The foreign ministers of Japan and Mongolia have agreed to cooperate to prevent further provocations by the Korean Peninsula. Earlier, the North reportedly attempted to fire a missile early on Tuesday but presumably failed.
Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida discussed the incident with his Mongolian counterpart Lundeg Purevsuren in Tokyo. Mongolia has traditionally been friendly with North Korea and has its own channels with the country.
The two ministers also confirmed cooperation for the success of the Asia-Europe Meeting in Mongolia in July as well as strengthen economic ties after a bilateral economic partnership agreement takes effect on June 7th.
Meanwhile, senior North Korean official Ri Su Yong is in China for talks with Communist Party leaders. Ri will meet Chinese leaders for three days according to sources and expected to brief them about the Workers' Party Congress held earlier this month.
- The Malacanang Palace officials stated that it respects the work schedule of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, as he assumes his post at the end of June. In his previous interviews, Duterte said he will be reporting for work from 1:00PM to 12:00 AM. The president-elect also plans on commuting from Manila to Davao every day.
- Senator Bongbong Marcos stresses that despite the proclamation of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte and VP-elect Leni Robredo ends, he will never give up the fight.
- Iraqi troops are facing fierce resistance from Islamic State militants after they began pushing into Fallujah, a stronghold of the militant group. The government forces announced on Monday the start of the advance, backed by US-led airstrikes, which is part of massive operations to retake the city from the militants.
- Brazil's anti-corruption minister has resigned over his suspected involvement in a bribery scandal, dealing a fresh blow on the country's interim government. The Brazilian media leaked recorded phone conversations between Transparency Minister Fabiano Silveira and the Senate president, who is under investigation for links to a corruption case involving a state-run oil.company.
- Thai authorities are seizing over 100 tigers from a temple popular with tourists following allegations of involvement in the black market for wild animal. The Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, has been keeping the animals since monks there first took care of a sick cub.
- Subaru uncovered the Levorg STi Sport and sorry to interrupt your enthusiasm because this is just essentially a normal Levorg with handling upgrades and a flashy aero kit with no performance enhancements whatsoever. To be on sale this summer, the Levorg STi Sport features a unique exterior appearance as well as Bilstein DampMatic II shock absorbers at the front, along with updated springs and a retuned suspension. It will still come with the choice of 1.6L or 2.0L DIT boxer engine mated to a CVT.
2017 Subaru Levorg STi Sport
- Global production of the Mazda Axela has reached five million units.
- The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors will be competing on the 2016 NBA Finals! The first game of the best-of-7 match will be scheduled on Thursday, June 2, at 6:00 PM Pacific / 9:00 PM Eastern (about 9:00 AM Philippine Time).
Since 2013, NASCAR debuted their Gen-6 cars which featured enhanced body designs to make close resemblance of showroom cars and better on-track performance. These machines may look like cars like the Chevrolet SS, Ford Fusion, or the US-Spec Toyota Camry but they're actually stock cars, powered by a 5.9L V8 engine producing 725HP of power while mated with 4-speed gearbox, all run in American ethanol due to emission regulations.
In the FM6 NASCAR Expansion, I am now going to do some NASCAR science, experimenting on how those Gen-6 stock cars work on the track and to find out, I got a selection of the three finest examples from three car companies; Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota.
Uh, more specifically, I have gone to the stock cars that came from three car companies but driven by the best drivers in the world of NASCAR. For the Chevrolet side, I've gone for the #48 Lowe's Chevy SS that was driven by Jimmie Johnson. On the Ford side, there's the #2 Brad K Fusion belonging to Brad Keselowski. And for the Toyota side, I've gone for the #18 M&M's Camry from Kyle Busch.
So, how does these machines work? To find out, I went to the Top Gear Test Track to do some NASCAR science. Hmmm. NASCAR meets Top Gear. That sounds too ugly even though the world of Top Gear has strong dislike against NASCAR (well, except for one anyway), but anyway, let's get this experiment on the way.
You see despite they look different in every way, these are Gen-6 stock cars with 5.9L V8 mounted on the front, 725HP of power output, 4-speed manual gearbox, and 3,300lbs of weight. I know that trying to tackle corners in a NASCAR sounds ridiculous but if you got the skills to master those all-American loop titans, it wouldn't be a slouch and the results will be very individual based on how well you master your favorite NASCAR machines driven by your favorite NASCAR drivers. Anyway, let's find out how good these machines are...
