazing design with revolutionary technology.” Focusing on the Battista Automobili Pininfarina plans to produce 150 examples of the £1.7 million Battista, which uses a Rimac powertrain, and Svantesson said that a key focus of the new management team is “getting the design into the hands of customers”. He added: “Producing high-performance cars like this requires complete attention to detail. It’s one thing making a beautiful design, but we need to promise a lot to customers and then keep that promise through ownership.” Depending on the ongoing coronavirus restrictions, Svantesson said the Battista should be ready for buyers and potential new customers by late summer, with first deliveries due later this year. There have been rumours of limited sales, but Svantesson insisted they are “in a good place”. He added: “We’ve got around 100 people who want a test drive. People love the design and the brand and can relate to the company, but some have never driven an EV before, and that dynamic experience is key.” A new range of Pininfarina EVs The Battista is intended to serve as the halo car for the Pininfarina brand. It will be followed by a range of luxury EVs designed to take on the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini. The first is planned to be a Urus-rivalling 1000bhp SUV costing around £275,000, and is set to be previewed by the Pura Vision concept later this year. The SUV was originally set to use a platform from Rivian, but the American start-up’s tie-up with Amazon ended that deal. Svantesson said Automobili Pininfarina is in talks with several new partners over the likes of platform and powertrain technology. “The general plan is still the same, but I can’t promise the launch cycle will be the same as previously,” he said. “We’re looking at some interesting opportunities, and we’ve been presented with some lately that are making us look at the sequencing of future models. I can promise that we won’t be slowing down but speeding up.” Svantesson declined to name any potential new partners but hinted that they include a number of large mainstream car companies. He suggested that recent changes in the industry and the current disruption “does appear to have made people in the industry more open to sharing and co-operating with technology”. Automobili Pininfarina is open to taking technology from large OEMs, but as Svantesson added: “A key for us is we need to add a performance objective, and we have to ensure any technology we use can cope with that. The Pura Vision will produce 1000bhp, and not every mainstream firm is producing technology to support that. We need technology to meet the unique expectations of our customers.” Like the historic Pininfarina design house, Automobili Pininfarina is owned by Indian automotive giant Mahindra Group, and Svantesson said that his firm has the “personal backing” of billionaire founder Anand Mahindra, by whom he was initially appointed COO. He added: “I would never have accepted the challenge if not for the circumstances. It has been a very strategic approach by Mahindra to build this company.

Concept art from the first Thor film shows a very different look for Loki (Tom Hiddleston). 2011's Thor introduced both the titular God of Thunder and his mischievous, villainous brother to the MCU. Thor was always positioned to be one of the key players in the MCU's ever-expanding plans, but Loki proved to be a surprise when he became a fan favorite character. This was largely thanks to Hiddleston's performance, as well as Loki's status as one of the MCU's best villains. Loki was even supposed to die in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but rewrites saved him and kept him around for Thor: Ragnarok. Loki finally met his untimely end in Avengers: Infinity War, but his time in the MCU is far from over. Thanks to a lucky twist in Avengers: Endgame, an alternate version of Loki escaped arrest following the Battle of New York and will go on to star in his own Disney+ series. Loki is slated to arrive on the streaming service in spring 2021, though its current production shutdown could lead to its date being pushed. Regardless, Hiddleston will return to play Loki alongside Sophia Di Martino, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Richard E. Grant, and Owen Wilson.

