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LAKSHMIBAI RIDES A HORSE into the compound of a bungalow housing officers of the East India Company, wearing a heavily embroidered green sari. “You cannot come inside without permission,” one officer tells her. “Didn’t you see the board?” “Bloody Indians,” another officer exclaims, while a third asks,“Can’t you read English?” The queen consort of the princely state of Jhansi dismounts and walks up to the visibly smug officers. “I can read English,” she says. “It’s a mere language. Just words. Words without culture have no meaning.” This is a scene from the 2019 film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, starring, and co-directed by, Kangana Ranaut. Lakshmibai was a prominent figure in the 1857 uprising against the British and is often presented as a nationalist symbol of strength and resistance. The film’s…

Tough Love for the Sub-$40K The Bolt EUV is really boring, and I want those 15 minutes of my life back.—Elana Scherr There is lots of value in the Bolt EV at the lower 2023 price.—Greg Fink The Kona feels far more spry than the Bolt EUV and looks less dorky, but the interior feels cheap and the rear seat is more cramped.—Drew Dorian Perhaps rising interest in electrics means the time has now come for the little Chevy Bolt, widely ignored upon its introduction.—Joe Lorio The Chevrolet Bolt EV and Bolt EUV—a new-for-2022 SUV-like variant—are the sensible shoes of the EV world. Neither will blow your socks off with face-melting acceleration, and they don’t draw attention with flashy styling or gimmicky tech. While the Bolt duo’s appearance may get them mistaken for gas-powered economy…

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHY the Hyundai Ioniq 5 is our EV of the Year, just look at it. Is this not the coolest new design on the road? Just when you thought the two-box crossover shape was permanently consigned to amorphous wind-tunnel blobbiness, along comes this collection of slashes and rectangles, all rakish and defiant but somehow still scoring a relatively slippery 0.29 coefficient of drag. This is high design for the masses, right down to the exotic-looking matte-gray paint—a $1000 option. Yes, that’s all. The Ioniq 5’s pricing, which starts at $41,245, is the only thing about it that’s resolutely normal. This car is confidently weird. The driver’s seat has a power leg rest? Okay! The center console slides back 5.5 inches, so you could climb into either…

WHEN THE FOREIGN SECRETARY, Sujatha Singh, got a call from the external-affairs minister’s office in January 2015, she knew something was up. Sushma Swaraj wanted to set up a meeting for 2 pm on 28 January but would not say what the meeting was about. This was unusual and enough to make Singh wary. When she went in, she tried to keep up appearances and began briefing the minister about the next day’s plan. But, before long, Swaraj conveyed the disappointing news. Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to replace her as foreign secretary, with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. She would not serve a full two-year term, which was to end in six months. When she described this sequence of events to the journalist Karan Thapar, Singh’s voice was heavy with emotion. The news…

Change Agent McLaren’s first hybrid V-6 supercar brings big performance but isn’t as engaging as the company’s recent V-8 models. The mountains north of Málaga were on fire during our recent visit to southern Spain, where we had come to sample McLaren’s first regular-production hybrid, the $237,500 Artura. The Artura is stealthy and weird, much like the orange-boomerang brand overall. The same spirit of innovative engineering featured in McLaren race cars guides the Artura. The marque is famous for the incessant and enthusiastic pursuit of fresh solutions, even if some of these efforts reinvent the wheel. With the Artura, this is quite literal. For this car, Pirelli premiered its Cyber Tyre smart-tire technology, wherein tires from the P Zero family come equipped with Bluetooth comms. This allows the car’s onboard computers to read…

YEARS AGO when I was starting to explore the world in earnest—making my first trips to Africa and Asia and the Arctic—I made the decision not to take a lot of, or in some cases any, photographs. At the time, I believed that looking at the world through a lens hindered my ability to see what was really in front of me and to notice what mattered. I thought that trying to capture good pictures took me out of the moment and made me conscious of constructing an image rather than absorbing what I was experiencing. I’ve since changed my mind about that. Today I take plenty of photos, not just on my travels but in the everyday—when I notice an interesting mushroom while walking the dog, or watch the cloud formations…

