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PLDT and Petro Gazz clash to keep PVL magic four placing

PLDT HIGH SPEED HITTERS — FACEBOOK.COM/PLDTHIGHSPEEDHITTERS

Games on Tuesday
(PhilSports Arena)
4 p.m. – Petro Gazz vs PLDT
6:30 p.m. – Chery Tiggo vs Akari

PLDT and Petro Gazz try to keep its place in the magic four as they collide in a marquee showdown on Tuesday in the Premier Volleyball League (PVL) All-Filipino Conference at the PhilSports Arena.

In a three-way logjam at No. 3 with 3-1 cards alongside the Chery Tiggo Crossovers and breathing down the necks of the unbeaten Cignal HD Spikers (4-0) and Creamline Cool Smashers (3-0), the High Speed Hitters and Angels clash at 4 p.m. with hopes of keeping their lofty perch.

PLDT is out to bounce back from a stinging 25-12, 25-23, 25-20, 22-25 to Chery Tiggo last week while Petro Gazz seeks to ride the crest of its 28-26, 29-27, 25-18 win over Akari  on Thursday.

The High Speed Hitters will need to provide Savi Davison some much needed help after the latter exploded for 27 hits but lacked the support that hastened their painful downfall.

The Angels, for their part, should draw strength from Brooke Van Sickle, who had a team-best 19 hits last time, and the emergence of Myla Pablo, who had a typhoon-like 15-point effort.

Chery Tiggo likewise will try to keep up with the big guns as it tangles with Akari (2-3) at 6:30 p.m. — Joey Villar

Miami’s Herro (34 points) powers Heat win vs Cavs

TYLER HERRO — REUTERS

TYLER HERRO scored 19 of his game-high 34 points in the third quarter as the host Miami Heat handed the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers a rare loss, 122-113, on Sunday night.

Cleveland (21-4) still has the best record in the NBA, but the Cavaliers had their four-game winning streak snapped.

Cavaliers star Evan Mobley — who scored 41 points against Charlotte on Saturday — did not return after reportedly suffering a sprained left ankle in the second quarter. He finished with just four points.

The Heat won their season-best third straight game to move two games over .5 for the first time (12-10).

Miami’s Jimmy Butler made the shot of the night even though it didn’t count. At the end of the first half, Butler beat the buzzer on a 55-foot heave that went in after hitting the top of the backboard and then shot clock. Officials ruled the ball out of bounds before it went through the hoop.

Butler finished with 18 points. Duncan Robinson (23 points) and Bam Adebayo (16 points, 13 rebounds) provided support for Herro, who also tallied a game-high seven assists.

Darius Garland led Cleveland with 23 points. Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell — who entered the game ranked among the top 20 in the league in scoring at 24.2 points per game — managed just 12 on 5-for-16 shooting.

Cleveland used a 10-0 run to help build a 25-21 lead after the first quarter. The Cavaliers hit 3-of-6 three in the opening frame, while Miami made just 1 of 7 from deep.

Herro scored 11 points in the second quarter as the Heat surged into halftime with a 59-51 lead. Miami made all 17 of its free-throw attempts in the first half, including six by Herro.

Robinson sandwiched two threes around a Herro triple to push the Heat ahead 68-53 two minutes into the second half. Herro drained all four of his 3-point tries in the frame to help Miami carry a 90-80 lead into the fourth quarter.

Garland’s 3-pointer trimmed Cleveland’s deficit to 100-95 with 8:28 left, but Dru Smith answered from long range to make it an eight-point game. The Cavaliers never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Cleveland entered the game leading the NBA in scoring (121.8) but tallied its fewest points since its most recent loss, a 117-101 setback in Atlanta on Nov. 29. — Reuters

Seahawks sweep Cardinals, retain NFC West’s top spot

ZACH CHARBONNET rushed for a career-high 134 yards and scored two touchdowns as the Seattle Seahawks remained atop the NFC West with a 30-18 victory against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday in Glendale, Ariz.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba caught a 19-yard scoring strike from Geno Smith and Jason Myers kicked three field goals for the Seahawks (8-5), who have won four consecutive games since their bye week — including two against Arizona.

Smith completed 24 of 30 passes for 233 yards and Charbonnet, starting for the injured Kenneth Walker III (calf), added a team-high seven receptions for 59 yards.

