Philippines showers gymnast Carlos Yulo with praises, gifts after double Olympic gold

Special Philippines showers gymnast Carlos Yulo with praises, gifts after double Olympic gold
Double-gold medalist Carlos Edriel Yulo of Philippines celebrates on the podium in Paris, France on Aug. 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 05 August 2024
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Philippines showers gymnast Carlos Yulo with praises, gifts after double Olympic gold

Philippines showers gymnast Carlos Yulo with praises, gifts after double Olympic gold
  • Yulo is the first Filipino to win two golds at a single Olympics
  • Athlete dedicated victory to ‘Filipino people who supported me’

MANILA: From ordinary citizens, government officials to local brands, Filipinos are celebrating gymnast Carlos Edriel Yulo’s historic double gold medal win at the Paris Olympics with high praises and pledges of gifts — including a hero’s parade, a new home and a lifetime supply of ramen.

Yulo earned the Philippines its first-ever Olympic medal in gymnastics when he won the men’s floor exercise final at the Paris Games on Saturday, making him only the second Filipino athlete to win an Olympic gold, after weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz in 2020.

The 24-year-old scooped his second gold medal in as many days after he soared to the top of the podium in the men’s vault event, becoming the first Filipino and Southeast Asian to win two golds at a single Olympics.

“No words can express how proud we are of you, Caloy. You have achieved gold for the Philippines not once, but twice,” President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said on Facebook, using the athlete’s nickname.

“Filipinos all over the world stood united, cheering and rooting for you.”

Before this year’s Olympics, Yulo’s accolades had included winning gold in 2019 and 2021 at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship, five golds at the 2022 Southeast Asian Games and another three at the Asian Artistic Gymnastics Championship.

Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna said on Monday that the city will hold a hero’s parade for Yulo, the date of which will be announced later.

The Philippine government will hand Yulo 10 million Philippine pesos ($172,750) – a reward promised to any gold medalists.

The House of Representatives has also pledged to give the gymnast an additional 6 million pesos in cash incentives, as the speaker of the lower house, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, called him a “once-in-a-century Filipino athlete.”

He said: “Caloy’s achievements have not only brought glory to the Philippines, but have also highlighted the potential of our athletes to excel in the international arena.

“We will continue to support and invest in our sports programs to nurture and develop more world-class athletes like Caloy. His success is a shining example of hope and a source of inspiration for all of us.”

Private sector companies, big and small, have also announced a flurry of gifts for Yulo, including offers of free lifetime ramen from a Japanese restaurant in Calasiao and free baked mac and cheese for life from a Manila-based eatery.

A real estate firm has promised him a fully furnished, three-bedroom condominium at McKinley Hill, the largest condominium development in the Manila metropolitan area, while a Filipino doctor has pledged free consultation and endoscopic procedures for Yulo when he turns 45, as well as to any patients in need selected by the gymnast.

When he realized he had secured the gold on Saturday, Yulo collapsed to the ground in tears, a scene that has now been replayed millions of times on social media as his name trended on various online platforms over the weekend.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said. “We are a really small country … so, to be able to get a gold medal for us is big for us — huge. I dedicate this to the Filipino people who supported me.”

Yulo, who trained for seven years in Japan due to a lack of opportunity back home, hopes that his historic win will open the door for Philippine youth to take up the sport.

“Hopefully gymnastics in the country will grow,” he said.

For some Filipinos, Yulo’s historic win has filled them with pride.

“It makes me proud to be a Filipino because he carries the Philippine flag … because the Philippine flag was raised twice,” Joelina Picardal, a 23-year-old office administrator in Manila, told Arab News. “All I can say to him is: Keep it up!”

Carmelita Trinidad, a 77-year-old retiree also based in the capital, said that Yulo’s Olympics performance gave her hope for the younger generation.

“I’m very proud (of him). He also comes from a poor background, but he really persevered,” she told Arab News. “I hope that the young people will also be able to achieve what he achieved.”