Apple has packed a lot of power into a small case with the Apple Watch. As a result, many users miss some of the best functions that Apple doesn’t highlight. I’ve compiled this handy list of the coolest features that you might not have heard of to help you get the most out of your wearable. Read Your Watch Screen More Easily The Apple Watch display can be a bit small, so if you have a hard time reading information on the screen, you can change the font size. You can find this option by swiping up on your watch face to open the Control Center. Scroll down and tap the Text Size button, which looks like two As. You can turn the Digital Crown to increase or decrease the font size…

In 1725 a child was born in the Republic of Venice who would grow up to be Casanova, known for his lifelong obsession with the pursuit of pleasure. Wreathed in beauty and splendor, Venice in the 18th century exuded opulence and mystery. It shaped the young man’s worldview and attitudes. Through its celebrations, theaters, casinos, and bordellos, he came to embrace a life of exploration. Giacomo Girolamo Casanova was born to two actors in the Venetian neighborhood of San Samuele. Much of what is known about his life came from his own pen; in middle age, he wrote an exhaustive memoir, Histoire de ma vie, which chronicles the first 50 years of his life. His detailed and candid recollections stretch all the way back to his childhood, revealing how the city…

THE VIEW OUT MY EIGHTH-FLOOR HOTEL WINDOW in Warsaw hit the Cold War kid in me. Barren trees lining the empty street, yellow sodium lights and LEDs illuminating the early-spring snow—it looked like something out of a spy film. I was there waiting for a phone call that would be my signal to drive boxes of mysterious goods into a country at war. I could almost feel the ghost of Robert Ludlum. I wasn’t supposed to be in Poland; I was supposed to be on vacation in Provincetown, Massachusetts. But en route, I was diverted by a text from my friend Krista Barnes, who asked: “Can you go to Poland for three days to drop donations, all paid?” That unusual message makes a bit more sense if you know that Krista runs…

“After the protest, I must fill this belly, support my family and pursue my ambitions,” Tenzin, a Tibetan in exile whom I met in September 2022, told me. He did not wish to disclose his full name. He has participated in the protests outside the Chinese embassy to commemorate Tibetan Uprising Day, on 10 March, nearly every year. He works for a Chinese multinational company, as a service facilitator, and possesses a skill highly valued in India: fluency in Mandarin. Tenzin is just one among many self-contradicting Tibetans in India, who have given in to the allure of working at companies that are either Chinese-owned or do business with China. It is hard to miss the irony of Tibetans in exile earning a living from a language that forcefully replaced theirs…

Sitting next to a posse of Cirrus SRs on the ramp at the Naples Airport (KAPF), the Bristell SLSA looked right at home—like a speedy little brother ready to run around and make trouble. But that’s not the airplane’s DNA at all. Instead, the combination of responsive yet solid flight controls, respectable climb performance, and advanced avionics on the flight deck mean it serves as a great two-person cross-country flying machine—or a fine way to build skill towards an instrument rating and competence to fly heavier, faster aircraft. A CROSS-COUNTRY MACHINE That’s exactly the market space Bristell’s U.S. importers and sales representatives seek to serve. BRM Aero—which builds the Classic and its special light sport aircraft (SLSA) version—is based in the Czech Republic (see “The Family Behind the Bristell”). Roughly 800 models…

Eight years ago I bought my first airplane, a beautiful classic 1952 Cessna 170B. That airplane had to have these features: a tailwheel, four seats, four hours of endurance, easy to maintain—and needed to be classic and beautiful. My budget in 2014 was $50,000. The final list included the Cessna 170 and the Stinson 108, and another model that caught my eye—the far less common Fairchild 24. As I mentioned before, one of my requirements was that my future airplane needed to be beautiful, which for me left the 108 off of my list. I know, I know: "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder." But that left my final decision between the 170 and the Fairchild. The dictionary defines beauty as "a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or…

