Metro Manila (CNN Philippines. February 4) — Only 38% of respondents prefer their local language as the medium of instruction for Grades 1 to 3, according to a Pulse Asia survey commissioned by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.
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The poll released on Saturday showed the national language Filipino was the most preferred at 88%, followed by English at 71%.
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Pulse Asia said Filipino had the highest percentages across all island groups and social classes.
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However, the local language was chosen by at least half of respondents in the Visayas (50%) and Mindanao (53%), and less than half from classes ABC (41%), D (36%), and E (48%).
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Conducted from Sept. 17 to 21 last year, the survey allowed 1,200 respondents to choose more than one language.
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Gatchalian—who chairs the Senate committee on basic education—has called for a “thorough and rigorous” review of the implementation of the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE), which is mandated by law.
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The senator already filed a bill to review the K-to-12 Curriculum. He said there’s a need to review the next steps for the implementation of the MTB-MLE program based on the schools’ capability to implement it, and the sentiments of the Filipinos.
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The Education Department in 2022 said only 72,872 out of the targeted 305,099 educators underwent training for the MTB-MLE program.
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RELATED: DepEd to remove mother tongue subject amid K-12 review
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The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed on second reading House Bill 6717, which seeks to suspend the mother tongue as the teaching language for K-to-3.
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REALTED: Lawmakers to decide on suspension of mother tongue use in K-to-3 — DepEd
‘ ‘us-allies-price-cap-russian-petroleum-products’: ‘author’: ‘Nikki Carvajal, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T00:20:39.309+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:b2aea360-4d27-4fe2-acab-6475eaa9c6db’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘b4247caa-93fd-4e50-a9f4-f4421ceffe2b’ ‘lead’: ‘The US and allies are trying to further limit Russia’s ability to make money and finance its war efforts with new price limits on products like gasoline and fuel oil, a senior Treasury official announced Friday.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T00:23:23.068+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘jelo’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:08.229+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:42.159+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘US, EU, G7 and Australia announce new price cap on Russian petroleum products’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — The US and allies are trying to further limit Russia’s ability to make money and finance its war efforts with new price limits on products like gasoline and fuel oil, a senior Treasury official announced Friday — adding to sanctions on Russian energy sales in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Our intent is not to crash the Russian economy,” the official told reporters Friday. “Our intent is to make it impossible for the Kremlin to continue to make the choice of propping up the economy and also paying for their war.”
The agreement between the US, the G7, the European Union and Australia places a price cap on “seaborne Russian-origin petroleum products,” the US Department of Treasury said. There are two price levels: one applies to “premium-to-crude” petroleum products like diesel, kerosene and gasoline, which will be capped at $100 USD per barrel, and “discount-to-crude” petroleum products like fuel oil, which will be capped at $45 USD per barrel.
“The thing that we’re focused on is cutting off the revenue,” the official said. “We’re also going after their military industrialized complex and supply chain so they can’t use the money they have to buy the weapons they need. Our approach to this is really to go after the things that are crucial to the Kremlin’s war effort and their ability to prop up their economy.”
In December, the same group implemented a price cap on crude oil — which the Treasury official said was already impeding Russia’s ability to finance the war. They added Russia had “openly acknowledged” the price cap was hurting the country’s economy. Data released by Russia showed that monthly tax revenues from energy sales declined 46% from the month prior.
Officials shrugged off reports that, despite numerous sanctions, Russia’s economy is still expected to rebound and may even outpace Germany and Great Britain. The senior Treasury official said economically, the country “doesn’t function any longer like a normal economy.”
“They’ve shut it down largely, meaning that if you have money of Russia, they’ll let you keep putting money in Russia, but you can’t take money out. They no longer allow foreign capital coming into Russia,” the official said. “They’re needing to spend more money to prop up their economy because they become a closed economy.”
The reality, the official said, is that Russia’s budget deficit is growing “because the war is costing them more money” because the “bravery of the Ukrainian people” and the “weapons” were a surprise to them.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “US, EU, G7 and Australia announce new price cap on Russian petroleum products“
‘ ‘japan-workers-have-not-had-a-raise-in-30-years’: ‘author’: ‘Michelle Toh and Emiko Jozuka, CNN’ ‘categories’: [‘e44ef96f-d476-4488-a4bd-b475f1a649f1’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T00:23:27.651+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:5a20f09f-32ad-4be6-ad96-cfbe7945e4ae’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘5f51b479-2e08-4828-b2a3-a0df49e76dac’ ‘lead’: ‘Now, as prices rise after decades of deflation, the world’s third largest economy is being forced to reckon with the major problem of falling living standards, and companies are facing intense political pressure to pay more.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T00:27:04.586+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘jelo’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:07.623+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:42.533+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘ANALYSIS: Japan’s workers haven’t had a raise in 30 years. Companies are under pressure to pay up’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — Hideya Tokiyoshi started his career as an English teacher in Tokyo about 30 years ago.
Since then, his salary has stayed pretty much the same. That’s why, three years ago, after giving up hopes for higher pay, the schoolteacher decided to start writing books.
“I feel lucky, as writing and selling books gives me an additional income stream. If not for that, I would’ve stayed stuck in the same wage loop,” Tokiyoshi, now 54, told CNN. “That’s why I was able to survive.”
Tokiyoshi is part of a generation of workers in Japan who have barely gotten a raise throughout their working lives. Now, as prices rise after decades of deflation, the world’s third largest economy is being forced to reckon with the major problem of falling living standards, and companies are facing intense political pressure to pay more.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is urging businesses to help workers keep up with higher living costs. Last month, he called on companies to hike pay at a level above inflation, with some already heeding the call.
Like other parts of the world, inflation in Japan has become a major headache. In the year to December, core consumer prices rose 4%. That’s still low by comparison with America or Europe, but represents a 41-year high for Japan, where people are more used to prices going backwards.
“In a country where you haven’t had nominal wage growth over 30 years, real wages are declining quite rapidly as a result [of inflation],” Stefan Angrick, a Tokyo-based senior economist at Moody’s Analytics, told CNN.
Last month, Japan recorded its biggest drop in earnings, once inflation is taken into account, in nearly a decade.
A longstanding problem
In 2021, the average annual paycheck in Japan was $39,711, compared with $37,866 in 1991, according to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
That means workers got a pay bump of less than 5%, compared to a rise of 34% in other Group of Seven economies, such as France and Germany, over the same period.
Experts have pointed to a series of reasons for the stagnant wages. For one, Japan has long grappled with the opposite of what it’s facing now: low prices. Deflation started in the mid-1990s, because of a strong yen — which pushed down the cost of imports — and the bursting of a domestic asset bubble.
“For the past 20 years, basically, there has been no change in consumer price inflation,” said Müge Adalet McGowan, senior economist for the Japan desk at the OECD.
Until now, consumers wouldn’t have taken a hit to their wallets or felt the need to demand better pay, she added.
But as inflation rises, people are likely to start making “strong” complaints about the lack of raises, predicted Shintaro Yamaguchi, an economics professor at the University of Tokyo.
A changing job market
Experts say Japan’s wages have also suffered because it lags in another metric: its productivity rate.
The country’s output, measured by how much workers add to a country’s GDP per hour, is lower than the OECD average, and “probably the biggest reason” for flat wages, according to Yamaguchi.
“Generally, wages and productivity growth go hand-in-hand together,” McGowan said. “When there’s productivity growth, firms perform better and [when] they do better, they can offer higher wages.”
She said Japan’s aging population was an additional issue because an older labor force tends to equate to lower productivity and wages. The way people are working is also changing.
In 2021, nearly 40% of Japan’s total workforce was employed part-time or worked irregular hours, up from roughly 20% in 1990, according to McGowan.
“As the share of these non-regular workers has gone up, of course the average wages also stay low, because they make less,” she said.
‘Lifetime’ employment
Japan’s unique work culture is contributing to wage stagnation, according to economists.
Many people work in the traditional “lifetime employment” system, where companies go to extraordinary lengths to keep workers on the payroll for life, Angrick said.
That means they’re often very cautious about raising wages in good times so that they have the means to protect their workers when times are tough.
“They don’t want to lay people off. So they need to have that buffer in order to be able to keep them on the payroll when a crisis hits,” he said.
Its seniority-based pay system, where workers are paid based on their rank and length of service rather than performance, lowers incentives for people to change jobs, which in other countries generally helps push up wages, according to McGowan.
