THE PHILIPPINES on Wednesday said it had detected 32 more infections involving the highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.5, bringing the total to 43.

THE next administration must ramp up investment in irrigation, starting with the retrofitting of dams to boost their capacity to capture more rainwater, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar said.

THE National Capital Region (NCR) Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board has approved a P1,000 increase in monthly pay for domestic workers in Metro Manila, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) said.

THE Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and advocacy coalition Better Internet PH (BIP) said the incoming administration can get the ball rolling on attracting investment by passing internet connectivity legislation within its first half-year in office. 

LONDON — Soaring food prices pushed British consumer price inflation to a 40-year high of 9.1% last month, the highest rate out of the Group of Seven (G7) countries and underlining the severity of the cost-of-living crunch.

THE BIDEN administration plans to propose a rule to establish a maximum nicotine level in cigarettes and other finished tobacco products in an attempt to make them less addictive, the White House Budget Office said Tuesday.

JAKARTA — Indonesian President and G20 chairman Joko Widodo will visit counterparts in Ukraine and Russia next week and press for a peaceful resolution to their conflict, his foreign minister said on Wednesday, the first such trip by an Asian leader.

The recent rise in the number of COVID cases is a not-so-gentle reminder that the pandemic is far from over. While it may seem that almost everything is back to the way they were pre-pandemic, the fact of the matter is, COVID-19 continues to put people in hospitals and in graves. Along with the case count, the death count is also on the uptick.

THE WORLD has an obsession with Japan’s shrinking population. Each year, news that the country is a little bit smaller can reliably be called upon for column inches, which tend to examine it as a Japanese mystery — one of those inherently Oriental concepts that foreigners could not possibly penetrate, like wabi-sabi or the bushido code of samurai warriors.

Several days ago, the controversial Saudi Public Investment Fund-financed LIV Golf Invitational Series crowned its first winner, 37-year-old South African Charl Schwartzel.

THE PHILIPPINES posted its largest monthly balance of payments (BoP) deficit in 15 months in May, mainly due to the National Government’s foreign debt payments, the central bank said on Tuesday.

IT MAY TAKE two to three years for the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to accept new applications for digital banks as it still needs to boost its capacity to regulate these kinds of lenders, according to its incoming chief.