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New Aqua GR Sport trim joins the facelifted lineup in Japan.

The small hatchback benefits from styling and chassis upgrades.

Updated Gazoo Racing model is priced at ¥3,238,400 ($20,000).

The Toyota Aqua is a Japan-only subcompact hatchback with a hybrid powertrain, closely related to the Yaris but a size up, and it wears a face borrowed from the latest Prius. Americans met the first generation under a different name, the Prius C. The second-gen car never crossed the Pacific, and after a mid-lifecycle update in 2025, Toyota has slotted a GR Sport trim into the freshened lineup.

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What sets the Aqua GR Sport apart is a new bodykit that gives it a lower, more aggressive look. The front gets redesigned bumper intakes and aerodynamic extensions, while the profile picks up black side skirts and 17-inch alloy wheels wearing red calipers stamped with the GR logo .

More: The Crown Family Is Getting A Refresh For 2027

The rear bumper is very similar to the pre-facelifted Aqua GR Sport , with decorative honeycomb inlets around the diffuser. The facelift does add a black garnish mounted between the taillights. Despite the GR badge and an electrified ICE under the hood, the exhaust pipe stays hidden from view.

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The color palette for the GR Sport is limited to white, gray, black, and red. The optional GR Parts add extra fins on the fenders to reduce turbulence, window visors, branded discharge tape, carbon license plate holders, door stabilizers, and more, serving as an alternative to the Modellista upgrades.

More: Toyota Finally Brings New Hilux Home With GR And Modellista Upgrades

Inside, the sportiest trim of the small hatch gets new seats with heavier bolsters, upholstered in synthetic leather and Airnubuck. Toyota designers also added gunmetal accents, GR logos on the steering wheel and the smart key, plus a set of aluminum pedals. Anyone wanting GR branding on the floor mats and the luggage mat will have to visit the GR Parts catalog.

Toyota

Staying true to tradition, the GR Sport benefits from handling upgrades . Extra underfloor bracing improves rigidity, while the revised suspension and retuned steering sharpen the driving experience. There are no changes to the 114hp 1.5-liter self-charging hybrid setup. And while the Aqua is available in AWD (E-Four) form, the GR Sport can only be had with front-wheel drive.

Alongside the GR Sport’s return, Toyota rolled out a handful of updates for the regular Aqua. Every E-Four variant now comes with a heated steering wheel as standard, upgraded fabric seats, and a rear center armrest housing two cupholders.

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Pricing for the 2026 Aqua in Japan runs from ¥2,857,800 ($17,600) to ¥3,072,300 ($18,900) for the standard car. The flagship GR Sport asks ¥3,238,400 ($20,000).

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Toyota Aqua GR Sport with GR Parts.

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Scientists have found evidence that gravitational waves from a spectacular black hole collision carry signals from the very edge of the newly formed black hole. If confirmed by future observations, the discovery could provide an entirely new way to investigate what happens in the immediate vicinity of a black hole without ever observing it directly.

In a new study, the researchers analyzed an exceptionally strong gravitational wave event known as GW250114. They identified a "direct wave," a subtle feature of the total gravitational wave signal predicted by theory but never previously detected in real data. The signal appears to contain information from extremely close to the black hole's event horizon , the boundary beyond which nothing, not even light, can escape.

The findings, published June 24 in the journal Nature , suggest that gravitational wave observatories may eventually allow astronomers to probe regions that have remained inaccessible since black holes were first predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity .

Listening to the edge of a black hole

Although astronomers have photographed the glowing material surrounding some supermassive black holes and have detected dozens of black hole mergers through gravitational waves, the event horizon itself has remained frustratingly difficult to study.

Unlike ordinary light, gravitational waves are tiny ripples in space-time produced when massive objects accelerate. They pass almost undisturbed through the universe, carrying information about violent cosmic events that would otherwise remain hidden.

