EXPLORE Most Read Articles on ZINIO Unlimited

SYDNEY TO TOKYO? How about New York to Athens? With a breathtaking range of 5,400 miles (8,700km), the new Airbus A321XLR is the amalgamation of the latest innovations in engineering that significantly expand the capabilities of travel. The Airbus A321XLR, which operated its first test flight on June 16, represents a thrilling new chapter for aviation; one that will enable innovators of the industry to consider new routes, updated inflight service options, and even new airline business models. In Hamburg, on the day of that first A321XLR flight, Philippe Mhun, Airbus’s Executive Vice President of Programs and Services, summed up the excitement: “This is a major milestone for the A320 Family and its customers worldwide. The A321XLR will open new routes with unbeatable economics and environmental performance.” As the next generation of the…

Russian President Vladimir Putin got many things wrong when he decided to invade Ukraine. He exaggerated his army’s military prowess. He underestimated the power of Ukrainian nationalism and the ability of its outmanned armed forces to defend their home soil. He appears to have misjudged Western unity, the speed with which NATO and others would come to Ukraine’s aid, and the willingness and ability of energy-importing countries to impose sanctions on Russia and wean themselves off its energy exports. He may also have overestimated China’s willingness to back him up. Put all these errors together, and the result is a decision with negative consequences for Russia that will linger long after Putin has left the stage. But if we are honest with ourselves, we should acknowledge that Russia’s president got some…

Lower Colorado River Basin California, Arizona, and Nevada agreed this week to cut water usage by about 14 percent between now and 2027, avoiding—for now, at least—a potentially devastating depletion of the Colorado River’s giant Lake Mead reservoir. The southwestern states reached the agreement along with Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, which also depend on the river. Federal officials had called on the states to cut water usage by about twice as much, but the situation became less dire after heavy snow blanketed the Rocky Mountains this past winter, leading runoff into the river’s reservoirs to be an estimated 149 percent of the annual average. In recent years, a prolonged drought worsened by climate change reduced the Colorado River’s flow by about 20 percent. Lake Mead is at 30 percent…

THE PRINCE IS FEELING TRAPPED AND UNWANTED The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are learning the hard way that even the best-laid plans can come unstuck. The couple, who are widely understood to have plotted their exodus from the royal family in favour of the glittering lights of Hollywood, have suffered “setback after setback” in recent weeks. According to reports, several of their projects are in danger of becoming unstuck, including a multimillion-dollar Netflix docuseries and Harry’s long-awaited memoir. It’s been alleged that Harry, 38, and Meghan, 41, are desperate to reshoot their footage and rewrite chapters of his book after the Queen’s death – but Netflix and Penguin Random House are said to be pushing back. “These big companies they’ve teamed up with are sick of waiting and are ready to cash in on…

Language, Dialect, or Accent? If you’re from Boston, you might have trouble understanding someone from Alabama, just as someone from Tennessee might not understand what a New Yorker is saying. You’re hearing different accents, or ways of pronouncing words. If you go to London, you’ll find that English people speak another dialect. Besides using accents, dialects often use completely different words to say the same thing (like the word jumper, which means “sweater” in England). Even so, people who speak different dialects can generally understand each other. A language is even more distinct. Languages have their own words and grammatical rules. People who speak different languages usually can’t understand each other at all. People speak different languages within the country of Spain. Although one official language is spoken throughout the country, there are three…

SAICHO, THE FOUNDER of Tendai Buddhism in Japan, once said, “True riches are not material things but that which shines light into a dark corner.” As I interpret it, lighting up a corner means using one’s own unique talents and passions to brighten a corner of the world. Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, added another layer. He believed that the natural world, the world of trees and flowers, is enlightened. “Sentient beings” include not only human beings, but also plants. These reflections, articulated by two Buddhist contemporaries of the ninth century, laid the foundation for the flower-temple pilgrimages of modern Japan: the practice of journeying to various temple gardens. I’d booked a flower-temple pilgrimage in Kyoto and Nara for April 2020. The pandemic altered my plans, waylaid my dreams. I stayed…

HOW FAR CAN SCIENTISTS STRETCH OUR LIFE SPAN? AND HOW FAR SHOULD THEY GO?OUR BIOLOGY, IT SEEMS, CAN BE OPTIMIZED FOR GREATER LONGEVITY. UNIMAGINABLE RICHES AWAIT WHOEVER CRACKS THE CODE. SCIENTISTS ARE GREAT AT MAKING MICE LIVE LONGER. Rapamycin, widely prescribed to prevent organ rejection after a transplant, increases the life expectancy of middle-age mice by as much as 60 percent. Drugs called senolytics help geriatric mice stay sprightly long after their peers have died. The diabetes drugs metformin and acarbose, extreme calorie restriction, and, by one biotech investor’s count, about 90 other interventions keep mice skittering around lab cages well past their usual expiration date. The newest scheme is to hack the aging process itself by reprogramming old cells to a younger state. “If you’re a mouse, you’re a lucky creature because…

