CNN style Arts | Dozens of Nazi-looted artworks are exhibiting in New York

Henri Matisse’s “Girl in Yellow and Blue with Guitar” from 1939 will be on show at the Jewish Museum’s show “Afterlives.” Credit: Courtesy of the Jewish Museum

Dozens of artworks once stolen from Jewish collectors by the Nazis in the 1930s and ’40s will be exhibited in New York starting on Friday.

Taken before and during World War II, the paintings being displayed at Manhattan’s Jewish Museum include works by European greats Pablo Picasso, Camille Pissarro and Paul Cézanne.

The Nazis are known to have looted and stolen hundreds of thousands of artworks in total — often from Jewish collectors, gallerists and families fleeing persecution. Though some of the pieces were later recovered and returned to their owners or their descendants, many remain missing or are the subject of ongoing legal battles.—read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Fewer people are going to Home Depot. That could be a bad sign for the housing market

New York (CNN Business) – Home Depot has thrived in the red-hot housing market, but there are growing signs that demand is finally starting to cool.

Although Home Depot’s second-quarter earnings and revenue topped forecasts on Tuesday morning, a few stats were concerning: For example, same-store sales growth, which measures how well locations up at least a year are doing, rose just 3.4% in the US.

That’s a big dropoff from the first quarter and below analysts’ estimates.

What’s more, fewer people were shopping in Home Depot stores this quarter. The company reported 481.7 million customer transactions, down nearly 6% from the same period a year ago.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | Hyatt is betting on luxury travel with $2.7 billion resorts deal

London (CNN Business) – Hyatt is expanding its reach in luxury resorts, betting that pent-up demand following the pandemic will boost demand for upmarket leisure travel.

The US hotel group said in a statement Sunday that it has agreed to buy luxury resorts operator Apple Leisure Group from private equity firms KKR and KSL Capital Partners for $2.7 billion.

The acquisition will double Hyatt’s global resorts footprint and make it the largest operator of luxury hotels in Mexico and the Caribbean. It will also extend its presence into 11 new markets in Europe, “a critical region for global growth in leisure travel,” Hyatt (H) said.  —read more—

CNN BUSINESS | T-Mobile confirms it was hit by data breach

(CNN Business) – T-Mobile (TMUS) confirmed on Monday that it has been hit by a data breach but declined to say whether any personal information from customers was accessed or how widespread the damage may be.

The company’s acknowledgement of a breach comes after hackers told Vice that they were selling “full customer info” obtained from T-Mobile servers that pertained to what the hackers claimed were over 100 million people.

Late Sunday, the company said it was “aware of claims made in an underground forum” and “actively investigating their validity.” On Monday, the company said it has closed a vulnerability used by hackers to gain entry to T-Mobile’s systems, and is working with the “highest degree of urgency” to investigate the breach.  —read more— 

CNN entertainment | Jennifer Hudson thinks she knows why Aretha Franklin chose her for ‘Respect’

Jennifer Hudson in “Respect.”

(CNN) – Jennifer Hudson has Aretha Franklin to thank, in part, for her career.

Hudson first came to fame in 2004 as a finalist on “American Idol.” She auditioned for the reality singing competition with Franklin’s song, “Share Your Love With Me.”

Fast forward to 2021 and Hudson is now a Grammy winning singer and an Academy Award winning actress whom Franklin handpicked to portray her in the biopic “Respect” prior to her death in 2018. (Hudson won the best supporting actress Oscar in 2007 for her performance in “Dreamgirls.)

Hudson told CNN she’s long considered why the Queen of Soul wanted her in the role. —read more—

CNN styles Arts | Meet the Nigerian artist illustrating the human experience with a ballpoint pen

Suowari believes the role of the artist should be to empower and improve the lives of the audience. Courtesy of Jacqueline Suowari

From a distance, Jacqueline Suowari’s larger-than-life portraits look like monochromatic photographs overlaid with colorful graphics. Upon closer inspection, you see these dramatic images are the culmination of thousands of tiny lines made using a simple ballpoint pen.

Suowari, 30, has been an artist since she was a child, practicing professionally for over a decade. She studied Fine Art at the University of Port Harcourt in southern Nigeria, and has participated in group exhibitions globally and had solo exhibitions in Miami and Nigeria.

Her work has been featured in several publications including Chukwuemeka Ben Bosah’s book, “The Art of Nigerian Women,” which celebrates female artists from the Nigerian diaspora.  —read more— 

CNN BUSINESS | Audi unveils a shape-shifting concept car

The Audi Skysphere’s grille is actually an LED light display.

Monterey, California (CNN) – Audi’s latest concept car, the skysphere, will be able to drive itself, the company claims. But the real hook is that, as it changes from human driving to self-driving, the body of the skysphere expands by 10 inches from end-to-end.

The concept car’s long hood extends forward and the steering wheel and pedals fold away. The driver’s side of the dashboard, really a glass display panel, and the gear selector also pull away, creating a more comfortable space for the driver to relax.

All this is possible because the skysphere is an electric car powered by a motor that’s mounted behind the seats. That means there’s not much under the hood to get in the way as the front end moves forward and backward.  —read more—

CNN | Lamborghini reinvents an icon with it’s all-new hybrid Countach

The car that made Lamborghini famous is back in all its V12 hybrid electric glory  —watch— 

CNN Health | Why more women are deciding not to have kids

(CNN) – Dyanna Volek was never someone who dreamed of becoming a mother.

From an early age, she knew deep down that she didn’t want children. Maybe it stemmed from seeing her mother sacrifice her dream of becoming a flight attendant and work three jobs to raise two kids alone. Or maybe it was that other endeavors interested her more.

“I’m always looking forward to the next thing,” said Volek, who works in local government in San Francisco. “Being a parent was never one of them.”

Still, the idea of not having children seemed taboo, so she didn’t dwell on it much. It wasn’t until a few years ago when she started getting serious with her partner that she really reckoned with her feelings. By the time she and her husband got married last November, they had reached a conclusion: They didn’t want kids.  —read more—

CNN style Arts | Picasso artworks displayed in a Las Vegas restaurant could fetch over $100M

Eleven Pablo Picasso artworks that were on display at a Las Vegas restaurant for over 20 years will hit the auction block this October, just two days before what would have been the artist’s 140th birthday.

Part of MGM Resorts’ sizable art collection, the pieces had long been a fixture at Picasso, a Michelin-starred French and Spanish eatery in the Bellagio that is inspired by its namesake’s life and work.

The collection — which includes paintings, works on paper and one ceramic work — has a combined top estimate of $104.2 million, according to Sotheby’s auction house, which is organizing the sale.  —read more—