According to study co-author Sizheng Ma , a postdoctoral researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Canada, the newly identified signal offers a rare glimpse of what happens immediately after two black holes collide.

When two black holes merge, they release gravitational waves — ripples in the fabric of space time — throughout the universe. Studying these waves can provide information about the newly formed black hole. (Image credit: K. Thorne (Caltech) and T. Carnahan (NASA GSFC)) "When two black holes merge, they violently shake space-time itself," Ma told Live Science. "For a brief moment, the region very close to the newly formed black hole's horizon is swept into a fast, fading swirl."

Ma explained that the direct wave is the portion of the gravitational wave signal produced near the horizon and carries the imprint of that motion outward through space.

"That is why it is so interesting," he said. "It may let us 'listen' to what happens near the horizon, a region we cannot see directly with light."

A remarkable black hole collision

The team focused on GW250114, a black hole merger detected on Jan. 14, 2025, by the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in Hanford, Washington, and Livingston, Louisiana.

"Our earlier theoretical work predicted that black hole mergers should produce a direct-wave signal from the near-horizon region," Ma said. "The big question was whether this effect could actually be seen in real data."

GW250114 turned out to provide exactly the conditions needed to test that prediction.

"It was strong enough, clean enough, and close enough to the theoretical situation where this signal should be visible," he said.

To search for the elusive feature, the researchers first removed the best-understood part of the gravitational wave signal, which comes from the newly formed black hole settling down after the merger. Then, they examined the remaining data to determine whether it consisted only of detector noise or contained another physical signal.

"What we found was striking," Ma said. "The remaining signal followed the expected rhythm and fading pattern of a wave shaped by the region very close to the final black hole's horizon."

The team concluded that the leftover signal matches the behavior expected for a direct wave predicted by previous theoretical studies.

ESA's upcoming LISA mission will detect gravitational waves from space, offering even more insights into the mysterious ripples than Earth-based detectors currently can. (Image credit: All About Space/Getty Images) A new way to explore extreme gravity

The researchers stressed that their findings do not reveal what lies inside a black hole. Instead, they're providing a new observational tool for investigating the region immediately outside the event horizon.

"The gravitational wave data appear to carry an imprint from very close to the newly formed black hole's horizon — the famous point of no return," Ma said.

He explained that the measurements are consistent with space-time near the horizon being rapidly dragged around by the spinning black hole while the signal fades because of the intense gravitational field.

"For us, the exciting message is that gravitational waves may be giving us a new way to study the edge of a black hole using real observational data," Ma said.

Ma believes the method could eventually become useful for exploring ideas such as quantum gravity — which seeks to unite Einstein's theory of gravity with quantum mechanics — or the black hole information paradox, the longstanding puzzle of whether information that falls into a black hole is truly lost. However, it cannot test those questions directly yet.

"If quantum effects, or any deviations from the standard black-hole picture, leave a measurable imprint there, then direct waves could, in principle, help us search for them in the future," he said.

More observations will be needed

The researchers cautioned that the discovery is based on a single gravitational wave event. While GW250114 provided exceptionally favorable conditions, much stronger evidence will come only if similar signals are found in many additional black hole mergers.

"There are two main directions," Ma said. "The first is theory."

Current models capture the essential physics but remain simplified, and more realistic descriptions of black hole mergers will be needed.

"The second is observation," he added. "This result comes from one exceptionally loud and clean event, so the strongest confirmation would come from seeing the same kind of pattern in other black hole mergers."

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As gravitational wave observatories continue to improve and detect increasing numbers of mergers, researchers hope to determine whether direct waves are a universal feature of black hole collisions.

"If the pattern appears repeatedly in the way general relativity predicts," Ma said, "direct waves could become a new way to study black hole horizons or the regions very close to them, and to test Einstein's theory in one of the most extreme environments in the universe."

If future observations confirm the team's results, scientists may have gained something they have sought for decades: a direct observational window into the very edge of a black hole.

