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DOHA, Qatar , Dec. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — On December 25, 2024 , the First JETOUR Fan’s Festival and the Launch of T2 i-DM was held in Qatar , themed “Think Future”. During the event, JETOUR launched its user brand “Traveler” in the Middle East and its first hybrid model, JETOUR T2 i-DM. The launch event highlights JETOUR’s commitment to exploring sustainable travel modes and ambition to become the “The World’s Leading Brand in Hybrid Off-road Vehicles” under the “Travel+” strategy. JETOUR T2 i-DM not only inherits the strengths of T2 series, but also achieves high energy efficiency, high performance, high safety, and high intelligence with its advanced hybrid technology, i-DM. With a maximum combined power of 280kW and torque of 610N•m, T2 i-DM boasts a NEDC pure electric range of 139km and an overall range exceeding 1,000km at just 0.8L/100km, addressing range anxiety and promoting green travel. Mr. Dai Lihong, executive vice president of JETOUR Auto, emphasized technology’s role in producing world-class products. The launch also introduced “Traveler”, enriching user experience through diverse products and superior performance. This year, JETOUR has ranked third in sales across the Qatari auto market. The Fan’s Festival invited user representatives from across the Middle East to witness the unveiling of “Traveler”, experiencing “Travel+” culture through city tours and co-creation workshops. JETOUR prioritizes users, listening to their needs and co-creating products, brand, and lifestyle. Through “Traveler,” JETOUR aims to provide richer travel experiences and benefits globally, leveraging the platform to spread the “Travel+” culture worldwide. Mr. Alex Tan , Vice President of JETOUR International, said, “Serving ‘JETOUR users’ and being ‘a user-oriented JETOUR’ are JETOUR’s development philosophy. JETOUR will continue to build a travel community centered around users, cars, and lifestyles, sharing the joy of traveling together with users.” JETOUR also partnered with Diamond League to promote athletics in Qatar and the Middle East , embodying JETOUR Speed and the brand’s image of breakthroughs and innovations. With T2 selling over 150,000 units globally, T2 i-DM will continue its success to meet customers’ needs and reshape the hybrid SUV market. The launch of T2 i-DM marks JETOUR’s new journey towards “the World’s Leading Brand in Hybrid Off-road Vehicles.” JETOUR plans to introduce more hybrid and off-road models, providing customers with eco-friendly and diversified travel choices. With its innovative spirit and user-oriented philosophy, JETOUR will lead the global automotive industry towards a more sustainable and smarter future. SOURCE JETOUR AUTOSquid Game 2 pays homage to League of Legends with this nod in one of its shots
Lawyers for a voting machine company that’s suing Fox News want to question founder Rupert Murdoch about his contentious efforts to change his family trust , the attorneys told a court Monday. Election-tech company Smartmatic's $2.7 billion defamation suit regards Fox's reporting on 2020 voting fraud claims. But Smartmatic’s attorneys suggest the separate succession fight over Murdoch's media empire might shed light on any Fox Corp. involvement in editorial matters. It's an important, if technical, question as Smartmatic seeks to hold the deep-pocketed Fox parent company responsible for statements that the news network aired. Fox contends that there's no such liability and that it was engaging in journalism, not defamation, when it broadcast election-fraud allegations made by then-President Donald Trump 's attorneys. Rupert Murdoch may already have given a deposition — out-of-court questioning under oath — in the defamation suit. Such records aren't public at this stage, but plans for his deposition were briefly mentioned at a 2022 hearing. Smartmatic now is seeking to talk to Murdoch about his efforts to rewrite his plans for his businesses after his death. The matter is playing out behind closed doors and in sealed files in a Nevada probate court. The New York Times has reported that Rupert Murdoch wants to keep his eldest son, Lachlan , in charge of the conglomerate's newspapers and television networks in order to ensure a continued conservative editorial outlook . Smartmatic wants to get the 93-year-old patriarch on record while the probate matter plays out, company attorney Edward Wipper told a judge Monday. Fox News lawyer K. Winn Allen said the probate case “has nothing at all to do with” Smartmatic's claims and is “not appropriate” fodder for the suit. Fox Corp. declined to comment after court. Fox News' lawyers, meanwhile, want Smartmatic to provide records about a U.S. federal criminal case against people, including Smartmatic co-founder Roger Piñate, accused of scheming to bribe a Filipino election official . Piñate has pleaded not guilty. Smartmatic isn't charged in the criminal case, and Smartmatic attorneys have said the matter was irrelevant to the defamation suit. Fox lost prior bids for a court order to get the information, but a hearing on the network's renewed request is set next week. It's unclear how soon Judge David B. Cohen will decide on that request or on Smartmatic's bid to dig into the Murdoch family trust case. Both requests are part of pretrial information-gathering, and no trial date has been set. Smartmatic says it was a small player, working only with California's heavily Democratic Los Angeles County, in the 2020 U.S. presidential election. In subsequent