All posts tagged: hottest

This tariff-refund portal is about to be America’s hottest website : NPR

This tariff-refund portal is about to be America’s hottest website : NPR

Published by Sam Flores

On Monday, the U.S. Customs portal will start accepting refund requests from businesses that paid President Trump’s tariffs before the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. Nickolai Hammar/NPR hide caption toggle caption Nickolai Hammar/NPR After weeks of waiting to hear how — or whether — the U.S. government might refund the tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court, Monday is the day it finally begins. Imagine tens of thousands of business owners with their fingers hovering over laptops, ready to enter America’s hottest new queue: the U.S. tariff refund portal. U.S. Customs is launching just the first phase of payouts, so not all the goods imported under the illegal tariffs will immediately qualify. And the latest federal guidance says that after refund requests are approved, it could take 60 to 90 days to return the money to the importer. Still, this marks a turning point for U.S. importers, who’ve waited for clarity for exactly two months since the U.S. Supreme Court declared most of President Trump’s tariffs unconstitutional. The high court did not opine on the …

‘R&B today is like Brazilian football – the creativity, the skill’: Odeal, the genre’s hottest UK star | R&B

‘R&B today is like Brazilian football – the creativity, the skill’: Odeal, the genre’s hottest UK star | R&B

Published by Sam Flores

“I’m not looking at a crowd tonight,” Odeal says hours before his first ever Brixton Academy performance in late March. “I’m looking at my people; aunties, uncles, friends, peers and supporters.” Dressed in loungewear and stretched across a leather sofa backstage at the south London venue, the British-Nigerian singer seems calm, as if he’s exactly where he expected to be. The 26-year-old has the type of fame particular to the British R&B scene: adoration and many millions of streams from the genre’s global fanbase, to the point where he’ll soon play arenas across the US in support of R&B megastar Summer Walker – though is yet to have much mainstream recognition beyond that. His music sits loosely within R&B, also drawing on Afrobeats, neo-soul and contemporary pop. Across his catalogue – culminating in his 2025 sister EPs The Summer That Saved Me and The Fall That Saved Us – love is rarely conclusive. Instead, songs live in emotional grey areas. But he encourages listeners to lean into their feelings, however conflicted they may be. “If …

UK weather: temperature tops 26C on one of hottest April days of past 80 years | UK weather

UK weather: temperature tops 26C on one of hottest April days of past 80 years | UK weather

Published by Jenni Sidey

Temperatures soared in parts of the UK as the country recorded its warmest day of the year so far – and one of the hottest April days in the last 80 years. A high of 26.5C (79.7F) was recorded in Kew Gardens, in south-west London, on Wednesday, the Met Office said. It was the hottest day recorded in the first half of April since 1946, according to the forecaster. “We are currently seeing a spell of very warm weather for early April, with high pressure drawing warm air north across the UK,” a Met Office spokesperson said. “For many areas, particularly central, southern and eastern England, temperatures are well above average for the time of year.” London was hotter than many popular holiday destinations including Ibiza, Rome and Marrakech. Wednesday comfortably surpassed this year’s previous record from a day earlier, when temperatures hit 24.8C in Mona on the island of Anglesey in Wales. The Met Office has said this week’s weather does not meet its definition of a heatwave, which requires temperatures to exceed region‑specific …

The World’s Hottest Young Watchmaker Just Dropped a Game-Changing Chronograph

The World’s Hottest Young Watchmaker Just Dropped a Game-Changing Chronograph

Published by Jenni Sidey

Want more insider watch coverage? Get Box + Papers, GQ’s newsletter devoted to the watch world, sent to your inbox every Friday. Sign up here to get it free. When I visited Rexhep Rexhepi, the renowned watchmaking phenom, at his Geneva workshop in the summer of 2024, the obsession had already started. His workbench was scattered with vintage chronographs, and his mind was whirring with ideas for how he might innovate on the age-old stopwatch complication. “I would be very interested now to do something that is different on the chronograph,” said Rexhepi, whose watches routinely sell for millions at auction. Now, nearly two years after that meeting—and four since Rexhepi’s last major release—the watchmaker has unveiled his latest model, the RRCHF. Rexhepi may have downplayed his ambitions when he said he wanted to do something interesting with the chronograph. These days, even many watch enthusiasts—including one watch brand executive I recently spoke with—are quick to point out that timepieces are now little more than symbols of status and taste, with no real practical value. …

It’s official: London is one of the UK’s hottest honeymoon destinations

It’s official: London is one of the UK’s hottest honeymoon destinations

Published by Sam Flores

Weddings are an expensive business. These days, the average couple looking to get hitched will spend £20,822 on the ceremony itself, without even factoring in the cost of the ring and honeymoon. There’s the caterers, the venue and the dress to budget for, all of which cost thousands of pounds. And with the cost-of-living crisis to contend with too, it’s no surprise that couples are increasingly choosing to dodge the prospect of a bells-and-whistles week away in Italy in favour of something a little closer to home. A report from wedding planning app Bridebook showed that over one in six newlywed couples chose to have their honeymoon in the UK last year, rather than travelling abroad. It’s for good reason: the average staycation honeymoon costs 42 per cent less in the UK than in other European destinations, and is 65 per cent cheaper than a trip to American or the Caribbean. Add to that the fact that searches for cheap honeymoon destinations are spiking – TikTok recently saw 229,000 searches for the same phrase in …

