Latest news with #Gothenburg
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Long after Jonathan Edwards lost God, his record leap of faith still stands
God knows how Jonathan Edwards popped up in my Google news feed this week. Especially singing the praises of a round of golf at Royal Portrush. Can your phone, like God, know your thoughts even before you speak? It had crossed my mind at some point that in this summer of fast-tumbling world records, the triple-jump mark set by Edwards 30 years ago next month remains in a realm of its own. Not once but twice inside 20 minutes Edwards made sure of that, leaping out with near-miraculous faith to 18.29 metres – exactly 60 feet – at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg. Then just like that, there he was in Google news, in Portrush this week as an ambassador for R&A global development, also helping to keep score at the 153rd Open. Golf being his thing now. God and Edwards were once very close. Long before pushing the world record to where no mortal had the right to expect to go, Edwards had declared that triple jumping was a mere extension of his devout Christianity, a faith fundamental to his identity. It was what drove him to become a full-time athlete back in 1987. READ MORE Then, four years after his retirement in 2003, came his sudden leap away from faith, Edwards losing his religion in 2007. Born in Westminster, the son of a Devon vicar, Edwards soon became Britain's most famous advocate of divine intervention, or at least divine inspiration, on the road to sporting glory. If faith can indeed carry the devout, Edwards always looked to God for the courage and strength to take on the world's best triple jumpers, and to beat them. Such was his devotion, Edwards initially refused to compete on the Sabbath, skipping the 1991 World Championships in Tokyo because his qualifying took place on the first Sunday. He eventually relented on that stance. 'My relationship with Jesus and God is fundamental to everything I do,' Edwards said at the time. 'I have made a commitment and dedication in that relationship to serve God in every area of my life.' After winning a bronze medal at the 1993 World Championships, Edwards went to Gothenburg two years later in the form of his life, his annus mirabilis. In July of 1995, he broke his first world record, his 17.98m surpassing by 1cm the mark which had stood for the previous 10 years to Willie Banks from the US. Edwards also jumped a wind-assisted 18.43m that June. A sign of things to come. British triple-jumper Jonathan Edwards makes his third jump at the World Championships in Athletics in Gothenburg, Sweden, on August 7th, 1995. Edwards' previous jump set a new world record at 18.29m. Photograph:With his first triple jump in Gothenburg, Edwards landed beyond the 18m marker in the sand, clearly a world record even before measured at 18.16m. His second attempt measured 18.29m. The next-best triple jump in history is the 18.21m Christian Taylor from the US landed to win the 2015 World Championships, 20 years after Edwards' record. When winning his Olympic gold in Sydney 2000, Edwards carried a tin of sardines in his kitbag, symbolising the fish Jesus used in the miracle of the feeding of the five thousand, and a reminder that the result, win or lose, was in God's hands. At his retirement after the 2003 World Championships, Edwards quoted from the Bible: 'A man's heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his step.' Then he began presenting Songs of Praise on BBC. So it made for shock reading when Edwards told the Times newspaper in 2007 that 'when you think about it rationally, it does seem incredibly improbable that there is a God'. His new revelations were all personal, and begged another profound question: could Edwards have broken that world record without his belief in God? 'I now realise my belief in God was sports psychology in all but name,' he said. 'Believing in something beyond the self can have a hugely beneficial psychological impact, even if the belief is fallacious.' Jonathan Edwards celebrates after winning gold in the Men's Triple Jump final at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Photograph: Stu Forster/Allsport/In another interview in 2014, Edwards said: 'Seven years on I don't feel a gap in my life, and I suppose that's the proof of the pudding, isn't it? Had I suddenly thought that life doesn't quite feel right, maybe I'd re-examine that – re-examine my faith. In fact, more than ever, I feel comfortable with where I am in life.' [ Edwards's loss of faith no godsend Opens in new window ] There was never any doubting the merits of his triple-jump efforts, the speed Edwards carried through to his final jump phase his greatest ally. 'I was very light, very quick across the ground,' he told Eurosport last year. 'And I maintained my speed, and my technique and my rhythm was very good, so my final jump was a long way ... that was the key for it.' Talking to National Club Golfer magazine on Thursday, Edwards still believes faith can play a role in sporting success, especially in a high-pressure game like golf. 'In some ways, it becomes part of your psychology for dealing with the pressure,' he said. 'I think subconsciously, your mind finds ways to just ratchet down the pressure a little bit. 'My faith certainly helped me do that, to deal with the pressure ... It's out of your hands. You do the best with what you've got, and the result is separate from that. Winning wasn't the be-all and end-all of those things, and no matter what happened, my worth as a person wasn't the penalty of the result. There was a whole bunch of stuff that the Christian narrative gave me which made it much easier to go out and compete.' Such words may or may not be a godsend to anyone playing for the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush this weekend, unless of course God has already made plans of his own.
