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Stock market declines; Megaworld, PLDT climb

White House just before he set off for the G7 summit in Japan.

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STOCKS slightly declined Thursday ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ decision to pause its monetary tightening cycle as inflation rate continued to soften.

The PSE index, the 30-company bellwether of the Philippine Stock Exchange, lost 6 points, or 0.10 percent, to close at 6,628.64, as one of the six subsectors ended in the red.

The broader all-shares index barely moved to close at 3,534.64 on a value turnover of P3.96 billion. Gainers led losers, 90 to 81, while 61 issues were unchanged.

Five of the 10 most active stocks ended in the green, led by Megaworld Corp. which climbed 3.47 percent to P2.09 and PLDT Inc. which rose 2.41 percent to P1,275.00.

Meanwhile, the peso went up 0.21 percent to finish at 55.87 against the US dollar Thursday from 56.2 Wednesday.

Asian and European investors on Thursday tracked a strong Wall Street rally, fanned by optimism over talks to avert a catastrophic US debt default.

Markets have been skittish in recent sessions with Republicans and Democrats unable to find common ground as the deadline for a deal to raise the country’s borrowing limit approached.

But talks this week between President Joe Biden, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and congressional leaders appear to have been more fruitful.

“I’m confident that we’ll get the agreement that we need on the budget and that America will not default,” Biden said at the

Private satellites support fight vs. climate change

By Lucie Aubourg

WASHINGTON, USA—From satellites that can pinpoint the sources of industrial pollution, to others that track hurricane movements by the hour, space has emerged as a key front in the fight against climate change. New launches are -- literally and metaphorically -- skyrocketing, and giving rise to increased cooperation between space agencies and private companies. Among the most fruitful areas of collaboration: tracking greenhouse gas emissions. The potent planet-heating gas methane is regularly measured in the atmosphere by one of the satellites of the European Union Space Program’s Copernicus mission.

The spacecraft scans the entire globe, but its resolution is in the order of several kilometers, making it hard to zero in on the exact source.

That’s where private companies can step in. One of them, the Canadian GHGSat, currently has nine small satellites in orbit, each the size of a microwave.

Their mission: to fly over oil and gas sites, looking for methane leaks. By orbiting at a lower altitude, they can take a detailed look at each site.

“Think of it as the wide angle lens camera, versus the telephoto lens camera,” Stephane Germain, the company’s founder, told AFP. The Copernicus team is in constant touch with GHGSat, telling them where to point their cameras.

GHGSat then sells its information to oil companies, such as Total, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell.

“More and more companies are interested in that because they’re realizing they have to better understand their own carbon footprints,” said Germain, especially since their customers are insisting on better accounting of emissions’ life cycles.

A common source of methane emissions are unlit flares, which are meant to burn of the gas.

GHGSat estimates it has prevented the equivalent of 10 megatons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere, equivalent to 1.3 million homes’ energy use for a year. Other companies plan to enter the sector, including France’s Absolut Sensing.

Another company, Kayrros, has no satellites of its own but is analyzing Copernicus data to track down the biggest leaks. Technological advances

“The big picture shows you that there is a problem. And the small one then focuses in higher resolution and sells information to somebody. So this works very well together,” European Space Agency director Josef Aschbacher said of such public-private partnerships to AFP.

But government agency constellations -- comprised of mostly large, very expensive satellites -- remain the backbone of the Earth observation system.

Copernicus will soon enter a new era, with new missions such as CO2M measuring the carbon dioxide released specifically by human activities. NASA has about thirty Earth observation missions.

In the last six months alone, the US space agency has launched the SWOT mission to survey the Earth’s surface water in unprecedented detail, TEMPO to measure pollutants in the troposphere above North America, and TROPICS, to track tropical weather systems, including hurricanes, hour by hour. AFP

China lifts ban on timber imports from Australia

McCarthy added that Biden and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had “finally backed off the insane, irrational, unsensible idea that you just raise the debt ceiling.”

“I’m optimistic about our ability to work together,” he said.

“The only question of whether we have a Biden default is the president himself.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned that the US government would likely run out of cash by June 1 while the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has forecast June 15.

