Let's Do The News! (April 9, 2018)

- LTFRB Chairman Martin Delgra III aired concern over the Philippine Competition Commission's order for Uber to continue operating separately from Grab even after Uber’s move to sell its business in the Philippines to its rival.

- Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said he would soon file a resolution seeking for an investigation into the Duterte administration’s six-month cleanup of the world-famous island in Malay, Aklan. According to Trillanes, who is among President Rodrigo Duterte’s staunchest critics, he has a hunch that the administration just wants to close the resort-island starting April 26 so a business entity that wants to put up an establishment in Boracay could exclusively use its port and road network to bring heavy equipment and construction materials.

- Former Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva surrendered himself to authorities on Saturday, ending a day-long standoff to begin serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption that derails his bid to return to power. Lula was flown by police to the southern city of Curitiba, where he was tried and convicted late last year, and taken to the federal police headquarters there to serve his sentence. Protesters supporting Lula clashed with police outside the walls of the building. Officers used stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

- Last weekend, a German man drove a van into a group of people sitting outside a restaurant in the old city center of Muenster, killing two of them before committing suicide, according to authorities. The vehicle ploughed into people seated at tables outside the Grosser Kiepenkerl eatery, a popular destination for tourists in the pretty university city. Herbert Reul, interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Muenster, told German television the suspect was a German citizen and there was “no indication of an Islamist background”.

- Formula One wants to boost the cars' overtaking chances for next season.

- Mercedes-AMG already discontinued the previous-generation G65, to be followed by the SL65, according to reports.

- The current-generation Chevrolet Malibu gets a minor change for the 2019 model year, featuring a new front face, CVT for 1.5L turbo variant, and a new RS model. In addition, the Cruze and Spark gained minor change as well.

2019 Chevrolet Malibu

2019 Chevrolet Cruze

2019 Chevrolet Spark

- Talent agency 81 Produce apologized on Wednesday with regard to their voice actress Arisa Date (who played Yui Yumekawa from the recently concluded Idol Time PriPara) over her rude behavior at last month's event featuring WITH.

- Meet the guest stars who will be lending their voices at this summer's Pokemon movie and in addition, the new mythical Electric-type Pokemon Zeraora will be making its special appearance in the film as well. The new Pokemon will be playable in Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon games soon.

TTFN!!!

FIA WTCR 2018 - Race of Morocco

The World Touring Car Championship is now called the World Touring Car Cup for 2018 and even with the new name, it still packs the same touring car action through the years and this new season kicked off at the city course of Marrakesh, Morocco, where the new generation of TCR machines kicked the action off in style.

At the first three seasons, we witnessed the new i30 N TCR machines in play, dominating against the new generation of TCR machines on the streets of Marrakesh, as demonstrated by BRC's Gabriele Tarquini's win at Race 1 and Race 3. Race 2 sees a win for Jean-Karl Vernay from Audi Sport Leopard Lukoil Team.

The next race of the FIA WTCR 2018 season will be at the Hungaroring for the WTCR Race of Hungary on the 28th to 29th of April, 2018.

F1 2018 - Bahrain GP

The 2018 Formula 1 season continues in the scorching nights of Bahrain where the whole grand prix has turned into a show of fireworks display as sparks fly for the F1 drivers gunning themselves to the top like a pack of wolves.

In the scorches of Sakhir, Kimi Raikkonen's slow start jumped Mercedes-AMG's Valtteri Bottas to second place. Max Verstappen attempt to fend off Lewis Hamilton but the Mercedes nudged Verstappen's tire, pushing him out of the race, and if that wasn't enough for Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo's mechanical failures forced him to retire. As disaster looms for a few drivers, the showdown at the final lap between Bottas and Sebastian Vettel has been a close one and even with DRS engaged, it wasn't enough for Bottas to pin down Vettel as the German ace of Ferrari wins the Bahrain GP. Hamilton placed 3rd.

Amazingly, Pierre Gasly placed fourth, which is a miracle for the Honda-powered Toro Rosso F1 car.

