Smartphone brand vivo is set to launch the vivo X200 FE, its latest compact flagship smartphone under the X Series, in the Philippines on July 18, 2025, at 6 p.m. via Facebook Live.
The vivo X200 FE is designed for people who enjoy capturing clear and vivid moments at concerts, festivals, and live events without carrying heavy equipment. It features a compact 6.31-inch flat screen, a 50MP ZEISS Super Telephoto Camera for sharp and stable low-light shots, and a 6500mAh BlueVolt battery that supports long hours of content creation and sharing.
Show. biz celebrity Alden Richards, vivo ambassador, will join the launch event to talk about how the X200 FE complements his busy lifestyle and creative work both on stage and off.
The event will also highlight the phone’s key features and reveal exclusive launch promotions. Viewers tuning in will get early access to availability details and special offers prepared by vivo Philippines.
The company encouraged fans to mark their calendars and join the live stream with friends. The launch can be viewed at https://web.facebook.com/events/783817733978632.
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An Israeli strike on Gaza’s sole Catholic Church killed three people and injured several others, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which oversees the small parish, said on Thursday.
The Patriarchate condemned “this targeting of innocent civilians and of a sacred place,” saying two women and one man had died in the attack on the Holy Family Church.
“This horrific war must come to a complete end,” it said, adding that the victims had turned to the church compound as a safe haven “after their homes, possessions, and dignity had already been stripped away.”
The Holy Family Church spoke in a separate statement of “a number of injured, some in critical condition.”
In a telegram for the victims, Pope Leo said he was “deeply saddened” and called for “an immediate ceasefire.”
The pope expressed his “profound hope for dialogue, reconciliation and enduring peace in the region,” according to the telegram which was signed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and made no mention of Israel.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident. Israel’s foreign ministry said in a statement on X that the results of the investigation would be published.
It also said the country did not target churches or religious sites and regretted harm to them or civilians. The Patriarchate earlier said the parish priest, Father Gabriel Romanelli, was among those injured, and his church had sustained damage.
Father Romanelli, an Argentine, used to regularly update the late Pope Francis about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict via calls and messages.
TV footage showed him sitting receiving treatment at Al-Ahly Hospital in Gaza, with a bandage around his lower right leg.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed Israel for the strike on the religious compound. “The attacks against the civilian population that Israel has been carrying out for months are unacceptable. No military action can justify such an attitude,” she said in a statement. Reuters
Sara Foster sets record straight on NDA speculations around Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding
Sara Foster has revealed whether guests at Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s wedding were made to sign NDAs.
The actress and model, 44, was among the A-list guests at the billionaire couple’s wedding in Italy.
In a recent episode of her podcast The World’s First Podcast with Erin & Sara Foster, Sara shut down the swirling speculations concerning NDAs.
Her own sister Erin Foster, 42, could not get hold of her despite FaceTiming “several times for gossip and updates” while she was abroad.
“Gave me no information,” Erin said, recalling how her sister just didn’t take any of her calls.
“Did you sign an NDA?” she asked, to which Sara replied, “Absolutely not. There were no… no one signed NDAs. No NDA.”
“Why won’t you share any information?” Erin asked.
Sara insisted that the wedding wasn’t nearly as over-the-top as media coverage suggested. “It actually felt very intimate,” she said, despite the guest count exceeding 200.
She hinted that some guests may be staying quiet out of fear of online backlash, given the protests in Venice surrounding the event.
“Here’s the problem,” Sara explained. “You can’t say anything anymore without being attacked. I swear to God, it never occurred to me once that anybody would take issue with people attending a wedding. Truly. It really didn’t. It didn’t.”
Sara also spoke about the unexpected backlash she personally received after sharing her Monique Lhuillier dresses on Instagram, calling the reactions “polarising.”
“It just didn’t occur to me that it was gonna be such a polarising… it really didn’t,” she said. “I guess I’m stupid. Maybe I’m stupid.”
And though she confirmed that “a lot of people were not photographed,” Sara refused to name names. “I can’t. I mean, that’s, like, so lame. I’m not gonna do that,” she said. “But it was definitely a very interesting setup.”
New Dell Pro Max high-performance laptops and audio solutions are now available, offering a range of features designed for power users, engineers, creators and AI developers.
Pro Max Premium features
The Dell Pro Max 14 and 16 Premium laptops are positioned as models balancing mobility, design and advanced functionality. The devices feature a modern aesthetic, and, according to Dell, have the smallest footprint of 14- and 16-inch mobile workstations on the market. The Premium 16-inch model includes what is described as the world’s first 4K Tandem OLED display for a mobile workstation, certified with VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 1000.
