Trump mocks his victim of sexual abuse

ACOMBATIVE Donald Trump made a rare live appearance on longtime adversary CNN, repeating his false claims about the 2020 election, hurling insults and mocking a former magazine columnist he was found liable of sexually abusing and defaming.

Trump, during a one-hour "town hall" on the cable television network that he regularly denounced as "fake news" while in the White House, took questions on a broad range of subjects including the war in Ukraine, the debt limit, immigration and his multiple legal challenges.

"Most people understand that what happened was a rigged election," Trump said of his 2020 presidential election defeat by Democrat Joe Biden.

If reelected, he said he would pardon a "large portion" of the hundreds of Trump supporters who have been jailed for their roles in the January 6, 2021 storming of the US Capitol.

"They were there with love in their heart," the 76-year-old Trump said of the rioters who attempted to block the congressional certification of Biden's win.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, refused to unreservedly commit to accepting the results of the next White House vote when pressed by CNN anchor Kaitlin Collins, the mediator for the event.

"If I think it's an honest election, absolutely I would," Trump said.

The former president also waded into the tense negotiations between the Biden White House and

Congress over raising the US debt limit, urging Republican legislators not to do so if Democrats don't agree to spending cuts.

"I say that the Republicans out there congressmen, senators, if they don't give you massive cuts, you're gonna have to do a default," Trump said, before quickly adding that he sees such a scenario as unlikely.

The US government has never intentionally defaulted on its debt, and some economists warn that the effects could be calamitous. AFP

More than 71m people internally displaced worldwide in 2022

A "PERFECT storm" of overlapping crises forced tens of millions to flee within their own country last year, sending the number of internally displaced people to a record high, monitors said on Thursday.

An unprecedented 71.1 million internally displaced people (IDPs) were registered in 2022 – up 20 percent from a year earlier – amid mass displacement for Russia's war in Ukraine, as well as by the monsoon floods that drenched Pakistan.

Notice To The

A full 60.9 million new internal displacements were meanwhile reported in 2022, with some people forced to flee multiple times during the year, according to a joint report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

That marks an all-time high for new internal displacements, and an increase of 60 percent compared to the some 38 million fresh displacements seen in 2021.

That number is "extremely high," IDMC chief Alexandra Bilak told AFP.

"Much of the increase is caused, of course, by the war in Ukraine, but also by floods in Pakistan, by new and ongoing conflicts across the world, and by a number of sudden and slow onset disasters that we'veseen from the Americas all the way to the Pacific." AFP

Notice To The Public

DITO HOME DATA-CAPPED 5G PREPAID 590 PROMO

Promo Mechanics

1) Promo period is from May 5, 2023 to August 5, 2023. The promo must be activated within the promo period. Promos activated after the promo period shall not take effect.

2) The promo name, pricing and inclusions

July 21 to August 20.

7. DITO shall send the subscriber an Electronic Statement of Account (eSOA) free of charge through the valid and active email address provided by the subscriber on upon application. Subscriber shall pay the entire amount billed on or before the due date specified. Subscriber’s failure or refusal to pay the fee, in whole or in part, shall entitle DITO to exercise the right to subscriber’s service without liability on the part of DITO. The consent of the subscriber shall be secured upon application pursuant to the e-billing policy and the user’s terms and conditions.

8. Should a subscriber be unable to finish their contract, the subscriber shall pay a pre-termination fee based on DITO policy:

• Pre-termination Fee (PTF) = MSF x remaining number of months

9. Once the contract term ends, the subscriber may choose to voluntarily terminate the service without any penalty, or continue to use the service at the same monthly rate.

10. Data usage may be monitored via the DITO App.

11. By availing of the promos, the subscriber confirms that he/she has read, understood, and agreed to the promo mechanics, terms, and conditions. Subscriber also agrees not to use the promos for illicit or illegal means.

12. For any concerns and/or inquiries regarding the promo, information may be sent to customerservice@dito.ph. All matters and disputes will be subject to the final decision of DITO Telecommunity. All decisions made by DITO Telecommunity pertaining to the promo will be deemed final and irrevocable, with the prior concurrence of DTI.

“ANNEX A” flation dipped further but only marginally, suggesting the Federal Reserve still had much to do in its battle against rising prices.

App Home Page, select “Buy Promo”.

• Subscriber must select desired promo and click on the confirmation button to proceed with the purchase of the offer.

• Subscriber will receive confirmation via APP and SMS.

5) Promos shall only be made available to DITO 5G Home Prepaid numbers and shall only be offered in the following areas listed in Annex A.

6) Once availed, promos are non-refundable / non-replaceable / nonexchangeable. Promos are only valid for the DITO Home 5G Prepaid CPEs that contain a DITO Home 5G Prepaid SIM.

7) Promos cannot be converted to cash, credit, or other goods and services.

8) By availing of the promos, the subscriber confirms that he/she has read, understood, and agreed to the promo mechanics, terms, and conditions. Subscriber also agrees not to use the promos for illicit or illegal means.

9) For any concerns and/or inquiries regarding the promo, information may be sent to customerservice@dito.ph. All matters and disputes will be subject to the final decision of DITO Telecommunity. All decisions made by DITO Telecommunity pertaining to the promo will be deemed final and irrevocable, with the prior concurrence of DTI.

• Subscriber will receive confirmation via APP and SMS.

5) Promos shall only be made available to DITO 5G Home Prepaid numbers and shall only be offered in the following areas listed in Annex A.

6) Promo resubscription is allowed even if the current subscription is active. The remaining data from the previous subscription will be carried over to the latest subscription.

7) Once availed, promos are non-refundable / non-replaceable / nonexchangeable. Promos are only valid for the DITO Home 5G Prepaid CPEs that contain a DITO Home 5G Prepaid SIM.

