Good day. Here are the top stories of The Manila Times for Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
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READ: Storm victims get P1.1B in assistance
GOVERNMENT aid to people stricken by typhoons Kristine and Leon has reached P1.1 billion, Malacañang said over the weekend. Citing the report from the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC), the Palace said the assistance included food and nonfood items provided by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Office of the Civil Defense, local government units and nongovernmental organizations. The NDRRMC said 8,630,663 persons or 2,200,731 families were affected by Kristine and Leon. It added that 227,133 people or 56,396 families sought shelter in 1,467 evacuation centers. The death toll was still at 146, with 126 deaths being validated. The number of injured was at 130. The NDRRMC said that 74 of the 96 seaports affected by the storms were operational again and have resumed trips. A total of 189,340 houses were damaged, with an estimated cost of P3,480,770. Agricultural losses were at P4,526,481,853, with 106,715 farmers and fisherfolk affected. A little over 100 irrigation facilities were damaged. Damage to infrastructure has reached P7,212,262,651. The NDRRMC said 750,196 families or 34.63 percent of stricken families have received government assistance. The DSWD has released 1,013,777 family food packs in affected regions. The Armed Forces of the Philippines Multinational Coordinating Center and the Civil-Military Coordinating Center conducted 58 humanitarian sorties in coordination in Naga City, Bicol and Batangas. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared today, Nov. 4, as a day of national mourning for the storm victims.
READ: PH bags overall title in Dragon Boat World meet
THE Philippines claimed the overall championship at the conclusion of the ICF Dragon Boat World Championships on Sunday at the Puerto Princesa Baywalk in Palawan. The Filipino paddlers collected a record 11 gold medals on top of 20 silvers and 16 bronzes during the four-day competition. On the final day on Sunday, the locals added two more golds, five silvers and two bronze medals to its medal tally. Cheered on by a hometown crowd, the hosts won the masters mixed 20-seater standard boat 500-meter race in two minutes and 6.34 seconds. Singapore (2:06.73) finished second, while Germany placed third (2:07.98) in the competition organized by the Philippine Canoe Kayak Dragon Boat Federation (PCKDF). The Filipinos also topped the 40+ 20-seater women's 2,000-meter standard boat event (10:42.31), besting Canada (10:48.64). They settled for silvers in the 20-seater mixed standard boat 500-meter (1:58.13), 40+ 10-seater mixed 500-meter (2:19.45), 20-seater open (9:23.16) and 40+ 20-seater open 5,000-meter (9:34.47) races. ICF Dragon Boat Commission chairman Wai Hung-Luk of Hong Kong praised the country's hosting of the world meet. The biennial global dragon boat competition will be held next in Regina, Canada, in 2026.
READ: Harris, Trump race to tape as US election heads to photo finish
DETROIT, Michigan — Kamala Harris targets the Rust Belt while Donald Trump heads to the biggest US swing states Sunday in a frantic last push, less than 48 hours before Election Day in the historically close campaign. Seventy-five million people have cast early ballots ahead of Tuesday's climax, and the race is down to the wire — with more states functionally tied in polls at this point than in any comparable election. As of Saturday evening, neither candidate had a margin greater than three points in any of the seven battleground states set to determine the presidency, according to the polling averages maintained by RealClearPolitics. Harris — desperate to shore up the Great Lakes states seen as essential to any Democratic ticket — was to spend the day in Michigan, beginning in Detroit before a stop in Pontiac and an evening rally at Michigan State University. Trump's Sunday timetable centers on Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, the three biggest prizes in the "Electoral College" system that awards states influence according to their size. The 78-year-old has been scrambling to distract from the now weeklong scandal around his rally at New York's iconic Madison Square Garden in which warm-up speakers alienated Hispanics and women with racist and sexist language. Trump surrogates winced at the unforced error, which looked especially unprofessional when contrasted with Harris' speech to a massive, jubilant crowd on Washington's Ellipse, with the White House providing the backdrop.
READ: Seven states that will decide the US presidency
WASHINGTON, D.C. — US Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump are hurtling toward their November 5 election showdown, one of the closest contests in modern American history. And in the handful of critical states framing the 2024 race, there is little daylight between the rivals with Election Day nearing. Under the US Constitution, America's founding fathers established that each of the 50 states would hold its own vote for president. Under the complex Electoral College system, each state has a certain number of "electors," based on population. Most states have a winner-take-all system that awards all electors to whoever wins the popular vote. With candidates needing 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win, elections tend to be decided in the hotly contested "swing states" with a history of alternating between Republican and Democratic candidates. This year, there are seven such battlegrounds, and every one is a toss-up within the margin of error. These are Pennsylvania (19 Electoral College votes), Georgia (16), North Carolina (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10) and Nevada (6).
In Business
READ: Q3 growth likely slower – analysts
SUBDUED public and private spending could have weighed on third-quarter economic growth, analysts said, putting the 2024 target at risk. All but two of nine estimates issued by economists and research units projected July-September gross domestic product (GDP) growth lower than the second quarter's 6.3 percent, with the median of 5.8 percent below the government's full-year goal of 6.0 to 7.0 percent. This would put the nine-month expansion at 5.9 percent and growth for the last three months of the year would have to be at least 6.2 percent for the target to be met. Preliminary third-quarter data will be released by the Philippine Statistics Authority this Thursday. Second-quarter data revisions could also be announced ahead of the July-September result. The higher-than-expected 6.3-percent April-June showing — analysts had estimated an improvement to 6.0 percent after the first quarter's below-target 5.8 percent — had economic managers earlier expressing optimism that the 2024 goal would be achieved via 6.0-percent expansions in the last two quarters.
Topping Sports
READ: Sabalenka ousts Zheng at WTA Finals
RIYADH — World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka commenced her WTA Finals campaign in Riyadh on Saturday with a fifth victory in as many meetings against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen of China, racing to a 6-3, 6-4 victory. Facing off for the fifth time in the last 14 months, Sabalenka and Zheng opened the action at the first ever professional women's tennis tournament in Saudi Arabia in front of a near capacity crowd at King Saud University Indoor Arena. The Belarusian top seed needed just one hour and 24 minutes to defeat Zheng, dropping a mere two points behind her first serve throughout the contest. A runner-up at the WTA Finals in Texas two years ago, Sabalenka is eyeing a maiden trophy at the prestigious season finale, which would also guarantee her the year-end number one ranking.
READ: Cavs sink Bucks to stay perfect
The all-round performance saw six Cavaliers players make double figures in a see-saw clash that included 19 lead changes.The Bucks looked poised to claim only their second win of the season after a 41-point performance from Damian Lillard, who gave his side a 113-112 lead after draining a jumper with 10 seconds left on the clock. But Mitchell expertly ran the final few seconds down before nervelessly sinking the final bucket to leave Milwaukee's Fiserv Forum in stunned silence.The all-round performance saw six Cavaliers players make double figures in a see-saw clash that included 19 lead changes.
READ: Opinion
In its editorial today, The Manila Times reminds the government that there should be no wavering in the drive to banish POGOs. Read the full version on print or digital or listen to the Voice of the Times. Featured columnists on the front page are Rigoberto Tiglao, Fr. Ranhilio Aquino and Francisco Tatad. Tiglao writes about corporal and judicial garbage; Aquino on crimes against humanity; and Tatad on taking the ICC out of the picture.
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