Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, is the grand stage of the European Grand Prix on the F1 2016 season and setting the issues behind them, Nico Rosberg's pole position during qualifiers was a big advantage, more than enough to score his win while Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel placed 2nd place and Sergio Perez from Force India scored his second podium finish upon placing 3rd in the race.
Onto the overall standings, Rosberg's now 24 points ahead of Hamilton, 141 to 117, while Vettel remains 3rd overall with 96 points.
The next race is set at Austria, on the 3rd of July, 2016.
On the fourth episode of "brand new" Top Gear sees a three vs one match between cars against train, a luxury train, of course. While Eddie Jordan is taking a ride on a luxury train, the trio bought used cars snd set off to a road trip to Venice. Challenges included, of course. Evans goes for the 2002 Jaguar XJ while Sabine goes for the Audi A8 and Matt goes unorthodox with the 1989 Honda Gold Wing motorbike.
Meanwhile, Chris Harris is at Yas Marina to try out Aston Martin's most powerful machine, the Vulcan, and even raced against the V12 Vantage S. Because it's a track-only machine, the Naughty Laps was introduced for non road-legal cars like the Vulcan and it did it in 1:15.2 in damp condition.
Then, Rory Reid's in New York City to try out Tesla's zero emission crossover, the Model X.
In the Star in a Rallycross Car segment, TV explorer Bear Grylls and science whiz Prof. Brian Cox were on it and set a lap time of 1:54.4 and 1:53.9.
Come 23rd of June, every single Brit in the UK will take part in the historical EU referendum and decide whether the UK should stay or leave the European Union once and fol all. With the world eyes on the fate of Great Britain, that begs me one thing, what's with the trouble with Europe anyway?
Europe has been the hallmark of culture, ideals, and ambitions that inspired many from across the globe. In the aftermath of two World Wars, the European Union was founded to restore order among the European countries that bear scars from the wars and unite as one not just economically but politically as well.
I'm not into this but if you want to know how does the European Union works, here's a clip that will sum everything up...
So, now that you understand how the European Union works, let's talk about the trouble with Europe right now and why UK's referendum, due Thursday, matters. Ever since the relentless wars in the Middle East and Africa, Europe had faced a massive string of migrants, which is the largest since the Second World War, and how European nations deal with them is everyone's guess. Some nations like Germany opening up asylum for refugees while some like Hungary trying to restrict them access due to security reasons. To the eyes of EU bureaucrats, dealing with the endless migration of refugees from unstable countries is an endless nightmare that some may think this is the end of it, in fact, this is ONLY the beginning for them. And now, following the attacks on Paris, France, and Brussels, Belgium, looks like the EU is partly to blame the migrants and refugees because some of the terrorists, mostly from the armed terrorist organization ISIS, got mixed up with them, therefore attacks in Europe are extremely likely thanks to them.
Another major problem is the economy and who can remember the infamous "Grexit" from last year? Experts like to blame the Euro currency for everything. Since the late 90's, the establishment of the Euro currency meant to keep the EU member states (well, except for the Danes, Swedes, and Brits for some reason) economically stable as possible but since the aftermath of the world financial crisis in late 2008 (the Lehman shock, of course), economy in EU is becoming stagnant and one of the countries that hit hard is Greece. About last year, Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister who was elected on an anti-austerity platform, urged his citizens to vote against a renegotiated bailout agreement, raising awareness of the nation's possible exit from the eurozone, but a month later, Greece accepted the negotiations from the top European officials on the 86 billion Euro bailout package that will save the nation from impending bankruptcy. The Greeks are safe for now but how long till it last before the Greeks face another financial problem shortly after the imminent Brexit vote?
Europe's rich in culture because of the valuable history it provided in terms of arts and music. With the rise of the Creative Europe programme, the sectors of culture, media, cross-sector, and other forms were covered for those that give life to European culture. One of the biggest contributions to European culture is the European Union Youth Orchestra, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, noteworthy of its talented youth preserving their love of classical music created by Europe's finest in history. Sadly, their 40th anniversary celebration is a nightmare because they're on the verge of disbandment due to financial reasons, resulting to cancellation of their upcoming 40th anniversary events as well. Culture-loving individuals felt saddened to the sudden announcement of EUYO's closure until early this month, European Commision President Jean-Claude Juncker announced the proposals to enable the EU to return to core funding the EUYO. So, is the EUYO saved? In a nutshell, yes, for now, but how long this the longest-running youth orchestra in Europe will last?