IT’S ALMOST TOO SIMPLE. Automakers are sprinting full speed ahead toward electric vehicles, and they need offerings that people want to buy. So why not take the bestselling vehicle—the Ford F-150—and make it an EV? Bingo. Some 200,000 people have queued up to buy Ford’s electric pickup, before they could even see one up close or drive it. That’s 10 times the initial annual volume Ford was planning for the Lightning. After multiple expansions to its plant in Dearborn, Michigan, Ford will eventually be able to build 150,000 a year. Are F-150 buyers ready to make the switch to electric? Not exactly, as more than half of reservation holders have never owned a Ford vehicle. These folks won’t appreciate how F-150-familiar the Lightning feels. All Lightnings have the F-150’s generous four-door crew cab and…

Gonna Need More Truck The R1T’s body control and steering are so good, you forget it’s a truck.—Ezra Dyer The Lightning is the anti-Hummer: low-key, traditional inside, and simple.—Rich Ceppos The Hummer is what Lambo would have made if the LM002 were electric.—K.C. Colwell Last year, at our inaugural EV of the Year event, there wasn’t a single vehicle that could tow more than 5000 pounds. There are now three such entries: the GMC Hummer EV (7500-pound towing capacity), Ford F-150 Lightning (10,000-pound max), and Rivian R1T (11,000 pounds). To evaluate this emerging electric-towing phenomenon, we hitched each to the same load, a 29-foot camper that weighs 6100 pounds, the sort of trailer a family of four might take on the quintessential summer getaway. We ran all three trucks on the same 85-degree summer day…

It crept up on us slowly, almost escaping notice, but all cars are trucks now. Sure, there are a few holdouts for the real die-hards, your Camrys and Camaros, but even those will probably end up with a two-inch lift and plastic fender flares before the decade is out. No vehicle is immune from the everything-an-SUV aesthetic. Toyota makes a lifted minivan, the Sienna Woodland Special Edition. Porsche is supposedly working on a high-riding 911. The Subaru WRX has a normal ride height, but its plastic fender cladding tells me the Sport Utility Sedan version is only a matter of time. Everybody wants a truck, and so everything is getting the truck treatment. The 2022 Volvo V90 is a case in point, since the standard Volvo V90 as we knew it…

In the little midway between the entrance to the garages at the Miami Grand Prix in May, a Formula 1 fan who identified himself as Drunk Dave and said he works in a Chicago insurance office was trolling for a driver. Within minutes, Dave hooked one. The driver stood quietly for handshakes and smiled for selfies before making his escape. “That’s my new favorite driver!” Dave proclaimed. “Who is that little guy?” Zhou Guanyu, he is told, is China’s first F1 driver. He is a rookie for Alfa Romeo. “A rookie?” Dave replied. “That means he hasn’t been on the Net-flix show yet? That’s why I don’t know who he is.” Ah, the Netflix show. It’s impossible to say how many fans among the sellout crowd in Miami, or at the F1 race at Circuit…

I AM GLIDING ON ICE, inhaling the crisp April air of Greenland’s high Arctic, accompanied by the rhythmic whooshing of sled dogs. I kneel on the back of a sled, making photographs of Inughuit hunter Qumangaapik “Quma” Qvist and his dog team. (That’s me holding the camera, above.) I’m on the quintessential National Geographic assignment, dogsledding across roughly 30 miles of sea ice in search of the unicorn of the sea: the narwhal. Week after week, we’ve been coming out on the sea ice of Inglefield Fjord, seeking a path to where ice meets water. After five weeks, when we finally come up on a small area of open water, Quma tests the ice with a heavy pole. It’s mushy, but underneath the softness lies dependable ice—our lives depend on that ice…