“The biggest issue in Japan’s labor market is the stubborn insistence on pay by seniority,” Jesper Koll, a prominent Japan strategist and investor, previously told CNN. “If genuine merit-based pay were introduced, there would be much more job switching and career climbing.”
Pressure on businesses
Last month, Kishida warned the economy was at stake, saying Japan risked falling into stagflation if wage rises continued to fall behind price increases. The term refers to a period of high inflation and stagnant economic growth.
Raising wages by 3% or more a year was already a core goal of Kishida’s administration. Now, the prime minister wants to take another step further, with plans to create a more formalized system.
Asked for details, a government spokesperson told CNN that new “comprehensive economic measures will include expanded support for wage increases, integrated with an improvement in productivity.”
Authorities plan to roll out guidelines for companies by June, said a representative from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
Meanwhile, the country’s largest labor group, the Japanese Trade Union Confederation or Rengo, is now demanding wage increases of 5% at this year’s talks with the management of various companies. The annual negotiations kick off this month.
In a statement, Rengo said it was making the push because workers were making “inferior wages on a global scale,” and needed help with rising prices.
Some companies have already acted. Fast Retailing, the company behind Uniqlo and Theory, announced last month that it would boost salaries in Japan by up to 40%, acknowledging that compensation had “remained low” in the country in recent years.
While inflation was a factor, the company wanted to align “with global standards, to be able to increase our competitiveness,” a Fast Retailing spokesperson told CNN.
According to a Reuters poll released last month, more than half of the country’s big firms are planning to raise wages this year.
Suntory, one of Japan’s biggest beverage makers, may be one of them.
CEO Takeshi Niinami is weighing a 6% raise for its Japanese workforce of approximately 7,000 people, according to a spokesperson, adding that it was subject to negotiation with a union.
The news may prompt other businesses to follow suit.
“If some of the biggest companies in Japan raise wages, many other firms will follow,” if only to stay competitive, said Yamaguchi. “Many firms look at what other firms do.”
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Japan’s workers haven’t had a raise in 30 years. Companies are under pressure to pay up“
‘ ‘Sci-fi-ideas-that-could-change-the-future-of-space-exploration’: ‘author’: ‘Ashley Strickland, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T00:27:08.068+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:31052f31-cc46-42ff-b1bc-63544c860bf5’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘a1a8e13f-5ecd-4571-86cb-f12adf589d4c’ ‘lead’: ‘Technological advances and scientific breakthroughs have transformed how we observe and investigate the cosmos. How will space exploration change in the coming decades, and what new possibilities will emerge?’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T00:29:40.336+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘jelo’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:06.421+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:42.994+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Sci-fi ideas that could change the future of space exploration’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — In the past year, a tiny helicopter flew on Mars, a NASA spacecraft slammed into an asteroid and the James Webb Space Telescope revealed dazzling new insights about the universe.
Beginning decades ago as ideas that seemed more like science fiction, these missions took years of research and testing to come to life.
Technological advances and scientific breakthroughs have transformed how we observe and investigate the cosmos. How will space exploration change in the coming decades, and what new possibilities will emerge?
These questions are at the heart of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program, or NIAC, which awards funding for concepts that could be part of future missions.
“NASA dares to make the impossible possible,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “That’s only achievable because of the innovators, thinkers, and doers who are helping us imagine and prepare for the future of space exploration. The NIAC program helps give these forward-thinking scientists and engineers the tools and support they need to spur technology that will enable future NASA missions.”
The lastest NIAC competition selected 14 new concepts, awarding each $175,000 in January. Now, these researchers have nine months to use that funding toward refining and testing their ideas to see whether they can advance to the second phase of funding, which is $600,000 to flesh out their concepts and bring them closer to reality.
Only five projects have made it to the third phase during the NIAC program — $2 million to make something implementable.
Active since 2011, the competitive program is open to a broad range of ideas as long as they are technically credible, said Michael LaPointe, program executive for NIAC at NASA.
Some of the latest NIAC-funded concepts include a fluid space telescope, self-growing bricks intended for Mars and a plane that could fly on Saturn’s moon Titan, among others. Many of the ideas are the result of creative collaborations between experts in different fields challenging one another to come up with new ideas.
“It really is a community of innovators,” LaPointe said. “We’re looking for ideas that will enable brand-new ways of doing things.”
Self-growing bricks for Mars
For the past few years, Congrui Jin and her research group have used bacteria and fungi to heal cracks in concrete. Jin, an assistant professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, now wants to take her idea to space. Her self-growing bricks could one day build habitats and other structures for human explorers on the red planet.
The concept would involve sending bacterial and fungal spores and a bioreactor to Mars. The bioreactor is needed for the microbes to survive because Mars’ natural environment would be too harsh for them. But Mars would provide the rest of the necessary ingredients for the self-growing bricks, including dust and soil, sunlight, nitrogen, carbon dioxide and water from melted ice.
In turn, the bacteria can produce oxygen and organic carbon to support the fungi. The process, once all of these ingredients are inside the bioreactor, would also create calcium carbonate to serve as the glue.
The bacteria, fungi and minerals will bind Martian soil together to form blocks, which can later be used to make floors, walls and even furniture.
Jin’s group, which includes some students, screens the most suitable types of fungi and bacteria and tests which ones work best together. The team is also building a bioreactor to calibrate the atmosphere, pressure, temperature and illumination required to grow the bricks.
“The very important feature of this technology is its autonomous nature, and it doesn’t require any human intervention,” Jin said. “We initially just need to provide small quantities of spores to start this process, and the rest is automatic.”
Flying TitanAir
Saturn’s moon Titan has long intrigued astronomers with its thick atmosphere and lakes and rivers of methane. It’s a unique place in our solar system in which chemistry that’s taking place may be similar to what occurred on early Earth. A rover-size drone called Dragonfly is expected to launch for this moon in 2027 to study its fine-grained, drier organic material.
Quinn Morley, principal investigator at Planet Enterprises in Gig Harbor, Washington, and his collaborators at Washington State University and other institutions envision a complementary Titan mission to explore the wetter regions of the intriguing moon. The seaplane-like design, called TitanAir, would soar through Titan’s atmosphere and sail on its lakes.
TitanAir could reach the moon about a decade after Dragonfly “to help unlock key secrets of this alien planet,” Morley said.
The front section of the plane’s wing would “drink” liquid methane that forms on the wing’s surface as the plane flies through rain clouds. The liquid collected inside the wing could be analyzed by instruments and transmitted back to Earth.
A small rover or helicopter could fly to places the plane can’t reach and return samples to the plane. Beginning in the fall, Morley wants to partner with engineering student design teams at Washington State on ideas for TitanAir.
“The analysis of clouds, lakes, and shorelines allows us to attack the search for life in three unique ways with one spacecraft,” Morley said in an email, “increasing our chances of unlocking these profound mysteries.”
Fluid telescope
Large space observatories such as the Hubble Space Telescope and Webb telescope are the result of decades of funding, design, assembly and testing. But there is a growing demand for a wider range of telescopes that can be developed cheaper and more quickly.
Several new NIAC concepts offer diverse ways of observing the cosmos like never before.
One design is FLUTE, or the Fluidic Telescope, from Edward Balaban, a research scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, and his collaborators. Balaban has mostly worked in artificial intelligence and strategic planning for the upcoming VIPER lunar rover mission.
Balaban was inspired through conversations with colleagues both at Ames and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to develop a concept that could combine manipulating fluids with on-orbit assembly of a large telescope. The latter wouldn’t be limited by the size of its launch vehicle.
Under the plan, two launches would send an instrumentation spacecraft and a frame that can be filled with liquid into space. The liquid-filled frame creates a massive 50-meter (164-foot) mirror, while the instrumentation spacecraft will remain at a specific distance from the mirror to collect images and send them back to Earth, Balaban said
Balaban and his team are testing liquids that could act as the mirror, including ionic liquids called molten salts. Researchers will use their grant to work on constructing a frame to hold the liquid and the design for the instrumentation spacecraft. Such a telescope could be impervious to the micrometeoroid strikes that the Webb telescope has experienced because the liquids wouldn’t be affected, he said.
A large light-collecting surface such as FLUTE could glimpse the faint light of early galaxies or look inside the atmospheres of exoplanets.
“Believe it or not, we might be able to start seeing surface features on the nearest exoplanets,” Balaban said. “Instead of seeing them as pinpoints of light, we might be able to tell if they have continents, for example.”
