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WORK IN PROGRESS, WORK STRANDED

Congress met deadline for BBL, but fate of other key measures still hangs

By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz

W

HILE the House of Representatives met its deadline in passing the Bangsamoro basic law (BBL), it seemed to have forgotten some of its priority measures.

Several other measures still remain pending in the legislative mill despite the agreement between the two chambers to pass these into law during the second regular session of the 17th Congress. The second regular session ended last May 30, while the third and last regular session is expected to start on July 23.

Some of the identified priority measures that are still awaiting lawmakers’ action include:

n Amendment to Republic Act 8178, or the Agricultural Tariffication Act. Amending RA 8178 is needed to scrap the quantitative restriction (QR) and convert it into tariffs.

Party-list Rep. Jose Panganiban Jr. of Anac-IP, chairman of the House Committee on Food and Agriculture, said members of his committee will sponsor the measure when session resumes in July.

“We may start tackling the tariffication bill in July as our focus is on the passage of the Bangsamoro basic law,” said Panganiban.

The substitute measure amending RA 8178, or the Agricultural Tariffication Act, is now pending before the chamber for plenary approval.

n Traffic and Congestion Crisis Act. In 2016 President Duterte asked Congress to grant him emergency powers to address the immense and growing traffic dilemma in the National Capital Region and major cities in the country.

House Committee on Transportation Chairman Cesar V. Sarmiento of the Lone District of Catanduanes said the plenary debate on House Bill 6425 (HB), or the proposed Traffic and Congestion Crisis Act, may continue when session resumes in July.

Continued on A2

FILIPINO Muslim twins flash the peace sign while chanting slogans to call for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in Mindanao, during a rally following Friday prayers at the Golden Mosque in Manila on February 6, 2015. AP/BULLIT MARQUEZ

HERE COMES THE SUN

RUDMER ZWERVER | DREAMSTIME.COM

Green-energy groups show solar panels can go on rooftops of homes, factories, even ‘float’ on the lake

S

By Cai U. Ordinario

OLAR panels are not solely for wide, open spaces as these can be installed in strategic locations in megacities like Metro Manila, where lack of space is a major concern in providing city dwellers easy access to renewable energy (RE).

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 52.4590

At a news briefing on the sidelines of the Clean Energy Forum held from June 4 to 8 at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Headquarters in Manila, International Energy Agency (IEA) chief economist Laszlo Varro cited the use of solar panels in dense urban centers in China.

Varro said these solar panels are placed on rooftops of homes and business establishments, thus giving populated areas in China’s eastern regions access to affordable and reliable RE.

“Instead of using agricultural land, put solar panels on top of factories, put solar panels on top of their houses, on top of call centers and so on. This is something [that] has been successful in the eastern regions of China, something that Southeast Asian countries could also consider,” Varro said.

Solar Philippines Founder and Chief Executive Officer Leandro Leviste also shared his company’s efforts to test floating solar panels on the surface of Laguna Lake in the third quarter.

Leviste said the100-kilowatt pilot project technical test aims to determine whether the floating solar panels can withstand 250-km-per-hour winds that are common in the country during the typhoon season.

He said Solar Philippines chose Laguna Lake because there will be no need to invest heavily on transmission lines as it is near Metro Manila. The lake is also shallow enough to become an accessible location for the pilot.

He said if the project will be suc-

cessful, there will be no need to use more agricultural lands for power generation in the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Costa Rica Limpia Founder and Director Monica Araya said small countries like the Philippines can also take inspiration from other middleincome countries, and not only from big countries such as China, the US and India, to find cleanenergy solutions, whether technology or financial.

See “Solar,” A2

n JAPAN 0.4783 n UK 70.4262 n HK 6.6861 n CHINA 8.2056 n SINGAPORE 39.3364 n AUSTRALIA 40.0000 n EU 61.9069 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.9895

Source: BSP (June 8, 2018 )

News

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A2 Saturday, June 9, 2018

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Congress met deadline for BBL, but fate of other key measures still hangs Continued from a1

“[The measure] is replete with easily implementable programs that have immediate and farreaching implications in our transportation sector in contrast to the big-ticket transportation projects, which usually take years to complete,” he added.

Sarmiento said the measure would pave the way for the creation of a single traffic authority headed by a traffic czar who will be appointed by Duterte.

“The traffic czar is expected to come up with a traffic management plan within 90 days that will harmonize and unify all existing traffic regulations in the affected areas,” said Sarmiento. n Salary Standardization Law IV. The proposal seeks to increase the salary of government employees to be competitive with the market rates.

Party-list Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro of ACT Teachers urged the leadership of the lower chamber to pass the proposal that seeks to increase the salary of government workers, amid the increasing prices of basic commodities and services.

Currently, there are 10 filed bills amending the RA 6758, or the Salary Standardization Law, in the lower chamber. These measures are still pending before the House Committee on Appropriations.

The lawmakers urged the Duterte administration to grant substantial salary increases for all government employees now and not in 2020.

The solons filed HB 7211 to raise the entry-level salary of public-school teachers to P30,000 a month and the salary of regular entry-level government employees to P16,000. It also aims to increase the Personnel Economic Relief Allowance granted to all government employees from

P2,000 per month to P5,000. n Amendments to the Government Procurement Reform Act. Under the proposal, negotiated procurement will be allowed “before, during, or after a calamity.” Currently, negotiated procurement is only applicable during a state of calamity.

The bill is pending before the House Committee on Appropriations.

Also pending for approval are bills requiring a legislative franchise for operating railways; creating the Mindanao Railway Corp./ Authority; creating a Central Luzon Railways Corp.; and extending the corporate life of the Philippine National Railways to another 25 years.

Ready for bicameral

MEANWHILE, despite the delay in the passage of some of the priority measures, the lower chamber highlighted the approval of several measures at this second regular session, as various bills are now awaiting action by the bicameral conference committee.

Topping the House bills pending at the bicameral body is the historic HB 6475, also known as the BBL. Other bills pending at the bicameral level include HB 7436, or “An Act Abolishing the Road Board”; HB 5777, entitled “Strengthening The National And Local Health And Nutrition Programs For Pregnant And Lactating Women, Adolescent Girls Of Reproductive Age And Teen-Age Mothers, Infants And Young Children”; and HB 5745, or “An Act Establishing The Coconut Farmers And Industry Development Trust Fund”.

Meanwhile, in terms of plenary approval, the House approved on third and final reading a total of 429 bills and 29 bills on second reading before the adjournment sine die of the Second Regular Session.

Among the bills the House ap-

proved on third reading and final reading and awaiting senators’ actions are: n HB 7525, entitled “An Act Increasing The Monthly Pension Of Senior Veterans”; n HB 7449, or “An Act Appropriating P1,161,710,000 As Supplemental Appropriations to Dengvaxia Vaccinees”; n HB 7303, entitled “An Act Instituting Absolute Divorce And Dissolution Of Marriage”; n HB 7302, or the “Budget Reform Act”; n HB 3988, or the “Conjugal Partnership of Gains”; n HB 7185, or “An Act Recognizing the Foreign Decree of Termination of Marriage”; n HB 7163, entitled “An Act Penalizing the Act of Throwing Hard Objects at Motor Vehicles”; n HB 7193, entitled “An Act Providing a Framework for the Right to Adequate Food”; and n HB 7233, entitled “An Act Requiring the Registration of All Users of Subscriber Identity Module Cards.”

Accomplishment

MEANWHILE, the lower chamber has already passed several measures into law that “made life easier for many Filipinos,” Speaker Pantaleon D. Alvarez said.

Among these laws is RA 10931, entitled “Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education Act”, which provides free tuition and miscellaneous fees in state universities and colleges, as well as in local colleges and in government-run technicalvocational schools.

Likewise, the enactment of RA 10969, also known as the “Free Irrigation Act,” has removed from the country’s small farmers—most of whom are already saddled with debts and high cost of farm inputs—the additional burden of paying irrigation fees.

Also, the House helped ensure indigent patients are accorded life-

saving emergency medical treatment with the enactment of RA 10932, or “An Act Strengthening The Anti-Hospital Deposit Law”, by increasing the penalties against hospitals or clinics that refuse to treat patients in emergency or serious cases unless they can provide a certain amount as deposit.

The lower chamber also helped ease the burden on Filipino travelers abroad and local motorists with the enactment of two separate laws. With RA 10928, or “An Act Extending The Validity Of Philippine Passports”, Filipino passport holders can use their travel documents for up to 10 years before they are required to renew their passports. Previously, Philippine passports are valid only up to five years.

Likewise, with the signing into law of RA 10930, “Extending the Validity Period of Drivers’ Licenses”, motorists can now use their license for five years instead of the previous three-year validity period.

The lower chamber also sought to cut red tape and encourage more people to get into business with the enactment of RA 11032, or the “Ease of Doing Business” law, which prescribes a uniform guideline for the processing of business documents.

Among others, the law requires government agencies to act on applications within three days for simple transactions, seven days for complex ones and 20 days for the highly technical. It also requires the establishment of onestop shops in every city or town and encourages local government units to automate their permit and license processing systems.

As more and more transactions are conducted online, the enactment of HB 5225, providing “Free Internet Access in Public Places”, would also serve to further enhance productivity.

In two separate joint resolu-

tions, the House and the Senate also worked together to ease the plight of the poor and the public servants.

With the enactment on May 9, 2018, of House Joint Resolution 15 and its counterpart SJR 8 as Joint Resolution 2, housing units intended for the uniformed services that remained unused were made available to qualified poor beneficiaries, giving them the opportunity to have a dignified shelter of their own.

On the other hand, Joint Resolution 1 finally gave the military, the police and other members of the uniformed services in the country the increase in base pay that they have been hoping to receive for a long time.

The House also acted on the various reports of the bicameral conference committee during the Second Regular Session, ratifying a total of 12 bicameral conference committee reports, consisting of 11 national bills and one local bill.

These bicameral conference committee reports include the following measures: National Mental Health Policy, Anti-Hazing Act, Electric Cooperatives Emergency and Resiliency Fund, National School Feeding Program, Occupational Safety and Health Standards, the Filipino Identification System, and Preservation and Management of Protected Areas In total, the House of Representatives has acted on 2,929 measures from the opening of the 17th Congress in July 25, 2016, until the adjournment sine die on June 2, 2018.

Meanwhile, a total of 9,826 House measures were filed since the start of the 17th Congress, consisting of 7,826 House bills and 2,000 House resolutions. In addition, 770 committee reports were filed.

Solar... continued from A1

Araya said Manila can use clean-energy solutions, particularly for transportation, as well as cheaper sources of electricity.

She cited Chile, which has been very successful with solar power, even without subsidies, subsequently bringing down the cost of its electricity rates.

“We can’t just put all the attention on the big countries because most of the countries in the world are not big. And being small doesn’t mean thinking small,” Araya said.

“We should also put more light into middle-income countries, such as the ones in Latin America and the ones in other [regions].

The Philippines is a very good example,” she added.

ADB Chief of Energy Sector Group Yongping Zhai said it is important for the private sector to participate in the clean-energy movement since government cannot be the sole source of clean-energy funding.

Zhai said countries need entrepreneurs to create innovations and offer the public more green choices, which can bring down energy costs.

Leviste said the Philippines can easily save P200 billion a year, or P1,000 per Filipino family on average per month, if renewables are given fair treatment by the government.

He said that, while Meralco’s generation charge has reached P6 per kilowatt-hour “all in,” Leviste’s generation charge was only P2.99 per kilowatt hour.

“We are a few steps away from Meralco, a company that currently has seven coal power plant contracts that are up for ERC [Energy Regulatory Commission] approval.

If those coal power plants push through, it will push out all new generation for the next five years in the Philippines,” Leviste said.

Meanwhile, ADB Knowledge Management and Sustainable Development Vice President Bambang Susantono said energy demand is projected to almost double in the Asia-Pacific region by 2030.

He said the ADB estimates that the region has to invest $14.7 trillion in power infrastructure between 2016 and 2030 to meet this growing demand.

This will be used for rapid and rapidly expanding deployment of advanced technologies such as photovoltaics, battery storage, electric vehicles and smart grids that highlight progress in global energy systems.

These will help the region move toward meeting not only Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 7 that focuses on energy, but also supporting SDG 11 on sustainable cities and communities, as well SDG 13 on climate action.

“The energy technology landscape will continue to evolve; the ADB pledges to be an active partner managing this change and accelerating innovation for sustainable development in the region through innovative financing, partnerships and institutional capacity building.

We ensure there are innovative elements in all our energy projects,” Susantono said.

Cohosted by the ADB, the United States Agency for International Development, the Korea Energy Agency, and the ADB Institute, the Asia Clean Energy Forum (ACEF) 2018 was held under the theme “Harnessing Innovation to Power the Future.”

It brings together over 1,000 participants from more than 50 countries, including entrepreneurs, policy-makers, financial institutions, nongovernment organizations and academia.

ACEF began in 2006 as an annual event to provide a platform for collaboration in promoting clean energy in Asia and the Pacific.

Some of the topics discussed during the weeklong event included future energy innovations such as energy in buildings, RE in urban settings, decentralized power grids, health and environmental benefits of energy efficiency, clean cooking, new business models, and digital transformation and innovations.

