7aMoDi's Content - Page 10

Delights abound in the 2025 Honda Civic lineup, highlighted by the new hybrid variant that delivers impressive acceleration and fuel-economy numbers. The sporty Civic Si gets upgrades as well, but the base car is mostly left out of the fun. The changes to the nonhybrid 2025 Civic's powertrain, in fact, are far from fun: Not only has it dropped the manual transmission previously available in the hatchback, it also has a new engine that's less powerful than before. The engine swap of one 2.0-liter inline-four for another is mostly focused on efficiency. The new unit runs on the thriftier Atkinson cycle, resulting in less power and torque than before. The base Civic was already one of the lower-powered compact cars, and its new totals of 150 horsepower and 133 pound-feet of torque—decreases of eight horsepower and five pound-feet—don't help matters. It's the standard powertrain choice in the LX and Sport trim levels, while the far more desirable hybrid setup comes exclusively on the higher trims. HIGHS: Fabulous ride and handling balance, highly ergonomic interior, improved fuel economy. At our test track, the numbers back up the slight drop in output. The 2025 Civic Sport sedan we tested was 0.1 second slower than the nearly identical 2022 Civic Sport sedan we tested, getting to 60 mph in a lackadaisical 8.9 seconds. That's hardly a noticeable drop from the seat-of-your-pants perspective, but many competitors are quicker. We did notice an uptick in terms of refinement from the new engine. It's smoother than before and there's less noise, vibration, and harshness that intrudes on the cabin under hard acceleration. At wide-open throttle, it recorded 78 decibels on our sound meter, a noticeable drop of six decibels compared with the previous model. Honda's CVT executes its fake "shifts" better than most, but it's not the best pairing for this kind of low-torque naturally aspirated engine. The engine still drones noisily when you're merging or passing, making hard acceleration feel like a chore. There is a fuel-economy benefit, at least. As per the EPA's calculations, the new engine nets a 1- to 2-mpg boost across the board, with the base LX sedan now rated at 36 mpg and the Sport sedan like the one seen here rated at 34 mpg combined. (The Civic Sport hatchback is also available with this powertrain, and it's rated at 34 mpg combined but gives up 1 mpg in city and highway driving compared with the sedan.) We haven't yet gotten a chance to test the 2025 model on our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test to see how it compares to the old model's 36-mpg result. LOWS: Slow acceleration, manual only available in performance models, nicer equipment reserved for hybrid trims. The rest of the package remains the same great Civic we know and love. Even in base form, it's a package that combines driving pleasure, sophistication, space efficiency, and ease of use in a way few cars at this price point can match. Riding on Goodyear Eagle Sport All-Season tires, it matched the performance of the previous Civic Sport on our skidpad, at 0.87 g, but took 10 more feet to stop from 70 mph, at 180 feet. Civic prices have continued to creep up over the years, to the point where the base 2.0-liter LX sedan's starting price has crested $25,000 since the 2024 model year. The Sport you see here looks quite a bit cooler thanks to its 18-inch wheels and exterior trim changes, and it adds equipment such as blind-spot monitoring, remote start, split-folding rear seats, and an eight-speaker audio system. It starts at $27,345, which is affordable by today's new-car standards but still strikes us as a lot of money for a compact sedan with non-heated cloth seats and 150 horsepower. Of course, it's significantly less than the $30,000-plus hybrid and Si models (the Sport Hybrid slides in at just under $30K). If you're on a strict budget, you can do a lot worse than the base Civic, but if you have a bit more to spend, you can also do a lot better within the Civic family. VERDICT: The base Civic makes compromises in the engine room but otherwise shares its best qualities with its more expensive siblings. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a62353517/2025-honda-civic-sport-sedan-test/