La Chine a mis en orbite lundi son dernier satellite nécessaire pour faire de son système de navigation Beidou une alternative partout dans le monde au GPS américain et autre Galileo européen. Pour Pékin, ce programme de satellites est crucial à plus d’un égard. Pour la Chine, les "nouvelles routes de la soie" passent aussi par l'espace. Pékin a réussi à placer le 35e et dernier satellite de son système de navigation national, Beidou, en orbite lundi 23 juin. Un exploit qui lui permet de concurrencer au niveau global le GPS américain, l'alternative européenne Galileo et Glonass, la solution développée par les Russes C'est l'aboutissement d'un projet de longue haleine, débuté en 1983 sous l'impulsion de Chen Fangyun, un ingénieur surnommé le "père des satellites chinois". Mais ce n'est qu'au début des années 2000 que Beidou décolle vraiment, avec la mise en place d'un réseau de satellites capables de fournir un dispositif de géopositionnement pour le territoire chinois. "Les Chinois ont compris que les systèmes de navigation entraînaient une révolution technologique dans le domaine militaire en observant l'efficacité des raids aériens américains durant la guerre en Irak en 2003", souligne Keith Hayward, directeur de recherche à la Royal aeronautical society, qui a travaillé sur l'industrie aérospatiale chinoise, contacté par France 24. Douze ans plus tard, Pékin réussit à étendre sa couverture de Beidou à tout le continent asiatique. D'un projet d'inspiration militaire, ce dispositif est alors aussi devenu un outil économique. "Ces satellites sont primordiaux pour la Chine car ils lui permettent de compenser le manque en infrastructures de communication au sol pour accompagner son développement", explique à France 24 Isabelle Sourgès-Verger, spécialiste des politiques spatiales au CNRS et auteure d'un ouvrage sur la conquête de l'espace par la Chine. La mise en orbite du 35e satellite rend désormais Beidou opérationnel partout dans le monde. Une étape cruciale au regard des ambitions chinoises de devenir une puissance à la pointe de l'innovation. "La plupart des technologies prioritaires pour Pékin – l'Internet des objets, la 5G ou les voitures autonomes par exemple – nécessitent le recours à un système de navigation", précise Isabelle Sourgès-Verger. Et ils doivent pouvoir fonctionner sur tous les continents. L'enjeu est trop important pour dépendre d'une technologie "made in USA". "Le développement de Beidou confère aux Chinois une autonomie essentielle. Que ce soit d'un point de vue militaire ou civil, vous ne voulez pas dépendre d'un pays [les États-Unis, NDLR] qui, en cas de crise majeure, peut décider de vous coupez l'accès aux données de navigation", résume Keith Hayward. La preuve que "Pékin n'est pas un parasite technologique" C'est aussi un atout diplomatique. La Chine signale ainsi "qu'elle n'est pas un parasite technologique et est capable d'offrir un outil au monde qui apporte un plus, car Beidou semble être légèrement plus performant que le GPS américain", souligne l'expert britannique. Et Pékin compte bien utiliser cette carte. Beidou est, en effet, une pierre importante apportée à l'édifice des fameuses "nouvelles routes de la soie", ce vaste programme d'investissements dans les infrastructures hors de Chine qui mêle objectifs économiques et diplomatiques. "Dans les documents autour de ce programme, il y en avait un spécifique au développement de Beidou", souligne Isabelle Sourgès-Verger. Rien de plus logique : "À partir du moment où Pékin projette sa puissance économique hors de ses frontières, il lui faut un système de navigation propre pour ses trains, ses bateaux et tout ce qui est mobile", affirme la chercheuse française. Mais encore faut-il qu'il y ait des clients pour son Beidou qui, à l'instar du GPS américain est proposé gratuitement. "Environ 70 pays qui participent aux 'routes de la soie' sont déjà des partenaires déclarés [de ce système de navigation, NDLR] ou se sont portés candidats", souligne le chercheur Emmanuel Meneut dans une note sur les enjeux en matière de cybersécurité de Beidou, publiée en mai 2020 par l'Institut des relations internationales et stratégiques. Il s'agit, pour l'heure, essentiellement de pays asiatiques. Pékin peut aussi s'en servir comme d'un cadeau bonus pour convaincre les pays qui hésitent à rejoindre les "nouvelles routes de la soie". "Ce n'est pas aussi intéressant que si la Chine propose de vous construire votre réseau 5G, mais si les autorités chinoises offrent une version plus précise de Beidou [comme avec le GPS, il y a, par exemple, plusieurs niveaux de précision au système de navigation, selon le type d'utilisation, NDLR], cela peut permettre de bâtir une relation de confiance", assure Keith Hayward. Mais la Chine ne cherche pas seulement à se faire des nouveaux "amis" avec Beidou. Elle