Latest news with #Chalk
Engadget
4 days ago
- Automotive
- Engadget
Porsche 911 GTS review: The first hybrid 911 is better with a battery
When Porsche first unveiled the new 911 GTS, it's safe to say that there weren't many people on planet Earth pining for a hybrid 911. The idea of one of the world's most iconic sports cars taking a cue from the humble Toyota Prius is a concept that's a little hard for the average auto enthusiast to get their head around. But they should try, because the technology that Porsche has deployed in the new 911 GTS, Porsche's first hybrid sports car, is properly impressive. This is a hybrid system that exists not to improve fuel consumption, but to genuinely make a sports car better thanks to the injection of a little high voltage and a lot of boost. Tech meets tradition The 911 has maintained its stubborn rear-engined layout since the beginning. Its motor is slung between and behind the back wheels, not because it's necessarily the best place for handling, but just because that's how it's always been done. That doesn't change with the 911 GTS. What is new, though, is the addition of an electric motor into the mix, augmenting that gasoline engine in the way-back. That new motor sits neatly inside the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, adding 54 horsepower and 29 pound-feet of torque. Those numbers are hardly remarkable, but the real magic is what else the car does with its new high-voltage system. There's actually a second electric motor here, a tiny one capable of surviving ridiculously hot temperatures. That's needed because it lives within the turbocharger. A turbocharger is a simple wheel that is spun by exhaust gas. This in turn spins another wheel that forces air into the engine's intake. It's a simple technology developed well over 100 years ago, but since those early days of forced induction, there's always been an issue when it comes to automotive applications: lag. The reliance of exhaust gases to spin the turbocharger creates an intrinsic delay between the driver requesting acceleration and the car actually delivering it. Internal combustion needs to build pressure to spin the wheel to suck in more air to provide more power. Porsche short-circuited that with this novel electric motor that spins the turbocharger up to 120,000 RPM in less than a second. Lag isn't completely eliminated, but it's so radically reduced that you hardly know it. Pair that with the extra, instant kick of torque provided by the electric motor in the transmission, and you have something magical: a car powered by gasoline that accelerates with all the instant ferocity of an EV. Design sensibility The 2025 Porsche 911 GTS comes in a Chalk color that's quite striking with all of the car's black accents. Porsche calls that whole system, plus the 1.9-kWh battery that powers it, T-Hybrid. The net result in the 2025 911 GTS is 532 hp and 449 lb-ft of torque. That's a substantial, 59-hp boost over the old GTS. Yet the only obvious sign that there's anything different about this car is the subtle T-Hybrid badges mounted down low on the doors. And that's a good thing, because I'm of the opinion that the current-generation 911, internally called the 992.2, is one of the prettiest cars on the road. Even in this decidedly understated Chalk color, it is absolutely striking. The color pairs perfectly with the 20-inch front and 21-inch rear black wheels and other ebony highlights around the car. The interior is similarly minimalist, monotone to an extreme. But there are just enough subtle highlights of materials like carbon fiber and Alcantara to make it feel racy and purposeful, not basic. And, if you like, you can go with many more wild interior combinations. Porsche is happy to let you customize to your heart's content, but beware that it's going to cost you. The car's interface is simpler than 911s of yore, too. Most of the controls have been consumed by the car's petite 10.9-inch touchscreen, serving both wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, while a curved, 12.6-inch virtual gauge cluster lives behind the steering wheel. What physical controls remain are well positioned, delivering strong tactility