The next race of the F1 2018 championship will be in China, on the 15th.

WRC 2018: Tour de Corse

After Mexico, the 2018 World Rally Championship arrived at Corsica, France, for the Corsica Linea Tour de Corse and throughout this weekend, it has become one of the most interesting WRC races in this season probably because of the legendary Sebastien Loeb making the rounds in this event but legendary rally driver aside, it's every one for themselves in Corsica.

Photo: Official WRC Instagram

In the opening stages since Friday, Sebastien Ogier begins the charge but despite his stage two fail, the legendary Loeb goes back to business in stage five and as the two Sebs share stage wins in six and seven, Esapekka Lappi takes the charge in stage eight until a puncture knocked him out in stage 11, paving way for Ott Tanak.

At the end of the Tour de Corse, victory goes to M-Sport Ford's Sebastien Ogier while second place goes for Toyota Gazoo Racing's Ott Tanak and third place goes for Hyundai's Thierry Neuville.

Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNIDNB19FVw&list=PLODyu6T9_emzfN_Ddn6u-cck281hj1z8n

The next race of the WRC 2018 is on Argentina this 26th to 29th of April.

2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship - TyrePower Tasmania SuperSprint

The 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Championship spent their high-octane weekend at Tasmania for the TyrePower Tasmania SuperSprint and these two races occurred during that weekend really separates the winners to the losers by the way their cars behave and mechanical problems really spell disaster for some drivers.

Photo: Official Supercars Instagram

In this season's Race 7, Jamie Whincup wins the race followed by Craig Lowndes and James Courtney. In Race 8, meanwhile, Lowndes nabbed his first win of his career in Tasmania, edging the likes of Scott McLaughlin and Whincup.

The next race will be at Phillip Island for the WD-40 Phillip Island 500 on the 20th to the 22nd of April, 2018.

2018 Verizon IndyCar Series - Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Phoenix GP

The ISM Raceway in the state of Arizona has became a battleground for the world's best drivers in the second leg of this season's Verizon IndyCar Series and in this race, it has become one heck of a wild west shootout among the best in this oval track.

Photo: Official IndyCar Twitter

Here's what happened so far; points leader Sebastien Bourdais maintained his lead in the first 43 laps until the IndyCar debutante, Pietro Fittipaldi collided with the wall at turn 4. Bourdais and Alexander Rossi got slapped with penalties due to pit stop mishaps. Following the pit lane mistake, Will Power leads the race until pitting problems while rookie driver Matheus Leist only secured three new tyres resulting to a major mistake that dragged him to 19th place finish. Lap 153 sees an unlucky night for Power as his Chevrolet drifted out of the groove and into the turn 2 wall.

This race has been quite of a risky gamble for some and in the end, last year's IndyCar champ Josef Newgarden takes the checkered flag followed by Robert Wickens and Alexander Rossi.

Highlights:
https://www.indycar.com/Videos/2018/04/04-08-Phoenix-race-highlights

Next race is on Long Beach, California, on the 15th.

Let's Do The News! (April 7, 2018)

- Updating on the imminent Boracay closure, DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu rejected the proposal to open a casino in Boracay.

- A certain report shows that the number of women running for seats in the US Congress sets a record with 309 women filing candidacy papers.

- Time for some alarming news, the Federal Communications Commission plans to dismantle the Lifeline program, which lets millions of Americans access critical communication services. Critics warned that cutting the program would strand many of their most vulnerable communities on the wrong side of the digital divide following Ajit Pai's cannibalization of net neutrality rules last year and paved the way for media monopolization to get even worse as demonstrated by last weekend's shocking viral video of news anchors repeating words.

- In week 10 of the MNL48 update, this week's top seven are Sela, TIn, Abby, Eunice, Alice, Sheki, and Gabb. In a bold move, seven new challengers will be joining the fray soon, putting the pressure on the top seven aspirants.

- Audi's entry to the Vision Gran Turismo entry will be revealed on April 9th.

TTFN!!!