Deepak Neupane, Kathmandu : Gulfstream G650ERhas completed a record-breaking flight en route to the Middle East and North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) Show in Dubai. The aircraft bested the previous world speed record by one hour and 48 minutes. The G650ER flew from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, a distance of 6,142 nautical miles/11,375 kilometers, in just 11 hours and two minutes. The flight was completed at an average speed of Mach 0.90.
“Time and again, the G650ER has demonstrated its performance agility,” said Mark Burns, president, Gulfstream. “And this is another one of those times. No other aircraft offers the high-speed range utility that the G650ER does out of high-demand airports like Teterboro. This proves yet again that the G650ER remains in a class by itself.” More than 325 G650 and G650ER aircraft operate around the world, including more than 30 in the Middle East alone. Pending approval by the National Aeronautic Association, this record will be the G650 family’s 79th. The G650ER, along with the rest of the Gulfstream fleet, will be on display at Dubai World Central from Dec. 10-12.
Season 4 of the country’s popular modelling reality show – India’s Next Top Model came to an end after a spectacular grand finale in Singapore. The judges Malaika Arora, Milind Soman and Dabboo Ratnani were thrilled to announce the winner – Mumbai’s 23-year-old contestant Urvi Shetty. For the final round, the finalists had to do a photoshoot with none other than Malaika Arora.
Post her deserving win, Urvi Shetty said in a statement, “India’s Next Top Model season 4 was a one of a kind experience that let me bring forth my strengths and overcome my weakness simultaneously. This big win would not havebeen possible without the constant support of my parent and the makers of the show, who gave me the opportunity to bring out the best in me.” Commenting on Urvi’s win, judge Malaika Arora said, “I’m extremely proud to see Urvi winning the show. She has been one of the strongest contestants and consistent with her performances. Urvi took on every challenge with a lot of confidence and I really admire her for that. She has it in her to make a mark in this industry and India’s Next Top Model has made way for so many exciting opportunities that are in store for her. I wish her all the best for her upcoming ventures. She will ace every bit of it.”
As the winner of India’s Next Top Model 4, Urvi has her hands full with a year-long contract with Viacom18 and Exceed Entertainment, a 2 Night- 3Day stay in Hong Kong by Dream Cruises and a Black membership card from Gold’s Gym.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees has filed 72-hour strike notice for Local 4060, representing 139 flight attendants who work for ultra-low-cost carrier Flair Airlines. Flair Airlines is an airline based in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. It operates scheduled passenger services in Canada, as well as chartered passenger and cargo services in Canada, the United States, the Caribbean region, and to destinations worldwide from its main base at Edmonton International Airport. The union issued the strike notice following a December 5 mediated session with the employer in which the two sides failed to reach an agreement over outstanding items including wages and pensions as well as time credits/scheduling issues.
“For the past several weeks, this employer has steadfastly refused to step away from its position of two-tier wages and benefits, which is fundamentally unfair,” said CUPE National Representative Gary Yee, who represents CUPE 4060 at the bargaining table. “Flair is transparently engaging in a divide and conquer strategy aimed at driving a wedge between workers in order to compete with other ultra-low-cost carriers. It is completely unfair to pay one group of flight attendants 30 per cent less for doing the same work as other flight attendants.”
Flair bases in Canada are located in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Kelownaand Abbotsford. Since being organized November 2017, Local 4060 has been in bargaining with the airline for nearly a year. The 72-hour-strike notice expires at midnight on December 10, putting the local in a legal strike position. CUPE 4060’s 139 flight attendants work from bases in Abbotsford, Kelowna, Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto. Since the summer of 2018, when Flair shifted its business model from a charter to “ultra low-cost carrier” (ULCC) service, the company has offered regular flights to eight Canadian and six U.S. cities. Since CUPE organized Flair flight attendants in November 2017, Local 4060 has been in bargaining with the airline for nearly a year.
Virat Kohli‘s emotions are never hidden when he is on the field and in the middle of an intense contest. Taking into consideration the bitter-sweet history between India and Australia, it was always expected Kohli to be aggressive on the field. Kohli was his usual animated self on Day two of the ongoing first Test against the hosts at the Adelaide Oval on Friday as he celebrated every Australian wicket with enthusiasm. Australian head coach Justin Langer said he “loved seeing that passion” but said Australia players would be judged differently if they did the same. “If we did that at the moment we’d be the worst blokes in the world. It’s a fine line, isn’t it? That’s the truth of it. But I love seeing the passion,” Langer added.