See how much you know about black holes with our black hole quiz!

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Porsche disclosed its official salary details for the first time.

Around 40% of Porsche workers earn over €100k ($115k).

Top executives earn millions, but trail other German CEOs.

Have you ever wondered what you’d pull in if Porsche signed your paychecks? Somebody asked the question outright at the company’s annual general meeting, and the automaker was forced to reveal its internal salary structure, giving us a first look behind the scenes of the payroll department.

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40% Taking Home Over $115k Per Year

Porsche employs 23,000 people, and 9,082 of them pulled in a taxable gross income above €100,000 ($114,200) in 2025. That works out to nearly 40% of the workforce sitting on a six-figure salary, which is a striking ratio for a company of this size.

More: Porsche Killed A Body Style It Spent Years Convincing America To Buy

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According to the Federal Statistical Office, that six-digit pay lands this group inside the top 10% of all workers in Germany and runs to nearly double the national average gross salary of €54,066 ($61,700), bonuses included. The gap says as much about German wages as it does about Porsche.

Ex-Porsche CEO Oliver Blume.

Moving further up the ladder, exactly 201 Porsche employees had an annual salary of over €300,000 ($342,500) in 2025, and 28 of those cleared the €500,000 ($570,700) mark.

More: For $350,000, Indecent Will Turn Your Porsche 911 Into A Wagon

Only three staffers belong to the seven-figure club, drawing over €1 million ($1,141,600) a year. German newspaper Automobilwoche reports that even these figures cover the management tiers below the executive board, so the real ceiling sits higher still.

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The Highest-Earning Individuals

Former Porsche CEO Oliver Blume collected a compensation package worth €1.90 million ($2.17 million) in 2025, his final year with the brand. He was running VW at the same time, so his actual earnings ran well beyond that figure. Porsche will disclose the 2026 pay for current CEO Michael Leiters in the next annual report, which leaves the top job’s number an open question for now.

The current Porsche CEO, Michael Leiters.

The two highest-paid executives at Porsche in 2025 were Head of Development Michael Steiner and Head of Production Albrecht Reimold. They took home €2.10 million ($2.40 million) and €2.05 million ($2.34 million) respectively, overtaking their former CEO.

More: Porsche’s Profit Margin Cratered To 1.1%, So It’s Killing Variants

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Another notable detail is the €266,588 ($304,400) paid to former CFO Lutz Meschke, despite the fact that he left the company in late February. On top of that, Meschke received a king-sized parting payout worth over €10 million ($11.4 million), since Porsche had to buy out the remainder of his contract that locked him in until 2027.

Porsche Macan EV

Jochen Breckner who took over the CFO role on March 1st, 2025, earned €1.10 million (1.26 million) for the remainder of the year. This matches the salary of Chief Sales Officer Matthias Becker, who assumed duties on the same day. The report also reveals other departed high-ranking officials who got seven-digit earnings before stepping out of the door.

The numbers might sound impressive, but the truth is that Porsche pays its CEO and board members significantly less than other German companies. For context, the annual compensation of BMW CEO Oliver Zipse was €7.85 million ($8.96 million) in 2025, while Mercedes-Benz Group boss Ola Källenius took home €8.78 million ($10 million) over the same period.

Those Under The $100k Mark

If you’re eyeing a job at Porsche, salary benchmark data from workplace review portal Kununu shows what you can expect to make in a role below the six-figure threshold.

More: America’s Highest Paid Auto Boss Earned Millions But She’s Nowhere Near The Top

According to employee-reported data, the company pays an average of €91,800 ($104,800) for a project manager, €87,500 ($99,900) for a development engineer, €80,000 ($91,400) for a human resources manager, and €75,600 ($86,300) for a purchasing manager.

For operational and support roles, the platform lists averages of €61,700 ($70,500) for an administrative assistant, €58,000 ($66,200) for a factory production worker, and €51,300 ($58,600) for a logistics specialist.

Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo