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Another model consigned to history. What was your favorite version of this popular car ?

The Flying Scotsman made a historic journey to celebrate its 100 year anniversary. If you know anything about trains, you’ve probably heard of The Flying Scotsman. Often described as the world’s most famous steam locomotive, it has starred in films, broken records and toured the world. But did you know she’s now 100 years old?

It's vital to take into account an age-old hindrance to vacationers' enjoyment while arranging a trip to the Land of Smiles to explore jungles, unwind on beaches, and engage in thrilling water sports. This hindrance is the weather. Holiday hotspots from Bangkok to Koh Samui benefit from the best weather windows, which provide Thailand's visitors with mostly sunny sky. Although Thailand enjoys year-round moderate weather and pleasant average temperatures, the typically tropical environment is not without its share of wind, rain, and humidity. Wet (ruedu fon), cool (ruedu nao), and hot (ruedu ron), which determine peak and off-peak tourist seasons, respectively, and create shoulder seasons in between, are three main seasons that divide the year. Visitors should be aware of the various climates and the dreaded monsoon season that await them in the south Asian tourist destination as temperatures naturally vary throughout Thailand's vast regions from north to south and coast to coast. The monsoon season frequently forces Thai isles to close. When is it? July to October The peak of the UK summer vacation is when Thailand's "monsoon" season, which lasts for about four months, occurs. On most days, rain falls frequently but seldom in brief spurts, with the highest amounts occurring in September and October. Visitors to Thailand during the wettest months of the year may experience difficult weather conditions due to high humidity and onshore winds from the southwest monsoon over the Indian Ocean (unless you are a serious surfer). Cool Season: ‘Ruedu Nao’ When is it? November to February Intense rains is relieved from November through February by cool, dry weather. The northeast monsoon is ideal for visiting seaside resorts on Thai islands and taking cloudless pictures because it offers a gentle breeze, more comfortable temperatures (December average highs range from 27 to 30 C), and a significantly less humid atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, these four months have their highest tourism levels due to the good weather. Hot Season: ‘Ruedu Ron’ When is it? March to June Except for the northeastern mountain areas, Thailand mainly has a tropical environment with temperatures that rarely fall below 20°C. From March to June, North Thailand experiences the heaviest heat, with Chiang Mai reaching a scorching 36C in April. The absence of a breeze or cooling drizzle can make visiting Thailand's famous temples and pagodas difficult, but circumstances are a little less uncomfortable during southern holiday seasons; highs peak around 33C in Phuket, perfect for lazy beach days. Best time to Travel North It is best to travel to Bangkok and other central Thailand locations in November and December, off-peak travel season months when temperatures aren't yet at their highest and the area is just beginning to dry out. The verdant woods, waterfalls, and rolling farmland are at their most spectacular after the significant rainfall. Southeast During the 'cool season' of December to February, the weather is ideal for vacationing along Thailand's east coast, including Koh Samui and Koh Phan Ngan. In addition to producing the best waves for watersports, less rain, more temperate temperatures, and a strong breeze also make for a comfortable setting for family vacations. Southwest The monsoon season, which lasts from July to October, is when Thailand's west coast, which includes the Andaman Sea and Khao Sok National Park, is at its most pleasant. During this time, temperatures are comfortably warm, the winds are cooling, and the humidity is at a minimum. January Average temperature: 27C to 31C Hours of sunshine per day: 9 hours Average monthly rainfall: 19mm to 56mm February Average temperature: 28C to 33C Hours of sunshine per day: 8 to 9 hours Average monthly rainfall: 22mm to 30mm March Average temperature: 29C to 35C Hours of sunshine per day: 9 hours Average monthly rainfall: 52mm to 159mm April Average temperature: 29C to 36C Hours of sunshine per day: 7 to 8 hours Average monthly rainfall: 104mm to 145mm May Average temperature: 28C to 34C Hours of sunshine per day: 6 to 7 hours Average monthly rainfall: 245mm to 260mm June Average temperature: 28C to 33C Hours of sunshine per day: 5 to 6 hours Average monthly rainfall: 190mm to 290mm July Average temperature: 28C to 33C Hours of sunshine per day: 6 hours Average monthly rainfall: 199mm to 263mm August Average temperature: 28C to 32C Hours of sunshine per day: 5 to 6 hours Average monthly rainfall: 230mm to 350mm September Average temperature: 27C to 32C Hours of sunshine per day: 5 hours Average monthly rainfall: 339mm to 381mm October Average temperature: 27C to 32C Hours of sunshine per day: 6 to 7 hours Average monthly rainfall: 275mm to 376mm November Average temperature: 28C to 31C Hours of sunshine per day: 7 to 8 hours Average monthly rainfall: 56mm to 226mm December Average temperature: 27C to 30C Hours of sunshine per day: 8 to 9 hours Dont forget ! If you're travelling, get adequate insurance for your Journey...... -- © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-0

