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GHOST IN THE ICE A Nobel-winning discovery brings scientists closer to solving cosmic mysteries that could reshape our understanding of the universe THE IceCube observatory sits atop the South Pole’s 1.8-miles-thick pure, clear ice sheet. ILYA BODO, ICECUBE/NSF
By Tyce DeYoung
S
Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Michigan State University The Conversation
TANDING at the South Pole is the next-best thing to being on another planet. If you walk a few hundred yards away from the National Science Foundation’s research station, you see a featureless plain of snow and ice, most likely empty of living creatures larger than microbes for hundreds of miles. With nothing but snow for sound waves to echo off, there’s an eerie silence. It’s easy to get lost in reverie, contemplating the stark landscape. But then I remember that I’m here for a reason: to work on what may be the world’s weirdest telescope, watching for some of nature’s most mysterious subatomic particles. This wintry landscape is home to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. This unusual tele-
scope is the brainchild of Francis Halzen, recipient of the 2026 Nobel Prize in physics for his work spearheading this project and discovering high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin. I’m an astrophysicist and part of the international team of scientists who started building IceCube in 2005 and continue to operate it today. Although the detector is designed to be operated mostly remotely, some work must be done in
person: maintaining and replacing electronics, installing new hardware and upgrading instruments. Every student and scientist who comes to the South Pole feels that same sense of awe. Even when we’re analyzing data back in our offices at home, images from our time at the pole lurk in the back of our minds.
Neutrinos hint at where cosmic rays come from
EVERY second, more than 10,000 high-energy particles—protons and atomic nuclei—rain down from space on every square meter of the Earth’s atmosphere. Some of them carry more than a million times the energy of the protons at the most powerful particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Fortunately, the atmosphere absorbs most of them, but a few stray particles pass through your body every second. Scientists discovered these particles, known as cosmic rays, more than a century ago. Continued on A2
WORKERS construct the support tower for the hot water “drill” used to melt holes 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) deep in the Antarctic ice to install IceCube sensors. JEFF CHERWINKA, ICECUBE/NSF, CC BY-NC
Nobel medicine prize goes to 3 scientists for shining light on brain activity
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TOCKHOLM—The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. Dr. Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel carried out research that opened a new field with the wonky name optogenetics, combining light with genes to switch on and off neurons in living brains. Separate research from the trio—one of whom lives in the US and two in Germany—resulted in
a technique that helps to identify neural pathways responsible for behavior and disease. It could lead to treatments, such as restoring some vision in people with a genetic form of blindness. Experts said the advancements greatly expanded the understanding of how the brain is organized. “It has let us go from a ‘Rand McNally’ road atlas of the brain to something more akin to ‘Google Earth,’” neuroscientist Patrick Forcelli of Georgetown University said in an email.
Deisseroth, 54, is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and Stanford University professor in California. Hegemann, 71, is at Humboldt University in Berlin, and Nagel, 73, most recently worked at the University of Würzburg, also in Germany, the assembly said.
Winning research shines a light into the brain KARL DEISSEROTH, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel are shown on the screen as they are awarded the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, during a press conference at the Nobel Forum at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 5, 2026. PONTUS LUNDAHL/TT NEWS AGENCY VIA AP
THE breakthrough began when Hegemann explored how a singlecell type of green algae can swim toward light. He and Nagel dis-
covered a particular protein that, when illuminated by blue light, opens a channel to create an electrical impulse. Putting that protein into other cells makes them lightsensitive. Brain cells use electrical signals to communicate with each other, but normally they don't respond to light, Deisseroth told The Associated Press. He used what he calls “a trick from nature," putting the gene that controls that microbial protein into certain cells in the brains of living mice. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 62.7660 n JAPAN 0.3978 n UK 83.0520 n HK 7.9981 n CHINA 9.3634 n SINGAPORE 49.0245 n AUSTRALIA 43.6789 n EU 70.3983 n KOREA 0.0468 n SAUDI ARABIA 16.7243 Source: BSP (October 9, 2026)
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GHOST IN THE ICE Continued from A1
But the magnetic fields that fill the universe deflect cosmic rays on their journey, so the direction they’re traveling when they reach Earth’s surface doesn’t tell us where they were originally produced. Since the cosmic rays themselves don’t point back to their sources, we look instead for neutrinos, a type of subatomic particle that should be produced as a byproduct of cosmic ray acceleration, wherever it’s happening. Neutrinos are very strange— they’ve been called ghost particles. They very rarely interact with other matter, so to see them, you need a very large detector. Our telescope is called IceCube because we use a cubic kilometer—a billion tons—of the Antarctic ice cap to catch neutrinos. Most neutrinos pass invisibly through IceCube, but by chance a few of them will smash into a proton or neutron in the ice, releasing a shower of high-energy electrons, photons and other particles the detectors can see. By measuring the number and direction of these visible particles, we can determine the direction the original neutrino came from, its energy and its type, also called its “flavor.” One by one, we build up a picture of the sky as it shines in neutrinos, rather than starlight. Halzen proposed the idea of building a neutrino telescope in Antarctica in 1988. The South Pole may not sound like the obvious place to build such a telescope, but in fact it’s the easiest place to do it. The United States maintains a scientific facility there, home to
FRANCIS HALZEN, winner of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physics speaks from Italy in a videocall with the media and staff and colleagues from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in Madison, Wisconsin, October 6, 2026. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON VIA AP
several other experiments besides IceCube. Most importantly for us, the South Pole station sits on top of nearly 1.8 miles (3 kilometers) of the purest, clearest ice in the world—a perfect neutrino target just waiting to be used.
Good for science, tough for people BUT “easiest” is not the same as “easy”—the South Pole is a challenging place to work. Traveling to the pole from the US usually takes a week or more. The last leg of the trip is on a special ski-equipped LC-130 cargo aircraft, operated by the Air National Guard, which lands on a runway made of compressed snow. These aircraft can only reach the pole for four months of the year: at midsummer—January in the Southern Hemisphere—the
average temperature is a balmy minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 26 degrees Celsius), but by March, temperatures have fallen to minus 50 F (minus 45°C), too cold for LC-130s to operate. We pack our work into those summer months, then hand IceCube off to two hardy “winter-over” scientists. Our winter-overs are part of a team of 45 people who stay at the station for the rest of the year, cut off from the rest of the world for eight months except for internet and radio communications. In the summer, the station population expands to around 150 people. The South Pole is a high-altitude desert, so the air is thin and very, very dry. But the cold isn’t the toughest part of working at the South Pole—at least in the summer. The strangest thing, at least for me, is the
ONE of IceCube’s 91 strings of sensors, called DOMs (digital optical modules), is lowered into the ice. They’re vertically spaced about 55 feet (17 meters) apart and meant to catch the visual repercussions of a neutrino collision. JIM HAUGEN, ICECUBE/NSF, CC BY-NC
constant daylight. At the South Pole, the Sun stays up for six months, circling along the horizon and slowly spiraling down until it sets at the autumn equinox. Then our winter-overs get six months of constant darkness until sunrise in the spring. This plays havoc with circadian rhythms; I’ve awoken to see the clock read 3:00, not knowing whether it’s a.m. or p.m., whether I’ve slept for four hours or 16. Despite being one of the most isolated places on Earth, the station is also very crowded in the summer. It takes a lot of expensive fuel to heat the buildings, so space is at a premium—and needless to say, most of us work indoors. It also takes fuel to melt water, so showers are rationed to two minutes of running water twice a week, contributing to the unique working atmosphere at the South Pole.
Results rolled in
THE road to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory was a long one. Halzen started work at the South Pole in 1993 with a project called AMANDA, which I joined in 1997. AMANDA showed we could detect neutrinos in the ice, but it was too small to see any sources—it was like using binoculars when what we needed was a serious telescope. We needed to go big. Halzen built a team that could scale up the process and convinced scientific agencies in the US and other countries that the results would be worthwhile. IceCube was fully commissioned in 2011, on schedule and on budget, with Halzen coordinating the efforts of over 300 scientists around the world. Two years after IceCube was completed, we announced that we’d identified neutrinos from out-
side the solar system—the original entries in our map of the neutrino sky. We named the first two Bert and Ernie. By now, we’ve seen thousands of neutrinos coming from the cosmos, some with hundreds of times more energy than the protons accelerated at CERN. But it’s been surprisingly difficult to determine where, exactly, they come from. No individual sources immediately stand out in the sky—most of the neutrinos form a diffuse glow, like seeing sky glow at night rather than distinct constellations of stars. IceCube is making progress pinpointing the origins of some of the cosmic rays by identifying their neutrino emission. One high-energy neutrino came from a blazar—a supermassive black hole sucking in matter from its host galaxy and spewing some of it into a jet thousands of light-years long and pointed straight at Earth. Others camefrom nearby galaxies and a few even from our own Milky Way. But these sources can only account for a small fraction of the neutrinos IceCube detects. Many questions remain, and more work is needed to answer them. In the 2025-26 South Pole summer, we installed the IceCube Upgrade, an extension designed to bring the sky into sharper focus by improving the detector’s calibration. Plans for another, even larger IceCube Gen2 Observatory are under development, and there are a handful of other neutrino telescopes under construction around the world, including KM3NeT, Baikal-GVD, TRIDENT, and a new project I’m working on called P-ONE. IceCube has given us our first peek behind the curtain at the most powerful neutrino sources in the universe, and I’m excited to see what other surprises are in store. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/ im-a-physicist-who-worked-on-thenobel-winning-neutrino-search-heres-how-a-cubic-kilometer-of-antarctic-ice-became-a-telescope-for-ghostparticles-from-space-293747.
Nobel medicine prize goes to 3 scientists for shining light on brain activity Continued from A1
Beaming light at those cells— first by using tiny fibers, now with noninvasive methods—can turn neurons on or off while animals do various tasks. “People usually think about light as a way of collecting information to observe things,” he told the AP. “But this is the opposite of that. This is using light to control things, to make things happen, and to do it in a very precise way.” Optogenetics is mostly a research tool to learn how specific neurons and neural circuits work. That “gives you, inevitably, ideas for how to correct things that go wrong,” Deisseroth said. “Once you know the cells that are causal, that actually matter for a symptom or for correcting a symptom, you can devise medications or other methods that target those cells.”
Findings could help treat blindness and other problems
ALREADY companies have studies underway trying to treat inherited blindness called retinitis pigmentosa by inserting a light-activated protein into a patient’s retina and then outfitting the person with special light-emitting glasses. Deisseroth, a physician-scientist, pointed to other scientists pursuing possible treatments for autism and schizophrenia based on information gleaned from optogenetics, he said. Experts say optogenetics has transformed neuroscience around the world, becoming a mainstay in
labs trying to understand the brain pathways involved in behavior and disease—and hopefully leading to ways to fix those that go awry. “It’s a very precise set of tools for doing experiments about how the brain works that are pretty hard to do any other way,” said the University of Pittsburgh’s Jeremy Berg. He was at the US National Institutes of Health in the early 2000s when it awarded Deisseroth major funding for “this vision of optogenetics that was pretty much spot-on the way it played out.” Brain cells communicate in milliseconds, and optogenetics for the first time offered scientists a way to control them at the same speed in a laboratory, said Forcelli, Georgetown’s chairman of pharmacology and physiology. That helped the field move from using fixed maps of brain activity to building functional wiring diagrams, and jump-started additional techniques to explore neural complexity. “It has also helped reveal how specific brain circuits are disrupted, with implications for conditions such as blindness, depression, addiction and dementia," said Abdel El Manira, a member of the Nobel Assembly. "Yet despite these extraordinary advances, the brain still holds countless mysteries, with much more left to learn and discover. And optogenetics has given us a powerful means to take on these challenges.”
Karl Deisseroth had just gone to bed when he got the Nobel call DEISSEROTH,
a
self-described
night owl, said he was up late in his Northern California home working on papers and emailing students. He had just gone to lie down when he got the call from the Nobel Assembly. He was so surprised that “I almost couldn’t speak for a little bit,” he told the AP. “I almost felt as if I'd lost the power of forming words.” But he recovered quickly, pointing out that amid all the congratulations that morning, he still had to pack school lunches for his children once they woke up. “That’s my one obligation I have in the next few hours, to make sure I make their sandwiches,” he said. Thomas Perlmann, the secretary of the medicine committee, said he reached all three winners Monday. The AP could not immediately reach Hegemann and Nagel.