Now, onto the Brexit vote and how did the UK triggered such a referendum that decides the fate of the great nation? Some say, the UK had fed up with the EU regulations in terms of economy, politics, national security, and many others, while some believed that the EU leadership has gone over the line and if no other actions were taken, it would be catastrophic for the bloc. Well, this is only a hunch but this is why the UK triggered the referendum. For some who campaigned on the "Remain" side, people including the PM David Cameron feared that the UK will face disastrous results in jobs and livelihood of the Brits. Not only that, it may trigger another referendum on the Scottish independence and if Scotland leaves UK, it may find its way to EU membership. For the "Brexit" side, people like Nigel Farage and former London mayor Boris Johnson, having the UK left the EU means they are free to do whatever they want in terms of economy, healthcare, national security, jobs, livelihood, and others.
Those Brexit spearheaders, looks like they want to do things in Trump's favor because the highly criticized presumptive Republican presidentiable believes that the UK will be more successful when it leaves the EU. Yeah, right. If that case of Brexit triggers, how would Trump and Hillary Clinton comment about this on their US presidential debate on the road to November's presidential elections? We'll never know until the Trump's unleashed his so-called trump card to woo the people to make him the new world leader in the same way how Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte lures the crowd to make him rule the Philippines with an iron fist. Sorry, if I had to say that but if Duterte's going to comment about Brexit, it would mean an added expletive dialogue condemning UK's decision to leave the EU.
The road to the imminent EU referendum became so life-threatening, in fact, there's one that claimed its life and that was none other than the MP named Jo Cox, who was brutally murdered by an assailant for no reason. Cox was one of the key people who campaigned the "Remain" side and following her death, campaigning for both sides have been temporarily halt to pay respects for her. I had high respects for her because despite her short-lived political career, Jo Cox became one of the most influential MPs in Great Britain and I hope everyone who are deciding the fate of UK will be a dying wish for her, no matter the odds.
Since the beginning, there has been no single European country that left the Union, well, Greenland that is due to weakened links to Denmark. As historians asked, Greenland people voted to leave the EU in 1982 and they ceded in 1985, when Greenland gained their official flag. How the UK face the fate just like what happened in Greenland remains unclear and just like what happened, it will take less than three years to have this nation ceded from the union, I believe. However, that's not the end of the story because ahead of the Brexit vote, Switzerland withdraws its 24-year-old application to join the European Union. That's the first time a candidate nation withdrawn its application from the EU. You should know that despite Switzerland refused to be part of the European Economic Area, of which non-EU members Iceland, Norway, and Lichtenstein, giving them access to the EU single market, it was connected by the Schengen Area, which encompasses most EU states, except for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland, Romania, and the UK.
Ah, the Brexit. Don't they have any idea how much paperwork the world will file into when the UK left the European Union for good? I mean, there are European subsidiaries of major companies that includes UK on it as well as UK's participation in European sports such as the Euro soccer league as well as the annual Six Nations rugby. Would you imagine the outcome what would it be like if UK is out of the EU? Sure, the UK and the EU had differences but it remains one of the most vital part of the EU not just for whatever the heck I mentioned up above but because with the UK, English is part of the EU language apart from German, French, Spanish, Nederlands, Italian, whatever language every European country knows. If UK leaves EU, then you won't be hearing English in EU meetings in Brussels, leaving just a union with nothing else to understand what they're talking about and pretty soon, UK feels as isolated from the world as North Korea. How pitiful for the fate of the once great nation.
For those Brits who are reading this, I know that this is a tough road for the UK if you are deciding whether the English-speaking country should leave or remain in the EU. If you are deciding the fate of the UK in the European Union, I'll leave it up to you all but just promise me that the United Kingdom can survive no matter what. The world depends on it. Whether if you're on the Remain side or Leave, please help save the Great Britain.
North Korea will not negotiate with the United States over two American citizens it is holding until former detainee Kenneth Bae stops publicly talking about his time in prison, according to state media.
The Korean Peninsula, criticised over its human rights record for years, has made use of detained Americans in the past to extract high-profile visits from the US. Bae was arrested in late 2012 and sentenced him to hard labor against the state. He was released two years later and has written an account of his detention in a memoir released in May. Since then, Bae has spoken about his experiences at several public appearances and given interviews to promote his book.
During his detention, Bae said he realised he became a negotiating tool for the North Koreans, some of whom he described as brainwashed in a recent interview with South Korea with a defector-run group that broadcasts into the North.
The rematch between the two teams at the 2016 NBA Finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors, became one heck of a catch up to the seven-game fight for the title. We all thought that it would be the Warriors' time to shine to score another win but following the 3-1 deficit, looks like the Cavaliers are fighting back to score enough wins to take on the seventh and the final game of the 2016 NBA Finals.
Had Lebron James, the Cavs' ace in the hole, didn't sacrifice himself by slight injuries to trigger a foul, the Warriors would have given the edge to prevent them from scoring its historic win. Well, because of LeBron James, the Cavs scored their first major championship for the city of Cleveland since the Browns in 1964.
James scored 27 points while Kyrie Irving scored 26 points, more than enough to bring the Cavs back from its 3-1 deficit.