From Hollywood to Hinge: Why a bushy moustache is the hottest look for men right now

From Hollywood to Hinge: Why a bushy moustache is the hottest look for men right now

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Although Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another scooped the best film award at the Oscars last week, there was only one real winner at the biggest night in Hollywood – Leonardo DiCaprio’s big bushy moustache. Loud and proud, it adorned his upper lip, lending the 51-year-old actor an unapologetic swagger we hadn’t seen from him for several years. “I haven’t found Leo attractive for decades, but with this moustache…” one fan wrote on X/Twitter, alongside a clip of the actor nonchalantly nodding his head at quips fired out at his expense by ceremony host Conan O’Brien, before turning his gaze (The Office-style) straight down the camera lens to look at us thirsting over him at home. “He looks HOT,” another shocked fan assessed. …

US suffers hottest March day ever recorded as heat dome drives up temperatures | US News

US suffers hottest March day ever recorded as heat dome drives up temperatures | US News

Published by skeptic

Preliminary readings of sites in Arizona and southern California indicate that the US has suffered its hottest March day on record. Large parts of the southwest of the United States are trapped in a dangerous heatwave, made worse in some places by a heat dome, with temperatures reaching around 43C (110F) at testing sites. The heatwave has shattered March temperature records all over the southwest of the country, with hot weather arriving months ahead of schedule. Image: A new air conditioning unit is installed during record-breaking heat. Pic: AP “This is what climate change looks like in real time: extremes pushing beyond the bounds we once thought possible,” said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver. March’s heat would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, according to a report released today by World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists who study the causes of extreme weather events. What is a heat dome? A heat dome is loosely defined as an area of high pressure that stays over the same area for days, …

How the ‘Neo-Vintage’ Era Became the Hottest Thing in Watches

How the ‘Neo-Vintage’ Era Became the Hottest Thing in Watches

Published by Jenni Sidey

Perhaps the best argument in favor of neo-vintage is its value, particularly for classic tool watches. With the vintage looks of their forebears, the reliability of modern movements, and prices well below those of their 21st-century descendants, these watches offer a best-of-both-worlds scenario. “A [1990s] Speedmaster still looks like a Speedmaster from the ’60s; a Submariner still looks like a Submariner from the ’60s. The sizes remain the same, the general layout and configuration remain the same, the only things that were really different from the earlier versions were some of the materials,” says James Lamdin, the founder of Analog:Shift and a longtime neo-vintage evangelist. These watches also use tritium lume on their dials instead of modern Super-LumiNova, which ages more like old-school radium, lending them the warm tones of a classic vintage watch. “For a lot of people, it’s that aging of the material, going from white to this warm yellow cream vibe, that gives each watch its unique character and an element of romance,” Lamdin says. Call it what you will—romance, patina, vibes—neo-vintage …

UK weather: Temperatures to drop after hottest day of year – but ‘explosion of colour’ to come | UK News

UK weather: Temperatures to drop after hottest day of year – but ‘explosion of colour’ to come | UK News

Published by skeptic

The UK could be set for an “explosion of colour” as warmer conditions bring flowers rapidly into bloom over the next two weeks – but not before temperatures drop following the hottest day of the year so far. Temperatures at Kew Gardens in London reached 18.6C on Wednesday – the hottest February day since 2019 – with parts of Kent and Suffolk topping 18C. Some areas experienced higher temperatures than in Spain and Malta – a pleasant change for many after an incredibly wet start to the year. Image: The highest temperature of 2026 so far was recorded at Kew Gardens in London. Pic: Reuters However, Sky News meteorologist Dr Christopher England expects it to “turn cooler” from Thursday, due to “a strengthening and increasingly westerly wind” that could bring cloud and rain “to most”. Dr England noted that “temperatures will remain above average for most”. But forecasts of mild weather, some sunshine and double-figure daytime temperatures over the next fortnight could lead to colourful spring displays, according to the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS). Tim …

Rainfall became irregular during Earth’s hottest periods, raising global warming concerns

Rainfall became irregular during Earth’s hottest periods, raising global warming concerns

Published by Jenni Sidey

The climate record holds some of its best warnings in stone, soil, and leaves. In a new study, scientists from the University of Utah and the Colorado School of Mines looked back to one of Earth’s hottest eras to see how rain behaved when the planet ran far warmer than today. What they found challenges existing knowledge regarding climate change and rainfall. The research examines the early Paleogene, roughly 66 to 48 million years ago. During that stretch, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels sat about two to four times higher than modern levels. The team used that deep-time heat as a test case for how a hotter world can reshape the water cycle. Instead of asking only how much rain fell in a year, the researchers focused on something that often gets missed. They asked when rain fell and how steady it was across seasons and years. Their conclusion is blunt. Under extreme warming, rainfall can become far less reliable, even in places that are not deserts. Climate in the modern world and early Palaeogene, including …