espère que son système de navigation deviendra une affaire très profitable. "Ce n'est pas le signal en tant que tel qui est, financièrement, important, mais tous les produits dérivés et services qui peuvent en découler", assure Keith Hayward. Le GPS américain a montré la voie en la matière avec, notamment, les solutions de cartographie numérique ou tous les services de géolocalisation sur les smartphones. Pékin a déjà commencé à faire de même. Des services reliés à Beidou permettant de mieux contrôler le trafic portuaire ou de coordonner les opérations de sauvetage en cas de catastrophe naturelle ont déjà été exportés dans plus d'une centaine de pays, ont affirmé les médias chinois début juin. La Chine espère qu'avec le déploiement au niveau global de son système de navigation, ce secteur pourra rapporter 57 milliards de dollars dès cette année, rapporte Reuters. "C'est sûr que la concurrence dans ce domaine va se renforcer", conclut Isabelle Sourgès-Verger. Le Congrès américain a d'ailleurs averti, dans un rapport publié en novembre 2019, que les ambitions chinoises dans l'espace à travers son programme de satellites constituaient une menace de plus en plus grande pour les États-Unis, à la fois sur le plan économique qu'en terme d'influence. De quoi donner à Donald Trump un nouveau motif d'insatisfaction à l'encontre de Pékin ?

The biggest Disney World fans are aware of the luxurious suite inside Cinderella's castle, but did you know that there's also a secret apartment at the top of the Eiffel Tower? Unlike the castle, however, entrepreneur Gustave Eiffel had this epic hideaway built just for himself — no guests allowed. If we were to say where the best view in Europe is, the top of the Eiffel Tower would be a likely contender. Imagine waking up in a cozy apartment with colorful wallpaper, wooden cabinets, and a grand piano. You'd sip espresso and nibble a croissant while gazing over the Palais de Chaillot from nearly 1,000 feet (305 meters) in the air. You may believe that this is what Gustave Eiffel had in mind when he instructed his team to build the tower and its secret apartment in 1889, but the truth is that he needed to use this space to make his tower a permanent fixture of the Paris skyline. Originally, the Eiffel Tower was intended as a temporary exhibit meant to broadcast France's industrial power to the rest of Europe. Eiffel knew that the terms of the construction project meant the tower was slated for demolition in 1909, so he contacted the world's most prominent scientists in an attempt to provide the tower with a legitimate scientific purpose that would save his namesake creation from being destroyed. Upon the tower's completion, the apartment served as a laboratory for atmospheric measurements, astronomical observations, and physics experiments. He finally found the perfect accomplice in Captain Gustave Ferrié, who used the tower for the French Army's wireless telegraphy experiments in 1903. The tower was able to broadcast wireless signals as far as North America, making it indispensable to the city that would otherwise have torn it down only six years later. Writer Henri Girard declared that Eiffel's apartment was "furnished in the simple style dear to scientists," in contrast to the "wrought iron modernity and technological prowess" of the tower. As one might imagine, his enclave was the talk of the Parisian elite, and many requested to rent his space. Eiffel's apartment remained private, however, and he only entertained guests, such as Thomas Edison, on occasion. In summer 2016, vacation rental company HomeAway converted a conference space inside the tower into an apartment. No, it's not the same, but it's still 188 feet (57 meters) above ground with two bedrooms, an urban greenhouse, and panoramic views of the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacré Coeur, and the Seine River from its floor-to-ceiling windows. Pretty sweet. Four contest winners already stayed in the space in July 2016, so we're keeping our ears open for more opportunities. What about the apartment itself? While you still can't stay there, you can tour it. You'll even catch a peek of Eiffel and Edison mannequins having a chat. And maybe, just maybe, you can still sip an espresso, nibble on a croissant, and pretend you're one of Eiffel's bourgeois guests. Get stories like this one in your inbox or your headphones: Sign up for our daily email and subscribe to the Curiosity Daily podcast. For more on the fascinating history of Paris's most famous monument, check out "Eiffel's Tower — And the World's Fair Where Buffalo Bill Beguiled Paris, the Artists Quarreled, and Thomas Edison Became a Count" by Jill Jonnes. We handpick reading recommendations we think you may like. If you choose to make a purchase, Curiosity will get a share of the sale.

