Announcing the move, staff at the outlet said ‘authoritarian regimes are already celebrating’ its potential demise.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) will shut down its news operations on Friday, citing the government-funded news outlet’s dire financial situation caused by funding cuts under President Donald Trump’s administration and the ongoing US government shutdown.
Bay Fang, RFA’s president and CEO, said in a statement that “uncertainty about our budgetary future” means that the outlet has been “forced to suspend all remaining news content production”.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“In an effort to conserve limited resources on hand and preserve the possibility of restarting operations should consistent funding become available, RFA is taking further steps to responsibly shrink its already reduced footprint,” she said on Wednesday.
Fang added that RFA would begin closing its overseas bureaus and would formally lay off and pay severance to furloughed staff. She said many staff members have been on unpaid leave since March, “when the US Agency for Global Media [USAGM] unlawfully terminated RFA’s Congressionally appropriated grant”.
On March 14, Trump signed an executive order effectively eliminating USAGM, an independent US government agency created in the mid-1990s to broadcast news and information to regions with poor press freedom records.
Alongside RFA, USAGM also hosts sister publications Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE) and Voice of America (VOA).
Following March’s executive order, RFA was forced to put three-quarters of its US-based employees on unpaid leave and terminate most of its overseas contractors.
Another round of mass layoffs followed in May, along with the termination of several RFA language services, including Tibetan, Burmese and Uighur.
Mass layoffs also took place at VOA in March when Trump signed another executive order placing nearly all 1,400 staff at the outlet – which he described as a “total left-wing disaster” – on paid leave. It has operated on a limited basis since then.
Trump has said operations like RFA, RFE/Radio Liberty and VOA are a waste of government resources and accused them of being biased against his administration.
Since its founding in 1996, RFA has reported on Asia’s most repressive regimes, providing English- and local-language online and broadcast services to citizens of authoritarian governments across the region.
Its flagship projects include its Uighur service – the world’s only independent Uyghur-language outlet, covering the repressed ethnic group in western China – as well as its North Korea service, which reports on events inside the hermit state.
An announcement penned by RFA executive editor Rosa Hwang, published on the outlet’s website on Wednesday, said, “Make no mistake, authoritarian regimes are already celebrating RFA’s potential demise.”
“Independent journalism is at the core of RFA. For the first time since RFA’s inception almost 30 years ago, that voice is at risk,” Hwang said.
“We still believe in the urgency of that mission – and in the resilience of our extraordinary journalists. Once our funding returns, so will we,” she added.
RFE/Radio Liberty, which went through its own round of furloughs earlier this year, said this week that it received its last round of federal funding in September and its news services are continuing for now.
“We plan to continue reaching our audiences for the foreseeable future,” it said.
It’s not immediately clear why RFA and RFE/Radio Liberty – which share the same governing and funding structure, but are based in the US and Europe, respectively – are taking different approaches.
We’ve already reported on a couple of big deals from Universal Music Group in the past 24 hours.
First came the company’s licensing deal and copyright lawsuit settlement with AI music generator Udio. Next up was a strategic alliance with Stability AI to develop “next-generation professional music creation tools.”
The major music company announced another significant agreement during its Q3 earnings call today (October 30): a new licensing deal with YouTube.
UMG Chairman & CEOSir Lucian Grainge outlined several strategic developments during the call, including the AI partnerships that he says will create “new and significant sources of future revenue.”
He also revealed in his opening remarks that UMG has completed a comprehensive new deal with YouTube, marking the company’s third major “Streaming 2.0 agreement” following a deal with Spotify in January and with Amazon in late December 2024.
“I’m pleased to report that we have successfully concluded our third major Streaming 2.0 agreement, this one with YouTube, covering both recorded music and music publishing,” Grainge told investors.
“The agreement includes all aspects of YouTube’s various music services and platforms, embodies our artist-centric principles and drives greater monetization for artists and songwriters.”
The YouTube partnership represents more than just another renewal. According to Grainge, UMG secured “really important guardrails and protection for our artists and writers around gen AI content” as part of the agreement.
“I’m pleased to report that we have successfully concluded our third major Streaming 2.0 agreement, this one with YouTube, covering both recorded music and music publishing.”