for your frequent tasks. Perhaps the most important is the drive mode dial that's mounted at the four o'clock position on the steering wheel. It's how you dial up the intensity of the 911 GTS. Or, push the shiny little red button to go fully manic. The 2025 Porsche 911 GTS has a fun little red boost button on the steering wheel that's sure to give you a good time. Driving The GTS isn't Porsche's most powerful 911 of the moment. That honor lies in the 640-horsepower 911 Turbo S. But no other 911 delivers power like this one, offering a taste of the instant shove of the electric Taycan mixed with the internal combustion fury and high-speed acceleration you'd expect from a 911. It is, suffice to say, quite intoxicating. And to get the best taste of it, push that aforementioned crimson button. That gives you 20 seconds of Sport Response mode, with the car's electronic turbocharger assist doing its damndest to maintain maximum power. The exhaust opens fully, the transmission drops a gear or two and suddenly that machine you were idling through traffic absolutely comes alive. Put your foot down in this mode and the 911 GTS surges forward, without a moment's hesitation. You can hear the turbocharger behind your head whistling as it works to build intake pressure, hauling in air from the environment and jamming it right into the combustion chamber for the next squeeze and bang .It's addictive, but if you've become used to the silent surging power of an EV, it's perhaps a bit much. In Sport Mode, the standard sport exhaust on the GTS is loud enough to terrify anyone you go soaring past on a two-lane road. Thankfully, the GTS is easy to silence. One tap of the exhaust button mounted below that touchscreen and the GTS becomes quiet. It's not-quite EV quiet, but very hushed. Despite having electric motors and a battery, this is not a plug-in hybrid. You'll struggle to even get out of your driveway without that engine firing up. But that's okay. Remember: This isn't an efficiency play. In Normal mode, the suspension softens and the ultra-fast transmission transitions into something that smoothly slips from one gear to the next, keeping revs as low as possible to maximize fuel consumption. That nets the 911 GTS a 19 mpg combined rating per the EPA. Despite some bits of driving exuberance, I substantially bettered that, managing 25.1 mpg. The 2025 Porsche 911 GTS hides its hybrid tech so well that the branding on the door is the only indicator this isn't a normal 911. But even at its most tame, the GTS is not a luxury grand tourer of the likes of an Aston Martin DB12 or Mercedes-AMG GT. At its softest, the suspension is still firm, the road noise from those prodigious tires is grating and even the wind noise at high speed is a bother — so much so that the middling Bose sound system struggles to overcome it. So, despite the GTS moniker, it's more of a sports car than a grand tourer. Instant power is this car's party trick, paired with amazing feel, effortless handling and the kind of prodigious grip that will make your favorite driving roads feel tame. Those are all the more reasons to find your new favorite roads. Despite punishing you on the highway and over broken asphalt, the 911 GTS never feels flustered and always leaves you wanting more. It's a car you won't want to get out of, which perhaps explains why I'm writing this very sentence from the driver's seat. Cost of entry At over $170,000 to start, or $196,185 as configured, it's not an affordable machine. Were I buying, my GTS would be a little cheaper. I'd stick with the rear-drive GTS model, rather than the all-wheel drive Carrera 4 you see here, simply for the fun-factor. I'd also skip the sunroof, which adds both $2,980 to the bill and weight to a car that already gained over 100 pounds compared to the prior GTS. Those two deletions alone would cut about $10,000 from that still-soaring price. Expensive, yes, but the technology here feels worth it. This is a novel approach to electrification, making a sports car sportier with hardly any compromise. It is a truly desirable machine, the kind of hybrid that Porsche fans may not have known they needed, but one they definitely need to try.