Arizona’s Kyler Murray was 25-of-38 passing for 259 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. James Conner rushed for 90 yards on 18 carries and Trey McBride made seven receptions for 70 yards for the Cardinals (6-7), who lost their third in a row.

Murray threw back-to-back interceptions late in the first quarter, leading to two Seahawks touchdowns.

Ernest Jones IV picked off the first, giving Seattle the ball at the Cardinals’ 19-yard line. Smith found Smith-Njigba in the back right corner of the end zone on the next play, giving the Seahawks a 10-7 lead.

Coby Bryant intercepted Murray’s next pass, putting the ball at Arizona’s 46. Five plays later, Charbonnet scored on a 1-yard run.

Chad Ryland kicked a 28-yard field goal to pull the Cardinals within 17-10, but Charbonnet scored on a 51-yard run with 2:36 left in the second quarter to give Seattle a 24-10 lead at the intermission.

Conner scored on a 2-yard shovel pass from Murray with 1:05 left in the third quarter and Murray ran for a two-point conversion to make it 27-18, but that was as close as the Cardinals would get.

The Cardinals, who were limited to a pair of field goals in a 16-6 loss at Seattle on Nov. 24, found the end zone on the game’s opening possession, as Murray hit Michael Wilson with a 41-yard scoring strike down the right sideline.

Wilson beat Bryant, who had a 69-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first meeting between the teams. — Reuters

American football — Mahomes to 2028 Olympics? Decision on NFL stars in flag football expected soon

THE National Football League (NFL) players could soon be cleared to take part in flag football at the 2028 Olympics, International Federation of American Football (IFAF) president Pierre Trochet told Reuters following his re-election on Saturday for a new term that will encompass the Los Angeles (LA) Games.

Regarding the timeline for a decision on their participation, Trochet said: “In the first half of 2025, I think.

“This is an ongoing process — obviously I don’t want to speak for football operations, but I can tell you for sure with a lot of confidence that there’s a lot of positivity around the table,” he added.

Players such as Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes have been touted as potential Olympians should the NFL give the green light.

The IFAF president said that negotiations with team owners and the players’ union were at an advanced stage.

Flag football, a non-contact format of American football played by teams of five, was added to the program for the 2028 Games in October last year. American football last featured as a demonstration sport in the 1932 LA Olympics.

Played on a pitch measuring 70×25 yards, there is no blocking, kicking or tackling in flag football, and each down ends either when a player goes out of bounds with the ball or a defender removes the flag, which is worn on a belt around the waist, from the ball-carrier.

While the NFL declined to comment, some players have shown interest in making a temporary switch to the fast-growing flag football to realize their Olympic dreams.

Trochet gave the example of basketball great Michael Jordan, who won gold at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

“Look at Michael Jordan, look at the Bulls, six titles, immense player, best of all time, but he was an Olympic champion,” the 39-year-old Frenchman explained.

‘HISTORY ELEMENT’
“I think for the players that obviously love the game, obviously there’s a financial element, but there’s also a passion, a dedication and a history element of it. This is something you can relate to being, an Olympic medallist.”

The president said that existing flag football players such as US quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette would not feel overlooked or threatened by NFL players like Mahomes.

“I like what Housh was saying (recently) — he is welcoming the competition. He’s not saying he’s better or not better — it’s like, ‘Hey, let’s compete. We are high-level athletes, we aim to be Olympians, let’s compete,’” Trochet explained.

The IFAF is already setting its sights on having flag football included in the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.

With gender equality a key area of focus for the International Olympic Committee, Trochet emphasized the sport’s progressive nature, highlighting the availability of college scholarships for women players.

“This is great for the women’s game — in Lahti, in Finland, for the world championship a few months ago, it was the first generation of athletes that had those scholarships for being a student athlete in flag football, and you can see that the level of the game just immediately elevated,” Trochet said.

“In Germany now it can become a university sport as well, in Italy, in Nigeria — it’s the case everywhere. Activity linked to school and university and high school et cetera, this is where you figure it out — that the game is at its fastest growing point.” — Reuters

Juan Soto lands record 15-year, $765-million deal with Mets

SUPERSTAR Juan Soto made professional sports history on Sunday night, agreeing to a 15-year, $765-million contract — the largest deal in professional sports history — with the New York Mets, according to multiple media reports.

None of the money in the deal is deferred, and the contract could end up being worth over $800 million, per ESPN.

Soto, 26, joins the Mets after spending one season with the crosstown rival Yankees, who offered the outfielder a one-year, $21.05-million qualifying offer that was turned down back on Nov. 19.