Medicine prize kicks off Nobels week
THE prize was announced at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, kicking off Nobels week. The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization. Monday’s medicine prize is followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. After Friday’s peace prize is awarded, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced on October 12. AP
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The plague never went away. Cases are reported in parts of Africa and the US nearly every year
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HE plague, the rare bacterial infection infamously known for killing tens of millions in 14thcentury Europe, never went away. It is now easily treated with antibiotics. Since the 1990s, most human cases have been reported in Africa, especially Congo and Madagascar, according to the World Health Organization. There are an average of about seven human cases per year in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mostly in rural areas of the American West. A worker at a plague research institute in Siberia recently died of pneumonia. The case has raised alarm in Russia after unconfirmed media reports suggested she might have died of pneumonic plague. Russian authorities say testing showed no evidence of plague, but the research institute
has been quarantined. “People think the plague is gone, it was something that occurred 500 years ago. It’s not. It’s here amongst us,” said Simon Clarke of the University of Reading in the U.K. “Unless you get rid of those wild animals, which of course is not possible, then you’re not going to get rid of the bacteria.” Surprised to hear the plague is still around? Here’s what to know.
Plague can attack lymph nodes, lungs and blood
PEOPLE in Siberia have been dying of plague for at least 5,500 years. The earliest evidence of a form of the disease was found in teeth
from ancient hunter-gatherers north of the region’s Lake Baikal. Pneumonic plague and the more well-known bubonic plague—also called the Black Death—are caused by the same bacteria, called Yersinia pestis. The bacteria spread naturally among rodents like prairie dogs and rats. Fleas that jump from infected animals and bite people can spread the disease. The bubonic plague is the most common form of the infection. It causes painfully swollen lymph nodes that are most commonly found in the groin, armpit and neck, called buboes. Other symptoms include sudden high fever and chills, headaches, and pain in the abdomen, legs and arms, according to the Cleveland Clinic. There are two other forms of the plague: pneumonic plague, which can be caused by inhaling the bacteria, infects the lungs, while septicemic plague is an infection in the bloodstream. Both are fatal if not treated early, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
doesn’t travel ver y far,” said Dr. Glenn Wortmann, MedStar Washington Hospital Center. “So you really need to be in face-toface contact with that person to get pneumonic plague.” That’s why “the chance of this spreading widely in Russia and then extending here to the U.S. will not happen,” he said.
Antibiotics can treat plague
THIS undated photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East, shows the institute workers in a lab. THE IRKUTSK ANTI-PLAGUE RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF SIBERIA AND FAR EAST VIA AP
Bubonic plague will often develop into the other two forms of plague if untreated.
Plague can spread through fleas or bodily fluids
OTHER than bites from infected fleas, people can also get plague by touching infected bodily fluids, so
health experts recommend taking extra care when handling dead or sick animals. The plague can also spread through the respiratory droplets of someone who has pneumonic plague. “If you cough, you can spread it to another person, but that
THE plague was never eradicated, but we’ve gotten better at preventing its spread and treating it in humans. When treated early with antibiotics, the plague can be cured. The key is to get to a doctor fast—otherwise the plague can be deadly. There is a vaccine, but the WHO only recommends it for people who are at high risk of infection, like laboratory and healthcare workers. There isn’t strong evidence that vaccines can work against the pneumonic form. There’s no plague vaccine available in the US. AP
Most Americans think AI is developing too fast, a new AP-NORC poll finds By Barbara Ortutay & Linley Sanders The Associated Press
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A SHINGTON—Worries around artificial intelligence (AI) cross party lines, with the vast majority of Americans saying the US government should prioritize keeping AI under human control and protecting workers. A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that most Americans, 64%, think AI is developing “too fast,” while 27% say its development has been “about right” and only 8% say it’s moving “too slow.” T he r isk that power f u l A I models could evade human control and hurt humanity, once the stuff of science fiction, has been emerging as a more pressing concern. Even leaders of the companies that are developing frontier AI models are calling for a slowdown so that government regulation can catch up. President Donald Trump has pushed back against slowing down AI development because of concerns that China will gain an advantage with the technology. Data centers powering AI projects have also taken a prominent role in major political races as the midterm elections approach. About 8 in 10 US adults say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the US government to ensure that AI stays under human control, and they are about as likely
to want the government to prioritize protecting the country’s workforce. Most US adults also think minimizing environmental harm and growing the US economy are highly important. About half say this about promoting technological innovation, and slightly fewer say that about competing with China. T here’s bipartisan concer n about the speed of AI’s development, but few Americans think either major political party has an advantage in handling artificial intelligence. Trump, a Republican, also gets a low rating on his handling of the issue, with 67% of US adults disapproving of his performance on AI. Stephanie Stewart, a junior-high science teacher in Sunset, Utah, said she is frustrated by the president’s opposition to AI regulation. “There is no handling of the issue except for we’re just going to allow these companies to do whatever they want, and we’re not going to regulate them,” said Stewart, 53.
Most say protecting workers should be a priority for the government
RON THEUSCH, a truck driver who lives in rural Alden, Minnesota, said his No. 1 concern with AI is the potential loss of jobs—including his own. “I can just see a train of selfdriving trucks 24/7, just running up and down I-35, loading and unloading. I can just see that happening,” said Theusch, 58.
Most Democrats and Republicans agree on the importance of protecting workers and keeping AI under human control, the poll found. “ T here was a mov ie called ‘Terminator,’ where the robots came back and killed everybody,” Theusch said. “People relate to that...I don’t know where it’s going to land. I really don’t have anything I can do to control it, you know. It’s going to evolve.” There’s less consensus about the importance of other priorities when it comes to AI. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say it’s highly important to grow the US economy and to compete with other countries like China. Democrats, on the other hand, are more likely to say it’s at least “very” important to minimize environmental harm. “I don’t understand how, because they’re doing something as well as us, that we can’t be more human about it and more humane about it than just to say, ‘Well, they’re doing it, so we have to do it,’” Stewart said of US competition with China. And while about three-quarters of Democrats say AI is developing “too fast,” only about half of Republicans share that worry. People under 30 years old also express higher levels of concern than people 60 or older, the survey found. “I think I have all the normal concerns, right? I think it’s wonderful for certain applications, but I also feel like it will be overused and can create a lack of personal connections. It can make people lazy because information is just given to them without really having to research things on their own,” said Kelly Opp, a 62-yearold Republican in Albuquerque, New Mexico. “Like everything else, once you get that ball rolling, it progresses fast on its own, but I think that it will continue to keep progressing. So the speed doesn’t really bother me,” she said.
Americans have little confidence in Democrats or Republicans on AI
A SMALL group of people supporting restrictions on artificial intelligence hold up signs in front of City Hall before a New York City Council hearing on artificial intelligence safety in New York, Oct. 5, 2026. AP/SETH WENIG, FILE
AS a teacher, Stewart regularly uses AI to help with her work, including with creating assignments or assisting with tests. But she is deeply concerned about AI’s effects on children.
“You’ve got to protect kids. You’ve got to protect teens. You’ve got to protect privacy...we need to try to do something,” she said. Americans have little trust in either party when it comes to the handling of AI issues. About 4 in 10 Americans say they don’t trust either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party on AI, according to the poll, while nearly 2 in 10
trust both parties equally, and the rest are split between trusting the Republicans and the Democrats. Even people who identify with the parties are ambivalent about their ability to handle the issue. Only about half of Republicans and Democrats say their party is better equipped to handle AI issues, and roughly 3 in 10 in each case say neither party is.
“I am kind of moderate. And I see that there’s good on both sides,” said Stewart. “Anyone back in Washington is weak on doing anything for anyone but themselves right now. So, no, I don’t think the Democrats would do a better job per se. Maybe they would definitely tout it. But until I see anything coming from anyone, I’m going to be like, ‘Yeah, no. You’re all just sitting there.’”
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Taliban firmly in control in Afghanistan 25 years after US-led invasion to oust them By Elena Becatoros & Abdul Qahar Afghan
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The Associated Press
ABUL, Afghanistan—Dr. Nigar Nangrahari was on a night shift in a Kabul hospital when the US-led invasion of Afghanistan began 25 years ago—an event that would shape her and her country’s future for decades to come. As she walked home the next morning, Nangrahari saw Kabul residents taking revenge on members of the Taliban, whose harsh, repressive rule had seen public stonings, limb amputations of alleged criminals and women obliterated from public life. “Along the way, I saw ordinary people killing anyone they caught who was a Taliban member. I witnessed with my own eyes the people of Kabul capturing and killing Taliban fighters. Some had climbed trees to hide,” she said. Afraid of what was to come, Nangrahari and her family stayed home for about a month. Eventually, she was called back to the hospital and returned to work as an obstetrician-gynecologist. She no longer had to wear a burqa in the street. “They granted us freedom—but not the kind that Afghans could truly benefit from,” said Nangrahari, 58. Afghanistan is a deeply conser-
vative Muslim society, and the US culture that came with the American presence in the country often rankled some segments of society. “Afghans should neither be completely unrestricted nor subjected to the kind of severe constraints imposed by the Taliban,” she said. “There needs to be a moderate balance.”
A bitter legacy
UNDER US President George W. Bush, the American-led coalition launched Operation Enduring Freedom with the stated goal of dismantling al-Qaida, the terrorist organization whose leader, Osama bin Laden, had orchestrated the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States from his base in Afghanistan. The invasion was to mark the start of a 20-year war that cost tens of thousands of Afghan lives, along with thousands of coalition service members, US contractors, aid workers and journalists.
The legacy of that war, and of the successive US-supported Afghan governments during that time, endures today. “Their stated goals were to bring good governance to Afghanistan and to combat narcotics and terrorism,” said Muin Gul Chamkanai, a former doctor who now heads a humanitarian organization, the Shkula Charitable Foundation, and also works as a political analyst. “The reality turned out to be the exact opposite.” At a massive cost, both financial and in lives, the American presence brought certain freedoms, particularly for the media and in women’s education and employment opportunities. But pervasive corruption and often heavy-handed military tactics soon bred deep resentment. Sitting at home on Oct. 7, 2001, Chamkanai switched on his television. The sight of his country being invaded enraged him. “Had I been struck by their bombs, I would have considered martyrdom far preferable. I was not afraid,” he said. “I wanted to fight against them in Afghanistan using both the pen and the gun.”
The return of the Taliban
NOW, 25 years after the invasion and five years after the chaotic US withdrawal from the country, the Taliban are firmly back in control of Afghanistan. Although not quite as extreme as their previous government, when they ruled the country from 1996-2001, they have reinstated many draconian restrictions, particularly on women and girls.
TAHMINA MANGAL displays a traditional Afghan dress at her clothing shop in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026. AP/SIDDIQULLAH ALIZAI
Security has improved without question since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Gone are the endless devastating bombings and attacks, the vast majority of them carried out by the Taliban themselves during the two-decade-long war. “After a long and arduous struggle, jihad and great sacrifices, Afghans succeeded in liberating their country,” deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said in a statement on the 25th anniversary of the invasion. “This struggle demonstrated that Afghans will never submit to foreign occupation or external coercion.” He said that Oct. 7, 2001, was “a dark day in the country’s history that resulted in thousands of Afghans being martyred, wounded, imprisoned, displaced and left homeless.” But for a generation who grew up under US-supported governments, the loss of personal free-
doms, especially for women, who face restrictions on everything from what they wear to where they can go, has been a brutal blow. After the Taliban took over, “gradually … restrictions were imposed, and the normal life we had known was taken away. Things became very difficult for us,” said Tahmina Mangal, a 33-year-old woman who saw her hopes of continuing her studies dashed by the shuttering of high schools and universities for girls and women. “The burden is immense. It weighs heavily on my own spirits and psyche,” she said.