WE’D LIKE TO HELP YOU HAVE MORE FUN. If you have $60,000 to spend on a performance car, you’re clearly looking to smile more. This comparison test is designed to find what sparks joy. Fortunately, the performance cars at this price point are all grin machines. The Nissan Z is the newest entertainer in the segment, and its launch is one of the most anticipated of the year. In addition to its 400hp twinturbo V6, manual gearbox, and tidy size, the Z is priced right. A 2023 Nissan Z Performance starts at $51,015 without options, which are limited to paint and a few skippable trifles. Our Passion Red test car sits at $53,610. Toyota’s GR Supra is the Z’s most obvious competitor. The Supra 3.0 comes with a 382hp turbocharged 3.0liter inlinesix, which…

AT AIRVENTURE 2001, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 premiered. The company had a large presence at the show—they had a kiosk in an exhibit hangar and had rented a large trailer with an awning where they set up computers so that members of the media could test-fly the game. The audience for the virtual aviation experience—I hesitate to call it a ‘game,’ and more on that later—was both aviation enthusiasts and certified pilots, as MSFS 2002 had been developed to be “as realistic as possible.” I promptly tested this assertion by rolling a virtual Cessna 172 inverted and keeping it there. As the fuel tanks on the 172 are in the wings and the aircraft has a gravity-fed system, going upside down means the fuel doesn’t reach the engine. In real life,…

AMANDA GORMAN is a poet, an activist, a lover of hair accessories—and also a domino. “When I decide to do a partnership or some type of work with an organization or brand, the question I ask is, ‘How can we knock down as many dominoes as possible just by flicking one?’” she says. And so when Estée Lauder approached her, Gorman didn’t become a face of the brand—she became a Global Changemaker, an exclusive title created just for her. It has allowed her not only to talk about her favorite beauty products but also to create Writing Change, a $3 million, three-year initiative that grants funds to promote equitable access to literacy. Here, Gorman talks to ELLE about practicing body neutrality, cloudy skies in her meditation practice, and how she’s…

During the 1960s and 1970s, general aviation was bustling. Fuel was inexpensive, disposable income was relatively plentiful, and airplanes were selling well. Bolstered by various wartime production surges, manufacturers were well-equipped to satisfy the market’s demand, and competition among general aviation aircraft manufacturers was intense. Customers in every segment were welcomed with an array of options. A shopper interested in a two-seat trainer would have a variety of choices ranging from fabric taildraggers to brand-spanking-new concepts like the Piper Tomahawk and Beechcraft Skipper. Similarly, a shopper looking for four seats and good cross-country capability had a fascinating variety of models from which to choose. This four-place cross-country category was particularly competitive. With offerings from Cessna, Beechcraft, Piper, Ryan, Aero Commander, Bellanca, Mooney, Grumman, and others, manufacturers found novel ways to provide solutions…

Sustainability is more than just a professional philosophy for architect Rahul Bhushan. He founded his firm North in Himachal Pradesh’s Naggar town in 2017 to give back to his community what he learned from them about coexisting peacefully with nature. Growing up in Shimla, Bhushan imagined himself as a magician who could change his surroundings at will. “[In my mind], I would make houses evaporate and put simpler ones in their place; some got replaced by grass and trees. I never knew I would be an architect, but in hindsight, it all connects so well,” he says. It is the need of the hour, he tells AD, especially for fragile ecosystems, such as the Himalayas, that lie in seismic zones 4 and 5, which are known for being especially disaster-prone when…

YEARS AGO when I was starting to explore the world in earnest—making my first trips to Africa and Asia and the Arctic—I made the decision not to take a lot of, or in some cases any, photographs. At the time, I believed that looking at the world through a lens hindered my ability to see what was really in front of me and to notice what mattered. I thought that trying to capture good pictures took me out of the moment and made me conscious of constructing an image rather than absorbing what I was experiencing. I’ve since changed my mind about that. Today I take plenty of photos, not just on my travels but in the everyday—when I notice an interesting mushroom while walking the dog, or watch the cloud formations…