Sir Lucian Grainge
Chief Digital Officer Michael Nash elaborated later in the call, that the deal addresses multiple aspects of YouTube’s platform: “We’re advancing important components of our core objectives here, taking into account these unique and multifaceted components of their platform and the foundational principles that we’re carrying across in all of our negotiations with our partners.
“As Lucian said, we secured key protections in the agreement on AI, which is a critical achievement in promoting interest of our artists on their platform.”
Nash also confirmed that improved monetization of short-form video – a key challenge for the industry – is “certainly an objective that we’re actively advancing across multiple deal renewal discussions, including this one.”
The execs’ comments arrived after UMG posted revenues of €3.021 billion ($3.53bn) across all of its divisions (including recorded music, publishing, and more) for Q3, up 10.2% YoY at constant currency.
Here are three other key takeaways from UMG’s latest quarterly earnings presentation…
Credit: Shutterstock
1. UMG sees AI as the next major revenue driver, comparing it to the streaming revolution
Grainge expressed confidence in AI’s potential to transform the music industry, drawing parallels to the streaming revolution that reshaped the business 15 years ago.
“I have exactly the same feeling about this progress that I did 15 to 16 years ago when we were looking at what was the transaction business and the really early fledgling what was perceived at the time of the disruption of the album into something called ad-funded streaming,” Grainge revealed.
“We are at the vanguard of a new era. And it’s one of the reasons why we’re positive, we’re confident, and why we continue to invest right across the board in all aspects of what we anticipate will be the growth.”
“We are at the vanguard of a new era.”
Sir Lucian Grainge
Beyond the Udio partnership, UMG announced a strategic alliance with Stability AI to “codevelop professional AI music creation tools for creators of video, images and now music.”
Nash explained the significance: “UMG joins that group of significant players in their categories as the leader in the music vertical, and that puts us in a position to directly engage in a very artist-centric way the conversation with our creative community around the evolution of these tools.”
Looking ahead, Grainge envisions “Agentic AI will dynamically employ complex reasoning and adaptation, has the power to revolutionize the manner in which fans interact with and discover music. Imagine interacting with your favorite music through a sophisticated, highly personalized chatbot.”
When asked about the timeline and financial impact, Nash said these partnerships “could constitute an important source of incremental additional new future revenue for artists and songwriters,” though specific financial projections weren’t provided given that product launches are scheduled for 2026.
As Grainge concluded: “This is happening. It’s on. And we’re on”.
2. Japanese artists are breaking through globally, with BABYMETAL making history
UMG is “shattering the misconception” that Japanese artists have limited opportunities outside their home market, with several breakthrough successes in 2025.
“I’m extremely proud to report that UMG is shattering that misconception in several ways,” Grainge said of Japan, the world’s second-largest recorded music market.
“BABYMETAL released its first album after signing with Capitol in the US in August. The album debuted No.9 on the Billboard 200, making them the first Japanese group ever, ever to reach the Top 10 in the U.S.”
Superstar Ado’s recent tour attracted 500,000 fans across 33 cities in Asia, Europe, the US and Latin America, which Grainge called “a historic first for a Japanese artist purely outside of Japan.”
Additionally, Fujii Kaze saw “enormous success with his third album, released in September by Republic Records and next year, he set to perform [internationally].”
“I’ve also believed that we can break more local talent from Japan around the world. I’m really thrilled to see this progress. It’s what sets us out and defines us as a creative company,” Grainge said.
3. Physical music sales surged 23% as superfans seek deeper connections with artists
Contrary to industry expectations about physical music’s decline, UMG’s physical revenues soared in Q3.
Within Universal’s recorded music business, Physical revenue grew23.1% YoY at constant currency to €341 million ($398.31m), driven, according to UMG, “by initial shipments of Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl and strength in new releases, particularly in Japan”.
CFO Matt Ellis challenged conventional wisdom about the format: “What our fans are showing us is when they have opportunities to engage in many different ways with our artists, they want to do that and they will spend money doing that.”
Chief Operating Officer Boyd Muir explained that this isn’t about traditional format transformation: “This business is morphing into how we connect the fan together with the artists through a physical product, the two most significant examples of that so far is the growth in vinyl and the collectible aspect of that.”