A perilous future
NOW, Tahmina owns and runs a store selling traditional Afghan clothing for women. Although women face multiple restrictions and are barred from most jobs, the Ministry of Commerce does issue business licenses to women, she said. She viewed that as the only
avenue open to her. But with women barred from education and participation in any form of governance, she worries deeply about the future. “If this situation persists, Afghanistan’s future is perilous,” Tahmina said. “Without women pursuing their studies or receiving an education, we will lack doctors, teachers and literate women, including mothers capable of raising healthy children for society. I view Afghanistan’s future as bleak and dire if this trend continues.” For Nangrahari, although the Taliban government’s emphasis on improving infrastructure in the country is welcome, its emphasis on religious education for boys, and its ban on higher education for girls, “sets Afghanistan back by a century.” Afghanistan already is among the world’s poorest countries. “Roads have been improved and high-rise buildings constructed. Indeed, infrastructure is the foundation of the economy, and we acknowledge all of this,” Nangrahari said. “But a society lacking education is zero.” Still, sitting in her clothing shop in Kabul, Tahmina said that women shouldn’t give up hope, and should continue pursuing their studies, even if it is only online. “Governments inevitably come and go, collapses happen, and no government lasts forever,” she said. “I always say: ‘Remain hopeful for the future. Study, pursue professional training alongside your regular schooling, and seek higher education.’”
Robovan: China’s delivery robots are learning to tackle the night shift By Saritha Rai & Allen K Wan Bloomberg News
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Y day, Shenzhen flaunts its role as the high-tech factory for the world. Self-driving taxis collect passengers from the roadside, drones carry parcels, and delivery robots jostle with passengers in hotel elevators. By night, the city’s factories keep running. The high-rise offices stay lit, the traffic thins out but still flows, and crowds are drawn to streetside food stalls. Just after 10 p.m. at a farmers’ market in Longgang district, an hour’s drive from downtown, grocery store manager Zhang Chao stands amid the bustle of produce stalls, pulls out his phone and summons a robot. What arrives a few moments later is a boxy vehicle with bank of sensors behind the glass where a driver would normally sit. Once loaded with a package of poultry, the robovan — operated by the autonomous vehicle startup Neolix Technologies Co. — sets off at a 45-kilometer-an-hour clip, heading for one of Zhang’s customers across town. In March, Shenzhen opened access for nighttime deliveries by driverless vehicles, giving over its streets to an experiment that could unlock a new wave of growth for China’s autonomous transport and robotics industries. Navigating in the dark is difficult, as robots need to maneuver in low-light, with unpredictable traffic. But cracking it could be lucrative. Night operations convert otherwise idle vehicles and infrastructure into productive
capacity, exploiting quieter roads, reduced pedestrian traffic and lower congestion. Most importantly, Yu Enyuan, Neolix’s founder and chief executive officer said, they mitigate one of logistics’ most stubborn costs: the human. A robovan doesn’t need night shift wages, doesn’t get tired at 3 a.m., and doesn’t need to be paid extra for driving in the rain. “Night delivery bypasses daytime traffic peaks, activates underutilized late-night road resources, unlocks idle transport capacity, lowers costs, and reduces physical strain on couriers,” Yu said. “China has immense nighttime consumption potential.” Chinese companies have invested heavily in so-called “physical AI”: drones, robots and autonomous transport systems for people and goods. The country’s tech giants have rolled out large fleets of autonomous vehicles across cities, focusing particularly on last mile logistics, bringing goods directly to homes and workplaces. The sheer size of the Chinese market, the depth of its technology industry, and regulators’ willingness to allow local companies to experiment have allowed the sector to flourish. The country has hundreds of millions of potential customers, who form both a consumer base and a way to build out huge datasets to improve models. The industrial base produces vehicles, batteries and sensors at scale, while municipalities have shown an openness to experimentation. “China’s biggest advantage is scale plus ecosystem density.” said Bill Russo, founder
and chief executive officer of the Chinabased consultancy, Automobility Limited. “It has enormous parcel volumes, dense cities, sophisticated digital logistics networks, a deep EV and autonomous-driving supply chain, and local governments willing to designate road access and experiment with commercial deployment.” By the end of 2025, ground vehicles operated by tech giant Meituan had completed more than 5.5 million outdoor delivery orders and logged over 19 million autonomous kilometers. Last October, JD.com announced plans to procure 3 million robots, 1 million unmanned vehicles, and 100,000 drones for its end-to-end supply chain over the next five years. More than 100 Chinese cities have opened some of their roads to unmanned delivery vehicles. This year, Beijing and Shenzhen began issuing “L4” test licenses for micro cargo vehicles, expanding the routes and scenarios in which these vehicles can be tested without an onboard driver. City governments have often been keen to support local companies with trial frameworks and regulations—to give industries a boost, but also because they see the potential for new technologies to address challenges of crowded roads and demographics. “China wants to show the world that they’re leaders in the space. They support the rollout and commercialization of innovative technologies developed by their own domestic startups,” Tu Le, founder
and managing director of Detroit-based mobility advisory company Sino Auto Insights, said. “There’s also concerns about labor shortages in some cities. Young people don’t want to do those tasks.” Beijing-based Neolix has built the world’s largest autonomous fleet, operating 27,000 vehicles across 300 cities in 15 countries, nearly five times the combined size of Waymo and Baidu’s robotaxi operations. This year, the company expects its domestic fleet to grow to 50,000 vehicles. Next year, it wants to add another 100,000, according to Yu. Yu, 52, is a serial entrepreneur, having founded a smart locker business for e-commerce, an agricultural drone maker called XAG, and the predecessor of the digital logistics business Full Truck Alliance, which listed on the Nasdaq in 2021 at a $23.6 billion valuation. Before launching Neolix in 2018, he spent months working as a delivery driver to research the sector. “It was so hot, so challenging,” he said. “It’s very easy to make mistakes but there’s no room for that.” China moves on average 520 million parcels daily, according to official figures. Behind those deliveries, Yu found, were drivers making more than a hundred stops a day on a punishing schedule — exhausting, repetitive and high-intensity work, better suited to a robot than a person. Years on, having scaled the business and begun an international push, Yu sees expanding into the night time as an extension of that early vision. “We’re doing work people don’t want to do, are unwilling to do, or can’t do,” he said. On the nighttime streets of the city, robovans have to deal with a series of technical and physical obstacles. There are typically more speeding vehicles at night, and pedestrians move less predictably after nightfall. Visual sensors tend to work less effectively in low light, and lidar — remote sensing tech that uses lasers — can struggle with glare from oncoming headlights and reflections off dark, wet surfaces. To prepare for the experiment, Shenzhen’s
government introduced a number of measures aimed at helping autonomous vehicles move around at night. They installed anti-glare lighting, set new vehicle standards as part of a trial regulatory framework, and created a new protocol for emergency response. The trial is taking place on approved corridors, and vehicles have to adhere to pre-designated routes and areas. For all the attention that driverless cars get for handling traffic, Yu said the real engineering problem is what happens at the end of each trip — the loading docks at restaurants, unmarked spots behind a warehouse, precise entrances, store access points, and other operational locations that don’t appear on maps. “Our robots must do a lot more than learn how to drive on a flat road,” he said. “They ultimately need to reach users’ doors, understand three-dimensional space, know exactly where to unload, where to stop.” That’s pushed Neolix away from simple end-to-end driving models and toward so-called “world models,” AI systems built to predict, simulate and understand not just movement, but the physical logic of a loading bay. In the daytime, there tend to be more workers around to unload vehicles and fix errors. At night, there tend to be fewer, meaning the robovans need to be more precise. The density of Chinese cities, and the fact that people are becoming increasingly comfortable with sharing public spaces with automated vehicles, has created an environment that’s conducive to training these models, according to Bryant Walker Smith, an autonomous tech expert and an associate professor at the University of South Carolina. “Chinese streets tend to have a much wider and more diverse set of users, activities, and conditions than US streets,” he said. “This gives AVs more opportunities to learn and, counterintuitively, creates a more forgiving environment for them to operate, since other road users are more alert to seemingly unusual things happening on the road.” In Shenzhen, Neolix operates what it calls an intelligent dispatch hub, where AI
algorithms, data and navigation maps match vehicles, road networks and orders. Safety in a system running unsupervised at night gets handled through five layers of redundancy: onboard lidar and cameras built for lowlight detection, a live feed of 42 vehicle metrics feeding into a municipal monitoring platform, and Neolix’s own detection system, which flags 17 categories of risk including unexplained stops, deviation from a set route, and missing cargo, Yu said. The company is also testing its technology as part of integrated overnight logistics systems, working with other companies, including SF Express, China’s largest express delivery business. On a recent September night, eight white Neolix robovans lined up at an underground staging area inside Shenzhen’s Futian Station, a teeming transit hub in the center of the city. Parcels from e-commerce companies including Taobao and JD.com dropped off by drones were loaded onto the vans, which set off through the station, weaving between commuters, blaring warnings to keep two-meters away. At one point, a man stood directly in a van’s path, scrolling on his phone, while a growing line of robots waited for him to move. Finally, the vans reached the platforms, where the packages were loaded onto freight trains. Since the trial began, Neolix’s overnight delivery service has expanded to 437 routes, and trials are underway in the cities of Qingdao and Zhangjiakou. It also has competition, as delivery giants Meituan and JD.com move into the space. As of August 2026, JD.com’s logisitics subsidiary was operating over 100 autonomous vehicles and more than 100 nighttime routes in Shenzhen. Meituan has focused on nighttime drone delivery, which it began in September 2025. Back at the farmers’ market in Longgang, Chao, the store manager, received a message saying his package had arrived at its destination. “Neighbors are curious and happy to ask how it works. Some try it when they’re in a rush,” he said. “For suppliers like us, it saves a lot of manpower and resources.”
www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Sunday, October 11, 2026 A5
Microbial blends, smart facilities developed to improve PHL cacao beans for local, intl markets
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By Bless Aubrey Ogerio
ACAO production in the Philippines is looking to a brighter future as research and technical initiatives are being developed to improve the country’s cacao production with the goal of producing beans that meet quality standards in domestic and international markets. Researchers are developing locally produced microbial inoculants to improve cacao bean fermentation. The Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) reported a project seeking to identify useful microorganisms and develop formulations that can improve fermentation and the quality of processed cacao beans. The initiative, titled “Isolation, Characterization, and Utilization of Functional Microbes in Fermentation and Physico-chemical Analysis of Fermented Beans for Improved Quality,” is being spearheaded by DOST-PCAARRD and the University of Southern Mindanao (USM). It is being led by USM Prof. Emeritus Edward A. Barlaan.
During the first half of its initial year, the research team said it isolated and purified yeast, bacterial and fungal colonies using established fermentation protocols. The work yielded 38 bacterial isolates, 28 yeast isolates and 18 fungal isolates, which are now being assessed for their potential to improve cacao fermentation. The researchers are also conducting molecular identification and characterization to determine which microorganisms could be used in fermentation-enhancing formulations. Alongside laboratory work, the team has held training sessions on molecular biology and bioinformatics with Noveaulab Asia Corp., microbial isolation and purification, culture preservation, and the use of highperformance liquid chromatography.
AUTOMATED drip irrigation system (left) and pumping station PHOTO CREDIT TO DOST-PCAARRD and the Pacific Center for Food and Agribusiness said cocoa bean exports logged $46.3 million, while imports recorded $2.14 million. It resulted in a trade surplus of $44.16 million.
