Philippines opens Muslim women-dedicated beach in top resort island
Philippines opens Muslim women-dedicated beach in top resort island/node/2570810/world
Philippines opens Muslim women-dedicated beach in top resort island
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The island of Boracay in the Philippine Aklan province is seen in a video released by its Tourism Office on Sept. 10, 2024. (Malay-Boracay Tourism Office)
Philippines opens Muslim women-dedicated beach in top resort island
Boracay is globally known for its white sand beaches and coral reefs
Marhaba beachfront is located in the island’s Newcoast township
Updated 10 September 2024
Ellie Aben
MANILA: Philippine tourism authorities inaugurated on Tuesday a beach for Muslim women travelers in Boracay, the country’s top resort island, to attract visitors from neighboring Muslim-majority countries and the Middle East.
Located in the province of Aklan, in the center of the Philippine archipelago, Boracay is known for its white sand beaches and coral reefs that make it one of the world’s most popular holiday islands.
Developing Muslim-friendly properties and attractions in Boracay has been on the Philippine Tourism Department’s agenda since earlier this year, as it undertook initiatives to ensure that visitors have access to halal products and services.
The new Muslim-friendly cove area — Marhaba Boracay — is located in Boracay Newcoast township and is a place “where Muslims, especially women, would feel comfortable,” Tourism Undersecretary Myra Paz Abubakar told Arab News.
“We know that a lot of foreign visitors go to Boracay. So, it’s also a good invitation for our Muslim brothers and sisters to consider also to visit Boracay because now we have something to offer there, like halal food. Then this beachfront is also for our Muslim friends.”
The Philippines is enjoying an increasing number of visitors from neighboring Muslim-majority Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as from Middle Eastern countries.
“Marhaba cove represents our dedication to ensuring that all travelers, regardless of faith, can enjoy the world-renowned shores of Boracay,” Tourism Secretary Christina Frasco said during the inauguration ceremony.
“We reaffirm our commitment to transforming the Philippines into a destination for everyone to enjoy.”
In 2023, visitor arrivals from Muslim-majority countries increased by 120 percent compared with the previous year, according to data from the Department of Trade and Industry. Last year, Muslim visitors comprised nearly 11 percent of the Philippines’ total foreign arrivals.
“This year, we are on track to continue this positive trajectory with nearly 270,000 Muslim visitors recorded in just the first half of 2024,” Frasco said.
“The Department of Tourism has also proactively ensured that our Muslim guests feel at home during their stay. Hence, we have accredited 289 Muslim-friendly accommodation establishments and 237 restaurants across the country with significant concentrations in certain areas of the country.”
The Marhaba cove is developed by Megaworld, one of the largest Philippine hospitality chains, with whom the DTI signed an agreement earlier this year that all of its properties would be converted into Muslim-friendly tourism establishments.
Alexei Navalny wrote he knew he would die in prison in new memoir
The New Yorker published excerpts from the book Friday, featuring writing from Navalny’s prison diary and earlier
The excerpts capture the loneliness of imprisonment, but also a touch of humor
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP
NEW YORK: Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s top political opponent before his death in February, believed he would die in prison, according to his posthumous memoir which will to be released on October 22.
The New Yorker published excerpts from the book Friday, featuring writing from Navalny’s prison diary and earlier.
“I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022.
“There will not be anybody to say goodbye to ... All anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I’ll never see my grandchildren.”
Navalny had been serving a 19-year prison sentence on “extremism” charges in an Arctic penal colony.
His death on February 16 at age 47 drew widespread condemnation, with many blaming Putin.
Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Russia after suffering a major health emergency from being poisoned in 2020.
“The only thing we should fear is that we will surrender our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves, and hypocrites,” he wrote on January 17, 2022.
The excerpts capture the loneliness of imprisonment, but also a touch of humor.
For instance, on July 1, 2022, Navalny outlined his typical day: wake up at 6:00 am, breakfast at 6:20 am and start work at 6:40 am.
“At work, you sit for seven hours at the sewing machine on a stool below knee height,” he wrote.
“After work, you continue to sit for a few hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin. This is called ‘disciplinary activity.’“
The book, entitled “Patriot,” will be released by US publisher Knopf, which is also planning a Russian version.
“It’s impossible to read Navalny’s prison diary without being outraged by the tragedy of his suffering, and by his death,” wrote New Yorker editor David Remnick.
In the last excerpt published in the magazine, dated January 17, 2024, Navalny responds to the question asked to him by his fellow inmates and prison guards: why did he return to Russia?