Fox News appearances, Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell portrayed Smartmatic as part of a multi-state scheme to steal the vote from the Republican. Federal and state election officials , exhaustive reviews in battleground states and Trump’s own attorney general found no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. Nor did they uncover any credible evidence that the vote was tainted. Dozens of courts, including by judges whom Trump had appointed, rejected his fraud claims. Fox News ultimately aired an interview with an election technology expert who refuted the allegations against Smartmatic — an interview done after the company demanded a retraction . The network is countersuing Smartmatic , claiming it violated a New York law against baseless suits aimed at squelching reporting or criticism on public issues. The New York defamation suit is one of several stemming from conservative-oriented news outlets' reports on Trump’s 2020 vote-rigging claims. Smartmatic recently settled with One America News Network and Newsmax . Fox News settled for $787 million last year with Dominion Voting Systems, another election-technology company that sued over conspiracy theories blaming its election equipment for Trump’s 2020 loss. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!COLUMBIA — No. 19 South Carolina is the hottest team in the Southeastern Conference and on one of the most impressive streaks in the country. Can the Gamecocks stay locked in when it comes to Wofford, a six-touchdown underdog? South Carolina running back Raheim Sanders (5) celebrates his touchdown during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Vanderbilt, Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. "I would for mediocre people, I would say it's human nature" to let the focus wander, South Carolina linebacker Debo Williams said. "But we're not talking mediocre." Lately, the Gamecocks (7-3) have been extraordinary. They have won four straight in SEC play for the first time since Steve Spurrier was coach in 2012 and beaten three straight AP Top 25 opponents — Texas A&M, Vanderbilt and Missouri — for the first time ever. "This is not recent years. This is not a recent team," Williams said. "We are putting it together and we've got to get better every single day." That includes, defensive lineman Alex Huntley said, putting in the same work for an FCS foe to prepare as they did for any of those noteworthy SEC victories. Wofford (5-6) has had its moments, although it has lost 17 straight against the Gamecocks and only once in the past 13 meetings have the Terriers come within single digits of their FBS opponent. "It's not about the team, it's about us," Huntley said. "So just attack everything the same exact way, don't change the routine." Terriers coach Shawn Watson understands the enormous task his team is facing Saturday in South Carolina. Watson recalled watching Gamecocks coach Shane Beamer at a new conference saying he did not want media to rank his team. "Because he knew what he had," Watson said. "They have great chemistry and are probably one of the hottest team, I think the hottest team in college football right now." Wofford is an FCS program in Spartanburg, South Carolina, that has built a strong football history the past four decades. The Terriers have been to 10 NCAA playoffs, the last trip coming in 2019. Watson, in his third season, and the team's five wins this year equal his total of the previous two. One of the school's football highlights came in 2007 when the Terriers handed Appalachian State its first loss after the Mountaineers had stunned top-five Michigan weeks earlier. South Carolina quarterback LaNorris Sellers has settled into the starting job with his stellar play the second half of the season. He's passed for 1,010 yards and 10 touchdowns against just one interception in the Gamecocks four straight SEC victories. Last week, Sellers had five TD throws including an inside pass to Raheim Sanders he took 15 yards for the winning score against Missouri with 15 seconds left. It's sure to be an emotional time for Beamer as he and the Gamecock crowd say goodbye to the team's seniors who will be playing a final game at Williams-Brice Stadium. Beamer started tearing up, he acknowledged, when he filmed a video for the occasion earlier this week, in part because several of the players leaving chose to stay when Beamer took over four seasons ago. Gamecocks senior punter Kai Kroeger leads the SEC and is second nationally with a 47.7-yard average this season. When his football time is done, Kroeger said he wanted to work for the Secret Service or another federal law enforcement agency. Kroeger explained he'd had family friends follow that path and he became interested. Beamer got a text a few weeks back from Hootie and the Blowfish front-man Darius Rucker about donating to help the university's band fund their planned trip to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City. "It took me five seconds to respond" with a yes, Beamer said as he, Rucker and women's basketball coach Dawn Staley each donated $25,000 for band expenses. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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WASHINGTON — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide Tuesday because of a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive. Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop for the airline. The order, which prevented planes from taking off, was issued at the airline's request. The airline said in an email that the problem was caused by trouble with vendor technology that maintains its flight operating system. An American Airlines employee wearing looks toward quiet check-in counters Tuesday in the American terminal at Miami International Airport in Miami. Dennis Tajer, a spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association, a union representing American Airlines pilots, said the airline told pilots at 7 a.m. Eastern that there was an outage affecting the system known as FOS. It handles different types of airline operations, including dispatch, flight planning, passenger boarding, as well as an airplane's weight and balance data, he said. Some components of FOS have gone down in the past, but a systemwide outage is rare, Tajer said. Flights were delayed across American's major hubs, with only 37% leaving on time, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. Out of the 3,901 domestic and international American Airlines flights scheduled for Tuesday, 19 were canceled. Cirium noted that the vast majority of flights departed within two hours of their scheduled departure time. A similar percentage — 36% — arrived at their destinations as scheduled. Meanwhile, the flight-tracking site FlightAware reported that 4,058 flights entering or leaving the U.S., or serving domestic destinations, were delayed, with 76 flights canceled. The site had not posted any American Airlines flights on Tuesday morning, but showed in the afternoon that 961 American flights were delayed. Cirium said Dallas-Fort Worth, New York's Kennedy Airport and Charlotte, North Carolina, saw the greatest number of delays. Washington, Chicago and Miami experienced considerably fewer delays. Travelers wait in line for security checks Tuesday at the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles. Amid the travel problems, significant rain and snow were expected in the Pacific Northwest at least into Christmas Day. Showers and thunderstorms developed in the South. Freezing rain was reported in the Mid-Atlantic region near Baltimore and Washington, and snow fell in New York. Because the holiday travel period lasts weeks, airports and airlines typically have smaller peak days than they do during the rush around Thanksgiving, but the grind of one hectic day followed by another takes a toll on flight crews. Any hiccups — a winter storm or a computer outage — can snowball into massive disruptions. That is how Southwest Airlines stranded 2 million travelers in December 2022, and Delta Air Lines suffered a smaller but significant meltdown after a worldwide technology outage in July caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations even more disruptive than during slower periods. That is especially true for smaller budget airlines that have fewer flights and fewer options for rebooking passengers. Only the largest airlines, including American, Delta and United, have "interline agreements" that let them put stranded customers on another carrier's flights. An American Airlines employee wearing a Santa Claus hat walks through the American terminal Tuesday at Miami International Airport in Miami. This will be the first holiday season since a Transportation Department rule took effect that requires airlines to give customers an automatic cash refund for a canceled or significantly delayed flight. Most air travelers were already eligible for refunds, but they often had to request them. Passengers still can ask to get rebooked, which is often a better option than a refund during peak travel periods. Finding a last-minute flight on another airline tends to be expensive. An American spokesperson said Tuesday was not a peak travel day for the airline — with about 2,000 fewer flights than the busiest days — so the airline had somewhat of a buffer to manage the delays. The groundings happened as millions of travelers were expected to fly over the next 10 days. The Transportation Security Administration expects to screen 40 million passengers through Jan. 2. Airlines expect to have their busiest days on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. American Airlines employees check in travelers Tuesday in the American terminal at Miami International Airport in Miami. Many flights during the holidays are sold out, which makes cancellations more disruptive than during slower periods. Even with just a brief outage, the cancellations have a cascading effect that can take days to clear up. About 90% of Americans traveling far from home over the holidays will be in cars, according to AAA. "Airline travel is just really high right now, but most people do drive to their destinations, and that is true for every holiday," AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. Gasoline prices are similar to last year. The nationwide average Thursday was $3.04 a gallon, down from $3.13 a year ago, according to AAA. Charging an electric vehicle averages just under 35 cents per per kilowatt hour, but varies by state. Transportation-data firm INRIX says travel times on the nation's highways could be up to 30% longer than normal over the holidays, with Sunday expected to see the heaviest traffic. "It's not the destination, it's the journey," said American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ralph clearly was not among the travellers on one of more than 350 cancelled or 1,400 delayed flights after a worldwide tech outage caused by an update to Crowdstrike's "Falcon Sensor" software in July of 2023. U.S. airlines carried nearly 863 million travellers in 2023, with Canadian carriers accounting for another 150 million, many of