US president says ‘great settlement’ reached but Iranian spokesman says there has been no final conclusion

Full report: Trump claims US and Iran on verge of signing peace agreement

There’s been a flurry of reports in the US media of a potential signing ceremony for a memorandum of understanding in Geneva, Switzerland. Axios, CNN and Bloomberg have cited sources saying the signing ceremony may happen ahead of the G7 summit that begins in France on Monday. Reports say the delegations of the world’s largest economic powers are expected to land at Geneva airport for the summit in Evian-les-Bains, near the Swiss border.

The Israeli military said it struck 310 Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon in the past week, as it claimed to have killed “80 terrorists”.

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Bradford painter whose sun-kissed visions of California broke world records at auction has died

David Hockney, the iconic British painter who cast a revolutionary gaze across 20th-century art, has died aged 88. He made his name as a pop artist during the swinging 60s and was perhaps best known for his paintings of swimming pools that helped define the Los Angeles aesthetic. Works such as A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures) depicted hedonistic scenes of love, lust and loss taking place below the city’s sun-soaked skies. But Hockney’s six-decade career cannot be defined by a single era. He produced perspective-shifting portraits using photo-collage, experimented with abstract landscape painting and, in later life, investigated the possibilities of creating artworks out of emerging 3D technology.

Born in Bradford in 1937, Hockney was the fourth of five children in what he described as a “radical working-class family”. His parents encouraged their son’s early artistic promise. He studied art at Bradford College and sold his first painting – a portrait of his father – for £10 at the Yorkshire Artists Exhibition in 1957. As a conscientious objector, he completed his two years of national service as a hospital orderly before enrolling at London’s Royal College of Art in 1959. He swiftly gained a reputation as a unique talent, albeit one with a rebellious streak. His refusal to paint a life drawing of a female model almost stopped him from graduating – pointedly, he submitted Life Drawing for a Diploma, which depicted a muscular male figure from an American physique magazine. Hockney also declined to write an essay required for the final examination, believing he should be assessed solely on his artworks. The RCA, aware of the talent they were fostering, bent their rules so they could award him the diploma.

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LONDEN (ANP/AFP) - De Britse kunstenaar David Hockney is op 88-jarige leeftijd overleden. Dat meldt persbureau AFP, dat zich baseert op informatie van de agent van de artiest.

AMSTERDAM (ANP) - De brandweer heeft meerdere katten uit de flat gehaald die naast het pand in Amsterdam Nieuw-West ligt waar in de nacht van donderdag op vrijdag een grote explosie was. Dat ziet een ANP-verslaggever. Brandweermannen gingen rond 11.00 uur de flat in met meerdere kattenbenches.

Door de explosie raakten zeker zeven mensen gewond. Het gebouw waar de explosie was, wordt ontmanteld met behulp van een kraan. De veiligheidsregio houdt er rekening mee dat er nog slachtoffers onder het puin liggen.

In dit blog houden we je op de hoogte van het belangrijkste en meest opvallende 112-nieuws van vrijdag 12 juni.

Op de Dordtselaan in Rotterdam-Feijenoord heeft de douane vanmorgen om 06.00 uur een inval gedaan in supermarkt Miodzio en een bovenliggend pand. Daarbij heeft de douane meerdere goederen in beslag genomen.

Riverside County has launched an 8-mile "smart freeway" pilot on northbound I-15 near Temecula, using roadway sensors and an algorithm to coordinate ramp meters and suggest speeds rather than widening the freeway. Officials say the $33 million project could reduce stop-and-go traffic and travel times. According to SFGATE, similar systems in Australia and Denver reportedly cutting delays by 20% to 65%. From the report: Unlike typical on-ramp stoplights that run on a timer lasting a few seconds, Interstate 15 drivers could find themselves waiting up to four minutes or even longer while the system determines the necessary speed for traffic entering the freeway. By spacing out the cars, transportation officials hope to improve traffic flow, reduce stop-and-go traffic and decrease the amount of time that travelers have to spend on the freeway.

The transportation commission spent $33 million to build the project, which will run for two years. Riverside County Transportation Commission spokesperson David Knudsen told SFGATE that if the program is successful, the agency will work with Caltrans to deploy it elsewhere in the county and then potentially to other traffic choke points in California. "This system is a lot less expensive than trying to build new lanes, and so the idea here is let's make the system that we have work better," he said.

Knudsen said the program is not managed by artificial intelligence but instead uses advanced sensors in the roadway to monitor real-time traffic conditions and make adjustments. The stretch of freeway that connects Temecula at the Riverside/San Diego County line to the Interstate 215 interchange in Murrieta can be notoriously clogged. What can be less than a 10-minute drive with no traffic can take between 25 and 45 minutes during the afternoon peak period, according to the transportation commission. "The intent is to create a consistent flow of traffic on the freeway system, and the coordinated ramp metering among the three on-ramps ... will help do that," Knudsen said. "If we can manage that, then we can help prevent that stop-and-go traffic frustration that so many people feel ... on the freeway."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Suwako

Vanillasludge posted a photo:

Suwa, Nagano Japan

Vanillasludge has added a photo to the pool:

Suwako