Let's Do The News! (October 3, 2017)

- The Manila International Airport Authority announced that they will rehabilitate the NAIA Terminal 2. According to the General Manager, they will spend an estimate of 500 million pesos for the improvement.

- PNP National Police Chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa ordered policemen nationwide to enforce gun ban in preparation for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections scheduled on the 23rd of October until President Duterte signs the law to postpone the polls.

- The Malacanang has claimed that the United Nations Human Rights Council is being used to pursue partisan agenda after a group called for the ouster of the Philippines from the body due to the Duterte administration's war on drug. A certain group of human rights advocates asked the UN to revoke the Philippines' membership at the UNHRC due to the spike of drug-related killings.

- The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency said that three of the most powerful triads are the country's top shabu suppliers. These are the Bamboo Triad, the 14K, and the Sun Yee On, and they're responsible for much of the world’s drug trafficking and vice establishments, Director Derrick Carreon, PDEA spokesperson, said, quoting PDEA Director General Aaron Aquino.

- Politicians, listeners, and media personalities from different broadcasting stations pay tribute to the late veteran radio news anchor Joe Taruc. Yesterday, most of them said goodbyes to the veteran newscaster at his wake. Joe Taruc was known to be one of the pillars in the broadcasting industry after over four decades until he passed away on September 30th at the age of 71.

- Onto the Mandalay Bay massacre, the death toll has now spiked to 59 while 500 are badly hurt, making one of the deadliest mass shootings in American history.

- Amid the massacre in Las Vegas, House Republicans still plans to vote on a NRA-backed SHARE Act that eases gun restrictions, making them easier to purchase silencers, which makes them hard to detect gunfire.

- Rock legend Tom Petty passed away at the age of 66 due to cardiac arrest. Petty, best known for his roots-infused rock music, carved a career as a solo artist as well as with his band The Heartbreakers and as part of supergroup The Traveling Wilburys. He is known for hits such as "Free Fallin" and "American Girl".

- Paramount Pictures gained rights for a Sonic film.

- Andrew House steps down as president of Sony Interactive Entertainment with John Kodera named as his replacement.

TTFN!!!

Project CARS 2: Driving the ultimate Caterham

For my next session with Project CARS 2, I get the chance to try out the most extreme Caterham ever made in one of the most technical tracks in the Middle East. I'm talking about the Caterham Seven 620 R but before I set my foot on this extreme track toy, let's get to understand more about the flagship Caterham Seven.



The 620 R, served as the replacement to the R500, is Caterham's fastest ever road car with track-proven specification for unparalleled performance unlike any other. Handbuilt in Dartford, Kent, the 620R features a unique weapons-grade gunmetal chassis, air-flow optimized nose cone, and race-developed cooling package. Powering the 620 R is a supercharged 2.0L Ford Duratec engine mated to a 6-speed manual gearbox, producing 310bhp of power and 219lb-ft of torque. Because of its unique chassis setup, the 620 R delivers a gut-wrenching 568bhp-per-tonne power-to-weight ratio, resulting to its 0-60 time of 2.79 seconds and a top speed of 155mph. Although not as fast as today's high-performance sportscars, the superior power-to-weight ratio of the 620 R can outsmart even the most powerful sportscars on the track.



The moment I set foot on this ultimate Caterham ever built, I'm starting to think that the 620 R is going to be my new favorite Caterham but I shouldn't get to excited about having the privilege to drive one of the world's fastest performance cars on Dubai because while this is purely an open-wheeler, you need to learn when to handle this extreme track toy under certain conditions because between you and me, you need to be precise and calm to get this Caterham straight especially when I'm driving in one of the most technical racetracks in the Middle East as I shall show you my clip of my run at Dubai Autodrome with the Caterham.






And there you have it. What do you think about the Caterham Seven 620 R on Project CARS 2? Is it too challenging or just right for you? Be sure to drive one right now on Project CARS 2 on PC and Playstation4 and experience the thrill.

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: Trump undermines Tillerson over North Korea

US President Donald Trump continues to goad North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, telling his Secretary of State Rex Tillerson not to waste time negotiating with Pyongyang.

In a series of tweets, President Trump appeared to undercut his own Secretary of State's diplomatic efforts to resolve the nuclear standoff with North Korea. This comments came after Tillerson revealed the US was directly communicating with North Korea on its nuclear and missile programs but Pyongyang shown no interest.

