CNN travel | The couple who fell in love in a Danish dungeon

(CNN) — Dorte Poulsen was sunbathing in her parents’ backyard in her home in Copenhagen. It was 1983, and she was 19, just back from a gap year where she’d backpacked solo around South America and Israel. 
 
Right then, she was enjoying doing nothing, but her sunny basking was interrupted by the phone ringing. 
 
Dorte reluctantly hauled herself off the ground and answered the call. It was a guy she knew, Henrik — his sister was dating Dorte’s brother — he wasn’t a close friend, but they moved in the same circles. 
 
“I’ve got these two Americans visiting me,” Henrik said. “They want to go sightseeing, do you want to join us?” 
 
“Absolutely not,” said Dorte, definitively.  —read more—  

CNN style Arts | How Daniel Craig’s body became his James Bond signature

The year was 2006. Up on the cinema screen, Daniel Craig rose from the azure sea somewhere in the Bahamas, water clinging to abs and trunks alike. In the theater this writer was in, a woman, laboring over each word, let out what many others were thinking: “Oh. My. God.” “Casino Royale” was 29 minutes into its run time, but in that moment a new James Bond was born. 
 
For that moment audiences have Craig to thank, but also someone else: his conditioning coach, Simon Waterson. In the 15 years since the actor was cast as 007, he has turned to Waterson time and again. Now, with Craig’s fifth and final outing as Bond in “No Time to Die,” they’re warming down together for the last time. 
 
Waterson, a former Navy man, was involved in the franchise before Craig, as personal trainer to Pierce Brosnan in “The World Is Not Enough.” When Craig came on board, he arrived with a cigarette and a bacon sandwich. But he also arrived with a vision, Waterson said. “From the very beginning he never wanted a trainer — he wanted a training partner,” he remembers. “Whatever he did, I did.”  —read more—  

CNN style Style | 2021 London Fashion Week highlights

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CNN BUSINESS | How Microsoft built ‘The Frankenstein’ device during the pandemic

(CNN) – When Microsoft (MSFT) closed its Redmond, Washington offices in March 2020 due to the pandemic, the Surface team grabbed what they could for their home offices. For a handful of engineers and product designers, that included The Frankenstein, a prototype for a versatile, transformable laptop built in concert with Windows 11. 

The mystery device had already spent three years in Microsoft’s development lab and was set to ship on October 5, 2021, the same day Microsoft planned to launch its first major software update in six years. But the Frankenstein was far from ready: The pieces were taped together with a Surface Pro, a laptop-to-tablet device, and featured new sensors, an updated keyboard and trackpad on the bottom. It needed changes to the lock screen, the woven hinge and its face tracking system, among other updates.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Evergrande stock surges even as debt repayment deadline approaches 

Hong Kong (CNN Business) – It’s crunch time for China’s heavily-indebted Evergrande Group. 
 
The sprawling Chinese real estate conglomerate faces a critical test on Thursday: can it meet its obligations to bondholders, or will it slip closer to default? 
 
Evergrande is due to pay $83.5 million worth of interest on a dollar-denominated bond, according to data from Refinitiv. It’s not clear yet whether the company will make that payment, and it had not commented by the close of trading in Hong Kong. 
 
Investors have already been rattled by the risk that one of China’s biggest developers could collapse, sending shockwaves through the world’s second biggest economy.  —read more—  

CNN style Arts | Inside the Bourse de Commerce, Paris’ new $195 million art museum

Paris’ former stock exchange, the Bourse de Commerce, will reopen its doors this week having undergone a $195 million transformation into a new landmark museum for contemporary art. 
 
Three years in the making, the redesign was led by Japanese architect Tadao Ando and supported by a team of Parisian architects, including NeM Architects Agency. The expansive space, stretching over 10,000 square meters (more than 100,000 square feet), will house the contemporary art collection of French billionaire François Pinault.  —read more—   

CNN BUSINESS | China’s Evergrande meets crucial debt deadline but another looms

Hong Kong (CNN Business) – China’s Evergrande Group will pay interest due Thursday on one of its bonds, but it’s keeping rattled investors guessing about the fate of second, bigger payment due this week. 
 
The troubled Chinese real estate conglomerate said Wednesday in a filing with the Shenzhen Stock Exchange that issues regarding a payment on a domestic yuan bond have been “settled through negotiations.” 
 
Many questions remain unanswered, though. Evergrande did not elaborate on the terms of the payment. The amount of interest it owes on the bond is about 232 million yuan ($36 million), according to data from Refinitiv. 
 
Interest worth $83.5 million on a dollar-denominated bond is also due Thursday, though the company has not said anything publicly about what will happen to that payment.  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | 5 things to know about Evergrande, the Chinese business empire on the brink 

Hong Kong (CNN Business) – The troubles of Chinese conglomerate Evergrande have dominated headlines after it warned once again that it could default on its astronomical debt because of a cash crunch. 
 
Experts have characterized the firm’s struggles as a major test for Beijing that risks turning into China’s Lehman Brothers moment, sending shockwaves across the world’s second biggest economy. 
 
This week could be critical for the company. It was supposed to repay interest on some bank loans on Monday, according to Bloomberg. The news outlet recently reported that Chinese authorities have told major banks that they won’t receive those payments. 
 
Evergrande did not immediately respond to a request from CNN Business for comment about those payments.––read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Google expands in New York with $2.1 billion office purchase

New York (CNN Business) – Google is dramatically expanding its office presence in New York City with a $2.1 billion purchase on Manhattan’s West Side. 
 
The move comes even as the company embracing a hybrid work model because of the pandemic. 
 
Google said Tuesday that the new office will be an “anchor” of its sprawling city campus that houses much of its 12,000-strong regional workforce. It’s scheduled to open in mid-2023. 
 
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, wrote that the deal is the most expensive sale of a single US office building since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, and ranks as one of the priciest ever in US history.  —read more—  

CNN BUSINESS | China’s Evergrande puts on a brave face. But will Beijing bail it out?

Hong Kong (CNN Business) – Evergrande’s chairman promised his employees Tuesday that they will “walk out of the darkness” caused by the embattled Chinese conglomerate’s historic debt crisis. 
 
But what happens next for the company is still anyone’s guess, and the lack of guidance from the company and authorities in Beijing about how the crisis will be resolved is creating uncertainty for investors worldwide amid fears that a collapse could slam China’s vast property sector and the global economy. 
 
Xu Jiayin, the chairman of Evergrande Group, acknowledged in a letter to employees that the cash-strapped real estate developer “has encountered unprecedented difficulties.” The letter was published in the Paper, a state-owned Chinese media outlet, and confirmed to be genuine by an Evergrande representative.  —read more—