“Vinyl that is sold is sold to people who do not own record players. So this is about a collectible,” Muir noted.
He revealed that a “very significant part of this is now coming through” direct-to-fan channels.
He explained: “Around that new release of these album products, we are seeing somewhere in the region of two thirds to 75% of the total volume actually coming through our own managed stores in relation to this product.”
Grainge added: “It’s the fans telling us that the belief that we have in the superfan and how we’re able to provide products and services, both physically as well as what they look like digitally in the future. They’re telling us about behavior and about connection.”
Five people have been charged in connection with the 2023 overdose death of Robert De Niro’s grandson and two other 19 year olds.
New York authorities accuse the suspects, Bruce Epperson, Eddie Barreto, Grant McIver, John Nicolas, and Roy Nicolas, of running a fentanyl distribution network that sold counterfeit prescription opioid pills through social media to teenagers and young adults in the city.
Authorities link the network to the overdose deaths of Leandro De Niro-Rodriguez, Akira Stein – daughter of Blondie co-founder Chris Stein – and a third unnamed victim.
The five are each charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute.
“Through their alleged actions, these defendants left behind a trail of irreversible loss that cut short the lives of three teenagers who held boundless potential and who had already made profound, immeasurable impacts on those who knew them,” said Homeland Security Investigations New York special agent in charge Ricky Patel in a statement on Thursday.
Prosecutors allege the five used social media and encrypted messaging apps to sell thousands fentanyl-laced pills in New York between January and July 2023.
They allege that over that summer, the drugs they sold led to at least three deaths.
Stein was found dead 30 May after taking fentanyl-laced pills she allegedly purchased from John and Roy Nicolas. The unnamed victim, who died 13 June, allegedly purchased pills through an intermediary from Mr McIver.
Authorities say De Niro-Rodriguez, who died 2 July, got pills from a dealer who allegedly obtained them from Mr McIver, Mr Epperson, and Mr Barreto.
Separatedly in 2023, a woman was arrested for allegedly selling De Niro-Rodriguez three counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl – the drugs believed to have led to his death – and tablets of Xanax.
In a statement after the death of his grandson, Academy-Award winner De Niro said he was “deeply distressed” by the passing of his “beloved grandson”, who was the only child of his daughter Drena.
In a statement on Instagram on Thursday, Chris Stein noted the arrests in his daughter’s case and thanked officials “for this hope of some justice for her”.
If found guilty, the charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison, officials said.
A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
10/15 vs Sacred Heart Greenwich- 3-2 W, 10/17 vs School of the Holy Child- 6-0 W, 10/22 @ Loomis Chaffee School- 4-2 W, 10/25 vs Westminster School- 6-0 W
10/13 vs Greenwich- 1-0 W, 10/16 vs Fairfield Warde- 5-2 W, 10/18 @ Sacred Heart Greenwich- 1-0 W, 10/20 vs New Canaan- 4-0 W, 10/22 vs Greenwich- 2-3 L OT SO
Huntsville, Alabama totally took us by surprise. We knew “Rocket City” had NASA’s largest space flight center and the beloved Space Camp, but we had no idea their music, art, and food scene would also be out of this world. The city has one of the highest concentrations of PhDs in the country, and they are using their wicked smarts in lots of fun ways. Huntsville has transformed a cotton mill into the nation’s largest privately owned art center, an old high school into a brewery and entertainment complex, and built an amphitheater so acoustically perfect and sustainable that it has been named one of Billboard’s best venues in the world!
For all of Huntsville’s growth and innovation in recent years, it haven’t forgotten its roots. As Alabama’s first capital and a city spared during the Civil War, it has some of the state’s oldest and grandest architecture. What originally put Huntsville on the tourist map in the late 1800s was its “Mountains of Health.” Monte Sano State Park’s 2,400 acres of wilderness remain within the city limits in the name of conservation and recreation. Huntsville clearly wants to make sure its guests and residents are well taken care of, and it has paid off, earning the city US News & World Report’s “Best Place to Live.”
We spent five days in Huntsville, and couldn’t believe how much there was to explore in this little city. To help you plan an unforgettable trip, we’ve created this list of the best things to do in Huntsville, Alabama. Buckle up, Rocket City, here you come!