October 5, 2024

[Sport] Britain end 60-year wait to compete for America’s Cup by beating Italy

7aMoDi posted a topic in Sport / Biographies

Ben Ainslie’s Ineos Britannia crew celebrate after securing their place in the America’s Cup. Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters Britain will compete for the America’s Cup for the first time in 60 years after securing the victory needed for the right to face the defending champions, New Zealand, next week. “We’ve got one more to go, boys,” the skipper, Sir Ben Ainslie, reminded his crew, as they crossed the finish line to defeat their Italian rivals. Ineos Britannia had won the first of two scheduled races to secure a 7-4 victory in Barcelona over Luna Rossa in a best-of-13 series to lift the Louis Vuitton Cup. Ainslie, the four-time Olympic gold medal-winning sailor, will now seek to wrestle the Auld Mug from the New Zealanders in the America’s Cup from 12 October, again in Barcelona. Victory would be a first for British sailing since the competition began in 1851. The last time Britain sailed in the America’s Cup was in 1964 with a boat skippered by Sir Peter Scott, the son of the Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Scott. “It’s been a while,” said Ainslie of the British wait. “It’s a big moment isn’t it? There’s a lot of pressure on these organisations, a huge amount of investment in time and money, and you want to make it right, you want to make it count.” Ainslie has made it his mission to “bring the cup home”, spearheading a campaign costing more than £100m. “It’s a massive day for our team,” he said, addressing Britannia’s technical and support crew. “This moment is for you.” In the decisive race in ideal sailing conditions, Britannia headed Luna Rossa from early on, opening up a significant distance in a flawless opening two legs, finding clear air while the chaser battled turbulence. Ainslie’s team had control, assembled fans clapping them on and waving Union Jacks as they led at the halfway stage. The Italians gave chase, closing the gap in the fifth leg to less than 20 metres, the wind conditions playing into their hands, but they still found no means to overtake their opponents. Luna Rossa waited in vain for their opportunity to pass but Britannia continued to play it safe, and opened the gap back up. Britannia led clearly into the final leg, Ainslie steering and catching the greater wind to maintain a lead the desperate Italians could not close. They passed the finish line first by a clear distance. Ainslie’s co-helm, Dylan Fletcher, who won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020, will come up against the sailors he pushed into silver, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, who will lead the New Zealand challenge next weekend. “Bring on the Kiwis,” said Fletcher, a late call-up after years of asking Ainslie for a role, overjoyed to fulfil “a lifelong dream” and “looking forward to showing what we can do in the America’s Cup next weekend”. Italy’s veteran co-helm, Jimmy Spithill, twice a winner of the America’s Cup with the United States, immediately announced his retirement, saying: “It’s tough, but that’s sport and it’s going to be a tough few days for the team. The better team won and I just want to say ‘well done’ to Ben and Dylan and the whole team.” Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the co-owner of Manchester United who also owns the Ineos Grenadiers cycling team with an interest in Formula One’s Mercedes team, who assisted in Britannia’s production, celebrated one of his greatest successes beyond the petrochemical business that made his fortune. Ratcliffe was asked aboard from the flotilla of spectator yachts to lift the trophy his finances had made possible. Ainslie thanked “Jim and his team at Ineos [for] coming in and helping us”. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/oct/04/britain-end-60-year-wait-to-compete-for-americas-cup-after-beating-italy-sailing