There's nothing left to say but...whatever it is, congratulations on the Cleveland Cavaliers' historic win.
Amid security concerns following series of terror attacks since the November 13 Paris attacks that placed most of France onto state of emergency, this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans held at Circuit de la Sarthe, located over 200km southwest of Paris, goes on as smoothly as planned but this year has known to be one of the most desperate Le Mans races in history.
Toyota was so close of winning Le Mans with their TS050 hybrid machines but their nearly 24 hours of fame ended in disaster when the #5 car lost power and stall on the pit straight with five minutes left. As a result, it ended on the 45th place overall, while the #6 car faced exterior damage. In a last minute race to the finish line, the duel between the #5 TS050 and the #2 919 Hybrid became one of the most thrilling duel in this year's Le Mans race. In the end, the Porsche scored another Le Mans win, while the #5 TS050 placed 2nd, and the #8 Audi R18 placed 3rd. This year's Le Mans is definitely way out of everyone's predictions.
Photo: Official Porsche Twitter
With Porsche snagged its second win while Toyota going home with bittersweet tears after their longstanding lead ended in late failures, Let's look at the other classes as the #36 Signatech Alpine won the LMP2 class while the #68 Ford GT won the LMGTE Pro class, repeating the history that its legendary ancestor did five decades ago.
In conclusion: So, Toyota may have been the star of the show for the last 24 hours and if these machines didn't broke down at the final minute, it would have been the next Japanese carmaker to win since the legendary Mazda 787B, but because of what happened, (sigh), I don't condone their last lap failure that led Porsche to score another victory. Despite of what happened, at least this year's Le Mans performed exactly as the fans hoped for despite France's state of emergency following the November 13 Paris attacks.
The Mercedes-AMG GT is one of the most dramatic sports cars the high-performance division has ever made and with all that motorsport knowhow derived from its F1 team after one consecutive win after another in two Formula One seasons, it seems that Mercedes really made a well-balanced sportscar that ticks all the right boxes, apart from some people who believed that the AMG GT is not worthy of being a bonafide halo car Mercedes made.
As a matter of fact, let's look back at some of the best halo cars Mercedes ever made while driving around the GP Circuit part of the Nurburgring because the stuff I do on track takes less than five minutes while the stuff I do in the Nurburgring Nordschleife took about either seven, eight, nine, maybe ten, perhaps unless some actions need to be taken to capture such moments.
Let's start with the Mercedes CLK-GTR, basically a road-legal version of the CLK-GTR whose original track version became a threat in the ill-forgotten FIA GT1 and Le Mans races. The original version has a 6.0L V12 engine but the road-legal version has its engine size increased to 6.9L but produces less power than the race version while mated with a 6-speed gearbox. 0-100kph takes about 3.8 seconds and onwards to 344kph, which is way fast even at modern standards.
Although it looks exactly like a CLK-Class, the GTR shares no common traits with the normal CLK. Turning in one of these at a certain mall's parking space and a certain CLK owner might believe that that the CLK-GTR parked next to it would be extremely jealous of why it looks rakishly awesome than his. Anyway, because it draws inspiration from the race version it was based on, the CLK-GTR really feels at home on the track, although drivers may need some decent driving skills to master such a monstrous machine which is as monstrous as the monster from Frankenstein. As time passes by, the CLK-GTR remains one of the best timeless supercars Europe has ever made and so far, no other Benz does it better than this.
The SLR is the result of the Anglo-German collaboration between the two companies; Mercedes-Benz and McLaren. Despite being a Benz, it was made by McLaren. The 5.4 V8 that powers it was built by Mercedes, producing 626HP of power and 208mph of top speed, while its dynamics were the work of McLaren themselves, trying to employ its know-how from the McLaren F1 team.
Driving a car with Anglo-German ties sounds fabulous but it can result to a heated debate and as I drive this car, I can really feel the so-called tensions between UK and Germany. For Germans, the SLR should have been made to be a grand tourer while for the Brits, it should be a decent track weapon. Whatever that is, handling this car is like rehearing the topic about what would Brits do in its role to Europe, whatever that is.
The SLS AMG, meanwhile, combines tradition with performance in one memorable package. Although the design was heavily inspired by the 300SL, apart from its signature gullwing doors that make this car look flashy for no reason, it comes with a 6.2L V8 engine that produces 571 PS (420 kW; 563 hp) of power and 650 N·m (480 lb·ft) of torque. With so much torque, the SLS AMG behaves like an American muscle car with all that brute noise from its exhaust as well as its dynamic character that novices will find it very tricky to get through corners. With tire-shredding is what the SLS does best, some cynics would think that the SLS is considered to be an exotic but this is not an exotic car compared to Lamborghinis and Ferraris. This is just a grand tourer that just wants to let it roar on the road and track and cannibalize its own tires seriously.