As you can see that even though they have the same bodies, the same engines, and the same behavior, the results as I conducted on this experiment are very individual regardless on your skill on NASCAR mastery. No matter which machine you're driving, relying on your own driving skills and strategy is the key to master the world of NASCAR. Even though they have the same specs, no two NASCARs are the same because how the driver performs in these cars can become a clear difference between victory and defeat.
And this concludes a little NASCAR science lesson. Be sure to drive one of your favorites in the FM6 NASCAR expansion, available now.
The "brand new" Top Gear has finally kicked off with new presenters Chris Evans and Matt LeBlanc as well as new cars featured through the series, new celebrities, and a brand new track layout on the Top Gear Test Track fit for celebrity guests. For the pilot, the newly-found rivalry between presenters Evans and LeBlanc has sparked with a UK vs. US road trip. At the first leg, the duo are driving Reliant Rialto three-wheelers to Blackpool. On the second-half at Blackpool, they swapped their Rialtos for offroaders. LeBlanc goes for the Willys Jeep while Evans goes for the Series I Land Rover and they undergo three challenges such as a speed run, a tug of war, and a unique Triple Drag Challenge (Drag Race, Drag the truck, and carry Drag queens to the finish line). In the final leg, using both machines from different halves, they are going on an offroad trip on the countryside and settle things once and for all, with a little help. Bizarrely, Chris and company cheated themselves for the win but they managed to help Matt LeBlanc and his strongman push their way to the finish. Who wins? Nobody knows.
Before that, Chris Evans ventures to the Nevada airbase to try out the hardcore Dodge Viper ACR, and then engage to a road-going dogfight against the Chevrolet Corvette C7 Z06, with co-presenter Sabine Schmitz behind the wheel. Of course, when they lend the ACR to The Stig, it set a lap time round the Top Gear Track in 1:15.1. Then, Matt LeBlanc's somewhere in the Middle East to try out Ariel's extreme offroader, the Nomad, and tries to escape the hot pursuit against paparazzis.
Because this is a "brand new" Top Gear, a brand new rallycross layout was introduced along with a rallycross-spec Mini Cooper. Gordon Ramsay and Jesse Eisenberg were the first celeb guests to try out this new layout and they did it in 1:56.3 and 2:10.9 respectively.
Also, there was an Extra Gear show where Rory Reid and Chris Harris uncovers BTS about the new series, checking out the Ariel Nomad round the track, some car news, and up close and personal with Sabine Schmitz at her crib in the Nurburgring.
So, thoughts on the "brand new" Top Gear? Well, it's not so bad compared to the old "Clarkson, Hammond, and May" trio era but by the way Chris Evans is in charge of the show, it feels like this show's going to crack in bad ways but on the contrary, Matt LeBlanc's appeal on the show is worth promising because he's got more of an action than Chris Evans. Although not sure about the added rallycross layout in the Top Gear Track but the cars featuring throughout the show will make us super jealous, saying why are we not getting those. Call it a success or call it a disaster due to Chris Evans' bizarre behaviors in the show but the "brand new" Top Gear is still one of the must-watch shows on BBC every Sunday night. With this show no longer has a competition on network (or cable) television, feels like there's no other substitute than this newly revised Top Gear to watch...for now.
- The National Board of Canvassers formally proclaimed Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as the Philippines' new president after amassing 16,601,997 votes from the May 9 elections while Camarines Sur representative Leni Robredo is now the country's vice president with the score of 14,418,817 votes.
- Former National Treasurer Leonor Magtolis Briones said that the implementation of the country's K to 12 education system should be fail-safe and smoothly implemented. In an interview, Briones said the K to 12 has a good objective for the country's education system, which keeps up with the academic format in the international community, but academicians must be sure there won't be any problems with this.
- Former boxer now senator-elect Manny Pacquiao is aiming for a perfect attendance in the Senate, contrary to his previous record when he was a Sarangani representative.
- Presumptive Republican presidentiable Donald Trump has again stressed that Japan should bear all the expenses of US forces stationed in the country. During an event attended by war veterans in Washington on Sunday, Trump said that if he became president, he will put American interests first.
- The people of Thailand are mourning the death of Japan's oldest elephant, Hanako. The elephant died on Thursday at a Tokyo zoo at the age of 69. Thailand sent this female Asian elephant to Japan in 1949 as a token of friendship. On Sunday, Thais held a ceremony to commemorate Hanako at a tourist facility featuring elephants in Ayutthaya.