Dodge Challenger Hellcat's staunch rival returns with aerodynamic improvements and much more power. It is a fact that Caroll Shelby would be more than proud to see this new installment of the GT500, because the imposing sporty look inspired by fighter jets, in addition to the improvements in aerodynamics and performance, have left us between seeing that the segment of the so-called muscle cars continues to this day. It has sports fascias and spoiler, a series of vents in the hood that support the cooling system, exclusive 20-inch wheels in black mounted on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, red calipers and of course the distinctive features of the Shelby version in sides, grill, trunk, steering wheel, dash and seats. The Mustang Shelby GT500 made its debut during the Detroit Auto Show in 2019, where after a series of speculations the new aesthetics it would incorporate was finally unveiled, although it was not until about two months ago when by means of a "Teaser" the brand was able to uncover the power that the poisonous pony would have. Or half of a 5.2-liter supercharged V8 block that delivers 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque, it becomes the most powerful street car made by Ford, achieving a sprint from 0 to 100 km / h in just 3.5 seconds and is capable of a maximum of 290 km / h. The transmission is seven-ratio double-clutch automatic, something that of course surprises us as it is the first time that the signature of the oval endows the Shelby GT500 with an automatic transmission, with this, it promises an improvement in the set-up on the track as each change can be accomplished in less than 100 milliseconds. But, in case you had any doubts, my dear purist friend, let me tell you that unfortunately there is NO option to a manual box. With this, we have the 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 sits between the 717-hp Dodge Challenger Hellcat and the 791-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. In addition to this it would be surpassing the power of the McLaren 720s, with a difference of 40 horsepower. The traction continues in the rear, the Brembo brand brakes are now six-piston, which means that they are much larger and more efficient; It has an adaptive suspension (MagneRide) by Ford Performance, which can be adjusted according to the needs of the driver. The traction continues in the rear, the Brembo brand brakes are now six-piston, which means that they are much larger and more efficient; It has an adaptive suspension (MagneRide) by Ford Performance, which can be adjusted according to the needs of the driver. To make matters worse, the all-new Shelby GT500 integrates a system with six coolers, increasing air flow by 50 percent, plus two radiators to help ventilation and prevent overheating. The dual exhaust system is designed to deliver maximum performance and adds the characteristic Shelby GT500 sound, with adjustments: Manual, Silent, Sport and Track. The first thing we notice is the inclusion of a 12-inch digital dashboard where the trip information will be displayed, in addition to being able to control some of the functions of the GT500, such as the application of acceleration times, lap circuit timer, locking the front axle as well as braking results, to name a few. Depending on the selected management mode, it will change color, although if none is to your liking, you can also configure your own. Dodge Challenger Hellcat's staunch rival returns with aerodynamic improvements and much more power. NAZ_d11c7bdf296d44be9c4c3e6436a49e73.jpg It is a fact that Caroll Shelby would be more than proud to see this new installment of the GT500, because the imposing sporty look inspired by fighter jets, in addition to the improvements in aerodynamics and performance, have left us between seeing that the segment of the so-called muscle cars continues to this day. It has sports fascias and spoiler, a series of vents in the hood that support the cooling system, exclusive 20-inch wheels in black mounted on Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires, red calipers and of course the distinctive features of the Shelby version in sides, grill, trunk, steering wheel, dash and seats. The Mustang Shelby GT500 made its debut during the Detroit Auto Show in 2019, where after a series of speculations the new aesthetics it would incorporate