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Click here to read the full article. This spring, six months after a crowd rush at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival killed 10 people in Houston and injured hundreds of others, the live-music business is getting ready for another festival season — its first full-scale comeback since the pandemic sidelined concerts in 2020. While the specific legal ramifications of the tragedy remain mired in litigation at press time, several broader questions for the industry continue to loom. Chief among them: Are music festivals safe, and how does the festival business ensure such a tragedy never happens again? It will likely be years before the public gets the clearest picture of what exactly went wrong at Astroworld, but those in the live business have seen it as either a perfect storm of circumstances and bad luck that lined up for a one-off tragedy or a sign of deeper problems that could have happened at any other festival. The answer is complicated, and likely somewhere in … [Read more...] about Are Big Concerts Safe? Six Months After Astroworld, Questions Linger

The first team principal to run Max Verstappen in Formula 1 is “convinced” he will win the championship this weekend. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free Franz Tost described how he had been impressed by Verstappen’s mental toughness from his first practice outing for his team, at the age of 17, at no less a track than the formidable Suzuka . “I knew him from the very beginning onwards and he was already mentally strong in those days,” Tost recalled in an exclusive interview for RaceFans. “Because if you remember right there were many people who criticised us to sit him in the Formula 1 car because he was only 17 years old, and even didn’t have a driver’s licence.” Ahead of Verstappen’s practice debut at the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix, Tost says some journalists told him he was “completely wrong” to put such a young driver in his car. “I said to them let’s talk in five years once more, I think it’s right. In the end it was right.” After Verstappen made … [Read more...] about Verstappen was mentally tough from his first day in an F1 car – Tost interview · RaceFans

Formula 1 drivers are optimistic the revised layout of the Yas Marina will improve overtaking opportunities during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Advert | Become a Supporter & go ad-free This weekend’s race is the first to take place on the significantly revised track, with a series of alterations at key points designed to improve overtaking opportunities. The old chicane of turns five and six leading to an acute hairpin has been replaced by a single, wider hairpin which will now have just a single braking zone and allow drivers to carry more speed. At the opposite end of the circuit, the previous sequence of turns 11, 12, 13 and 14 have been combined into a single, constant-radius corner now known as turn nine. The corner has been installed with positive camber, to encourage better mid-corner grip and provide more lines of attack for drivers to take. Furthermore, almost every corner in the final sector around the track’s hotel landmark has been made shallower, … [Read more...] about Yas Marina corner modifications earn early praise from drivers · RaceFans

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 SLIDELL, La. - Tuesdays she asked for the needle in her left arm, and one afternoon in late April, Christina Seal, 41, arrived at the clinic after work. The parking lot was almost full, as usual. She had been giving plasma for nearly six months, and she had a routine locked in place. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Two Sam's Club protein shakes and an iron supplement a day to keep herself serviceable. Afterward, vitamin E oil on her skin to prevent needle scars. The routine had helped tame into normalcy what at first had felt so bizarre. "I never thought I would be in a position where I would have to sell my plasma to feed my children," she would say later. This was where inflation had driven Seal. A month earlier, the Bureau of Labor Statistics had announced that prices had risen 8.5% over the past year, the largest annual jump since December 1981. Fuel, food and housing costs … [Read more...] about A Louisiana teacher seeks to survive inflation, one plasma donation at a time

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 11 KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian soldier facing the first war crimes trial since the start of the war in Ukraine testified Thursday that he shot a civilian on orders from two officers and pleaded for his victim's widow to forgive him. Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin told the court that the officer insisted that the Ukrainian man, who was speaking on his cellphone, could pinpoint their location to the Ukrainian forces. The 21-year-old sergeant could get life in prison if convicted of shooting the Ukrainian man in the head through an open car window in a village in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb. 28, four days into the Russian invasion. Looking subdued, Shishimarin said he at first disobeyed his immediate commanding officer's order to shoot the unarmed civilian but had no other choice but to follow the order when it was repeated forcefully … [Read more...] about Russian soldier on trial asks victim’s widow to forgive him

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday he was ”confident that we will come to a quick decision to welcome both Sweden and Finland to join the NATO family” despite Turkey’s opposition to the two Nordic countries joining the 30-member military alliance. Stoltenberg would not be drawn out further on the substance of Turkey’s objections, but he said that NATO remains in close contact with Sweden, Finland and Turkey. “We are addressing the concerns that Turkey has expressed. Because when an important ally (like) Turkey raises security concerns, raises issues, then of course the only way to deal with that is to sit down and find common ground,” he told reporters. Finland and Sweden officially applied to join the world’s biggest security organization on Wednesday. A first meeting of NATO ambassadors to discuss their applications … [Read more...] about NATO chief: Dispute over Sweden, Finland will be resolved

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 8 For the first time since the pandemic began, Texas public schools will be rated based on how students score on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness — more commonly known as the annual STAAR test. It’s the latest big step toward normalcy for the state’s 8,866 public schools — which includes 782 charter schools — since the COVID-19 pandemic forced school closures in early 2020. But this year’s ratings come with a few changes. For this year only, schools will receive an A-C rating. Districts and schools that score D or F will receive a “Not Rated” label instead. Schools who fall in those bottom tiers will also evade possible sanctions from the Texas Education Agency during the 2022-2023 school year. The news comes as thousands of students in grades 3 through 12 are taking the exam this spring. Last year, students had the option to take … [Read more...] about Texas will resume grading public schools based on students’ STAAR test results

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 8 Who wouldn't want to go shopping alongside an interior designer? Although it's true that pros generally purchase most furniture and other decorative items from trade-specific vendors, many also rely on tried-and-true retailers accessible to the general public. We asked 11 designers to share their favorite pieces that anyone can buy, and why those items never let them down. Here are their picks. - Case goods Why not invest in a piece that can serve multiple purposes? Designer Peti Lau likes the Channing three-drawer console table from Jonathan Adler ($1,995, jonathanadler.com), because, with its drawers and narrow footprint, it can "function either as a desk or a console." "I like the simple white lacquer and silver metal finishes, which give it a more timeless look," says Lau, who does work in Los Angeles, New York, London and Thailand. - Lighting … [Read more...] about The 11 home pieces designers can’t stop using

Centara Grand Island Resort & Spa Maldives boasts 112 spacious villas. Centara Hotels and Resorts reported that its overseas hotels, particularly in the Maldives, performed strongly in the first quarter, 2022. Centara Hotels and Resorts posted total revenue of 3.8 billion baht for the first quarter of 2022, a rise of 40% compared to the same period last year. The firm attributed the revenue increase to its food and hotel businesses due to the country's reopening and lifting of restrictions to prevent the pandemic. Its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) stood at 951 million baht for this quarter, skyrocketing 96% compared to the corresponding period last year. The Ebitda margin of 24% was also higher than the level recorded in the previous year. The firm recorded a profit before interest and taxes of 184 million baht, an improvement of 157% year-on-year, while the net loss decreased by 91%. As for its hotel business, overseas hotels … [Read more...] about Centara revenue up 40% in first quarter