During his Chinese trip, Tillerson said Washington is probing North Korea to see whether it was interested in dialogue and that it had a couple of channels open to talk with Pyongyang.

Meanwhile, North Korea denounced the defense treaty between South Korea and the United States as the bilateral treaty marked the 64th anniversary of signing on Sunday.

Under the Mutual Defense Treaty between the US and South Korea, the two nations are required to come to the aid of the other side if either of them faces an armed attack. The treaty is also the legal basis for the deployment of US military forces in South Korea.

Source: Arirang News

Let's Do The News! (October 2, 2017)

- President Rodrigo Duterte will not assist in the investigation of the Ombudsman regarding his family's alleged ill-gotten wealth as he refused to submit himself under the jurisdiction of the Ombudsman. Earlier the President clarified that his family is not poor and said that they have at most 40 million pesos of their wealth, came from selling the land they inherited, real-estate properties, and his regular government income.

- Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II filed a criminal complaint against Senator Risa Hontiveros at the Pasay Prosecutors Office for divulging his supposed text messages last September 11. According to the complaint, Hontiveros violated Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law after she presented during her privilege speech a photo of his text messages with a certain “Cong. Jing” who was later named as former Negros Oriental Representative Jacinto Paras.

- The Interpol wants foreign nations to inspire the Duterte administration's bloody war on drugs, according to PNP Director General Ronald Dela Rosa during his visit at the 86th Interpol General Assembly in Beijing last week, which recognized the Philippines as a sort of "model" when it comes to eradicating illicit drugs.

- The man who suspected behind Sunday's attack in Marseille, France that killed two people had been arrested and then released by police two days before the incident. The source said the suspect was stopped by Lyon police on the 29th of September on suspicion of robbery but then released due to lack of evidence. A soldier shot the suspect dead after he had stabbed two women to death at Marseille main train station on Sunday, in what officials described as a “likely terrorist act”.

- Two people were killed and 24 were hospitalized during a shootout at a country music festival in Las Vegas. Police had earlier said they were investigating reports of an active shooter near the Mandalay Bay Casino.

- The ongoing Dieselgate scandal that plagued Volkswagen Group is now expected to rack up an additional three billion dollars to a total of 30 billion US dollars, according to the reports.

- In case you missed last weekend's Dengeki Bunko event, they've announced that the To Aru Majutsu no Index anime series will return for its 3rd series. The third series of the Index anime is part of their To Aru Project 2018.

- Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koika plans to still hold events at the Tokyo Big Sight during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, including the bi-annual Comiket.

TTFN!!!

2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup - Apache Warrior 400

The Apache Warrior 400 race held at Dover for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series is what is known to be an elimination race during the Round of 12 playoffs where only the best 12 will advance while leaving the other four in the dust in this monstrous oval.

In this final race for the round of 16, let's take a look who's in and who's out in the Dover race that goes real smoothly without chaos in sight. As we all know, Kyle Busch is named the winner of this Dover race so, let's get to know the other 12 drivers that made it to the Round of 12 before facing each other to the Round of 8 in the playoffs.

1. Martin Truex Jr.: 3,059 points
2. Kyle Busch: 3,041 points
3. Kyle Larson: 3,034 points
4. Brad Keselowski: 3,020 points
5. Jimmie Johnson: 3,017 points
6. Kevin Harvick: 3,015 points
7. Denny Hamlin: 3,013 points
8. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.: 3,010 points
9. Ryan Blaney: 3,008 points
10. Chase Elliott: 3,006 points
11. Matt Kenseth: 3,005 points
12. Jamie McMurray: 3,003 points

The NASCAR Playoffs continue with the Round of 12 at Charlotte Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500 race this 8th of October.

Second-generation GMC Terrain

With today's GMC Acadia now became a midsize SUV, many are wondering what's going to happen to their current midsize SUV known as the Terrain. Don't worry folks, because while General Motors became aware of this situation, they want to make sure that their current Acadia, despite its size, will remain bigger than the Terrain and in the Terrain's case, the other midsize SUV is now reached its second generation and while it promises to be smaller than today's Acadia, there's so much to know about this new model.