The New York Post reported that the Yankees were willing to fork out $760 million over 16 years to bring back Soto, but the Mets ended up outbidding them.

Soto helped the Yankees reach the World Series in 2024 after hitting .288 with a career-high 41 home runs and 109 RBIs in 157 regular-season games. — Reuters

Trump aims to deport all immigrants in the US illegally

REUTERS

WASHINGTON — US President-elect Donald Trump aims to deport all immigrants in the US illegally over his four-year term but wants a deal to protect so-called “Dreamer” immigrants, he said in an interview that aired on Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.

Mr. Trump also said he plans to take executive action on his first day in office to try to end birthright citizenship, which confers citizenship on anyone born in the US regardless of their parents’ immigration status.

Mr. Trump, a Republican who won a second term in the White House promising mass deportations, is expected to declare illegal immigration a national emergency when he takes office on Jan. 20 and draw on resources from across the federal government to support a wide-ranging crackdown.

The US Department of Homeland Security estimated some 11 million immigrants were in the US illegally as of January 2022, although the figure is likely higher today. In the NBC News interview, Ms. Welker asked Mr. Trump if his plan was to deport everyone without legal status.

“I think you have to do it,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s a very tough thing to do. You know, you have rules, regulations, laws.”

Mr. Trump said he wanted a deal to protect “Dreamer” immigrants brought to the US illegally as children, saying Republicans are open to the idea.

During his 2017-2021 presidency, Mr. Trump tried to end a program that provides deportation relief and work permits to the immigrants, but was rebuffed by the Supreme Court.

Mr. Trump’s plans to try to end birthright citizenship will likely face legal challenges. The right stems from an amendment to the US Constitution and is supported by 1898 Supreme Court precedent.

Speaking to Ms. Welker, Mr. Trump suggested Republicans may need to pursue a constitutional amendment to address the issue — an arduous process.

“We’ll maybe have to go back to the people,” he said.

Mr. Trump’s incoming border czar Tom Homan and deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller both told Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures that Congress should provide a major funding increase for immigration enforcement.

The pro-immigration American Immigration Council estimated that deporting all immigrants in the US illegally over more than a decade would cost $88 billion annually.

Mr. Homan said the minimum needed would be near that amount.

“We’re going to need as much money as Congress can get us,” he said. — Reuters

2024 will be the hottest year on record, EU scientists say

A DROUGHT has caused water levels to drop significantly at the Pantabangan Dam in Nueva Ecija. — PHILIPPINE STAR/WALTER BOLLOZOS

BRUSSELS — This year will be the world’s warmest since records began, with extraordinarily high temperatures expected to persist into at least the first few months of 2025, European Union (EU) scientists said on Monday.

The data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) comes two weeks after UN (United Nations) climate talks yielded a $300-billion deal to tackle climate change, a package poorer countries blasted as insufficient to cover the soaring cost of climate-related disasters.

C3S said data from January to November had confirmed 2024 is now certain to be the hottest year on record, and the first in which average global temperatures exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1850-1900 pre-industrial period.

The previous hottest year on record was 2023.

Extreme weather has swept around the world in 2024, with severe drought hitting Italy and South America, fatal floods in Nepal, Sudan and Europe, heatwaves in Mexico, Mali and Saudi Arabia that killed thousands, and disastrous cyclones in the US and the Philippines.

Scientific studies have confirmed the fingerprints of human-caused climate change on all of these disasters.

Last month ranked as the second-warmest November on record after November 2023.

“We’re still in near-record-high territory for global temperatures, and that’s likely to stay at least for the next few months,” Copernicus climate researcher Julien Nicolas told Reuters.

Carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are the main cause of climate change.

Cutting emissions to net zero — as many governments have pledged to eventually do — will stop global warming from getting worse. Yet despite these green pledges, global CO2 emissions are set to hit a record high this year.

Scientists are also monitoring whether the La Niña weather pattern — which involves the cooling of ocean surface temperatures — could form in 2025.

That could briefly cool global temperatures, though it would not halt the long-term underlying trend of warming caused by emissions. The world is currently in neutral conditions, after El Niño — La Niña’s hotter counterpart — ended earlier this year.

“While 2025 might be slightly cooler than 2024, if a La Niña event develops, this does not mean temperatures will be ‘safe’ or ‘normal,’” said Friederike Otto, a senior lecturer at Imperial College London.