was finally unveiled, although it was not until about two months ago when by means of a "Teaser" the brand was able to uncover the power that the poisonous pony would have. 8 cylinder heart Or half of a 5.2-liter supercharged V8 block that delivers 760 horsepower and 625 lb-ft of torque, it becomes the most powerful street car made by Ford, achieving a sprint from 0 to 100 km / h in just 3.5 seconds and is capable of a maximum of 290 km / h. The transmission is seven-ratio double-clutch automatic, something that of course surprises us as it is the first time that the signature of the oval endows the Shelby GT500 with an automatic transmission, with this, it promises an improvement in the set-up on the track as each change can be accomplished in less than 100 milliseconds. But, in case you had any doubts, my dear purist friend, let me tell you that unfortunately there is NO option to a manual box. With this, we have the 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 sits between the 717-hp Dodge Challenger Hellcat and the 791-horsepower Challenger SRT Hellcat Redeye. In addition to this it would be surpassing the power of the McLaren 720s, with a difference of 40 horsepower. A better set-up ... The traction continues in the rear, the Brembo brand brakes are now six-piston, which means that they are much larger and more efficient; It has an adaptive suspension (MagneRide) by Ford Performance, which can be adjusted according to the needs of the driver. To make matters worse, the all-new Shelby GT500 integrates a system with six coolers, increasing air flow by 50 percent, plus two radiators to help ventilation and prevent overheating. The dual exhaust system is designed to deliver maximum performance and adds the characteristic Shelby GT500 sound, with adjustments: Manual, Silent, Sport and Track. The first thing we notice is the inclusion of a 12-inch digital dashboard where the trip information will be displayed, in addition to being able to control some of the functions of the GT500, such as the application of acceleration times, lap circuit timer, locking the front axle as well as braking results, to name a few. Depending on the selected management mode, it will change color, although if none is to your liking, you can also configure your own. Your way will be accompanied by a premium 12-speaker B&O audio system, which can be controlled using an eight-inch touch screen compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. In addition to this, it has the FordPass system, which allows functions such as the remote start of the vehicle with a programmable option, as well as being able to control the opening or closing of doors, location of the vehicle in real time, locate parking lots or gas stations and allow the connection of 10 devices through a Wi-Fi network with 4G LTE speed. The interior combines elements of very good quality rigid plastics, as well as leather for the covering of the dashboard, steering wheel and doors. The seats are sporty cut by the Recaro brand, covered in alcantara and leather in contrast with white stitching that synergize with the steering wheel.

HONG KONG - Cantopop star Aaron Kwok attracted more than three million viewers with an online charity concert held last Saturday. The live concert, titled Cheer Up And Dance, attracted more than 2.6 million viewers on Facebook and over 1.1 million viewers on YouTube. The 54-year-old singer and actor, known as one of Hong Kong's Four Heavenly Kings, is well known for his dance moves and was flanked by about 100 dancers wearing masks for the concert held on the rooftop of shopping complex Harbour City in Hong Kong. Kwok kicked off the hour-long concert with one of his most beloved hits Loving You Forever (1990). He sang other hits including Crazy City (1994) and paid tribute to his mother, who died in February this year, saying she had influenced him to do charity work. His concert reportedly raised more than HK$1 million (S$181,886) for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Kwok, who got his start in entertainment as a dancer, also urged the public to donate to dancers and other performing arts professionals whose incomes have been affected by the pandemic. The event marked one of the first times that Kwok has allowed his elder daughter Chantelle to be photographed in public though the three-year-old had a mask on.

