We Took a Year-Long Climbing Sabbatical. Here’s How Much It Actually Cost. - Climbing Magazine

iX3It handles better than the gas X3, and the 108.7-kWh battery never made me watch the charge meter. Article SummaryThe iX3 xDrive50 covered about 250 miles in a day, including two Transfagarasan climbs and a 87 mph highway run, and still had 16% left without charging. Hard mountain driving pushed consumption to 2.1 mi/kWh, while gentle country roads the day before returned 3.53 mi/kWh. Passive suspension and a low-mounted battery give the 5,000-pound SUV a chassis that's more fun than the combustion X3's. Once should have been enough. I had already driven the BMW iX3 up Romania’s Transfăgărășan, reached Bâlea near the summit and descended to Cârțișoara for lunch. The sensible thing would have been to take it easy from there and just take the main road back home to Bucharest. Instead, I went back up to enjoy the car a second time. Going on that second climb, gaining roughly 5,200 feet (1,580 meters), tells you something about the BMW iX3. It’s entertaining enough to make you repeat a mountain road blast, and its range gives you the confidence to indulge in its plentiful performance.

(Screengrab from footage shared on social media)Apple's iPhone 18 smartphones are being advertised in Tehran at unusually low prices as “war booty”, with sellers claiming the devices were recovered from a cargo ship that sank near the Strait of Hormuz, Iran International reported on Saturday. The advertisements surfaced after a container ship reportedly sank near the strategic waterway on October 13. Videos circulating on social media purportedly showed shipping containers floating in the sea, with iPhones and expensive perfumes scattered in the water as people aboard small boats collected the goods. According to a report by Ynet News, footage circulated by media outlets across the Arab world on Thursday evening showed people retrieving objects from the water. One boat appeared to be carrying boxes of iPhones, with one report claiming that the devices were Apple's latest iPhone 18 models. The identities of those seen collecting the goods remain unclear. There has been no official confirmation of the incident. Iran's cyber police have warned prospective buyers against paying deposits or advance fees before inspecting the products and verifying sellers' identities.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.