WIRED
5 days ago
- Automotive
- WIRED
Automakers Are Canceling Plans for New EVs. Here's a List of What's Been Killed So Far
Shifts in economic policy and manufacturing have led major automakers to cancel upcoming electric vehicle launches in the US. Volvo XC60 seen parked near the Headquarters of Volvo Car Corporation in Gothenburg. Photograph:The year 2025 is only half over. But for some of global automakers' most ambitious electric vehicle projects, the In Memoriam segment is already shaping up to be a sad one. Major manufacturers including Honda, Stellantis, and Nissan publicly backed off plans to build and sell battery-electric vehicles, joining others who have made similar admissions in the past two years. Vehicle program cancellations aren't the sign of a thriving industry. Traditional automakers work on five- to seven-year product cycles, which means they've already started spending money to design, plan, and produce vehicles that won't roll onto dealers' lots for years. Nixing those vehicles means losing money and leaving holes in their portfolios—something automakers won't do without good reason. The good reason here seems to mostly come down to utter chaos in the EV market. Some five years ago, automakers seemed desperate to catch up with Tesla and its sky-high valuation, and so made grand pledges. Mercedes-Benz and Volvo said they would go all-electric by 2030; General Motors targeted 2035. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and scrambled supply chains. Then governments, including the US government, used a mix of subsidies and regulations to ratchet up pressure for automakers to produce zero-emission cars. Then EV sales growth slowed. Now, in the US, the federal government has used the GOP's One Big Beautiful Bill to bring a sudden halt to years of EV and battery manufacturing boosterism. Plus, its tariff policy has upended global supply chains. Now many of those automakers' big electric promises have quietly gone away. Which is to say, the cancellations make some sense. 'It's business as usual in the sense that disruption is the main driver of the last five years,' says Mark Wakefield, the global automotive lead at AlixPartners, a consulting firm. 'There's a speed bump every year.' This year, the firm dropped its 2030 sales predictions for battery-electric and hybrid cars by a whopping 46 percent compared to last year's projections. Cancellations might also be signs that automakers are learning from their mistakes and even beginning to adapt more quickly. 'There's a lot happening and a lot also being questioned and then abandoned,' says Wakefield. Making faster lineup changes should be key to keeping up with Chinese automakers, who have been able to shepherd new EVs from conception to the roads in less than two years. Which is to say, more changes are likely on the way. All the way down the automotive supply chain, 'companies are going quiet about their EV projects,' says Hannah Hess, the associate director of the energy and climate practice at the Rhodium Group, a research firm. Manufacturers tend not to announce their cancellations but instead hope that people forget about their original proposals. So WIRED made a list of the canceled and postponed EVs of the past two years. RIP to them—and expect a few more losses along the way. Gone but Not Forgotten Ford Three-Row EV SUV Died August 2024 Ford said last summer that it had rethought its electric vehicle strategy, cutting its annual EV program spend and devoting more resources to hybrids. "What we've learned is that customers want choice, and so we're providing that choice, with a full lineup of EVs, hybrid, electric, gas, and diesel products," Ford CFO John Lawler said at the time. Among the casualties of the shift was a three-row electric SUV. Honda Five- and Seven-Seat EV SUV Died July 2025 This month, Honda reportedly nixed a new EV series meant to hit the roads starting in 2026. The company reconsidered its plans in light of falling demand for EVs in the US and will reportedly refocus on increasing hybrid production. Honda is moving forward with its '0 Series' sedan and midsize SUV EVs, which are set to debut next year. Mercedes-Benz Platform Died May 2024 Mercedes-Benz was supposed to build a new electric vehicle platform to support the next versions of its EQS and EQE sedans and SUVs, plus other future luxury EV models, starting in 2028. But poor initial sales for the EQS and EQE reportedly led the company to focus on its current platform instead. Nissan and Infiniti EV Sedans Died April 2025 Nissan North America Chair Christian Meunier told Automotive News this spring that the automaker was 'listening to market data' and its US customers, who were demanding fewer EVs and more SUVs. 'The sedan market is shrinking,' he said. 'We need to face reality.' Two EV sedans, by Nissan and its luxury division Infiniti, are out, and Nissan will build at least two electric SUVs instead. Volvo All-EV Lineup Died September 2024 Volvo said in 2021 that it planned to become a fully electric car company by 2030. Just three years later, it changed its tune. The company wrote in a press release that it 'decided to adjust its electrification ambitions due to changing market conditions and customer demands.' Maserati MC20 Folgore Died March 2025 Stellantis' luxury Maserati brand killed off its planned MC20 sports car earlier this year. A spokesperson told Reuters that its customers 'are not ready to switch to BEV (battery electric vehicles) in a foreseeable future.' Apple Car Died February 2024 Apple's ambitious Project Titan, a plan to build an electric, autonomous car, operated in deep secrecy for a decade. Then the company reportedly pulled the plug in February 2024. The big problems plaguing the program included many, many changes in strategy and personnel, a cooling electric vehicle market, issues with the self-driving part of the project, the lack of support from a traditional automaker, and Apple's big push into other artificial intelligence projects. Some on the car team were reportedly moved into alternative AI efforts. Fisker Pear Died June 2024 The Fisker Pear, announced in 2022, was supposed to be a compact electric produced by the scrappy startup helmed by serial car company founder and designer Henrik Fisker. But the program was paused amid "financial difficulty' in March 2024. By that summer, Fisker had filed for bankruptcy. Be Patient? Buick EV Delayed July 2024 At one point, General Motors' Buick brand was positioned as the automaker's greenest. Now, a spokesperson for Buick says its first electrified car is postponed. Meanwhile, GM's 2018 promise to sell only electric vehicles by 2035 has been quietly scrapped. Just last month, GM said it would spend $4 billion in the next two years to increase production of electric and gasoline vehicles. Ferrari EV 2 Delayed June 2025 Ferrari's second EV model was meant to debut at the end of 2026; now it reportedly won't make an entrance until at least 2028. Reuters reported that the automaker doesn't see sustainable demand for an electric sports car and is concerned about the effects of heavy EV batteries on the experience of driving a zippy ride. Lamborghini Lanzador Delayed 2024 Lamborghini's first all-electric vehicle was announced in 2023 for a 2028 production date; now, it won't make an appearance until 2029 at least. CEO Stephan Winkelmann cited slower-than-predicted electric vehicle adoption and changing regulations. 'Life cycles are becoming shorter due to a lot of new regulations coming in each and every year. This is making our life more complex,' he said this month. Lamborghini Urus Delayed July 2025 Also delayed, for an even longer while, is Lamborghini's 'Super SUV' EV. The Urus will reportedly remain a plug-in hybrid until 2035. Porsche 718 EV Delayed May 2025 Porsche last said that its next-gen, electric 718 was due out 'mid-decade.' Perhaps wisely, Porsche never committed to a firm date. Now the vehicle is reportedly delayed not just due to lower-than-expected EV demand but because of supply chain troubles: Battery supplier Northvolt went suddenly bankrupt this year. Tesla Model 2 Delayed? Last year, Tesla downgraded long-time plans to build a truly affordable electric car in favor of a revamped but still cheaper offering. At the time, the company said it would begin production of this new vehicle in June 2025. But as the electric-car company emphasizes its small, supervised self-driving taxi service launch in Austin, Texas, it has made no noise about this newer car. Expect an update from CEO Elon Musk this coming week, when the company holds its quarterly earnings call.