First smart cacao budwood nursery and greenhouse
PURIFICATION of microbial isolates through serial dilution and spread plate techniques PHOTO CREDIT TO USM PROJECT TEAM
The project also plans to train cacao industry stakeholders on how to apply the microbial formulations and the fermentation methods developed through the research. By the end of its first year, the team expects to produce at least two
microbial inoculants or formulations for cacao fermentation. The researchers aim to develop scientifica l ly va lidated products that could eventually be used commercially. In 2025, the University of Asia
MEANWHILE, state-of-the-art facilities on smart cacao budwood nursery and greenhouse were established to serve as a reliable source of promising cacao varieties. DOST-PCAARRD and USM also recently launched the newly constructed smart cacao-budwood nursery and greenhouse. The facilities include an automated drip irrigation with monitoring system; greenhouse with weather, irrigation, and generator system; and solar-powered pump, irrigation system, and reservoir. They also showcased the developed mobile application to remotely control environmental parameters in the facilities and maintain optimum
conditions. USM President Francisco Gil N. Garcia said the project is a step forward toward cultivating a future rich with opportunities for growth and sustainability. He also highlighted the need to establish the important link and partnership between the project and cacao farmers. Barlaan, also the initiative’s project leader, said the substantial outputs of the project include producing the world’s first genome-sequenced Criollo, a rare and fine cacao variety that is highly prized for its unique and rarely bitter taste. It has also provided policy recommendations for the registration of the true Criollo and has expanded the network among different government agencies and private institutions. Component leaders of the project team, Engr. Maricel G. Dayaday and Engr. Renel M. Alucilja, underlined the importance of modern facilities for research, development, and propagation of quality cacao varieties to ensure that the cacao industry remains competitive. DOST-PCAARRD Executive Director Dr. Reynaldo V. Ebora reiterated the Council’s support to the project. He cited its significance to modern sustainable farming as a valuable path towards improved productivity and profitability of cacao farmers. Dr. Debbie Marie B. Versoza, USM’s vice president for Research, Development and Extension, underscored the university’s commitment to sustaining the operations of the first-of-itskind facility in the country.
Scientists, communicators update Biotech solutions for climate-smart Searca’s agri-biotechnology module agriculture presented at biotech week L T
HE International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) Inc. and the Department of Agriculture Biotech Program Office (DA-BPO) led a forum on September 24 that promoted informed discussion on the impacts of climate change in Philippine agriculture and the role of biotechnology in building climate resilience. With the theme “Cultivating Resilience: A Forum on Ag-Biotech Solutions for Climate-Smart Agriculture,” the forum was a culminating event of the weeklong National Biotechnology Week (NBW) 2026 that was hosted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. It was held at the DENR Multipurpose Hall in Quezon City ISAAA Deputy Director Panfilo de Guzman welcomed the participants, which included students from various schools, emphasizing this year’s NBW theme, “Biotek para sa Kinabukasan: Kalikasan, Kalusugan, Kagandahan, Kabuhayan, at Kaunlaran.” “Climate-smart agriculture is an integrated framework designed to achieve three vital objectives. No. 1, sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and income to support growing communities; No. 2, adapting and building resilience of agricultural systems to climate shocks; and lastly, reducing environmental footprints,” he said. “Achieving these ambitious goals requires more than good intentions and traditional methods. It demands cutting-edge innovations. These innovations can be created using modern biotechnology tools,” he said. De Guzman noted that by combining the holistic vision of climatesmart agriculture with the transformative power of biotechnology, a resilient, sustainable, and food-secured future can be built. Agnes Catherine Miranda, director of DA’s Climate Resilience Office
(FROM left) Dr. Jaime A. Manalo IV, Scientist II and head of the Socioeconomic Division at the Philippine Rice Research Institute, leads the panel discussion during the hybrid forum, joined by Agnes Catherine T. Miranda, CESO III, director of the Department of Agriculture Climate Resilient Agriculture Office, and Dr. Leilani D. Pelegrina, director of the Crops Research Division at DOST-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development. ISAAA INC. PHOTO and program director of the Adaptation and Mitigation Initiative in Agriculture (AMIA), in an overview of the landscape of Philippine agriculture amid climate change, said: “Agriculture has a lot of challenges now, and more than ever, it will be exacerbated because of the impacts of climate change.” Miranda pointed out that the moderate to strong El Niño phenomenon are affecting the farmers, fisherfolk and the broader agricultural sector, and how the DA is responding through climate-resilient agriculture. “The important point is that the response brings together several DA programs and regional offices rather than relying on one single inter vention. Together, these actions strengthen preparedness and provide support to farmers and fisherfolk as climate conditions become more challenging,” she said. Dr. Leilani Pelegrina, director of the Crops Research Division of the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development (DOSTPCAARRD), highlighted the research
and development (R&D) priorities and investments to advance productivity, strengthen resilience, create value, and contribute to the national resilience of the agriculture sector, zooming in on the crops sector. “As a climate-vulnerable country with high exposure to typhoons, drought, and major emerging pests and agricultural system concerns, our system must evolve rapidly…. Agribiotechnology enables us to respond to these pressures more efficiently by shortening breeding cycles, improving trait accuracy, and increasing the predictability of our outcomes. It allows us to move from reactive initiatives to proactive, data-driven commodity improvement and management,” she pointed out. Pelegrina talked about the DOSTPCAARRD’s R&D initiatives on agricultural biotechnology, including the Industry Strategic Science and Technology Programs; Harmonized National R&D Agenda; and the Crops R&D Agenda covering priority initiatives across the supply and value chain. The panel discussion, moderated by Dr. Jaime Manalo IV, Scientist II
and head of the Socioeconomic Division of the Philippine Rice Research Institute, further addressed key areas raised by the audience. The discussion included clarifications on the DA’s AMIA Villages, which model productivity, adaptation, and mitigation; the DA’s efforts to support farmers’ mental well-being as they face the impacts of climate change; post-impact rehabilitation; the commercialization of robotics and artificial intelligence-inspired technologies for farmers; and other smart approaches to agricultural reintegration. It also shed light on how these efforts and technologies directly translate to tangible outcomes for farmers in terms of productivity, empowerment, and quality of life. The winners of the “Biotech for Reel” competition were awarded during the event. The top three winners were Jeneniah Feticio, Roxanne Inocencio, Princess Navas, and Prince Garcia from San Mariano National High School; Carl Marco Amon; and Vianca Piñera, Maysha Villegas, Harly Bautista, Alexa Palicpic, and Marq Capacion from Cavite Science Integrated School-Regional Science High School. T heir entries focused on cultured mushrooms and tofu, Bacillus thuringiensis crops, and CRISPRCas9, respectively. They received plaques and cash prizes. Three entries received special recognition. Pian Huelva, who delivered the closing remarks on behalf of Dr. Paul Limson, director of DA-BPO, encouraged policymakers, experts, educators, and emerging young leaders to recognize their shared responsibility in shaping the future of Philippine agriculture. The NBW 2026 was co-presented by the DOST, DA, Department of Health, Department of Interior and Local Government, Department of Trade and Industry, Commission on Higher Education, and Department of Education.
OS BAÑOS, Laguna—Leading biotechnology, public health, and science communication specialists had a two-day writeshop to equip local government leaders and public servants with science-based tools for agricultural innovation at the Searca Residence Hall on September 24 and 25. The Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) convened the writeshop that focused on upgrading and expanding a comprehensive training module designed to help local government units (LGUs) navigate, implement, and communicate modern agricultural biotechnology initiatives. The initiative was spearheaded under the Strengthening the Enabling Environment for the Development and Uptake of Modern Agricultural Biotechnology (SEED) project, implemented by Searca and funded by the Department of AgricultureBureau of Agricultural Research (DA-BAR) through the Biotechnology Program Office. First developed in 2024 under Searca’s Building Understanding and Mobilizing Public Support for Agricultural Biotechnology (BUMP UP Biotech) project, the module is being updated to reflect emerging scientific advances, regulatory mechanisms, and practical governance challenges faced by local authorities in SEED project target areas. Facilitated by the Searca SEED project management team led by Program Specialist Rochella Lapitan, Project Associate Krissane Cabral, and Project Assistant Maricel Adique, the writeshop leveraged expertise across five-core learning domains. Foundational Science: Dr. Maribel Zaporteza, Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Institute of Biological Sciences, is refining content on “Basic Concepts of Biotechnology,” breaking down genetics, heredity, and tangible applications, such as biofertilizers and Bacillus thuringiensis corn. Public Health and Environment: Dr. Nina Gloriani, former dean of the UP Manila College of Public Health, and former director of Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization-Tropical Medicine and Public Health Network, is crafting lessons on “Biotechnology for Health and the Environment,” evaluating human and animal health applications, genetically modified organisms, environmental sustainability, and safety protocols. Biosafety and Regulation: Carlo Custodio Jr., Philippine Country Coordinator of the Program for Biosafety Systems, leads “Biotechnology Risks and Safeguards,” covering risk assessment frameworks, biosafety principles, and responsive regulatory approaches. Local Policy and Execution: Jenny Panopio, president of Pest Management Council of the Philippines Inc., and senior advisor at Narraharvest Advisors Pte. Ltd., is authoring “Local Governance for Agricultural Biotechnology: Policies, Programs, and Implementation,” centering on the national regulatory environment and practical LGU policy support. Media and Science Communication: Dr. Ruby Cristobal, senior lecturer at the UPLB College of Development Communication (CDC), is developing “BioTekTok sa Media: Talking about Agri-Biotechnology in the Media,” providing frontline officials with actionable skills in media relations, crisis communication, press conference management, and science storytelling. Dr. Maria Stella Tirol, former dean of the UPLB CDC, serves as the Lead Technical and Editorial Reviewer, overseeing the module’s clarity, scientific integrity, and instructional quality. Once finalized, the enhanced curriculum will roll out as an operational field manual and training guide, directly supporting public servants in translating modern agricultural biotechnology into evidence-based community development and food security programs.
A6 Sunday, October 11, 2026
Faith
Sunday Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph
Bishops add their voices against Boracay casino
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ALIBO, Aklan—Two more Catholic bishops have expressed dismay over casino operations on Boracay, joining the Diocese of Kalibo’s more than two-decade opposition to gambling on the island. Capiz A rchbishop Victor Bendico and Romblon Bishop Narciso Abellana said they stand w ith K alibo Bishop Cy ril Villareal, whose diocese has consistently opposed casino operations on Boracay. “The Church’s concern in this matter is first of all pastoral,” the bishops said in a joint statement issued on Thursday, citing social problems that they said may accompany gambling, including prostitution, human exploitation, theft, other crimes and illegal drug abuse. They said economic development should provide dignified livelihoods and strengthen communities rather than pursue revenue without considering its human and social costs.
“Behind questions of investment, tourism, and revenue are persons and families whose welfare must remain our primary concern,” they said. T he bishops’ statement came days after Villareal issued a pastoral statement urging government officials and local authorities to prioritize family welfare and the common good over gambling revenues. The pastoral statement came after the opening of a hotel-casino in Station 0 in Barangay Yapak of Malay town on Boracay Island. “Boracay does not need gambling and casinos to prosper,” Villareal said, pointing to the island’s natural beauty, culture and hospitality as the foundation of its tourism industry.
ARCHBISHOP Victor Bendico of Capiz, Bishop Narciso Abellana of Romblon, and Bishop Cyril Villareal of Kalibo add their voices to the opposition to gambling on Boracay. CBCP NEWS Bendico and Abellana said developments on Boracay also affect neighboring Catholic communities, urging public officials and business leaders to consider the broader social impact of casino operations. “Decisions affecting a community should be judged not only by the income they may generate, but also by the kind of life and society they help to form,” they said.
They pointed out that the Church’s opposition to casinos is not an attack on individuals but “an appeal to conscience” and a call to shared responsibility. The dioceses of Kalibo and Romblon are part of the ecclesiastical province of Capiz.
‘Profit is not the sole measure of progress’ IN his pastoral statement, Villareal
warned that gambling can lead to debt, strained relationships and the loss of money intended for basic household needs. “We must, therefore, look beyond the economic benefits that a casino may bring,” Villareal said. “Economic development is important, but development must always remain at the service of the human person,” the diocese said. “Profit cannot be the sole measure of progress.” The Church warned that gambling can fuel family conflicts, damage relationships and lead to child neglect, particularly when gamblers become consumed by attempts to recover their losses. “What happens when a family’s savings are lost to gambling?” Villareal asked. “What happens when money meant for food, education or medicine is gambled away?”