The groves of southern Lebanon had been quiet for nearly 17 years. But as farmers tended to orange trees and banana crops last Thursday, rocket men lurked among them, readying the biggest barrage fired into Israel since the war of 2006 and taking a startled region to the precipice of another conflict that leaders on both sides of the border fear will be worse than all before them. In Beirut and Tel Aviv, an escalation seemed imminent. But as a troubling afternoon wore on, the apocalyptic showdown between Hezbollah and Israel that had been widely predicted started to fizzle. Rhetoric was of measured responses. Israel was content to blame Palestinian groups and put a distance between them and Hezbollah. War could wait for now. But as two mortal foes continue to stalk…

THIS IS A TIME of global trauma. Collectively, we’re facing a warming planet, pandemics, racial and social injustice, growing authoritarianism, the horror of war, and global instability unlike anything we’ve seen since the end of the Second World War. In this traumatized world, many people are coming to meditation classes asking, How can I navigate these difficult times? How can spiritual teachings and practices help me find healing, connection, and freedom? We are at a time in history where the illusion of separate self—with its unprocessed fear, aggression, and destructiveness—threatens all life systems on our planet. More than ever, we need practices that can evolve consciousness from “self vs. other” and “us vs. them” to “we” practices that motivate us to act on behalf of our collective well-being. Buddhist teachings point to the…

1 SONY ALPHA 7R V • £4,000, sony.co.uk It’s time to make two bold and controversial statements. One, the quality of Sony’s recent camera output now places it directly next to Canon and Nikon in pro cameras’ upper tier. Two: the DSLR is dead. Mirrorless sensors open up new possibilities, and manufacturers are only now scratching the surface of what’s possible. Right now, the Alpha 7R V is utterly remarkable for its AI subject detection engine, which utilises deep learning to pull off what Sony calls ‘next-generation autofocus’, able to not only accurately pick out subjects in frame but to analyse their pose to ensure the 7R V never locks onto a foreground finger. Five years down the line? The entire mirrorless market will be brainier than your cat. The Alpha 7R V also…

Chris Hemsworth plunged into Arctic waters, dangled high above a canyon while climbing a rope, fasted for four days, and prepared for his own eventual death—all in the pursuit of living longer. In Limitless With Chris Hemsworth, a six-part National Geographic documentary streaming on Disney+, the actor doesn’t just rely on a physique honed during a decade of playing Thor in movies. He challenges mind as well as body in a quest to develop habits that might extend life. His, and ours. Experts guide him. Some of their tips sound familiar—eat less, exercise more—but others, not so much: Accept reality. Harness stress. Before this project, Hemsworth had “always trained specifically for a movie,” where the goal might have been “to have abs this summer or whatever. And it was more superficial. I always…

ON JUNE 8, 2022, Breeze Airways officially launched transcontinental service using the Airbus A220-300 from Richmond (RIC), the capital of Virginia, to San Francisco (SFO), a prime tourism destination and home to many technology companies. The airline’s founder and CEO, David Neeleman, was on board the former Bombardier CS300 to mark the occasion, and the flight was mostly full. The airline hoped it would be the first of many such long-distance trips. Breeze has plans for 18 transcontinental routes using the A220 to San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas. Breeze started service in May 2021, primarily in the Eastern and Southeastern United States, flying Embraer E190s and E195s (see Airways, July-August 2021). With the delivery of the A220, the airline can extend its cross-country reach to the West Coast. Breeze…

Characters: »Narrator 1 »Narrator 2 »Simba the Lion »Sungura the Rabbit »Tumbili the Monkey »Mamba the Crocodile »Chui the Leopard »Kuro the Waterbuck »Ngiri the Warthog »Chura the Frog »Kaa the Crab NARRATOR 1: Long ago, there was a time of no rain. Rivers, lakes, and mud holes were all dry and the ground was cracked with lines of death. The animals knew they would soon die, so they all came together in peace to talk about maji, water. Simba the Lion asked each animal where the water had gone. MAMBA: There is none to be found. I no longer swim, but crawl on the earth, like Mjusi the Lizard. CHUI: There is none to be found. I no longer drink, but eat dust like Muhanga the Aardvark at the termite hill. KURO: There is none to be found. I no longer stand with…