New York Times
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Open Radio sounds different, which is why everyone from Hawaii to Royal Portrush listens
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — There was a vacationer relaxing by the sea in Gothenburg, Sweden. A barista working somewhere near the Rock of Gibraltar. A semi-truck driver in Peru, Illinois. An electrician in Toronto. A man mowing his lawn in Little Silver, New Jersey. Letters from Hawaii and the Caribbean. Dispatches from Des Moines, Iowa and St. George, Utah. Advertisement All on the same channel. All listening to the same voices. Each tuned to Open Radio on Thursday, delighting along with hosts Marcus Buckland and Sue Thearle, and snickering with a band of on-course voices. Each sent an email, saying hi, telling their story, declaring their rooting interests. All over Royal Portrush, fans did the same. With one ear on the course and the other on the broadcast, they sent their emails, chiming in from the grandstands and ropelines. There's something about this broadcast. Those who've heard it know it. Some kind of fanciful combination of event (the Open, golf's most time-honored tradition), stage (ancient links courses) and style (brisk, cheeky, vividly descriptive) that bridges present and past and maybe even makes you feel something. My first Open Championship was last year's trip to Troon. Geoff Shackelford, the golf writer and course architecture authority, suggested I be sure to grab an earpiece radio and tune into the broadcast. Sure, I said, not realizing that I'd soon feel like Moonlight Graham stepping off the diamond and onto the gravel. Of all media, radio comes with a romance that's all its own. The sound of a fading era. Live storytelling. Voices using five senses to feed one of yours. It can be intensely personal. Like everything else, though, such things changed over time. Audio has evolved, from dials to streams, and broadcast styles have moved along like everything else. But then there's Open Radio. The broadcast, produced by International Management Group (IMG), is a marathon spanning nearly the entirety of all four days of tournament play, stopping for only two 30-second breaks per hour. Thursday's broadcast began at 7 a.m. local time and concluded at 10 p.m. For 15 hours, Buckland and Thearle swapped in and out as lead 'presenter,' while 11 on-course commentators and analysts, mostly working in tandem, called feature groups, all working 36 holes, just as they'll do again on Friday, all while a group of a half-dozen producers direct the show. Without straying or fatiguing, the show moved constantly Thursday from one moment to the next, calling as many live shots as possible instead of reporting what's already happened. The result felt like a carload of passengers white-knuckling along a winding road, loving every turn. Advertisement 'The listeners are part of the team,' Steve Tebb, Open Radio's producer, told me on Wednesday, sitting in a makeshift booth along the 18th fairway. 'It's like you're telling stories over a beer, reflecting on the day at the pub. There's an intimacy and loyalty. We have human stories, we love to work together and —' Tebb stopped, shook his head, and continued. 'Like Robert, my friend who is giving me the finger right now …' On the opposite side of the glass, Robert Lee, the former longtime European Tour player, smiled with a middle finger in the air. Lee often works in television for Sky Sports, but prefers the whimsy and artistry of radio, and the small family feel that makes this broadcast so peculiar. 'Golf works really well on the radio, and if you're listening you can stay really immersed, and you get the smells and the bells and the sights and the sounds through your ears,' Lee said. 'It's using language. Language makes life interesting.' On Open Radio, that tee shot did not simply roll on that hill. No, it 'scampered down a hog's back.' That putt? It wasn't tapped. It was 'tickled in.' Seeing Cameron Smith push a tee shot left, Buckland reported the Aussie as watching it with 'an accusatory stare.' On the sixth hole, along the Irish Sea shortline, commentator Rupert Bell compared the build and contours of colleague Brendon de Jonge to that of Giant's Causeway out in the distance. A player's opening tee shot? It's secondary to a full description of what he's wearing. The weather? It's as much of a character as any player. Matt Fitzpatrick, after dunking a chip shot on Portrush's dastardly