The display aims to bring improved content presentation, with greater clarity and colour depth for tasks such as creative project work and collaborative engineering. Dell states that their laptops are built to cater for the needs of highly demanding workflows without unacceptable sacrifices in portability or design.
The Premium laptops use NVIDIA RTX PRO 3000 Blackwell laptop GPUs and up to 45W Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processors. Dell states that these new models provide a 19% and 23% boost in graphics performance over the previous generation for the 14- and 16-inch models respectively, based on internal testing. This is intended to allow smoother performance in tasks such as video editing and data analysis.
Pro Max Plus for heavy workloads
The Dell Pro Max Plus range, aimed at even greater performance, comes in 16- and 18-inch form factors. These laptops are targeted at users requiring additional screen real estate and processing power, such as those involved in AI modelling, complex simulations and large-scale data analysis.
The models feature NVIDIA RTX PRO 5000 Blackwell GPUs, up to 55W Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processors, and storage capacities up to 16TB. According to Dell, the new Pro Max 16 Plus and Pro Max 18 Plus models deliver graphics improvements of 53% and 44% respectively when compared to the previous generation. These results are based on benchmarking against earlier models, as referenced in Dell’s internal testing reports.
Advanced thermal management is another element highlighted in the Pro Max Plus series. Dell claims that their patented thermal technology allows for up to a 36% increase in total performance while keeping the devices cooler during resource-intensive tasks. CAMM2 memory support with modules of up to 256GB, due to become available this year, is designed to facilitate increasingly demanding AI and specialty workloads.
Entry-level Pro Max options
For users with lighter workloads or those new to the Pro Max range, the Dell Pro Max 14 and 16 offer performance and reliability at a more accessible entry point. Weighing from 3.95 pounds for the 14-inch model, these laptops prioritise portability while maintaining operational battery life – up to 18 hours on the 14-inch and 20 hours on the 16-inch, according to Dell’s internal evaluation.
Processors include AMD Ryzen AI for the first Copilot+ PCs in the Pro Max line, allowing devices to reach 50+ TOPS (trillions of operations per second) on the NPU, and access a set of exclusive AI-powered features. Options also include up to 45W Intel Core Ultra 9 285H processors and, in the upper configurations, NVIDIA RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell GPUs supporting 572 AI TOPS. Dell reports up to 36% and 33% performance improvements for the 14- and 16-inch variants, compared to their predecessors.
The Pro Max 14 and 16 are positioned for users such as financial analysts and emerging creators who require dependable everyday performance.
Security and sustainability
The new Pro Max laptops incorporate security features for commercial use. Dell highlights that with AI workloads processed on-device rather than in the cloud, sensitive data remains local, potentially reducing exposure to external threats. Manageability tools enable IT departments to oversee devices in a fleet more easily.
Sustainability is also addressed in the Pro Max range. Dell reports that the new laptops utilise recycled and bio-based materials, including magnesium, plastics, ocean-bound plastics, aluminium, and cobalt. Recycled content is integrated into various laptop components such as speaker housings, covers, palmrests, and batteries, with some models incorporating up to 98% recycled plastic in specific parts. The modular USB-C port and easy-access service doors in certain models are designed to enhance durability and facilitate repair and upgrades.
Operating system and transition support
All models in the new Pro Max lineup run on Windows 11, which Dell notes delivers enhanced security and a modern user experience, including productivity tools such as Copilot for Windows. These features are promoted as aiding users’ transition ahead of Windows 10’s end of support in October 2025.
Dell’s portfolio strategy includes addressing growing workload demands with new devices and serviceability features. As stated in the release, “If your current technology is starting to strain under new and growing demanding workloads, now is the moment to upgrade to Dell Pro Max.”
American playwright Annie Baker, a Pulitzer prize winner and awardee of the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant”, wrote her first play in 2008. Since then, her works have been performed in Australia lovingly but sparingly across a mix of independent and main stages.
In Sydney, Baker’s attention to the minutia of human communication, psychology and behaviour – manifested by characters stumbling over their sentences, breaking off mid-syllable and lapsing into pauses that can stretch on for minutes – has been most keenly observed by indie company Outhouse Theatre Co, working in tiny black box theatres. Baker’s plays have thrived in these intimate spaces, where it feels like their sense of time becomes yours: you fall into Baker’s pauses, breathing with the actors as their chests rise and fall.