Malaysia’s eviction of sea nomads casts light on precarious lives

Malaysia’s eviction of sea nomads casts light on precarious lives
Updated 6 sec ago
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Malaysia’s eviction of sea nomads casts light on precarious lives

Malaysia’s eviction of sea nomads casts light on precarious lives

SEMPORNA, Malaysia: Patches of palm thatch entwined with a few forlorn stilts sticking out of the emerald waters in a Malaysian marine park off the island of Borneo are the only traces remaining of the homes of hundreds of sea nomads.
Robin, one of those left homeless among a community that inspired the fictional ‘Metkayina’ tribe in the 2022 film ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’, took to a boat with his children to flee the Malaysian officials who razed their home.
“I don’t know where to go now,” he told Reuters from the deck of a wooden houseboat festooned with drying clothes, where he lives with a cousin and their eight children after the demolition drive razed structures deemed illegal.
His indigenous sea-faring community, known as the Bajau Laut, is famed for the ability to dive underwater for lengthy periods unassisted by equipment.

Three generations of an indigenous seaborne Bajau Laut community family spend their evening together at their stilt house built over the sea in Semporna, Malaysia, on August 20, 2024. (REUTERS)

They have lived in the area for centuries, but are still seen as migrants by the authorities, since most of them lack basic paperwork to prove their names, ages and nationality.
Sometimes known as Sama Bajau elsewhere in Southeast Asia, many face impoverished, precarious lives and are denied access to health, education or financial services without such documents.
“We can’t buy food because our gold pawn tickets were damaged during the demolition,” said Robin’s cousin, Indasaini. “We have no money. The children are sick and we don’t have money to buy medicine.”
Malaysian authorities must take a more compassionate approach and consult the community before evictions or resettlements, said Vilashini Somiah, an anthropologist at the University of Malaya.
“These programs do not work because there’s no consultation with them in which you recognize the community as people,” she said, referring to previous efforts.
Many sea nomads settled around islands in the Tun Sakaran Marine Park, popular with divers and tourists off Malaysia’s eastern state of Sabah, but a crackdown on cross-border crime since June has demolished hundreds of homes.

A general view of stilt houses of the indigenous seaborne Bajau Laut community in Semporna, Malaysia. (Reuters)

Another reason for the drive was national security concerns, as the waters of the Sulu archipelago between Sabah and the southern Philippines are a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf, a militant group notorious for piracy and kidnapping that is linked to Islamic State.
Like many undocumented Bajau Laut, Robin goes by one name and does not know his exact age. But he said he can trace his family’s history in the area, with his grandparents buried on an islet in the government-protected park.
To earn his livelihood, Robin said he used to fish and gather wood from the islands to sell on the mainland, but has been unable to do so since he was evicted.

Growing scrutiny
Reuters was unable to verify Robin’s account, but state officials confirmed the campaign to remove intruders from protected areas of the park in the Semporna district.
“The Sabah government will take all necessary action to help,” Hajjiji Noor, the state’s chief minister, told Reuters, adding that authorities had found another coastal area in Semporna to resettle the community.

Houseboats of the indigenous seaborne Bajau Laut community anchor in the waters of Semporna, Malaysia, on August 20, 2024. (REUTERS)

A fifth of the roughly 28,000 Bajau Laut identified by the government in Sabah are Malaysian citizens, though analysts believe the figure could be higher.
The state has an estimated 1 million undocumented residents, including stateless indigenous communities and economic migrants from neighboring Philippines and Indonesia.
The evictions of the Bajau Laut come amid growing scrutiny of Malaysia’s treatment of migrants. In March, New York-based Human Rights Watch said authorities had detained about 45,000 undocumented people since May 2020.
The move has sparked outrage and debate in Malaysia, with some activists calling for citizenship for the community to ensure better protection, though some voiced concern over national security.
Bilkuin Jimi Salih, 20, a Bajau Laut youth born in Sabah, said a Malaysian identity document was key to securing better education and job opportunities.
“I had many ambitions ... to become a policeman, a soldier, but I can’t because I don’t have documents,” said Bilkuin, who now teaches at Iskul Sama DiLaut, a non-government body that educates stateless children.
His efforts to build a career were hampered by the lack of a birth certificate and identity card, he added.
“It’s costly to take a pregnant woman to hospital, and that’s how I realized why I wasn’t born in a hospital,” he added. “My family was too poor to afford it.”
Winning citizenship may be difficult, however, Vilashini said, in view of the community’s disputed origins and a lengthy history of squabbles over resources between undocumented people and the residents of one of Malaysia’s poorest states.
She urged the authorities to better engage with the community to resolve the issue, adding, “It has to be consensual, it has to be respectable.”
Without documents, life feels truly unfair, Bilkuin said. “We want to have documents so that ... our children won’t experience what we’ve been through.”