8) Promos cannot be converted to cash, credit, or other goods and services.

9) By availing of the promos, the subscriber confirms that he/she has read, understood, and agreed to the promo mechanics, terms, and conditions. Subscriber also agrees not to use the promos for illicit or illegal means.

10) For any concerns and/or inquiries regarding the promo, information may be sent to customerservice@dito.ph. All matters and disputes will be subject to the final decision of DITO Telecommunity. All decisions made by DITO Telecommunity pertaining to the promo will be deemed final and irrevocable, with the prior concurrence of DTI.

STOCKS rose for a third day after the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the gross domestic product expanded 6.4 percent in the first quarter within the government’s target.

The PSE index, the 30-company bellweather of the Philippine Stock Exchange, gained 16 points, or 0.25 percent, to close at 6,675.46 as four of the six subsectors advanced, led by property.

The index representing all shares also picked up 5 points, or 0.15 percent, to settle at 3,551.48, on a value turnover of P6.24 billion. Losers outnumbered gainers, 98 to 66, while 62 issues were unchanged.

Seven of the 10 most active stocks ended in the green, led by Bloomberry Resorts Corp. which climbed 3.27 percent to P11.36 and SM Prime Holdings Inc. which went up 1.76 percent to P34.60.

The peso, however, retreated to 55.75 against the US dollar Thursday from 55.67 on Wednesday on reports of widening trade deficit.

Adding to the uncertainty was the battle to raise the US debt ceiling to avert a destabilizing default, with Democrats and Republicans unable to reach a deal just weeks before the country runs out of cash to pay its bills.

The consumer price index reading was the lowest in two years and a tad below what was expected, giving the Fed a little room to take a break in its long-running rate hike campaign.

However, the figure came after a stronger-than-expected print Friday on jobs creation that showed the world’s top economy remained strong, while observers said further evidence was needed to show that the tightening was bearing fruit.

The 4.9 percent rise in April was far above the Fed’s stated goal of two percent, which some analysts said meant it was unlikely officials would consider cutting rates at the end of the year, as some investors had been betting on.

“The Fed’s policy is working -- inflation is coming down, but inflation is still too high,” Valentine Ainouz, at the Amundi Institute, told Bloomberg Television. “I expect the Fed to maintain rates higher for longer than the market expects.”

And Priya Misra at TD Securities added: “We need more CPI prints to clarify that inflation is definitely declining. With AFP

Italy probes Apple over alleged app market dominance

Asian markets mostly fell Thursday as investors shrugged at data showing US inROME—Italy’s antitrust regulator said Thursday it has opened an investigation into tech giant Apple for allegedly abusing a dominant position in the apps market.

The Silicon Valley titan “has adopted a more restrictive privacy policy for thirdparty app developers than it applies to itself,” the competition watchdog said in a statement.

It said it was also concerned third-party developers and advertisers were “disadvantaged in terms of the quality of the data made available by Apple.”

The “alleged discriminatory conduct” could cause a drop in advertising revenues of third-party advertisers and prevent competitors from entering or remaining in the app development and distribution market, benefiting Apple’s own apps, it added.

Apple reported a profit of $24 billion on revenue of $94.8 billion in the first three months of this year.

The business practices of US big tech companies have come under growing scrutiny in Europe, leading to huge fines and legislation to curb their market dominance. AFP

Google answers

ChatGPT challenge with Bard expansion

MOUNTAIN VIEW, USA—Google on

Wednesday said it is opening Bard, a rival to Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, to 180 countries as it expands use of artificial intelligence across its platform.

Executives at an annual Google developers conference in Silicon Valley said that generative AI will also be used to supercharge the tech giant’s leading search engine.

“We have been applying AI for a while, with generative AI we are taking the next step,” Google chief executive Sundar Pichai told thousands of developers gathered for the event.

“We are reimagining all our core products, including search,” he said. Google is racing to catch up with rival Microsoft, which has rushed to integrate ChatGPT-like powers in a wide array of its products, including the Bing search engine.

Microsoft’s dash into AI came despite fears about the technology’s potential threat to society, including its impact on the spread of disinformation and whether it could make whole categories of jobs obsolete.

Cathy Edwards of Google Search said the new experience would be akin to a search that is “supercharged” by a conversational bot.

Other Google executives laid out how generative AI is being woven into Gmail, photo editing, online work tools and more.

The company’s AI efforts would be carried out in a “bold and responsible” way, senior product director Jack Krawczyk said during a briefing.

Google’s expansion meant it removed a waitlist for Bard, letting users around the world engage with it in English after months of testing it out in the US and Britain.

Bard will be modified to support 40 languages in the coming months, according to Krawczyk. AFP all stockholders who registered through the link sent to their emails starting 8:00 AM of 29 May 2023 until the adjournment of the 04 June 2023 Meeting. The requirements and procedure of the Online Voting and Election can be found in our website at www.apmcbacolod.com Stockholders who cannot attend via remote communication or vote in absentia may participate in the meeting by executing a PROXY in favor of another person or the Chairman which proxy must be notarized. For corporations, the submission must be accompanied by a Certification from its Corporate Secretary stating the authority of the representative/corporate officer to represent and sign in behalf of the Corporation. The suggested Proxy Form in PDF may be downloaded from www.apmcbacolod.com.

The Proxy Form must be received and validated by the Corporate Secretary not later than 5:00 PM of 29 May 2023 through email at businessoffice@apmcbacolod.com and hard copies at Asia Pacific Medical Center Bacolod, Inc. (Formerly: Allied Care Experts Medical Center Bacolod Inc.), Room 4, Ground Floor, MC Metroplex Bldg., BS Aquino Drive, Bacolod City 6100.

For ASM-related

MARKET INSIGHTS.