“I don’t want to give up my country or betray it. If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary,” he said.
IMF to lower member borrowing costs by $1.2 billion annually
This year, the IMF decided to review policy on charges, surcharges for the first time since 2016
The decision came after higher interest rates internationally pushed the borrowing costs higher
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters
NEW YORK: The International Monetary Fund on Friday approved measures that will reduce its members’ borrowing costs by about $1.2 billion annually, the fund’s Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
“The approved measures will lower IMF borrowing costs for members by 36 percent, or about $1.2 billion annually,” Georgieva said in a statement. “The expected number of countries subject to surcharges in fiscal year 2026 will fall from 20 to 13.”
This year, the IMF decided to review its policy on charges and surcharges for the first time since 2016, as higher interest rates globally have pushed borrowing costs higher.
The fund charges regular interest, plus surcharges for loans above a certain threshold or duration, and commitment fees for precautionary arrangements.
The IMF said the charge above the fund’s interest rate will be lowered, while the amount and duration thresholds will rise, as will the threshold for commitment fees.
“While substantially lowered, charges and surcharges remain an essential part of the IMF’s cooperative lending and risk management framework, where all members contribute and all can benefit from support when needed,” Georgieva said.
The changes will take effect on Nov. 1.
The five countries paying the highest surcharges are Ukraine, Egypt, Argentina, Ecuador and Pakistan according to research from Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center.
Argentina, currently the IMF’s largest debtor, will save over $3 billion with the changes, according to Finance Secretary Pablo Quirno.
Friday’s announcement falls short of calls by academics, non-profit groups and other economists, who have argued for a full cancelation of IMF surcharges, which they say place extra burdens on borrowing countries at a time when they are in dire economic circumstances and counteract the impact of IMF lending.
Wanted: male voters for Harris in tough election battle with Trump
Polls show Trump has recently garnered significant support among Black men — and Hispanic men too
Ex-President Obama Obama calls on Black male voters not to be hesitant in supporting Harris instead of ‘crazy’ Trump
Updated 12 October 2024
AFP AP
WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris is making a major push for male voters, after an appeal by Barack Obama to Black men to drop sexist attitudes highlighted a key issue for the Democrat in next month’s US presidential election.
As polls show Donald Trump maintaining a lead among men, Harris and her campaign are appealing to them to shun the Republican’s macho “bullying” and back the vice president instead.
A New York Times/Siena survey of likely male voters earlier this week showed Republican former president Trump with a substantial lead over Harris, by 51 percent to 40 percent.
Harris rarely mentions her gender despite being America’s first female vice president, preferring to avoid making it a central issue in her campaign.
But now there are signs that she is being forced to address the issue anyway.
On Tuesday, Harris will appear at a town hall in Detroit with Charlamagne Tha God, a comedian and radio host whose show is popular with young, Black male voters.
She is also deploying running mate Tim Walz, a folksy Midwestern former football coach, in a bid to reach out to male voters with less than four weeks until election day on November 5.
Walz has appeared at football games and regularly talks about his love of hunting.
Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz meets with players on the Mankato West football team on Oct. 11, 2024 at Mankato West High School in Mankato, Minnessota. (Star Tribune via AP)
And their campaign this week launched “Hunters and Anglers for Harris-Walz” in a clear pitch to male voters.
The Harris campaign also said it would unleash “Big Dog Bill Clinton” to woo younger Black men in southern battleground states next week — despite his history of sex scandals.
But it was Obama’s comments to “the brothers” as he made his first appearance on the campaign trail for Harris on Thursday that made it clear that Democrats are concerned.
Republican former president Trump has long had a strong base among white men, but polls show he has recently garnered signficant support among Black men — and Hispanic men too.
A poll by the NAACP in September showed 63 percent of Black voters backed Harris over 13 percent for Trump — but while support for Harris among Black women was at 67 percent, it fell to 49 percent among Black men under 50.
While Trump has recently been stepping up his machismo-drenched pitch to young men on right-wing podcasts, Harris has also been reaching out.
Last week, she appeared on former “shock jock” turned pro-Harris radio host Howard Stern’s show where she talked about her love of Formula One.
“She should try to do better with men than she is currently doing,” Sarah Longwell, a conservative strategist and executive director of Republican Voters Against Trump, said in an interview with the Playbook Deep Dive podcast.
She pointed to figures in a recent Harvard-Harris poll showing that 18 to 29-year-old men backed Harris by 17 points while women did so 47 points for Harris, adding: “That’s a big gap.”