Gush Over Big Spring
The best place to start your Huntsville trip is where the town began…Big Spring! In 1805, John Hunt heard tales of a place beyond the Appalachian Mountains with an ever-flowing spring of crystal-clear water. When he saw 20 million gallons pouring out per day, he made it his homestead, and hundreds of settlers quickly followed suit. After 150 years as Huntsville’s drinking source, Big Spring’s pools and canals are now the heart of their central park.
To get a feel for the raw beauty that attracted Hunt to this place, start at the Spring Street entrance to see the water bubbling from the limestone bluff. Meander the canals and take a seat at the expansive pond to admire the reflections of the city’s skyscrapers and Huntsvillians in their happy place.
💡 Huntsville Travel Tip:Come in April for the Southeast’s premier arts festival, Panply, or summer Mondays for Big Spring Park’s weekly concert series.
Constitution Hall, Where Alabama Began!
This unsuspecting cabinet maker’s workshop is where Alabama’s statehood began with the signing of its constitution in 1819. Today, it’s a lovely museum, surrounded by eight historic buildings, including a law office, print shop, post office, cabinetmaker’s shop, and residence, offering a glimpse into Alabama’s earliest days. The charming outdoor exhibit is free, and the museum offers atmospheric lantern tours around the holidays.
The Secret Art & Mural Tour
You can’t help but notice the colorful murals all over Huntsville, but to see the finest and learn about the artists behind them, follow the Secret Art Trail in the Quigley Arts & Entertainment District. While murals make up most of the 16 stops, there are also fabulous sculptures hanging off buildings and stained-glass art for the keen-eyed. We loved the vibrant “This Girl Can” by Kim Radford, celebrating women’s right to vote, and “The Catalyst” mural by Robert Bean for its clever selfie opps, like holding a balloon, riding a bike, or flying away on a Poppins-style umbrella. For more info, check out this detailed guide to the Secret Art Trail.
💡 Travel Tip: In any of Huntsville’s five designated Arts & Entertainment Districts, open-container laws loosen up. Bars pour your drink into a magic purple cup, and it can travel with you on your walk until the next watering hole that calls to you.
Wander the Mansions of Twickenham
Huntsville’s oldest neighborhood is a fairytale-meets-textbook of early American architecture. Dating back to 1814, Antebellum mansions (more than 65!), Greek Revival, and Victorian homes are beautifully preserved here. Williams Ave SE is the grandest thoroughfare, and every intersecting street has swoon-worthy houses.
For a chance to go inside a historic home, the Weeden House Museum is a great choice. In addition to admiring its 19th-century stylings, the paintings and poems of lifelong resident Maria Howard Weeden offer a deeper look into Huntsville life, particularly that of African Americans. Guided tours depart at 10:00 a.m., Monday-Friday, with additional tours on Tuesday and Thursday at 1:00 p.m.
💡 Travel Tip: Pull up HuntsvilleHistoryTours.org on your phone to follow the Huntsville History Tour’s audio guide to dive into the history of the city’s most impressive buildings.
Travel Back in Time at Harrison Brothers Hardware
Operating on Huntsville’s historic Courthouse Square since 1897, Harrison Brothers is a handyman’s, antiquarian’s, and art lover’s dream. After the Harrison family stocked its wooden shelves and knobbed drawers for nearly a century, the Historic Huntsville Society happily took over the inventory and froze this place in time. Peek into the creaky cabinets of forgotten wares. Marvel at the rope-pulley freight elevator and go around the six-foot-tall safe until you reach the Harrison Brothers Gallery. It features the works of more than 50 regional artists and local purveyors for your souvenir-shopping pleasure. Use cash, and the clerk will ring you up on the bronze register from 1907.
Frolic in Huntsville Botanical Garden
Explore 118 acres of manicured gardens and native habitat, including a trail of 3,000 azalea bushes, a butterfly house with monarchs fluttering around you, an Aquatic Pavilion to catch the water lilies’ reflections, and a Garden of Hope for cancer patients and their families. And don’t miss the most exciting permanent exhibit…Mama Zelda, a giant troll created by world-renowned recycled artist Thomas Dambo.