Le limogeage de Geoffrey Berman, procureur des États-Unis pour le district sud de New York, vise un homme qui a son mot à dire sur toutes les affaires sensibles de Donald Trump. C’est un limogeage qui passe très mal aux États-Unis. La décision du président américain Donald Trump de renvoyer, samedi 20 juin, Geoffrey Berman, le procureur des États-Unis pour le district sud de New York (SDNY, Southern District of New York), a été perçue comme une atteinte grave à l’encontre du système judiciaire américain. “Le président et le procureur général [William Barr, l’équivalent du ministre de la Justice, NDLR] viennent de remettre en cause le principe même d’impartialité de la justice qui est l’un des fondements de la démocratie et distingue les États-Unis des régimes autoritaires”, ont amèrement regretté 135 anciens membres du bureau du procureur du district sud de New York, dans une lettre ouverte publiée dimanche. Geoffrey Berman n’est, en effet, pas seulement un nouveau nom qui s’ajoute à la longue liste des personnes limogées par Donald Trump après avoir perdu sa confiance. Les procureurs des États-Unis pour le district sud de New York sont des personnalités qui comptent dans le paysage politico-judiciaire américain. James Comey, l’ancien directeur du FBI devenu l’une des bêtes noires de Donald Trump, a occupé ce poste, tout comme Preet Bharara, surnommé le “fléau” ou le “Shérif” de Wall Street et qui a été le prédécesseur de Geoffrey Berman. Même Rudy Giuliani, du temps où il n’était pas encore l’homme de main de Donald Trump, a servi comme procureur des États-Unis au SDNY avant de devenir maire de New York. “C’est un poste politique – tous les 93 procureurs des États-Unis sont nommés par le Président – qui fait partie d’un parcours d’excellence et est souvent utilisé comme tremplin pour une carrière de premier plan”, résume Anne Deysine, spécialiste du système politique et judiciaire américain à l’université Paris Ouest Nanterre et auteure de "Les États-Unis et la démocratie", contactée par France 24. Mais Donald Trump et son procureur général, William Barr, ne s’en sont pas seulement pris à un homme, aussi influent soit-il. En décapitant le SDNY, ils ont ouvert un front contre une institution perçue par le monde judiciaire comme “la plus puissante après le ministère de la Justice”. Ce bureau, situé à Manhattan, “a la double réputation d’être extrêmement intègre et de poursuivre sans relâche la plupart des dossiers judiciaires les plus lourds et importants du pays”, souligne Anne Deysine. L’enquête sur le 11 septembre 2001, le démantèlement de la mafia new-yorkaise, le scandale Jeffrey Epstein, la plupart des affaires de corruption internationale ou de délits d’initiés à Wall Street sont de son ressort. Les procureurs des États-Unis du district sud de New York aiment aussi à souligner leur attachement à l’indépendance absolue par rapport au pouvoir politique. À tel point que le bureau a gagné, dans le milieu judiciaire, le surnom de “Sovereign District of New York” (district souverain de New York). “La seule fois où Preet Bharara s’est vraiment fâché contre moi, c’est lorsque j’ai fait référence au procureur général des États-Unis comme mon ‘boss’. Il m’a répondu très sèchement que ce n’était ni mon chef, ni le sien, même si sur le papier c’est pourtant le cas”, a raconté Elie Honig, un ancien membre de l’équipe du bureau du SDNY, interrogé par Talking Feds, un podcast qui traite de l’actualité judiciaire américaine. Dernier rebondissement en date, l’enquête visant la banque publique turque Halkbank, soupçonnée d’avoir violé l’embargo américain sur l’Iran, semble aussi gêner Donald Trump. Dans son livre à scandales sur le président, John Bolton, l’ancien conseiller à la Sécurité nationale, soutient que le locataire de la Maison Blanche aurait assuré en 2018 au président turc, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, qu’il étoufferait cette affaire. Il lui suffirait de mettre “ses hommes” au bureau du procureur du district sud de New York, aurait-il dit au dirigeant turc... Autant de