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ZTE agrees to pay record fine to get back in business

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he United States reached a deal to allow ZTE Corp. to get back in business after the Chinese telecommunications company pays a record fine and agrees to management changes, eliminating a key sticking point as the two countries try to avert a trade war.

“We still retain the power to shut them down again,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Thursday in an interview on CNBC. He said the Commerce Department’s $1.4-billion fine, including $400 million in escrow, brings US penalties between last year and this year to $2.3 billion.

The US blocked ZTE’s access to US suppliers in April, saying the company violated a 2017 sanctions settlement related to trading with Iran and Nor th Korea and then lied about the violations. The company announced it was shutting down just weeks after the ban was announced.

Under the deal, the ban is suspended for 10 years and c an be ac tivated

by Co m m e rce s h o u l d t h e co m p a ny commit additional violations during that decadelong “probationary period,” the depar tment said in a statement announcing the agreement.

In a memo to ZT E’s employees, Chairman Yin Yimin said the issue mirrored problems in the company’s management and compliance culture.

“We should hold relevant people accountable and avoid similar issues in the future,” he wrote. “After this issue is resolved, the company will restore operations swiftly and maintain credibility to fulfill its responsibilities.”

US monitoring Ross said the US will install its “own compliance people” to monitor the company, and shareholders will bring in new management and board. “These collectively are the most severe penalty” the US has ever imposed on a company, Commerce said in its statement.

ZTE’s deal with the US will likely get it back into business late next week with its stock likely to resume trading in 2 to 3 weeks, according to analysts at Jefferies in Hong Kong. ZTE suppliers including MOBI Development Co. and Zhong Fu Tong Co. climbed in Asian trading. Bloomberg News

UK’s May urges restraint by EU counterparts on tariff response

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ritish Pr ime Minister T heresa May urged her European Union counterparts to show restraint when retaliating against US tariffs on European steel and aluminum, saying any action should comply with World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

May has frequently disagreed with US President Donald J. Trump on foreign policy matters and expressed her disagreement again on Thursday over “unjustified” US protectionism. Even so, she needs to seek trade deals once the UK leaves the European Union, its biggest trading partner.

The EU Commission has said it would retaliate in kind with tariffs starting July 1 that target iconic US products such as HarleyDavidson motorbikes, jeans and bourbon whiskey.

“Obv iously the European Union will be responding,” May told reporters en route to the G-7 summit in Canada. “We want to ensure, and we’re working with others in the European Union to ensure that this response is proportionate, that it is within the WTO rules.”

While May is due to hold bilateral talks with five of the other six national leaders at the summit, she is not scheduled to have a formal sit down with Trump.

UK officials have said they hope the pair will meet at some point outside of group sessions.

Bloomberg News

Saturday, June 9, 2018

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Trump talks tough on trade ahead of Group of 7 meetings in Canada

By Catherine Lucey & Zeke Miller

W

The Associated Press

ASHINGTON—Before President Donald J. Trump sits down with a thirdgeneration North Korean autocrat, he will face what may well turn out to be a tougher crowd—some of America’s oldest allies.

With his new tariffs increasing US isolation, Trump heads to Canada on Friday for a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations. The White House is expecting a chilly reception from Canada and West European countries, already frustrated over Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear agreement.

German Chancellor A ngela Merkel previewed the dynamics on Wednesday, telling the German parliament that “it is apparent that we have a serious problem with multilateral agreements here, and so there will be contentious discussions.”

Trump signaled a tough tone on Twitter on Thursday, saying: “Getting ready to go to the G-7 in Canada to fight for our country on Trade (we have the worst trade deals ever made)”.

Anticipating a tense two days i n Q uebec, Tr u mp h a s complained about having to attend the summit, particularly since it comes just before his high-stakes

meeting in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said two people with knowledge of his thinking. But the White House has signaled no change in plans.

“The president wants to go on the trip,” Larry Kudlow, Trump’s top economic adviser, said of the summit in Canada. “The president is at ease with all of these tough issues.

“There may be disagreements,” Kudlow added. “I regard this as much like a family quarrel.”

Trump also is set to hold a series of one-on-one meetings, including with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Tr udeau and Frenc h P resident Em m a nue l Macron. Trump is unlikely to back away from the nationalistic policies that have frustrated and unnerved allies but which he sees as key promises to his most loyal voters. He has highlighted his efforts on Twitter, writing on Monday: “The U.S. has made such bad trade deals over so many years that we can only WIN!” Kudlow said allies should un-

President Donald J. Trump speaks during a bill signing ceremony for the “VA Mission Act” in the Rose Garden of the White House on June 6, 2018, in Washington. AP/Evan Vucci

derstand that Trump “will do what is necessary to protect the US, its businesses and its workforce,” adding that Trump “has always said, and I agree, tariffs are a tool in that effort.”

Trump announced in March that he was imposing tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, but he temporarily granted a waiver to US allies like Canada, Mexico and the European Union, and also to China, as his administration said trade talks were continuing. Trump ended that temporary relief this month, seeking to pressure the other countries to cut new trade agreements with the US. Japan was never granted a waiver, despite Prime Mininster Shinzo Abe’s pleas.

Asked if the administration will respect decisions from the World Trade Organization on tariffs, Kudlow said that “international multilateral organizations are not going to determine A mer ican policy. I think the president’s made that very clear.”

T his w il l be Tr ump’s second summit of the G -7, an informal gathering that meets ever y year under a rotating chairmanship.

T he member- cou nt r ies a re Canada, France, Ita ly, Japan, Germany, the United States and Br itain. T he European Union a lso attends.

W hile trade is expected to dominate, Trudeau also wants to focus on gender equality and climate change. Kudlow was vague on whether the summit will produce a joint decision or a clear outcome on trade or other issues, saying “let them meet first.”

The meeting comes after a gathering of G-7 finance ministers concluded last week with a message of “concern and disappointment” to Trump from the other six countries.

Describing the tense three days, Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance and economy minister, said it was “far more a G-6 plus one than a G-7.”

Treasur y Secretar y Steven Mnuchin responded: “ We believe in the G-7, it’s an important

group,” adding that Trump looks forward to the gathering.

The increasingly critical tone from allies is a shift after leaders spent the past year and a half seeking to woo and cajole the American president. Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told reporters that for Trump’s first 500 days, “these countries generally were bent over backwards not to criticize President Trump. They tried to have close relations with him. They all tried to hug him close, as we used to say about Blair and Bush.”

But Wright added: “There is a feeling, I think, over the last few months, that that approach has not borne fruit, and that they haven’t really gotten anything for that friendly approach.”

Canada in particular has been outraged by Trump’s tariffs, taking umbrage at the argument that they were motivated by national security concerns. Trudeau told NBC: “The idea that we are somehow a national security threat to the United States is, quite frankly, insulting and unacceptable.”

Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said this marked the lowest point in decades in Canada-US relations, describing the two countries as allies that have “fought and died alongside each other” since World War I. “This is deeply offensive to Canadians,” Alden said.

Kudlow played down any conf lict, say ing he had “no doubt the United States and Canada w il l remain fir m fr iends and allies whatever short-term disagreements may occur.”

New Mars discoveries advance case for possible past or even present life

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APE CANAVER AL, Florida—New Mars discoveries are advancing the case for possible life on the red planet, past or even present.

Scientists reported on Thursday that Nasa’s Curiosity rover has found potential building blocks of life in an ancient Martian lakebed. Hints have been found before, but this is the best evidence yet.

The organic molecules preserved in 3.5 billion-year-old bedrock in Gale Crater—believed to once contain a shallow lake the size of Florida’s Lake Okeechobee—suggest conditions back then may have been conducive to life. That leaves open the possibility that microorganisms once populated our planetary neighbor and might still exist there.

“The chances of being able to find signs of ancient life with future missions, if life ever was present, just went up,” said Curiosity’s project scientist, Ashwin Vasavada of Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Curiosity also has confirmed sharp seasonal increases of methane in the Martian atmosphere. Researchers said they can’t rule out a biological source. Most of Earth’s atmospheric methane comes from animal and plant life, and the environment itself.

The two studies appear in the journal Science. In a companion article, an outside expert describes the findings as “breakthroughs in astrobiology.”

“The question of whether life might have originated or existed on Mars is a lot more opportune now that we know that organic molecules were present on its surface at the time,” wrote Utrecht University astrobiologist Inge Loes ten Kate of the Netherlands.

K irsten Siebach, a R ice University geologist who also was not involved in the studies, is equally excited. She said the discoveries break down some of the strongest arguments put forward by lifeon-Mars skeptics, herself included.

“The big takeaway is that we can find evidence. We can find organic matter preserved in mudstones that are more than 3 billion years old,” Siebach said. “And we

This composite image made from a series of January 23 photo shows a self-portrait of Nasa’s Curiosity Mars rover on Vera Rubin Ridge. On Thursday scientists said the rover found potential building blocks of life in an ancient lakebed and confirmed seasonal increases in atmospheric methane. The rover’s arm, which held the camera, was positioned out of each of the dozens of shots that make up the mosaic. NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS via AP

see releases of gas today that could be related to life in the subsurface or at the very least are probably related to warm water or environments where Earth life would be happy living.”

The methane observations provide “one of the most compelling” cases for presentday life, she said.

Scientists agree more powerful spacecraft—and, ideally, rocks returned to Earth from Mars—are needed to prove whether tiny organisms like bacteria ever existed on the red planet.

Curiosity’s methane measurements occurred over 4 and a hald Earth years, covering parts of three Martian years.

Seasonal peaks were detected in late summer in the northern hemisphere and late winter in the southern hemisphere.

JPL’s Christopher Webster, lead author on the study, said it’s the first time Martian methane has shown a repeated pattern. The magnitude of these seasonal peaks—by a factor of three—was far more than scientists expected. “We were just blown away,” he said. “It’s tripling...that’s a huge, huge difference.”

Webster theorizes the methane created either now or long ago is seeping from deep underground reservoirs up through cracks and fissures in the crust. Once at the surface, the methane sticks to dirt and rocks, with more released into the atmosphere when it’s hotter.

“We have no proof that the methane is formed biologically, but we cannot rule it out, even with this new data set,” Webster said.

Scientists have been seeking organic molecules on Mars ever since the 1976 Viking landers. The twin Vikings came up pretty much empty.

Arriving at Mars in 2012 with a drill and its own onboard labs, Curiosity confirmed the presence of organics in rocks in 2013, but the molecules weren’t exactly what scientists expected. So they looked elsewhere.

The key samples in the latest findings came from a spot 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) away.

As with methane, there could well be nonbiological explanations for the presence of carbon-containing molecules on Mars, such as geologic processes or impacts by asteroids, comet, meteors and inter-

planetary dust. Jennifer Eigenbrode, an astrobiologist at Nasa’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, who led the organics study, said she’s intrigued by the possibility that life might have existed and adapted on Mars.

“I’m equally as fascinated by the idea that life never got started on Mars in the first place. That’s a harder question to address scientifically, but I think that we need to give the search for life on Mars due diligence. We need to go to places that we think are the most likely places to find it.” AP

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South Koreans feel hope, doubt ahead of Trump-Kim summit

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By Jung-Yoon Kim | The Associated Press

EOUL, South Korea—The onagain, off-again meeting between President Donald J. Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has been an emotional roller coaster for South Koreans, who now await Tuesday’s historic summit with both hope and doubt.

The hope is that improved relations between Washington and Pyongyang will ease tensions and dispel the threat of war, which has hung over the region for more than a half-century.

But having seen North Korea go back on its word in the past, such as when it broke a previous nuclear pact in 2002, South Koreans remain cautious about the sudden breeze of peace blowing across their divided peninsula.

“North Korea’s willingness for talks seems clear now. The problem is that we are not so sure what they ultimately want,” said graduate student Kim Jae-hak.

For him, the ideal outcome would be a formal declaration to

the end the Korean War, followed by the complete denuclearization of North Korea. He warned, however, that high expectations can bring great disappointment, so Koreans should watch how things unfold.

South Korea’s government has been careful to avoid rash comments or hasty interpretations of the seesaw developments in the lead-up to the summit in Singapore. Still, South Korean President Moon Jae-in has made negotiations with North Korea a centerpiece of his administration and has a lot riding on next week ’s events.

Moon took office in May 2017 with a pledge to seek improved

relations and ultimately peace with North Korea. In April he met the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un, for talks at the Demilitarized Zone dividing their countries and the two set foot in one another’s countries, if only for a moment.

Moon’s patient, yet determined diplomacy has been key to setting up the Trump and Kim meeting.

He presented Trump with the initial offer of a summit with Kim. After Trump accepted and then canceled, Moon worked to get it back on track by meeting with Kim a second time.

“It is critically important for President Moon Jae-in that the Trump-Moon summit goes well,”

said John Delury, associate professor of East Asian studies at Yonsei University in Seoul. Moon has “staked a lot of political capital in getting the US and North Korea to move together in a positive way just like the two Koreas have done.”

The Singapore meeting would only be the start of a long process, Delury stressed. Reducing the threat of conflict is the initial goal, he said, which would be followed by cultural, humanitarian and economic steps.

“A successful Singapore [meeting] gives more room for President Moon and Chairman Kim Jong Un to move forward in terms of

It is critically important for President Moon Jae-in that the Trump-Moon summit goes well.

[Moon has] staked a lot of political capital in getting the US and North Korea to move together in a positive way just like the two Koreas have done.”—Delury

inter-Korean reconciliation and cooperation,” he said.