Searching for another Earth
Meanwhile, Heidi Jo Newberg, a professor of physics, applied physics, and astronomy at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and her collaborators have a concept for a telescope that could find “Earth 2.0.”
The team’s idea is to search for nearby habitable planets by changing up the centuries-old design for telescopes. It’s called DICER, or a Diffractive Interfero Coronagraph Exoplanet Resolver.
Earth-size exoplanets are small and faint, especially compared with the bright stars they orbit, so conventional thinking suggests that searching for such planets would require a telescope with three times the diameter of the Webb telescope — which at 6.5 meters (21 feet 4 inches) is the largest mirror ever flown in space.
A 20-meter (65-foot) telescope currently isn’t feasible because it would be difficult to launch such a large mirror into space.
But DICER would rely on two small mirrors as well as two 10-meter diffraction gratings, or optical components that diffract light, that can be easily packed up inside a rocket. Think about the rainbow visible on the back of a CD when you hold it up to the light — that’s diffraction grating. The gratings could collect the same amount of light as a 20-meter telescope.
“This idea brings down the size and the weight of what you have to send up into space to get the desired high resolution of a telescope like Webb,” Newberg said. “What we’re trying to do is exploit this out-of-the-box design to make it possible to find Earth-like planets.”
The team will work on the scale of the optics and determine whether the telescope could also be used to study exoplanet atmospheres.
The invisible sky
Dr. Mary Knapp, a research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory, and her collaborators are working on a concept that could reveal this part of the radio wave spectrum. The waves are unobservable by ground-based radio telescopes due to the distorting effects of Earth’s upper atmosphere.
“I learned back in my undergrad days that there was this part of the spectrum we couldn’t see,” Knapp said. “It really just struck me that there was this unexplored part of the universe, and I want to explore this part of the sky for the first time.”
The Great Observatory for Long Wavelengths, or GO-LoW, would rely on a fleet of thousands of shoebox-size satellites that act in concert, like one large virtual telescope. Small satellites are cost-effective, and mega-constellations of them can be launched at once on a single, large rocket.
The observatory could measure low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which would carry a wealth of data for astronomers who want to observe the oldest stars and galaxies and understand the magnetic fields of exoplanets and stars. This information can help scientists more easily spot habitable planets. Magnetic fields help planets maintain their atmospheres.
The team will focus next on the antenna design for the satellites and the potential architecture needed for the satellites in space. If GO-LoW is developed, it could be used to create a new map of the sky.
“Anytime we look at the universe in a new part of the spectrum, we’ve seen things we didn’t expect,” Knapp said. “I’m really excited about what we don’t know.”
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Sci-fi ideas that could change the future of space exploration“
‘ ‘racism-poverty-may-alter-brain-development-black-children’: ‘author’: ‘Justin Gamble, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T00:29:48.353+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:a338a08d-979d-40de-b03a-ec6badd2cfd0’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘e9d8b6f2-4439-4c52-8c3b-0c41757e9a67’ ‘lead’: ‘Black children living in poverty face increased instances of stress and trauma that can alter their brain development, a new study found.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T00:32:06.410+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘jelo’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:05.170+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:43.318+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘MRIs show racism and poverty may alter brain development of Black children, study says’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — Black children living in poverty face increased instances of stress and trauma that can alter their brain development, a new study found.
The study was published this week by the American Journal of Psychiatry. Researchers at Harvard University examined MRI scans of 7,350 White and 1,786 Black children ages 9 and 10. The data in the study was collected by the National Institutes of Health in 2019.
Researchers found that increased stressors like economic hardship and systemic racism play a significant role for Black children and can lead to the development of mental health issues as they age, the study said.
The stressors contribute to Black children having less gray matter in their brains, a byproduct of absorbing “toxic stress.” The study defines the stressors as “prolonged exposure to adverse experiences” that lead to excessive stress hormones and “disrupt the immune and metabolic regulatory systems.”
In the study, researchers found that Black children often developed behavioral problems later in life such as PTSD, anxiety and depression. These children also were susceptible to drug and alcohol abuse and suicide attempts and were likely to commit violence, the study said.
Nathaniel Harnett, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who led the study, told CNN their analysis sought to examine how early the effects of structural inequities and racism would appear in brain development. Harnett said his team began exploring a cognitive development study to dispel “this kind of folk belief that Black and White people have categorically different brains.”
Harnett said the data researchers examined suggested “that what’s really driving any differences are the sort of disproportionate burden of life experiences that people have.”
Researchers said Black children are much more likely to be exposed to violence, live in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and combat systemic racism daily than White children. They also are exposed to those factors at an earlier age, the study said.
The most recent US Census data shows that Black families have a lower median income, higher rates of unemployment and poverty, and lower rates of educational achievement compared to White families, the study notes.
Harnett said his team’s analysis underscores the need for “large-scale structural and systemic change,” especially in policy.
“The adversity that these kids are exposed to, it impacts everyone, but it disproportionately burdens Black children in this case,” he said.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “MRIs show racism and poverty may alter brain development of Black children, study says“
‘ ‘us-jets-shoot-down-chinese-balloon’: ‘author’: ‘Zachary Cohen, Kevin Liptak, Oren Liebermann and Phil Mattingly, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T06:42:19.979+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:ebd98b53-bccf-4364-8843-1eb05d817f7f’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘bb374eaa-ccdf-4554-b59e-4d626ac19336’ ‘lead’: ‘US military fighter jets shot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T06:45:55.494+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘seth’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:04.327+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:43.750+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘US fighter jets shoot down Chinese spy balloon off East Coast’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — US military fighter jets shot down the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed Saturday.
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The operation ended a remarkable public drama that prompted a diplomatic fallout between Washington and Beijing, as the American public tracked the balloon from Montana all the way to the Carolinas.
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President Joe Biden approved the downing of the balloon, Austin said in a statement, which a US official previously told CNN was a plan that was presented and supported by US military leaders.
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Recovery efforts began shortly after the balloon was downed, the same official added.
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Speaking to reporters in Hagerstown, Maryland, shortly after the balloon was shot down, Biden reiterated that he first approved the plan to do so earlier this week but waited to carry out the operation until the balloon was safely over water.
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“On Wednesday, when I was briefed on the balloon, I ordered the Pentagon to shoot it down on Wednesday as soon as possible. They decided without doing damage to anyone on the ground,” the president said Saturday.
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In his statement, Austin said American fighter aircraft “successfully brought down the high-altitude surveillance balloon launched by and belonging to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over the water off the coast of South Carolina in US airspace.”
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Austin said Biden gave his authorization “as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path.”
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The spy balloon was first spotted in the sky over Montana earlier this week and traveled across the middle of the country following weather patterns before it exited the continental United States on Saturday.
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The discovery of the balloon prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone his highly anticipated diplomatic visit to China this week, saying the incident had “created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip.”
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Risks posed
Biden has faced intense criticism from Republicans for allowing the balloon to continue drifting above the continental US for days.
‘
Top military officials had advised against shooting down the balloon while over the continental US because of the risk the debris could pose to civilians and property on the ground, but officials had maintained that all options remained on the table.
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Waiting to carry out the operation has allowed the US to “study and scrutinize” the balloon and its equipment, a senior Defense official said during a call with reporters following the operation but did not elaborate on when that occurred.
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While US officials were able to learn more about the balloon, it was not the primary reason for delaying the shoot-down, the senior Defense official said, calling it an “added benefit” of the decision to wait until it was safely over water.
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“We have learned technical things about this balloon and its surveillance capabilities. And I suspect, if we are successful in recovering aspects of the debris, we will learn even more,” the official added.
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Prior to the balloon being shot down, the Federal Aviation Administration had issued a ground stop for airports in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Charleston and Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. The FAA also restricted airspace near Myrtle Beach “to support the Defense Department in a national security effort.”
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Advanced F-22 fighter jets from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia then fired a single missile to take down the Chinese spy balloon at 2:39 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday, said a senior US military official, who also briefed reporters Saturday.
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The moment of impact could be seen from the shore as onlookers captured video of the military operation.
‘
Earlier Saturday, Biden had told reporters in Syracuse, New York, that his administration was “gonna take care” of the suspected Chinese spy balloon when asked by CNN if the US would shoot it down. He had been discussing options with top military officials since first being briefed on the balloon on Tuesday.
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On Friday, the Pentagon said the balloon did not pose a military or physical threat. A defense official told CNN that US Northern Command was coordinating with NASA to determine the debris field if the balloon was to be shot down.
