This extraordinary tiny house puts a new spin on small living – literally. The non-towable dwelling, named Micro-House: 3 Scenes of Home, features a novel rotating structural system that transforms its interior into different rooms as needed.
Somewhat reminiscent of the Portland House and the Revolving House of T, Micro-House: 3 Scenes of Home will measure 270 sq ft (25 sq m) and will essentially consist of one large room containing a living room area with shelving and seating, as well as a rotating platform.
The system is likened to how a theater brings a scene on stage and will be motorized, with a rotary mechanism to revolve its bedroom, kitchen/dining area, and a bathroom using the platform, as required. Obviously there are potential downsides – operating a revolving floor each time you get up in the night to use the bathroom could become tedious, for example – but it will be interesting to see how the designer realizes its vision.
Micro-House: 3 Scenes of Home will feature one room containing a rotating platform used to reveal its bathroom, bedroom, and kitchen, as required
Supra-Simplicities
“By implementing revolving-stage mechanism, three scenes are integrated together and fixed on the rotatable platform like theatric scene changing system, which helps to omit unnecessary transitional spaces, such as corridor or lobby, between various rooms,” explains Supra-Simplicities. “Hence, all the transitions through a scene to another one only rely on the rotary mechanism, offering a playful but also dynamic quality of home.”
In addition to its novel rotating system, the home will also feature an extensive rainwater collection system and greywater reuse.
The project is an updated take on a design that Supra-Simplicities has been exploring for a few years now. The images are clearly early renders and it all seems very conceptual. However, the firm tells us that it’s currently in the process of exploring its feasibility for a client, so stay tuned.
The supply chain shocks witnessed during the COVID pandemic led governments like the U.S. to ramp up their efforts to reshore manufacturing. Semiconductors, which faced particularly severe bottlenecks, became a top priority as officials promised billions of dollars in subsidies to boost domestic investment.
The rationale was simple: As chips are now an essential part of every modern-day electronic device, increasing domestic chipmaking capacity will result in a more stable supply chain. With AI expanding demand for high-end chips even further, governments are doubling their efforts to build out their domestic chip manufacturing.
But not every chip manufacturing ecosystem is sophisticated enough to make the high-end processors that power many AI applications.
“People miss the cultural aspect of this,” Nigel Toon, CEO and chairman of U.K. semiconductor firm Graphcore, said on Tuesday at the Fortune Brainstorm AI Singapore conference.
“Why are the most advanced semiconductors built in Korea, in Taiwan, in Japan?” he asked. “These environments are places where very high-quality manufacturing is truly valued. There’s an ethos around it that actually doesn’t exist in North America,” he explained.
South Korea and Taiwan didn’t start out as semiconductor powerhouses. Toon credits the move to outsource key parts of the semiconductor industry in the ’90s and ’00s, creating an opportunity for firms to specialize in key parts of the chip ecosystem. For example, ASML makes the tools used by TSMC to make chips designed by Apple.
Even as governments now focus on building their own semiconductor manufacturing capability, Toon said there had to be a system “where people can say ‘I own this critical piece’,” while still allowing different economies to work together.
Will Abbey, vice president and chief commercial officer for Arm, agreed that the rising importance of semiconductors is forcing a rethink on investments. “The maturity of the industry [and] the price of AI is forcing everyone to think differently around controlling data and building up your own infrastructure,” he said. “Semiconductors and AI is moving from the back part to center stage.”
Chip reshoring
Governments around the world have pledged billions of dollars in subsidies to attract high-end chip manufacturing. TSMC, for example, is now planning to build or expand new plants in Germany, Japan and the U.S.
TSMC earlier this year pledged to increase its investment in its Arizona plant by $100 billion. U.S. President Donald Trump claimed the move was made to avoid the threat of tariffs.
But smaller countries are also thinking about ways to expand their presence in the chip supply chain. Malaysia, long a hub for chip packaging and assembly, is striving to move up the value chain through support for new chip design and data center ventures.
In March, the government announced it was paying Arm $250 million over the next decade for seven of the company’s high-end chip blueprints. Arm develops and licenses instruction sets that partners use to make chips that are often found in devices like smartphones and servers.
When John Warmington first began diving the reefs outside his home in Vanuatu’s Havannah Harbour 10 years ago, the coral rose like a sunken forest – tall stands of staghorns branched into yellow antlers, plate corals layered like canopies, and clouds of darting fish wove through the labyrinth.