I’m not sure quite what to make of the new Mazda CX-60, the latest addition to its range of SUVs. My test car arrived in a highly fetching shade of “platinum quartz”, a colour which sort of hovers intriguingly between beige, grey and taupe. It’s very much on-trend (I think) and contemplating its place in the spectrum occupied far too much of my time. It’s nice, anyway. Let’s continue inside… The fit and finish was mostly impeccable, as you’d expect from a Mazda. Mine was a top-of-the-range version in “Takumi” trim. The leatherwork was very bright and white, and the dash also featured tasteful wood in shades of grey. There was nothing to get your heart racing in there, but then again this is intended to be smart, reliable and habitable family transport. And you do get to enjoy a full-length panoramic glass sunroof, so at least your passengers get to see more of the world. You can easily say it’s just another mid-sized SUV in a market saturated with them. You can just as truthfully remark that there isn’t that much more that this sort of car can do that a competent old-school estate couldn’t, such as the still-attractive Mazda 6 tourer. But it seems to be what the market wants these days, and the Mazda is a competitive entrant. FULL ARTICLE

In the past few days, the Biden administration admitted that the People’s Republic of China had reactivated the Soviet Union’s old Cold War intelligence post at Lourdes, in Cuba. This revelation was soon followed by an even bigger concern: China is in talks with Cuba to stand up a military training facility within 100 miles of Florida. So, what is China doing in Cuba? Are these actions routine, or might China be planning something larger? Something that might pose a significant national security threat to America? The spy base at Lourdes on the north coast of Cuba, 93 miles south of Key West, has a long history. It operated for 40 years, from 1962 until 2002 when the nearly bankrupt Russian Federation could no longer afford to pay Cuba the $200 million a year in rent, nor keep the more than 1,500 intelligence specialists on the island. CHINA AND CUBA PARTNERSHIP A MAJOR THREAT RIGHT IN OUR BACKYARD In 2014, shortly after Russia seized Crimea and the Donbas region from Ukraine, there were reports that the Russians were looking to reopen the vast, but partially demolished facility. FULL STORY

Revelations that special counsel Jack Smith has been digging into efforts to overturn former President Donald Trump’s Arizona election loss in 2020 bolster growing indications that his investigation is nearing a critical point. New CNN reporting on Thursday also suggests that Smith remains interested in a chaotic Oval Office meeting days before Trump left office during which the former president considered some of the wildest schemes dreamed up to try to keep him in power, despite pushback from his White House counsel. Smith has already made Trump the first former president to be formally accused of federal crimes. Trump was charged last month with the willful retention of national defense information and over alleged obstruction of the investigation in connection with a trove of classified documents he kept at his Florida home after leaving office. But a flurry of details about Smith’s inquiries into alleged election-stealing efforts suggest his investigators have had an industrious summer. On Wednesday evening, for instance, Rusty Bowers – the Republican former Arizona House speaker who once said it was “foreign to my very being” to submit to Trump’s bid to subvert the Constitution – said publicly for the first time on CNN that he had spoken to the FBI. FULL STORY

Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has signaled a continued interest in a chaotic Oval Office meeting that took place in the final days of the Trump administration, during which the former president considered some of the most desperate proposals to keep him in power over objections from his White House counsel. Multiple sources told CNN that investigators have asked several witnesses before the grand jury and during interviews about the meeting, which happened about six weeks after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Some witnesses were asked about the meeting months ago, while several others have faced questions about it more recently, including Rudy Giuliani. Last month, for two consecutive days, Giuliani sat down with investigators for a voluntary interview about a range of topics, including the tumultuous December 2020 meeting that he attended, sources said. FULL STORY

The Biden administration wants to crack down on short-term health insurance plans, which it says can leave patients saddled with hefty medical bills. The proposed rule, announced Friday as part of a series of actions aimed at lowering health care costs, would limit the duration of these controversial plans to three months with the option of a one-month extension. It would also require that plans provide consumers with clear explanations of their benefits, which are typically less comprehensive than other policies. The proposal would largely reverse former President Donald Trump’s expansion of short-term plans in 2018, which extended the duration of the policies to just under a year and allowed them to be renewed for a total of up to 36 months. The move was one of many actions the prior administration took to chip away at the Affordable Care Act. FULL STORY