Gulf Today
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Today
It's beyond time to end the scandal of IPP
It comes to something when a senior member of a recent government – the former justice secretary, no less – describes actions by the state that were part of his remit as 'overbearing, unfair and almost totalitarian'. Yet this is how Alex Chalk KC, who held that office for 14 months in the government of Rishi Sunak, describes imprisonment for public protection (IPP) orders – which can keep someone in prison indefinitely after conviction for a relatively minor crime. Ousted from government by his party's defeat at the last election, and also from his parliamentary seat, Mr Chalk has returned to his legal practice. It is from this perch that he is now asking his successor, Shabana Mahmood, to consider new proposals — from the Howard League and a former lord chief justice, Lord Thomas — with a view to righting this now longstanding wrong, according to The Independent. At The Independent, we make no apology for returning once again to the iniquity of IPP orders that go against so much of what should constitute any civilised judicial system. Two features stand out. There is the glaring disproportionality in so many cases between the crime and the punishment, with some prisoners having served almost 20 years (and still counting) for offences such as robbing someone of their mobile phone or laptop. This is not, by the way, to diminish such crimes, but to point up the disparity between the standard tariff for such a conviction and the actual time served by many of those still subject to IPP orders. The other feature is the cruelty of imposing a sentence that has no end, which has been described by the UN as psychological torture. With no prospect of a release date, more than 90 such prisoners have taken their own lives. Altogether, more than 2,500 are still languishing in jail on IPPs. This is in spite of these indefinite prison terms having been abolished in 2012, just seven years after they were introduced. The clear mistake then was not to have made the abolition retrospective. It applied only to new convictions, not to those already in jail, leaving the glaring injustice that one day could make a difference between someone left to serve what could become a lifetime sentence and someone convicted of a similar crime with a clear idea of the timetable for release or parole. The failure to make abolition of IPP orders retrospective has had consequences of its own. At least some of those still not released are now so damaged by their experience and will be so hard to rehabilitate that they could indeed present a danger to society if they were released. This is the very opposite of what a penal system should set out to achieve and amounts, in Mr Chalk's words, to nothing less than a failure on the part of the state. At which point, there is an obvious and not unreasonable question for the former justice secretary to answer. If the injustices and perverse effects of IPP orders were so apparent when he came to office — as they were — why did he not do something about it? Why did he not condemn the policy in the same terms as he is doing now and make the changes he is demanding be made by his successor? Part of his answer is that he did do something. He reduced from 10 to three the number of years that a released IPP prisoner was on licence and so subject to recall. That is not nothing, but it was nothing like enough. Two small pleas might also be made on his behalf in mitigation. As he says, there was 'not a single vote' in even the change in the licence period that he made, because of the general lack of public sympathy for prisoners. As he does not say — but is a sentiment with which the current government could well concur — a year can be too short a time in UK politics when it comes to getting anything done. The ponderous nature of the legislative process can be a minus as well as a plus. On the other hand, the size of the Labour government's majority and the years it still has to run mean it has time on its side.
BBC News
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Chalk: Belfast band ready for big Glastonbury moment
Belfast band Chalk are in no doubt - "Glastonbury is the biggest festival in the world".Despite this, however, the post-punk/techno trio aren't Goddard, Chalk's guitarist, said he had deliberately "not thought" about the upcoming band will play the BBC Introducing stage on Friday at 13:30 BST, as well as the Strummerville stage at 23:30 on Saturday. Ross Cullen, Chalk's vocalist, told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that playing the festival was a "bucket list moment"."It's what you always watch on TV with your family," he Goddard said playing Glastonbury, which will see about 200,000 people descend on Worthy Farm in Somerset, was a "really big moment" for the band."We're on the right track", he said. Inspiration from Belfast and Dublin Chalk formed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and drew on inspiration from the rich music scenes of both Belfast and Dublin. "We wanted to take something from what was happening in the Belfast electronic scene, and also the Dublin guitar scene that's been rising the past 10 years", said Mr Cullen. Numerous Dublin-based bands have seen success in recent years, including Fontaines D.C. who won Best International Group at the 2025 Belfast electronic scene has also thrived, with groups such as Bicep performing around the world. Chalk will be joined at Glastonbury by a number of other artists from Northern Ireland - including Kneecap, an Irish-speaking rap trio who have courted controversy with their provocative lyrics and member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh has appeared in court charged with a terror offence, relating to allegedly displaying a flag at a gig in November in support of Hezbollah, which is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the Ó hAnnaidh, charged under the name Liam O'Hanna, was released on unconditional bail after a hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he did not think Kneecap's planned Glastonbury Festival performance was "appropriate".Asked about groups such as Kneecap sharing political messages at concerts and festivals, Mr Goddard said Chalk believed artists "should be free to speak out against injustices and atrocities". "Glastonbury has always been a very politically active space," he said. Other bands from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland performing at Glastonbury include CMAT, Inhaler, Snow Patrol, The Script, The Mary Wallopers and Orla Gartland. The 1975, Neil Young, and Olivia Rodrigo will headline the Pyramid Stage, with other highlights including Charli XCX, Doechii, Rod Stewart, Loyle Carner, The Prodigy and Wolf will be more than 90 hours of coverage across BBC radio, television and are also some surprises in store - more than 50 slots are marked "TBA", with rumoured guests including festival stalwarts like Haim and Pulp alongside more far-fetched options such as Lady Gaga and Radiohead.
