Let's Do The News! (August 29, 2017)

- Senator Antonio Trillanes IV cornered former Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service Chief Colonel Niel Anthony Estrella during the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee's hearing regarding the shipment of smuggled shabu from China.

- President Rodrigo Duterte revealed why former Department of Social Welfare and Development Secretary Judy Taguiwalo was rejected by the members of the Commission on Appointments last August 16. During a press conference, the President cited that Secretary Taguiwalo has been accused of exploiting the fund of the 4Ps, also known as the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, to aid the rebel group New People’s Army.

- The House of Representatives is preparing enough budget to implement House Bill 5633 or the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act by June 2018.

- The Illinois state became the 10th state in the United States to legalize the "automatic voter registration" alongside the District of Columbia.

- Civil rights groups kicked off a week of planned local events earlier to express support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which is now under threat by the Trump administration.

- The BMW i3 has now been improved for 2018 model year with new design, new choice of power outputs, and the sporty new i3s variant.

2018 BMW i3

2018 BMW i3s

- The Death Note madness doesn't stop from last week's Netflix movie release as it will spawn a 12-hour audio drama based on the anime series, translated in either English or German, due next year.

- A certain TV station in Nagoya ends their Sunday morning anime block after four decades.

- Game of Thrones' Kit Harington stars in the upcoming three-part drama inspired from the infamous 1605 Gunpowder Plot, titled Gunpowder, due to air on the BBC this fall.

TTFN!!!

Let's Do The News! (August 28, 2017)

- President Rodrigo Duterte headed the celebration of National Heroes Day this Monday. During the celebration at the Libingan Ng Mga Bayani, the President personally awarded the Medal of Kalasag under the Order of Lapu-Lapu to 120 soldiers and six police that were killed while fighting the Maute Terror group in Marawi City, Lanao Del Sur.

- The city of Houston, Texas, has been devastatingly flooded due to Hurricane Harvey, forcing residents of the fourth most populous U.S. city to flee in boats or hunker down in anticipation of several more days of “unprecedented” rainfall. The most powerful hurricane to hit Texas in half a century came ashore late on Friday and killed two people as of now.

- A Jakarta court has sentenced a female would-be suicide bomber to seven and a half years in prison, the first time a woman has been convicted in Indonesia for planning such an attack.

- The mother of singer-songwriter Jake Zyrus, Mrs. Raquel Pempengco, says that the story presented in last Saturday's episode of Maalaala Mo Kaya is downright false.

- A Volkswagen engineer has received a much harsher sentence for his role in the diesel scandal and has been slapped with a 40-month sentence and a US$200,000 fine for his role in the emissions scandal which has blighted the German automaker group over the past two years.

- Hanamaru Kunikida joins the DreamTech LoveLive! Sunshine!! figure lineup, starting at 14,800 Yen plus tax and delivery and arrives this January.



- Hokuto no Ken goes Ryu ga Gotoku as Hokuto ga Gotoku was teased and arriving on the PS4 this 2018.



TTFN!!!

Top Gear America - Humble Beginnings

The recent episode of BBC America's Top Gear America is all about a blast in the past.

Bill Fichtner arrives at Charlotte Motor Speedway to have a dose of NASCAR action and learn of its dirty history, until the arrival of Tom Ford and Antron Brown prompted them to recreate the first NASCAR race in history in this very place, with a slight twist involving the use of 1980's cars.

With Bill in a Buick Regal, Tom in a Pontiac Grand Prix, and Brown in a Ford Thunderbird, the boys are recreating a piece of NASCAR history with hillarious results.

Tom, meanwhile, goes Fast and Furious as he drives the legendary Nissan R32 Skyline GT-R, a JDM car you can legally import one in the United States because it passed the 25-year rule. When handed to The Stig, it set a 1:21.72 lap time.

Singer Aaron Carter is this week's celebrity guest and he set a 1:25.87 lap time round the track.

Then, a military vet who became a technician for an Audi dealership got a chance to ride with The Stig in the Audi R8 while setting a 1:09 lap time round the track.

F1 2017 - Belgian GP

As summer draws to a complete end, the best of Formula One returns to Belgium's Spa-Francorchamps for the ongoing 2017 season of the Formula One championship where the difference between victory and defeat is just one straight line away in this technical racetrack.

Following Lewis Hamilton's pole position since qualifying rounds, he managed to fend off Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari at the start of the race and kept on going all the way to his 58th career win, his fifth win of this season. Daniel Ricciardo of the Red Bull Racing team, meanwhile, placed 3rd after an intense three-wide battle between Kimi Raikkonen and Valtteri Bottas for the podium finish.

Of course, being Formula 1, there are troubles occurred and the drivers who couldn't make it to the end because of mishaps are Fernando Alonso of McLaren-Honda, Red Bull's Max Verstappen, and Sauber's Wehrlein.

With Hamilton's win, the gap between him and Vettel is now seven points. 220 vs. 213. Next race is on Italy on the 3rd of September.

Spain's King Felipe VI attends solidarity rally against terrorism

King Felipe VI of Spain is one of the hundreds of thousands of people in Barcelona who became part of that weekend's solidarity rally against Islamic extremists who killed 15 people in the twin attacks that plagued Spain last week.

He was the first Spanish sovereign to join a march since the monarchy was re-established after the death of the dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

Since the 17th of August, 2017, a group of 12 Islamic extremists have been blamed for the twin attacks in and around the Spanish city of Barcelona, killing 15 people and left hundreds hurt. The Islamic State militants claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Eight are confirmed dead while the remaining four have appeared in a court in Madrid.

King Felipe has reigned Spain three years since his father, King Juan Carlos I, abdicated.

URL: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41063293

Super GT 2017 - Suzuka

Suzuka Circuit is the venue of the sixth round of the 2017 Autobacs Super GT and as summer draws to an end, the heat of the battle rages on for the best of the Super GT drivers.

In this scorching race before summer ends, the winner of the GT500 class is the #64 Epson Modulo NSX-GT, driven by Kosuke Matsuura and Bertrand Baguette, bringing the team its first SUPER GT victory since 2007. In the GT300 class, meanwhile, the #65 LEON CVSTOS AMG, driven by Haruki Kurosawa and Naoya Gamou, wins the race.

Race highlights:



The next race is on Thailand on the 8th of October.

MMA fighter McGregor lost to boxer Mayweather by TKO

A boxer against an MMA fighter, quite an unlikely match to see this coming but it happened as the undefeated boxing superstar, Floyd Mayweather Jr., engaged on a so-called dream match against a UFC mixed martial arts titan Conor McGregor in a controversial match in Las Vegas.

Photo: Reuters

This is the first time the MMA fighter entered the boxing scene as McGregor had high hopes that his strength will bring Mayweather down to his knees but he didn't as the tenth round blow put an end to McGregor's, forcing the MMA giant to forfeit.

By winning this match, Floyd Mayweather Jr,'s undefeated record is now up to 50 straight wins, surpassing the record set by the legendary Rocky Marciano for most wins without a loss or draw.

Following Mayweather's controversial win, the heavily fatigued McGregor is unhappy with Mayweather's performance, claiming "he's not fast" but "he's not powerful" either.

Further reading:
1) https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/sports/mayweather-mcgregor.html?mcubz=0
2) http://www.boxingscene.com/mcgregor-mayweather-not-fast-not-powerful--119890
3) https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/martin-rogers/2017/08/26/floyd-mayweather-conor-mcgregor-money-fight-spectacle/605887001/
4) https://www.cbssports.com/boxing/news/mayweather-vs-mcgregor-fight-results-highlights-money-wins-via-10th-round-tko/