For now, Moon seems to have public backing, with a Gallup Korea survey last week measuring his approval rating at 75 percent.

Office worker K im Jung-eun said the atmosphere of dialogue was welcome after North Korea’s provocative run of weapons tests in 2017 pushed animosity to new heights.

“I never tr u ly t hought we were headed for another war, but there was always a lingering fear in the back of my head,” she said. “ Thinking about where we were then, I am really thankful about the current atmosphere of peace. I hope that the process results in lasting peace in the Korean Peninsula.”

The Trump-Kim summit has fueled hopes in South Korea that the two leaders may weigh a formal declaration to end the Korean War. The 1950-1953 conflict ended with an armistice, but not a formal peace treaty.

Some, though, think that such talk should wait. The first priority should be getting North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, said Im Yang-bin, a professor.

“If the issue of denuclearization becomes resolved through talks a declaration ending the war will naturally follow,” Im said.

Google renounces AI weapons, but will still work with military

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oogle pledged not to use its powerful artificial intelligence (AI) for weapons, illegal surveillance and technologies that cause “overall harm.”

But the company said it will keep working with the military in other areas, giving its cloud business the chance to pursue future lucrative government deals.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer for Alphabet Inc.’s Google, released a set of principles on Thursday after a revolt by thousands of employees of the Internet giant. The charter sets “concrete standards” for how Google will design its AI research, implement its software tools and steer clear of certain work, Pichai said in a blog post.

“How AI is developed and used will have a significant impact on society for many years to come,” Pichai wrote. “As a leader in AI, we feel a special responsibility to get this right.”

Some Google employees and outside critics cautiously welcomed the principles, although they voiced reservations, particularly about language that gives the company ample wiggle room in future decisions.

T he seven pr inciples were drawn up to quell concern over Google’s work on Project Maven, a Defense Department initiative to apply AI tools to drone footage.

Staff protests forced Google to retreat from the contract last week.

The company said on Thursday that if the principles had existed earlier, Google would not have bid for Project Maven.

Yet, Google’s cloud-computing unit, where the company is investing heavily, wants to work with the government and the Department of Defense because they are spending billions of dollars on cloud services. The charter shows Google’s pursuit of these contracts will continue.

“While we are not developing AI for use in weapons, we will continue our work with governments and the military in many

other areas,” Pichai wrote. “These collaborations are important and we’ll actively look for more ways to augment the critical work of these organizations and keep service members and civilians safe.”

Google’s charter is a watershed moment for the company and AI as a field. Technology giants, like Google, have stretched far ahead in developing software and services that give machines more control over decisions.

However, these capabilities are now spreading to more industries, such as automotive, health care and government sectors. A driving force behind the spread is the easier access to AI building blocks that Google, Amazon. com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have prov ided t hrough t heir cloud services.

AI advances are helping medical research and provide other benefits. But the use of the technology in other areas has sparked concern among lawmakers and advocacy groups. Civil liberties organizations recently ca l led out Amazon for offering facial recognition tech to local police departments.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella proposed similar principles in 2016, without mentioning the military. “Microsoft may decide to forgo the pursuit of business proposals for numerous reasons, including the company’s commitment to upholding human rights,” the company said in an e-mailed statement on Thursday. Amazon didn’t respond to a request for comment.

In Google’s new principles, the company pledges not to pursue AI applications for weapons and technologies that “gather or use information for surveillance,” in violation of accepted human rights laws. The principles also state that the company will work to avoid “unjust impacts” in its AI algorithms by injecting racial, sexual or political bias into automated decision-making. Bloomberg News

Reactor buildings at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power station in Kashiwazaki. Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

World’s biggest nuclear plant is center stage in Japan poll T he fate of the world’s largest atomic plant may be decided by a local election this weekend in a rural Japanese prefecture better known for its skiing and sake.

The top two candidates running in the June 10 (Sunday) Niigata gubernatorial race are opposed to the speedy restart of Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holding Inc.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear reactors—which the utility, known as Tepco, aims to fire up as soon as 2019. But the degree to which the candidates oppose atomic power is being watched closely by investors, voters and local media.

“Utility share prices have been very sensitive to nuclear restarts because of the potential to lower power production costs,” said Joseph Jacobelli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “The cost per kilowatt-hour is lower than oil and gas.”

Tepco shares, which surged after the previous governor who opposed quick nuclear restarts stepped down, underscore the importance of cheap atomic power for utilities dependent on fossil fuels since the 2011 Fukushima disaster. While candidates backed

by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the opposition both want to finish investigations into atomic safety before the KashiwazakiKariwa reactors restart, their views diverge after that.

Chikako Ikeda, a member of the prefecture’s assembly and backed by a coalition of opposition parties, has said she doesn’t support Tepco restarting the facility. She is also calling for a local referendum to decide the fate of the units after the prefecture finishes its investigations, which could take another three years.

Hideyo Hanazumi, a former vice governor of Niigata backed

by Abe’s LDP party, has refused to say whether he supports the restart but has insisted that the prefecture’s investigations be completed before a decision is made.

Tepco shares have lost almost 14 percent since the day before May 9, when he said the nation should rid itself of nuclear power in the long term and continue the prefecture’s investigation.

Hanazumi has a slight lead over Ikeda, according to the Asahi poll, which didn’t disclose exact percentages.

Japan’s nuclear regulator said last year Kashiwazaki-Kariwa No. 6 and 7 nuclear reactors me t p o s t - Fu k u s h i m a s a fe t y standards, clearing the way for their restart. Restarting one unit would boost Tepco’s profit by roughly ¥90 billion, or $818 million, a year. Utilities typically seek governor approval before resuming nuclear operations.

Stephen Stapczynski/Bloomberg News

Facebook says privacy-setting bug affected as many as 14M

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EW YORK—Facebook said a software bug led some users to post publicly by default regardless of their previous settings.

The bug affected as many as 14 million users over several days in May. The problem, which Facebook said it has fixed, is the latest privacy scandal for the world’s largest social-media company.

It said the bug automatically suggested that users make new posts public, even if they had previously restricted posts to “friends only” or another private setting. If users did not notice the new default suggestion, they unwittingly sent their post to a broader audience than they had intended.

Erin Egan, Facebook’s chief privacy officer, said the bug did not affect past posts.

Facebook is notifying users who were affected and posted publicly during the time the bug was active, advising them to review their posts.

The news follows recent furor over Facebook’s sharing of user data with device makers, including China’s Huawei. The company is also still recovering from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a Trump-affiliated data-mining firm got access to the personal data of as many as 87 million Facebook users.

Jonathan Mayer, a professor of computer science and public affairs at Princeton University, said on Twitter that this latest privacy gaffe “looks like a viable Federal Trade Commission (FTC)/ state attorney general deception case.” That’s because the company had promised that the setting users set in their most recent privacy preferences would be maintained for future posts.

In this case, this did not happen for several days.

Facebook’s 2011 consent decree with the FTC calls for the company to get “express consent” from users before sharing their information beyond what they established in their privacy settings. Even if the bug was an accident on Facebook’s part, Mayer said in an e-mail that the FTC can bring enforcement action for privacy mistakes.

Facebook, which has 2.2 billion users, says the bug was active from May 18 until May 27. While the company says it stopped the error on May 22, it was not able to change all the posts back to their original privacy parameters until later.

The mistake happened when the company built a new way for people to share “featured items” on their profiles. These items, which include posts and photo albums, are automatically public. In the process of creating this feature, Facebook said it accidentally made the suggested audience for all new posts public.

When people post to Facebook, the service suggests a default distribution for their posts based on past privacy settings. If someone made all posts “friends only,” in the past, it will set their next post to “friends only” as well.

People can still manually change the privacy level of the posts anywhere from “public” to “only me”—and this was the case while the bug was active, as well. AP

Sports BusinessMirror

Editor: Jun Lomibao • mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph

James AP/Tony Dejak

Saturday, June 9, 2018

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Saturday, June 9, 2018 | Editor: Jun Lomibao

HINAULT: FR

World Bicycle Day takes planet by storm

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ITH cycling-related activities organized on all continents, World Bicycle Day on June 3 took the planet by storm.

The United Nations initiative motivated individuals, teams, clubs and national federations to use their pedal power in many different ways to mark this inaugural day dedicated to the bicycle.

Social-media channels were swamped with posts and photos as bike users worldwide shared their activities with fellow cycling enthusiasts.

On June 3 alone, 45,000 tweets were published with the hashtag #WorldBicycleDay, and in just 24 hours, there were half-a-million impressions on UCI_cycling Instragram stories.

South Africa: No racing pressure

Closed roads, a choice of distances and no racing pressure: these three elements motivated 350 men, women and children to compete in a mass participation road event in Durban, South Africa.

The inaugural Westville M13 Classic was organized by the Westville Cycling Club in conjunction with the Kwa Zulu Natal (KZN) Cycling development initiative.

The aim: to encourage noncompetitors to take part in an organized activity at their own pace and with no cars on the roads.

Participants could choose how many laps of a 17-km circuit they wished to complete, for a maximum of five laps (85 km).

While there were formal categories for those wishing to race, most of the participants were

The United Nations initiative motivates individuals, teams, clubs and national federations to use their pedal power in many different ways to mark this inaugural day dedicated to the bicycle.

youth and families. Such was the success of this event, it is planned to make it an annual fixture on the KZN Cycling calendar.

Uzbekistan: City park activities

THE recently opened Ashgabat Park in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent was put to good use on World Bicycle Day. The Uzbekistan Cycling Federation, together with the Embassy of Turkmenistan, organized a bike tour that attracted 400 cyclists who covered a circuit of 4.5 km through the park.

Representatives of the Diplomatic Corps and embassy employees joined enthusiastic cycling amateurs for the sports festival, where the emphasis was on friendly relations between countries, the development of sports tourism and the popularization of cycling.

Turkmenistan: Participation record

The largest cycling awareness-raising event in the world—a cycling training session organized in Ashgabat—has been proclaimed as such by

representatives of the Guinness World Records.

An impressive 3,246 people took part in the event at the Ashgabat Stadium in the Turkmenistan capital, an initiative of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, president of Turkmenistan, and the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs of Turkmenistan. The event saw participants take to their bikes before being informed of the role of the bicycle as a healthy and environmentalfriendly form of city transport.

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Italy: UCI staff join mass participation event

A TEAM of staff members from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), its official supplier Big Bobble Hats and official partner GoPro joined forces to participate in the Granfondo Stelvio Santini, which took place on the inaugural World Bicycle Day. The mass participation event, organized by UCI official supporter Santini, saw over 3,000 riders from 45 countries tackle the hilly course, with participants finishing at the top of the renown Stelvio pass. UCI News

Keeping track on BMX track developments

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INCE the early-1980s, BMX tracks have constantly evolved to keep up with the ever-increasing skills and techniques of the riders.

Today, the original 3-meter-high start ramp now stands at 8 meters for the sport’s professional riders, and up to 5 meters for skilled amateurs.

The size and variety of jumps found in BMX tracks have also evolved in response to the general progression of the riders: the idea is to provide tracks which reward fitness, technical ability and tactical sharpness, while still allowing the athletes to recover from an error in a way that protects rider safety.

The first jump on a BMX Supercross track can measure up to 1.7 meters high with a distance of 11 meters before the landing appears. The first obstacle is one of the biggest, but the next has to be cleared at full speed, as well: all the athletes are sprinting to that first turn to grab the holeshot.

Still side by side after the second jump, the fast est racers will start opening up a little gap,

trying to get their arms in front of those of their competitors. Some tracks have three jumps on the first straight, while others only have two before the pack dives into the first turn.

For major events, paved turns have become the norm for several reasons: 1) The surface of the turn stays in the same condition at all times.

2) Less maintenance is needed to keep the turn in perfect condition.

3) Speed can be maintained in the first turn which is well needed with the pro section coming up. It’s important to keep the momentum to be able to clear the jumps on the second straight. Although there are split sections for the women and men, both need enough speed to catch some air and stay in front of their competition.

Many variations of tracks exist: obstacles may be table tops, double jumps, rollers, or even gaps where the entire track gets crossed before heading into another 180-degree turn.

The third straight usually offers a roller section where skills are needed to get through as fast as

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Rivera bags first 2018 win in Thuringen Tour opener

FTER a slow start to the season, Coryn Rivera grabbed her first win of 2018 early this week during Stage 1 of the Lotto Thuringen Ladies Tour, beating FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope’s Roxane Fournier to the line after 82.5 kilometers of racing in Schleusingen. Rivera now leads the overall by five seconds over Fournier and seven seconds over teammate Ellen van Dijk.

The 25-year-old American took four wins last year in her first season with Team Sunweb, kicking things off with victory at the WorldTour Trofeo Alfredo Binda and following it up with a win at the Tour of Flanders. Wins at the Amgen Women’s Race Stage 3 and Ride Prudential Classic capped off her first-year immersion into European racing.

Rivera has had a more difficult time finding the podium’s top step this year, coming close in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Ronde van Drenthe during the cobbled classics, and then claiming two top-five finishes at California but missing out on the podium. In Rivera’s only other US race this year, she was third at the Dana Point Grand Prix behind 16-year-old Megan Jastrab and Italian veteran Valentina Scandolara.

Rivera’s dry spell ended on Monday, however, after her team took her to the line for a perfectly timed photo-finish win on the slightly uphill cobbled finale in Germany.