Now Sydney Theatre Company is finally tackling Baker’s work, with a new production of her 2009 play Circle Mirror Transformation, directed by Dean Bryant (Dear Evan Hansen, Hubris and Humiliation), using STC’s flexible Wharf 1 space to scale up intimacy for a larger audience.
Ahunim Abebe, Rebecca Gibney, Cameron Daddo, Jessie Lawrence and Nicholas Brown in Sydney Theatre Company’s Circle Mirror Transformation. Photograph: Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company
Circle Mirror Transformation follows a group of people at their most vulnerable but also their most expansive: in an amateur drama class at the local community centre. This is Baker’s second play and it’s one of her gentlest and most accessible; there are fewer of those stretches of silence designed to provoke and then transcend discomfort.
The class is facilitated by Marty, played by Gold Logie winner Rebecca Gibney (Wanted, Packed to the Rafters) with her signature warmth and openness. Marty leads her class in drama games, using subtle signalling to bring a character in or change the game’s pacing – a gentle and generous steward of these self-conscious humans. As she puts them more at ease, it seems to extend to the audience: if you glance into the giant mirror-backed rehearsal room set (by Jeremy Allen), you can see your fellow theatregoers settle and shift into the play in real time, lulled into close, comfortable attention.
This is Marty’s inaugural six-week class, and her husband, James, (Cameron Daddo, in a pleasantly understated performance) helps her pad out the numbers. Their relationship crackles and changes over the course of the play, one of a growing chorus of complexities that emerges as we watch the group try out new selves alongside the monologues, memory games and exercises designed to hone their ability to listen, be present and connect.
‘Astounding’: Ahunim Abebe plays 16-year-old aspiring actor Lauren. Photograph: Daniel Boud/Sydney Theatre Company
They’re joined by Schultz (a charmingly hangdog Nicholas Brown), a recently divorced carpenter; Theresa (Jessie Lawrence, bright and bold), an actor who has left New York in search of a new and better life; and Lauren (Ahunim Abebe, in an astounding company debut), a closed-off teenager who unfurls, almost despite herself, over the course of the play. As the characters get to know each other, there are ripples of romance, glimpses of catharsis, long-held memories released and secrets divulged.
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The play is a lovely one, full of the jewels of connection and burdens of sorrow that happen every day. Bryant, who works across plays and musicals, finds a rhythm in these scenes that flows like melody, pairing Baker’s trademark silences with joyful rushes of conversation and carefully timed moments of action. Abebe is the soul of the work, both the funniest and most poignant character, her reticence a natural counter to Gibney’s heart and deliberate openness.
Bryant is also a director who loves and honours his characters and the communities they establish together, which leads to a heart-first production that saws off some of Baker’s sharper edges, letting harsher words and jokes land more softly and sweetly.
In his director’s note, Bryant describes Baker’s desire to break from plot-heavy dramas to instead capture the small moments that cumulatively make and shape a life. Bryant is asking for our close attention to the people on stage as they develop their own muscles for paying attention. The production feels like an offer – gently facilitated, like inviting us into the circle for an improv game. What if, it says, we bring this same attention and sense of being present to our own lives? How much more might we care for a stranger if we remembered they contain a universe of memory and experience and feeling, just as we do?
Get ready, Trainers! As part of the Water Festival celebrations, Gigantamax Lapras is making a grand return for a special Max Battle Day on Saturday, July 19, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM local time. Whether you’re after a Shiny Lapras or looking to supercharge your Max Battle rewards, here’s everything you need to know to make the most of the Pokemon GO Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day event.
Pokemon GO Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day Event Schedule
Date
Time (Local)
July 19
2:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Active Bonuses during the Pokemon GO Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day
July 18 (5:00 PM PDT) – July 19 (8:00 PM PDT)
– Remote Raid Pass limit increased to 20
July 19 (12:00 AM – 5:00 PM local time)
– 1/4 Adventuring distance to receive Max Particles*– 2× Max Particles from exploring
July 19 (2:00 PM – 5:00 PM local time)
– Max Particle collection limit increased to 1,600– 8× Max Particles from Power Spots– Power Spots refresh more frequently– Two additional Special Trades*You must collect all Max Particles via the Nearby menu to activate the 1/4 Adventuring distance bonus.
Featured Pokémon During the Pokemon GO Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day Event
Pokemon
Feature
Shiny Available
Gigantamax Lapras
Max Battles
✅ Yes
Note: Gigantamax Pokémon cannot be transferred to Pokémon HOME.
How to Use Max Mushrooms During the Pokemon GO Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day Event
Max Mushrooms temporarily double all damage from Dynamax and Gigantamax Pokémon in Max Battles. Use them in the battle lobby to stack duration. They do not stack damage multipliers.