whom experienced lost luggage, flight delays, cancellations, or were bumped off their flights. It's unclear how many of them were compensated for these inconveniences. Suffice it to say, posting a crabby rant on social media might temporarily soothe anger, but it won't put wasted money back in pockets. Money.ca shares what to know in order to be compensated for the three most common air travel headaches. Bags elected to go on a vacay without you? Check off the following: If you expect a large payout, think again. Tariffs (air carrier contracts) limit the compensation amounts for "loss of, damage to, or the delay in delivery of baggage or other personal property." In the case of Air Canada, the maximum payout is $1,500 per passenger in the currency of the country where the baggage was processed. To raise that limit, purchase a Declaration of Higher Value for each leg of the trip. The charge is $0.50 for each $100, in which case the payout limit is $2,500. For Delta Air Lines, passengers are entitled to up to $3,800 in baggage compensation, though how much you'll receive depends on your flight. Delta will pay up to $2,080 for delayed, lost, and damaged baggage for international travellers, almost half of what U.S. domestic passengers can claim. If your flight is marked delayed for more than 30 minutes, approach the gate agent and politely request food and hotel vouchers to be used within the airport or nearby. Different air carriers and jurisdictions have their own compensation policies when flights are delayed or cancelled. For example, under European Union rules, passengers may receive up to 600 Euros, even when travelling on a non-EU carrier. Similarly, the DOT states that travellers are entitled to a refund "if the airline cancelled a flight, regardless of the reason, and the consumer chooses not to travel." However, US rules regarding delays are complicated. Some air carriers, such as Air Canada, do not guarantee their flight schedules. They're also not liable for cancellations or changes due to "force majeure" such as weather conditions or labour disruptions. If the delay is overnight, only out-of-town passengers will be offered hotel accommodation. Nevertheless, many airlines do offer some compensation for the inconvenience. If your flight is marked delayed for more than 30 minutes, approach the gate agent and politely request food and hotel vouchers to be used within the airport or nearby. In terms of cash compensation, what you'll get can differ significantly based on things like departure location, time, carrier, and ticket class. The DOT offers a helpful delay and cancellations dashboard designed to keep travellers informed about their compensation rights. The dashboard is particularly helpful because, as the DOT states on its website, "whether you are entitled to a refund depends on a lot of factors—such as the length of the delay, the length of the flight, and your particular circumstances." The Canadian Transportation Agency is proposing air passenger protection regulations that guarantee financial compensation to travellers experiencing flight delays and cancellations, with the level of compensation varying depending on the situation and how much control the air carrier had. The proposed regulations include the following: The airline is obligated to complete the passenger's itinerary. If the new ticket is for a lower class of service, the air carrier would have to refund the cost difference; if the booking is in a higher class of service, passengers cannot be charged extra. If the passenger declines the ticket, the airline must give a full refund, in addition to the prescribed compensation. For overnight delays, the air carrier needs to provide hotel accommodation and transportation free-of-charge. Again, if you are unsatisfied, the Canadian Transportation Agency or Department of Transportation may advocate on your behalf. Passengers get bumped because airlines overbook. When this happens, the air carrier must compensate you. For international flights in the US, the rate is 200% of your one-way fare to your final destination, with a $675 maximum. If the airline does not make travel arrangements for you, the payout is 400% of your one-way fare to a maximum of $1,350. To qualify, you must check-in by the stated deadline, which on international flights can be up to 3 hours ahead. Keep in mind that if you accept the cash, you are no longer entitled to any further compensation, nor are you guaranteed to be rebooked on a direct flight or similar type of seat. Don't be too quick to give up your boarding pass. Negotiate for the best compensation deal that would include cash, food and hotel vouchers, flight upgrade, lounge passes, as well as mileage points. But avoid being too greedy—if the gate attendant is requesting volunteers and you wait too long, you'll miss the offer. According to Air Canada's tariff, if a passenger is involuntarily bumped, they'll receive $200, in cash or bank draft, for up to a two-hour delay; $400 for a 2-6 hours delay; and $800 if the delay is over six hours. (Air Canada was forced to raise its payouts in 2013 due to passenger complaints.) The new rules would raise the payout significantly: $900 for up to six hours; $1,800 for 6-9; and $2,400 for more than nine hours, all to be paid within 48 hours. Statistically speaking, Delta Airlines is the carrier most likely to bump. A few years ago, Delta raised its payout maximum to $9,950, while United Airlines tops out at $10,000. This story was produced by Money.ca and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