“It is the men. It is Hispanic men. It is Black men, which means it is part of this bigger cultural thing with men,” she said.
It’s not just Harris who is chasing voters of the opposite gender, however.
Next week, Trump will hold a town hall with women, despite his own history of sex scandals and as Democrats hammer him for his stance on abortion.
Obama blasts ‘crazy’ Trump
On Thursday, Obama lashed out at “crazy” Donald Trump and urged voters to back Harris as he brought his star power to the 2024 election campaign trail for the first time.
As he hit the stump in the must-win state of Pennsylvania, Obama also chided Black male voters for what he called hesitancy in supporting Democrat Harris because they “just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Obama trained his fire on Trump during a pumped-up rally in Pittsburgh, comparing the Republican’s long speeches to late Cuban communist leader Fidel Castro’s and calling the billionaire out of touch with ordinary people.
America’s first Black president admitted that “this election’s going to be tight” as many voters were still struggling with high prices.
But he told the crowd that “what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up,” adding: “You think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper?’
The popular Democrat called Trump’s schemes to sell bibles as “crazy” and used the same word to describe the 78-year-old former president’s embrace of conspiracy theories.
As the crowd booed Trump, his successor in the White House, Obama added: “Don’t boo — vote.”
“Kamala is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been,” he added.
Vice president Harris’s campaign said Obama’s appearance, the first in a series in battleground states before the November 5 election, was designed to get people out to vote in crucial Pennsylvania.
Former US President Barack Obama speaks during a campaign event for US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on October 10, 2024. (AFP)
Obama took aim at male voters who might be attracted by the Republican’s appeals toward machismo.
“I’m sorry gentlemen, I’ve noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think Trump’s behavior, the bullying and the putting people down, is a sign of strength,” he said.
“And I am here to tell you that is not what real strength is.”
Earlier, in a surprise stop before the rally at a campaign field office in Pittsburgh, Obama made an unusually direct appeal to Black men, whose support polls show Harris has struggled to mobilize.
Saying he had some “truths” that he wanted the Black community to hear, Obama said that “you’re coming up with all kinds of reasons and excuses, I’ve got a problem with that.”
“Because part of it makes me think — and I’m speaking to men directly — part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.”
Trump drives his anti-immigration message in Colorado suburb, seeks death penalty for migrants who kill Americans
Calls for death penalty for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer
Ignores rejection by Aurora officials of Venezuelan gang takeover
Updated 12 October 2024
AP
AURORA, Colorado: Donald Trump detoured from the battleground states Friday to visit a Colorado suburb that’s been in the news over illegal immigration as he drives a message, often using false or misleading claims and dehumanizing language, that migrants are causing chaos in smaller American cities and towns.
Trump’s rally in Aurora marked the first time ahead of the November election that either presidential campaign has visited Colorado, which reliably votes Democratic statewide.
The Republican nominee has long promised to stage the largest deportation operation in US history and has made immigration core to his political persona since launching his first campaign in 2015. In recent months, Trump has pinpointed specific smaller communities that have seen large arrivals of migrants, with tensions flaring locally over resources and some longtime residents expressing distrust about sudden demographic changes.
Aurora entered the spotlight in August when a video circulated showing armed men walking through an apartment building housing Venezuelan migrants. Trump has claimed extensively that Venezuelan gangs are taking over buildings, even though authorities say that was a single block of the suburb near Denver, and the area is again safe.
Ignoring those denials from local authorities, Trump painted a picture of apartment complexes overrun by “barbaric thugs” and streets unsafe to travel, blaming President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival.
“They’re ruining your state,” Trump said of the Democrats in the White House.
“No person who has inflicted the violence and terror that Kamala Harris has inflicted on this community can ever be allowed to become the president of the United States,” Trump added.
Dehumanizing language
Trump often used dehumanizing language, referring to his political rivals as “scum” and to migrants as ” animals ” who have “invaded and conquered” Aurora. The town is “infected by Venezuela,” he said.
“We have to clean out our country,” Trump said. And he reprised the first controversy of his career in politics, when he launched his 2016 campaign by saying migrants are rapists and bring drugs and crime.
“I took a lot of heat for saying it, but I was right,” Trump said Friday, repeating the false claim that other countries are emptying their prisons and mental institutions and dumping their worst criminals in the United States.
To thunderous applause, he called for the death penalty “for any migrant that kills an American citizen or a law enforcement officer.”
Trump announced that as president he’d launch “Operation Aurora” to focus on deporting members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, or TDA. The violent gang traces its origins more than a decade to an infamously lawless prison with hardened criminals.