Pokemon GO Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day Event Ticket – Premium Timed Research (Optional)
The REAL Reason to Play GMAX Lapras Day…
Price
Duration
$4.99 USD
July 19, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM local
Includes:– 1 Max Mushroom– 25,000 XP– 2× XP from Max Battles– Max Particle collection cap raised to 5,600Tickets can be gifted to Great Friends or higher. Non-refundable and cannot be purchased with PokéCoins.
Gigantamax Lapras Max Battle Day Research Tasks
Free Lead-Up Timed Research
Available: July 14 (6:00 AM) – July 19 (5:00 PM local)Rewards: Dynamax Passimian, Passimian Candy, Max Particles, Fast TMs
Task
Reward
Collect 500 Max Particles
Dynamax Passimian
Win 1 Max Battle
Passimian Candy ×50
Win 3 Max Battles
Fast TM ×3
Catch 5 Max Pokémon
Max Particle ×300
Level up a Max Move 3×
Max Particle ×300
Unlock a Max Move
Max Particle ×300
Power up Passimian 5×
Passimian Candy ×20
Power up any Pokémon 10×
Passimian Candy XL ×5
Completion Rewards
7,500 XP, 500 Stardust
Premium Timed Research (With Ticket)
Task
Reward
Catch a Pokémon
Max Mushroom ×1
Claim Final Reward
25,000 XP, 25,000 Stardust
Use Campfire to Maximize Participation
Campfire makes it easier to coordinate Max Battles with nearby Trainers. Tap the green icon under the map compass in Pokémon GO to see nearby Flare and Battle activity. Meet and raid with others using Campfire’s real-time meetup map.
Final Tips
– Use Adventure Sync to maximize your walking distance for Max Particle rewards.– Stack Max Mushrooms for longer boosted performance in battles.– Prioritize Gigantamax Lapras raids for a chance at the rare Shiny variant.– Don’t forget to claim all Timed Research rewards before 5:00 PM local time.Prepare your team, stock up on Mushrooms, and dive into the water-themed showdown with Gigantamax Lapras this Saturday!
ProArt Display 6K PA32QCV combines professional-grade performance with sleek design and Mac-tested compatibility.Offering vibrant colors and versatile connectivity, it’s ideal for Mac users seeking exceptional color accuracy and unmatched productivity. The high-PPI-count panel ensures stunning high-resolution visuals for enhanced clarity across an expansive workspace, while the new M Model-P3 Preset aligns ProArt Display colors with macOS devices. Plus, ASUS DisplayWidget Center for macOS enables easy monitor adjustments with a mouse, including brightness, contrast, color temperature, and more. PA32QCV works seamlessly with MacBook[ii] and users can even use the MacBook brightness button to adjust the monitor’s luminosity[iii].
Superb color accuracy
ProArt Display PA32QCV boasts 98% DCI-P3 and 100% sRGB color coverage. In addition, 10-bit color depth enables the monitor to showcase more than 1.07 billion onscreen colors to bringout the finest details in photos.
Because professional creators rely on color-accurate displays to ensure that their creations look exactly as intended, each ProArt display is calibrated in the factory to meet Calman Verified standards and to achieve Delta E<2 color accuracy.
PA32QCV is also equipped with ASUS Light Sync technology, featuring two sensors designed to ensure remarkably bright visuals and accurate color temperature. A backlight sensor automatically brightens the screen on startup, ensuring bright imagery and reliable color performance. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the monitor’s color gamut based on ambient lighting, for true colors in any environment.
In addition, the PA32QCVfeatures LuxPixel™ technology. LuxPixel is an anti-glare, low-reflection (AGLR) coating that provides a paper-like screen effect. Unlike traditional matte panels which often show softer images, LuxPixel technology minimizes reflections to ensure the user only sees accurate colors and sharp details.
Streamlined productivity
The built-in Auto KVM allows PA32QCV users to effortlessly switch between and control two connected laptops or PCs with a single keyboard and mouse, enabling easier multitasking.
The dual Thunderbolt 4 ports of PA32QCV enable superfast data transfers, DisplayPort connectivity, and 96-watt Power Delivery to charge laptops[iv]and other devices―all via a single cable. PA32QCV also serves as a USB hub: any device connected to the monitor’s USB ports gains access to other connected peripherals.
In addition toThunderbolt 4, PA32QCV offers a myriad of connectivity options, including HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4 DSC, USB Type-A, and an additional USB-C downstream port for compatibility with a wide range of devices. PA32QCV also includes a passthrough port for headphones.