Why Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott Just Might Be Ready for Marriage

 

Kylie Jenner is hardly the first person to claim that she marches to the beat of her own drum. Except when the beauty mogul subscribes to a new rhythm she's likely to convert several million fans along the way, her devotees suddenly claiming they never really liked that staid cadence everyone else was listening to anyway.
That is to say that things just work out for the 21-year-old multi-millionaire. Take the time she bumped into longtime family friend Travis Scott at 2017's Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. She had always assumed the Grammy-nominated rapper didn't really like her, she recently admitted to GQ, because they had never exchanged more than a few words in all the years he'd been a member of brother-in-law Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music family. But standing in the California dessert, there was just something there.
"So he said, 'I'm going back on tour—what do we want to do about this?' Because we obviously liked each other," she shared of their suddenly blazing spark. "And I was like, 'I guess I'm going with you." Next thing she knew, she was climbing aboard his tour bus, committing to a second date in Wallingford, Conn., a third in New York City, a fourth in Pittsburgh and so on. "We rode off into the sunset." n the year and a half since, the sun hasn't gone down on them. A relationship that began on a whim only strengthened as they criss-crossed the country in confined quarters. "We would just go to these random cities. We got to not be who we really were," she explained off taking their pairing off-grid. "Like, if we were in L.A., I feel like it would've been way different. Everything happened for a reason. We weren't going out as 'Kylie and Trav.' We would just be in Cleveland, walking the street for hours. We would go on walks, and no one would bother us."
That unfettered feeling didn't change even as they faced their first major relationship hurdle. Learning you're expecting mere weeks into dating tops the unwritten list of "challenges that can break a couple up," but Kylie seemingly just shrugged at the news. This was something she'd always wanted, so why shouldn't now be the perfect time? And if she was going to have a baby, she was doing it her way. "My family knows that I do whatever I'm going to do," she told GQ of her default M.O. "I've been that way my whole life."

Handling pregnancy Kylie-style meant tuning out the haters and dropping out of sight, letting her Instagram go idle even as rumors of her pregnancy lit up the Internet.
It wasn't until after Stormi Webster's February arrival that she acknowledged the news that, yes, she had a baby and yes, the hard-to-read Scott, 26, was a present father. What's more, the pregnancy had achieved the seemingly impossible: it had made the young, unseasoned couple, at one point based some 1,500 miles apart, stronger than ever. Today they call Scott's Houston pad, his L.A. mansion and Kylie's Calabasas spread home—"We never miss a night with each other," she told Vogue Australia—but they also have a new, joint property, a seven-bedroom Beverly Hills abode the Kylie Cosmetics founder negotiated down to $13.45 million, a mere fraction of her reported $900 million wealth.
A new relationship status could be next. An insider tells E! News that the pair, who have taken to publicly calling each other "wifey" and "hubby", could soon put a little weight behind those titles. "Kylie and Travis have definitely discussed getting married," reveals the insider. "They are not engaged right now, but have talked about it and it's only a matter of time." 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Prove They're Already Pros at Picking Baby Names

 

It's been only two weeks since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced her pregnancy, but the future parents have already proven they're pros at picking out baby names.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex showed off their skills on Wednesday during their visit to a kiwi-breeding program in New Zealand. During the trip to Rainbow Springs, the duo had the opportunity to name two of the newly hatched chicks. Harry reportedly chose "Tihei" for his little bird's name, which means "sneeze of life" in Māori, and Meghan chose "Koha," which means "gift."
This wasn't the first time the two haD discussed names for a newborn. Earlier in their tour, the couple rode a tram in Australia, where Meghan reportedly told a group of young passengers they've been given "a long list of names from everyone" for their future child.
"She said that she hadn't thought of one as it was still quite early," 12-year-old rider Ella Burns recalled at the time. 

Crashed Indonesian jet: What is known so far

 

An Indonesian Lion Air jet with 189 passengers and crew plunged into the sea on Monday in what could be the country's deadliest aviation accident since 234 people died when an Airbus A-300B4 operated by national carrier Garuda crashed in 1997.
Below are the details known so far about the Lion Air crash involving a brand new Boeing-made plane, and the investigation.

What happened?

Lion Air flight JT-610 took off from Jakarta en route to Pangkal Pinang city at 6:20am (2320 GMT) on Monday. It crashed into the sea some 12 minutes later.
Two minutes after takeoff, Indian-born Captain Bhavye Suneja reported a flight control problem and requested permission to rise to 5,000 feet from 1,700 feet, according to the National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC).

Indonesian police and SAR personnel identify personal items of passengers of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT 610 at the Jakarta port on October 30. — AFP

The plane vanished from radar at 6:32am, after the captain asked for permission to return to the airport.
The Flightradar website tracked the plane and showed it looping south on take-off and then heading north before its flight path ended abruptly over the Java Sea, not far from the coast.
Witnesses said they did not hear an explosion but saw the Boeing 737 MAX plunge into the sea.

Who was in the cockpit?