bâtons dans les roues présidentielles qui auraient finalement décidé Donald Trump à se débarrasser du puissant procureur des États-Unis. Mais avec William Barr, ils se sont pris les pieds dans les subtilités juridiques. C’est, en effet, le procureur général qui avait annoncé, vendredi 19 juin, la démission de Geoffrey Berman et son remplacement par Jay Clayton, un juriste sans expérience dans le domaine de la procédure criminelle. "Que nenni !", a répondu le procureur de New York, assurant qu’il ne partirait que si Donald Trump l’y forçait. Un acte de rébellion qui a propulsé le face-à-face entre le bureau du procureur du district sud de New York et la Maison Blanche au centre de l’attention médiatique. William Barr a alors assuré que Donald Trump avait décidé du limogeage, mais la levée de boucliers suscitée par cet acte d’autorité l’a obligé à faire une concession de taille. Il a dû accepter que l’intérim, jusqu’à l’éventuelle confirmation de la nomination de Jay Clayton par le Sénat, soit assuré par l’adjointe de Geoffrey Berman : une démocrate à la réputation d’intégrité qui ne devrait pas faciliter les affaires de Donald Trump. “Pour l’instant, la résistance de Geoffrey Berman a marché, et Donald Trump et William Barr sont coincés”, conclut Anne Deysine. Le président a réussi à se débarrasser d’un menace… pour en hériter d'une autre.

Using sitch photography, a video has been created showing what it's like to land on Mars. As part of NASA's Mars Curiosity rover landing in 2012, high resolution photos were taken during its descent onto the surface of the red planet. When cut together, the images recreate Curiosity's arrival on Mars. Recently NASA announced the discovery of hydrated salts on the planet, suggesting the presence of intermittently flowing water. Such a discovery is the greatest indicator yet that Mars could sustain life. "We found the hydrated salts only when the seasonal features were widest, which suggests that either the dark streaks themselves or a process that forms them is the source of the hydration. In either case, the detection of hydrated salts on these slopes means that water plays a vital role in the formation of these streaks, "said Lujendra Ojha, the report's lead author.

Ford has introduced the Ranger Thunder as a boldly styled and highly specified special edition of its flagship European pick-up. Based on the existing Wildtrak version of the Ranger, the new Thunder edition is finished in Sea Grey and features contrasting red trim accents around the front grille and rear roll bar. Distinctive three-dimensional Thunder logos appear along the bottom of the doors and on the tailgate. Ford has introduced the Ranger Thunder as a boldly styled and highly specified special edition of its flagship European pick-up. Based on the existing Wildtrak version of the Ranger, the new Thunder edition is finished in Sea Grey and features contrasting red trim accents around the front grille and rear roll bar. Distinctive three-dimensional Thunder logos appear along the bottom of the doors and on the tailgate. The Ranger Thunder also receives bespoke 18in black alloy wheels, as well as a black rear bumper, skid plates, foglight surrounds and door handles. Both the headlights and brake lights sit in darkened bezels. The colour scheme is carried over to the interior, which is finished primarily in black with red stitching to the seats, steering wheel and instrument panel, while the load bed can be specified with a black roller shutter and divider. Power comes from Ford’s 2.0-litre twin-turbocharged Ecoblue four-cylinder, which replaced the old 2.2-litre unit in January 2019. It sends power to all four wheels through a 10-speed automatic gearbox and delivers 31.0mpg and 239g/km on the WLTP combined cycle. Just 1400 of the 4500 Thunder editions built will come to the UK and they're available to order now from £32,965 for delivery in the late summer. Ford says the Ranger had its strongest sales year yet in 2019, with 52,500 units sold across Europe. More than 16,000 of those were in the UK.