“We used to know every inch of that reef,” he said. “It was like a friend.”
Now, it is unrecognisable.
After Cyclone Pam battered the reef in 2015, sediment from inland rivers smothered the coral beds. Crown-of-thorns starfish swept in and devoured the recovering polyps.
Back-to-back cyclones in 2023 crushed what remained. Then, in December 2024, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook the seabed.
What remains is a coral graveyard – bleached rubble scattered across the seabed, habitats collapsed, and life vanished.
“We have come out of the water in tears,” said Warmington, who has logged thousands of dives on this single reef. “We just see heartbreak.”
A sea turtle nibbles on what remains of the once vibrant reef at Havannah Harbour, off the coast of Efate Island, Vanuatu [Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo]
That heartbreak is becoming more common across this Pacific island nation, where intensifying cyclones, rising seas, and saltwater intrusion are reshaping coastlines and threatening daily life.
Since 1993, sea levels around Vanuatu’s shores have risen by about 6mm (0.24in) per year – significantly faster than the global average – and in some areas, tectonic activity has doubled that rate.
On Wednesday, Vanuatu will have its day in the world’s highest court. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) will issue an advisory opinion on what legal obligations nations have to address climate change, and what consequences they may face if they do not.
The case, led by Vanuatu and backed by more than 130 countries, is seen as a potential turning point in international climate law.
The opinion will not be legally binding, but could help shape future efforts to hold major emitters accountable, and secure the funding and action small island nations need to adapt or survive.
It comes after decades of frustration for Pacific nations that have watched their homelands disappear.
In Tuvalu, where the average elevation is just two metres (6.6ft), more than a third of the population has applied for a climate migration visa to Australia.
By 2100, much of the country is projected to be under water at high tide.
In Nauru, the government has begun selling passports to wealthy foreigners – offering visa-free access to dozens of countries – in a bid to generate revenue for possible relocation efforts.
Vanuatu has already sought opinions from other international courts, and is pushing for the recognition of ecocide – the destruction of the environment – as a crime under the International Criminal Court.
Not all of these effects can be attributed solely to climate change, said Christina Shaw, chief executive of the Vanuatu Environmental Science Society.
Coastal development, tectonic subsidence, volcanic eruptions, deforestation, and pollution are also contributing to ecosystem decline.
Children play on Pele Island [Annika Hammerschlag/AP Photo]
“Vanuatu’s environment is quite fragile by its very nature in that it is young with narrow reefs, has small amounts of topsoil, and is impacted regularly by natural disasters,” she said. “But we do have to think about the other human impacts on our environment as well.”
The damage is not limited to homes, gardens, and reefs – it is reaching into places once thought to be untouchable.
On the island of Pele, village chief Amos Kalsont sits at his brother’s grave as waves lap against broken headstones half-buried in sand.
At high tide, both his brother’s and father’s graves sit just a few arm’s lengths from the sea. Some homes and gardens have already been moved inland, and saltwater intrusion has tainted the community’s primary drinking water source.
Now, the community is considering relocating the entire village – but that would mean leaving the land their grandparents cleared by hand.
Many in Vanuatu remain committed to building something stronger and hope the rest of the world will support them.
Back in Havannah Harbour, John Warmington still dives the reef he considers part of his family. While much of it has gone, he and his wife Sandy have begun replanting coral fragments in the hope of restoring what remains.
Universal Music Group has filed a draft registration statement for a proposed secondary listing in the US.
The world’s largest music rights company confirmed in a press release on Monday evening (July 21) that it has “confidentially” submitted a Form F-1 to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, “relating to a proposed public offering in the United States of the company’s ordinary shares held by certain shareholders”.
Monday’s press release did not disclose the timing, pricing, or venue of UMG’s proposed US listing.
The company wrote: “UMG will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ordinary shares by the selling shareholders. The number of ordinary shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.”
“UMG will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ordinary shares by the selling shareholders. The number of ordinary shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.”
Universal Music Group
UMG noted that the proposed offering remains subject to the completion of the SEC review process, as well as market and other conditions.
UMG has been trading in the Netherlands under the ticker UMG since September 2021, after spinning off from French media conglomerate Vivendi.