IN ANY GOOD RELATIONSHIP, THE ONE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENT is trust. It’s hard to build, easy to lose and sometimes you think you have more of it than you really do. According to a survey last year by the consulting firm PwC, 87 percent of business executives thought consumers had a high level of trust in their companies. The number of customers who actually said they did was just 30 percent. There was also a gap, though a smaller one, between the 84 percent of executives who thought their employees had a lot of trust in their businesses and the 69 percent of employees who did. Because trust plays a big part in customers’ decisions about what to buy, employees’ decisions about where to work and investors’ decisions about whether to invest,…

‘I remember as a little boy,’ Man said, ‘I would sit there and flick through the countless books of botanical drawings that Joseph Banks [and others of that era] did. I just marvelled at the detail of the brush strokes and the colours.’ Years later, working as a photographer in London, Man was taking his lunch break when he happened to glance at the fig he’d just bitten into. ‘This fig was just so beautiful. The moisture and the way that the seeds sat…’ he said. Without taking another bite, he placed it on the studio’s product-shot backdrop and took a picture. ‘It was very clinical, it was on a white background but lit nicely and it was beautiful. From that day, I started photographing all the fruits and vegetables I would…

Spain often brings to mind images of bullfights, flamenco dancers, guitar music, golden beaches, magical islands set in the dark-blue Mediterranean, and snow-white villages clinging to mountainsides. Spain is all that, and more. Much of Spain’s countryside is covered with low mountains, green in spring, dry and brown the rest of the year. The soil and Mediterranean climate—hot summers and mild winter—are perfect for growing cork trees as well as oranges, grapes, almonds, and olives. Spain’s architecture ranges from simple, whitewashed cottages to magnificent cathedrals, castles, and modern apartment buildings, all very different from the wildly curving lines of architect Antoni Gaudí’s imaginative buildings. Here and there, gracious old monasteries and castles have been converted into picturesque hotels. Covering most of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain, the third most mountainous country in Europe, is cut…

In 2019, quarterback Patrick Mahomes of Tyler, Texas, led the Kansas City Chiefs to their first Super Bowl appearance in 50 years. They defeated the San Francisco 49ers, and Mahomes was named Super Bowl MVP, only the second Black quarterback and the youngest ever to take home the honor. A 10-year contract extension with a potential worth of $503 million (the third-largest in sporting history), was his reward. It was money well spent as he took his team to the Super Bowl again the following year, this time against the Tom Brady-led Tampa Bay Buccaneers. When Mahomes emerged from the locker room after a grueling 31-9 loss, he was stunned to find Brady waiting outside the door. “The biggest thing he said was, ‘Stay with the process and be who you…

It’s August 7,1942, in the middle of World War II. A huge battle is unfolding on Guadalcanal Island in the Pacific Ocean. Hidden in the steamy jungle, two Japanese soldiers watch American Marines roll out wire from one battle patrol to the next. The wire will carry telephone signals, allowing different units to talk to each other and to base command. In the distance, gunfire rattles and bombs blast. When the Americans are gone, the Japanese soldiers creep out and clip headphones onto the newly laid line. Both speak English. They hope to eavesdrop on what the Americans are planning. The first Japanese soldier listens. A look of surprise crosses his face. He hears a sing-song “mumbling” and some throaty gurgles and clicks. The second soldier also listens. It’s like nothing…

What happened The Biden administration said it was “encouraged” this week after new asylum rules instituted after the lifting of Title 42 did not result in an expected surge of migrants at the border. Last week President Biden sent 1,500 troops to the border and warned things would get “chaotic” after the end of the Covid-related public-health order, which for three years allowed border agents to summarily expel migrants. But after more than 10,000 migrants a day sought to cross the border just before Title 42 ended, much stricter asylum rules adopted by the administration under a restored policy called Title 8—including a five-year entry ban on migrants who try to enter illegally—cut the influx by half, with fewer than 5,000 migrant encounters a day. The five-year ban in particular “has…

Dublin European regulators this week imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on Meta, Facebook’s parent company, saying it violated European Union privacy laws by transferring users’ data from Europe to the United States, where U.S. intelligence agencies could theoretically access it. Ireland’s Data Protection Commission gave Meta until October to stop sending user data from the European Economic Area—which includes EU countries plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway—across the Atlantic. Meta said it would appeal the “flawed, unjustified” decision, saying it set “a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data” internationally. Industry groups are calling for clarity on what data they can and can’t transfer. American tech companies have been clashing for years with regulators in Europe, where online privacy and security protections are much stronger. Racism in soccer Valencia, Spain Spanish fans…

