Chill Out

VERSAILLES REOPENING MARIEANTOINETTE’S PRIVATE ROOMS

The Chateau of Versailles will reopen the private rooms of Queen Marie-Antoinette as part of its ongoing 400th-anniversary celebrations. The restored apartments were reopened to the public on 20th June, featuring 100 square metres (1,000 square feet) of luxurious living space where France’s last queen played with her children and received friends. It is the final part of restoring the Queen’s Hamlet and Trianon, a series of cottages and getaways built away from the main palace. It gives a “new understanding of history, with this paradox between public and private life, etiquette and intimacy, an extraordinary summary of history within a few square metres,” said Catherine Pegard, who runs the palace.

Church Of England Vicars Demand Pay Rise

Church of England vicars have become the latest group of workers to demand a pay rise in the face of the cost of living crisis, as Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, claimed they were among the “working poor”. More than 2,000 clergy and lay staff represented by the union have submitted their first-ever official pay claim, asking for a 9.5% rise in the annual stipend, which stands at £26,794. The C of E’s remuneration and conditions of service committee is scheduled to meet and has invited Unite to make a submission about its members’ pay and conditions for the first time after lobbying by the union.

Ancient Maya City Discovered In Mexican Jungle

A previously unknown ancient Maya city has been discovered in the jungles of southern Mexico, the country’s anthropology institute said on Tuesday, adding it was likely an important centre more than a thousand years ago. The city includes large pyramid-like buildings, stone columns, three plazas with “imposing buildings” and other structures arranged in almost-concentric circles, the INAH institute said. INAH said the city, which it has named Ocomtun – meaning “stone column” in the Yucatec Maya language – would have been an important centre for the peninsula’s central lowland region between 250 and 1000 AD. It is located in the Balamku ecological reserve on the country’s Yucatan Peninsula and was discovered during a search of a largely unexplored stretch of jungle larger than Luxembourg. The search took place between March and June using aerial laser mapping (LiDAR) technology.

FEWER PEOPLE TRUST TRADITIONAL MEDIA, MORE TURN TO TIKTOK FOR NEWS

According to a released report the number of people globally who initially access news through a website or app has dropped by 10 points since 2018, and younger groups prefer to access news through social media, search or mobile aggregators. Audiences pay more attention to celebrities, influencers, and social media personalities than journalists on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism said in its annual Digital News Report. TikTok is the fastest-growing social network in the report, used by 20% of 18- to 24-year-olds for news, up five percentage points from last year. Fewer than half the survey respondents expressed much interest in the news at all, down sharply from 6 out of 10 in 2017.

Mccartney Announces New Beatles Song With Lennon Voice Uses Ai

The Beatles’ new and last song uses artificial intelligence. It will be released this year, Paul McCartney has announced, adding that he used AI technology to get John Lennon’s voice from an old demo to complete the decades-old song. “We’ve just finished it, and it will be released this year,” McCartney said on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Although McCartney did not name the song, it is probably Lennon’s composition from 1978 called “Now and Then”. A demo recording of that track was on tapes labelled “For Paul”, which Lennon made shortly before he died in 1980, and Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, later gave to McCartney.

Police Robots Go On Patrol At Singapore Airport

At more than 7 feet tall when fully extended and with 360-degree vision, they’re formidable enough to make any would-be lawbreaker think twice. But Robocop, they are not. These are the two robots the Singapore Police Force has introduced to patrol Changi Airport following more than five years of trials. And they are just the first such robots the force plans to deploy across the Southeast Asian city-state to “augment frontline officers” in the coming years. The robots, which have been patrolling the airport since April, are meant to “project additional police presence” and serve as extra “eyes on the ground,” according to the force, which describes them as the latest addition to its “technological arsenal.”