We came to the Huntsville Botanical Garden specifically to see this troll, whose hair of twigs and vines forms a whimsical labyrinth to reach her, but quickly realized there was so much more going on at the garden. On the day of our visit, there was the “Global Rhythm & Blooms” concert series, a scarecrow art exhibit, and a medieval fencing tournament. Check their calendar of events for what fun they have in store for your visit!
Play Hooky At Campus 805
@honeytrek What was a high school for 60 years is now every naughty student’s dream. At Campus 805, the gymnasium is a brewery, the English classroom is a tattoo parlor, a row of lockers hides a speakeasy, and the sports fields are now festival grounds, for adults to run wild across their 13-acre schoolyard. Bending the rules a bit further, the Huntsville Arts & Entertainment District lets you walk outside and between bars with your purple open container, without getting detention. As they say at Campus 805, school will never be the same again. #campus805#visithuntsvilleal#partner#iHeartHSV @Huntsville, AL @Straight to Ale ♬ ACDC style hard rock(1021726) – Canal Records JP
What was a high school for 60 years is now every naughty student’s dream. At Campus 805, the gymnasium has become a brewery, the English classroom a tattoo parlor, a row of lockers perfectly hides a speakeasy, and the sports fields are now festival grounds, for adults to run wild across this 13-acre schoolyard. We loved Straight to Ale’s beer, food, and self-guided brewery tour through the old gym and wandering the halls of lockers looking for cool businesses, like Ronnie Raygun’s vintage pinball arcade and Rocket City Laser. Unlike a normal school, you’re going to want to come on a weekend when all these quirky classrooms are open and everyone is playing hooky.
Be an Astronaut for the Day at the US Space & Rocket Center
No matter if you are super into science or space exploration, this NASA & Smithsonian-Affiliate museum will blow your mind. It’s the official visitor center for the Marshall Space Flight Center—the rocket makers that sent man to the moon and the geniuses literally propelling the future of space exploration. The US Space & Rocket Center also dives into the fascinating history of Huntsville, going from a floundering cotton mill town to a driving force in the Space Race.
It’s where you can see the actual Saturn V rocket that sent Neil & Buzz to the moon, a life-size replica of the Pathfinder Space Shuttle, and countless artifacts and 21st-century prototypes of space travel. This museum is incredibly hands-on, letting you hop aboard an international space station, climb into capsule cockpits, and even drive an FS-VC dual system flight simulator that will have you doing barrel rolls.
The Intuitive Planetarium is a separate ticket, but so worth it to see the latest findings of the James Webb Space Telescope (the most powerful ever built) and witness the evolution of galaxies, the lifecycle of stars, and a kind of beauty we never knew existed. And if the US Space & Rocket Center really gets your engines firing, sign up for Space Camp! Not just for kids, family, and all-adult sessions are available. Dozens of the grads have become actual astronauts, and everyone we know who’s participated continues to talk about it, even decades later.
Paint the Town Red at Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment
From a cotton mill to a shoe factory to the largest privately-owned art center in the USA, Lowe Mill Arts & Entertainment has got staying power and so much fun on tap. When we saw this series of century-old warehouses, with their gritty bricks and wonky windows, we couldn’t believe what was inside…a labyrinth of 153 working art studios, 4 performance spaces, a meadey, vintage arcade, and many more creative spaces. Not some pretentious museum, Lowe Mill wants everyone to find their inner artist, offering open classes in everything from comic book-making, to cigar box guitar lessons, ceramics, and Celtic dance.
As not-so-good painters, we were a little intimidated to sign up, but with beloved local artist Yuri Ozaki hosting a 1-hour class for a mere $20, we had to give it a go! We learned a ton, had a blast, and actually came away with a painting we’re proud of. To make the night even cooler, we caught Lowe Mill’s Friday night concert series, danced to a five-piece band until closing time, and had a late-night dinner party at Chef Will The Palettes’ plant-based food truck. Watch the video (above) for the magic of Lowe Mill.
Play Disc Golf Like a Pro
Disc golf might be a fringe sport in some places, but not Huntsville! The city is home to one of the world’s first courses and just got the bid for the 2027 PDGA Amateur World Championships. There are 11 courses in town; die-hards should head to the OG Tom Monroe Memorial Disc Golf Course or the John Hunt Park to get to the greens before the championship players do.