“Today was an absolutely beautiful day of teamwork,” Rivera said in a post on the team’s web site. “From start to finish we really came together for our goals today. First with delivering Ellen [van Dijk] to the intermediate sprints for time bonuses, making the race hard at a crucial moment and still having full energy to do an amazing lead out toward a tough cobbled uphill finish.”

Sunweb started things off early over the

seven laps on the 12.2-km circuit, setting up van Dijk to take top bonus seconds at all three intermediate sprints, boosting her to third overall and to the top of the sprint competition. The team then put Rivera into position to make the four-rider group that pulled away in the final meters of the finale.

At the end of the day, Sunweb came away with the stage win, the overall lead, the sprint jersey and a rider third in GC. A pretty good haul for one day of racing.

“Everything worked out today,” said team director Hans Timmermans. “We took the bonus seconds three times in the sprint and we also took the win. It was a great job by the team and everyone really did their part. The team did a really strong lead out before the climb and we kept it going afterward. In the end it came down to a fantastic team effort, and it’s great that this is rewarded with the win today.”

Rivera said she and her teammates were hungry and committed to the team plan.

“I’m really proud of what we accomplished today and grateful for the girls’ hard work in the lead out,” she said. “I couldn’t have pulled off this sweet victory without them and the staff behind the scenes.”

The Lotto Thuringen Ladies Tour continues Tuesday with a lumpy 136-km stage in Meiningen. The women will cover four laps of the challenging 34-km circuit, which features 440 meters of climbing each time around.

Cyclingnews

possible. Manuals, pumps or jumps can be used to pass the rider in front of you. If you make a mistake at full speed, this section can be brutal, as little flat space is available to slide and come to a halt.

You won’t see a lot of pedaling in section 3 of the track but you can wonder why one rider is so much faster than the other. Jumping, manualing and for sure pumping skills can make all the difference on this part of the track.

We’re not there yet.

The last turn usually offers possibilities to pass and get on that podium or to grab fourth place during a qualification round. By this time riders feel their legs burning but they must hold it together for a couple more seconds.

The smaller jumps on the last section can make or break a rider. They must keep their rhythm on the way to the finish line...and that is easier for athletes in top shape. Normally between 300 meters to 400 meters in length, BMX tracks are not long but throw up everything necessary to test the riders’ skills, explosiveness and fitness. UCI News

CORYN RIVERA is trying to buck a slow start to the season.

Bernard Hinault: This is all very sad. Chris Froome is not part of the legend of the sport, because what image does he give cycling?

He may also start the Tour later. It’s a real scandal.

This has to stop.

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ernard Hinault has not held back in his opinion on Chris Froome’s Giro d’Italia victory, saying that the Team Sky rider does not belong in the history books alongside himself and Eddy Merckx.

In Rome on Sunday, Froome joined Hinault and Merckx in winning all three Grand Tours consecutively, having won last year’s Tour de France and Vuelta a España.

Hinault, who completed his achievement across the 1982 and 1983 seasons, went as far as saying that Froome should not have even been on the start line.

“Froome does not belong on that list,” Hinault said, according to Belgian publication Het Laatste Nieuws. “He returned a positive test at the Vuelta and afterward his B-sample proved positive, so he has used doping and he has to be suspended.

“He should never have been allowed to start in the Giro. Why do we have to wait so long for a verdict? Those two Italians who had the same thing [Alessandro Petacchi and Diego Ulissi-ed.] were suspended much faster. With what right does Froome get so much time to find an explanation? Is it because Sky has so much money?”

Froome is currently under investigation after an antidoping test during the 2017 Vuelta a España, which he went on to win, showed him to have double the permitted levels of asthma drug salbutamol in his urine.

Froome and his legal team must now prove that he did not exceed the allowed dosage in order to avoid a suspension. As salbutamol is a “specified” substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list, Froome is allowed to compete while the investigation is going on. Both Petacchi and Ulissi received bans for elevated levels of salbutamol.

It took nine months for a verdict to be reached in Ulissi’s case.

Last week UCI President David Lappartient told Cyclingnews that he could not guarantee that Froome’s case would be resolved by the time the Tour de France begins in July. He could also not confirm whether or not the results that Froome earns during the time of the investigation will remain or be removed if he is handed a suspension.

“This is all very sad,” added Hinault. “Froome is not part of the legend of the sport, because what image does he give cycling? He may also start the Tour later. It’s a real scandal. This has to stop.”

RASMUSSEN: FROOME DIDN’T RAISE RED FLAG IN GIRO

Michael Rasmussen has come to the defense of Chris Froome, stating that in his view the Team Sky leader’s dramatic Giro d’Italia resurrection and eventual win was credible and believable within the context of the race.

Froome’s startling display on Stage 19 of the race saw him not only win the stage and take the overall lead, but put over three minutes into his closest rivals with an 80-kilometer solo break over three mountain passes. Froome had come into the stage fourth overall and over three minutes down on the maglia rosa having conceded time on almost every mountain finish bar the Zoncolan. Froome went on to win the race by 46 seconds over Tom Dumoulin, and although the Team Sky leader is still awaiting a verdict in his ongoing salbutamol case, the Briton currently holds the titles in all three Grand Tours. Since his shock emergence as a stage racing force in 2011, he has won or finished second in 10 of the 13 Grand Tours he has started.

“I don’t see his performance at the Giro as a red flag,” Rasmussen told Cyclingnews.

“All the difference was made in one day, and under very extreme circumstances. You had the four-time Tour champion, on one of the hardest climbs in Europe, against riders who had nowhere near the same palmares as him, with weaker teams.”

“I know that people will be surprised with my views on this. I’m very critical toward Team Sky and their mismanagement of their own ethical rules. Trust for them has gone but if you look at the performance of just Froome, it was credible in the sense that I don’t think he cheated any of his rivals.

That’s not saying that they’re all doing something but no one can convince me that Froome is riding with an engine in his bike or that he’s on kryptonite.

Otherwise you’d not put yourself in a position where you’re over three minutes behind on the 19th stage.

Then you’d be leading by five minutes at that point.

Winning the Giro by 46 seconds is not something

irror CYCLING

mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Saturday, June 9, 2018

ROOME’S

EGEND

Comedian Farley’s family sues Trek

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Bernard Hinault (left) says that Chris Froome (pink jersey) does not belong in the history books alongside himself and Eddy Merckx. AP

UCI DECISION ON FROOME UNLIKELY TO COME DURING TOUR DE FRANCE

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NTERNATIONAL Cycling Union (UCI) president David Lappartient has said that should Chris Froome’s salbutamol case extend past the start of the Tour de France next month a decision is unlikely to happen during the race itself. Though Lappartient has no say as to when and how a decision is reached, he says that it could deprive Froome of his rights to defend himself if a hearing was to be held while the race is happening.

“I still see it as wrong if, tomorrow, the case was to be referred to the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal and the court holds its meeting, where the rider still has the right to be heard, during the Tour,” Lappartient told Le Parisien. “In which case, we could still consider that it deprives him of his ability to defend himself. So, I do not see a decision happening during the Tour de France.”

Lappartient has previously called for Froome to self-suspend himself while the investigation is ongoing, but the Team Sky rider has continued to race, which he is allowed to do under current regulations.

Froome intends to defend his Tour de France title after winning the Giro d’Italia last month, but there is the possibility that race organizer of Amaury Sport Organisation could try to prevent him from doing so.

Previous similar investigations, such as Diego Ulissi’s, have taken many months to resolve, but Froome has gone far beyond that. An antidoping test conducted during the final week of the 2017 Vuelta a Espana was found to have twice the permitted levels of the asthma medication salbutamol. He was notified of the findings on September 20 and news of the investigation broke in the press on December 13.

The investigation is about to reach its ninth month and Lappartient told Cyclingnews during the Giro d’Italia that he is unsure if it will be tied up before the Tour de France begins on July 7—though he hopes that it will. The stretching

that you can easily calculate after racing for over 3,000 kilometers.”

Rasmussen, who retired in 2013, but was famously ejected from the Tour de France in 2007 while in the yellow jersey, and who later confessed to doping, believes that the events played into Froome’s hands at the Giro and that the race turned on its head because of the tactics and situation on the road.

When Froome attacked on the Finestre a small chase group formed, comprising of Dumoulin, Thibaut Pinot, Richard Carapaz and Miguel Angel Lopez. The four riders waited for Pinot’s teammate, Sébastien Reichenbach in the valley after the climb, while the two South American riders refused to help in the chase of Froome. The argument that the majority of Froome’s time gains were made on descents has been debunked but the rider did make consistent gains without losing any significant time on the final climb before the line.

“Team Sky woke up with a plan that day. They wanted to rob the bank and everyone else wanted to defend their positions. Froome, sitting in fourth, had nothing to lose. He had just won the Vuelta and he’s won four Tours. For a guy like him it doesn’t matter if he finishes fourth or eighth. All that mattered was winning the race. He could risk it all. Pinot was more interested in defending his podium and then you had the two South American riders concerned with the white jersey,” Rasmussen argued.

“They were second in command opponents, apart from Dumoulin. Froome took around 35 to 40 seconds on the Finestre, one of the hardest climbs in the world. That’s not a significant amount at all, especially when we saw the second group waiting for each other. For me, Dumoulin threw it away on the Finestre and when he waited for Reichenbach. Dumoulin by then was the virtual maglia rosa and he had everything to lose. While at the same time he knew that if he blew up then his maglia rosa could become a fifth place. Froome could just concentrate on riding as fast as he could. I’m sure that if Dumoulin had been riding on his own he could have ended up only a minute and half behind Froome because he wouldn’t have lost time on the flat or the climbs. Froome took more risks on the descents.” Cyclingnews

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CHRIS FROOME changes his saddle to a non-sponsor model.

Froome swaps saddles to find vital pain relief at mountain stages

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HRIS FROOME changed saddles and his position on the bike before the final decisive mountain stages of the Giro d’Italia after suffering with a serious saddle sore problem that had been affecting his ability to ride at his very best.

The changes were spotted by a reader of the Italian bike tech website cyclingside.it. Three sources confirmed the changes to Cyclingnews but Team Sky did not want to comment.

Riders often switch from sponsor brands if they have problems with saddles, shoes or even handlebars and stems, with teams insisting on the final word when it comes to technical and performance related choices.

Team Sky is sponsored by Fi’zi:k and Froome has used the long and narrow Antares model for the last five years without any major problems, working with the Italian brand to improve his comfort.

However, his crash before the Jerusalem time trial exacerbated his saddle and bike position problems.

He eventually switched to a Specialized Power saddle for the final key mountain stages, with team mechanics carefully covering the logos of the non-sponsor brand.

He used the new saddle when he attacked

out of the case has been a source of frustration for fans and riders alike. Lappartient understands that frustration, he says, but adds that the case’s length is nothing to do with laziness but is down to the complexities of it.

“The case is much more complex than others, and perhaps [Froome] has more means to demonstrate this complexity precisely, where others might have abdicated for not being able to carry out more cumbersome procedures,” explained Lappartient. “My wish has always been that it be judged before the Giro d’Italia, but it was not to be. Now, I would like it to be settled before the Tour de France. Well, you have to be realistic: I think that will not be the case.

“This is not a laxity of the UCI. It’s just that there is a procedure, and this case requires experts.

When you have 1,500 pages of scientific report you have to analyze them. It requires answers, and we must respect the procedure and the rights of Chris Froome. Naturally, it takes longer than expected.”

Bernard Hinault, who Froome joined as one of three riders to win all three Grand Tours consecutively, was one of those calling into question the length of the investigation.

Speaking in the Belgian press earlier in the week, Hinault was also explicit in his belief that Froome should not be racing. His comments elicited a response from former DS Johan Bruyneel, who told him to “shut his mouth.”

Despite Hinault’s criticisms of the handling of the case, Lappartient defended his compatriot.

“As a political leader said in a presidential debate, in some people the past becomes passive. For Bruyneel, this is the case,” said Lappartient. “When he tells Hinault to shut his mouth, if there is one who has to start doing it, it is him. If there is such a passion for cycling, it’s because there have been athletes like Bernard Hinault, not sports directors like Johan Bruyneel.”

Cyclingnews.com

alone on the Colle delle Finestre and rode solo for 80 to win in Bardonecchia and take the leader’s pink jersey. He kept the saddle for the final mountain stage to Cervinia. Froome’s pink bike for the final stage in central Rome was initially fitted with a pink Fi’zi:k Antares saddle but Cyclingnews saw he raced on yet another different Specialized saddle.

The wider Specialized Power saddle apparently gives Froome better sit-bone contact, with a significant pressure-reducing cut away in the middle avoiding contact on his perineum. The Specialized saddle is also shorter, allowing Froome’s position to respect UCI rules in his desired position. Team Sky have also worked with a plastic surgeon who specialises in amputees to develop a special saddle cream, and Froome always pays careful attention to his core body strength.

Team Sky’s physiotherapist and bike fit specialist helped Froome with changing his saddle and correcting his position on the bike after the intense effort of the Trento time trial last Tuesday. Cyclingnews understands that using the different saddle allowed Froome to find his usual position on the bike and so put out more power than earlier in the Giro d’Italia. Cyclingnews.com

OLLY WEAVER will take a step back from professional cycling to focus on her mental health as she battles depression, she announced in a recent post on her web site titled “Behind the Mask.”