Captain Suneja and his co-pilot had more than 11,000 hours of combined flying time, and both had recent medical checkups and drug testing, Lion Air has said.
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 was built in 2018 and went into service just two months ago.
Lion Air said the plane had an unspecified technical issue fixed in Bali before it was flown back to Jakarta.
A technical logbook detailed an "unreliable" airspeed reading instrument on the Bali-Jakarta flight on Sunday and different altitude readings on the captain and first officer's instruments, according to the BBC.
Copies of several Lion Air technical documents have been circulating on social media, but they could not be immediately confirmed as authentic and the carrier did not return calls seeking comment.
Boeing reportedly suspended release of the 737 MAX just days before its first commercial delivery last year due to an engine issue, according to airline safety and product review site airlineratings.com.
The engines were a product of a joint venture between US-based General Electric and France's Safran Aircraft Engines.
It is not clear what, if any, role the engine issue or the reported instrument problem played in the accident.

What will investigators focus on?

Distraught family of passengers gathered at Pangkal Pinang airport, where the plane had been headed. ─ AFP

As search teams collect body parts, personal effects and debris, dozens of divers are taking part in the recovery effort and a specialist team from Singapore is helping to look for the plane's black box.
The cockpit voice and flight data recorder could be key pieces of evidence.
"It is far too early to speculate what happened to the airplane," said Scott Hamilton, managing director of US-based aerospace consultancy Leeham Co.
"There is just too much we don't know, other than FlightTracker showed what appeared to be a rapid descent into the water."
Investigators will consider a range of factors, including crew proficiency, unusual cockpit activity that could point to a hijacking or pilot suicide, the role weather may have played and the jet's mechanical condition, Hamilton said.
Lion's safety record — including a fatal 2004 crash and a collision between two Lion Air planes at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport — will also be looked at, he added.

Fake News

A string of fake news stories have been circulating in the aftermath of the crash, including one that falsely claims to show a baby who survived the accident and a video purportedly showing panicked passengers just before the crash.
Indonesian disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho has knocked down both claims.

10 dead in Italy storms as wild weather sweeps Europe

 

ROME: The death toll from fierce storms battering Italy has risen to 10, civil protection authorities said on Tuesday, as wild weather swept parts of Europe, leaving motorists and tourists stranded.
Road were blocked and thousands of people were left without power in southern and central Europe, as rains and violent winds sparked flooding and tore trees from their roots.
Thick snow has also cloaked French and Italian mountain regions, trapping hundreds of drivers in their cars and tourists in hotels.
In Italy, where Venice was inundated by near-record flooding and ferocious storms drove high winds reaching up to 180 kilometres an hour, authorities announced a further five deaths, after confirming five people had died on Monday.
Luxury yachts lay smashed in the harbour of Rapallo near Genoa after a dam broke under pressure.
“It was like a tsunami,” one stunned port worker was quoted as saying by Italian media.
“We thought the danger would come from the mountains, we thought the problem would be landslides,” said Liguria head Giovanni Toti.
“Instead, we get a coastal storm surge the likes of which we’ve never seen,” he said.
Authorities on Tuesday reported a woman died when her home was engulfed by a mudslide in the northern region of Trentino, a man was killed in the northeastern Veneto region by a falling tree, and a firefighter died during relief operations in South Tyrol.

Pence stuns Jews with prayers by ‘Christian rabbi’ after massacre

 

WASHINGTON: Amer­ican Jews, in shock over the massacre of 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, voiced outrage on Tuesday after Vice President Mike Pence hosted an election event with a so-called “Christian rabbi”.
Pence took part in a campaign rally for Lena Epstein, a Jewish Republican running for the House of Representatives, in suburban Detroit, Michigan, on Monday.
At the rally Loren Jacobs, who uses the title “rabbi” but espouses Christianity, was invited to speak on behalf of the area’s Jewish community.
Instead of opening up with prayers for the 11 Jews shot dead at the Tree of Life synagogue on Saturday, Jacobs praised Jesus Christ and then offered prayers for four Republican candidates.
“I pray that you will enable Vice President Pence to fulfill his many and important responsibilities with excellence,” he added.
At the end of the rally, Pence, a devout Christian and hero of evangelicals, invited Jacob back to say a prayer for the victims as “a leader of the Jewish community here in Michigan”.
Jacobs then offered words for the dead in the form of a prayer to Jesus Christ, without naming any of them.
Jews expressed outrage over social media, noting Jacobs’s appearance came just days after the massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue by a man who later told police “I just want to kill Jews”.
The attack was believed to be the deadliest anti-Semitic act of violence in US history.