winter nights, the white-noise app on my phone is tuned to Air Conditioner: a raspy, metallic whir that sounds like the mechanical noise that might echo deep inside the ductwork of a huge commercial building. (Among the app’s other offerings are Dishwasher Rinsing, Crowded Room and Vacuum Cleaner.) It lulls me to sleep nonetheless, because it blankets the din in my apartment (the ragged snore of a roommate; the clanking of the steam radiator; the cat’s skidding pursuit of something only he can see). It may also soothe because it replicates an early sound environment, probably that of a city childhood, though perhaps it suggests something much, much older. Some sleep experts note that babies, their ears accustomed to the whisper of the maternal circulatory system and the slosh of the womb, sleep better accompanied by a device that mimics those familiar whooshings. My app is but one note in the mighty chorus of white-noise generators, an exploding industry of mechanical and digital devices; apps and websites, and Sonos and Spotify playlists that grows ever more refined, as if to block out the increased rate of speeding, the wrecks, on the information superhighway. Car Interior? Oil Tanker? Laundromat? These ballads are in the vast soundscape library created by Stephane Pigeon, a Belgian electrical engineer, and ready to play on Mynoise.net, a sound generator he put online in 2013 that now has 1 million page views each month. It’s a nearly philanthropic enterprise, as it runs on donations. “I have enough stress,” Pigeon says. Reddit, among other message boards, offers DIY white-noise hacks for light sleepers, shift workers and tinnitus sufferers. Rough up the blades of a box fan with a box cutter, suggests Christopher Suarez, a field service technician from Riverside, California, whose wife is an insomniac, on one captivating thread there. The first domestic white-noise machine may have been built in 1962, by a travelling salesman whose wife grew used to the air-conditioners in the motels they frequented and was unable to sleep at home. But white noise was identified by engineers as early as the 1920s, Pigeon says, and used as a test signal because, as he puts it, “it’s the sum of all the audible frequencies in equal proportion in a single sound. It’s so named because of its analogy to light, which turns white when all visible frequencies are summed up into a single beam.” Back home in his garage, Jim Buckwalter, the salesman, set a turntable and a fan blade into a dog bowl insulated by some foam, and invented the Marpac SleepMate, now called the Dohm (£64.99 on Amazon), a gizmo whose po[CENSORED]rity grew by word-of-mouth and became a favourite not just of light sleepers but also of psychotherapists, the legal and medical community, and others seeking to mask confidential conversations. (Nothing says Upper West Side analysis like the whispery hiss of a mushroom-shaped Dohm.) Sound purists adore it because its mechanical whirring is closer to truly random and contains no loop, as many digital versions do.

Une éclipse solaire appelée "cercle du feu" a été aperçue dans le ciel africain, dimanche, pour le solstice d'été. Un phénomène rare, visible par les habitants de la planète sur 2 % de la surface terrestre seulement. De nombreux astronomes amateurs ont eu la chance d'observer, dimanche 21 juin, dans le ciel d'Afrique de l'Est et d'Asie, pour le solstice d'été, une rare éclipse solaire de type "cercle de feu". De l'Afrique à la Chine, en passant par l'Inde, ce phénomène exceptionnel n'a pu être observé dans sa totalité que par les habitants de 2 % de la surface de la Terre. Ce phénomène astronomique ne se produit qu'une ou deux fois par an. Il a débuté peu après le lever du soleil au centre de l'Afrique, traversant la République démocratique du Congo (RDC), le Soudan du Sud, le nord de l'Éthiopie, avant de prendre la direction de l'Asie, pour finir dans l'océan Pacifique, au sud de l'île de Guam, à 09 h 32 GMT. Les nuages se sont mêlés au spectacle Dans ce type d'éclipse, la Lune passe devant le Soleil, dans un alignement avec la Terre suffisamment parfait pour le cacher. Mais pas entièrement, comme lors d'une éclipse totale. La Lune n'étant pas assez près de la Terre, il s'agit d'une éclipse annulaire, c'est-à-dire qu'à son maximum, il reste un anneau autour du Soleil, appelé "cercle de feu". Les curieux à Nairobi, la capitale du Kenya, un peu à l'écart du tracé idéal, n'ont pu observer qu'une éclipse partielle, les nuages apparaissant quelques secondes au moment précis où la Lune aurait dû venir cacher presque entièrement le Soleil.