Dede Sophie

Revisions to the Mercedes-Benz GLS top end SUV include visual changes to the grille and bumper, the rear lights, and the alloy wheels options, writes Brian Byrne. There are also interior changes to the luxury 7-seat car which include a fresh look to the displays and graphics.  The engines range is now fully electrified, with 48-volt mild hybrid technology the base standard throughout. 

The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas Harper, 304 p, Isbn-0062012096 Synopsis: Late in the summer of 1877, a flock of purple-and-white hoopoes suddenly appears over the town of Constanta on the Black Sea, and Eleonora Cohen is ushered into the world by a mysterious pair of Tartar midwives who arrive just minutes before her birth. “They had read the signs, they said: a sea of horses, a conference of birds, the North Star in alignment with the moon. It was a prophecy that their last king had given on his deathwatch.” But joy is mixed with tragedy, for Eleonora’s mother dies soon after the birth. Read more »