Seven killed in suicide attack near Kabul prison

 

A suicide bomber targeting a bus carrying employees of Afghanistan's biggest prison killed at least seven people on Wednesday, officials said, in the latest militant attack in the war-torn country.
Another eight were wounded in the blast at the entrance to the facility in Kabul, which police spokesman Basir Mujahid said had hit a vehicle that staff of Pul-e-Charkhi prison were travelling in.
Among the casualties were police officers guarding the main gate and prison staff.
The attacker was on foot, interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said.
He struck as the bus was entering the jail in the east of the Afghan capital.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosion, but the Islamic State group (IS) has claimed most suicide attacks in Kabul in recent months.
The attack comes days after a suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance of Afghanistan's Independent Election Commission in Kabul, killing at least one person and wounding six.
A wave of election-related violence has killed or wounded hundreds across the country in recent months as the Taliban and IS step up attacks on Afghan security forces and government workers.
Afghanistan's long-delayed parliamentary election, which was held over three days this month, was marred by chaos and deadly attacks.
Two days before voting began on October 20, a Taliban-claimed shooting killed a powerful police chief in the southern province of Kandahar.
General Abdul Raziq was among three people killed in the brazen insider attack on a high-level security meeting in the provincial capital that was attended by General Scott Miller, the top United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) commander in Afghanistan.
Miller escaped unhurt, but US Brigadier General Jeffrey Smiley was among 13 people wounded in the shooting, which the Taliban said had targeted Miller and Raziq.
US officials and Nato's Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan were adamant that Miller had not been a target.
Several days later another Taliban-claimed assault killed a Nato soldier and and wounded two others — all from the Czech Republic — in the western province of Herat.
The attacks came amid a flurry of US-led diplomatic activity to convince the Taliban, Afghanistan's largest militant group, to negotiate an end to the 17-year war.
Earlier this month, newly appointed US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad met with Taliban representatives in Qatar.
Less than two weeks later a top Taliban commander held in Pakistani detention for more than eight years was freed.
A senior Taliban leader told AFP the group had requested the release of Abdul Ghani Baradar and several others at the meeting with Khalilzad.
The group confirmed on Wednesday it had appointed five former Guantanamo Bay detainees to its political office in Doha who have authority to "talk about peace".

India's top court seeks pricing of Rafale jet deal with France

 

India’s top court on Wednesday ordered the government to provide pricing details of 36 Rafale fighter jets it is buying from France.
The court said the government must bring details of the decision-making process of the deal into the public domain, except those that are confidential and have strategic importance. The court said those can be provided in a “sealed cover” within 10 days.
The deal has become a major political issue with the leader of the main opposition Indian National Congress party, Rahul Gandhi, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of buying the aircraft at nearly three times the price being negotiated when his party was in power before Modi became prime minister in 2014.
The government has refuted the claim, but says a secrecy clause governs the deal’s pricing. It hasn’t even informed Parliament about the cost of the 36 planes.
The court was hearing petitions by former ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha and some others who demanded a court-monitored probe by a federal investigating agency in the deal.
Gandhi also accused Modi’s government of favoring the company owned by industrialist Anil Ambani, Reliance Group, when choosing an Indian partner for Dassault.
India’s government has denied any wrongdoing.
Dassault Aviation recently said that it “has freely chosen to make a partnership with India’s Reliance Group.”
The French company said that it had committed to side deals in India worth 50 percent of the value of the jet purchases. In order to deliver those side deals, it had decided to create a joint venture with Reliance Group.
The controversy has intensified following comments last month by former French President Francois Hollande — who was in charge when the deal was signed in 2016 — suggesting France had no say in selecting the Indian company.

25 killed in Afghan army helicopter crash: officials

 

An Afghan army helicopter carrying 25 people crashed in western Afghanistan on Wednesday, killing all those on board, officials said.
The aircraft crashed due to "bad weather" in Anar Dara district, which borders Iran, Farah provincial governor spokesman Nasir Mehri said.
The Taliban claimed its militants brought it down.
Both pilots and 23 passengers were killed.
Among the dead were the deputy army corps commander for western Afghanistan and the head of the Farah provincial council, Mehri said.
Provincial council member Dadullah Qaneh said the helicopter hit a mountain peak in poor weather en route to neighbouring Herat province.
Senior government and military officials often travel by helicopter in regions where the Taliban has a large presence.
Helicopter crashes are not uncommon in the mountainous, war-torn country.
In September, an Afghan military helicopter carrying weapons and ammunition burst into flames during an "emergency landing" in Farah, killing at least four people.
Earlier that month at least 12 people were killed, including two Ukrainians, when a helicopter owned by a Moldovan company crashed in the northern province of Balkh.
The aircraft also was carrying munitions and exploded on impact, Afghan officials said.
Western forces have been rebuilding Afghanistan's air force, which was decimated by the civil war of the 1990s and the turbulent period of Taliban rule that ended in 2001.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (Nato) Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan has been training pilots and ground controllers across the country as part of a modernisation effort.
United States Forces' officials told AFP in February that Afghanistan's air force includes four C-130 transport aircraft, 24 C-208 supply planes, 24 Russian Mi-17 helicopters that will be replaced by 159 UH-60 Black Hawks, 12 A-29 Super Tacano attack planes, and 25 MD-530 attack helicopters.