The British rider, who has struggled with the mental and physical ramifications of being hit by a car last February, thanked her team Trek-Drops for their full support.

“For the past few months, I’ve been fighting a battle with myself,” Weaver wrote. “As most of you have noticed by now, I’ve not shown my face on the start line for a while, and I’ve been relatively absent from the world of social media, as well. Nothing’s been a done deal, but now the time has come to announce that I’m taking a break from professional cycling.

“I’m going to start by saying that while I’m extremely sad about the way things unfolded over the past months, I’m also happy with the decision I’ve made. I’m seeing this as a hiatus, and not an end to anything. I’ve loved being a professional cyclist, and I hope someday the journey circles back round, but for now, some time away is necessary.

It’s a time to focus on other things, discover myself away from the pressures of this life, and fully recover mind and body,” Weaver wrote.

“I would also like to thank my team for supporting me in this decision. I couldn’t have asked for any more from them during this time, and I will miss being a part of Drops more than anything this year.”

Weaver had a difficult 2017 season full of setbacks and injuries. She was hit by a car in February while training in Girona, where she suffered a fracture to her right collarbone, her sternum and vertebrae, and was concussed.

After recovering from the physical wounds, she began her season with Sunweb in May at Salverda Omloop van de Ijsseldelta and GooikGeraardsbergen-Gooik, and then the British Championships in June, where she finished 29th.

She went on to start the Giro Rosa last July and helped the Sunweb team place second in the opening team time trial, but she abandoned the race during Stage 3. She also competed in La Course, where she endured a hard crash, and then Prudential Ride London to end the season.

In an interview with Cyclingnews ahead of

ADISON, Wisconsin—The family of late comedian and film star Chris Farley has filed a federal lawsuit against Trek Bicycle for naming its fat-tired bikes Farley, saying the Wisconsin-based bike company misappropriated Farley’s name and traded on his “fat guy” brand of comedy.

Chris Farley was born and raised in Madison, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Waterloo, where Trek is based.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported on Tuesday that the lawsuit originated in California last year, but a judge on Friday ordered that it be heard instead in federal court in Madison because that is closer to all of the parties involved.

Make Him Smile, a company founded and run by Farley’s family to protect his publicity and property rights, said damages could exceed $10 million. Trek said any damages sought were purely speculative.

Trek has responded that much of the case rests on whether Farley was a resident of California at the time of his death, making his name and image subject to a California law that

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Farley

governs deceased celebrities’ right of publicity.

Trek’s lawyers argue that Farley was a resident of Illinois when he died in 1997 in Chicago from a drug overdose.

Farley graduated from high school in Madison and Marquette University in Milwaukee before going on to star on Saturday Night Live and in several hit movies, including Tommy Boy and Black Sheep.

He weighed about 400 pounds (180 kilograms), the lawsuit states, having “spent his entire career building, then capitalizing on, his unique brand of ‘fat guy’ humor and acting style.”

The lawsuit alleges that Farley “carefully guarded and policed his brand,” rejecting overtures from companies he felt did not warrant it, and even feared that losing weight would jeopardize his brand as a comedian.

The lawsuit alleges Trek chose the name Farley “to immediately associate defendant Trek’s fat bikes with one of their favorite ‘fat’ and ‘loud’ comedians,” and the company’s executives knew what they were doing when they made the decision. AP

Tour de France organizers introduce grid start for 65-km Pyrenean stage

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HE organizers of the Tour de France have confirmed that the start of Stage 17 will see riders line-up in a grid formation based on their general classification position.

Like a cyclo-cross start or motor racing grid, the best 20 placed riders will start in the front, with the yellow jersey in a kind of pole position.

The other riders in the peloton will be positioned in four other groups spread across a 70-meter section of road at kilometer zero.

Amaury Sport Organisation have opted for the innovative start grid because Stage 17, from Bagnères-de-Luchon-Saint-Lary-Soulan (Col de Portet), is just 65kms long and includes three major climbs. It is the shortest road race stage in the modern Tour de France, making positioning in the peloton vital. The kilometer zero grid is expected to be on the lower slopes of the Col de Peyresourde.

“We will only use it that day,” Thierry Gouvenou, technical director of ASO, told Marca.

“We believe that with such a short stage the tension can be cut with a knife and that this start formula will accentuate this situation.”

Just how race officials will control the peloton and ensure riders line up in the right place remains to be seen, with team and riders convinced the grid start will have little effect on the race.

“I appreciate any effort to try to add something new to our sport, but honestly I do not know what to think about what they have proposed for the stage. At this point I don’t have a lot to say,” Movistar Manager Eusebio Unzue told Marca.

Vincenzo Nibali’s coach Paolo Slongo suggested the grid start could benefit strong squads like Team Sky, who could have several riders well placed at the head of the grid.

Cyclingnews

‘It’s not weak to admit you’re struggling’ the British National Championships last June, Weaver said that after physically recovering from the car incident, she had lost all her form and had to start building from scratch, which was tough as much mentally as it was physically.

She reiterated how challenging it was to make a full physical recovery from the car incident and other crashes in her recent blog post, but noted that she wasn’t able to bounce back from the toll they took on her mentally.

“Over the past year I feel like I’ve had a lifetime’s worth of misfortune condensed into one extended nightmare: hit by a car, 13 broken bones, back and neck; the battle to comeback; to crash again; another impact with a car, another concussion. Season over. Since then more crashes, more concussions,” Weaver wrote.

“For a lot of people maybe that would have

MOLLY WEAVER struggles with the mental and physical ramifications ofbeing hit by a car last February.

been enough to end a career anyway, but time healed the physical wounds for me, and it was the mental scars that burnt ever brighter.”

“I’ve always been my biggest critic, and I’ve sought control and perfection as an athlete. The moment that car hit me was the spark that lit the flame. I lost control, and everything was far from perfect.”

Weaver signed a contract to compete with Trek-Drops for the 2018 season, where she was looking forward to taking on a leadership role, particularly during the spring Classics.

She began her season in Australia at the Santos Women’s Tour but didn’t start the fourth stage. She also competed at the Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race and Women’s Herald Sun Tour. Although she was initially scheduled to compete in the Classics, she has not raced since her time in Australia.

“I started to struggle more and more to even get out of the door, let alone train. ‘What’s the point? You’re going to fail anyway.’ The voice of depression chipping away at your self-worth,” Weaver wrote.

“My biggest mistake was doing nothing to stamp it out at the first signs of trouble. But at the time, in the grips of the demon, I couldn’t see this. I didn’t want to admit I was struggling. That isn’t who I am. I’m stronger than that.”

“Turns out strength has nothing to do with it. Depression can find anyone, and most of the time you don’t even see it coming.”

Weaver said that she intends to spend time finding happiness both on and off her bike, and in new avenues, and she hinted at a new project in the works. She also sent a clear message about the lack of dialogue when it comes to mental health, particularly in a sport where physical injuries are spoken about so effortlessly.

“The more we open up a dialogue about mental health, the less power it will have over us. When it comes to physical injury we shout about it, but when it comes to mental injury we hide it away. But it’s not weak to admit you’re struggling,” Weaver wrote.

“It would have seemed easier not to write this blog, not to open myself up to the potential scrutiny and judgment, but then I would have been contributing to the problem. Athletes are strong by definition, but we’re also human.”

Cyclingnews.com

A8 Saturday, June 9, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos

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PhilHealth mum on alleged P10.6-B fund diversion issue

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HE Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) on June 1 announced it would stop issuing any further statement to the media regarding recent issues related to the premium contributions of senior citizens.

“Based on the directive of the PhilHealth Board of Directors, we have already filed a complaint against former Health Secretary Dr. Janette L. Garin and former PhilHealth President and CEO Alexander A. Padilla with the Office of the Ombudsman pertaining to the process by which the request for the funds was made,” PhilHealth President Celestina Ma. Jude de la Serna said in a statement.

De la Serna vowed to cooperate in the proceedings and concentrate on the next steps that they will take.

“Let me sincerely assure our members and stakeholders that we remain unwavering in our efforts to uphold the ideals of genuine public service, and that we conduct our operations with utmost public accountability to ensure that service remains un-

interrupted,” she said.

The PhilHealth Board decided to file a case of graft against Garin and Padilla before the Office of the Ombudsman in March.

T he t wo a l leged ly a sked for the release of the fund for the Health Facilities Enhancement Program (HFEP) and purchase of barangay health stations and dental buses of the Department of Health (DOH).

De la Serna bared the filing of the case during a congressional hearing on the sustainability of PhilHealth’s fund on Tuesday.

Garin and Padilla both belied the claim they had diverted P10.6 billion worth of senior citizens’ fund, noting the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) did not approve its release.

Earlier, Garin on Wednesday refuted the accusation that she and

Padilla diverted the P10.6 billion originally meant for the payment of senior citizens’ insurance premiums to establish rural health units of the DOH nationwide.

“No such diversion. W hile there were collectibles submitted by the finance department of PhilHealth, these were not justified. As there are conditions required prior to release of said fund, and this was not met,” Garin told the Philippine News Agency in a text message.

She noted that the DBM turned down the release of the amount for the HFEP and Human Resource Program among others.

Garin was reacting to statements made by d la Serna during the Senate probe into her travel expenses and the issue on the sustainability of the agency’s funds.

During the hearing, dela Serna

gave copies to the media of the graft complaint against Garin and Padilla filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.

In the complaint, de la Serna alleged the P10.6 billion originally meant for the payment of senior citizens’ insurance premiums was diverted by Garin and Padilla in favor of the establishment of DOH’s rural health units.

Based on the complaint, on April 28, 2015, Padilla sent a letter to Garin to ask the DBM to process the Special Allotment Release Order and release the funds as payment for the senior citizens, as mandated by Republic Act 10645, or the Expanded Senior Citizens Act and the National Health Insurance Program.

The complaint also said that nearly four months after, on August 5, 2015, the two former officials

wrote a letter to then-Budget chief Florencio B. Abad and requested, without approval of the PhilHealth Board, for the immediate release of the P10.6 billion for the DOH’s HFEP instead.

Garin decried being used as a scapegoat by the PhilHealth chief to “cover up” the financial mess the state-run health insurer is in.

“Culprits of fraud and financial mismanagement in PhilHealth should not use me as a scapegoat to cover up their current disastrous financial situation,” she said in the text message.

She also called on the government to lead a credible audit of the financial condition of PhilHealth.

“PhilHealth has been mismanaged. I call on our government to direct an external, credible audit team and salvage [the] institution before it becomes too late,” she added. PNA

Nazi death squads focus of latest war crime cases in today’s Germany

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ERLIN — German prosecutors are investigating a suspected former member of Adolf Hitler’s mobile killing squads for involvement in World War II massacres carried out by the “Einsatzgruppen,” part of an 11th-hour effort to bring elderly ex-Nazis to justice, the Associated Press has learned.

It’s the third case to be opened in Germany in recent months, targeting individuals who are believed to have been part of the death squads.

All three are being investigated under a new legal argument, recently upheld by the country’s top criminal court, that someone who helped the Nazi killing machinery run can be convicted of accessory to mass murder, even if they can’t be linked to specific deaths.

Extending the legal standard on complicity from death camp guards to the Einsatzgruppen raises the

possibility of a fresh wave of investigations, said Efraim Zuroff, the head Nazi hunter at the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, who alerted German authorities about the new suspects.

“It was a very significant decision, but it’s only one that has been reaching fruition in recent months after we helped them find now three people who fit the category,” he said. “It’s not exactly clear why it took them so long.”

The Einsatzgruppen were the Nazis’ opening salvo in the Holocaust—SS units and police personnel who followed behind the regular army as it pushed into the Soviet Union in 1941, slaughtering perceived racial or political enemies in mass executions. Estimates vary, but experts agree they were responsible for well over 1 million killings.

The Nazis later established their

system of death camps partially due to concerns about the psychological effects the up-close mass killings were having on the Einsatzgruppen troops themselves.

“The death camps and concentration camps...became the iconic images of the Holocaust, but it was the Einsatzgruppen that were maybe even a more stark manifestation of the Nazi ideology and the Final Solution,” Zuroff said.

“The number of active [Einsatzgruppen] participants is much greater than the number who actually carried out the murders in the death camps.”

The latest investigation centers on 95-year-old Wilhelm Karl Friedrich Hoffmeister, a former SS Rottenfuehrer—roughly equivalent to corporal—suspected of serving with one of the death squads in Ukraine. AP

MANGO AVALANCHE Like any enterprising fruit vendor at the Santiago City Public Market in Isabela, 63-year-old Donato Ronquillo entices customers with his ripe and sweet mangoes. By selling locally produced tropical fruits through the years, he was able to send all his children to college. SUZANNE JUNE G. PERANTE

Add a zip line, and that aging cruise ship is ready to party on

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N a recent four-night cruise to the Bahamas on the 2,758-passenger Carnival Victory, a lively crowd was downing neon drinks at an equally fluorescent bar in the ship’s multistory atrium.

The casino was packed and smoky.

This was old-school cruising, and everyone was loving it.

Most ships have an official lifespan of 30 years, the amount of time it takes for the asset to depreciate to 15 percent of its original book value. By that measure, the 18-yearold Carnival Victory has passed the theoretical prime of her life.

