1

50

555

943 943

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58155203 A po[CENSORED]r Malaysian singer has died from Covid-19, just days after giving birth to a baby boy - her fourth child. Eight-month pregnant Siti Sarah Raisuddin, who had experienced low oxygen levels, was put into an induced coma so her baby could be delivered via surgery. The baby was saved, though she never got to hold him. Her husband said he made one last video call to her before her death, where she had tears running down her cheeks. "(It's) as if she understood what we were saying to her," comedian Shuib Sepahtu told local reporters. "It's just that it will be really challenging for me to break the news to my three kids on the death of their mother." Besides the newborn, the couple have three older children aged six to 10. Reports say that the entire family had tested positive for Covid-19 on July 25, after contracting it from their domestic helper. In the days after, Siti Sarah had shared videos on her Instagram account of her children crying after getting Covid tests, which she had described as hard to watch. News of her passing has devastated fans and other entertainment figures as they shared their grief online. The Malaysian king and queen also gave their condolences to her family. In a Facebook post, the palace wrote: "Their Majesties also expressed their sadness over her passing and hoped that her family will be patient and resilient as they cope with the loss." Siti Sarah's death comes as Malaysia is easing Covid restrictions for those fully vaccinated against the virus on Tuesday, even as the country is going through its worst wave. The easing of rules - which allows vaccinated residents greater leeway for travel, sports, and dining out - has been met with mixed reactions. Opposition parties have urged a rethink of a "poorly thought-out reopening" over fears it would further overwhelm the healthcare system. On Monday, Malaysia recorded 17,236 Covid infections, and 212 deaths, bringing the country's Covid death toll to 10,961. Around 27.5% of the 31.95m po[CENSORED]tion have been fully vaccinated so far.

One of my mates showed me his new ride the other day: a rather wonderful Bentley Continental GT. He had picked up this 2006 example with some issues and no service history, so full marks for bravery. Except that he found the service books and sorted out the problems, because he’s a proper mechanic, and effectively doubled its value overnight. He’s going to keep it, but he’s fully aware of the future implications. Luckily, he owns a garage – a proper one with hydraulic lifts in it. Even so, if the carbon-fibre brake discs need replacing, that’s £7000 each. Which makes me think: what could we buy that’s equally interesting? It might not have 12 cylinders, but it must deliver some kind of unique experience. There are a lot of coupés that will do pretty much the same job as a Continental but rather differently. It would be so easy to go for the default appeal of a 2009 BMW 320i Coupé M Sport Highline with an automatic gearbox and just 60,000 miles, which seems like the perfectly reasonable two-door to get for £6995. The thing is, I just remembered that Renault made a Mégane Coupé, which everyone else has forgotten, too. It’s not a bad-looking thing, and on our £7000 budget I was rather taken with a 2011 2.0 dCi GT Line TomTom. It has old-fashioned sat-nav and 70,000 miles under its wheels. Public enthusiasm is fading for diesels, but these cars are great and economical, and you will rarely see another – unlike a Continental GT. There are a lot of Bentley-related Volkswagen Group products, and if you look not too hard enough, you will find Golf switchgear and Audi A8 underpinnings. The Audi TT remains one of the most charismatic and distinctive coupés, and the choice is diesel or petrol at the £7000 price point. For that, you can get a 2009 S Line Edition 2 with 87,000 miles, four previous owners, a fresh MOT and all the history. It’s ULEZ-friendly, while a 2009 2.0 TD S Line – with a similar mileage, price and spec – isn’t. For a while, I was distracted by a £7000 Caterham – which turned out not to be. Kit cars shouldn’t be advertised as something they aren’t or are just pretending to be. There’s plenty you can buy at this generous price; the truth is that many just want a set of wheels to go from A to B, and there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s why for £6990, or almost the price of that Bentley disc, it’s possible to get a fairly fresh 2018 Citroën C1 with 30,000 miles – a one-owner, Bluetooth-equipped runaround in Urban Ride spec that will do 57mpg.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58144779 Coal needs to be consigned to history to limit global warming, says PM Boris Johnson, describing a UN report on climate change as "sobering". He said the world must shift to clean energy and provide finance to help countries at risk from changing climates. The landmark study found it was "unequivocal" that human activity was responsible for global warming. Green campaigners said the UK must halt planned new fossil fuel projects. Despite the call to end the use of coal, the UK is considering plans for a new coking coal mine in Cumbria, as well as proposals to tap a new oil field near Shetland. The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the UN group on the science of climate change - said climate change was already here and causing chaos in some places. Its authors said some of the changes, including rising sea levels, would not be reversed for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. The publication comes less than three months before the UK hosts a key climate summit, known as COP26, in Glasgow. Mr Johnson said: "Today's report makes for sobering reading, and it is clear that the next decade is going to be pivotal to securing the future of our planet. "We know what must be done to limit global warming - consign coal to history and shift to clean energy sources, protect nature and provide climate finance for countries on the frontline." The UK government, which has adopted a 2035 deadline for a 78% emissions cut, is due to publish its strategy on cutting UK emissions to zero overall by 2050 this autumn. Net zero means cutting carbon emissions as far as possible then balancing out any remaining releases, for example by tree planting. "The UK is leading the way, decarbonising our economy faster than any country in the G20 over the last two decades," the prime minister said. "I hope today's IPCC report will be a wake-up call for the world to take action now, before we meet in Glasgow in November for the critical COP26 summit." The UK has already drastically reduced the use of coal, with consumption falling from 61 million tonnes in 2013 to eight million tonnes last year. But the country remains dependent on other fossil fuels such as natural gas, which provides most home heating and about 40% of electricity. The Climate Change Committee, the UK's independent adviser on tackling global warming, says the UK has adequate policies for only two of 21 key areas in eliminating carbon emissions.