The company’s shares on the Euronext Amsterdam were priced at EUR €26.95 at market close on Monday (July 21) and were trading at around €27.28 at 9:30am CEST this morning (July 22) with a market cap value of €50.05 billion (USD $58.5bn).
As the name suggests, any future ‘secondary listing’ on a US stock exchange would come in addition to UMG’s presence on the Euronext Amsterdam.
UMG’s latest announcement comes after the company revealed in January that PershingSquareHoldings, led by billionaire investor BillAckman, had requested a secondary listing of the music company on a US stock exchange.
The deal required Pershing to sell at least $500 million worth of its UMG holdings as part of the listing process, according to an earlier announcement.
Also in January, Pershing Square Capital Management distributed47 million shares, representing 2.6% of UMG, to the fund’s co-investors.
Following that distribution, Pershing Square retained 140 million shares, equivalent to a 7.6% stake in Universal.
Then, in March, shareholders affiliated with Pershing Square sold a further 2.7% stake in Universal Music Group, for proceeds of around USD $1.4 billion.
Bill Ackman stood down from Universal’s board in May.
Universal Music Group generated revenues of EUR €2.901 billion (USD $3.052bn) in calendar Q1 across all of its divisions (including recorded music, publishing and more).
That Q1 revenue figure was up9.5% YoYat constant currency, driven, according to UMG, by solid growth in Recorded Music and Music Publishing.
The company’s subscription streaming revenues grew 9.3%YoY at constant currency to reach €1.252 billion($1.317bn) in Q1.Music Business Worldwide
Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor best known for his role as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show, has died.
Warner, who was 54, drowned at the weekend while on holiday in Costa Rica, local authorities said.
He appears to have been dragged out to sea by a swift ocean current while swimming at Playa Grande around 14:00 (20:00 GMT) local time on Sunday in Cocles, a town in the province of Limón, Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigation Agency said.
Warner played the son of Bill Cosby on the hugely popular US sitcom from 1984-1992. Tributes swiftly poured in from celebrities, including Questlove, Jennifer Hudson, Taraji P Henson, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Magic Johnson.
Authorities said bystanders rescued Warner and brought him to shore, where the Costa Rican Red Cross tried to treat him, but he was declared dead at the scene.
He is survived by his wife and daughter.
Warner was Emmy-nominated in the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a comedy series for his work on The Cosby Show in 1986.
He was handpicked for his breakout role by Cosby on the final day of a nationwide audition.
“I was literally the last person they saw,” he recalled in a 2023 interview.
The Cosby Show ranked as the number one TV show for five seasons from 1985-90. It portrayed a cosy middle-class family – a relatively rare depiction at the time of black Americans on television.
“When the show first came out, there were white people and black people talking about [how] the Huxtables don’t really exist, black people don’t really live like that,” Warner said in a 2013 interview.
“Meanwhile, we were getting tens of thousands of fan letters from people saying, ‘Thank you so much for this show.'”
After The Cosby Show, Warner appeared in several other television programmes including Malcom & Eddie, alongside comedian Eddie Griffin.
Griffin paid respects to him on social media after his death, writing “R.I.P. King” and “My big little brother”.
Warner had guest appearances on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Sesame Street. More recently, he played AJ Austin, a cardio-thoracic surgeon on the medical drama series The Resident.
Fox Entertainment, which broadcast the show, told US publication Variety: “Everyone at Fox is heartbroken by the tragic loss of our friend and colleague, the extraordinary Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
“While his iconic roles – from comedic to dramatic – are unforgettable and timeless, Malcolm will be remembered most for his warmth, kind heart and the lasting impact he had on his friends, family and fans everywhere.”
Warner also won a Grammy for Best Traditional R&B Performance in 2015, alongside Robert Glasper and Lalah Hathaway for their cover of Stevie Wonder’s song Jesus Children of America.
His spoken word album, Hiding In Plain View, garnered him another Grammy nomination in 2023.
Last year, he started a podcast – Not All Hood – which discussed mental health in the black community.
Former co-stars and fans has been posting their tributes to him online.
Basketball star Magic Johnson, who appeared in an AIDS awareness video directed by Warner, wrote that he and his wife were “both super fans of the hit Cosby Show and continued to follow his career” over the years.
“Every time I ran into Malcolm, we would have deep and fun conversations about basketball, life, and business. He will truly be missed,” Johnson wrote.