par-3 16th, did not emerge smiling. He came upon the green grinning with 'the boyish looks of a Yorkshireman,' per analyst Sophie Walker, a former Ladies European Tour (LET) player. Because the broadcast is owned and operated by the R&A, which opts not to include any advertising or presenting sponsors, all of this unfolds without interruption or distraction. Just one line after another, free of commercialization and clutter, all via a variety of accents. Altogether, it's as pure as Irish whiskey, or 'uisce beatha' in Gaelic — 'the water of life.' Advertisement Is the R&A leaving money on the table by rolling ad-free? Yes, but it makes plenty elsewhere and, in truth, the real value of the radio broadcast to the Open Championship isn't monetary. That's why it streams for free on the Open's website. That's why the Women's Open has its own broadcast. That's why the R&A has expanded coverage in recent years to include qualifying events. 'You should tune into the radio and feel like you're uniquely part of the conversation in a way that other coverage can't do,' Ellie Montgomery, the R&A's head of content, told me. 'We'd be silly to lose that element, which is essentially the linchpin of our listenership.' The R&A first pursued producing an in-house broadcast in 2001, primarily for the on-course audience. In time, American satellite radio company SiriusXM and UK-based talkSPORT came to see the broadcast as an available feed to fill the air. That led to simulcast deals and an exponential expansion of the broadcast's reach. What was a quirky little broadcast went worldwide. So often this is where style is sacrificed for conformity. But Open Radio? It's some kind of immune unicorn, which has, in turn, ratched its popularity in ways no one could have ever projected. While live radio is not exactly a booming enterprise in 2025, Open Radio has experienced a 71.2 percent increase in listeners over the past three years, according to the R&A, with most of the growth coming from the United States. 'I think people in the States have come to love the sound of it and how it fits this tournament specifically,' said Sirius senior producer Justin Ware. That's because when spending any extended time with anyone on-air, whether sitting across from one of them in the booth or listening while driving a garbage truck in Newton, N.C., you stop sounding like yourself and start sounding like them. The accents. The turns of phrase. Every voice is absorbed by osmosis. Advertisement Take Buckland. As an 8-year-old in London, he'd pop batteries in a tape recorder and pretend his father was a West Indian cricket player, conducting a post-match interview. While attending the prestigious Ludgrove School, an English boys' preparatory boarding school in Berkshire, he'd unzip a stuffed blue dog to reveal his hidden transistor radio before bed each night. Under the covers, he'd listen to 'the lilting Welsh voice' of commentator Peter Jones during soccer season and legendary BBC commentators John Arlott and Brian Johnston during cricket season. Time and again, he was busted by the school's matron. Today, while spending plenty of time doing television, Buckland remains most passionate about radio. 'I love words and I love language,' he told me. 'This feels like a return to simpler days. It's providing company and entertainment in quite a simplistic way. You know, we live in an increasingly complicated world and there's something wonderfully uncomplicated about this.' Most broadcasts would've dumped the emails years ago. Open Radio reads more than ever. It's perhaps what the broadcast is most known for. At one point Thursday, a group driving to Pinehurst, N.C., for a golf trip of '16 knuckleheads' chimed in with a note. An hour later, an employee from the Pinehurst Golf Resort wrote one of his own to welcome those knuckleheads. One listener wrote in from a barbecue joint in McGregor, Texas, while a SpaceX test launch occurred nearby. Another American wrote in to thank the broadcast for keeping him entertained while hanging drywall. When Buckland read it on-air, he asked analyst Harry Ewing what drywall is, as, in the United Kingdom, drywall is a foreign concept. The American wrote back a short time later, offering a full explanation, one also read on-air, in full. Who's to say how long it'll sound this way. But for now, and for the foreseeable future, time isn't catching up with Open Radio. There's something strangely comforting in that. Something worth listening to.