You enter a beige brick building like all the others on the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s sprawling campus. Here, in an unremarkable maze of offices, something remarkable is happening. When you reach a third-floor office, there are hints of the mystical experience ahead. In the waiting room, you’re greeted by bright paintings, a crystal tabletop with blue and beige swirls, and a foot-tall amethyst gracing the gray filing cabinet. A set of swinging doors adorns the entry to the hallway, painted with the black silhouette of a face, with multicolored dots trailing off from the head like someone’s mind bursting with delight. It’s the official logo of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. Beyond those doors, you find the four psychedelic treatment suites, each with a photo on the door…

What happened Worse-than-expected UK inflation data caused ructions in the markets last week, and led to renewed concerns about the pressure on household finances. Although the annual inflation rate in April fell below double digits, it only dropped to 8.7%; the Bank of England had forecast a fall to 8.4%. The inflation rate for food, meanwhile, remained stubbornly high, at 19.1%. Food has now overtaken fuel as the biggest single driver of rising prices. Worse still, core inflation – a measure that strips out volatile food and energy prices – actually rose from 6.2% to 6.8% in April, its highest level in 31 years. The inflation figures spooked the bond markets, pushing the UK’s borrowing costs to their highest level since last year’s “mini-Budget”. In response, banks pushed up mortgage rates. It…

What happened The possibility of a catastrophic U.S. debt default loomed larger this week, after House Republicans insisted they would not raise the debt ceiling without major, unspecified spending cuts that President Biden said he would not even discuss. After meeting with congressional Democrats, Biden said he “has no intention of letting the Republicans wreck our economy” with “extreme” plans such as cutting Social Security and Medicare. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) called Biden’s refusal to negotiate “irresponsible.” He said a debt-limit increase must include a plan to rein in “irresponsible government spending,” and said the two “should sit down and get this done and stop playing politics.” Biden has agreed to meet with McCarthy, but no date has been set. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell—who helped broker a deal…

2003 81,000 USERS Hoffman: The natural thing, when everyone starts doing social products, is they always go to dating. We did that with SocialNet. We focused on, “How do we build a much better dating engine?” And we added the professional networking as an afterthought. Patrick Ferrell, cofounder, SocialNet: Reid and I would sit some nights with our glasses of cabernet, and we would argue about various attributes of social networking until 2 in the morning. Allen Blue, SocialNet director of product design, LinkedIn cofounder: It was a weird time, when [the web] was open to anyone who wanted to participate in it. Everything was based on HTML 1, so you could jump in pretty easily. I'd built websites and things for the Stanford Department of Drama, so when I got a call…

What happened President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reported incremental progress in debt-limit talks this week, but remained far from an agreement ahead of a looming June 1 default deadline and the possibility of economic catastrophe. The two sides are “nowhere near a deal,” McCarthy told GOP lawmakers in a closed-door meeting early this week. Spending cuts remain the biggest point of contention. Biden has agreed to cap 2024 spending at 2023 levels, but Republicans demand actual cuts to social safety-net spending and an agreement to set spending caps for the next six years. Biden wants to reduce the deficit by including the defense budget in the freeze, raising taxes on the wealthy, and closing some corporate tax loopholes—measures Republicans adamantly oppose. Republicans have proposed stricter work requirements for recipients…

Rabbits are small, fluffy mammals that rate 10/10 on the cuteness scale. Here are some ear-resistible facts about the third most popular pet in the United States (behind cats and dogs, of course!). Warning: Readers sensitive to bad bunny puns should proceed with caution. Description There are many species of rabbits around the world that share many characteristics such as: long ears, powerful hind legs, soft fur, and short, puffy tails. Also, their teeth never stop growing. Rabbits’ chompers grow up to five inches a year, but are gradually worn down as they chew on plants. Size-wise, rabbits vary widely. The smallest is the pygmy rabbit at 7.9 inches long and 0.9 pounds. The Guinness World Record holder for the longest rabbit is Darius, a 4.4-foot continental giant from England who weighed in at…

In 1798, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte took his armies to Egypt. They marveled at the pyramids and temples, and wondered about the lines of little people, birds, eyes, and fans carved all over them. Was it writing? What did it say? It was like a secret code whose key had long been lost. Until some soldiers demolishing a wall made a remarkable discovery. The Find The hot sun beat down on the backs of the French soldiers as they moved stones from an old fortress wall near Rosetta, Egypt. The wall had been built from rock and broken bits of older buildings. As they worked, one officer noticed a big chunk of black granite with a smooth front. It was covered in tiny writing. The officer pulled out the stone. It was…

