PHOTO: Charles Leclerc on top after grabbing in pole position – Reuters

“Lewis Hamilton admits he is surprised to be next to a Ferrari on the grid after qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix alongside pole-winner Charles Leclerc.”

Championship leader Hamilton was able to do little to prevent Ferrari’s Leclerc from claiming consecutive victories in Spa and Monza in the last two GPs but the Italian outfit were given little chance of gaining a third straight win at the technical 23-turn Marina Bay Street Circuit on Sunday.

Hamilton arrived in Singapore expecting to fight Red Bull’s Max Verstappen for victory but 21 year old Leclerc put himself in contention for a sensational hat-trick of GP wins with a stunning 1:36.217 second lap to edge out Hamilton by 0.191s, with the Monegasque’s teammate Sebastian Vettel in third.

“We came into the weekend knowing we would have a fight with the Red Bulls, especially knowing that the Ferraris had not been that strong at tracks with high downforce,” Hamilton told reporters at a circuit where he has tasted victory on four occasions.

“I still like how close it was for us all today and hopefully that puts us in good stead for a fight tomorrow.”

Hamilton, who has won eight times already this season and is on course for a sixth world title, was disappointed Mercedes were unable to convert their superior performance from Friday practice into a pole position a day later.

“Yesterday was a much smoother day for me and today I just felt we lost performance and everyone else improved,’ he added.

“The first run in the final qualifying session didn’t feel so good, (we were) a second behind and looking like quite a leap was needed to catch them up, but I just managed to pull some time back on that last clean run, but that slow first sector is where it was lost.

With seven rounds remaining, Hamilton leads the title race by 63 points from his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas with Verstappen in third, 99 points adrift, and Leclerc and Vettel in fourth and fifth respectively more than 100 points behind.

SOURCE: Agence France-Presse

Unable to adapt to the move online as smaller, nimbler travel companies thrive, Thomas Cook, the household name in international travel, is close to financial collapse. And the collapse could leave up to 150,000 British tourists stranded overseas.

The iconic British travel giant Thomas Cook say they’ve failed to find any further private investment to stave off collapse and now relies on an unlikely government bailout. The group is blaming “Brexit uncertainty” as the major problem with their current malaise.

The operator announced they needed £200 million (US$250 million) – in addition to the £900-million rescue deal secured last month – or else face administration, which could potentially trigger Britain’s largest repatriation since World War II – customers who are currently overseas.

A source close to the negotiations told AFP the company had failed to find the £200 million from private investors and would collapse unless the government intervened. Without another bailout by its Chinese major shareholder Fosun, the brand’s financial options are few.

But ministers are unlikely to step in due to worries about the pioneering operator’s longer-term viability leaving it teetering on the brink of collapse and stranding up to 150,000 British holidaymakers abroad.

“We will know by tomorrow if agreement is reached,” the source told AFP. The firm’s shareholders and creditors are scheduled to meet from 9 am (0800 GMT) on Sunday morning, followed by a meeting of the board of directors in the afternoon.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, which represents workers at the company, called on the government to rescue the firm.

“It is incumbent upon the government to act if required and save this iconic cornerstone of the British high street and the thousands of jobs that go with it,” said TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes.

“The company must be rescued no matter what.”

Two years ago, the collapse of Monarch Airlines prompted the British government to take emergency action to return 110,000 stranded passengers, costing taxpayers some £60 million on hiring planes.

The government at the time described it as Britain’s “biggest-ever peacetime repatriation”.

Thousands of workers could also lose their jobs, with the 178 year old company employing about 22,000 staff worldwide, including 9,000 in Britain.

Chinese peer Fosun, which was already the biggest shareholder in Thomas Cook, agreed last month to inject £450 million into the business. In return, the Hong Kong-listed conglomerate acquired a 75% stake in Thomas Cook’s tour operating division and 25% of its airline unit.

Creditors and banks agreed to inject another £450 million under the recapitalisation plan announced in August, converting their debt in exchange for a 75% stake in the airline and 25 percent of the tour operating unit.

Thomas Cook in May revealed that first-half losses widened on a major write-down, caused in part by Brexit uncertainty that delayed summer holiday bookings. The group, which has around 600 stores across the UK, has also come under pressure from fierce online competition.