Morally unacceptable; 2 decades of opposition THE statement cited the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says games of chance are not inherently wrong but become morally unacceptable when they deprive people
of what they need for themselves or others. It also warned that “the passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement,” underscoring the need to protect vulnerable people from promises of quick financial gain. Villareal urged the faithful to uphold honest work, responsible stewardship and family solidarity. He also called for compassion and practical support for people struggling with gambling. The diocese said tourism should serve people, strengthen families and promote the common good rather than undermine the well-being of residents and visitors. Church opposition to casinos on the island dates back decades. In 2003, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. proposed a casino complex, but the plan was shelved following public protests. In 2021, when then-President Rodrigo Duterte allowed casino operations on Boracay, the diocese and Aklan officials asked him to reconsider, citing Aklanons’ opposition to gambling on the island.
Leonor Rosales/CBCP News
Gilmore Carmel marks 100 N. Ecija diocese launches Laudato Si park, farms years of contemplative life
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CARMEL of St. Therese of the Child Jesus in Gilmore, Quezon City GILMORE CARMEL/FACEBOOK
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HE Carmel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus in Gilmore will mark 100 years of contemplative life this November with the opening of a Jubilee Door and an anniversary Mass. The celebration, with the theme “Forever Moving, Forever Still,” begins on with the November 23, when Bishop Elias Ayuban Jr. of Cubao opens the Jubilee Door. Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan will preside at the anniversary Mass on November 24. The monastery traces its roots to four French Discalced Carmelite nuns who came from Hue, Vietnam, and founded the first Carmelite monastery in the Philippines in Jaro, Iloilo, in 1923. Three years later, on November 24, 1926, the community established a foundation in Manila that became the Carmel in Gilmore. T he communit y today has 13 professed sisters, one postulant and
two aspirants. Bishop Emeritus Honesto Ongtioco of Cubao said the centennial underscores the place of contemplative life in the Church’s mission. Speaking at the October 1 feast of St. Thérèse, he said the sisters’ life of prayer should not be viewed as separate from the Church’s work. “Your hidden life of prayer is not a withdrawal from the Church’s mission. This is part of the Church’s mission,” Ongtioco said in his homily. He also pointed to St. Thérèse’s “little way,” the teaching that holiness can be found in ordinary acts done with great love. Although the saint lived in a monastery and rarely traveled, her prayers and sacrifices supported missionaries around the world. The Carmel sisters follow the same path, devoting their lives to prayer and union with God while supporting the Church’s mission.
Abigail Peralta/CBCP News
HE Catholic Diocese of San Jose i n Nue v a E c ija h a s launched an ecological park, turning its call to protect creation into a push for tree planting, farming and community action. The “SJD Laudato Si Park” opened on October 3 at the St. John Paul II Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy in Barangay Parang Mangga, closing the 2026 Season of Creation. Bishop Samuel Agcaracar said the park ref lects the diocese’s commitment to ecological conversion through environmental stewardship and collective action. “ T he launching of SJD L aud ato Si Pa rk i s a conc rete e x pression of ou r com m it ment to ecolog ic a l conversion,” A gc a rac a r sa id. Nueva Ecija is an agricultural
PEOPLE plant trees at the proposed site of the “SJD Laudato Si Park” at the St. John Paul II Sanctuary of Divine Mercy in Barangay Parang Mangga, San Jose City, Nueva Ecija, on October 3. DIOCESE OF SAN JOSE NUEVA ECIJA/FACEBOOK
province, and ecological conversion “is only possible if we go back to the land, if we go back to the farms, if we once again restore the dignity of our farmers, the dignity of our workers,” the bishop said. The diocese had earlier planted 500 seedlings on September 5 at Sitio Usok in Barangay Malasin, San Jose City, as part of its “SJD Laudato Si Farms” environmental initiative. Agcaracar urged parishes and communities to unite to protect the environment and build a sustainable future for younger generations. Before becoming bishop of San Jose in February 2026, he founded and led the SVD Laudato Si Farm, a 5.8-hectare eco-spirituality and agricultural center in Tagaytay City.
CBCP News
Pope prays for Gaza victims: ‘How long, O Lord?’
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OPE Leo XIV has expressed his sorrow and assured Gaza’s Christian community of his prayers after an Israeli airstrike killed five civilians, including two Orthodox women. The attack struck a residential building in the Rimal neighbourhood of western Gaza City in the early hours on October 3, wounding numerous others. Among those killed were Maysa Khader Ibrahim Abu Daoud and her daughter, Mary Hafez Michel Najjar. The two Greek Orthodox women had recently found a new place of refuge and were trying to rebuild their lives.
‘How long, O Lord?’
IN a message to Fr. Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of Holy Family Church in Gaza, Pope Leo prayed for the victims and thanked him for his ministry.
“Since learning the painful news of the deaths of Maysa and Mary, I have been praying to God for them, for their families and for the entire community of Gaza. How long, O Lord?” he wrote. “Thank you for accompanying the parish and so many people who wish to live in peace,” said the Pope. “Blessings and an affectionate embrace.” Separately, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, expressed his condolences on behalf of the clergy and the diocese, condemning the loss of innocent lives. The women’s funeral took place on Saturday at Saint Porphyrius Church in Gaza City, where Metropolitan Alexios, the Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Vicar, prayed for their eternal rest.
Humanitarian conditions worsen ACCORDING to medical sources at Al-Shifa
Hospital, those wounded in the attack were in serious condition. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a Hamas command centre or leader. Meanwhile, the local Church, led on the ground by Fr. Romanelli and the Missionaries of Charity, continues to assist hundreds of displaced people with nowhere safe to go. Speaking to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica ahead of the anniversary of October 7, Pizzaballa said both Israelis and Palestinians remain marked by the events of that day. “We have not yet moved beyond that day. Both peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, remain caught in this profound, unresolved trauma,” he said. “I see no emerging willingness to say, ‘Let us stop.’” Although the intensity of the fighting
has diminished, the Cardinal warned that everyday life and humanitarian conditions may be worse. “Reconstruction has not begun, living conditions have not improved; indeed, in some respects, they have even worsened.”
A sign of hope
WITH winter approaching, Pizzaballa voiced particular concern for displaced families. “The rains will be an enormous problem for all those living in tents,” he said. Amid these difficulties, the reopening of Gaza’s parish school has offered the community a sign of hope. “Reopening was an important sign to give. A sign that, despite all the difficulties, we want to begin again: we are not giving up,” the Cardinal said. “There was great joy that day; everyone was crying.”
Holy See: Use of AI in agrifood systems needs to place humans at the center
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RTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) can be a powerful tool to use in agrifood systems to help address world hunger, but human beings need to remain at the center, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in Geneva, said on October 5. “In an age where technology has extended life expectancy, has spread globally, and has opened new frontiers for development, to allow millions to die of hunger is simply a collective failure, an ethical aberration, a historical shame,” he said in his opening remarks for the conference “Human-Centered AI for Agrifood Systems: From Ethics to Implementation.”
The event took place in Geneva on October 5 and was organized the United Nations’s Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), and the Permanent Mission of the Holy See to the UN in Geneva. “Using the tools available—both new and old—we are impelled by a duty that is as old as the history of humankind: to feed the hungry,” Balestrero insisted. “In this endeavor, AI can offer new opportunities to close the gap between the well-fed and those who do not have access to food and nutrition. But it can also widen this rift. The choice is ours and cannot be delegated to machines. Hunger will not be ended by intelligence alone, be it human or artificial, but by conscientious, responsible,
and ultimately human determination and action.”
The importance of human dignity and development
IN his opening address, the Permanent Observer noted how during Pope Leo XIV’s visit to the FAO headquarters in October 2025, he “recalled with concern that 673 million people worldwide go to bed without eating, and another 2.3 billion cannot afford a nutritionally adequate diet,” adding that “these figures cannot be dismissed as mere statistics.” Balestrero underlined that in an age of rapid technological development, these new digital tools, including AI, can benefit
small farmers in many ways, such as having access to agronomic knowledge and markets and receiving early warnings effectively. These technologies can offer “a transformative potential for productivity, resilience and sustainability.” However, he also underlined, citing Pope Leo’s encyclical “Magnifica Humanitas,” that “technology is never neutral” and “the design, deployment and use of AI in agrifood systems must place the God-given dignity of each person at the center and set integral human development as the essential purpose.” To fulfil this mission the international community and relevant stakeholders have a responsibility to govern AI in an ethical
manner and establish adequate regulatory tools to uphold justice and avoid misuse, he continued.
Innovation needs to stay at the service of humanity
BALESTRERO insisted that the Church does not possess technical solutions to the challenges posed by AI. However, it can offer “a compass” for “navigating the moral and technological complexities before us” by providing wisdom on the centrality of the human person. “The ‘true north’ to which this compass points is the protection and promotion of the inherent, God-given dignity of
every human person, in every sphere of life,” he said. “Placing the human person at the core of policy discussions on [AI] is not an impediment to innovation,” he emphasized. “On the contrary, it is what allows innovation to remain genuinely at the service of humanity and to pursue purposes worthy of the human person.” “If a farmer is reduced merely to a data point, or a rural community considered simply as a dataset, then we must ask whether progress is truly achieved,” he said, while welcoming the stories that were shared during the event on how digital technologies can serve the common good and foster integral development.
Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror
Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014
Sunday, October 11, 2026 A7
Editor: Lyn Resurreccion
Angat watershed: Home of Dumagat-Remontado IPs, serves people with power, water beyond its boundaries Story &photos by Bernard Testa
Ceasar Dungca, who is in real estate development and farm and leisure resorts along the Marilaque area, said he is interested to participate in forest protection. He sees possibilities in combining business and environmental protection, including potential ecotourism or watershed-related development. But it would require a careful balance. The experience of Marilaque could not simply be transplanted into the Angat watershed. A business opportunity inside a watershed has to be measured against the same environmental and community considerations that make the forest worth protecting.
N
OR Z AGA R AY, Bu lacan— Brigido Salonga was only 17 when he worked as a pipe fitter at the now-defunct National Waterworks and Sewerage Authority (Nawasa). After leaving the job, he returned to the upland community of Sitio Manalo in Norzagaray, Bulacan. There, the forest, rivers and mountains became part of his everyday life. He knows the Angat watershed not from a map but from a lifetime spent among its mountains and waters. Salonga, now 64, is the president of Kadusmana, or Lingkod sa Katutubong Dumagat sa Sierra Madre ng Angat. He finds himself at the intersection of several interests converging on the same landscape. There are the forest, the Angat reservoir and hydroelectric power plant, and the government, which manages and protects the watershed. There are also the private companies operating the power facility, the conservation organizations trying to restore degraded portions of the forest—and the Dumagat-Remontado communities trying to make a living while remaining in the ancestral landscape they consider home. “We still own the mountains of Sierra Madre,” Salonga said. But ownership, stewardship and responsibility are not always the same thing. In Angat, that distinction matters. “We may be just volunteers. But we play a big role in Angat,” Salonga pointed out in Filipino.
A watershed that serves beyond its boundaries THE Angat watershed is part of the southern Sierra Madre. It is one of the watershed reservations under the stewardship of the National Power Corp. (Napocor). The Angat Hydroelectric Power Plant (AHPP) sits inside the watershed. The plant is no longer operated by Napocor as part of the transformation of the country’s power industry with the passage of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) in 2001. Republic Act 9136 restructured the country’s electricity industry. It provided for the privatization of Napocor’s generation assets, with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) tasked with managing and disposing of those assets. Angat dam eventually became part of that privatization process. The AHPP is now a joint-venture of San Miguel Global Power and Korea Water Resources Corp. (K-Water). AHPP is a 218-MW facility inside the Angat Watershed Forest Reserve, with San Miguel undertaking operations and maintenance, and K-Water providing technical expertise. Angat also provides potable drinking water to 98 percent of Metropolitan
A VIEW of Sierra Madre from Angat dam.
Who sustains the forest?