China starts new round of war games near Taiwan, offers no end date

China starts new round of war games near Taiwan, offers no end date
Updated 29 min 36 sec ago
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China starts new round of war games near Taiwan, offers no end date

China starts new round of war games near Taiwan, offers no end date
  • Chinese military says the drills are a “stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces.”
  • Refusing to be cowed, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had dispatched its own forces

TAIPEI: China’s military started a new round of war games near Taiwan on Monday, saying it was a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces,” and offered no date for when they may conclude, drawing condemnation from Taipei’s government.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, had been on alert for more war games since last week’s national day speech by President Lai Ching-te, an address Beijing condemned after Lai said China had no right to represent Taiwan even as he offered to cooperate with Beijing.
The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command said the “Joint Sword-2024B” drills were taking place in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan.
“The drill also serves as a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces. It is a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity,” it said in a statement carried both in Chinese and English.
The command published a map showing nine areas around Taiwan where the drills were taking place — two on the island’s east coast, three on the west coast, one to the north and three around Taiwan-controlled islands next to the Chinese coast.
Chinese ships and aircraft are approaching Taiwan in “close proximity from different directions,” focusing on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, blockading key ports and areas, assaulting maritime and ground targets and “joint seizure of comprehensive superiority,” the command said.
However, it did not announce any live-fire exercises or any no fly areas. In 2022, shortly after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China fired missiles over the island.

Map of Taiwan showing zones identified in Chinese military exercises around the island, according to mainland media. (AFP Illustration/File)

In rare operations, China’s coast guard circled Taiwan and staged “law enforcement” patrols close to Taiwan’s offshore islands, according to Chinese state media.
Taiwan’s China policy making Mainland Affairs Council said that China’s latest war games and refusal to renounce the use of force were “blatant provocations” that seriously undermined regional peace and stability.
In the face of the further political, military and economic threats posed by China to Taiwan in recent days, Taiwan would not back down, Taiwan’s China-policy making Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
“President Lai has already expressed his goodwill in his national day speech and is willing to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait together with the Chinese communists,” it added.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had dispatched its own forces.
Lai’s national day speech highlighted the current state of cross-strait relations and the firm will to safeguard peace and stability and advocated future cooperation in coping with challenges like climate change, the ministry added.
“The Chinese communists’ claim of ‘picking quarrels and provoking trouble’ is a complete departure from the truth,” it added.
A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, said they believed China was practicing blockading Taiwanese ports to the north and south of the island and international shipping lanes as well as repelling the arrival of foreign forces.
Taiwan on Sunday had reported a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing to the island’s south through the strategic Bashi Channel which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and connects the South China Sea to the Pacific.
Chinese state media has since Thursday run a series of stories and commentaries denouncing Lai’s speech, and on Sunday the Eastern Theatre Command released a video saying it was “prepared for battle.”
The PLA’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper wrote on Monday that “those who play with fire get burned!.”
“As long as the ‘Taiwan independence’ provocations continue, the PLA’s actions to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not stop,” the paper said. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the war games. The US last week said China had no justification for using Lai’s national day speech as a pretext for military pressure.
China held the “Joint Sword-2024A” drills for two days around Taiwan in May shortly after Lai took office, saying they were “punishment” for separatist content in his inauguration speech.
Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.


