CNN travel FOOD & DRINK | World’s 50 best restaurants for 2021

Steirereck (Vienna, Austria): This Vienna restaurant made it to No. 12 and won the Art of Hospitality Award.

(CNN) — The gentle clink of glasses, the low hum of conversation, the soft lights and appetite-whetting scents.

All were sadly missed when restaurants around the world were forced to shut their doors in 2020 and 2021, the ovens cold and the owners and workers facing an uncertain future.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurant Awards — an event considered the Oscars of the fine dining world — was also obliged to take a hiatus last year, but it’s finally back, and the two eateries at the top of the list are both in Copenhagen.  —read more—  

CNN US | Taylor Swift pays tribute to Carole King as she serenades the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame audience

(CNN) – Taylor Swift lit up the opening of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony Saturday with a nod to 2021 inductee Carole King, and even King had a tear in her eye.

Swift soothed the crowd with a rendition of King’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow” wearing a lacy, black bodysuit to match the formal tone of the night.

After the first few bars, the “Cardigan” singer looked out into the crowd with a sly smile and briefly stuck out her tongue between her teeth as to let them in on a surprise.  —read more—  

CNN US | Philadelphia to become first major US city to ban police from stopping drivers for low-level traffic violations

(CNN) – When Philadelphia’s mayor signs landmark legislation as soon as this week, the city will become the first major US city to ban police from stopping drivers for low-level traffic violations — stops that studies show target Black drivers at disproportionately higher rates.

The Driving Equality Bill, passed 14-2 by the city council on October 14, categorizes certain motor vehicle code violations as “primary violations,” which allow officers to pull people over in the name of public safety, and “secondary violations” that don’t meet the criteria for a lawful traffic stop, according to the office of Councilmember Isaiah Thomas, who authored the bill.

The bill will take effect 120 days after Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signs it into law, which his office said he intends to do.  —read more— 

CNN style Fashion | Ava DuVernay reveals the microaggression that changed the way she dresses

Ava DuVernay’s coming-of-age miniseries on the life of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is coming to Netflix this week. In a conversation with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, the “When They See Us” director discussed the formative moments Kaepernick experienced that she found resonance in, and the microagressions she’s faced that have impacted her to this day.

“I hope people don’t walk away from this and say ‘Oh, this was a piece about Colin Kaepernick,'” she told Amanpour. “I hope that they come out of it thinking about their own journey.”  —read more—  

CNN US | How the Charleston church massacre victims settlement is a symbolic blow to White supremacists

Bakari Sellers, the attorney for the victims’ families, speaks with reporters outside the Justice Department, in Washington, DC, on Thursday, October 28, 2021.

(CNN) – The $88 million settlement announced Thursday with survivors and the families of nine people fatally shot in 2015 at a historically Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, is a “big ‘F-you’ to White supremacists,” an attorney for the victims’ families said.

White supremacists have used the number “88” as a hate symbol for decades, but on Thursday, that number was reflected in the millions of dollars that the Justice Department will pay over FBI lapses that allowed Dylann Roof, an avowed White supremacist, to buy the semi-automatic pistol used in the massacre.  —read more—  

CNN US | Black leaders rally around Howard University students protesting poor living conditions on campus

Tents are set up near Howard’s Blackburn University Center, as students protest poor housing conditions on campus on October 25, 2021, in Washington, DC.

(CNN) – Black leaders are rallying around Howard University students who have been protesting since earlier this month what they say are subpar living conditions such as mold, mice and roaches in campus dorms.

Students at the historically Black college in Washington, DC, have been assembling for sit-ins at the school’s Blackburn University Center with tents, air mattresses and sleeping bags, demanding that Howard leadership address their concerns. The sit-in, which has been dubbed #BlackburnTakeover on social media, started on October 12.  —read more––  

CNN BUSINESS | Warren Buffett’s billionaire partner bankrolls windowless dorm. An architect quit

New York, NY (CNN Business) – Billionaire Charlie Munger is bankrolling the design of a massive dormitory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The $1.5 billion project comes with a major catch — 94% of the dorm’s single occupancy rooms have no windows.

A consulting architect on the university’s Design Review Committee quit in protest of the project, in a resignation letter obtained by CNN Business.

“The basic concept of Munger Hall as a place for students to live is unsupportable from my perspective as an architect, a parent and a human being,” California architect Dennis McFadden wrote in the letter. McFadden declined further comment to CNN Business.  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | How technology is changing the red-hot housing market

(CNN) – At a CNN Business Foreseeable Future live event, CNN Business’ Christine Romans asks top real estate executives how technology is finally disrupting the housing market.  —watch— 

CNN style Architecture | Brooklyn’s first supertall skyscraper officially reaches its full height

Manhattan is no stranger to supertall skyscrapers but Brooklyn’s skyline has now radically changed as its first supertall reached its full, vertiginous height on Thursday.

The 93-story, 1,066-foot-tall residential building, standing at 9 DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, was designed by SHoP Architects. (Supertalls, by definition, are residential or office buildings reaching 300 meters — 984 feet — or higher.) Newly christened “The Brooklyn Tower,” it has been under construction since 2018 and cost $750 million total to develop.

Now, the skyscraper’s fluted black stainless steel, bronze and glass exterior emerges from behind the white marble neoclassical facade of the landmarked early 20th-century Dime Savings Bank. JDS Development Group, which spearheaded the project, bought the decommissioned bank for $95 million in 2016; its intricate interior is being restored and converted for retail use, while the rooftop will host residential amenities including a pool that extends around its dome.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS MISSION: AHEAD | Watch a $680,000 hoverbike take flight

(CNN) – The “XTURISMO Limited Edition” uses a combustion engine and four battery powered motors to hover at speeds of around 60 miles per hour.  —watch—