The Australians are without their best batsmen David Warner and Steve Smith and their absence was certainly felt during hosts’ innings. They hardly scored two per over and that turned out to be the slowest Australia have played in a home Test in the first innings since 1994. Reacting to Australia’s slow innings, India’s legendary Tendulkar lit up social media on Friday by claiming he had never seen such a “defensive mindset” from Australia batsmen at home, crediting the impact of off-spinner Ravi Ashwin. “#TeamIndia should make the most of this situation and not lose their grip. The defensive mindset by the Australian batsmen at home is something I’ve not seen before in my experience. @ashwinravi99 has been very effective and has played a role to help the team be on top, for now,” Tendulkar tweeted.
However, Langer did not agree with Tendulkar as he said,”The teams that Sachin would have played against started with Allan Border and David Boon, and Steve Waugh and Mark Waugh, and Ricky Ponting. Guys that had great Test match experience and they knew their game, were comfortable in their own skin and they knew what to expect. Whereas we’ve got a team at the moment who are very inexperienced in Test match cricket, particularly our batting side.”
Iraq War veteran Will Robinson had to do something drastic to save his own life
The first time Will Robinson set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, all his friends and family were apprehensive. How are you going to deal with the cold? they asked. Where are you going to find the next grocery store for food? What’s going to be your approach for getting over the Sierra? The Iraq War veteran’s standard response: “I’m not worried about it. I’ll figure it out when I get there. Other than making sure I’m heading in the right direction and that I have enough water, it will work itself out.”
Out on the trail, his laissez-faire attitude persisted. “I met this woman,” recalls Robinson, “and she said, ‘I’m going to start calling you No Worries,’ like Hakuna Matata from The Lion King. I dropped the H and became Akuna.” The simpler rhythm of trail life was exactly what he needed. In his normal life, Robinson, 37, recalls, he had become anxious and depressed—two lingering symptoms that came with the physical and emotional injuries he suffered in Iraq. The physical injuries left him with a right wrist that’s essentially fused into what he calls an “extended forearm,” and the post-traumatic stress disorder he came home with saw Robinson bedridden after his soldiering days were over.
It was around this time that Robinson, a Merrell ambassador, saw the film Wild, with Reese Witherspoon. He thought the story was fine, but it was the scenery that really moved him. It reminded him of a friend’s guidebook to the Pacific Crest Trail that he’d been captivated by in Iraq. And more than anything, it reminded him of his former self—the guy who had once hoped to hike that very trail one day. “I went online, researched the trail, and ordered up the necessary gear,” he says. It was exactly the type of extreme goal he needed to pull himself back from despair. Three weeks later, he was at the southern terminus of the PCT. On that first attempt, he made it 1,600 miles before dislocating a kneecap so severely that he couldn’t go on. But the fact that he’d made it 60 percent of the way north was a huge boost to his shattered confidence. The following year, 2017, he returned and knocked off all 2,650 miles.
Thru-hiking is a funny thing. Robinson set off thinking he’d have a solo adventure. Instead, he forged intense bonds with his fellow hikers. Doing so came easily to him in the natural world, where the only distractions were the sounds of the birds and wind and streams. The fatigue of thru-hiking is also shorter-lived than he’d imagined. As he approached the end of the PCT, he felt ready to be done, but as soon as he was back home in southern Louisiana, he missed the movement, the daily goals, and something more unexpected: the camaraderie. “I mostly missed the people,” he says. “And that feeling was almost instantaneous. Some of the most friendly and creative people I’ve ever met I’ve met while thru-hiking. We share a mindset. And we go through a lot together. It reminded me of being on sports teams as a kid or being a soldier.”