KADUSMANA President Brigido Salonga, 64, (left) helps a volunteer plant a tree seedling inside the wildlife sanctuary of the Angat Watershed Reservation area. Manila residents through water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad. But the privatization of the power facility still requires public protection. Napocor continues to list Angat among the watershed areas under its stewardship and maintains an Angat Watershed Reservation Office in Norzagaray. The arrangement provides that a private joint venture operates the power plant, while a government corporation continues to protect the watershed, with a clear mandate to protect the forest. At the same time, communities continue to live within the larger landscape. This leaves the question of who shares responsibility in protecting the forest that makes the system possible.
The people behind the forest FOR Salonga and the people he represents—the Indigenous DumagatRemontado—the forest is not simply an environmental resource. It is their home. Members of the community fish in the reservoir, some hunt, others farm. For Salonga, his responsibilities extend beyond environmental concerns. He helps sick community members by providing medicine and other assistance, through the nongovernment organizations in the area and Napocor. The community is involved in reforestation—they plant and oversee 52,000 hectares of forest. Salonga said they have worked with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples and participated in treeplanting with the support of Napocor and the Forest Foundation Philippines.
MARCELINA NERIC, 68, said they have plentiful of food in the Angat river and its forest but she still needs money to buy her “nganga,” or betel nut. For Marcelina Neric, 68, life in the watershed has always been connected to finding ways to survive. “When we were still strong—and of course, young—we were farming,” she said, and engaged in fishing and gathering of endemic bamboo species for their livelihood. She likewise has been participating in tree-planting. Neric’s words are simple, but describe a difficult reality: the people living within an enormously valuable watershed do not necessarily have equally valuable economic opportunities.
Pressure on the forest AT a recent WWF-Philippines Agroforestry Development and Livelihood for Angat Watershed (Adlaw) project event, its manager, Rem Napay, described the findings from community consultations that sensing vulnerability becomes more complicated when there is pressure on the forest. In one hotspot, an estimated 50 trees were cut daily. Napay explained that one of the major reasons was the need to have money for child schooling and other necessities. Thus, forest destruction is not only an environmental issue. It is also an economic survival issue. Therefore, the response, cannot simply be telling people not to cut trees. They must have other sources of income. This is one of the reasons the Adlaw project was created in Angat in September 2025 and is scheduled to run until June 2027. Adlaw has also identified forestpressure hotspots and worked with
FFP Deputy Executive Director Atty. Alaya de Leon explains the conservation work and grants received during the Save the Sierra Madre Day event last September 26 at the Angat Hydropower Plant hall in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
communities to determine alternative livelihood activities. The challenge, however, still remains enormous. One is the limited number of forest guides to cover the vast watershed. Another reality is less visible. The trees planted do not immediately become a forest. The economic and ecological benefits may take years to be realized. The harder task is keeping the trees alive. Salonga said they have to monitor the seedlings for six months and divide the task among the 5,000 members along the watershed. Only members of the IPs are allowed to work in their area of responsibility.
Save Sierra Madre THIS was the larger issue behind the Forest Foundation Philippines’ (FFP) Save Sierra Madre Day 2026, held on September 26 at the Angat Watershed Forest Reserve under the theme “Growing Together: Business and Communities for the Forests.” The gathering brought together government representatives, businesses, conservation groups, media and Indigenous people. Its central message was straightforward—protecting the Sierra Madre cannot be left to one institution. FFP Deputy Executive Director Atty. Alaya de Leon invited businesses and the private sector to learn about the Sierra Madre, the conservation work being done and become part of it. Participants were brought into the forest to plant trees. The larger campaign is an attempt to
bring more sectors into forest conservation—including businesses that can provide resources for seedlings, reforestation and community-based activities. For the Dumagat-Remontado communities, this kind of partnership can mean more than planting trees. It can mean livelihood, participation, and potentially allowing the people who know the forest best to become part of the long-term effort to protect it.
A forest that protects more than water ERIC BUDUAN, Northern Philippines coordinator of FFP, pointed to a very significant reason why Sierra Madre matters. The mountain range helps reduce the strength of storms on its western side. Sierra Madre stretches across a vast portion of Luzon, and millions of people live on and around the mountain range. Its value, therefore, extends far beyond the boundaries of the Angat watershed. It is a forest that provides water, supports biodiversity, helps communities withstand the effects of extreme weather, and sustains livelihoods. It likewise supports a hydroelectric facility serving communities far beyond the mountains. Thus, the benefits reaches downstream. However, the responsibilities remain largely concentrated in the watershed, beyond corporate responsibility. That is where the call for privatesector participation becomes more important—beyond giving donation or a tree-planting ceremony.
THE people in Angat cannot speak for the entire Sierra Madre. The mountain range crosses several provinces and encompasses numerous Indigenous communities, watersheds, protected areas and competing claims over land and resources. But this particular corner of the range offers a glimpse of the larger challenge. There are the private power plant and the government agency responsible for the watershed. There are Indigenous communities asserting their continuing relationship with their ancestral landscape; conservation organizations looking for resources and partners; and there are businesses exploring ways to participate. One important nexus is the millions of people downstream who depend on the water and energy that the landscape provides. Whether the above-mentioned electricity and water service reforms have delivered all of their intended economic benefits to the community is a question that reaches far beyond Angat. But inside the Sierra Madre, another question may be more immediate. If the country depends on the forest to sustain its water and energy security, who will sustain the forest? For Salonga, the answer begins with the people who have always called the mountain range their home. For the FFP and its partners, it means bringing more people into the effort. For Napocor, it means continuing to protect the watershed, even if it is beyond its means. For conservation groups, it means finding ways to make reforestation survive beyond the planting day. For the private sector, it means deciding whether participation can become a long-term commitment rather than a one-time corporate activity, which most people do for photo-ops. And for those who live far downstream, the forest stands between them and the water—and the people who remain there to protect it. The water and the electricity they are enjoying and using comes from this dam and its forest.
5,000 crablets released in Tawi-Tawi waters By Manuel T. Cayon
D
AVAO CITY—The Bangsamoro gover nment released 5,000 blue swimming crab juveniles in Sitangkai, in the southernmost frontier waters of Tawi-Tawi, to repopulate the marine waters as more and more trawlers and fishing boats from as far as the national capital are already hawking in its depths. T he Taw i-Taw i of f ice of t he Bangsamoro Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform (Mafar) released the crablets as part of the Community-Based Blue Swimming Crab Stock Enhancement to
replenish the local crab population and support the fisheries-based livelihoods of coastal communities. It was part of a series of activities marking the 63rd National Fish Conser vation Week and seventh Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) Fish Conservation Week on September 21 to 25. “This is the reason why we conduct these activ ities. We should remember that taking care of our marine resources is the responsibility not only of Mafar. It is also our responsibility. The government, academe, local communities, students,
fisherfolk and other stakeholders should help,” said Senior Aquaculturist Irum Muallil, head of the Fisheries Resource Management Section of Mafar Tawi-Tawi. In Barangay Tongmageng, Sitangkai, Alih Kasim, officer in-charge of the Fisher ies Reg u lator y and Law Enforcement Section of Mafar
STAFF members of the Bangsamoro Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Agrarian Reform release crablets as part of the Community-Based Blue Swimming Crab Stock Enhancement to replenish the local crab population. MAFAR PHOTO
conducted a fisheries education for coastal communities. Mafar also held a coastal clean-up drive with the Philippine Coast Guard, fisherfolk, local government units, and other stakeholders. The activity formed part of Mafar-Tawi-Tawi’s weeklong campaign to promote sustainable fisheries and marine resource protection, alongside coastal clean-up activities, fisheries education, and coral reef awareness. Dr. Richard Muallil, vice chancellor of Mindanao State University– Tawi-Tawi College of Technology and Oceanography, and Alimar Sakilan of the RFRC served as resource speakers.
Sports BusinessMirror
A8 Sunday, October 11, 2026
mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph | Editor: Jun Lomibao
PRESSURE AND PLAYING FOR FREEDOM P
RESSURE is part of why we love competition. Not just in golf, but in all areas of life, pressure is a privilege we experience when we want something or need something badly. In sports, particularly in golf, pressure is what separates leisure players from true competitors. Imagine needing a birdie to tie, or a par to win and your whole body feels it. Everything tightens up, hazards loom larger, the fear of failure tries to upstage the desire to succeed. Playing for money you don’t have might simulate the intense pressure of professional golf. At least that’s according to Lee Trevino, an icon of the game who grew up dirt poor. He said he used to bet with money he didn’t have and that helped develop how he overcame pressure in the pro tour. Wanting to win something so badly also creates immense pressure. Wanting something too badly often actually has a negative effect on people. I have never wanted to win at golf too badly, so I can’t claim to know the feeling. Playing for pride or a little bragging rights and a small trophy at a corporate event is nowhere near the pressure pros feel at important events.
Wanting to win something so badly also creates immense pressure. Wanting something too badly often actually has a negative effect on people.
Last year, I witnessed Miguel Tabuena win the International Series Philippines at Santa Elena. I can imagine that must have been the most pressure he felt in his career. Playing at his home course against major champions and coming out on top is simply legendary. I felt like throwing up just watching from the sidelines. I can’t fathom how he managed to swing a club, much less shoot what he did under the most intense pressure of winning at home. Just recently, there was another amazing display of overcoming adversity and intense pressure in the Asian Games. Tom Kim, the 24 year old Korean mainstay at the PGA Tour played his heart out and won gold. Now, playing for your country is hard enough. Needing to win to avoid military service is on a whole other level! You see Korea has mandatory military service. At 24, Kim only had four years to comply. The only way he could skip military service was to win representing Korea in international competition. He missed his
chance narrowly at the Olympics in Paris. With the 28 year age limit looming, he had only a few more chances to do it. Win at the Asian Games, or win at the next Olympics in 2028. Miss at any of those two and he would need to quit golf for two years and serve in the Korean military. Talk about intense pressure! Not only that, Tom just finished the Presidents Cup before competing in the Asian Games in Japan. He actually had to skip the awarding ceremony In Medinah, Illinois to fly to Japan to get a quick practice round in before competition starts the following day. So with no sleep, and with a draining week playing for the Internationals at the Presidents Cup, he competed in the tournament of his life. With grit and determination, Kim finished his first round with a three-under par 67. Respectable and miraculous coming off the trip he just made. He followed it up with a second round 66, a third round 65 and in the final round, produced his best round of 6-under 66 to win by three shots. The Asian Games is nowhere near as prestigious as a major championship. Some may even argue that the win has less value than a regular PGA Tour win. But value is subjective and for a young man who is facing military service and 2 years away from golf at his prime, it must have seemed like life and death for Kim. But the warrior that he is came to the forefront and despite physical exhaustion and the pressure of performing to continue you career unhampered, he delivered. Stories like Tom Kim’s victory are what sets the great from the good. It’s a shame that the Asian Games wasn’t available to watch live. It might just
Jasch Langkawi overall champ; Malucelli strikes
M
SOUTH Korea’s Tom Kim, also known as Kim Joohyung, wins the men’s singles gold medal in golf at the Asian Games. AP
be the spark that starts a major streak for a gifted player such as Tom Kim. The motivation wasn’t money or glory, it was something even more valuable if you think about it. He was playing for freedom—the freedom to continue his career without losing valuable years in his prime. While the golf world barely noticed the Asian Games and the golf competition, Tom Kim played the week of his life. That win might just be the most memorable and important win of his young career. And if he can win with those stakes on the line, I’d bet he has what it takes to win at the biggest stages in pro golf.
mWell puts mental health with Mind Health for UAAP
UAAP executive director Atty. Rene Saguisag Jr. (left) and mWell president and CEO Chaye Cabal-Revilla seal the partnership. UAAP PHOTO
M
ENTAL health is a concern that extends beyond the playing court, affecting students, student-athletes and alumni across the UAAP community. Student-athletes, in particular, often juggle academics with demanding training and competition schedules, with some also representing the Philippines on the international stage.