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China’s Foreign Ministry has said the balloon entered US airspace by accident. But the State Department has said the presence of the balloon in US airspace was “a clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law, and it is unacceptable that this has occurred.”
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Recovering debris
The military’s attention next turns to recovering the balloon debris. The US Navy and Coast Guard had assets on standby to assist with the recovery effort before the balloon was shot down, another Defense official told CNN prior to the operation.
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“The debris is in 47 feet of water, primarily — the recovery, that will make it fairly easy,” the senior military official who briefed reporters Saturday said once the operation to shoot down the balloon was carried out.
‘
“Actually, we planned for much deeper water. So as far as the specific timeline to recovery, I can’t give you that right now,” the senior official added.
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There are plans for the balloon equipment to be taken to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, to be analyzed by experts from the bureau and intelligence agencies, two people briefed on the matter said.
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Earlier Saturday, a senior Defense official said the Pentagon has launched “a collaborative effort” with the FBI and “counterintelligence authorities ” to assist with “categorizing and assessing the platform itself.”
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This story and headline have been updated.
This story was first published on CNN. “US fighter jets shoot down Chinese spy balloon off East Coast“
‘ ‘how-china-spies-on-the-us’: ‘author’: ‘Zachary Cohen, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T06:52:26.719+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:9cd6fb2c-e1e0-4c2b-9e1f-140801d17891’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘fb96b700-f078-41f8-99c8-10e2f2615ab2’ ‘lead’: ‘The two countries have a long history of spying on each other.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T06:55:34.750+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘seth’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:02.717+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:44.312+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘A look at China’s history of spying in the US’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — The suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that violated American airspace this week has fueled a diplomatic crisis with the postponement of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s planned trip to Beijing.
‘
But the two countries have a long history of spying on each other.
‘
The US has sought to collect its own intelligence about the Chinese government, using methods that include flying surveillance aircraft over disputed islands claimed by Beijing, human sources and signal intercepts.
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Still, American officials have sought to distinguish US actions from what they say is the more brazen espionage being carried out by the Chinese government.
‘
US officials say Beijing uses every tool at its disposal to gain a strategic advantage over the United States, its primary geopolitical rival. But Chinese officials say a similar thing — Beijing has in the past repeatedly accused the US of espionage.
‘
China denies that the balloon currently above the US is involved in any kind of espionage, claiming it is a “civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological, purposes” that has been blown off course.
‘
Here’s what we know about how China spies on the US:
‘
Balloons and satellites
While the suspected Chinese balloon spotted in the skies above multiple US states this week prompted an uproar from Republicans and Democrats alike, it is not the first time this kind of activity has been observed.
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A US official said Friday there had been similar incidents over Hawaii and Guam in recent years, while another official on Thursday said, “Instances of this activity have been observed over the past several years, including prior to this administration.”
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US officials have said the flight path of the latest balloon, first spotted over Montana on Thursday, could potentially take it over a “number of sensitive sites.” They say they are taking steps to “protect against foreign intelligence collection.”
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What’s less clear is why Chinese spies would want to use a balloon, rather than a satellite to gather information.
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Using balloons as spy platforms goes back to the early days of the Cold War. Since then, the US has used hundreds of them to monitor its adversaries, said Peter Layton, a fellow at the Griffith Asia Institute in Australia and former Royal Australian Air Force officer.
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But with the advent of modern satellite technology enabling the gathering of overflight intelligence data from space, the use of surveillance balloons had been going out of fashion.
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Or at least until now.
‘
Recent advances in the miniaturization of electronics mean the floating intelligence platforms may be making a comeback in the modern spying toolkit.
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“Balloon payloads can now weigh less, and so the balloons can be smaller, cheaper and easier to launch” than satellites, Layton said.
‘
Cellphone towers
Outside Malmstrom Air Force Base in central Montana, spread across 13,800 square miles of open plains, more than 100 intercontinental ballistic missiles stand at the ready, buried deep underground in missile silos. These Minuteman III rockets are capable of delivering nuclear warheads at least 6,000 miles away and are part of the US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear and missile arsenal.
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Nestled among these silos are clusters of cell phone towers operated by a small rural wireless carrier. According to Federal Communications Commission filings, those cell towers use Chinese technology that security experts have warned in recent years could allow China to gather intelligence while also potentially mounting network attacks in the areas surrounding this and other sensitive military installations.
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Huawei, the Chinese company that makes the tower technology, is shunned by the major US wireless carriers and the federal government over national security concerns.
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Yet its technology is widely deployed by a number of small, federally subsidized wireless carriers that buy cheaper Chinese-made hardware to place atop their cell towers. In some cases, those cellular networks provide exclusive coverage to rural areas close to US military bases, CNN previously reported.
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In 2018, the heads of major US intelligence agencies — including the FBI and CIA — warned Americans against using Huawei devices and products. Security experts say that having its technology deployed so close to the nation’s arsenal of ICBMs could pose a far greater threat.
‘
Land purchases
In 2017, the Chinese government offered to spend $100 million to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington, DC. Complete with temples, pavilions and a 70-foot white pagoda, the project thrilled local officials, who hoped it would attract thousands of tourists every year.
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But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in Washington, just two miles from the US Capitol, a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection, multiple sources told CNN last year.
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Chinese officials wanted to build the pagoda with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, which US Customs officials are barred from examining, the sources said.
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Federal officials quietly killed the project before construction started.
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The canceled garden is just one of the projects that has caught the eye of the FBI and other federal agencies during what US security officials say has been a dramatic escalation of Chinese espionage on US soil over the past decade.
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Since 2017, federal officials have investigated Chinese land purchases near critical infrastructure, shut down a regional consulate believed by the US government to be a hotbed of Chinese spies and stonewalled what they saw as efforts to plant listening devices near sensitive military and government facilities.
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Some of the things the FBI uncovered pertained to Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest.
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According to multiple sources, the FBI determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted Defense Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the country’s nuclear weapons.
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Students, business people and scientists
CNN has also reported that Beijing has been leaning on expatriate Chinese scientists, businesspeople and even students in the US, according to current and former US intelligence officials, lawmakers and several experts.
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There have been a number of high-profile arrests. In January, a former graduate student in Chicago was sentenced to eight years in prison for spying for the Chinese government by gathering information on engineers and scientists in the United States.
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Ji Chaoqun, a Chinese national who came to the US to study electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2013 and later enlisted in the US Army Reserves, was arrested in 2018.
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The 31-year-old was convicted last September of acting illegally as an agent of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) and of making a material false statement to the US Army.
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According to the Justice Department, Ji was tasked with providing an intelligence officer with biographical information on individuals for potential recruitment as Chinese spies. The individuals included Chinese nationals who were working as engineers and scientists in the US, some of whom worked for American defense contractors.
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Ji’s spying was part of an effort by Chinese intelligence to obtain access to advanced aerospace and satellite technologies being developed by US companies, the Justice Department said.
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Ji was working at the direction of Xu Yanjun, a deputy division director at the Jiangsu provincial branch of the MMS, the DOJ statement said.
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Xu, a career intelligence officer, was sentenced last year to 20 years in prison for plotting to steal trade secrets from several US aviation and aerospace companies. Xu was also the first Chinese spy extradited to the US for trial, after being detained in Belgium in 2018 following an FBI investigation.
‘
CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s first name.
This story was first published on CNN. “A look at China’s history of spying in the US”
‘ ‘Chile-wildfires-leave-at-least-22-people-dead–officials-say’: ‘author’: ‘Jonny Hallam and Emma Tucker, CNN’ ‘caption’: ‘Javier Torres/AFP/Getty Images’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T08:16:28.043+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:f49ae7ce-06f6-4e0d-b69f-399b3e62d9b1’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘c53873fe-1c82-491e-aadc-acc8e8a9fe51’ ‘lead’: ‘At least 22 people have died in connection with widespread forest fires in south-central Chile, according to government officials.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T08:35:00.604+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘raheema’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:01.034+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:44.630+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Chile wildfires leave at least 22 people dead, officials say’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — At least 22 people have died in connection with widespread forest fires in south-central Chile, according to government officials.
Interior Minister Carolina Tohá confirmed during a news conference on Saturday that 22 people are dead. There are 1,429 people in shelters, 554 injured and 16 suffering severe burns who are in serious condition, she said.
Twenty-eight of the hundreds of fires in Chile in recent days have burned the amount of forest and woodland the country typically loses over the course of a year, Tohá said.