Now, I'm heading back to the AMG GT and although it doesn't have the surprising traits of the past halo cars Mercedes made such as the road-legal CLK-GTR, the SLR (in collaboration with McLaren), and the SLS AMG by the way it performs, the AMG GT is simply one of the best ways how Mercedes-AMG defined the sportscar in its own terms.
Sure, the 4.0L V8 BiTurbo is less powerful than the old SLS AMG's V8 but with all the right dynamics heavily inspired by Mercedes' F1 team knowhow since their two-time win, it shouldn't be much of a problem to learn about how the AMG GT behaves. Believe it or not, I even manage to lap this car around the Nurburgring GP Circuit faster than the old SLS AMG...but only just.
In conclusion, the AMG GT is just one of the main reasons why Mercedes made a potent sportscar that does its job very seriously while retaining the AMG lunacy it deserves. In short, it's still a great car even if it doesn't have the mojo that past Mercedes halo cars made.
On the latest Kalyeserye segment on GMA's hit noontime show, Eat Bulaga, Aldub fans are in a treat because they witnessed the duet version of the theme song of the upcoming AlDub movie, slated to hit theaters this July, titled Imagine You and Me.
But first, Divina's dad, Dodong, makes a surprise comeback just to meet up with the presenters as well as Alden's dad.
After their duet performance, Dodong gave Divina something right until the sound of police siren alarmed Dodong, prompting him to run away. Could Dodong be...? Well, we never know who Dodong really is, judging how he ran away when he heard police sirens blaring. So, keep watching Eat Bulaga every weekdays for more Kalyeserye antics.
No one drives an open-top convertible on a cold winter season. The boys of Top Gear (the hit US show) says "says who?". To find out if you can really drive open-top cars on a cold winter day, the gang are driving all-wheel drive convertibles at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Adam goes for the Jaguar F-Type R Convertible with AWD, Rut goes for the BMW 650i Cabrio with xDrive, while Tanner goes for the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabrio. There's the twist; the winner will have to race against the loser who is going to be with a dogsled team.
The first challenge involves driving through the icy straight and then open the roof while racing through the finish line. Sadly, the BMW's open-top mechanism faces problems due to temperatures, therefore Tanner wins.
Next, the boys will try out the cars' 4WD powertrain at the Bridgestone winter driving school. In this challenge, Tanner takes the win despite the boys set him up with a freezing Le Mans start.
Later, the boys are playing car hockey with their cars and in here, they have to find out how fast they can shoot the puck to the goal. Adam wins in this challenge.
In the last challenge, the boys are going on a winner-take-all game of car rodeo. With Rut lost and now goes dog-sledding, Tanner's up for the challenge to race against Rut in a dogsled. As a matter of fact, Tanner and the Porsche won the race while Rut's...looking bizarre when he left the sled full of dogs.
The Shanghai Disney Resort has been recently opened to the public yesterday as guests of all ages have been eager enough to enter the wonderful world of Disney in Shanghai, China. So, what is it then, this Shanghai Disney Resort?
This $5.5 billion investment is one of Disney's most ambitious projects ever imagined and about 330 million people within a three-hour radius of Shanghai will be able to visit the park on opening day. Originally, before the opening, there should be an opening gala filled with music, acrobats, and more, until the rainy weather hampered until last night, where viewers witnessed the spectacle, which was televised on Disney Channel. In the gala, spectators witnessed the ever-changing colors of the iconic castle, musical performances by China's talented singers, acrobat performances, and many more as well as the appearance of Mickey Mouse to do the honor.
Because this new tourist destination is on Chinese soil, the Main Street has been renamed as Mickey Avenue to reduce the "American" feel while attractions include the Wandering Moon tea house, a Chinese Zodiac-themed garden, and a Tarzan musical with Chinese acrobats. There are so many attractions offered in this newly opened theme park in Shanghai and the family who are spending their summer vacation can't wait to try most of the attractions offered in Shanghai Disney Resort.
There are hotels offered such as the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel for the upper-class of guests to stay for the night and the Toy Story Hotel, which claims to be "family fun for all sizes".
Other destinations include Disneytown, where visitors can explore a shopping, dining, and entertainment district unlike any other, as well as witnessing the Mandarin-language debut of the legendary Lion King musical at the Walt Disney Grand Theatre, as well as Wishing Star Park featuring the Wishing Star Lake, Dragonfly Playground, and the Starlight Amphitheater for those who love stargazing.
A US House committee on Thursday passed a bill calling for relisting North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism. There are 21 terror acts subject to re-examination as to whether North Korea should be redesignated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the US.
North Korea was put on the US terrorism sponsor list for the 1987 mid-air bombing of a Korean Air flight that killed all 115 people aboard but the US administration of former President George W. Bush removed the Korean Peninsula from the list in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearization talks.