President Joe Biden told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria Friday that it was a “difficult decision” to provide Ukraine with cluster munitions for the first time, but that he was ultimately convinced to send the controversial weapons because Kyiv needs ammunition in its counteroffensive against Russia. The White House announced Friday that the president had approved the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine, the latest instance where the US has provided Kyiv with weapons it initially resisted sending into the war. “It was a very difficult decision on my part. And by the way, I discussed this with our allies, I discussed this with our friends up on the Hill,” Biden said, adding, “The Ukrainians are running out of ammunition.” The cluster munitions that the US will send to Ukraine will be compatible with US-provided 155mm howitzers, a key piece of artillery that has allowed Ukraine to win back territory over the last year. FULL STORY

U.S. officials granted full approval to a closely watched Alzheimer’s drug on Thursday, clearing the way for Medicare and other insurance plans to begin covering the treatment for people with the brain-robbing disease. The Food and Drug Administration endorsed the IV drug, Leqembi, for patients with mild dementia and other symptoms caused by early Alzheimer's disease. It’s the first medicine that’s been convincingly shown to modestly slow Alzheimer’s cognitive decline.

Harrison Ford is in typically redoubtable form in his fifth and final Indiana Jones film, titled The Dial of Destiny, but it is otherwise sprawling and very uneven. It starts promisingly with an action sequence toward the end of the Second World War in which somehow, using the magic of CGI, Indiana is shown as a youngish man tussling with the Nazis. This is when he first encounters the fiendish Jurgen Voller (Mads Mikkelsen). This prelude offers exactly what you expect from an Indiana Jones adventure: chases, explosions and an epic fight sequence on top of a runaway train. Toby Jones registers strongly as Indy’s companion, Basil Jones, a diminutive, eccentric but staunchly heroic English academic who helps Indiana stay alive.

Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough using a so-called ‘miracle material’ to boost the efficiency of solar panels. Two separate studies published on Thursday demonstrated how the material perovskite could push the power conversion efficiency rate of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells above 30 per cent – beyond the theoretical limit of 29 per cent for traditional silicon (PV) solar cells.

Jennifer Grant has said that her father, Cary Grant, was “not flirtatious with men”. The Hollywood icon, known for classic films including North by Northwest (1959) and Charade (1963), faced persistent rumours about his sexuality during later life. Speaking to The Guardian ahead of ITV’s forthcoming drama Archie, a biopic series about Cary’s life, Grant denied that her father had relationships with men.

A raid by Russian security services has revealed the colourful inside of mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin’s lavish mansion in St Petersburg. A wardrobe full of wigs, gold bars and a stuffed alligator were among the many bizarre finds in photos and footage published by pro-Kremlin media outlet Izvestia.

In order to move our energy grids to a more carbon-free future, a company called Form Energy is experimenting with an old battery technology that could allow for days of energy storage for homes across the globe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed a response after a Russian missile attack killed at least four people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Thursday. Those killed in the attack were between the ages of 21 and 95, officials said. It was the largest Russian strike on Lviv since Russian President Vladimir Putin began his invasion of Ukraine early last year.

Deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell by 33.6% in the first six months of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's term compared with the same period in 2022, the government says. Its suggests the rainforest shrank by 2,649 sq km this January-June, down from 3,988 sq km in those six months last year under President Bolsonaro. The released government satellite data has not been independently verified. Lula has pledged to end deforestation, or forest clearance, by 2030.

With a platform that has been echoed in state legislatures across the United States and in the halls of Congress and has received widespread condemnation from human rights groups, Ron DeSantis has championed his record of targeting LGBT+ people, particularly transgender youth. His campaign for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 is being fueled by the governor's extensive platform, which focuses on trans rights and civil liberties. He has also pledged to implement his agenda on a national scale. His campaign posted a video at the end of Pride Month that combines previous statements from his Republican opponent, Donald Trump, celebrating Pride and promising protections for LGBT+ rights. The video then cuts to a fast-paced series of headlines and comments labeling the DeSantis agenda as "draconian," a threat to "trans existence," and "totalitarianism in disguise," with a series of images and quick edits that are reminiscent of far-right and authoritarian memes. For gay right-wing influencers, pundits, and political organizations that had previously supported him, that appeared to be the final straw. A co-founder of Gays Against Groomers resigned in protest of the "extremely anti-gay" video, indicating that an anti-trans group with close ties to the DeSantis camp appears to have collapsed as a result of the video. David Leatherwood appears to be one of several recent departures from the far-right group, despite his appearance in a pro-DeSantis advertisement less than a year ago. There is speculation that blowback from the most recent video provided a pretext for now-former supporters of DeSantis to leave after poll numbers dropped. The video's message was criticized by Republicans as "divisive and desperate." In a statement, group president Charles Moran said, "This old playbook has been tried and failed – repeatedly." The team led by Ron DeSantis is unable to distinguish between gays who follow common sense and gays who follow the radical Left. Sadly, he sees them all as one. His naive policy positions pose a threat and are politically ignorant. Conservative US Rep George Santos of New York, who had vocally upheld the supposed "Don't Say Gay" bill last year, presently says he feels "utilized" by Mr DeSantis. "I used to think he was an extraordinary lead representative," he told The Slope. " I'm beginning to think differently now. -- © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-07