Gurvir Johal Profile ● Gurvir Johal is a Birming-hambased wedding photographer who specializes in Sikh, Hindu, Muslim and Indian weddings.● In 2018, he was ranked ‘Third-Best Wedding Photographer in the World’ and the number-one wedding photographer in the UK and Europe by the One Eyeland International photography awards.● He is a Double Master photographer of the Las Vegas-based Wedding & Portrait Photography International (WPPI) and a Fellow of the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP).● Gurvir adopts a photojournalistic approach to document wedding stories in an emotive, timeless and creative fashion.● A Nikon #Zcreator and ambassador for GraphiStudio, Light & Motion, and Fundy Designer album software, Gurvir is a headline speaker at The Photography Show. Book tickets at www.photographyshow.com It’s the start of another week at the height of summer, and…

2010 85M USERS Weiner: Like many others, I thought of Linkedln primarily as a Rolodex and networking tool. After the opportunity to become CEO [came up], I started to learn more and was struck by the enormity of the potential of the platform as a means to facilitate the flow of human, intellectual, and working capital. Ryan Roslansky, Linkedln (2009present), chief product officer, CEO: When Jeff joined Linkedln, he called and asked me to join him as his first hire. It took him maybe 10 minutes to explain that if you can digitally map all the professionals in the world, and all the companies and jobs and skills, you can create meaningful economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. Weiner: Shortly after I joined, we implemented a framework called “Vision…

CONFIDENTIAL How do you keep your plans secret if you’re a king or queen and everyone would love to read your mail? Well, first you might try to hide your notes in some clever way. Secret messages have been hidden in hairdos, sewn into clothes, written under paintings, and slid into shoes. The ancient Chinese wrote secrets on pieces of silk, which were then coated with wax and swallowed. (We’ll leave it to you to figure out how those messages were delivered!) But no matter how well hidden a message is, it can still be read if it’s found. What if you need something more secret? Secret Writing We’re talking about codes, of course. A code is a set of rules that hides the true message by substituting letters or mixing up words. That…

Seven arctic wolves slide across a frozen pond beneath the 24-hour sunlight of the summer Canadian Arctic in 2018. Even though my watch says it’s after midnight, the sky won’t start to get dark here for a few more weeks, toward the end of September. The wolves begin to yip and squeal as they chase a chunk of ice about the size of a hockey puck. The wolves are siblings from the same pack. Two more wolves, including one I think is the father, observe from afar. The three largest siblings are about a year old and weigh around 70 pounds. The youngest four were born a couple months ago and aren’t much bigger than a throw pillow. The older wolves are playing rough, bumping the four pups and sending them spinning…

Think of sport in Spain and you probably imagine a man with a red flag facing a charging bull. But bullfighting is no longer the most popular sport in Spaniards’ hearts. The (somewhat) new game on the block is soccer. From Minnow to Hero Spain’s love of soccer (called futbol throughout the world) got off, literally, to a rocky start. British mining companies working in the country’s south brought soccer to the region in the 1870s. Over the next half century, regional clubs slowly developed. Only in 1920 did the men’s national team officially come into being. They were off to a running start, winning the Olympic silver medal the same year. Eighty-odd years later, the Spanish soccer national team was just as spirited and aggressive. But players lacked physical strength. They couldn’t tackle…

This year is going to be a bumper one for food. Now more than ever, there’s a hunger for learning about different global cuisines, with the resources to do so hitting the mainstream, and new, exciting prospects in the form of restaurants, chefs, businesses and more. It’s not a moment too soon, and these are some of the people, places and cuisines to watch out for in 2023. 1 THE RESTAURANT Akub Palestine’s culinary landscape is rich and fruitful, but underrepresented on the restaurant scene. Akub opened at the end of 2022, and will fully spread its wings under head chef Fadi Kattan and business partner Rasha Khouri. Akub is a marriage of different influences. Palestinian produce from Fairtrade co-operative Zaytoun is paired with seasonal British ingredients and memories from Fadi’s childhood, especially…

INSIDE: The Swifties take New Jersey / Bones for sale in Bushwick / The solution to Manhattan’s traffic nightmare IN MAY 2017, Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey, crashing through the first of many important democratic norms. While FBI directors technically can be fired, they generally serve ten-year terms for the express purpose of ensuring their political independence and to ward off the inherent danger of an unscrupulous president turning the bureau into a partisan weapon to protect his friends and harass his enemies. There were banner headlines and special reports invoking Nixon’s infamous Saturday Night Massacre. Conservatives uneasily justified the extraordinary maneuver as a necessary onetime response to Comey’s messy involvement in the 2016 election. “Given the recent controversies surrounding the director, I believe a fresh start will serve the…