The minister also described record high temperatures in several of the affected regions of Chile.
“The thermometer has reached levels that we’ve never seen until now,” Tohá said.
On Saturday, President Gabriel Boric announced via Twitter that neighboring Argentina will send firefighters and machinery to combat the fires engulfing Chile’s south-central area, according to CNN Chile.
Boric said he had spoken to his Argentinian counterpart, Alberto Fernández, to “coordinate and thank Argentina in the fight against the fires. Besides firefighters, we will receive machinery.”
Boric added that he will seek further help fighting the fires from other countries.
“We are arranging support from various countries to face the emergency. We will not leave them alone,” he said tweeted.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Chile wildfires leave at least 22 people dead, officials say.”
‘ ‘Train-derailment-in-northeastern-Ohio-sparks-massive-fire’: ‘author’: ‘Rebekah Riess and Hannah Sarisohn, CNN’ ‘caption’: ‘WFMJ’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T08:36:09.056+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:b495c222-e802-48af-8fb4-2d4be3ee61ed’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘d3134fc8-f5e7-48ac-befb-aa8cf3f44a59’ ‘lead’: ‘A massive fire broke out after a train derailed Friday night in northeastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania state border, leading officials to issue evacuation and shelter-in-place orders for nearby residents.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T08:45:27.762+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘raheema’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:29:00.569+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:44.846+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Train derailment in northeastern Ohio sparks massive fire’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — A massive fire broke out after a train derailed Friday night in northeastern Ohio near the Pennsylvania state border, leading officials to issue evacuation and shelter-in-place orders for nearby residents.
No injuries were reported after the derailment in East Palestine, about 15 miles south of Youngstown, Mayor Trent Conaway said during a Friday night news conference.
On Saturday, he issued an emergency proclamation, saying the town had been “threatened” by hazardous materials potentially released in the accident.
The proclamation noted a Norfolk Southern train derailed Friday night.
“As of right now air quality, even one street back is OK,” he said. The smell in the air is because of the fire, he said, but there are no concerns about air quality.
The derailed train derailed had more than 100 cars, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
About 50 of them were involved in the derailment — 20 of which contained “hazardous materials,” NTSB board member Michael Graham said during a Saturday afternoon news conference.
“Four tank cars carrying vinyl chloride were involved in the derailment and were exposed to fire,” Graham said.
One car released some of the vinyl chloride through a safety release valve, Graham said. State environmental officials say they have not detected any harmful levels of the chemical in the community.
He added there was still an “active fire scene,” and could not estimate when the flames would be put out.
The cause of the derailment was not known Saturday.
Investigators say the train had image and data recorders onboard. It will take four to six weeks for the NTSB to have a preliminary report on the accident, Graham said.
EPA: No harmful levels of compounds in air
No harmful levels of compounds have been detected in the air as of Saturday evening, a spokesperson with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told CNN in an email.
“Ohio EPA will remain on site and air monitors will remain in place as long as necessary,” Ohio EPA spokesperson James Lee said in a statement. “Ohio EPA has established containment to help limit any damage to local streams and rivers from water runoff from the firefighting.”
The agency will work with local officials and the railroad company to “identify the nature and extent” of any possible contamination and will work to ensure cleanup efforts to protect human health and the environment, Lee said.
A shelter-in-place order issued
Officials issued a shelter-in-place order for the entire town of roughly 5,000 people, while an evacuation order was in effect within a mile of the train crossing at James Street as of early Saturday. Conaway said he did not know when those orders would be lifted.
Two evacuation stations have opened to provide shelter to residents, and the Red Cross has been notified, Conaway said.
Conaway on Saturday called for the “exercise of all necessary emergency authority for protection of lives and the property of the residents of the Village of East Palestine, Ohio.”
The proclamation also called on citizens to comply with the emergency measures.
Traci Spratt, the interim manager of the village of East Palestine, said Saturday an evacuation order for a one-mile radius from the incident remained in place “until further notice,” and stressed “we need everyone to stay away from the scene.”
Spratt also identified the chemical burning as vinyl chloride and said officials were conducting “continuous air monitoring and have found zero health risks.”
“The village’s drinking water is safe to drink and is being continually monitored,” Spratt added.
Photos from the scene showed a large, dense cloud of smoke engulfing flames atop the train. Firefighters from three states, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia responded, according to Conaway.
The Norfolk Southern train departed from Madison, Illinois, and was bound for Conway, Pennsylvania, when it derailed, according to the NTSB.
Norfolk Southern Railway said in a statement it is aware of the derailment and was “coordinating closely” with local first responders while mobilizing their own teams.
“We will share more details as they become available,” the statement said.
CNN has reached out to Norfolk Southern for further comment.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Train derailment in northeastern Ohio sparks massive fire.”
‘ ‘senate-bill-ex-presidents-benefits’: ‘categories’: [‘b3b3f789-2fc8-49bd-8c51-bc446e3087d9’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T09:54:07.331+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:9175a8a3-f837-426c-8da5-e72a818c5af9’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘bca61895-6d2d-4938-8755-2fbd2fa82789’ ‘lead’: ‘Four senators have filed a bill seeking to grant more benefits to former Philippine presidents as they are expected to perform “post-presidential duties.”’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T09:56:28.198+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘seth’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:59.592+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:45.065+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Senators file bill seeking more benefits for ex-presidents’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 5) — Four senators have filed a bill seeking to grant more benefits to former Philippine presidents as they are expected to perform “post-presidential duties.”
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Senators Bong Go, Mark Villar, Bato dela Rosa, and Francis Tolentino filed Senate Bill 1784, or the proposed Former Presidents Benefits Act of 2023, on Jan. 26.
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“Despite the end of their term, they are also expected to perform post-presidential duties such as meeting with foreign and local dignitaries, and attending public events and other social engagements,” the explanatory note read.
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“These duties often require them to employ the services of personal staff and maintain private offices,” it added.
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If the bill is passed into law, former chief executives will be entitled to choose the head of their own security detail. The immediate family will also be provided with security protection as long as the ex-leader is living. Currently, the incumbent president assigns Presidential Security Group members to guard them.
‘
Ex-presidents can also select “adequate staff” provided by the Office of the President, as well as a “suitable office space appropriately furnished and equipped” anywhere within the country.
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The benefits will be for the remainder of the lives of the former presidents, the proposed measure added.
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According to the bill, the Department of Budget and Management shall include the needed amount to implement the provisions of the proposed measure in the annual General Appropriations Act or the national budget.
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Currently, Joseph Estrada, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Rodrigo Duterte are the only living former Philippine presidents.
‘ ‘north-korea-youtubers-not-what-they-seem’: ‘author’: ‘Jessie Yeung and Gawon Bae, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T10:07:32.543+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:cde4f01e-771f-488d-8d3c-51fa3c7a7fa7’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘8d104249-d2fa-4566-ad59-2b851aeacef5’ ‘lead’: ‘These YouTubers are likely related to high-ranking officials and may be part of a propaganda campaign aimed at rebranding the country’s international image as a more relatable – even tourist-friendly – place than its constant talk about nuclear weapons might suggest.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T10:18:29.544+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘seth’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:58.963+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:45.507+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘They eat ice cream and read ‘Harry Potter,’ but these North Korean YouTubers aren’t what they seem’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — The young woman rifles through a fridge of popsicles, pulling out several to show the camera.
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“This is milk flavor — the picture is so cute,” she says in English, pointing to the cartoon packaging with a smile. “And this is peach flavor.”
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After finally selecting an ice cream cone, she bites into it, declaring: “The biscuit is very delicious.”
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The four-minute video has racked up more than 41,000 views on YouTube, but this is no ordinary vlog. The woman, who calls herself YuMi, lives in North Korea, perhaps the world’s most isolated and secretive nation.
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Her YouTube channel, created last June, is one of several social media accounts that have popped up across the internet in the past year or two, in which North Korean residents claim to share their everyday lives.
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But experts say not all is as it seems in these videos, and that the images contain tell-tale signs that the lives displayed are far from the norm for the impoverished millions under the dictatorship of leader Kim Jong Un.
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Instead, they suggest, YuMi and others like are likely related to high-ranking officials and may be part of a propaganda campaign aimed at rebranding the country’s international image as a more relatable — even tourist-friendly — place than its constant talk about nuclear weapons might suggest.