After years of considering a springtime flight to Washington, D.C., I think I am finally ready to go. And let’s make it soon, because more so than usual, time is of the essence. One of many attractions the nation’s capital is famous for is its spring cherry blossoms and a range of other beautiful blooms. And this year, reports from the Washington Post and Guardian newspapers—and even the groundhog Potomac Phil—indicate spring has arrived early this year. I would like to catch the seasonal palette at its peak, but even if I miss the color splash, there is still so much to see in Washington that planning a GA flight and perhaps an overnight stay is easily worth the effort. The emphasis is on planning. The D.C. airspace has its particular complexities,…

Last month, Omega announced its latest technical innovation: the Spirate System, with a patent-pending balance spring design that offers highly precise adjustments. The new silicon balance spring is fitted in the Co-Axial Master Chronometer Calibre 9920, and its latest watch, the Speedmaster Super Racing, is the first to feature the Spirate System. Omega first started using silicon hairsprings in 2008. Silicon is temperature- and shock-resistant, and amagnetic as well. This minimises after-sales service for one of the most common problems mechanical watches experience today: magnetised escapements that impact isochronism. The brand built on that five years later with a movement that’s highly resistant to magnetism with the Calibre 8508. That then led to an industry-standard certification, developed in conjunction with METAS as the Master Chronometer certificate, one of the most rigorous…

Walk up to your car nowadays, and it recognizes your key fob and unlocks the door. It might also set the seat in your preferred position; wirelessly connect to your phone; change the interior accent lights to the yellow, green, and purple you chose last Mardi Gras and never updated; and ask if you want to play Centipede or maybe order a pizza. These are crucial upgrades to the motoring experience, and if this were 1982 or, heck, even 2012 (the pre–Apple CarPlay days), this hypothetical car would be a mind-blowing feat of futuristic technology. In 2022, it’s just a Subaru. Or a Dodge. Or pretty much any moderately optioned new model from the past couple of years. Automakers are racing to showcase new and interesting technology, and that means we…

Early in June, Blake Lemoine, an engineer at Google working on artificial intelligence, made headlines for claiming that the company’s Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA) chat program is self-aware. Lemoine shared transcripts of his conversation with LaMDA that he says prove it has a soul and should be treated as a co-worker rather than a tool. Fellow engineers were unconvinced, as am I. I read the transcripts; the AI talks like an annoying stoner at a college party, and I’m positive those guys lacked any self-awareness. All the same, Lemoine’s interpretation is understandable. If something is talking about its hopes and dreams, then to say it doesn’t have any seems heartless. At the moment, our cars don’t care whether you’re nice to them. Even if it feels wrong to leave…

It’s not Rob Marshall’s fault that Disney’s latest live-action retread doesn’t really sing. “The Little Mermaid,” a somewhat drab undertaking with sparks of bioluminescence, suffers from the same fundamental issues that plagued “The Lion King,”“Aladdin” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Halle Bailey might be a lovely presence and possesses a superb voice that is distinctly different from Jodi Benson’s, but photorealistic fins, animals and environments do not make Disney fairy tales more enchanting on their own. The essential problem is that the live-action films have prioritized nostalgia and familiarity over compelling visual storytelling. They try to recreate beats and shots from their animated predecessors, defiantly ignoring the possibility that certain musical sequences and choices were enchanting and vibrant because they were animated, not in spite of it. There was, in the 1989…

Whoosh goes the Cadillac. And then it glides. Drive the all-electric Lyriq and you’re reminded of the quiet grace of Cadillacs past. Electrification appears to be returning the 120-year-old brand to its smooth, silent, and comfortable roots. In reaching for the future—Cadillac promises an all-EV lineup by 2030—the luxury carmaker is reintroducing a few long-dismissed attributes. The Lyriq’s demeanor is in keeping with the virtues of its powertrain. An electric motor, such as the permanent-magnet spinner in the Lyriq (340 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque), never does much more than hum. The 102.0-kWh battery pack in the floor—sort of like sitting atop a giant slice of Texas toast—suppresses nearly all road noise. A wind-cheating and range-extending shape helps keep the air’s howl to a low whisper at highway speed. The…

