The global temperature in 2023 hit 1.45 ± 0.12 °C—the hottest year on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in its Jan. 12 news release. The years 2016 (which had a strong El Niño) and 2020 were previously classed as the warmest on record at 1.29 ±0.12°C and 1.27 ±0.12°C, respectively, above the...
Author: Minerva Generalao (Minerva Generalao)
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Hot new year!
While the traditional greeting is “Happy New Year,” this time it may need a significant addition in view of recent historic climate records. The greeting may well be: “Happy New Year, despite a hot or even hotter 2024.” June 2023 was the hottest June on record globally. July was also the hottest month. The following...
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What to Know: Are confidential funds secret funds not subject to audit?
The use of confidential funds (CF) by the Office of Vice President Sara Duterte, concurrently the secretary of education, continues to be in the news and in social media posts. While most of the comments dwell on the P125 million in confidential funds supposedly spent in an 11-day period in December 2022, among the other...
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Workers’ equality in the kingdom of God
Jackieh, a library assistant, had to walk fast or run to be on time for work. Tardiness would mean a salary deduction if her reason for being late is not acceptable. During the pandemic when the norm was to work from home, she set the alarm 10 minutes before 10 a.m., her time in, so...
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Despite the rains, record-breaking hot days and years may be expected
The rains are here but hot and dry days may be expected because of El Niño possibly starting between June and July and lasting up to March, according to the Philippine weather bureau Pagasa. Elsewhere in the world, forecasters at the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said temperatures are likely to soar and break records over...
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Users want GCash to disclose what really happened
On the morning of May 9, GCash issued an advisory intended to assure its millions of users: “We’re back!” The advisory was posted after GCash extended a scheduled maintenance job “to investigate and determine that no hacking had occurred” the day before, when unauthorized deductions were made on certain accounts. The downtime that prevented users...
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Amid tensions, Jerusalem celebrates the King of Peace
While the Crucified Christ and the Risen Lord are the most dominant images of Jesus during Holy Week and the Easter Season (which runs until May 28, Pentecost Sunday), another image is that of the King of Peace entering Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt. Christians remember it as the Palm Sunday to start Holy Week. The...
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It’s OK to lament, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me!’
Minutes before he died on the cross, Jesus cried out in a loud voice: “Eli, Eli, la’ma sabach-tha’ni?”—“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me!” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34). This lament, considered Jesus’ fourth last word before he died, is one of the Seven Last Words, compiled from the passion and death narratives of...
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Pope Francis: Learn from the Transfiguration of Jesus
In his message for Lent 2023, which was released on Feb. 17, Pope Francis urged the faithful to “listen to Jesus” as he recalled God the Father’s command to the disciples during the Transfiguration. In the story, which is proclaimed every Second Sunday of Lent (March 5 this year), Jesus is transfigured on a mountain...
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In Bethlehem, where Jesus was born: of unspeakable peace
(Last of two parts) In November 2019, I joined a pilgrimage organized by Sr. Nimfa Eborra, a Bible scholar and a licensed spiritual guide in Israel. With me also as pilgrims were my sister and her husband, my brother, and our niece. It was actually my fifth trip to the Holy Land. My first was...