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YuMi’s videos “look like a well-prepared play” scripted by the North Korean government, said Park Seong-cheol, a researcher at the Database Centre for North Korean Human Rights.
Tell-tale signs
For decades, North Korea has been comparatively closed off from the rest of the world, with tight restrictions on free expression, free movement and access to information.
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Its dismal human rights record has been criticized by the United Nations. Internet use is heavily restricted; even the privileged few who are allowed smartphones can only access a government-run, heavily censored intranet. Foreign materials like books and movies are banned, often with severe punishments for those caught with black market contraband.
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This is why YuMi — who not only has access to a filming device but YouTube — is no ordinary North Korean, experts say.
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“Connecting with the outside world is an impossible thing for a resident,” said Ha Seung-hee, a research professor of North Korea studies at Dongguk University.
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YuMi is not the only North Korean YouTuber turning heads: an 11-year-old who calls herself Song A made her YouTube debut in April 2022 and has already gained more than 20,000 subscribers.
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“My favorite book is ‘Harry Potter’ written by J. K. Rowling,” Song A claims in one video, holding up the first book of the series — particularly striking given North Korea’s typically strict rules forbidding foreign culture especially from Western nations.
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The video shows Song A speaking in a British accent and sitting in what looks like an idyllic child’s bedroom complete with a globe, bookshelf, a stuffed animal, a framed photo and pink curtains.
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Luxuries for ‘a special class’
The rosy depictions of daily life in Pyongyang may also give a clue to the social standing and identities of their creators.
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YuMi’s videos show her visiting an amusement park and an interactive cinema show, fishing in a river, exercising in a well-equipped indoor gym, and visiting a limestone cave where young students wave the North Korean flag in the background.
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Song A visits a packed water park, tours a science and technology exhibition center, and films her first day back at school.
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Park, the expert, says these representations aren’t 100% false — but they are extremely misleading, and do not represent normal life.
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There have been reports of North Korea’s wealthy elite, such as senior government officials and their families, having access to luxuries such as air conditioning, scooters and coffee. And the facilities shown in the YouTube videos do exist — but they’re not accessible to most people, and are only granted to “special people in a special class,” Park said.
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These facilities are also likely not open or operating regularly as the videos imply, he said. “For example, the power supply in North Korea is not smooth enough to operate an amusement park, so I’ve heard that they would only operate it on the weekends or on a special day like when they film a video,” added Park.
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North Korea is notorious for frequent blackouts and electricity shortages; only about 26% of the population has access to electricity, according to 2019 estimates from the CIA World Factbook. These blackouts were captured in nighttime satellite images in 2011 and 2014 that showed North Korea cloaked in darkness, almost blending into the dark sea around it — in sharp contrast to the dazzling lights of neighboring China and South Korea.
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The YouTubers’ English fluency and access to rare luxuries suggest they are both highly educated and likely related to high-ranking officials, Park said.
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Defectors have previously told CNN that some North Koreans learn British English in their English classes. The British Council, a UK-based organization, also ran an English language teacher training program in North Korea, sending teachers there for more than a dozen years before it was halted in 2017.
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A new style of propaganda
North Korean propaganda isn’t new; previous campaigns have featured Soviet-style posters, videos of marching troops and missile tests, and images of Kim Jong Un on a white horse.
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But experts say the YouTube videos, and similar North Korean social media accounts on Chinese platforms like Weibo and Bilibili, illustrate a new strategy: Relatability.
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“North Korea is striving to emphasize that Pyongyang is an ‘ordinary city,'” Park said, adding that the leadership “is very interested in how the outside world views them.”
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Ha, the research professor, said North Korea could be trying to portray itself as a “safe country” to encourage greater tourism for its battered economy — especially after the toll of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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While it has not yet reopened its borders to tourists, “the pandemic is going to end at some point, and North Korea has been concentrating on tourism for economic purposes,” Ha said.
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Before the pandemic, there were limited options for tours in which visitors were shepherded around the country by guides from the Ministry of Tourism. The tours were carefully choreographed, designed to show the country in its best light. Even so, many countries, including the United States, warn their citizens against visiting.
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After the pandemic began, “there was talk (in North Korea) about shedding previous forms of propaganda and implementing new forms,” Ha said. “After Kim Jong Un ordered (authorities) to be more creative in their propaganda, vlog videos on YouTube began appearing.”
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A 2019 article in North Korea’s state-owned newspaper Rodong Sinmun, citing Kim, declared that the country’s propaganda and news channels must “boldly discard the old framework of writing and editing with established conventions and conventional methods.”
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The YouTubers’ use of English may reflect this effort to reach global viewers. Both YuMi and Song A also helpfully include English names for their channels: YuMi also goes by “Olivia Natasha,” and Song A by “Sally Parks.”
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Why YouTube?
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In 2017, YouTube took down the state-run North Korean news channel Uriminzokkiri, and the Tonpomail channel controlled by ethnic Koreans in Japan loyal to Pyongyang, saying they violated the platform’s terms of services and community guidelines.
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Another YouTube channel called Echo of Truth, purportedly run by a North Korean resident called Un A who filmed herself enjoying daily activities in Pyongyang, was taken down in late 2020.
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But the closures sparked outcry from some researchers who said the videos provided a valuable insight into North Korea and its leadership, even if they were propaganda.
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When CNN requested comment from YouTube on these deleted channels, and those of Song A and YuMi, a spokesperson said the platform “complies with all applicable sanctions and trade compliance laws — including with respect to content created and uploaded by restricted entities.”
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“If we find that an account violates our Terms of Service or Community Guidelines, we disable it,” the statement said.
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Experts said the videos by YuMi and Song A might be an attempt by Pyongyang to reach an audience without attracting the attention of moderators.
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And however scripted they might be, they too offered a valuable window into the country, experts said.
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“People already know that (the videos) were created for propaganda purposes … the public is already aware,” Ha said. But, she added, “I think there should be proper education and discussion on how we should perceive (such) content instead of just closing the doors.”
This story was first published on CNN. “They eat ice cream and read ‘Harry Potter,’ but these North Korean YouTubers aren’t what they seem“
‘ ‘worlds-oldest-dog-bobi’: ‘author’: ‘Amarachi Orie, CNN’ ‘categories’: [‘9c97e21f-a76f-46f3-bc77-d7074b7893bf’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T10:17:49.525+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:5f5c702c-95e9-4f21-b25f-8cc46f4c1215’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘fe6f99a2-1f0a-48fb-b43b-5a51848b023e’ ‘lead’: ‘It was only two weeks ago that Spike, a 23-year-old chihuahua mix from Ohio, was named the oldest living dog. Now, he has been utterly dethroned.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T10:21:43.077+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘pia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:57.474+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:45.905+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:tags’: [] ‘Rafeiro-do-Alentejo’, ‘Portugal’] ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Sorry, Spike. There’s a new world’s oldest living dog — and he’s the oldest ever recorded’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — It was only two weeks ago that Spike, a 23-year-old chihuahua mix from Ohio, was named the oldest living dog. Now, he has been utterly dethroned.
Bobi, at the age of 30 years and 268 days, has been crowned the world’s oldest living dog — and the oldest dog to ever live — by Guinness World Records (GWR).
The Portuguese purebred Rafeiro do Alentejo — a breed of livestock guardian dog — has lived for double his life expectancy of 12 to 14 years, according to a statement from GWR.
In doing so, the pooch, who has spent his whole life with the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros, in Leiria, western Portugal, has broken an almost century-old record held by Australian cattle dog Bluey, who lived for 29 years and 5 months between 1910 and 1939.
While another Australian dog, Chilla, was believed to have lived to the age of 32 years and 3 days upon her death on March 8, 1983, this was not officially verified. Bobi’s age has been confirmed by the Veterinary Medical Service of the Municipality of Leiria, and SIAC, a pet database authorized by the Portuguese government.
Owner Leonel Costa, who was just 8 years old when Bobi was born on May 11, 1992, said in the statement: “Bobi has been a warrior for all these years, only he knows how he’s been holding on, it must not be easy because the average dog’s life span is not that high and if he spoke only he could explain this success.”
The Costa family are used to long-lived dogs. According to a post on the the GWR website, Bobi’s mother, Gira, lived to the age of 18, and another of the family’s dogs, Chicote, lived for 22 years. So, Costa, who still hopes Bobi could father some puppies of his own one day, said he never thought of registering him as the oldest ever dog when he applied for the oldest living dog title.
“We see situations like this as a normal result of the life that they have, but Bobi is one of a kind,” he said in the statement.