Trump also repeated his pledge to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law that allows the president to deport any noncitizen who is from a country that the US is at war with.
In July, the Biden administration issued a sanction against the gang and offered $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three leaders.
Trump exagerrates
Aurora resident Jodie Powell, 54, was among the attendees at Trump’s Friday event. She said it’s “not the case” that Venezuelan gangs have taken over the city, as Trump claims. Still, Powell said she’s seen an increase in crime she associates with newcomers, citing a police chase that ended at a store where she was shopping.
“It takes a small amount of people to make a big difference in the community,” said Powell, who ranks immigration as her top concern alongside the economy. “It’s scary, it’s a scary thing.”
At the venue where Trump appeared, posters displayed mug shots of people in prison-orange with descriptions including “Illegal immigrant gang members from Venezuela.”
“Look at all these photos around me,” Stephen Miller, a former top aide who is expected to take a senior role in the White House if Trump wins, told the crowd. “Are these the kids you grew up with? Are these the neighbors you were raised with? Are these the neighbors that you want in your city?” The crowd roared ”no” in reply.
Some Colorado officials, including the Republican mayor of Aurora, accused Trump and other Republicans of overstating problems in the city.
“Again, the reality is that the concerns about Venezuelan gang activity in our city — and our state — have been grossly exaggerated and have unfairly hurt the city’s identity and sense of safety,” said Mike Coffman, a former US congressman.
Spreading falsehoods
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, also have spread falsehoods about a community in Springfield, Ohio, where they said Haitian immigrants were accused of stealing and eating pets.
While Ohio and Colorado are not competitive in the presidential race, the Republican message on immigration is intended for states that are. Vance campaigned recently in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, a city of 70,000 that has resettled refugees from Africa and Asia, and touted Trump’s plan to ramp up deportations. He argues smaller communities have been “overrun” by immigrants taxing local resources.
Trump has vowed to deport not only “criminals,” a promise he shares with Harris, but also Haitians living legally in Springfield and even people he has denigrated as “pro-Hamas radicals” protesting on college campuses. Trump has said he would revoke the temporary protected status that allows Haitians to stay in the US because of widespread poverty and violence in their home nation.
Harris has tacked to the right on immigration, presenting herself as a candidate who can be tough on policing the border, which is perceived as one of her biggest vulnerabilities.
She wrapped up a three-day western swing with a campaign event Friday in Scottsdale, Arizona, where she said she would create a bipartisan council of advisers to provide feedback on her policy initiatives if she makes it to the White House.
“I love good ideas wherever they come from,” said Harris, who is making a push to get Republicans with doubts about Trump to support her.
Trump let Iran off the hook: Harris
She also accused Trump of letting Iran “off the hook” while he was in office and argued she would be a greater champion for Israel’s security.
“Make no mistake, as president, I will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to defend American forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists,” Harris said in a call with Jewish supporters ahead of Yom Kippur. “And I will never allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. Diplomacy is my preferred path to that end. But all options are on the table.”
Harris charged that Trump “did nothing” after Iran “attacked US bases and American troops.”
The criticism by Harris was a knock on Trump for downplaying a January 2020 missile attack by Iran on a US base in Iraq that left several American troops with concussion-like symptoms, including some who had to be evacuated for treatment. Trump earlier this month referred to the injuries as a “headache.”
The Iranian missile attack came days after Trump ordered a strike that that killed Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force, and raised tensions between the US and Iran.
Harris participated virtually in a White House briefing with President Biden on the recovery effort from hurricanes Milton and Helene. She sought to reassure those who endured losses from the hurricane that they would get help from the government.
The conflict, the Nicaraguan government said, now also “extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran”
Updated 12 October 2024
Reuters
MANAGUA: Nicaragua is breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel, the Central American nation said on Friday, calling the Israeli government “fascist” and “genocidal.”
Nicaragua’s government, in a statement, said the break in relations was due to Israel’s attacks on Palestinian territories.
The nation’s congress had, earlier in the day, passed a resolution requesting Nicaragua take action to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Gaza war.
The conflict, the Nicaraguan government said, now also “extends against Lebanon and gravely threatens Syria, Yemen and Iran.”
The Middle East is on high alert for further regional escalation after Iran launched a barrage of missiles at Israel on Oct. 1. Iran backs Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah, which Israel has targeted in a series of recent deadly attacks.
Iran is also an ally of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s administration. Nicaragua has become increasingly isolated in recent years after Ortega cracked down on anti-government protests in 2018, which rights groups say left around 300 dead.