2018 GMC Terrain

2018 GMC Terrain

First, there are so much questions to talk about the new Terrain, apart from being just a Chevrolet Equinox made for baseballers and college footballers alike, and one such is the questionable design because when you look around the angles, the headlamps and the taillights are reminiscent of the rear taillights of today's Honda Civic while the side view puts you into think that it reminds you of that F_rt_n_r (sorry, vowels blocked for search query reasons) of today. In other words, that questionable design looks exciting and confused at the same time and makes differentiate it from its big brother very easy.

2018 GMC Terrain interior

Unlike the previous Terrain shares the previous Equinox's interior, the new Terrain's interior is different because what GMC wants is even though they're Chevrolets underneath, they want the way GMCs look inside and out are different and for the Terrain, they have done it so when they start realize that this is just a rebadged Chevy Equinox, they need to rethink about the Terrain over again. Speaking of interior, the Terrain is still a five-seater and it's surprisingly roomier than the previous model so even though it's a family mover, it still works perfect for your day out with your mates after work or on the weekends. At the back, the new Terrain's boot space can accommodate up to eight feet in length with the seats down and even with all the seats present, it still accommodates your luggages very neatly and organized, especially when it has the special hands-free power liftgate, although not the one Ford mastered it with their crossovers. Connectivity wise, this crossover has a lot of USB ports to charge your phones with while on the go as well as its sat-nav that comes with Apple Carplay and Android Auto compatibility so the new Terrain is a connectivity plus for all.

2018 GMC Terrain

Because the new Terrain is based on today's Chevrolet Equinox, the engine choices are almost identical to today's Equinox as well. There's the more powerful 2.0L turbo petrol engine with 252HP of power, 28 MPG highway, and mated to a 9-speed automatic, a 1.6L turbodiesel with 240lb-ft of torque, mated to a 6-speed gearbox, and an impressive 39MPG highway, and a well-balanced 1.6L turbo petrol engine with 170HP of power, 203lb-ft of torque, 30MPG highway, and mated to a 9-speed gearbox. The 2.0L turbo is the only engine available at launch but the other two engines will come out later this year and my recommendation would be the smaller 1.6L petrol engine because it's a well-balanced engine that you can't go wrong with it and adds some life to it.

Engines aside, the way the new Terrain behaves differs from drivetrain and with the AWD, the Terrain feels like it's ready to rumble through all kinds of roads and all kinds of conditions. That's adaptability to you but don't get too excited to it because while this is surprisingly a fun family car full-stop, it's still not as fun as you would expect on an SUV that likes to play rough, instead it wants to play nice.

Speaking of play nice, the new Terrain offers a wide array of safety features such as the Rear Park Assist, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Side Blind Zone Alert with Lane Change Alert, Safety Alert Seat, Lane Keep Assist with Lane Departure Warning, and Low Speed Forward Automatic Braking. With all these safety features present, the Terrain feels like it's ready to take on whatever today's traffic reports mentioned during the long trip.

The all-new Terrain starts at 24,995 US Dollars and while it's a thousand dollars more than its Chevy Equinox relative, it's still affordable to own than its big brother, the now-midsize GMC Acadia. It comes in three different variants from the SLE, the SLT, and the more stylish and more premium Denali. So, should you buy it? Well, if you think today's Chevrolet Equinox has gone red, consider this because despite the Equinox connection, the new Terrain is a crossover that shows GMC's professional grade despite its size and it's all about getting the job done from day one until the time comes they won't need this crossover anymore.

Photo: General Motors

F1 2017 - Malaysia GP

This year's Malaysia GP held at the Sepang International Circuit for the F1 2017 is sadly the last Malaysia GP they'll ever race due to financial reasons and for the best F1 aces, they gave Sepang the biggest sendoff to remember for the Malaysian spectators and it is.

As the F1 world bids the Malaysia GP farewell, Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrated his 20th birthday with a first-place victory with Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, despite his pole position, placed 2nd and another Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo placed 3rd. Other notable finishers include Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel, Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas, and Force India's Sergio Perez.

Of course, there are incidents occurred in the last ever Malaysia GP in F1 but the most embarrassing of all is when after the race, Vettel's car got collided by Lance Stroll's.

What a way to say goodbye to the Malaysia GP and after that explosive farewell, the gap between Hamilton and Vettel are now just 34 points, 281 to 247.

Next race is at Suzuka on the 8th of October.