The recently concluded Games AichiNagoya 20th Asian is one example, with several student-athletes from the UAAP balancing school responsibilities with national-team duties. But mental health is not exclusive to athletes, which is why mWell, the Philippines’s all-in-one health and wellness mega app by Metro Pacific Health Tech Corporation,
continues to put Mind Health at the forefront of its partnership with the UAAP. That approach aligns with Far Eastern University’s (FEU) “For Everyone, UAAP” theme. “The UAAP is more than the competition. It is a community of students, athletes, alumni, teachers, coaches, and supporters, and we want to make sure that as we celebrate their achievements, we also recognize the importance of their overall well-being,” UAAP Season 89 President Mark Molina said. “That is why our partnership with mWell is important to us, as we work together to promote health and wellness throughout the UAAP community,” he added. mWell president and CEO Chaye CabalRevilla also stressed the need to make wellness accessible to the entire community. “Today’s youth face a world where the pressure to keep up, succeed, and appear okay can feel overwhelming,” Cabal-Revilla said. “Through our partnership with the UAAP, we want them to know that they don’t always have to put on a brave face.” “Through the mWell app, we’re giving young
people access to Mind Health Score assessment, self-guided modules, and mind health coaches and consultations, so they can take that first step toward getting support,” she said. “Their feelings matter, and caring for their mind is just as important as caring for their body. We want them to feel heard and know that with mWell, help is within reach,” she added. UAAP Executive Director Atty. Rene Saguisag Jr. also emphasized that wellness should remain an integral part of the studentathlete experience, noting that the demands of collegiate sports can extend well beyond what happens during games and training. “Being part of the UAAP comes with many responsibilities, whether as a student, an athlete, a coach, a teacher, or a member of our community,” Saguisag said. “We want everyone in the UAAP to understand that taking care of one’s mental and physical well-being is just as important as pursuing excellence in academics and sports.” At the heart of the initiative is a simple question: “Kumusta ka?”
Through the mWell app, users can check in on their state of mind through the Mind Health Score, which uses the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. Users can also access free self-guided Mind Health modules covering meditation, gratitude, self-reflection, and Mind Health goals. For those who need additional support, mWell also offers one-onone Mind Health consultations with professionals through the app. The partnership also promotes physical wellness through the mWellness Score, which tracks factors such as exercise, steps, sedentary behavior, and sleep. mWell has also introduced limited-edition UAAP mWell Watches featuring school-logo watch faces and school-colored straps. The collection includes the mWell Power at P2,499, mWell Prestige at P2,999, and mWell Prestige Sport at P3,499. Beyond its wearable devices, mWell brings a range of health and wellness services together in one platform, including 24/7 doctor consultations available anywhere in the Philippines and even for Filipinos abroad.
MANY of the NBA’s top current stars hail from Europe, including the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic (Slovenia). AP
The NBA and FIBA formally announced their plans for an NBA Europe venture in March 2025. The new league would have some permanent franchises, with chances for others to qualify based on performance. Many of the NBA’s top current stars hail from Europe, including San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama (France), Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia), the Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic (Slovenia) and Miami’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greece). The 20-team EuroLeague is comprised of 13 shareholder clubs immune from relegation. The rest either qualify through their domestic leagues or through invitation. The NBA, in partnership with FIBA, has said it envisions a 16-team league. Aivazoglou said the NBA was “ready to create something that will transcend our careers, maybe even our lifetimes for the next 100 years.” AP
NBA, FIBA reiterate plan for new European league
L
ONDON—The NBA was pressing ahead with plans to launch a new European basketball league, saying that the current model was seriously undervalued. EuroLeague owners this week rejected a formal offer from the NBA to merge into a single European operation, but the NBA and FIBA indicated they still hope to merge with EuroLeague in their new league as early as next year. George Aivazoglou, the NBA managing director for Europe and Middle East, went into further detail about the plans when speaking at the sports industry conference Leaders Week London. “The NBA has been very consistent throughout the years in reiterating that we’re very serious about the opportunity in European basketball,” Aivazoglou said. “We’re also very serious and consistent in terms of our intention to work with everybody who
shares our vision of the future.” “There is a serious value gap for European basketball. We don’t think it’s reaching its potential and we have a perspective about what has happened and what needs to happen to move things forward,” he added. The decision not to accept the NBA’s proposal of a single Europe entity was made last week in Cernobbio during a gathering of the EuroLeague’s 13 shareholder clubs. They include Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, Milan, Tony Parker -owned ASVEL in France and two Istanbul-based clubs. The NBA and FIBA released a joint statement also last week, claiming a “partnership between the EuroLeague, FIBA and the NBA to unify the European basketball ecosystem would unlock the game’s enormous potential across Europe for the benefit of clubs, players and, most importantly, fans.”
The NBA and FIBA added they “remain committed” to the new league, which has been planned to launch in the fall of 2027. It seems likely that merger talks will continue, with Barcelona saying this week that the door remains open even though the first proposal was rejected. “Should that [merger] proposal be amended in the future, the clubs and the EuroLeague will reconsider it,” the club said. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said multiple times, and as recently as last month, that he believes the new league would benefit from “joining forces with the EuroLeague.” Aivazoglou added: “We’re always there to have discussions provided we share the same assessment of what are the main reasons why European basketball hasn’t reached its full potential and then how do we solve it.”
ATTEO MALUCELLI met his personal target of leaving with three stage victories as he dominated Stage 8, the final stage of Le Tour de Langkawi 2026 (LTdL 26), which concluded in Putrajaya a week ago. The victory—his ninth overall career stage win at LTdL since 2024— confirmed the 32-year-old Italian rider as the winner of the Sprint King blue jersey, sponsored by the 2027 SEA Games and Para Games Organizing Secretariat, equaling the stage win record held by Graeme Brown. However, it remains well behind the record of 24 stage wins held by another Italian rider who once wore the XDSAstana jersey, Andrea Guardini. In the final sprint following the 188.3km ride from Muar, Malucelli once again beat Modern Adventure Cycling Team, Riley Pickrell, with Christian Van Rees (Picnic PostNL) finishing third as the main peloton crossed the line in 4 hours 6 minutes 17 seconds. Meanwhile, Tudor Pro Cycling Team rider Lennart Jasch secured two jerseys at the conclusion of the eightstage tour—the Individual General Classification (GC) orange jersey, sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS), with a cumulative time of 26 hours, 57 minutes and two seconds, 26 seconds ahead of his contender from Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, Abel Balderstone. Jasch, a 25-year-old Munich native who transitioned from speed skating to professional cycling less than three years ago, also locked in the King of the Mountains polka dot jersey sponsored by Bubbles O2 with 45 points, four points ahead of Wheeltop Rotor Chengdu rider Petr Rikunov. Aisan Racing Team rider Yuhi Todome capped off his hard effort on the Gunung Jerai climb by taking home the Best Asian Rider title, winning the white jersey sponsored by the National Sports Council, finishing three minutes and 44 seconds ahead of Malaysian rider Tsen Ren Bao representing St George Continental Cycling Team. In the team category, Caja Rural was crowned the best overall team in this 30th edition of LTdL26, clocking a cumulative overall time of 87 hours, two minutes and 12 seconds, three minutes and 33 seconds ahead of Unibet Rose Rockets. Indonesian representative Nusantara Cycling Team retained its status as the Best Asian Team (87:42.33), finishing 4 minutes 34 seconds ahead of W heelTop Rotor Chengdu. Recounting his victory in Stage 8, Malucelli stated that his efforts succeeded due to the flawless teamwork of teammates Lev Gonov and Gleb Syritsa, who lead him out before opening a comfortable gap heading into the finish line. LTdL Media TUDOR Pro Cycling Team’s Lennart Jasch bags both the Individual General Classification and King of the Mountains titles as Matteo Malucelli accomplishes his personal target of three stage victories. LTDL PHOTO
BusinessMirror
October 11, 2026
Anime is winning over a new generation of fans
2
BusinessMirror OCTOBER 11, 2026 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com
NEW GIRLS IN TOWN
YOUR MUSI
kiOra wants to rethink what city pop can look, sound like
“J
Story by Bless Aubrey Ogerio
APANESE heritage is not just about traditional culture.”
It is a deceptively simple idea, especially coming from a new girl group whose first music video is filled with things that immediately read as Japanese: tatami mats, sento bathhouses, sushi and other familiar cultural references. Yet, for kiOra, those images are material to be reworked. “We put Japanese culture through kiOra's own lens and create something new and share our version of Japanese heritage,” Kyla, one of the members, told SoundStrip in an interview. “Things that are normal to us can feel new to people overseas.” That tension—between something deeply familiar at home and newly packaged for an
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international audience—is at the core of the group’s debut. They were not trying to recreate a traditional image of Japan, the girls said. Instead, it wants to figure out what Japanese pop can look and sound like when its heritage is mixed with the aesthetics and sounds its members have grown up around. And “Coco,” its first single, is their first attempt at answering that question.
First off…
FOR listeners encountering the name for the first time, kiOra is a four-member Japanese girl group composed of Oto, Kyla, Ruka and Yu. The group was formed through the TORA PROJECT and is backed by Sony Music Labels and 88rising. Its project was unveiled in March at 88rising's Head in the Clouds Music & Arts Festival in Tokyo, before the members made their first overseas appearance in Malaysia in August. Officially debuting on August 8 with “Coco,” kiOra describes itself as the first expression of a musical style it calls “Tokyo Hyper City Pop,” which kiOra
is a combination of hyperpop's electronic, forwardlooking sound and city pop's melodic sensibility. But even the very name points to something less polished than the usual image of a finished pop act. It comes from the Japanese word kiyoraka, referring to a kind of pure beauty found in imperfection and incompleteness. For the members, that idea represents an acceptance of being unfinished: growing, changing and figuring things out. And that philosophy is particularly relevant for a group only beginning to introduce itself outside its hometown.
Then came “Coco”
PRODUCED by her0ism, Mechatok and Yaeji, “Coco” moves between hybrid pop and an unexpected city-pop section, combining infectious melodies with electronic production. Oto said the song's unusual structure reflects the group's direction. “Coco brings together Japanese and international creators, shifting from hybrid pop to a sudden city pop section,” she said. “An unexpected structure reflects kiOra's direction.” The lyrics also play with the relationship between Japanese and English. The song draws from the similar sounds of the English phrase “in my core” and the Japanese ima koko, or “here and now.” For the girls, its central idea is that what defines a person does not necessarily exist somewhere in the distance, but can be found in the present.
A ‘different’ Japanese image
THE same philosophy carries into the music video. Tatami, sento and sushi are not exactly obscure references to Japanese culture. For an international audience, they can easily become
shorthand for Japan itself. kiOra, however, wanted to use them differently. “We wanted to take things like tatami, sento and sushi and put them through kiOra's own lens,” Kyla said. “We want to respect Japanese culture while we are making it fresh and new through kiOra.” That distinction is important to the group's international strategy. Rather than explaining Japanese culture to outsiders through a checklist of traditional symbols, the members want their own familiarity with those things to shape how they are presented. What feels ordinary to a Japanese person can look novel somewhere else. kiOra's proposition is to take that everyday familiarity and turn it into pop.
Tokyo, then everywhere else
THE international push is not being saved for some later stage of the group's career. From the beginning, the members said they wanted their music to reach audiences outside Japan, using streaming platforms and social media alongside overseas performances. They have already appeared in Malaysia and Thailand, where Yu said the experience of seeing audiences sing along and enjoy their music was exciting for the group. But the members say they are interested in more than simply performing abroad. Ruka said they want to meet artists, creators, media and fans in each country they visit. The Philippines is among the places they hope to reach. “We'd love to visit the Philippines and perform for everyone there someday,” Ruka said. For now, the group is looking toward more music and activities across Japan, Asia and the United States. Oto said future releases will continue developing the Tokyo Hyper City Pop sound and the group's Japanese heritage concept, with the long-term goal of being recognized worldwide as a new pop group from Japan.
Anime is winning over a new generation of fans By Sohee Kim
A
Bloomberg
NIME is taking up more entertainment time among Gen Z and teenage fans globally, stoking a broader cultural appetite for related merchandise, games and manga.