Get the scoop on noteworthy products Apple released in the first quarter and see if any entice you enough to make a purchase. YELLOW IPHONE 14 In March, Apple released a canary yellow iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus in honor of spring. The only distinguishing feature of this new release is—you guessed it—the color. Lots of banana-phone jokes have made their rounds, but here at iPhone Life, we do agree it’s a lovely shade. Like with all other iPhone 14 and 14 Plus models, the price starts at $799. M2 MAC MINI Next up is a new generation of Apple’s popular Mac mini, the tiny desktop computer that’s also the cheapest entry to the Mac lineup. Like with all 2023 Macs, the mini is outfitted with an M2 chip, the second generation of…

THERE COMES A TIME in every aircraft owner’s life when they decide it is time to upgrade the instrument panel. This process is neither quick nor inexpensive, and there are pitfalls along the way—especially if you own a light sport aircraft. Among the common traps are finding enough panel space to create your dream screen—and getting the required approvals for the changes. Michael Schofield, director of marketing for Dynon Avionics, says that they often get telephone calls from owners of SLSAs (built to a conforming model by an OEM) who want to change the avionics and are surprised to learn that only the manufacturer of the LSA can approve the change, unlike the normal supplemental type certificate process. “They can't just dive into it and make a change,” says Schofield, because under…

A few years ago, Hyundai foretold its future: sleek and electric, with design cues pulled from classic and modern inspiration. That was the Prophecy concept, first shown in March 2020. As with all augury, there’s room for interpretation. But our first look at the Ioniq 6, the production car based on the concept, reveals a smooth sedan that clearly references both retro and futuristic influences. The Ioniq 6 follows the Toyota Prius–like Ioniq and the Ioniq 5, an SUV with Atari charm. The Ioniq 6 has a lot to live up to, as both the 5 and the Prophecy concept garnered rave reviews. All Ioniq models ride on the Hyundai E-GMP dedicated electric platform, shared with the Kia EV6 and the Genesis GV60. To give the Ioniq 6 a distinctive look, Hyundai…

TO SHAKE DOWN WHAT WE CONSIDER THE FIRST AFFORDABLE PERFORMANCE SUV, WE MAKE A TRIP TO THE CHEROHALA SKYWAY. ON THE CHEROHALA SKYWAY, sometimes the corners go on for so long, it feels like you’re driving up the side of a spiral ham. There are no gas stations, no convenience stores, and no apparent reasons for this 43-mile ribbon of pavement to exist. It connects Tellico Plains, Tennessee, with Robbinsville, North Carolina, two places that their own residents might admit never needed connecting. They weren’t until 1996, when the skyway was completed after 34 years of construction that cost about $100 million. The whole thing actually started with a joke in the late ’50s, when a Kiwanis Club organized a wagon train across the mountains. But you know how jokes get out…

AMERICAN AIRLINES FLIGHT 311 departed New York on the evening of October 7, 1947, bound for Dallas and Los Angeles. Three pilots, all qualified captains, were aboard. The airplane was a Douglas DC-4 Skymaster, military designation C-54, the first of the series of fourradial-engine Douglas transports that ended with the DC-7. With a wingspan of 117 feet and room for as many as 80 passengers, it was a big airplane for its time. Unlike later models, however, it was not pressurized. After the stop in Dallas, the airplane took off a little before dawn and climbed to its cruising altitude of 8,000 feet msl, or about 4,000 feet above ground level. Captain Charles Sisto was in the left seat, but after leveling off he relinquished it to Captain John Beck, who…