Or if you’re disc-golf dabblers like us and enjoy a walk in the park just as much, rent a set of discs for $5 at the Outdoor Recreation Center, then head to Monte Sano. This state park is beautiful, and we loved that its course goes through the North Alabama Japanese Garden, with its bamboo forest, tea house, and Haiku Path with inspirational poems along the way.
💡Travel Tip: Have extra energy after your round of disc golf at Monte Sano? Hike the Sinks Trail to Stone Cuts Loop for northern Alabama’s impressive limestone formations.
Catch a Concert (or any event!) at The Orion
How do you create one of Billboard’s Top Music Venues in the World? Pair a Grammy-award-winning rockstar, who understands what artists and fans want, with one of the savviest cities in the American South. With the Mumford & Sons keyboard player and venue guru at the helm, Huntsville’s Orion Amphitheater is where music meets community, sustainability, and a helluva good time.
We came to The Orion to see Blink-182 (one of Mike’s all-time favorite bands!), but quickly realized it was so much more than an 8000-person music venue. The exterior has a big-art park, food trucks, a dive bar, and multiple spaces for community events throughout the week. Inside, you won’t find your average hot dog and Bud Light beer stands, but rather 15 bespoke bars, mixing cocktails with herbs grown on site and pouring all-Alabama brews that benefit environmental nonprofits. Sustainability is at the core of The Orion, with its no-single-use-plastic policy and commitment to send zero waste to landfills. In fact, the week we visited, their reusable cups program celebrated its 1 millionth reuse!
The Blink-182 show was as awesome as expected, but the fun we didn’t see coming was the after-party! The Orion threw in an extra band for free at The Dome, and we danced until midnight on a Monday with hundreds of stoked locals…what a night!
Best Huntsville Bars & Restaurants
Domaine South
In front of Big Spring’s waterfall sits one of the best restaurants in town, with a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence to back it up. Love the vibe at Domaine South, with their art-packed walls and ceilings dripping with plants. With a focus on local and seasonal ingredients, the menu changes weekly, and you can always count on their gorgeous charcuterie boards (with multiple vegan cheese options!). Go for happy hour (11-5pm) to enjoy their fine wines and admire the waterfall in the sunshine.
Standard Social Market
Part gourmet bodega and part restaurant, Standard Social Market feels like a hip locals’ joint, and they were plenty accommodating to newcomers. We asked for a Southern meal vegan-style, and they put their delicious black bean burger between a biscuit with a side of fried green tomatoes, and we were in comfort-food heaven!
Revivalist
Once a 19th-century tavern, Revivalist is channeling its old-school vibes in the chicest way. This place pulses with date-night vibes and has prices to match your special occasion, but worth it for the tahini cauliflower steak and French onion orzo.
Mason Dixon Bakery & Bistro
An entirely gluten-free and largely plant-based menu, this bakery and bistro is great for health and planet-conscious diners. Get Mason Dixon’s vegan cookie-dough chocolate cupcake—it’s divine!
Stovehouse
A former stove factory is now a food-court-meets-adult-playground, just outside of downtown. Centered around a yard of lawn games and sunsails, Stovehouse’s 15 eateries and bars let friends follow their appetites in different directions and come together over giant checkers and cornhole. Kamado Ramen and Pourhouse hit the spot!
Catacomb 435
This speakeasy does it right, with clues to get to the front door, a secret password, and truly custom cocktails in a moody, cool setting.Catacomb 435’s menu is just a series of checkboxes to mark the flavors, spirits, and vibes you’re feeling, and their mixologist makes magic from there.
The Victorian-era Huntsville Hotel is back as a posh Hilton Curio property. Perfectly situated in the heart of downtown and across from lively Jefferson Alley, the rooms are chic, their rooftop bar is a locals hot spot, and their lobby is connected to one of Huntsville’s finest restaurants (read: your Hilton Honors F&B credit gets you breakfast or cocktails!)
Placemakr
In the booming Mid-City neighborhood and just across from The Orion Amphitheater, this apartment-style hotel is a great alternative to Airbnb with the same homey comforts.