Accepted

Pro. But more Active. Max play 3 Hours per day..

Contra

939 939

550

66

3

gueess

1410

6505

1088

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58141336 Wildfires are continuing to rip through the Greek island of Evia with strong winds driving flames towards villages. More than 2,000 people have already been evacuated from the island, many of those by ferry. A number of wildfires have struck the country in recent days. One blaze in the northern suburb of Athens is said to have subsided. Greece is experiencing its most severe heatwave in 30 years in which temperatures have spiked to 45C (113F). Heatwaves such as this are becoming more likely and more extreme because of human-induced climate change. The subsequent hot, dry weather is likely to fuel wildfires. On Evia, two fire fronts have destroyed thousands of hectares of land, along with a number of houses and businesses. Images from the island on Sunday show more people being evacuated including elderly people who were pictured being carried onto ferries. With no sign of the fire subsiding, residents and officials are calling for more help. Giannis Kontzias, mayor of the municipality of Istiaia in the northern part of Evia told local news: "It's already too late, the area has been destroyed." He appealed for more help from water-bombing planes and helicopters. But Civil Protection Chief Nikos Hardalias said water-bombing planes faced a number of difficulties including poor visibility caused by the fires. A number of countries have responded to Greece's call for help including France, Germany and the UK. Late on Sunday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his "heartfelt gratitude" to countries that had sent assistance. "We thank you for standing by Greece during these trying times," he wrote on Twitter. Elsewhere in Greece, fires in the Peloponnese region are said to be stable and fires in the northern Athens suburb have subsided. "The situation in Attica (which encompasses Athens) is better but we are afraid of the danger of flare-ups," Mr Hardalias said. The military are patrolling the area amid concerns that the fire could re-start. Turkey is also battling a series of wildfires, which have been labelled the worst in the country's history. Eight people have died and thousands have been forced to flee their homes. The country's Agriculture and Forestry Minister Pakdemirli said on Saturday that 217 fires had been contained and six were said to be ongoing.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58112221 The Halifax says house prices rose again in July after dipping last month, making the average price £261,221 and leaving prices 7.6% higher than at the same time last year. Last month, average prices were 8.7% up on a year ago. The lender said it expected prices to settle further after the recent spate of strong rises, which has been fuelled in part by tax breaks on stamp duty. But it said a shortage of homes was likely to support prices. The average property price across the UK was £261,221 in July, with the highest rises of 13.8% seen in Wales and the lowest - 2.5% - in London. The government gave some home buyers a temporary break from paying the set tax paid on certain housing transactions. It completely waived the payment on the first £500,000 of any property purchase in England or Northern Ireland, but that break finished at the end of June. Now a 5% tax kicks in at £250,000 for properties up to £925,000. Rates on properties above that are higher. From October, rates are due to return to normal, which means the point at which homebuyers start paying stamp duty will revert back to £125,001. Russell Galley, managing director of Halifax, said: "This easing was somewhat expected, given the strength of price inflation seen last summer, as the market began its recovery from the first lockdown and with activity supported by the start of the stamp duty holiday." He said that instructions "for sale" were now falling and estate agents had seen a fall in the number of available homes: "This general lack of supply should help to support prices in the near-term, as will the exceptionally low cost of borrowing and continued strong customer demand." 'Great wall of money' Nicky Stevenson, managing director at the estate agent group Fine & Country, said huge demand remained: "This data shows the era of ballooning house prices is not over yet, even if a little air is now slowly starting to hiss out of the market. "While annual growth has softened slightly since the frenzied heyday of the stamp duty holiday, there is still a great wall of money coming into the market despite the phasing out of this much celebrated tax break. "Super-low interest rates, shrinking housing stock, greater mortgage availability and government support for buyers should mean house price growth remains resilient into the autumn."