Lessons from Iran missile attacks for defending against China’s advanced arsenal

Lessons from Iran missile attacks for defending against China’s advanced arsenal
Updated 59 min 48 sec ago
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Lessons from Iran missile attacks for defending against China’s advanced arsenal

Lessons from Iran missile attacks for defending against China’s advanced arsenal
  • Middle East, Indo-Pacific differ, but Iran strikes offer clues
  • US may need ‘deterrence by punishment’ to counter China’s missiles — analyst

SINGAPORE: Iran’s missile barrage this month against Israel, after a similar large-scale attack in April, shows the value, as well as the shortcomings, of US and allied missile defenses in a potential Indo-Pacific conflict with China, analysts say.
Although differences between the two scenarios limit the lessons that can be learnt, the nearly 400 missiles of different types that Iran has fired at Israel this year offer the United States and China some idea of what works and what does not.
For Washington, the main takeaway from Iran’s Oct. 1 attacks — the largest sample yet of ballistic missiles fired against modern defenses — could be that Beijing’s missiles would be more difficult to intercept than Iran’s and that the ability to strike back would be needed to deter a mass attack, said Collin Koh of the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.
“If we look purely through the lenses of deterrence, no longer can one pin hopes on deterrence by denial only — that is, the hope that effective defenses can blunt the efficacy of missile strikes,” Koh said. “Deterrence by punishment might have to become normative going forward.”
There is no immediate threat of missile conflict in the Indo-Pacific region. The distances, thousands of kilometers, are greater than in the Middle East. China’s weapons are more advanced, including manoeuvring warheads and precision guidance. And the target areas are scattered across the region, making a massed attack more difficult.
The United States has developed and deployed new weapons in the region this year to counter China, including the AIM-174B air-to-air missile and the ground-based Typhon missile battery in the Philippines, which can launch SM-6 and Tomahawk missiles.
The US Indo-Pacific Command and China’s Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

China’s missiles longer-range, less accurate
On the other hand, simply being better informed about how offensive and defensive systems perform after Iran’s missile fusillades — many were intercepted — may reduce the chance of conflict, said Ankit Panda of the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
“Any military force planning long-range missile strikes will need to plan around the possible effects of missile defenses,” Panda said. “Of course, without clarity on how well a given missile defense system might perform, this could lead to massive escalation.”
Israel’s layered air and missile defenses — from its long-range Arrow systems to the Iron Dome shield meant to handle slower, less complex threats — are tailored to the threats it faces: guided ballistic missiles from powers such as Iran mixed with unguided rockets launched from just over Israel’s borders.
The picture is much different in the Indo-Pacific region for the US and its allies, which use the Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Patriot, THAAD and sea-based Aegis systems for missile defense.
The accuracy of China’s DF-26, its most numerous conventional intermediate-range ballistic missile, is estimated to be as good as 150 meters (500 feet), according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense Project. Its DF-21 is shorter-ranged, though some variants have an accuracy of 50 m.
Both can hit most US and allied targets in the region. The DF-26 can reach Guam, the site of major US military facilities. The Pentagon has estimated that China may have several hundred of the missiles.
By contrast, Iran’s missiles such as the Fattah-1 are theoretically more accurate — within tens of meters — but are much shorter-ranged. The number of these newer missiles is not public, but US Air Force General Kenneth McKenzie told Congress last year that Iran had more than 3,000 ballistic missiles of all types.
China’s capabilities outstrip Iran’s in other ways, said Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Missile attacks would most likely be coordinated with anti-satellite strikes and cyberwarfare, both designed to complicate defense.
“Western (integrated air and missile defense) systems in the Indo-Pacific would have a much tougher time defeating a large Chinese missile strike, comprising hundreds or even thousands of missiles, compared to what the Iranians are capable of,” Davis said.