October 5, 2024

[Lifestyle] I’m 14 and stressed out with the pressure of school and friendships

7aMoDi posted a topic in Lifestyle

I’m 14 and dreading the return of feelings that school brought last year. It was a rollercoaster, and just the tiniest thing – or sometimes even nothing – had me depressed for an entire day. Sometimes I zoned out so much that I would forget where I was, and I generally lived in my head, imagining what could have been different, what I would like to happen. It was this detachment and the feeling that no one related to this that really got to me. It’s those feelings that I don’t want to go back to, plus the constant pressure and having to do my best in everything – and having no time for myself. I’d like to talk to my GP, but my parents alway sit in on my appointments, and I don’t know how to nicely ask them to give us some privacy without getting yelled at or grilled afterwards about every single word exchanged. I’m scared of the future. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my life. Next year I have some pretty big exam choices to make that decide whether you’re going to succeed in life or not. I am terrified of that. Which one do I choose? How do I know? How do I stop from stressing about it until then? Also, how do I not chase people away? I get attached way too easily and I give way too much and they get tired of me. What should I do about that? First, well done for writing in. I had lots of similar letters over the summer. It doesn’t make your situation any less difficult but this is a common theme with young people around the world and hopefully there will be some comfort in knowing you are not alone in your feelings. Being an adolescent is hard. You can’t see yet what you’re going to do or how wonderful life will be at times, neither do you have the experience of knowing you can ride out storms and that things will pass. But you can, and they do. I promise you won’t always feel like this, yet in adolescence, it can feel like this is it for ever. Adolescence is also when your brain goes through a massive rewiring process, not to mention great hormonal upheaval, and things can seem very black and white. Here is a link to a podcast I did about the teenage brain. Adolescence is about trying out how we feel about people and that involves spending a lot of time in our heads I know that choosing the right path now seems very make or break, but it really isn’t. Everything you do will feed into who you are, even the wrong choices. (I had done five jobs before the age of 26.) In fact it’s in the failure that we develop and grow. You’re self-aware, articulate and curious and these qualities will see you through life. I went to UKCP-registered adolescent psychotherapist Jason Maldonado-Page with your problem. In his work Maldonado-Page said he “often sees issues such as yours and it can be difficult for adults, parents and professionals to remember what it’s like to be an adolescent”. He had a great idea, which is to get your parents to look at photos of when they were about your age. “Doing this can help them put their adult selves into adolescent shoes, to better understand what you are going through. I believe that adults remembering their own adolescence can almost always unlock the ability to listen and understand children better.” Of course it may not be that easy, but it may be an “in”. I know you don’t live in the UK so not sure what the rules are where you are, but can you make an appointment to go to the GP on your own? Or could you give your GP a heads up (by calling or writing ahead) that you need time alone with them so they ask your parents to step outside? This may help you talk to the GP, so you could maybe access some counselling services. Maldonado-Page wondered what attachment and friendship meant to you. A lot of examples these days come from television and real life isn’t like that. Adolescence is also about trying out how we feel about people and that involves spending a lot of time in our heads. Do you do much physical exercise and getting outdoors? It can really help. You don’t have to be your best all the time. Everyone gets it wrong at times (especially parents) and that’s OK. Sometimes it’s worth just whispering to yourself, “What about if it’s going to be OK?” https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/oct/04/im-14-and-stressed-out-with-the-pressure-of-school-and-friendships

October 5, 2024

[Animals] Alaska’s Fat Bear Week begins late after contestant killed by another bear

7aMoDi posted a topic in Animals

An undated handout photo of the two-time champion Bear 747. Photograph: N Boak/Katmai National Park and Preserve/PA Let the chunk-off begin. Voting starts on Wednesday in the annual Fat Bear Week contest at Alaska’s Katmai national park and preserve, with viewers picking their favorite among a dozen brown bears fattened up to survive the winter. The contest, which is in its 10th year, celebrates the resiliency of the 2,200 brown bears that live in the preserve on the Alaska peninsula, which extends from the state’s south-west corner toward the Aleutian Islands. The animals gorge on the abundant sockeye salmon that return to the Brooks River, sometimes chomping the fish in midair as they try to hurdle a small waterfall and make their way upstream to spawn. Organizers introduced this year’s contestants on Tuesday – a day late – because one anticipated participant, a female known as Bear 402, was killed by a male bear during a fight on Monday. Cameras set up in the park to live stream footage of the bears all summer captured the killing, and in late July a male bear attacking a cub that later slipped over the waterfall. “National parks like Katmai protect not only the wonders of nature, but also the harsh realities,” a park spokesperson, Matt Johnson, said in a statement. “Each bear seen on the webcams is competing with others to survive.” The non-profit explore.org, which streams the uncensored bear cameras and helps organize Fat Bear Week, on Tuesday hosted a live conversation about the death. A Katmai national park ranger, Sarah Bruce, said it was not known why the bears started fighting. “We love to celebrate the success of bears with full stomachs and ample body fat, but the ferocity of bears is real,” said Mike Fitz, explore.org’s resident naturalist. “The risks that they face are real. Their lives can be hard, and their deaths can be painful.” The bracket this year features 12 bears, with eight facing off against each other in the first round and four receiving byes in the second round. They have all been packing on the pounds all summer. Adult male brown bears typically weigh 600 to 900lb (about 270 to 410kg) in mid-summer. By the time they are ready to hibernate after feasting on migrating and spawning salmon – each eats as many as 30 fish per day – large males can weigh well over 1,000lb (454kg). Females are about one-third smaller. Bear 909 Jr, who last week won the Fat Bear Junior competition for the second time, will face Bear 519, a young female, in the first round. The winner will face the defending champion, Grazer, described as one of the most formidable bears on the river. Another first-round match pits Bear 903, an eight-year-old male who was given the nickname Gully after he developed a taste for seagulls, against Bear 909, the mother of Bear 909 Jr. The winner faces a two-time champion, a bear so large he was given the number of the equally enormous airplane, Bear 747. In the other half of the bracket, the first-round match has Bear 856, an older male and one of the most recognizable bears on the river because of his large body, challenging a newcomer, Bear 504, a mother bear raising her second known litter. The winner will face perhaps the largest bear on the river, 32 Chunk, a 20-year-old male who once devoured 42 salmon in 10 hours. He is estimated to weigh more than 1,200lb. The last first-round match has Bear 151, a once-playful young bear nicknamed Walker now showing more dominance, versus Bear 901, a solo female who has returned to the river after her first litter did not survive. The winner will face Bear 164, called Bucky Dent because of an indentation in his forehead. Voting in this year’s tournament-style bracket is open through 8 October. More than 1.3m votes were cast last year. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/02/fat-bear-week-death-alaska