- People of Hong Kong held an annual pro-democracy rally before the 27th anniversary of the Tiananmen incident, where a crackdown on pro-democracy student protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing occurred. they called on mainland China to release human rights lawyers and activists.
- Based on the 2017MY Nissan GT-R minor change, the updated Nissan GT-R NISMO features a much improved look and stiffer body while retaining the NISMO-tuned 3.8L V6 Twin Turbo engine producing 600HP of power.
2017 Nissan GT-R NISMO
- Hiromi Hirata, the voiceover behind THE IDOLM@STER's Makoto Kikuchi, gave birth to her second child, this time it's a baby girl.
- In case you missed the recent Eat Bulaga Kalyeserye, Alden Richards has returned from his Italian shooting trip.
In case you may have already missed it, there was a NASCAR Expansion now available on the Forza Motorsport 6 video game for the XBOX One console, which means that fans will now join through the NASCAR action by driving all of the 2016 season NASCAR machines while taking on new challenges to test their NASCAR skills.
First and foremost, what is NASCAR? Began in 1948, NASCAR sanctioned over 1,200 races in over 30 US states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. Thanks to its fanbase, unique playoff format, development of the modern sports sponsorship and commitment to enhancing auto racing through technology, NASCAR evolved to become one of the most entertaining motorsports for fans not just in the USA but for the rest of the world. Three years ago, we got indulged with their Gen-6 cars from Ford, Toyota, and Chevrolet, a new Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, and plethora of new sponsorships to make NASCAR more profitable.
For the first time, the world of NASCAR breached through the world of Forza Motorsport with this expansion pack, available for $20 (plus tax). In this expansion, not only you will gain access to the cars seen on the 2016 season of NASCAR but also the NASCAR WORLD TOUR where players can master the art of NASCAR through series of challenges such as pitting against Le Mans, GT machines, Australian V8 Supercars, Indycars, and many more.
For my first taste with this expansion, I get to take a spin on the #24 Hendrick Motorsports NAPA SS round the Homestead-Miami Speedway (take note, the Road Circuit because ovals are too short for me). This #24 SS is driven by Chase Elliott, a 20-year-old rookie NASCAR driver who was one of Forbes' Top 40 Most Social Athletes under 30 and SportsPro's World's 50 Most Marketable Athletes.
Chase Elliott follows the footsteps of his father, who was a NASCAR Hall of Famer and 1988 Sprint Cup champion, and together, they are the fifth father-son duo to win NASCAR national series championships.
His first win in his career is the 2014 NASCAR XFINITY Series, making him the youngest champion in series history when he was 18 years old. He is the first driver to win championship, rookie of the year and most popular driver honors in the same season.
Anyway, no need to explain more about that because I wanna see how much NASCAR I can experience in this brand new expansion dedicated for those who love NASCAR but still enjoying the world of Forza Motorsport.
Thoughts about having my first bite of NASCAR in the world of Forza? For me, it was good but I need to be so good enough to master the tricky stuff that this stock car delivers. Sure, it may have the biggest V8 power for a racecar but because I'm in a stock car, it's heavy and it got small brakes, meaning you need to have precise driving skills to master stock car racing and because you are now engaging to a hard-boiled contact sport Americans love, there's bound to be a close combat between you and the opposition. Once you're in the lead, you'd best to hang in there before the other guys take your lead or get thrown into submission, which results to a total disaster.
How you will master the art of NASCAR is up to you as this expansion challenges your craving for America's number one stock car racing in numerous races built for these machines. Good luck and welcome to the world of NASCAR.
Deacons of the Catholic Church from across the globe and their families have been gathered at Rome this weekend to celebrate the Jubilee of Deacons, which is part of the ongoing Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which is ongoing until the 13th of November this year.
The Jubilee of Deacons includes making a pilgrimage through one of the Holy Doors in Rome, sessions focusing on the ways Deacons make God's mercy known to the faithful and culminates in a Mass with Pope Francis on Sunday, the 29th of May.
The Diaconate is a ministry of mercy, founded originally so that the Church allows its specialists to do works while priests can focus on celebrating the sacraments.
On the 1st of June, 2016, the Jubilee for Priests will commence followed by the Jubilee for the Sick and Persons with Disabilities on the 10th of June.