Monte Sano Cabins
Sitting on the bluffs of the state park, just five miles from downtown, Monte Sano haseleven 1930s cabins built by the CCC. Recently renovated with modern kitchens and bathrooms, without losing their stone fireplaces, wide-plank ceilings, and screened-in porches of yesteryear. We’re so glad we added this stint in nature to our city stay!
Getting to Huntsville
Being in Northern Alabama and the state’s largest city, Huntsville is more connected than you might think. Just a two-hour drive from Nashville, and 3.5 hours from Atlanta, Knoxville, and Memphis, it’s an easy road trip. If you’re flying in, Huntsville has direct flights from New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Miami, Denver, Las Vegas, LA, and more major cities. And making travel to Huntsville extra pleasant, HSV has repeatedly been named “Best Small Airport in the USA” for its efficient service and unexpected delights, like an art gallery, live music, and a brewery. Rental cars are plentiful and the best way to get around Huntsville.
Rocket City Rocks!
Clearly, there are plenty of things to do in Huntsville, but the ingenuity and creative spirit behind them is what impressed us most. We marvel at how Huntsville reinvented itself from a defunct mill town to a beacon of NASA technology. Then, when the glow of the Space Race faded, they focused on art and architecture, reimagining old buildings as creative spaces to bring their community together.
Then, what always makes a place so memorable is the people you meet! From catching up with our old buds, Jen & Ed, who made Huntsville their home, to breaking bread with new friends at Lowe Mills’s painting classes and vegan food truck, we saw Rocket City and Alabama in a new and shining light and know you will too.
P.S. Big Thanks to Visit Huntsville for inviting us to town and supporting our work!
Toyota won minds and melted hearts at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show with a compact concept van and mini-adventurer it called the Kayoibako, going so far as to show what it would look like as a light camper. The modular x-mover was as functional as it was adorable … in a concept van way, at least. Two years later, the Japan Mobility Show is back, and so is the Kayoibako. This time around, Toyota is talking up an entire family of vans, including a newborn baby: the Daihatsu Kayoibako-K, a flexible kei transporter that works as an urban delivery solution, micro-camper, small family hauler, self-driving adventure shuttle and mobile storefront.
The Kayoibako name was derived from Japanese shipping containers that rely upon modular interiors to properly fit and secure different types of cargo. The 2023 show van was developed to demonstrate how that type of swappable interior concept could be adapted to a van, making a single vehicle platform far more versatile by way of interchangeable interiors.
The Daihatsu Kayoibako-K may have stole some of its cute, new debut thunder, but the original Toyota Kayoibako is certain to once again impress the crowds at the Japan Mobility Show
Toyota
Released under Toyota Group’s Daihatsu badge, the Kayoibako-K shrinks the general concept down even more, this time to kei car size. That means the diminutive van measures in at a hair under 340 cm (134 in) long, roughly 59 cm (23 in) shorter than the original 2023 Toyota Kayoibako. Most of Daihatsu’s materials show it as a single-seat mini-delivery van, but the company says it’s capable of housing up to four seats.
A proper kei car, the Daihatsu Kayoibako-K is the smallest in the greater Toyota lineup of Kayoibako-style vans
Toyota
Like the original Kayoibako, the Kayoibako-K is aimed first and foremost at businesses and workers, designed to dedicate its voluminous rear cabin to delivering packages, carrying tools of a trade, working as a mobile storefront, or perhaps transporting passengers as an urban ride share vehicle. Also like the original Toyota concept, it’s being served with a heavy side of recreation, and Daihatsu’s multimedia materials show it carrying kayaks to the river, serving as a two-person micro-camper with rooftop tent, and enjoying time at the beach.
Enhancing the K’s ability to efficiently move people through their greater surroundings and operate as an adventure dream machine is its autonomous driving capabilities. While not fully autonomous in all situations, the Kayoibako-K concept is imagined with the ability to navigate itself to the doorstep to meet its driver, return itself to the parking lot or garage, and self-drive a specific route.
The Kayoibako-K’s autonomous capabilities are shown as a way that paddlers can self-shuttle without an extra vehicle or driver
Toyota
That last capability allows the Kayoibako-K to serve as the ultimate adventure companion by dropping off kayakers at the put-in and then driving itself to the takeout to pick them up after they’re done, something for which one would usually rely on a friend and/or separate pre-parked return vehicle. Beyond just kayaking, this could be game-changing for activities like downhill mountain biking and point-to-point hiking.