October 5, 2024

[Politics] Elon Musk to join Trump for rally at site of first assassination attempt

7aMoDi posted a topic in Politics / Economics

Elon Musk said he was endorsing presidential candidate Donald Trump after the attempt on his life [File: Evan Vucci/AP Photo] Elon Musk has said he is going to join Donald Trump for an election rally at the site of a July assassination attempt on the former president’s life. Musk, 53, announced on Friday that he will appear at the event in Butler, Pennsylvania, the following day. Trump, who served as the United States president from 2017 to 2021, is in the midst of a tight race for a second term in November, and Pennsylvania is a key swing state. Also due to attend on Saturday are Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance, and his son, Eric Trump. “I will be there to support,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X, retweeting Trump’s own promotion of the rally. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has become increasingly close to Trump in recent months. After Trump, 78, was shot at by a gunman — the bullet grazing his ear — Musk announced he would be supporting the Republican in his bid to win a second term. “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” Musk wrote after the incident. He later posted: “The martyr lived.” The shooting on July 13, however, killed a Trump supporter, Corey Comperatore, who was listening to the former president speaking. Several others were injured. Musk’s increasing influence Musk has become more politically engaged as the November election approaches, frequently posting about his support for Trump and attacking Democrats. Last month, Musk deleted one of his posts saying “no one is even trying” to assassinate President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris, the former and current Democratic candidates, respectively. Amid the ensuing outcry, Musk dismissed his comment as a joke. “Turns out that jokes are way less funny if people don’t know the context and the delivery is in plain text,” he said. Earlier this year, Musk said he was contributing $45m to a political action committee, America PAC, that was supporting Trump’s run. Trump has often spoken warmly of Musk, even saying he backs the billionaire’s electrical vehicle production, despite having long attacked the industry by claiming it harms workers in traditional car plants. In August, Trump agreed to be interviewed by Musk on X. During their hour-long conversation, the former president said he admired the fact that Musk fired some of his employees after they complained about working conditions. “I love it,” Trump said. “I look at what you do. You just walk in, and you just say, ‘You wanna quit?’ They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK. You’re all gone … Every one of you is gone.'” Trump also pledged to make Musk the head of a proposed “government efficiency” office that would slash regulations and audit other branches of the government. Musk’s backing of Trump is not his first foray into politics. Musk has publicly feuded with Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, and in May 2023, he hosted Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as the Republican politician announced his short-lived bid for the presidency. As with Musk’s August conversation with Trump, that conversation with DeSantis was broadcast on X and marred by glitches. Butler rally a rebuke to ‘evil assassin’ July’s assassination attempt in Butler has spurred ongoing discussions about political violence in the US, as well as questions about the staffing and training of the Secret Service agents tasked with protecting Trump. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed at the scene when snipers returned fire. Last month, Trump was the target of a second assassination plot as well. The attempt was foiled by a Secret Service agent who was escorting the former president as he played at his private golf course in Florida. The agent reportedly saw the barrel of a rifle pointing through a fence and opened fire. The suspect, Ryan Routh, 58, has pleaded not guilty to five charges including “attempted assassination of a presidential candidate”. July’s assassination attempt in Butler has spurred ongoing discussions about political violence in the US, as well as questions about the staffing and training of the Secret Service agents tasked with protecting Trump. The shooter, 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed at the scene when snipers returned fire. Last month, Trump was the target of a second assassination plot as well. The attempt was foiled by a Secret Service agent who was escorting the former president as he played at his private golf course in Florida. The agent reportedly saw the barrel of a rifle pointing through a fence and opened fire. The suspect, Ryan Routh, 58, has pleaded not guilty to five charges including “attempted assassination of a presidential candidate”. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/5/elon-musk-to-join-trump-for-rally-at-site-of-first-assassination-attempt