SOURCE: Agence France-Presse

PHOTO: Greta Thunberg leads kids and adults from 150 countries in massive climate strike today – Sarah Silbiger

by Peter Hutchison

“We are the future and we deserve better,” 12 year old Lilly Satidtanasarn, known as “Thailand’s Greta” for her campaign against plastic bags in malls.

Masses of children skipped school to join a global strike against climate change that teen activist Greta Thunberg said was “only the beginning,” ahead of a UN youth summit she will participate in Saturday.

Some four million people filled city streets around the world, according to organisers, in what was billed as the biggest ever protest against the threat posed to the planet by rising temperatures.

Youngsters and adults alike chanted slogans and waved placards in demonstrations that started in Asia and the Pacific, spread across Africa, Europe and Latin America, before culminating in the US where Thunberg rallied.

“Change is coming whether they like it or not,” said Thunberg, hitting out at skeptics as she wrapped up the massive day of action in New York, where she said that 250,000 protested.

Strike organisers 350.org said Friday’s rallies were the start of 5,800 protests across 163 countries over the next week. From Berlin to Boston, Kampala to Kiribati, Seoul to Sao Paulo, protesters brandished signs with slogans including “There is no planet B” and “Make The Earth Great Again.”

PHOTO: Associated Press

‘Safe future’

In New York’s Battery Park, tens of thousands of supporters gave Thunberg a rockstar reception, chanting her name as she called on leaders to act now to curb gas emissions.

“Why should we study for a future that is being taken away from us?” She asked. “We demand a safe future. Is that really too much to ask?”

On Monday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has convened a Climate Action Summit where more than 60 world leaders will take to the podium to present greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals.

Events began yesterday in the deluge-threatened Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, the Solomons and Kiribati, where children chanted: “We are not sinking, we are fighting.”

The defiance reverberated across the globe as kids closed their textbooks in a collective call to action.

“We are the future and we deserve better,” 12 year old Lilly Satidtanasarn, known as “Thailand’s Greta” for her campaign against plastic bags in malls, told AFP in Bangkok.

School children rallied in India while thousands protested in the Philippines, which experts say faces threats from rising sea levels and increasingly violent storms.

About 200 marched in Ghana’s capital Accra, where some 44% of the country’s population has not heard of climate change, according to a study by Afrobarometer.

“Developing countries like Ghana are the most affected. We don’t have the resources to adapt to climate change,” said 26 year old protest organiser Ellen Lindsey Awuku.

In Slovakia, five-year-old Teo asked a crowd of 500 “not to cut down forests, and reduce garbage production, and not to use so many petrol-fuelled cars.”

‘Day of the Dead’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel used Friday to pledge at least 100 billion euros by 2030 to tackle emissions in the energy and industrial sectors, boost zero tailpipe emission electric vehicles, and get passengers out of planes and onto trains.

Several thousand protested in Brazil, where banners slammed President Jair Bolsonaro over recent devastating fires in the Amazon rainforest.

And in Mexico City, protesters wore wrestling masks and skeleton costumes associated with the country’s Day of the Dead celebrations.

Organizers said more than 300,000 children, parents and supporters rallied in Australia alone.

Australia has been struck in recent years by droughts, more intense bushfires, devastating floods and the blanching of the Great Barrier Reef – phenomena experts have blamed on a changing climate.

The protests also highlighted resistance from climate change skeptics.

“The facts are, there is no link between climate change and drought, polar bears are increasing in number,” said Australian ruling coalition parliamentarian Craig Kelly Thursday.

Businesses taking action

Businesses also backed the protests.

Amazon chief Jeff Bezos has pledged to make the US tech giant carbon neutral by 2040 and encouraged other firms to do likewise.

A landmark UN report to be unveiled next week will warn global warming and pollution are ravaging Earth’s oceans and icy regions in ways that could unleash misery on a global scale.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Guterres acknowledged Monday’s summit would not solve everything.

“My main objective is to make as much noise as I can, and to do as much as I can to support as many actors involved in this as I can, especially in relationship with the youth,” he said.

SOURCE: Agence France-Presse

PHOTO: livekindly.co