CTV News
16-07-2025
- Automotive
- CTV News
Volvo Cars to start mid-size SUV production at U.S. plant next year
Sweden's Volvo Cars said on Wednesday it would start producing its XC60 mid-size SUV in its plant in South Carolina, U.S. from late 2026. The shift highlights the automaker's exposure to U.S. President Donald Trump's auto tariffs, as it imports most of its hybrid and electric models from Europe. XC60's sales in the United States rose by almost 23 per cent in the first six months of 2025, the Gothenburg-based company said, adding that the model was most popular among U.S. customers. Volvo Cars, which is owned by China's Geely Holding, had said earlier this week that it was booking an impairment charge of 11.4 billion crowns (US$1.17 billion) in the second quarter related to its ES90 and EX90 models due to tariffs and launch delays. Most of Volvo Cars' vehicles for the U.S. market, which last year accounted for 16 per cent of group sales, are imported from Europe. The company only produces its high-end SUV EX90, at the Charleston, South Carolina factory. CEO Hakan Samuelsson has earlier said that a popular hybrid model was needed to be added to the plant. The company's CEO had said earlier in April that the carmaker would produce more cars in the U.S, while also ramping its regionalization efforts. Samuelsson had told Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) that Volvo Cars would need up to two years to expand its U.S. car production. 'In the short term, within one to two years, it will be about selling the cars we have,' he said to DN, adding the situation would put pressure on profit margins but that customers will also have to pay more. (Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Marie Mannes in Gothenburg; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Shailesh Kuber)
BBC News
16-07-2025
- BBC News
Three jailed over murder of Swedish hip-hop star C Gambino
Three men in their 20s have been given long jail terms for their part in the fatal shooting of award-winning hip-hop artist C Gambino in Gothenburg last year.C Gambino, whose real name was Karar Ramadan, had been named hip-hop artist of 2023 in Sweden's Grammis music awards a month before he was murdered, in what prosecutors described as a ruthless and premeditated three men were convicted of aiding and abetting murder, and two of them were cleared of murder, as the Gothenburg court ruled it could not be established beyond reasonable doubt who had fired the fatal gun that killed C Gambino has never been found and a car used in the shooting was later found burned out. C Gambino's murder has been linked to a local gangland conflict, although the motive remains a mystery. Prosecutors said there was no evidence to suggest that he was part of any criminal several years Sweden's biggest cities have been beset by gang violence that have claimed dozens of lives, often involving children recruited to carry out violent rapper, who was 26, was shot at a multistorey car park in Gothenburg in June 2024 in what the court said was a carefully planned attack and had the character of a "pure execution".Investigators were unable to find DNA traces of the attackers but did map their movements from mobile phones around the time of the prosecutor also told Swedish public broadcaster SVT that police had been able to use hours of CCTV footage from the car park and showed the killers' vehicle entering the car park more than a week before the shooting, and then waiting for hours before the attack took place as C Gambino returned home from the gym late in the he was able to raise the alarm, emergency services who arrived at the scene were unable to use their communication system and had to shout to each other, SVT artist died in hospital about an hour its verdict, the court gave a 22-year-old man a life sentence in jail, while two others aged 21 and 20 were handed terms of 15 and a half years and 12 and a half years respectively,A fourth man, aged 19, was convicted of setting fire to their gang-related case concluded on Wednesday with a 14-year-old boy found guilty of shooting dead a man in his home on the order of one of Sweden's most notorious gangs, other boys were convicted: one for conspiracy and another for preparing the murder in Skurup in southern Sweden. None of the three will face punishment because they are below the age of criminal responsibility, which is 15 in victim of the Skurup murder was targeted because his son had refused to carry out an attack for the Foxtrot in Iraqi Kurdistan have meanwhile arrested a key figure in the Foxtrot gang, according to Swedish suspect is described as close to gang leader Rawa Majid and has been linked to a number of killings in Sweden, including the Skurup shooting.