Across 10 countries surveyed, 79 percent of anime fans between the ages of 13 and 17 said they’re watching more anime than a year ago. Meanwhile, 68 percent of Gen Zers said the same, according to new findings for Sony Group Corp.’s anime streaming platform Crunchyroll conducted by the National Research Group, a strategy consultancy. Aided by the rise of international streaming platforms such as Netflix Inc. and Crunchyroll, which has about 21 million paid subscribers, anime connected with new audiences across the globe during the pandemic. More than half of Netflix’s members now regularly watch anime. Crunchyroll estimates that roughly 1.6 billion people outside Japan and China have some interest in anime. Last year, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle grossed about $137 million domestically, an unusually large haul for a Japanese animated film. On
“ACROSS 10 countries surveyed, 79 percent of anime fans between the ages of 13 and 17 said they’re watching more anime than a year ago.” PHOTO BY DEX EZEKIEL ON UNSPLASH streaming platforms, anime titles from Studio Ghibli’s feature films to Dan Da Dan to the decades-long series One Piece by Toei Animation Co. have been increasingly topping the charts. “You’re hitting a lot of tailwinds all at once,” Gita Rebbapragada, chief operating officer of Crunchyroll, said in an interview. “That’s creating a real moment.” Anime has moved further into the mainstream and celebrities from Megan Thee Stallion to Bad Bunny have publicly embraced it. In the US, interest in the genre continues to grow. The share of consumers ages 13 to 54 who watch Japanese animation at least weekly rose to 41 percent this year from 39 percent, while the share watching daily jumped to 21 percent this year from 13 percent in 2025.
NRG surveyed about 5,000 anime viewers across 10 markets—including the US, UK, India and South Korea—as well as 500 viewers in Japan. Respondents watched anime at least monthly. More than four in
The latest research was unveiled at Crunchyroll’s Anime Future Forum in New York. In an opening speech, Sony Group President and Chief Executive Officer Hiroki Totoki said the company operates across the anime value chain, from its streaming platform Crunchyroll to production studio Aniplex and PlayStation. Sony and Crunchyroll are committed to helping build an anime industry that can thrive for decades by investing in creators and talent, protecting intellectual property and cultivating global fandom, he said. In the NRG study, more than 70 percent of anime fans listened to soundtracks, bought merchandise and played animebased games. Others learned Japanese, cooked anime-inspired meals or even named pets, plants and cars after characters. The survey found that anime fans aren’t abandoning the genre as they get older. Among viewers ages 45 to 54, 58 percent said their fandom had intensified. Japan’s decades old manga and anime franchises
‘There is a real cultural fit with [younger fans].’
–Gita Rebbapragada, Crunchyroll Chief Operating Officer
five teen fans said that anime accounts for at least half of everything they watch, with 44 percent saying it makes up most of their viewing. “There is a real cultural fit with the next generation of fans,” Rebbapragada said. “Gen Z and Gen Alpha — it’s incredibly resonant with them.”
can keep fans engaged for generations, a quality that makes the medium unique, Rebbapragada said. “There is a myth that you sort of age out of anime,” she said. “That’s actually not what the data is showing.” n Cover photo by Radwan Menzer on Pexels.com
UNCOMMON COURSES:
Exploring questions of meaning, ethics, and belief through Japanese anime By Ronald S. Green
Coastal Carolina University
UNCOMMON Courses is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching. The story was published last year. Title of course: Anime and Religious Identity: Cultural Aesthetics in Japanese Spiritual Worlds What prompted the idea for the course? ver the years, two moments convinced me to create a full course on Japanese anime. First was my students’ strong reaction to Gyōmei Himejima, the Pure Land Buddhist priest in Demon Slayer. He is a gentle but powerful guardian who refuses to hate the demons he must fight. His actions lead to honest and thoughtful conversations about compassion, fear and the limits of violence. One student asked, “If Gyōmei doesn’t hate even the demons, does that mean violence can be compassionate?” Another pointed out that Gyōmei’s strength does not come from anger, but from grief and empathy. These kinds of insights showed me that anime
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was helping students think through complex ethical questions that would have been harder to engage through abstract theory alone. The second moment came from watching Dragon Ball Daima. In this 2024 series, familiar heroes are turned into children. This reminded me of Buddhist stories about being reborn and starting over, and it prompted new questions: If someone loses all the strength they had built up over time, are they still the same person? What, if anything, remains constant about the self, and what changes? What does the course explore? This course helps students explore questions of meaning, ethics and belief that anime brings to life. It examines themes such as what happens when the past resurfaces? What does it mean to carry the weight of responsibility? How should we act when our personal desires come into conflict with what we know is right? And how can suffering become a path to transformation? What materials does the course feature? We start with Spirited Away, a 2001 animated film about a young girl who becomes trapped
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in a spirit world after her parents are transformed into pigs. The story draws on Shintō ideas such as purification, sacred space and kami. Students learn how these religious concepts are expressed through the film’s visual design, soundscape and narrative structure. Later in the semester, we watch Your Name, a 2016 film in which two teenagers mysteriously begin switching bodies across time and space. It’s a story about connection, memory and longing. The idea of “musubi,” a spiritual thread that binds people and places together, becomes central to understanding the film’s emotional impact. Attack on Titan, which first aired in 2013, immerses students in a world marked by moral conflict, sacrifice, and uncertainty. The series follows a group of young soldiers fighting to survive in a society under siege by giant humanoid creatures known as Titans. Students are often surprised to learn that this popular series engages with profound questions drawn from Buddhism and existential thought, such as the meaning of freedom, the tension between destiny and individual choice, and the deeper causes of human violence. The characters in these stories face real
OCTOBER 11, 2026
struggles. Some are spirit mediums or time travelers. But all of them must make hard decisions about who they are and what they believe. As the semester goes on, students develop visual or written projects such as short essays, podcasts, zines or illustrated stories. These projects help them explore the same questions as the anime, but in their own voices. Why is this course relevant now? Anime has become a global phenomenon. But even though millions of people watch it, many do not realize how deeply it draws on Japanese religious traditions. In this course, students learn to look closely at what anime is saying about life, morality and the choices we make. Through these characters’ journeys, students learn that religion is not just something found in ancient texts or sacred buildings. It can also live in the stories we tell, the art we create and the questions we ask about ourselves and the world. The Conversation n The author is a professor and chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Coastal Carolina University.
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soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | OCTOBER 11, 2026
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‘HAMANA, HAMANA!’
BUSINESS
Taking flight at Ben&Ben’s ‘Saranggola: The Concert’ Story and photos by Reine Juvierre S. Alberto
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or nine years, Ben&Ben has flourished as a nine-piece collective whose music always felt like a warm embrace.
Now, it’s their turn to cling to each other as all nine original members gathered to look back on how far their shared kite had flown. With hands tightly placed on shoulders and backs in what they call a “chuddle”—a cuddle and huddle—they lifted each other’s spirits before their sold-out show at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday, October 2. As they chanted “light, feel, energy, hamana, hamana,” the atmosphere shifted from anticipation to the realization that this is the last time all nine of them will share the stage for a major concert. Walking down through the center of the crowd toward the main stage, drummer Jam Villanueva was already visibly emotional, given this would be her last major performance with Ben&Ben before her departure, as 2026 will be her final year with the band. Ben&Ben disclosed that Jam will be leaving the band for two reasons: her migration to another country and a serious wrist condition De Quervain’s Tenosynovitis, also known as Drummer’s Wrist, that prevented her from playing the drums for extended periods. Her chapter with the band may have come to an end, but no one wanted to let her go just yet. Looking back on their shared time together, Ben&Ben opened the concert with reimagined renditions of their hit songs from their Nine album, including “Ride Home,” “Paninindigan
Ben&Ben
Kita,” “Sunrise,” and “Autumn.” Lead vocalist Miguel Benjamin Guico paused to acknowledge the hidden pillars—session drummer Luke Sigua, who stepped up and learned the entire setlist— that kept the band standing when Jam discovered her condition in the middle of a tour. Navigating unfamiliar skies Entering a different era of experimenting, trying, becoming and discovering, Ben&Ben landed in The Traveller Across Dimensions album, which birthed songs like “Shutter,” “Comets,” “Could Be Something,” “Tomorrow with You” and “Triumph.” Before the world opened up for Ben&Ben, they were all confined in a house together during the Covid-19 pandemic, unsure of what the future holds. But this was also the time when they made new friends and collaborated with other artists, such as Chito Miranda, Moira Dela Torre, SB19, KZ Tandingan, Zild, juan karlos and Munimuni, creating songs that tackled mental health, injustice, isolation and hope. Returning to the roots of their second studio album Pebble House Vol. 1, keyboardist Pat Lasaten recalled how the difficulty with 2020 pandemic lockdowns made their bond only stronger. “We lived in a house together to make music during the pandemic,” Pat said. “That’s when we
became stronger as friends and bandmates and as chosen family.” Out of that shared house emerged a reflective period for the band marked by songs like “Swimming Pool,” “Kasayaw,” “Upuan,” “Lunod,” “Kapangyarihan,” “Sugat,” and “Elyu.” After their intense performance of “Kapangyarihan,” which became a battle song of Filipinos holding corrupt government officials accountable, the crowd yelled, “Ikulong na yan mga kurakot [Lock them corrupts up]!” Before launching into “Di Ka Sayang,” Miguel offered a grounding message on self-worth to Liwanags navigating their own private battles. “This song says that in times when the world is judging you, or people around you are turning their backs on you, this is a reminder: the words for this song say, ‘sarili ay mahalaga, kahit ano pang tingin nila.” Miguel also dedicated “Sa Susunod Na Habang Buhay” to two people in the audience. “Through time, and through patience, and through very, very stubborn love, they proved to me what the true meaning of love is, that it lasts until the next day.” The mood softened into nostalgic reverence as the band turned its focus to where their kite first took flight: Limasawa Street, their debut full-length album, and sang “Limasawa Street,” “Hummingbird,” “Lucena,” and “Pagtingin.” Bassist Agnes Reoma spoke candidly about what Limasawa Street meant to nine young musicians trying to find their path, noting how performing together for seven years transformed these songs into shared history. “This is where we first became connected as friends. Before all this, we weren’t sure what to do with our lives. But Limasawa Street, this whole album, opened a lot of doors for us. And we poured all of our hearts here,” Agnes said. Keifer Cabugao also recalled how lead vocalist Paolo Benjamin Guico urged him to include the track “War” during Limasawa days, expressing gratitude to his bandmates for believing in his voice. Following “War,” the band performed “Fall” and “Araw-araw”—during which two separate couples in the audience got engaged, proof of its enduring impact among lovers who choose each other every day no matter what.
Bus stop and next route In a nostalgic stage shift, a school bus emerged in the second stage to honor their early days of playing outside campuses. The band allowed fans to select two songs from a list, singing intimate acoustic renditions of “Bibingka” and “Courage.” The energy surged as the band returned to the main stage alongside dancers for “Harinawa,” followed by a moving singalong to “Kathang Isip.” Before performing “Leaves” and “Maybe The Night,” Miguel also dedicated the moment to their families and fans who anchor them whenever the road gets hard. “Whenever the days get really hard, we always remember why we’re doing this and who we’re doing this for,” Miguel said. “Whenever we hear stories about how music connects us and music helps us heal and move forward, it gives us so much purpose and so much depth to what we do.” Leading up to their final song, Jam, holding back her tears, gave her farewell speech to Liwanag and her eight bandmates. “We were just kids, dreaming of playing stages and playing music as a career and here we are now. I just feel so grateful for everyone. For every single Liwanag who’s been listening to our music since day one. I just want to say, and to remind everyone to cherish every moment, every second, and every little fleeting time that passes because every second will never ever be back now.” As Ben&Ben closed with their title anthem “Saranggola,” Jam moved from her spot at the percussion and took the drum set again after several months on pause. She will continue to join the band in their commitments for the rest of the year. With the music enveloping the whole coliseum, Jam embodied the kite taking flight—a symbol of letting go, embracing new horizons and trusting the wind. The concert ran impressively for three hours and will be brought to SM Seaside Cebu Arena on April 10, 2027, exactly a month before they celebrate their 10th anniversary. Nine years after their journey began, Ben&Ben proved that while chapters change and people move across oceans, the warmth of shared music endures forever.