7NEWS
02-06-2025
- Business
- 7NEWS
Best EOFY 2025 sales to shop: Best Picks shares the fashion, homes and tech deals
End of financial year is just around the corner and that can only mean one thing; epic deals and huge savings are up for grabs. Often bigger and better than Black Friday, it's your chance to score incredible discounts across your favourite fashion, beauty, homes and tech brands. While June 30 is still a few weeks away, brands are releasing their sales early, giving shoppers a headstart to score some steals. We've rounded up the best deals to shop across a wide range of top-sellers, so whether you're in the market for a new vacuum, a fresh set of headphones or a new bottle of perfume, we've got you covered. Insane deals to keep an eye out for: Ready, set, shop! Best fashion & beauty deals: AJE - 25 per cent off all sale items. Adore Beauty - 50 per cent off clearance items. Country Road - 50 per cent off women's clothes and accessories. Forcast - 25 per cent off knits, coats and jackets. Myer - Up to 40 per cent off women's shoes including Hush Puppies and Dr Marten at Myer. Manning Cartell - Up to 60 per cent off new markdowns including sale dresses from $199. Myer- Up to 40 cent off women's handbags from Radley, Calvin Klein and more at Myer. Ganni - Up to 70 per cent off clothing at The Outnet. Gorman - 20 to 50 per cent off storewide. The Iconic - Up to 60 per cent off designer clearance at The Iconic. The Outnet - Up to 65 per cent off Ganni. The Oodie - Up to 50 per cent off sitewide. Lululemon - Mid year sale across tops, bottoms, accessories and shoes. Oodie - Oodie originals from $49. Uniqlo - Take $10 off best-selling sweatshirts and long sleeve tees. Sportscraft - 25 per cent off jackets, denim and pants. Sportsgirl - Nothing over $50 sale. Saba - 25 per cent off coats, jackets and knits. Sheike - 50 per cent off sitewide. Shona Joy - Shop the archive sale featuring bridal, bridesmaids, eventwear and one-off samples with nothing over $60 from May 29 to 30. Head to Harcourt Business Park. Unit 9, 135 Dunning Avenue Rosebery NSW 2018. Smile Pro - Up to 60 per cent off whitening kits, refills and pens. Tommy Hilfiger - 30 per cent off sitewide. Viktoria & Woods - Take an extra 20 per cent off across sale items. Best home & tech deals: Emma Sleep - Up to 55 per cent off across best-selling mattresses, bed frames and more. Dreame - Up to $500 off best-selling vacuums. Dyson - Score epic savings across best-selling vacuums and hair tools, bundle up and save $600. Koala - Buy a select mattress and score a Koala Pillow for FREE or purchase a select sofa or sofa bed to claim a free ottoman. Lovehoney - Up to 50 per cent off their best-selling sex toys, lingerie and accessories IconbyDesign - Add any 2 items to your cart to unlock 30 per cent off full-priced furniture. Mustard Made - 20 per cent off any Mustard product in Mustard, Olive, Blush, Navy, Slate and Chalk colourways. Sodastream - Get your hands on a new Fuse Bottles plus an upcoming discount of 30 per cent off. Shokz - Up to 27 per cent off select premium models from today until 12 June, including the OpenRun Pro 2, OpenSwim Pro and OpenFit. Vodafone - Save up to $1,950 on the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with trade-in, $710 off the iPhone 16, and $760 off the iPhone 14 on eligible 36-month plans. What is the end of financial year? The end of financial year (EOFY) sales period in Australia is a shopping extravaganza that kicks off in the lead-up to June 30. It's basically a giant clearance sale for businesses to offload stock before the new financial year begins on July 1. While the official end date is June 30, some retailers get a head start with promotions beginning in late May. The best deals, however, are typically snagged in June. Individual sales lengths can vary, lasting anywhere from a single day to several weeks. Expect to see steep discounts across a wide range of products, from TVs and appliances to clothing and furniture. Some stores might even advertise deals as high as 80 per cent off. This is a golden opportunity for both consumers looking to score bargains and businesses aiming to clear out old inventory and potentially boost their financial performance before the new year. How should you shop the end of financial year sales?