One of the good things about an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio is how it flows down a bad road. Instead of pummelling and bashing along, our favourite sports saloon has a deftness and pliancy to the way it rides and steers. The excellent news is that, while in pursuit of more performance and engagement, the new limited-edition Giulia GTA, tested here on British roads for the first time, retains (spoiler alert) all of that appeal. This could be a surprise. This is an Alfa Giulia given the Jaguar XE Project 8 or BMW M4 GTS treatment: the full send into raciness. It’s a 500-off limited run of turned-up, tuned-up super-saloon, available in either GTA form or, as tested here, as the even more hardcore GTAm. Buyers are reportedly roughly evenly split between the two. In either form, it’s an awful lot of money – whatever €176,500 (GTA) or €181,500 (m) translates to when it arrives. And it is an extreme car. Common to both flavours is more power than a standard Quadrifoglio, with the 2.9-litre 90deg V6’s output pushed up by 30bhp to 533bhp, while torque is unchanged at 443lb ft. It drives only the rear wheels still, through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Weight has come out all over the place. The bonnet, roof and front wings are carbonfibre. This GTAm version takes that several steps further – steps that could be too much for some, hence the even split between the two models. Out go the rear seats, opening rear windows and the door cards, while in comes a roll cage, six-point harnesses and fixed-back Sabelt carbonfibre-backed seats. Rear door skins, rear side windows and the rear window are plastic. Where each rear seat base would have been is a netted cubby to hold a crash helmet, there is a shiny fire extinguisher between them and an Alcantara bulkhead between all that and the boot. The GTAm is claimed to be ‘up to’ 100kg lighter than a standard Quadrifoglio. We weighed one of those, fully fuelled, at 1700kg exactly (the claim was 1580kg), so call this 1600kg at the kerb. Chuck in even more Alcantara and fabric door pulls and things in the GTAm look very racy indeed; although, sensibly, air conditioning and the infotainment system remain. I suppose removing them sometimes seems like a good, no-compromise idea across a boardroom table. But I’m told that when one supercar manufacturer offered a special model without all those niceties, but allowed buyers to specify them back in as a no-cost option, only one car was delivered without air-con and sound, and that was a press demonstrator. Also unique to the GTAm is adjustment of the front splitter, which with an allen key can be unbolted and pulled forwards by 40mm, and three-step adjustment on the rear wing. Alfa Romeo’s Formula 1 partner Sauber apparently helped develop the aero, hence the diddy decals on the side skirts, while hidden beneath the body, but jutting out as the lowest point between the wheels, are two carbon vanes that look like they’ll succumb to a gnarly speed bump. The enhanced aerodynamics, including a rear splitter flanking a titanium Akrapovic exhaust, is said to increase downforce over a Quadrifoglio by 300kg, assuming you get the car towards its 191mph top speed. The regular QF is said to make positive downforce, which is by no means a given on a sports car, let alone a saloon. So this should feel quite planted.

1080