Most economists have warned that world markets would be sent into turmoil and the already fragile global economy would take a severe hit if lawmakers do not lift the debt ceiling and the United States defaults.

And in a sign of the worry the issue is causing on Wall Street, a number of top bank executives visited Washington to hold talks with congressional leaders.

Afterwards, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told reporters: “The US should not and probably will not default.”

The news of progress was greeted warmly on Wall Street, where all three main indexes ended more than one percent higher, and Asia followed in early business Thursday. With AFP

1. Call to Order and Roll Call

2. Certification of Due Notice and Presence of a Quorum

3. Approval of the Minutes of the Annual Stockholders Meeting held on May 31 , 2022

4. Report of the Chairman/Presentation of Highlights of Audited Financial Statements as of and for the Year Ended December 31 . 2022

5. Approval of Directors’ Fees/Bonus for CY 2022

6. Ratification of All Previous Actions of the Directors and Officers of the Corporation

7. Election of Directors (2023-2024)

8. Appointment/Reappointment of External Auditors

9. Other Matters

10. Adjournment

STOCKHOLDERS OF RECORD AS OF MAY 25, 2023 are entitled to the notice of. and to vote at, the said meeting, Stockholders intending to vote and participate remotely or in absentia must notify the Corporate Secretary via electronic mall at: SPCSECGroup@spcpower.com or info@Spcpower. com, and must submit the following requirements: copy of valid government-issued 10 with full name. signature, and photograph, proxy, and proof of authority (i.e. special power of attorney, secretary’s certificate and/or board resolution), not later than June 10, 2023. Once validated and verified, access to the meeting, materials, and other relevant information will be sent to the stockholder by electronic mail.

Electronic copies of the Minutes of the 2022 Stockholders’ Meeting, Information Statement, Management Report, and SEC Form 17 A and other relevant documents are posted at the Company’s website (www.spcpowergroup.com) and at PSE Edge.

The agenda does not include matters that may give rise to stockholder’s exercise of appraisal right.

Muntinlupa City, May 4, 2023.

By: MISHELLE ANNE R. RUBIO-AGUINALDO Assistant Corporate Secretary

SYDNEY, Australia—China

has lifted an import ban on Australian timber, Beijing’s ambassador said Thursday, hailing warming ties between the two countries.

Timber was among a slew of Australian commodities hit with import bans and restrictions as diplomatic relations between Beijing and Canberra soured during the height of the pandemic.

Xiao Qian told reporters in Canberra that China would immediately resume imports of Australian timber, which were stopped in 2020.

“Yesterday, the Chinese Customs have formally notified the Australian Minister of Agriculture that starting from today, China will resume import of Australian timber,” Xiao said at a press conference.

The resumption of the timber trade, worth about Aus$600 million (US$400 million) a year according to government data, came as relations improved, he added.

“There are also other issues on the table that allow me to say that the momentum is positive.”

Last week, the two countries’ trade ministers met face-to-face for the first time since 2019, as the center-left Australian government aimed to repair a relationship that had grown tense under the previous administration.

China, Australia’s largest trading partner, blocked the import of its timber in 2020, citing the discovery of pests on shipments of wood. But there were import curbs on other items too, including coal, barley and wine. AFP

Makati City or via e-mail at CorporateSecretary@ pbcom.com.ph not later than 5:00 p.m. on or before 30 May 2023.

In compliance with SEC Resolution No. 196, Series of 2015, a copy of the Unaudited Interim Financial Statements of PBCOM with Management Discussion and Analysis for the period ended 31 March 2023 shall be posted in PBCOM’s website at https:// www.pbcom.com.ph/ on or before 30 May 2023. A hard copy of the said interim financial statements shall be provided within a reasonable time

Series of 2015, a copy of the Unaudited Interim Financial Statements of PBCOM with Management Discussion and Analysis for the period ended 31 March 2023 shall be posted in PBCOM’s website at https:// www.pbcom.com.ph/ on or before 30 May 2023. A hard copy of the said interim financial statements shall be provided within a reasonable time upon request by any stockholder.

Copies of the following documents will be available upon request: (i) Minutes of the Annual Meeting of Stockholders held on 7 June 2022; (ii) Information Statement; (iii) Management Report;

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