A liberal fact-checker for the Washington Post gave Biden the nickname "Bottomless Pinocchio" for his claim. Once more, President Biden is going to make a claim about the federal budget deficit that has been described as "highly misleading." Biden claimed that he had reduced the federal government's budget deficit by $1.7 trillion since taking office in January 2021 during a speech on Thursday in West Columbia, South Carolina, praising the success of his administration's economic policies. "And by the way, I'd like to mention the deficit in parentheses. In two years, I reduced the deficit by $1.7 trillion. "Cutting the debt $1.7 trillion has never been done before," Biden told the gathering at Flex LTD, a manufacturing company. The same assertion has been made by Biden numerous times, and in April, Glenn Kessler, the liberal chief fact-checker for The Washington Post, gave it the rating of "Bottomless Pinocchio." Kessler gave Biden "three Pinocchios" when he made a different version of the claim in September of last year, and he called the claim "highly misleading." Kessler wrote in April, "He keeps saying it over and over again." According to our count, he has claimed credit for reducing the budget deficit by $1.7 trillion at least 30 times since June." Kessler wrote that the extra pandemic help reserves established by Biden, as well as other new strategies, caused a "more humble decrease in the shortage" than was anticipated for 2021 and 2022. "By and large, in those two years Biden expanded the public obligation about $850 billion a bigger number of than initially anticipated," he said. He continued, "In other words, the data again shows the deficit picture has worsened under Biden." -- © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-07

State-controlled Russian television has apparently launched a campaign to smear Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin after his failed mutiny at the end of June. The media revealed that the pictures were allegedly taken during a search of his luxury home outside St Petersburg and that his wealth was bad for him. They also looked back at his criminal past and suggested he was motivated by greed, but made no mention of Prigozhin's persistent and often harsh criticism of the Russian military and its conduct in the Ukraine war. It was the first time state media had reported Prigozhin in such detail, so personal, and filled with harmful details about his biography. Until recently, Russian television showed a positive image of Wagner's mercenary group, which fought alongside Russian troops during the invasion of Ukraine. On 5 July, the state-run Rossiya 1 broadcaster released photos it said were from Prigozhin's home. A commentator on the talk show 60 Minutes said, "Let's have a look how this fighter for the truth lived, someone who has two criminal convictions and who kept claiming that everyone else was a thief." Eduard Petrov said in a sarcastic tone, "Let's have a look at the palace built for this campaigner against corruption and crime." The footage showed a wealth of cash, a variety of weapons, the opulent interiors of the house, huge gardens with a parked helicopter, a variety of wigs, and what appeared to be fake passports issued to Prigozhin under a variety of names. -- © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-07

Twitter is considering legal action against Meta's fast-growing rival app Threads. Unveiled to millions of people on Wednesday, Threads, similar to Twitter, has been touted by the bigwigs as a “friendly” alternative. Twitter’s Elon Musk said that “competition is okay, cheating is not” — but Meta disputed in a legal letter that former Twitter employees helped create the posts. More than 30 million people have signed up for the new app, according to Meta. BBC News technology reporter James Clayton pointed out that Threads looks similar to Twitter. He said newsfeeds and retweets looked very familiar. The move was first reported by the Semafor news agency, and Twitter lawyer Alex Spiro wrote to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, accusing Meta of being "systematic, deliberate and unlawfully misappropriating Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property" to create the website. Threads. Specifically, Spiro claims that Meta hired dozens of former Twitter employees who "had and continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information," which ultimately helped Meta develop what he designated as a "copycat" threading app program. "Twitter intends to strictly enforce its intellectual property rights and requests that Meta take immediate steps to cease using Twitter's trade secrets or other highly confidential information," the letter read. "Twitter reserves all rights, including without limitation, the right to seek civil and injunctive relief without notice." In response to a Twitter post related to the legal letter, Musk said: "Competition is ok, cheating is not." On Threads, Meta spokesperson Andy Stone wrote, "No one on the Threads engineering team is an ex-Twitter employee — that's not a problem at all." -- © Copyright Asean Now 2023-07-07