October 5, 2024

[News] White House warned of risk of Israeli war crimes days after Oct 7: Report

7aMoDi posted a topic in News

Palestinian boys sit on piles of debris after Israeli strikes on houses, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip [File: Hatem Khaled/Reuters] Senior Pentagon and Department of State officials warned US President Joe Biden’s administration of potential Israeli war crimes days after the start of the October 7, 2023, war on Gaza, an investigation by the Reuters news agency finds. Reuters reported on Friday that after reviewing three sets of email exchanges between senior US administration officials, dated between October 11 and 14, officials had sounded the alarm that a rising death toll in Gaza could violate international law and affect US ties to the Arab world. “The messages also show internal pressure in the Biden administration to shift its messaging from showing solidarity with Israel to including sympathy for Palestinians and the need to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza,” the investigation found. In an email sent on October 11 – five days after Hamas’s attack on Israel and the start of the offensive in Gaza – the US State Department’s top public diplomacy official, Bill Russo, told senior officials that the US was “losing credibility among Arabic-speaking audiences” by not addressing the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza. On that day, Gaza’s Health Ministry had recorded a death toll of about 1,200 Palestinians. “The US’s lack of response on the humanitarian conditions for Palestinians is not only ineffective and counterproductive, but we are also being accused of being complicit to potential war crimes by remaining silent on Israel’s actions against civilians,” Russo wrote. Russo urged Biden’s administration to take swift action and change its public stance from its unwavering support of Israel’s response to the October 7 attack and its subsequent war on Gaza. He later resigned from office in March, citing personal reasons. Evacuation leaflets Two days later, on October 13, Israel dropped leaflets in northern Gaza, warning one million residents to leave their homes in 24 hours as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared he was going to “annihilate Hamas”. Following a private phone call with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the then deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Middle East, Dana Stroul, wrote in an email that day to senior aides to Biden that the humanitarian organisation was “raising private alarm that Israel is close to committing war crimes”. “Their [ICRC’s] main line is that it is impossible for one million civilians to move this fast,” Stroul wrote. The Reuters report added that a US official on the email chain also said it would be “impossible to carry out such an evacuation without creating a ‘humanitarian catastrophe'”. Other officials chimed in on the warning, calling on the administration to convince Israel to slow down on displacing civilians to southern Gaza, the report added. It was on that same day that the administration, for the first time, acknowledged the suffering of Palestinians during a news conference with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Doha, Qatar. A boy stands with others near the bodies of people killed in a house hit by an Israeli strike, in the courtyard of a hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip [Eyad Baba/AFP] US weapons Reuters found that on October 14, Israel’s senior defence adviser emailed his US State Department counterpart to request that a rifle shipment be expedited. Christopher Le Mon, deputy assistant secretary at the State Department’s Democracy, Labour and Human Rights (DRL) bureau, which reviews potential weapons sales, recommended denying arms to Israel, citing the “conduct” of the Israeli National Police units, including the Yamam border patrol unit. Le Mon said in a letter that there were “numerous reports” of Yamam’s involvement in “gross violations of human rights”. Since the war began, the US has sent Israel a large number of munitions, including thousands of precision-guided missiles and 2,000-pound (900kg) bombs, Reuters added, citing several US officials. Nearly a year into Israel’s relentless war on Gaza, the Health Ministry said on Friday that at least 41,802 Palestinians have been killed and 96,844 wounded. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/10/4/white-house-warned-of-risk-of-israeli-war-crimes-days-after-oct-7-report