Wales Online
29-05-2025
- Climate
- Wales Online
Wales experiences sunniest spring on record
Wales experiences sunniest spring on record This spring beat the previous record from 2020 Wales has enjoyed lots of sunny weather this spring (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne ) The Met Office has revealed that Wales has basked in its sunniest spring on record, with a dazzling 648 hours of sunshine from March 1 to May 28 – surpassing the UK record. The high temperatures have resulted in an unprecedented number of wildfires which have caused decades worth of damage to the environment. Kathryn Chalk, a meteorologist at the Met Office, explained that the provisional total beat the previous record of 647 hours set just five years ago in 2020. Ms Chalk said: "It'll remain often cloudy across Wales today and into tomorrow, but some more brighter interludes are likely on Saturday as we end spring." Whilst Wales has been soaking up the rays, the rest of the UK hasn't fared too badly either, clocking up 636.8 hours of spring sunshine this year, eclipsing the former record of 626 hours also recorded during lockdown in 2020. Ms Chalk explained that while new sunlight records had been set in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, England was yet to break its own sunshine record. Met Office records for sunshine tracking date back over a century to 1910. For our free daily briefing on the biggest issues facing the nation, sign up to the Wales Matters newsletter here . Met Office expert Emily Carlisle said: "We all remember the exceptionally sunny spring of 2020 but that title has now been surpassed by the spring of 2025. It has indeed been an extremely sunny and dry spring for the majority, but with a few days left of the season and more unsettled weather this week, it's too early to say what will happen with other records." Data about the season's rainfall will be revealed later this week when the Met Office releases updated figures. Predictions suggest that the UK might have suffered one of its driest springs, despite recent bouts of heavy rain affecting some regions. Adding to dry weather concerns, Wales has seen an incredibly high number of wildfires this year, with March, 2025, being the driest March since 1944 according to Natural Resources Wales (NRW). By mid-April, Wales had seen its fire brigades tackle over 1,300 grass fires, with environmental charities warning that it may take decades for certain areas to recover from the extensive damage. Last week, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) moved the country to a "prolonged dry weather" status due to many rivers being at "low or exceptionally low" levels. Rhian Thomas, NRW's sustainable water and nature manager, said: "Such a dry start to the year is causing considerable concern for the health of our ecosystems and habitats, as well as for land management and the agricultural sector. As such, we have taken the decision to move the whole of Wales into prolonged dry weather status." She added: "For us, this means stepping up our actions and monitoring across Wales to help mitigate the impacts on the environment, land, water users and people, and responding to environmental incidents. Our drought teams will continue to meet regularly to review the status." Ms Thomas emphasised the importance of individuals and businesses using water "wisely" to allow continuous supply without harming the natural surroundings. Article continues below