She’s still quite the moneymaker. By focusing on short, threeand four-night sailings from Miami to the Bahamas and back, the aesthetically outdated ship carries twice as many passengers per year as many similarly sized vessels. In fact, the Carnival Victory is just one of the many middle-aged and elderly ships that were built during a cruise boom in the 1990s but now make up a multibillion-dollar portion of the cruise industry.

Typically, there have been three options for “senior” ships—none of which includes getting stripped for steel on a South Asian beach.

Most often, they’re offloaded to a less-luxurious cruise line within the same company or rerouted to a different part of the globe with smaller market share. Sometimes they’re sold on the secondhand market to fledgling or budget cruise lines that don’t want to invest in new tonnage.

As these ships approach their retirement ages, they are also used for the booze-cruise set,

who care less about cabin décor than the number of free drinks included in their fares.

The Bahamas Paradise Cruise Line has just two ships: one built in 1987 (for Carnival) and another built in 1991 (for Costa Cruises).

The itineraries, which largely consist of two-night forays from West Palm Beach to Freeport in the Bahamas, start at $129 per person and include 10 free drinks.

But as overhead continues to rise on new constructions—the largest cruise ship in the world, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas, cost $1.5 billion to build—such major players as Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. are catching on to the intrinsic value of an aging fleet, realizing that it’s more sensible to give older vessels a little Botox and a “demotion,” rather than letting a costly asset sail into the sunset.

One example: At age 20, the 1,970-passenger Dawn Princess left Princess Cruises last year for sister brand P&O Cruises Australia where, after a multimillion-dollar makeover, it was renamed the 1,998-passenger Pacific Explorer. It now has a zip-line course, a bowling green and a water park with two water slides. (One is disco-themed, with lights and music.)

As with humans, cosmetic surgery for cruise ships can be subtle or drastic—but it’s become increasingly common. In its annual “Cruise Lines Outlook,” UBS estimates that by 2020, at least 12 percent of global capacity will be 25 years old or older, and nearly 5 percent will be pushing 30.

Carnival, the largest cruise line

on the seas, currently claims 26 ships—nine of them built from 1990 to 1998. The company has spent hundreds of millions of dollars refurbishing those ships, adding such features as poolside Guy Fieri burger stands.

But Stein Kruse, group chief executive officer for Carnival Corp.’s Holland America Group and Carnival UK, says investments in older ships are worth it, particularly if one is in good shape and has a loyal following and low book value.

“Some of the older ships in our brands are incredibly popular. They are well-kept, well-maintained and they go on exciting itineraries,” he tells Bloomberg.

On the more extreme end is Silversea Cruises, which sawed its nine-year-old Silver Spirit right down the middle back in March.

The goal? To add a 49-foot section to the center of the ship, accommodating an expanded pool area and more restaurants.

Tough new regulations requiring cruise lines to lower sulfur emissions by 2020 may curb the trend toward cruise ship renovation; executives will have to decide whether it’s worth it to pay millions on retrofitted “scrubbers” that meet the updated environmental criteria.

In addition to the Bahamas, one destination has emerged as a particularly attractive market for old and renovated vessels: Cuba. Current facilities in Havana can’t handle today’s megaships, but they can handle the smaller, 1990s version of a megaship, such as Royal Caribbean’s 28 -year-old, 1,602-passenger

Empress of the Seas, christened by Gloria Estefan.

Empress is the oldest ship in the company’s fleet; it sailed with the Spanish subsidiary Pullmantur for eight years before being brought back in 2016, just as the Cuba cruise market was opening up. Similarly, Carnival is now sailing to the destination with its 25-year-old, 2,056-passenger Carnival Sensation; in the fall, its 3,000-passenger Carnival Sunshine, a remake of the 22-year-old Carnival Destiny, will become the largest ship to anchor in Havana.

Peter Knego, a cruise historian and classic-ship memorabilia dealer, even talks about some of these ships the way some people talk about Cuba’s antique cars, delighting in such “vintage” design features as expansive Lido decks with multiple pools.

American demand for Cuba cruises is hot—possibly because of newly tightened rules for land visits on the island. As a result, these sailings are selling at premium prices: a balcony cabin on a five-day cruise on the 20-year-old, 2,154-passenger Carnival Paradise in early-July starts at $1,259 per person, almost 10 percent more than a comparable cruise that skips Havana.

That might explain why Norwegian Cruise Line has invested $400 million to refurbish nine of its 16 vessels, including its two Havanabound ships. “You get to that middleaged period in a 30-year life, and the ships need a substantial investment,” says Andy Stuart, president and CEO of the line. “That’s exactly what we’ve done,” he adds. “We don’t see any reason to retire ships.” Bloomberg News

Concerned about elder abuse, US states loan out secret cameras

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ADISON,Wisconsin—When women at a group home for cognitively disabled elderly in Green Bay heard that the home’s old proprietor was moving back in, they were terrified. One swore to the home’s supervisor that she wouldn’t allow it: John, she said, was “dirty.”

“I don’t like what he does to us,” she said.

Her housemate quickly shushed her, saying she wasn’t supposed to tell.

Police were called in, but struggled to build a case against the man. The women—who had to be spoken to as if they were children—made accusations, recanted them and then made them again.

Many cases like this one in 2016 unfold every year across the nation, often going unresolved because of the special difficulties that make elderly people especially vulnerable to mistreatment or crime. Now Wisconsin is taking a radical step to curb abuse and get reliable evidence for prosecutions—handing out free surveillance cameras to family members so they can secretly record caregivers suspected of hurting their loved ones.

Attorney General Brad Schimel said it should make preying on the elderly harder to get away with.

“Anybody caring for a senior probably should think if they’re misbehaving they could get caught for it,” he said.

But Wisconsin’s program, only the second of its kind, is prompting protests by the elderly care industry and privacy advocates who consider it a disturbing government foray into private spying.

“Now people are recording stuff for the cops,” said Lee Tien, senior staff lawyer for the Electronic Frontier

Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to protect privacy as technology evolves.

“There’s no oversight or governance. [The programs] definitely create concern about expansion of government surveillance into private spaces.”

Schimel noted that the cameras are loaned for only 30 days, and that people could already place a camera if they suspected abuse. Agency officials have spent $1,200 on equipment to start the program on a pilot basis.

Elder abuse can include beatings, molestation, theft of jewelry or credit cards and neglect. Victims with dementia or other cognitive problems often don’t realize they’ve been victimized or struggle to report incidents coherently.

National statistics are difficult to compile, but state data suggest a worsening problem. In Wisconsin counties reported 7,019 complaints in 2016, up 21 percent from just three years earlier.

Demographics are broadening the vulnerable population, with the number of people 65 and older projected to almost double by 2050 in the US. The National Association of Attorneys General called on its members last August to focus on elder abuse.

At least six states—Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Washington, Illinois and Maryland—have passed laws allowing some form of surveillance in nursing homes. One, New Jersey, has also begun loaning cameras.

Making video recordings in both New Jersey and Wisconsin is legal as long as at least one party involved is aware it’s happening. Camera borrowers must agree not to make audio recordings to avoid violating federal wiretap laws, and agree not to place cameras in bathrooms or the caregiver’s bedroom.

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

BusinessMirror

Google won’t renew Pentagon contract to use AI SAN FRANCISCO—Google won’t renew a contract with the Pentagon that provides the company’s artificially intelligent (AI) algorithms to interpret video images and improve the targeting of drone strikes. That’s according to reports in Gizmodo, Buzzfeed, and The New York Times last Friday.

The reports said Google Cloud Business Head Diane Greene told employees of the decision not to renew the 18-month deal past the end of 2019, when the current contract ends.

Google representatives did not respond to a request for comment.

The so-called Project Maven had riled Google employees, including several who quit and thousands of others who signed a petition asking CEO Sundar Pichai to cancel the project and enact a policy renouncing the use of Google technology in warfare. AP

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KLOOK Ambassador Alex Gonzaga with her mom Pinty during their trip to Japan.

Real people tapped for #NoRules campaign PRIMETIME

DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com

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WAS lucky to have been part of Klook’s launch in the Philippines, where they sent celebrities and influencers to different parts of the region. The launch, dubbed #GetKlookd, simultaneously took place in four locations: Palawan, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

Klook is Asia’s largest in-destination services booking platform, which offers travelers a simple way to book and enjoy over 40,000 popular attractions, local experiences and services around the world.

Founded in 2014 Klook has been recognized by globally renowned media and award-giving bodies, including Forbes, Deloitte Fast Technology, Wall Street Journal, CNBC and many others. Klook’s mobile app was awarded Best of the Year by both Apple App Store

and Google Play Store, and has been featured over 100 times as the go-to app for trip-planning.

Klook has an excellent selection of activities and attractions in Asia, which can be booked seamlessly through paperless ticketing. Klook seeks to transform the travel activities space in Asia by bringing together quality operators and making their services available on a single platform. For example, if you’re going to Hong Kong, all you need to do is go to the Klook app to look for good deals on communication devices (pocket Wi-Fi and SIM cards), meals, attractions and transportation.

Klook is the first to enable instant ticketing to some of the most popular attractions in Asia. You can book within a matter of seconds and travelers can show up with no more queuing or printing vouchers. These features are all seamlessly synced with Klook Mobile, Asia’s first travel activities booking app. It’s really so easy. For instance, if you book a pocket Wi-Fi rental from here, you’d need to make a bank deposit for payment. But with Klook, you just book and pick up the device from the airport in your destination. During my last travel, it just took me 10 minutes to get the tickets that we booked via Klook.

This summer, Klook’s campaign features real and authentic people, a first of its kind in the country.

Klook followers on Facebook were encouraged to share their most adventurous travel photos that truly show how they travel with #NoRules. The best photos were chosen to win Klook travel credits and were featured in the brand’s takeover of one of Edsa’s biggest LED billboards.

Until June 15, commuters who catch the billboard will stand a chance to win a trip for two to Osaka, Japan, and visit Universal Studios. All they have to do is spot the secret word that will flash onscreen and enter the code at bit.ly/2sm82IA. You may check out the complete details of this contest at bit.ly/2xDg2K6.

If you haven’t tried Klook yet, then now’s the time.

Get P200 off your first travel experience with Klook when you use the promo code <NORULES200>.

In another development, Klook has selected Adyen as its payments partner in Asia Pacific. With the partnership in place, the Hong Kong-based activities booking company now offers travelers in Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia their preferred payment methods.

These include local payment options like Dragonpay in the Philippines, which helps Klook users to make over-the-counter payments for online transactions.

For information, visit goo.gl/N5evzn.

Roaming app connects Filipino travelers to digital solutions FILIPINO tourists traveling abroad can now connect to more digital travel services for free using Smart Communication Inc.’s (Smart) RoamFree app, a one-stop portal that gives free instant access to key apps at international tourist destinations without having to subscribe to a roaming data package.

Launched in December, RoamFree is now available for Filipinos traveling to more than 100 countries, including top tourist destinations like Japan, South Korea, the US, Singapore and Taiwan, to name a few. The app is available for download in both Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

In addition to being able to reserve accommodations with Agoda or Booking, or order food and reserve tables in top restaurants with FoodPanda, OpenTable and TheFork, customers can now also access Facebook for free for 30 minutes every day using the RoamFree app. They can also

stay up-to-date with breaking news through a regularly updated ticker within the app. Through the app, tourists can also buy prepaid load anytime throughout their journey.

This service is expected to benefit the millions of Filipinos who travel abroad both for business or pleasure.

Filipino travelers are among Asia’s emerging “global traveling class,” having visited five countries on average, according to a recent study.

“With RoamFree, a better, more convenient travel experience awaits our customers, as they are able to check flight schedules, book tours, search for recommendations from fellow travelers and navigate around foreign cities without having to worry about roaming charges,” said Kat Luna-Abelarde, first vice president, International and Carrier Business.

“Together with key partners, our goal is to connect our growing community of Filipino travelers around the world, provide them with a wide array of digital solutions and serve them wherever they are,” Abelarde added.

To use the app, customers just need to open RoamFree and activate their mobile data upon arriving at their destination to access accounts on various partner sites and services.

In addition to RoamFree, another solution for Filipino international travelers is the Data Roaming Manager, which allows users to buy data roaming packs and track their data usage on-the-go. Available to Smart Prepaid and Postpaid subscribers traveling in over 130 countries, the Data Roaming Manager lets users monitor their active subscriptions so they could control their data roaming and avoid unwanted charges.

Saturday, June 9, 2018 A9

Starmobile expands distribution to over 900 ‘sari-sari’ stores nationwide IN line with the company’s strategy of increasing visibility in local communities, Starmobile (starmobile.ph), the mobile subsidiary of Filipino technology company Star Telecom Alliance Resources Inc. (Star Inc.), announced that its devices are now available in over 900 sari-sari stores nationwide.

“By making Starmobile phones available in sarisari stores all over the country, we’re making it more convenient for Filipinos from all walks of life to avail themselves of affordably priced mobile devices,” said Starmobile Sales and Marketing Head Ardie Balderrama. “At the same time, it also allows us to work with and empower microenterprises within communities.” Devices sold in these stores include the Uno feature phones and the entry-level Play and Up series of Android smartphones.

To support the small business owners, Starmobile provides in-depth training and assists them with on-ground marketing activities such as setting up store signages, storefront materials and posters.