“We will still experience high temperatures, resulting in dangerous heatwaves, droughts, wildfires and tropical cyclones.”

C3S’ records go back to 1940, and are cross-checked with global temperature records going back to 1850. — Reuters

South Korea says Yoon still controls military as leadership crisis deepens

SOUTH KOREAN soldiers salute in front of a huge national flag in Pohang, South Korea, Sept. 30, 2021. — LEE JIN-MAN/POOL VIA REUTERS

SEOUL — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is still commander in chief and there is no disruption to the US alliance, the defense ministry said on Monday after it was revealed Mr. Yoon was under criminal investigation for declaring martial law last week.

Yoon’s grip on power has come into question with dissent growing among senior military officers against the president, and his own party saying it would establish a task force to handle his eventual resignation.

While Mr. Yoon survived an impeachment vote in parliament on Saturday, his party’s decision to delegate presidential authority to the prime minister has plunged the key US ally into a constitutional crisis.

Yoon has refused calls, including some from within his own ruling party, to resign, but his future looked more uncertain over the weekend when Yonhap news agency reported he was under criminal investigation for alleged treason.

Police were also considering banning him from leaving the country, Yonhap and other media reported on Monday.

Prosecutors on Sunday arrested ex-Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun over his alleged role in the declaration of martial law, Yonhap reported.

Yoon gave the military sweeping emergency powers on Dec. 3 to root out what he called “anti-state forces” and obstructionist political opponents. He rescinded the order six hours later, after parliament defied military and police cordons to vote unanimously against the decree.

Amid the backlash, multiple military officials, including the acting defence minister, have said they would not follow any new order to impose martial law again.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has called for Mr. Yoon to be stripped of authority to control the military. The DP has also demanded the arrest of Mr. Yoon and any military officials implicated in the martial law fiasco.

Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party (PPP) had established a task force to deal with, among other matters, “political stabilization after martial law and (Yoon’s) orderly early resignation,” a spokesperson said on Monday.

On Sunday, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon said the president would be excluded from foreign and other state affairs, and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo would manage government affairs until Mr. Yoon eventually stepped aside.

That proposal has drawn criticism from the opposition, which says it is unconstitutional. It says Mr. Yoon must be impeached or resign and face legal prosecution, and plans to table another impeachment bill on Saturday.

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung warned on Monday that the political crisis threatened to do irreversible harm to Asia’s fourth-largest economy, major global supplier of memory chips.

South Korea’s finance ministry and regulators said they would make all-out efforts to stabilize financial markets by deploying contingency plans and boosting liquidity by end-December.

MILITARY BACKLASH
In the latest sign of dissent within military ranks, the commander of South Korea’s special forces said he was ordered to send his troops into parliament last week to stop a vote to reject martial law.

Colonel Kim Hyun-tae, the commanding officer of the 707th Special Missions Group, told reporters he took responsibility for his troops’ actions but he was acting under orders from then defense minister Kim Yong-hyun.

“We were all victims who were used by the former defense minister,” the colonel told reporters outside the defense ministry in Seoul.

He said he had not told the military about his plan to speak to the media out of fear he might be stopped.

Yoon’s decision to declare emergency rule and grant the military sweeping powers stirred protests on the streets and raised alarm among Seoul’s allies.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin scrapped plans to travel to South Korea and Secretary of State Antony Blinken called his South Korean counterpart, saying he expected the democratic process to prevail.

The United States has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the 1950-1953 Korean War.

The turmoil in Seoul comes at an important geopolitical moment in the region, with North Korea allegedly sending troops to help Russia’s war against Ukraine amid growing military ties between Moscow and Pyongyang. — Reuters

Former al Qaeda chief Abu Mohammed al-Golani led overthrow of Syria’s Assad

Top rebel commander Abu Mohammed al-Golani speaks to a crowd at Ummayad Mosque in Damascus, after Syrian rebels announced that they have ousted President Bashar al-Assad, Syria Dec. 8, 2024. — REUTERS

BEIRUT — As the commander of al Qaeda’s franchise in the Syrian civil war, Abu Mohammed al-Golani was a shadowy figure who kept out of the public eye, even when his group became the most powerful faction fighting to topple Bashar al-Assad.

Today, he is the most recognizable of Syria’s triumphant rebels, having gradually stepped into the limelight since severing ties to al Qaeda in 2016, rebranding his group, and leading the rebels who ousted Assad after 13 years of civil war.