The Kayoibako-K (right side) is the smallest of the growing concept van family, parked next to the Kayoibako (middle) and HiAce concept
Toyota
The Kayoibako-K is the smallest van model in an envisioned five-vehicle Kayoibako transporter fleet that would include models ranging from small to extra large. Toyota imagines the smallest vehicles being offered under the Daihatsu brand, with the larger ones wearing a Toyota badge.
Toyota itself revealed the new HiAce Concept at the large end of the concept van lineup. The van shares its shape and design language with the smaller Kayoibako vans, but its production model-based name suggests that Toyota is exploring the idea of making the Kayoibako lineup a potential replacement for the current generation HiAce vans, bringing new levels of flexibility to its van line.
Shown here with a roof rack, the Toyota HiAce Concept brings Kayoibako styling a step closer to possible reality
Toyota
So one day in the not-so-distant future, we could be seeing a modular, multi-use Toyota van platform readied to compete with Kia’s steadily developing PBV range.
The video below shows how the Kayoibako-K could fit into an ultramodern vision of work/life balance.
Japan Mobility Show 2025 KAYOIBAKO-K コンセプトムービー ダイハツ公式
new video loaded: Ultra-Orthodox Community Protests Israel’s Military Draft
transcript
transcript
Ultra-Orthodox Community Protests Israel’s Military Draft
Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated against the military draft in Israel.
You can’t force people to be otherwise than the way they are. This is us. This is the way we are. You can’t change us. You can’t force people to do otherwise. It’s no good.
Hundreds of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews demonstrated against the military draft in Israel.
The rare move comes after mounting pressure to act over Andrew’s relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Published On 30 Oct 202530 Oct 2025
Share
King Charles III has stripped his brother Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal residence after weeks of pressure to act over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buckingham Palace said on Thursday the king “initiated a formal process to remove the Style, Titles and Honours of Prince Andrew”.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
After the king’s rare move, Andrew will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor and not as a prince, and he will move from his Royal Lodge residence into “private accommodation”.
It is almost unprecedented for a British prince or princess to be stripped of that title. It last happened in 1919, when Prince Ernest Augustus, who was a UK royal and also a prince of Hanover, had his British title removed for siding with Germany during World War I.
Demand had been growing on the palace to remove the prince from Royal Lodge after he surrendered his use of the title duke of York earlier this month over new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed sexual abuse allegations by one of Epstein’s victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, whose posthumous memoir hit bookstores last week.
But the king went even further to punish him for serious lapses of judgement by removing the title of prince that he had held since birth as a child of a monarch, the late Queen Elizabeth II.
“These censures are deemed necessary, notwithstanding the fact that he continues to deny the allegations against him,” the palace said. “Their Majesties wish to make clear that their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been, and will remain with, the victims and survivors of any and all forms of abuse.”
Giuffre’s brother declared victory for his sister, who died in April at the age of 41.
“Today, an ordinary American girl from an ordinary American family, brought down a British prince with her truth and extraordinary courage,” her brother Skye Roberts said in a statement.
Andrew faced a new round of public opprobrium after emails emerged earlier this month showing he had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he previously admitted.
That news was followed by the publication of, Nobody’s Girl, by Giuffre, who alleged she had sex with Andrew when she was 17. The book detailed three alleged sexual encounters with Andrew, who she said acted as if he believed “having sex with me was his birthright”.
Andrew, 65, has long denied Giuffre’s claims, but stepped down from royal duties after a disastrous November 2019 BBC interview in which he attempted to rebut her allegations.
Andrew paid millions in an out-of-court settlement in 2022 after Giuffre filed a civil suit against him in New York. While he did not admit wrongdoing, he acknowledged Giuffre’s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking.
The move by the king means Andrew will no longer be a prince or be known as “his royal highness”, “duke of York”, “earl of Inverness” or “baron Killyleagh” – all titles he held until now. Also gone are honours that include Order of the Garter and status as knight grand cross of the Royal Victorian Order.
Andrew is expected to move to a property on the king’s Sandringham estate near the northeast coast and receive private financial support from his brother.