Best-kept secret
But Bobi nearly didn’t make it beyond infancy. When he and his three brothers were born in the family’s woodshed, Costa’s father decided they already had too many animals at home.
Costa and his brother thought their parents had taken all the puppies away to be destroyed. However, a few sad days later, they found Bobi alive, safely hidden in a pile of logs.
Costa and his brother kept the pup’s existence a secret until his eyes were open: “We knew that when the dog opened its eyes, my parents would no longer bury it,” Costa said, adding that “it was worth it.”
Bobi grew up “very sociable,” alongside many other animals, and roamed free in the forests and farmland around the house, according to the statement.
Costa puts his pet’s longevity down, in part, to the “calm, peaceful environment” in which he grew up, as well as his taste for human food.
In his old age, Bobi has become less adventurous. He has difficulty walking and sometimes collides with objects as his eyesight has deteriorated. He likes a nap after meals, and spends most of his time hanging out in the backyard with four cat friends.
The pooch had “one big scare” in 2018, ending up in the hospital after collapsing with breathing difficulties. However, regular assessments at the vet’s “have always shown that he is doing well for his advanced age,” Costa said.
“We are very happy and grateful to life for allowing us, after 30 years, to have Bobi in our daily lives,” he said.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Sorry, Spike. There’s a new world’s oldest living dog — and he’s the oldest ever recorded.”
‘ ‘kyrie-irving-trade-request-report’: ‘author’: ‘Jacob Lev, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’26cd2aca-e96d-4813-956c-11c0f3a1281f’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T10:21:51.437+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:43edfe91-08a3-443a-a892-cd57dee43aec’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ’85d8de56-1e36-46cd-9004-a85d92546cee’ ‘lead’: ‘Kyrie Irving has requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets ahead of the NBA trade deadline on February 9, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T10:24:54.488+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘pia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:56.948+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:46.051+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:tags’: [] ‘Adrian-Wojnarowski’, ‘The-Athletic’, ‘Shams-Charania’] ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Kyrie Irving requests trade from Brooklyn Nets, per reports’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — Kyrie Irving has requested a trade from the Brooklyn Nets ahead of the NBA trade deadline on February 9, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
According to Wojnarowski, there were talks between the Nets and Irving on a new deal but no deal was reached and a trade request was made to the team. Irving is scheduled to become a free agent this off-season.
CNN has reached out to the Nets and Irving’s agent for comment.
The 30-year-old Irving has averaged 27.7 points, 5.3 assists, and 5.1 rebounds per game this season and has helped lead the Nets to a 31-20 record.
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Kyrie Irving requests trade from Brooklyn Nets, per reports.”
‘ ‘china-protests-us-shoots-down-balloon’: ‘author’: ‘Heather Chen and Wayne Chang, CNN’ ‘categories’: [’90febd36-3bb8-453a-86aa-322eeb5841f5′] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T11:56:13.097+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:4c53d646-e149-4817-a234-58c50c0b16aa’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘1d9b72b5-a782-4b7a-8b5d-65172df02a5a’ ‘lead’: ‘China has expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and protest” against Washington’s decision to shoot down its balloon, accusing it of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice.”‘ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T11:58:58.147+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘seth’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:56.550+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:46.289+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘China protests after US jets shoot down suspected spy balloon’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
(CNN) — China has expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and protest” against Washington’s decision to shoot down its balloon, accusing it of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice.”
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US military fighter jets on Saturday shot down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean in a mission President Joe Biden hailed as a success.
READ: US fighter jets shoot down Chinese spy balloon off East Coast
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The United States believes the balloon was involved in espionage, but China has refuted this, insisting it was a civilian research vessel blown off course.
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Shortly after the downing of the balloon, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday morning local time expressing its “strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US’s use of force to attack a civilian unmanned aircraft.”
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“The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure — it was completely an accident,” the Foreign Ministry said.
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“China clearly asked the US to handle it properly in a calm, professional and restrained manner. A spokesman for the US Department of Defense also stated that the balloon will not pose a military or personal threat to ground personnel,” the statement continued.
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“China will resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of relevant companies, while reserving the right to make further necessary reaction,” the ministry added.
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US officials have pushed back on China’s repeated claims the downed balloon was simply for civilian use and had made its way into American airspace by “accident.”
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“This was a PRC (People’s Republic of China) surveillance balloon. This surveillance balloon purposely traversed the United States and Canada and we are confident it was seeking to monitor sensitive military sites,” a senior US administration official said.
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The official said a second balloon, spotted over Central and South America, was “another PRC surveillance balloon” and bore similar technical characteristics to the one that flew over the US.
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“Both balloons also carry surveillance equipment not usually associated with standard meteorological activities or civilian research,” the official said. “Collection pod equipment and solar panels located on the metal truss suspended below the balloon are a prominent feature of both balloons.”
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Pentagon officials earlier this week said the balloon posed no “military or physical” threat. The US decided against shooting down the balloon while it remained over land due to the risk of falling debris hurting a civilian and instead waited until it was over the ocean.
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The US military will now focus on debris recovery efforts.
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The incident is the latest in a series of spying cases and has fueled a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington.
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Taiwan weighs in
Meanwhile Taiwan authorities on Sunday said that the Chinese balloon incident “should not be tolerated by the civilized international community.”
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The self-governed island, which China claims as part of its territory despite never having controlled it, has experience of similar balloons overflying its territory.
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“Such actions by the Chinese Communist Party government contravene international law, breach the airspace of other countries, and violate their sovereignty,” Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, calling on China’s government to “immediately cease conduct of this kind that encroaches on other countries and causes regional instability.”
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Balloons believed to be used for “meteorological observations” flew over the island In September 2021 and in February 2022, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.
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This story was first published on CNN. “China protests after US jets shoot down suspected spy balloon“
‘ ‘jinggoy-estrada-sb1508-mental-health-office-suc’: ‘author’: ‘CNN Philippines Staff’ ‘caption’: ‘(FILE PHOTO)’ ‘categories’: [‘b3b3f789-2fc8-49bd-8c51-bc446e3087d9’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T14:30:07.082+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:08c61e99-88cd-4092-bc7d-e2ee0081e386’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘e69b4a34-0552-4840-b8ae-2620a66fe048’ ‘lead’: ‘Senator Jinggoy Estrada has filed a bill seeking to require state universities and colleges to establish mental health offices in their campuses to help students, faculty, and non-teaching staff cope with mental health issues.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T14:44:50.714+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘pia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:55.651+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:46.487+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:tags’: [] ‘health’, ‘mental-health’] ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Estrada pushes for the creation of mental health offices in SUCs’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 5) — Senator Jinggoy Estrada has filed a bill seeking to require state universities and colleges (SUCs) to establish mental health offices (MHOs) in their campuses to help students, faculty, and non-teaching staff cope with mental health issues.
“There have been a lot of studies that have come out on the worsening mental shape of our youth today. Hindi dapat natin itong ipagwalang bahala. Dapat aksyunan ito at solusyunan. Mahalagang pagtuunan ito ng pansin nang hindi na madagdagan pa ang ating mga mag-aaral na depressed,” Estrada said.
[Translation: This should not be brushed aside. There should be action and solution. It’s important to pay attention to this to prevent the number of depressed students from increasing.]
Under Senate Bill 1508, “all SUCs shall be required to have MHOs in all their campuses, set up campus hotlines with dedicated and trained guidance counselors to provide assistance to students and teaching and non-teaching staff. Special attention shall be given to those identified to have mental health problems or conditions, especially those at risk of committing suicide,” Estrada said in a statement on Sunday.
The bill also aims to mandate the continuous training of MHOs staff to keep them updated with the latest information on mental health.
The House of Representatives has approved House Bill 6574 that also seeks to create MHOs in school divisions nationwide.
Recently, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said the panel is set to endorse the Department of Education’s (DepEd) request to increase the salary of guidance counselors. This is to ensure that students have enough access to mental health programs as more of them suffer from mental health issues.
According to DepEd Assistant Secretary Dexter Galban, in 2021 the agency recorded 404 students who took their own lives, as well as 2,147 attempted suicide cases involving learners.
Senate Bill No. 379, or the proposed Basic Education Mental Health and Well-Being Promotion Act filed in 2022, aims to increase the pay of the following: Guidance Counselor I from SG 11 (₱25,439) to SG 16 (₱38,150); Guidance Counselor II from SG 12 (₱27,608) to SG 17 (₱41,508); and Guidance Counselor III from SG 13 (₱29,798) to SG 18 (₱45,203).
