Protests costing Pakistan Rs 190bn daily, says FinMin Aurangzeb
Some 140 years after its first trailblazing luxury train chugged out of Paris’s Gare de l’Est bound for Constantinople, the Orient Express is having something of a rebirth. Arguably the most interesting in a flurry of announcements from the brand is the launch of Orient Express Silenseas, a new collection of yachts that are a collaboration between three French giants: global hospitality group Accor, luxury goods titan LVMH and shipbuilders Chantiers de l’Atlantique. Orient Express Corinthian is the world’s largest sailing yacht. The finished product looks like the lovechild of the fanciest superyacht and the most elegant sailing boat. The first yacht to be completed, Orient Express Corinthian, which at 220m long, with three 100m-high sails, is the world’s largest sailing yacht, won’t be taking paying guests until 2026, but the first images of its interiors have been released. Luxury hotel groups such as Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and Aman have all announced launches of luxury yachts this year . But while they may be fabulous, they are smallish cruise ships, not yachts. Evrima, for example, the first in the Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection, offers 224 suites. Then there’s Four Seasons, whose first “yacht”, when it launches in 2026, will have 14 decks and 95 suites. With just 50 cabins, Aman at Sea, which launches in 2027, is the closest of the offerings to a superyacht and also in scale to the 54-suite Orient Express Corinthian. But what Orient Express Corinthian has that none of the others do is sails. The interiors team took inspiration from classic French liners such as SS Normandie. There’s something much cooler and more adventurous-seeming about a great big yacht with sails than an all-bling one with just an engine. This is something that hasn’t escaped Jeff Bezos, who spent $500 million on his three-masted boat Koru , which at 127 metres was the world’s largest sailing yacht – until now. Inspired by the golden age of the French Riviera, Orient Express Corinthian has been designed by French architect and designer Maxime d’Angeac, who has also worked on a new Orient Express train that will launch in France around the same time. The two will combine on certain itineraries. Sustainability was central to the design process, seen through the minimal use of leather, no plastic and lots of walnut wood panelling. “The pillars of Orient Express are art deco, geometric patterns and strong colours, which both train and boat have,” says d’Angeac. “Train interiors can be much darker as this makes them feel cosy and luxurious. The boat [has] much more space and height, so its design feels more Riviera, like a villa on the Côte d’Azur. I’ve also replaced the really small windows you usually get in yacht cabins with huge, durable windows.” Orient Express Corinthian will have five restaurants, eight bars including a speakeasy, two swimming pools including a lap pool, an amphitheatre cabaret space and a private recording studio. In-room spa treatments and meditation sessions will also be available. The boats will spend summers in the Mediterranean and the Adriatic and winters in the Caribbean, with dining, shopping and cultural experiences offered at multiple stop-offs along the way. Sustainability has been at the forefront of the design process, as has working out how to be beautiful but also functional. For example, there is hardly any leather, no plastic and lots of walnut wood panelling, which as well as being elegant and warm is durable and lightweight. The team examined classic French liners such as SS Normandie for inspiration. There are lovely details at every turn: a long, daybed window seat that lifts up to reveal a wooden games box stocked with chess, dominoes and playing cards; luxurious velvet headboards and bathrooms lined in the most decadent-looking Violetta Calacatta marble with crimson walls behind. All of this will be accompanied by Orient Express service, with butlers on hand around the clock. The luxurious bathrooms feature Violetta Calacatta marble. Sustainability was central to the design process, seen through the minimal use of leather, no plastic and lots of walnut wood panellingThe luxurious bathrooms feature Violetta Calacatta marble “The in-room bar,” replies d’Angeac, when I ask him to name a small detail he particularly likes. “When I arrive at a hotel, I’m always excited to see what has been chosen. We are still deciding but I can tell you it will be the best artisan cocktails and chocolate, as opposed to big names. We will simply use small French companies offering the best things.” Silenseas is also debuting groundbreaking wind-harnessing technology that has been 20 years in the making: SolidSail, a rigid, foldable carbon sail and mast system that will provide more than 50 per cent of the yachts’ propulsion. “Wind technology is the future of cruising, everyone knows that,” says d’Angeac. “We can’t just go on producing bigger and bigger boats with enormous polluting engines. Using less gasoline is really important to us, so we will adapt our routes to ensure we follow the wind, which will all be part of the experience.” This hybrid system will combine wind power with an engine running on liquified natural gas (LNG – typically at least 85 per cent methane). While LNG is by no means the perfect option, it is much cleaner than other fossil fuels such as coal, gas or oil, so makes for a better alternative while the infrastructure needed to handle fully renewable energy is still being developed. It was said that Orient Express founder Georges Nagelmackers was first inspired to design a luxury train on a transatlantic crossing to America in 1867, revelling in its luxurious suites, social scene and general grandeur. “I think he would have gone into luxury cruising eventually, had he not died so young,” says d’Agneac. Either way, this feels like a full-circle moment. The Telegraph, LondonCal staves off Sacramento State for third straight win