The company has begun bolstering its presence in Smart and Sun Cellular satellite stores and transport groups nationwide.

New marketing materials are now visible in Davao City, General Trias in Cavite, and Bauan and Batangas City in Batangas.

Established in 2011 Starmobile prides itself in being able to diversify its portfolio and adapt to the ever-changing telecommunications landscape. In 2016 it introduced mobile accessories brand Jumpu, at the same time it was appointed as a Philippine distributor for global networking brand TP-Link.

YOUTUBE is dominating social-media use for teenagers, as once ubiquitous Facebook fades from popularity, according to a recent survey. A Pew Research Center survey shows that 85 percent of US teens use YouTube, making it the leading social-media platform among that age group. AP

YouTube tops teen social media, as Facebook fades NEW YORK—YouTube is dominating social-media use among teenagers, as Facebook fades from popularity, according to a new survey.

A Pew Research Center survey shows that 85 percent of US teens, ages 13 to 17, use YouTube, compared with 72 percent for the Facebook-owned Instagram and 69 percent for Snapchat. Use of the main Facebook service is at 51 percent among teens, down from 71 percent in a 2014 to 2015 Pew survey.

Pew didn’t speculate on a reason for the drop, though historically, teens often shun services once they become mainstream—and used by their parents.

Pew also says 95 percent of teens now have a smartphone or access to one, up from 73 percent during the prior survey. Pew also notes that 45 percent of teens say they use the Internet “almost constantly,” nearly double from the previous survey. Many experts worry about the use of social media by younger users, though much of the criticism has been directed at preteen audiences, including a version of Facebook Messenger designed for kids.

Pew researchers say there’s no clear consensus among teens on whether these services are good or bad for them. Nearly half of teens believe social-media use has a neutral impact, while 31 percent said it has a positive impact and 24 percent describe it as negative.

Released this week, the survey of 743 teens was conducted from March 7 to April 10 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 5 percentage points. AP

BusinessMirror

A10 Saturday, June 9, 2018

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FROM left: Engr. Nap Castillo, regional presales consultant for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, Fortinet; Jessica Jugo, sales representative, Fortinet; PDir. Napoleon Taas, director and chief information officer of the Philippine National Police; PCSupt. Marni Marcos Jr., director of PNPAnti-Cybercrime Group; PSSupt. Ronaldo de Jesus, deputy director of PNP-ACG; and PSSupt Bernard Tambaoan, PNP chief of staff.

Fortinet PH joins 5th National AntiCybercrime Summit AS digital technologies continue to disrupt cyberspace, Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, says that organizations must watch out for more varied and sophisticated cyber threats this year.

In the recently held Fifth National AntiCybercrime Summit, spearheaded by the Philippine National Police-Anti-Cybercrime Group (PNP-ACG), Engr. Nap Castillo, Fortinet’s regional presales consultant for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong, said that as business organizations and individuals increasingly rely on technology for their daily activities, they also expose themselves to many dangers lurking online.

“Users can easily fall prey to cybercrime, especially now that cybercriminals are using a wide range of approaches to ensnare their victims,” said Castillo.

“As such, cybercrime today is no longer just a technology issue. It is turning into a serious economic problem that can impact the financial well-being of individuals, as well as the survival of organizations.”

PDir. Napoleon Taas, director and chief information officer of PNP and the guest speaker of the event, agreed. He noted that despite being in the long battle against cyber criminality, the country remains vulnerable to cyberattacks. In fact, PNP-ACG revealed that in 2016, the country was ranked eighth by experts as among the most vulnerable to attacks by malicious software or malware on mobile devices. The country also recorded around 16,000 malware attacks as of last year.

“The Philippines has now 67 million Internet users.

While this puts the country in a good spot, it also means that we are at risk of cyber threats posed by criminals,” said Taas. To prevent these cyberattacks, Castillo said that it is important to deploy an intelligent and integrated layered defense, capable of detecting even unknown threats.

“Despite their efforts, most firms are not able to figure out the root causes of their infections, and are constantly getting reinfected. As such, they need to put in place more and better security controls in their devices, especially for mobile usage and peer-to-peer and proxy applications. Their security solutions must also evolve into expert systems built around integrated security technologies, actionable threat intelligence, and dynamically configurable and interactive security fabrics,” added Castillo.

New business deals bring autonomous vehicles a step closer

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BY TOM KRISHER The Associated Press

ETROIT—Two technology giants announced major new investments in selfdriving vehicles last Thursday, bringing the world a step closer to a time when autonomous cars are a part of everyday life—a reality that General Motors (GM) aims to achieve in some places as early as next year.

The deals, and other ongoing negotiations, show that the technology is authentic and it’s accelerating.

“It’s all starting to coalesce into something that’s more real,” said Navigant Research analyst Sam Abuelsamid, who closely follows autonomous vehicle developments.

SoftBank, a giant Japanese tech investment firm, announced last Thursday it would spend $2.25 billion for a 20-percent stake in GM’s autonomous vehicle business. Then Waymo, Google’s self-driving operation, said it would buy up to 62,000 more minivans from Fiat Chrysler to expand its soon-tostart ride-hailing venture.

Not to be outdone, Uber’s new CEO said at a Wednesday conference that he’s in talks with Waymo about adding Waymo self-driving vehicles to the Uber network to carry passengers, although there was no indication that was imminent.

“Everything in the autonomous world is moving very quickly,” said Rebecca Lindland, executive analyst for Kelley Blue Book.

Also, as part of the Waymo-Fiat Chrysler announcement, the companies said they are discussing use of Waymo technology in Fiat-Chrysler self-driving vehicles that would be sold to the public. That raises the possibility that personal car ownership won’t die if robotaxis become ubiquitous.

Waymo, the current front-runner, already is

testing self-driving Chrysler vans with no human backup behind the wheel in Arizona. The company plans to start an app-based autonomous ride-hailing service there later this year.

At GM, widely viewed as being in second place, the SoftBank cash infusion will help the autonomous unit named GM Cruise to roll out a robotaxi service in at least one major city starting next year, CEO Mary Barra said.

The deal, the largest yet between a technology investment firm and an old-line automaker, boosted General Motors Co. shares to their biggest one-day gain since the automaker returned to the public markets in 2010 after a trip through bankruptcy protection. The stock closed last Thursday up nearly 13 percent at 42.70.

GM Cruise would remain a wholly owned subsidiary of GM with the automaker keeping roughly 80 percent of the business. SoftBank can trade its stake for shares in GM if Cruise isn’t spun off into a new company within seven years.

The stock soared because investors are starting to realize that GM is a serious player in automated mobility, Abuelsamid said.

But analysts were cautious about predicting a future of self-driving cars everywhere. Lindland said the recent Arizona crash in which a self-driving Uber SUV struck and killed a pedestrian, as well as crashes involving Tesla Inc.’s semi-autonomous “Autopilot” feature, have rattled public confidence in the technology.

“Even as the industry is pushing forward and collaborating and getting billions of dollars in investment, we can’t leave the consumer behind,” Lindland said.

The announcements keep the front-runners on pace to start carrying passengers within the next couple of years in small-scale operations in a few

metro areas, Abuelsamid said. But he said it still will take until the middle of the next decade before selfdriving taxis are ubiquitous worldwide.

Although he views Waymo as having the lead in the autonomous vehicle race, Abuelsamid said GM’s alliance with SoftBank could boost the automaker’s standing. SoftBank owns big stakes in Uber as well as in India’s Ola ride service and Didi Chuxing, China’s top ride-hailing firm.

Michael Ronen, a managing partner for SoftBank, said last Thursday the companies will make their own decisions, but Abuelsamid sees more alliances with GM coming. He foresees GM vehicles carrying passengers on the Uber, Didi or Ola networks.

“Softbank can become a conduit for GM into all these different companies that GM doesn’t now have a relationship with,” Abuelsamid said.

Even though Waymo and GM now lead in autonomous vehicles, competitors such as auto electronics supplier Aptiv, well as ride-hailing service Lyft, chip maker Intel, and Ford, Renault Nissan and Germany’s Diamler all have room to catch up in what could be a huge market, Abuelsamid said.

Being able to produce the cars gives GM and other automakers a big advantage over tech firms that don’t have their own auto factories, he said.

Even with all the corporate deals, no one really knows for sure how people will get around in 10 or 15 years, Lindland said. They could embrace autonomous vehicles and the potential to eliminate the human errors that cause most crashes. Or they could distrust and reject them, Lindland said.

Also, after the Uber crash, there have been calls for more supervision of autonomous vehicle testing.

Currently the federal government and most states allow testing with little or no regulation.

“The last time our world was so disrupted could arguably be the Internet,” Lindland said. ■

Amazon to block Australians from global web sites due to tax

BY ROD MCGUIRK The Associated Press CANBERRA, Australia—Amazon will block Australians from buying from its international e-commerce web sites and restrict them to a smaller local platform from July in response to new tax rules that consumer advocates fear will reduce the range of choice for customers in Australia.

Shoppers visiting the US store Amazon.com will be redirected to the Australian version, Amazon.com. au, from July 1 when Australia starts applying new tax rules, Amazon said in a statement last Friday.

From that date, Australia will impose a 10-percent

consumption tax on online retailers for goods bought from overseas sites and shipped to Australia. The tax currently only applies to purchases above AU$1,000 ($757). Amazon said it regretted the change which it blamed on the new tax rules.

“While we regret any inconvenience this may cause customers, we have had to assess the workability of the legislation as a global business with multiple international sites,” Amazon said. “This will allow us to provide our customers with continued access to international selection and remain compliant with the law.”

The Australian Amazon site provides access to the more than 60 million products. Amazon offers 480

million products in the United States.

Treasurer Scott Morrison ruled out doing any “special deal” for the second-biggest company in the world run by the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos.

Morrison doubted Amazon had difficulty with Australian taxes when it had the technology to cope with different tax regimes in Britain and Canada.

“It’s disappointing that Amazon would take this out on consumers in Australia, but that’s their commercial decision,” Morrison told reporters. “If someone takes their bat and ball and goes home, well, Australians will form a view about that.”

The government would not back down on the new tax rules, which would raise AU$300 million a year,

Morrison said.

Consumer campaigner Christopher Zinn said Australian shoppers will notice a significant reduction in options when browsing the internet for goods. “Online shopping has put the world at your fingertips but now that world has shrunk,” Zinn told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Another US online retailer, eBay, said it was changing its global systems so that Australian shoppers could still buy items from anywhere in the world. “We won’t block Aussie buyers, redirect them or require them to pretend they are located overseas.

Australians will continue to be able to buy from any eBay site,” eBay said in a statement.

BusinessMirror

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Saturday, June 9, 2018 A11

Apple dangling more goodies, while adding tech diet options

S

AN JOSE, California—Apple will offer more ways for people to limit the time they spend on iPhones while introducing features designed to make its products even more indispensable.

The paradox emerged on Monday as Apple executives previewed new versions of free software due out this fall. The forthcoming controls are aimed at addressing criticism that devices are becoming increasingly addictive and distracting, especially for children. Experts worry that all the flashy colors and beeps give users short-term, feel-good rewards while increasing stress in the long run.

Yet Apple made it clear that it also hopes to make its devices and services even more alluring—and potentially irresistible—by creating new avenues for its digital assistant, Siri, to serve as a backup brain for users. The company is also creating more entertainment options and new ways to communicate, including group video chats through FaceTime and more options for the iPhone X’s animated emojis.

People have become so dependent on technology that it’s unlikely any company will be able to solve the addiction problem, but they can help keep it from getting worse, Gartner analyst Brian Blau said. The best hope, he said, is for technology to help people enjoy life and then get out of the way.

“Apple at least seems to be hearing what people are saying and trying to do something about it,” he said.

Apple’s new controls will expand on the “Do Not Disturb” options on the iPhone and iPad. The display can also be set to dim automatically just before bedtime. Users can also block app notifications from showing up on the home screen not only based on time of day, which they can do now, but by location, such as when visiting the playground with their kids.

Other features will provide weekly reports on how much time people are spending looking at their screen each month. Users will be able to set daily time limits on specific apps.

Last month Google revealed plans to force Android phones into “shush” mode when placed face down on a table and have the screen show only greyscale colors late at night.

Other highlights during Apple’s annual software preview include:

devices look alike.

Unlike Facebook and Google, Apple doesn’t depend on online ads dictated by data about a user’s interests.

Instead, Apple generates most of its revenue from device sales.

Chris Hoofnagle, faculty director of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology, believes Apple’s move will prod rivals Mozilla and Microsoft to do the same, though Google may remain a holdout with the Chrome browser given the company’s dependence on ads and data.

The announcement comes as Facebook acknowledges it struck data-sharing deals with at least 60 device makers, including Apple.

Facebook insisted there was nothing scandalous and said the deals were designed to make it easier for people to use Facebook features without opening its app or web site.

BETTER BROWSING PRIVACY

AUGMENTED REALITY GETS AUGMENTED

APPLE is taking a swipe at ubiquitous “share” buttons created by Facebook and others to track users’ behavior online regardless of whether they click on them. The company said it’s shutting down that tracking, unless the user decides to permit it, through a Safari browser update for Mac and iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads.

