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Hello,

If you have ever been denied entry somewhere, you have something in common with Roger Federer. 

The tennis legend was recently stopped by a security guard from entering Wimbledon, who asked to see his membership card, which Federer had misplaced. Guess winning the tournament eight times isn’t enough.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post examined over 1,200 different scenarios for climate change over the coming century. Here are the results.

Not gonna lie, it is kinda terrifying but not all is lost yet. Fingers crossed!

Lastly, here’s our curtain raiser to help all you extroverts out there have an exciting weekend.

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Destination weddings are back, and how!
• Inside Virat Kohli’s fine dining restaurant
• GCC economies and the metaverse

Here’s your trivia for today: When was the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica published?

Leisure

Destination weddings are back, and how!

With people now taking off to every part of the globe post-COVID, ‘tis the season for baraatis to arrive on a jet plane to a larger-than-life wedding set against a backdrop of panoramic views.

Wedding planners are pulling out all stops when it comes to the big fat Indian weddings as YS Life discovered, after peeking into the diaries of planners, curators, and designers, and a bride and groom, too!

Lavish—an understatement:

• According to the wedding services portal WedMeGood, Thailand, Dubai, Bali, and Azerbaijan are emerging as the top international destinations in 2022.
• An average destination wedding can begin upwards of Rs 2 lakh per person for a three-day extravaganza at say, a beach destination. 
• The price tag can up to Rs 4 lakh in Europe and with star performers and Michelin-star chefs flying in, that amount doubles to about Rs 8 lakh per person, depending on the scale and size of the event. 

Reviews

Inside Virat Kohli’s fine dining restaurant

In a concrete jungle like Mumbai, life is a headlong rush into traffic snarls and congested roads. Therefore, eating out at a place that brings you closer to nature seems like a much-needed respite from urban drudgery. 

Perhaps this is what Virat Kohli had in mind when he set up his one8 Commune restaurant in Mumbai.

Be bowled over:

• The restaurant, which was once (late) legendary singer Kishore Kumar’s bungalow, can seat around 130 people. Its design is charming and homey, with little rustic touches here and there.  
• The premise running through Executive Chef Pawan Bisht’s food seems clear—simple, comfort food that pleases the senses, with a fine-dine touch.
• This is Virat Kohli’s place. So the first thought that enters the mind is: are his favourites served here? Well, they are. Four of them, actually.

Metaverse

GCC economies and the metaverse

The metaverse has the potential to transform key sectors in the Middle East, particularly GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). It could contribute close to $15 billion to GCC economies by 2030, says a report by Strategy&, part of the PwC network.

Although it is at a nascent stage—with underlying structures still being developed—over the past year, the metaverse’s ability to change the way we look at the world and use the internet has come to the fore.  

Strategy to follow:

• Dubai formally launched its metaverse strategy in July 2022, expected to add over $4 billion to the economy of Dubai and create over 40,000 new jobs in five years. 
• The metaverse is also used to develop the $500-billion city of Neom in Saudi Arabia by providing construction workers, engineers, architects, designers, and others with data and ways to collaborate and customise aspects of the project. 
• The report states that the travel and tourism sector has the potential to reap maximum gains from the metaverse—it is estimated to garner over $3.3 billion, throughout GCC, by 2030.

News & updates

• Lucrative bait: Twitter will roll out new controls as soon as next week to let companies prevent their ads from appearing above or below tweets containing certain keywords, in order to reassure and lure back advertisers that have pulled ads off the platform since its acquisition by Elon Musk.
• Easing down: US short-term inflation expectations unexpectedly declined to the lowest level in more than a year and consumer sentiment picked up, helped by falling gasoline prices. Consumers expect prices will climb at an annual rate of 4.6% over the next year.
• Red light: The US Federal Trade Commission will sue to block Microsoft’s $75 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard over concerns the deal would harm competitors to its Xbox consoles and cloud-gaming business.

When was the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica published?

Answer: Between 1768 and 1771 in three volumes.

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