Not surprisingly, given that it starts just a day’s drive from his home, the Appalachian Trail called to Robinson next. His memories of his days on the PCT had proven more effective than any therapy in relieving anxiety and depression. Able to focus on the accomplishments and the people he’d met, he was applying what he’d learned on the trail to his everyday life, feeling more confident and at ease in the world. And he wanted more. But now, on the AT, he wasn’t a newbie—he had expertise. Other hikers sought out his advice and companionship. “The PCT taught me how to make friends again,” says Robinson. “The AT”—which he finished this past summer—“showed me that I was a strong leader. That was something I was once. I was an athlete growing up. I was a soldier. I had the ability to make sure the people around me were safe and on the right path. I’d let that part of my life fade, but the AT brought it back.” Source : www.outsideonline.com
The newlyweds are hosting their first wedding reception tonight at Delhi’s Taj Palace hotel. Though, it was reported that their Delhi reception will be for their family members and friends, a number of other dignitories are also expected to grace the occasion. And the celebrations have begun! Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonascontinue to be in the same celebratory mood with which they kick-started their pre-wedding ceremonies at Jodhpuri’s Umaid Bhawan Palace before tying the knot on December 1 and 2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived at the venue to bless the newlywed couple and happily posed for pictures with them.
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas are now man and wife. The duo got hitched in a Christian ceremony on December 1 at Jodhpur’s Umaid Bhawan Palace. Their Christian wedding ceremony was followed by a grand display of fireworks in the sky. The actress shared that pictures from her Mehendi and Sangeet ceremonies sometime later.
While most of the netizens were busy in admiring Priyanka and Nick‘s picture-perfect moments during their pre-wedding ceremonies, some of them took the opportunity to slam the actress, calling her hypocrite, for being the face of anti-pollution campaign during Diwali, and yet bursting firecrackers for hours during her wedding celebrations.
Those who’re uninitiated, Priyanka Chopra is also the ambassador of Breathfree, which aims at bursting the myths around asthma and encouraging those affected to use inhalers for proper and immediatement treatment. So when the Twitterati noticed the lavish fireworks at display for hours and bursting of crackers for Priyanka and Nick’s wedding festivities, they started calling her out on Twitter, labelling her as a hypocrite. While some of the Tweeple cracked jokes on her quotes given for the Breathfree campaign, others went a step ahead and created several memes on the same.
दि पावर न्युज डटकमका संस्थापक तथा पत्रकार राजन थपलिया ‘जर्सी सिटी’ सिटी काउन्सिलका तर्फबाट सम्मानित हुनुभएकोमा हार्दिक बधाई तथा शुभकामना साधै नेपाल र नेपालीको नाम उचो राख्न सफल थपलियालाईको साहित्यक यात्रालाई सफलता मिलोस भन्ने शुभकामना
Tourists in Paris visiting the iconic Champs-Elysees Avenue and other major landmarks in the heart of Paris had to run for their safety tonight after 260 so-called yellow vest protesters were arrested, nearly 100 injured as Paris. The area in the center of Paris has been covered by thick smoke. Those protesting and pushed back by tear gas are people protesting against a new controversial fuel tax. They called themselves ‘Yellow Vests. Cars were seen in flames.
Some Yellow Vests say police were eager to disperse them even before the clashes broke out. “We arrived in the morning and we’ve been tear gassed right away. We didn’t even do anything,” a protester told media. Hours into the clashes, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner tweeted that at least 1,500 “disruptors” were on the outskirts of the Champs-Elysees. According to police figures, 92 people, including 14 security officers, were injured and 263 arrested in the Paris chaos. About 75,000 people showed up for the Yellow Vest protests held all across France on Saturday. On Friday, negotiations to settle the issue failed after only two of the protesters’ representatives turned up for a meeting with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe. One of them walked out after he was told he could not have TV cameras covering the negotiations. A recent poll shows that despite the mayhem, two-thirds of people in France still back the Yellow Vest cause.
December 1 rallies are being held with the slogan “on the way to President Macron’s resignation.” As the unrest gained momentum, the area close to the iconic Champs-Elysees avenue has been covered by thick smoke.
While pelting law enforcement with various projectiles, protesters have also resorted to symbolic yellow paint during the standoff. To their delight, quite a few shots have landed on the shields of riot police. Adding more symbolism to the rally, a man was seen on his knees with arms stretched to both sides in front of the city’s key landmark – Arc de Triomphe. Another demonstrator stands right behind him, holding two French flags, while both are facing a line of officers in full riot gear. As some of the Yellow Vest supporters lined up next to the site, police unleashed a water cannon, knocking down at least two of them, who were carried away.