Man with shotgun and loaded handgun arrested near Trump California rally

Man with shotgun and loaded handgun arrested near Trump California rally
Updated 14 October 2024
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Man with shotgun and loaded handgun arrested near Trump California rally

Man with shotgun and loaded handgun arrested near Trump California rally
  • Deputies manning a checkpoint near the rally arrested Vem Miller as he drove up in a black SUV
  • The 49-year-old suspect, of Las Vegas, was later released on bail and faces a court hearing on January 2

LOS ANGELES, California: A man found illegally in possession of a shotgun and a loaded handgun was arrested by sheriff’s deputies assigned to protect a Donald Trump rally in Coachella, California, the Riverside County sheriff’s office announced Sunday.
The Secret Service said that it was aware of the arrest and that neither Trump nor rally attendees had not been in any danger during the incident, which took place on Saturday.
“While no federal arrest has been made at this time, the investigation is ongoing,” the organization tasked with protecting presidents and presidential candidates said in a joint statement with the FBI and the US Attorney’s office.
The sheriff’s team said the man, which it identified as 49-year-old Vem Miller of Las Vegas, was later released on bail and faces a court hearing on January 2.
They added that the deputies, manning a checkpoint near the rally, arrested Miller as he drove up in a black SUV.
They later booked him at a local detention center on charges of possessing a loaded firearm and a high-capacity magazine.
The incident comes on the heels of two assassination attempts — one in Pennsylvania in which a bullet grazed Trump’s ear, and a second, aborted attempt at his Florida golf course.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco — a Trump supporter who also addressed the Republican’s rally in Coachella on Saturday — said that there was “absolutely no way that any of us are going to truly know what was in his head.”
“If you’re asking me right now, I probably did have deputies that prevented the third assassination attempt,” Bianco, a former member of the far-right Oath Keepers group, told a press conference.
Bianco said the man had “multiple” passports and IDs with different names in his vehicle, which was unregistered. He said any further charges would come from federal authorities.
There was no immediate comment from the Trump campaign.
Trump’s decision to hold a rally in California surprised political analysts, who note that the state is heavily Democratic, but he drew a large crowd, even in temperatures near 100 Fahrenheit (38 Celsius).
Coachella is known for its annual music festival.
 


Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration

Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration
Updated 14 October 2024
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Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration

Trump pledges 10,000 extra border agents in fight with Harris over immigration
  • Illegal immigration is a top voter concern, and Trump is seen by a majority of voters as the person best able to address it, opinion polls show

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump pledged on Sunday to hire an extra 10,000 border patrol agents if he is reelected as president, as he intensifies his attacks on Kamala Harris on the issue of immigration.
The Republican presidential candidate said he would meet the goal by asking the US Congress to fund a 10 percent pay rise for border patrol agents and a $10,000 retention and signing bonus, at a rally in the border state of Arizona, an election battleground.
Flanked on stage by leaders of the Border Patrol union, who have endorsed Trump, the former president said: “This will ensure that we can hire and keep the Border Patrol agents that we need.”
Trump is locked in a close race with Democratic Vice President Harris ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Illegal immigration is a top voter concern, and Trump is seen by a majority of voters as the person best able to address it, opinion polls show.
Trump helped kill a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year that would have funded the hiring of 1,500 extra customs and border patrol agents, and an additional 1,600 asylum officers.
There are currently roughly 20,000 US border patrol officers.
Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, and President Joe Biden have both blasted Trump for his role in pressuring congressional Republicans to kill the bipartisan border security bill, accusing him of sabotaging it for political gain.
Some 7 million migrants have been arrested crossing the US-Mexico border illegally during Biden’s administration, according to government data, a record high number that has fueled criticism of Harris and Biden from Trump and fellow Republicans.
Harris has outlined her plans to fix “our broken immigration system” while accusing Trump of “fanning the flames of fear and division” over the impact of immigrants on American life.
Harris has also called for tighter asylum restrictions and vowed to make a “top priority” of stopping the deadly opioid fentanyl from entering the United States.
On Friday Trump called for the death penalty for “any migrant” who kills a US citizen.
Trump has noticeably hardened his anti-immigration rhetoric in the final weeks of the campaign. Last month he called immigrants in the US illegally who commit violent crimes “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals.” Studies generally find there is no evidence immigrants commit crimes at a higher rate than native-born Americans and critics say Trump’s rhetoric reinforces racist tropes.