Apple also intends to crack down on data companies’ ability to identify specific devices by creating a unique fingerprint based on a device’s settings, installed fonts and plug-ins. Instead, Apple will send out generic information to make all Apple

APPLE rolled out new support for augmented reality as it unveiled a new format for digital objects that appear to live in the real world. Digital objects created with the new format, called USDZ, will work in Apple’s Safari browser, Messages and Mail apps, meaning AR isn’t limited to stand-alone apps that people choose to download separately.

Apple is trying to extend AR experiences to a broader population, rather than just hard-core, techsavvy users. What remains to be seen is whether there is enough of a compelling reason for someone to use AR, even if it’s built into everyday apps.

SIRI SHORTCUTS A BROADER range of third-party apps will be able to let users invoke Siri for commonly used tasks, much the way competing assistants from Google and Amazon long have. But Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight, said Apple still has a lot of work to do to close the gap with Amazon and Google.

SHARING PHOTOS APPLE will encourage users to share photos with their friends by suggesting such opportunities in a new “for you” tab. When a friend receives photos from an event, Apple will then suggest that the friend reciprocate with photos from the same event. It’s similar to how Google already encourages sharing through its own Photos app for iPhones and Android devices.

BEYOND IPHONES THE company is bringing the Dolby Atmos surroundsound feature to Apple TV 4K devices, while Apple Watch’s software gets a “Walkie Talkie” voice messaging feature that resembles the alternating one-way voice technology of the past. The watch will also automatically detect workouts without having to launch the fitness app.

Apple is trying to make Macs and iPhones work better together. The company showed off how photos taken on iPhones can instantly appear inside a Mac document. The new macOS version, Mojave, also gets iPhone apps such as Home, News, Stocks and Voice Memos. ■

Dad’s Day dilemma CONTINUED FROM A12 ■ SMARTPHONE UPGRADE. Is your dad still using a feature phone or one of those phones still running KitKat? This may be the best time to get him a new smartphone so he can follow and like your Instagram stories or even make his own.

For dads who have exacting standards, get him the Mi Mix 2S. The series has won numerous design awards and accolades from some of the world’s most prestigious museums. Its latest model, the Mi Mix 2S, is another breathtaking beauty, with a beautiful ceramic back that features a four-sided curved design, transitioning smoothly into the aluminum frame that holds a 5.99” FHD+ full screen display. Mi Mix 2S uses the latest Sony IMX363 flagship sensor for its dual-camera setup, with 1.4µm pixels for significantly better photos in low light and Dual Pixel technology for super fast autofocusing. Mi Mix 2S is available in 6GB RAM + 64GB ROM and 6GB RAM + 128GB ROM for P27,990 and P29,990, respectively.

/

CRAIG FEDERIGHI, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering, speaks during an announcement of new products at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4 in San Jose, Califirnia. AP

BY MICHAEL LIEDTKE & RYAN NAKASHIMA The Associated Press

Dads will love how the Redmi Note 5 brings flagship dual-camera specs at a midrange price (P11,990). Its main 12-megapixel sensor features large 1.4µm pixels, which can capture more light and deliver better results under low-light conditions, while its front camera sports a 13-megapixel sensor, complemented by an LED selfie light. Armed with Dual Pixel technology commonly used in professional DSLR cameras, the camera on Redmi Note 5 is able to deliver incredible autofocus speeds. It runs multiple apps simultaneously and switches between programs and games smoothly, thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 platform based on the 14nm manufacturing process. Redmi Note 5 sports a 5.99inch FHD+ 18:9 full screen, large 4000mAh battery, support for fast charging and comes in 4GB RAM + 64GB ROM. If your dad is into selfies, the Redmi S2 is a good choice for him. It sports a 16MP front camera powered by pixel binning technology and Xiaomi’s own AI Beautify features.

Redmi S2 also comes with a 12MP + 5MP AI

dual camera. It has a 5.99-inch 18:9 full screen display and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 platform.

■ A MILLION PESOS. (Or at least a chance to be an instant millionaire!) Huawei recently launched its biggest promotion in the Philippines and is giving its buyers a chance to win up to P1 million. All you have to do is get dad either a Huawei P20 Pro, P20, P20 Lite, Mate 10, Mate 10 Pro, Nova 2i, Nova 2 Lite, Y6 2018 and MediaPad M3 lite from one of the Huawei Experience stores.

Take a photo of your official receipt/invoice and register your details at bit.ly/2M5pCZx. Only one entry per user will be accepted for the duration of the promotion. To make things even better, Huawei also announced huge price discounts for Huawei Nova 2i, Mate 10 and Mate 10 Pro. The Mate 10 is now priced at P27,990 from its original SRP of P29,990, while the Mate 10 Pro is now P33,990, from P36,990, and the Nova 2i for only P12,990.

So there you have it, hope this quick guide gives you an idea of what to get for your dear dad. ■

GMA’s Instagram account enjoys nearly a million followers.

GMA STRENGTHENS DIGITAL PLATFORMS

GMA Network continued to increase its presence across various digital platforms, with more millennial users accessing its content.

The network’s efforts to produce exclusive materials online helped GMA’s main Facebook page (www. facebook.com/GMANetwork) become the fastest-growing in the industry, increasing by 29 percent in April 2018 versus the previous year. In comparison, rival network ABS-CBN’s Facebook followers grew by 17 percent in the same period, according to GMA. Fans on Facebook were treated to a variety of content, including interactive live chats with their favorite GMA stars via the Kapuso ArtisTambayan, weekly Kapuso Exclusive videos, as well as live music sessions and Q&A with GMA singers on Playlist Live.

Providing further support for the online programs, GMA’s Twitter and Instagram pages (@gmanetwork) remain the leading entertainment accounts in the Philippines. As of May 2018, GMA has more than 1.02 million Twitter followers, while ABS-CBN has almost 871,000. On Instagram, the network has more than 938,000 followers versus competition’s 676,000.

Moreover, GMA’s entertainment web site (www.

GMANetwork.com) experienced its all-time highest performing periods in March and April, generating 115 million and 119 million page views, respectively.

Meanwhile, the GMA Network mobile app now enables viewers to watch full episodes of their all-time favorite GMA shows. Over 50 titles are available, including Encantadia, Alyas Robin Hood, Destined to be Yours, My Faithful Husband, My Husband’s Lover, Mulawin and many more.

Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com

BusinessMirror

Saturday, June 9, 2018 A12

Dad’s Day dilemma THE TECHNIVORE ED UY

whereiseduy@gmail.com

“Dads are most ordinary men turned by love into heroes, adventurers, storytellers and singers of song.”

H

—PAM BROWN

AVE you seen—McDonald’s Father’s Day video “Wait Lang Po?” Did you ugly cry?

I thought so. Don’t worry, you’re

not alone.

The one minute and 27 seconds-long video (which won the inaugural YouTube Philippines Ads Awards) depicted how fathers waited and watched over their children, from birth to adulthood, and for me, it best captured the essence of what becoming a dad is all about.

Patience.

When I first saw that video, I shed a bucket of man tears because it reminded me of all the sacrifices our dad did for us. My dad Eddie wasn’t much of a talker and I couldn’t recall if we ever had one of those father-son moments (except when we were arguing; sorry, dad), but since my siblings and I were kids, up until we got our license, our dad would drive us to school (and fetch us) everyday without fail, without complaints, and without regrets, even though he was busy running a business. He didn’t say it but we knew: we were his life.

And for that, I love you, dad.

It feels a bit weird writing this piece as I am currently in Thailand, a country that celebrates Father’s Day every December, the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Unlike in the Philippines and a lot of other countries where Father’s Day is celebrated with tons of ads for the “perfect” Father’s Day gift and special

buffet packages, here in Thailand, the day is said to be one big party complete with fireworks, speeches, acts of charity and honor—and everyone wears yellow.

Besides the yellow part, however, I do think that our dads deserve a more memorable celebration. After all, without them, we all wouldn’t be here, right?

That’s why I came up with this gift guide to help you find that memorable gift for dad. I know, most dads aren’t too picky with gifts; in fact, they’d rather tell you to save the money. But let’s be honest: he really doesn’t need any more neckties, sweat socks, or t-shirts and coffee mugs proclaiming him as “world’s best dad.”

So be clever when choosing what to give your old man. How about something that he can really put to good use?

■ BUGATTI BAGS. It may take years (or forever) before you could get your dad a Bugatti, but here’s something that’s just as classy as the supercar. The Bugatti Contratempo Backpack is stylishly smart casual backpack that can carry your dad’s laptop and files with enough space for his other essentials, making this a perfect companion for his next business trip or vacation (P6,590 from Urbanize). If he isn’t much of a backpack kinda guy, you might want to consider the Contratempo Messenger Bag also from Bugatti. This can surely fit a standard 14-inch laptop, with multifunctional pockets that simply organizes all of his documents, gadgets and other personal belongings with ease. Sporting an “urban” style, this shoulder bag is a convenient way to move around the city (P4,590).

Just like any regular dad, yours too probably loves going to the park or grocery with your mom. And with those quick and unplanned moments, your dad will definitely appreciate having this Contratempo Waist Bag. With enough space for him to stash his phone, wallet, car keys and other personal items, this one is a keeper (P3,990).

■ ESPRESSO COFFEE AND TEA TRAVEL PRESS-BRUSHED STAINLESS, ESPRO. For those dads who can’t live without coffee or tea, the Espro Travel Press is a perfect companion whether you’re stuck in the office or out doing errands or hopping from one meeting to another. A very useful and practical gift your dad will surely appreciate (P2,890 from Urbanize).

■ BLACK BIFOLD LEATHER WALLET BY U. Remember

when you used to get some extra baon from your dad’s wallet? Now’s the time to give back. A wallet is the kind of gift you can give that offers that warm and fuzzy feeling for both you and your dad. Most wallet brands these days look very chic and have that minimalist design, shifting the focus more on quality and durability. Take this Bifold black leather wallet from U, for instance, a perfect example of a modern wallet that balances functionality and style.

■ ELECOM QI WIRELESS CHARGER. Our dads won’t really care much when it comes to tech gears, but they’ll surely love this Qi Wireless charger from Elecom. Not only he can take them anywhere he goes but this will also allow him to seamlessly charge his smartphone and iPad—dangle free.

■ CARGANIZER. Now, this is a bit tricky as you’ll probably want one for yourself. This carganizer (vehicle organizer) from Highroad allows your dad to safely store important belongings such as charging cables, tissue paper, tablets, toiletries, CDs (!) and even light snacks. The inside compartment is quite spacious enough to hold 16 oz of water bottles and wipe containers, or heavy items such as Chromebook and commuter supplies for the whole family. This car console organizer has a hinged lid with magnetic closure to keep stored items hidden from view.

You can find more interesting items at Urbanize, a shop that focuses on curating the best and most innovative brands in the market. Urbanize is located at the following outlets: UP Town Center, Gateway Mall, Shangri-La Mall, Glorietta 3, Uptown Mall, Venice Grand Canal, Kiss & Fly Naia Terminal 3, Alabang Town Center, The District-Imus, Solenad and Serin-Tagaytay, Ayala Malls The 30th, SM Seaside City Cebu and Festival Mall Alabang.

■ ‘STAR WARS’ X BATA. If your dad’s a fan of Star Wars (and who isn’t?), you might want to run over to the Bata store in SM Megamall for these limited-edition kicks. Bata Heritage showcases iconic Star Wars characters on a capsule collection of Bata Bullets and Bata Tennis.

For this collaboration, the Bullets come in high-top versions in black or white canvas, with red or blue Star Wars rubber patch on the side and matching piping around the shoe as well as top eyelet. The iconic light saber from the movie is featured at the back of the sneaker, which is lined with an allover pattern that

is the combination of the Light Side and Dark Side of the Force symbols. For SS18, the low-top version has been revamped with tricolored graphics of Darth Vader, R2D2 and the Storm Trooper. Both Vader and the Trooper’s drawings are available in white, black and grey, while R2D2 comes in a fresh white, blue and grey combination. Originally created in 1964 to shoe the Baltimore Bullets basketball team, the Bata Bullets was relaunched in 2016 as a testament to the brand’s value of endurance. The first Bata Tennis shoe has been manufactured since 1936 in India for school children to wear for their Physical Education classes and continues today to be one of the brand’s bestselling shoe.

■ SPERRYS. Mention the word “Top-Siders” and your dad will probably launch into a hundred stories about the times he wore his classic “Sperrys,” and maybe even how he met your mother. Classic never goes out of style and getting him a new pair will not only bring back memories but create new ones for the old fella.

■ BRAND-NEW TV. It might be the era of YouTube and Netflix, but the TV will always be our dad’s favorite entertainment device. The new Sony Bravia OLED A8F series produces an incredibly detailed picture with deep blacks, rich and realistic colors and an exceptionally wide viewing angle. Sony’s more than half a century worth of picture-processing expertise lends to precise control of the 8 million OLED pixels for a stunning realization of an unparalleled 4K HDR picture via its X1 Extreme processor, while Acoustic Surface technology allows the sound to come from the screen, creating an entertainment experience with a beautiful picture.

The Sony Bravia OLED A8F also opens up a whole new world of content and entertainment by the television’s Internet capabilities an streaming application services. You can command your TV to navigate TV shows and movies, download your favorite apps, play games, or just simply get answers to your questions, all with the power of your voice. And since its designed to blend in comfortably in living spaces and “nestle” the device into day-to-day life, it’ll give your dad’s home an instant modern makeover.

CONTINUED ON A11