NoneGooding's Colston Loveland named finalist for John Mackey Award
Sportscaster Greg Gumbel dies from cancer at age 78
Market Watch: The ‘Trump Bump’ – how long can it last?Aston Villa’s disallowed goal would have counted in England – Unai Emery
North Korean threat actors behind the ongoing Contagious Interview campaign have been observed dropping a new JavaScript malware called OtterCookie . Contagious Interview (aka DeceptiveDevelopment ) refers to a persistent attack campaign that employs social engineering lures, with the hacking crew often posing as recruiters to trick individuals looking for potential job opportunities into downloading malware under the guise of an interview process. This involves distributing malware-laced videoconferencing apps or npm packages either hosted on GitHub or the official package registry, paving the way for the deployment of malware such as BeaverTail and InvisibleFerret. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, which first exposed the activity in November 2023, is tracking the cluster under the moniker CL-STA-0240. It's also referred to as Famous Chollima and Tenacious Pungsan. In September 2024, Singaporean cybersecurity company Group-IB documented the first major revision to the attack chain, highlighting the use of an updated version of BeaverTail that adopts a modular approach by offloading its information-stealing functionality to a set of Python scripts collectively tracked as CivetQ. It's worth noting at this stage that Contagious Interview is assessed to be disparate from Operation Dream Job , another long-running North Korean hacking campaign that also employs similar job-related decoys to trigger the malware infection process. The latest findings from Japanese cybersecurity company NTT Security Holdings reveal that the JavaScript malware responsible for launching BeaverTail is also designed to fetch and execute OtterCookie. The new malware is said to have been introduced in September 2024, with a new version detected in the wild last month. OtterCookie, upon running, establishes communications with a command-and-control (C2) server using the Socket.IO JavaScript library, and awaits further instructions. It's designed to run shell commands that facilitate data theft, including files, clipboard content, and cryptocurrency wallet keys. The older OtterCookie variant spotted in September is functionally similar, but incorporates a minor implementation difference wherein the cryptocurrency wallet key theft feature is directly built into the malware, as opposed to a remote shell command. The development is a sign that the threat actors are actively updating their tools while leaving the infection chain largely untouched, a continued sign of the campaign's effectiveness. It also comes as South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) sanctioned 15 individuals and one organization in connection with a fraudulent IT worker scheme orchestrated by its northern counterpart to illegally generate a steady source of income that can be funneled back to North Korea, steal data, and even demand ransoms in some cases. There is evidence to suggest that the Famous Chollima threat cluster is behind the insider threat operation as well. It's also called by various names, such as Nickel Tapestry, UNC5267, and Wagemole. One of the 15 sanctioned individuals, Kim Ryu Song, was also indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) earlier this month for his alleged involvement in a long-running conspiracy to violate sanctions and commit wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft by illegally seeking employment in U.S. companies and non-profit organizations. Also sanctioned by MoFA is the Chosun Geumjeong Economic Information Technology Exchange Company, which has been accused of dispatching a large number of IT personnel to China, Russia, Southeast Asia, and Africa for procuring funds for the regime by securing freelance or full-time jobs in Western companies. These IT workers are said to be part of the 313th General Bureau, an organization under the Munitions Industry Department of the Workers' Party of Korea. "The 313th General Bureau [...] dispatches many North Korean IT personnel overseas and uses the foreign currency earned to secure funds for nuclear and missile development, and is also involved in the development of software for the military sector," the ministry said. "North Korea's illegal cyber activities are not only criminal acts that threaten the safety of the cyber ecosystem, but also pose a serious threat to international peace and security as they are used as funds for North Korea's nuclear and missile development."Maui stunner: CU Buffs upset No. 2 UConn