According to Gatchalian, author of the bill, the country only has about 4,000 guidance counselors, but it needs 47,000.
‘ ‘Businessman-Roberto-V.-Ongpin-dies-at-86’: ‘categories’: [‘b3b3f789-2fc8-49bd-8c51-bc446e3087d9’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T14:47:31.850+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:e2a9e5a3-840d-4a8f-b40f-f2f87996df35’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘3c06a00e-947d-4b6d-9748-e5abfa70dfe8’ ‘lead’: ‘Businessman Roberto V. Ongpin, one of the Philippines’ richest, died on Saturday, a relative confirmed.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T14:53:34.578+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘jelo’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:55.318+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:46.713+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘Businessman Roberto V. Ongpin dies at 86’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 5) — Businessman Roberto V. Ongpin, one of the Philippines’ richest, died on Saturday, a relative confirmed.
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“Roberto Velayo Ongpin, chairman of Alphaland Corporation, passed away in his sleep last night in Balesin Island. He was 86 years old (born on January 6, 1937),” the relative said in a text message to CNN Philippines on Sunday.
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“He is survived by his wife, Monica Arellano, his children, Stephen, Anna, Michelle and Julian, and four grandchildren, two of whom he got to play with before he went to sleep last night,” it added.
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The relative also said Ongpin’s remains will be brought to Manila, and his immediate family will make an official announcement regarding wake details.
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In August 2022, Forbes Magazine reported that Ongpin was the 23rd richest Filipino with a net worth of $830 million.
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Forbes also described Ongpin’s Alphaland as a “high-end property developer that delisted in 2014 after a messy split with a U.K. investment group.”
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Ongpin also developed the Balesin Island Club, a 500-hectare exclusive resort in Polillo, Quezon.
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In 2016, he stepped down as chairman and director of online gaming company PhilWeb and all its subsidiaries after being tagged by former President Rodrigo Duterte as one of the oligarchs in the country who had to be “destroyed.”
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In 2017, the Court of Appeals cleared Ongpin of insider trading charges involving his shares in Philex Mining Corp., reversing a 2016 en banc ruling of the Securities and Exchange Commission that ordered to disqualify the businessman from becoming part of the board of any Philippine Stock Exchange-listed firm and to pay a fine of ₱174 million.
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Ongpin also served as the Minister of Commerce and Industry during the presidency of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.
‘ ‘doj-un-ejk-special-rapporteur-forensics’: ‘categories’: [‘b3b3f789-2fc8-49bd-8c51-bc446e3087d9’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T15:08:25.082+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:bb6a4cdc-fd4f-4423-97f3-3b05c62b9f02’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ’90ecd45b-da77-4082-819b-341ee5bb22e2′ ‘lead’: ‘The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings will visit the Philippines to “capacitate” Philippine law enforcement agencies and medical practitioners in the field of forensic pathology, the DOJ said.’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T15:11:49.126+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘seth’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:54.849+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:46.947+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘DOJ: UN rapporteur on EJK to aid PH doctors, law enforcement in forensics’ ‘visualType’: ‘image
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 5) – The United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings (EJK) will visit the Philippines to “capacitate” Philippine law enforcement agencies and medical practitioners in the field of forensic pathology, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
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Dr. Morris Tidball-Binz will visit the country from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, the DOJ said. He is a medical doctor specializing in forensic science, human rights, and humanitarian action.
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He was a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from 2004 to 2020. He helped establish and eventually led the ICRC Forensic Unit. On April 1, 2021, Tidball-Binz was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial summary or arbitrary executions.
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Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla clarified in a statement on Sunday that Tidball-Binz is not visiting the country in his capacity as a UN Special Rapporteur but as a forensic pathologist to aid in the examination of wrongful deaths.
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“He is coming in his capacity as an expert in the field to help capacitate our current doctors. We need more capable doctors in our country to assist our law enforcement agencies in their work,” Remulla said. “This is an enormous step towards that goal…[His] visit will help us identify the intricacies of wrongful death tragedies.”
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Remulla invited Tidball-Binz to the Philippines when the two met in Switzerland last November.
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READ: PH invites UN special rapporteur on EJKs — Remulla
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The forensic expert is set to meet with Remulla, Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Chief Moro Virgilio Lazo, Philippine National Police Chief Rodolfo Azurin, and National Bureau of Investigation Director Medardo De Lemos.
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“His missions and projects have had an immeasurable impact on the countries he has helped,” Remulla said, referring to Tidball-Binz’ capacity building and fact-finding missions held in over 70 nations.
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“He has provided closure for families of victims of EJK and enforced disappearances. We are hoping for the same when he visits the Philippines,” Remulla said.
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Tidball-Binz’ visit comes shortly after “inconsistencies” were found in the autopsy of 17-year-old Kian Delos Santos, an EJK victim of the past administration’s bloody drug war.
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These inconsistencies include an incomplete police report, a superficial autopsy, and a bullet in Delos Santos’ neck that had allegedly gone unreported in previous examinations.
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READ: Inconsistencies in Kian Delos Santos autopsy found – forensic expert
‘ ‘ofw-kuwait-injured-after-escape’: ‘author’: ‘Raheema Velasco, CNN Philippines’ ‘categories’: [‘b3b3f789-2fc8-49bd-8c51-bc446e3087d9’] ‘created’: 2023-02-05T15:39:46.902+08:00 ‘imagesource’: ‘jcr:719a1032-5dec-4a6f-9d48-b52641cf81f3’ ‘jcr:mixinTypes’: [‘mgnl:hasVersion’] ‘jcr:primaryType’: ‘mgnl:composition’ ‘jcr:uuid’: ‘0c3a8704-f0be-4bdb-a02a-43b0e0a8b8f3’ ‘lead’: ‘Another overseas Filipino worker in Kuwait was injured after falling from a window of her employer’s house to escape, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration reports’ ‘mgnl:activationStatus’: true ‘mgnl:created’: 2023-02-05T15:45:23.596+08:00 ‘mgnl:createdBy’: ‘raheema’ ‘mgnl:lastActivated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:53.932+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastActivatedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersion’: ‘1.0’ ‘mgnl:lastActivatedVersionCreated’: 2023-02-06T20:28:47.154+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModified’: 2024-07-05T13:24:25.059+08:00 ‘mgnl:lastModifiedBy’: ‘magnolia’ ‘template’: ‘1’ ‘title’: ‘OFW in Kuwait injured after trying to escape from employer – POEA’ ‘updated’: 2023-02-05T20:57:00.000+08:00 ‘visualType’: ‘image
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 5) – Another overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in Kuwait was injured after falling from a window of her employer’s house to escape, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) reported.
According to POEA’s report dated Jan. 30, Myla Balbag fell from the third floor of her employer’s house in Hayteen Area.
“On Jan. 21, 2023, her female employer caught her doing Tiktok in her room and became furious. They wrestle for the phone and the employer later seized her phone and head set,” Welfare Officer Genevieve Ardiente said in a statement on Saturday.
After her employer confronted her, Balbag packed her belongings and tried to escape through the window.
She is currently in a hospital where she is being treated for multiple leg and spine fractures.
The POEA report did not specify what Balbag’s employer did to her.
Amid speculations that Balbag may have attempted to commit suicide, such an act, according to Overseas Workers Welfare Administration chief Arnell Ignacio, is punishable under Kuwaiti law.
“Kung ikaw ay mag-a-attempt mag-suicide, ikaw pa rin ay makakasuhan…Bibigyan natin kaagad siya ng lawyer in case this will happen [If you attempt suicide, you will still be charged…We will give her a lawyer right away in case this will happen],” Ignacio told CNN Philippines’ Newsroom Weekend, addressing reports that Balbag’s employer will file a case of attempted suicide against the OFW.
Ignacio assured her family that the OWWA will “intervene” to keep it from happening.
Meanwhile, Jullebee Ranara was laid to rest at the Golden Haven Memorial Park in Las Piñas City on Sunday.
‘ ’17’: ‘contentWidth’: ‘100%’ ’embedCode’: ‘
WATCH: The body of slain OFW Jullebee Ranara arrived at the Golden Haven Memorial Park in Las Piñas to be laid to rest. @cnnphilippines pic.twitter.com/hM3NMAC56a
— Kaithreen Cruz (@kaithreencruz) February 5, 2023