“Wow. This is heartbreaking,” posted comic actor Kevin Hart, while another star, Jamie Foxx, added: “Speechless on this one. rest in power, my brother.”
Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt called him “a gentleman” and “an incredible talent”.
Actress Vivica A Fox posted that she was stunned and saddened by his sudden death, writing: “Thanks for ya gifts, king.”
Tracee Ellis Ross, who starred with Warner on Reed Between the Lines, also mourned him, writing: “My heart is so so sad.
“What an actor and friend you were: warm, gentle, present, kind, thoughtful, deep, funny, elegant. You made the world a brighter place.
“Sending so much love to your family. I’m so sorry for this unimaginable loss.”
Actress Taraji P Henson posted: “Malcolm, we grew up with you. Thank you for the art, the wisdom, the grace you gave us!!!!!
“You left the world better than you found it. Rest easy, king!!!! Your legacy lives far beyond the screen.”
Actress Niecy Nash posted that she had recently spoken to Warner.
“We talked about how happy we both were in our marriages. Damn friend. You were cornerstone of The Cosby Show.
“We all loved Theo! Never to be forgotten. You will be missed. Rest Easy.”
Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock also praised Warner, writing in a post: “For me and so many in my generation, Malcolm-Jamal Warner was a part of our childhood, a brother whose character ‘Theo’ felt like one of my own.
“May God grant peace to his soul, strength and grace to his grieving family.”
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The Cameroon international, who recorded career-best figures in the EPL last season, joins the club on a long-term deal.
Manchester United has signed forward Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford until 2030, with the option to extend for a further year, United said.
United paid 65 million pounds ($88m) to Brentford, with another 6 million pounds ($8m) potentially due in add-ons for the 25-year-old Cameroon international, according to a club source.
Mbeumo hit new heights in the 2024-25 league season, finishing with a career-high 20 goals to help Brentford to a solid 10th-place finish in the Premier League. Only Mohamed Salah (29), Alexander Isak (23) and Erling Haaland (22) scored more league goals.
“As soon as I knew there was a chance to join Manchester United, I had to take the opportunity to sign for the club of my dreams, the team whose shirt I wore growing up,” Mbeumo said on Monday.
“My mentality is to always be better than I was yesterday. I know that I have the spirit of character to reach another level here, learning from [manager] Ruben Amorim and playing alongside world-class players.”
The versatile Mbeumo thrived on the right wing and also impressed as a centre-forward, proving indispensable for Brentford by starting every league game last season.
He joined the London club from Ligue 2 side Troyes in 2019 and made 242 appearances, scoring 70 goals and providing 51 assists.
“Bryan’s goals and assists record in the Premier League is exceptional. His remarkable consistency has put him amongst the most productive players in England for the last three seasons,” said United’s director of football, Jason Wilcox.
“We are delighted to have secured another one of our primary targets ahead of the preseason tour. The experience in the US will be the perfect opportunity for Bryan to work with Ruben and his new teammates as we prepare for an exciting season ahead.”
Mbeumo becomes United’s fourth signing of the summer after the arrivals of Matheus Cunha, Diego Leon and youngster Enzo Kana-Biyik.
United are playing three preseason matches in the United States: July 26 vs West Ham United in New Jersey, July 30 vs Bournemouth in Chicago and August 3 vs Everton in Atlanta.
Ask pretty much any long distance hiker and they’ll tell you that Darn Tough Socks are the best hiking socks on the planet. While it may seem lame to give someone a pair of socks, trust me, this is one of the best gifts for hikers who care about their feet (and yes, that should include all my fellow hikers out there). Socks are an essential piece of hiking clothing.
Their quality construction stands out, with a seamless design that prevents blisters and discomfort. Made in the USA, these socks feature a blend of merino, nylon, and spandex, providing durability, flexibility, and odor resistance.
The cushioning is just right, too. It’s present without being bulky, offering comfort on rugged terrains. You can get thicker socks for winter hiking or thinner socks for ultralight trail runners.
The best part is that Darn Tough Socks come with an unlimited lifetime guarantee. If they ever get a hole or wear out, you just send in your old pair, and Darn Tough will replace them for free. That means this is a pair of socks for life!
While casual walkers might not require such specialized socks, they’re perfect for serious hikers. I know that Darn Tough Socks have been a revelation for my feet on long hikes. This gift is small and cheap enough to be a great stocking stuffer, and it’s something they’ll actually use.