“The future is ours,” Golani, now going by his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, said in a statement read on Syria’s state TV, underlining the central role he is expected to play as Syria turns the page on 50 years of Assad family rule.

Signalling his efforts to secure an orderly transition, he declared Syrian state institutions would remain under the supervision of the Assad-appointed prime minister until a handover.

Dressed in military fatigues, he also visited the 8th century Umayyad Mosque in the Old City of Damascus, accompanied by supporters who filmed the moment to chants of “God is Great”.

Golani is leader of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel faction, formerly known as the Nusra Front and designated a terrorist group by much of the world.

Seeking to assure Syrian minorities who have long feared jihadist rule, Golani issued a steady stream of reassuring messages as insurgents began their lightning advance less than two weeks ago, promising them protection.

“Golani has been smarter than Assad. He’s retooled, he’s refashioned, made new allies, and come out with his charm offensive” towards minorities, said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert and head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

PR EFFORT?
Aron Lund, a fellow at think-tank Century International, said Golani and HTS had clearly changed though remained “pretty hardline”.

“It’s PR, but the fact they are engaging in this effort at all shows they are no longer as rigid as they once were. Old-school al Qaeda or the Islamic State would never have done that,” he said.

Golani and the Nusra Front emerged as the most powerful of the multitude of rebel factions that sprang up in the early days of the insurgency against Assad over a decade ago.

Before founding the Nusra Front, Golani had fought for al Qaeda in Iraq, where he spent five years in a U.S. prison. He returned to Syria once the uprising began, sent by the leader of the Islamic State group in Iraq at the time — Abu Omar al-Baghdadi — to build up al Qaeda’s presence.

The U.S. designated Golani a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria, and that Nusra had carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision.

Turkey, the Syrian opposition’s main foreign backer, has designated HTS a terrorist group, while supporting some of the other factions that fight alongside it.

Golani gave his first media interview in 2013, his face wrapped in a dark scarf and showing only his back to the camera. Speaking to Al Jazeera, he called for Syria to be run according to sharia law.

Some eight years later, he sat down for an interview with the U.S. Public Broadcasting Service’s FRONTLINE programme, facing the camera and wearing a shirt and jacket.

Golani said the terrorist designation was unfair and that he opposed the killing of innocent people.

He detailed how the Nusra Front had expanded from the six men who accompanied him from Iraq to 5,000 within a year.

But he said that his group had never presented a threat to the West. “I repeat — our involvement with al Qaeda has ended, and even when we were with al Qaeda we were against carrying out operations outside of Syria.”

MESSAGES TO MINORITIES
Golani fought a bloody war against his old ally Baghdadi after Islamic State sought to unilaterally subsume the Nusra Front in 2013. Despite its al Qaeda ties, Nusra was regarded as more tolerant and less heavy handed in dealings with civilians and other rebel groups compared to Islamic State.

Islamic State was subsequently beaten out of territory it held in both Syria and Iraq by an array of adversaries including a U.S.-led military alliance.

As Islamic State was collapsing, Golani was cementing the grip of HTS in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, establishing a civil administration called the Salvation Government.

Assad’s government viewed HTS as terrorists, along with the rest of the rebels.

With the Sunni Muslim rebels now in control, the HTS administration has issued statements seeking to assure Assad’s Alawite sect, Christians, and other minorities. One statement urged the Alawites to be a part of a future Syria that “does not recognise sectarianism”.

In a message to residents of a Christian town south of Aleppo, Golani said they would be protected and their property safeguarded, urging them to remain in their homes and to reject the Syrian government’s “psychological warfare”.

“He’s really important. The main rebel leader in Syria, the most powerful Islamist,” said Lund.

He said HTS had displayed “logistical and governance capacity” by ruling its own territory in Idlib for years.

“They have adopted the symbols of the wider Syrian uprising… which they now use and try to claim the revolutionary legacy — that ‘we are part of the movement of 2011, the people who rose up against Assad, and we are also Islamists’.” — Reuters

How Syria rebels’ stars aligned for Assad’s ouster

People gather at Saadallah al-Jabiri Square as they celebrate in Aleppo, Syria, Dec. 8 after Syria’s army command notified officers that President Bashar al-Assad’s 24-year authoritarian rule has ended. This comes after a rapid rebel offensive that took the world by surprise. — REUTERS

ISTANBUL/DAMASCUS — After 13 years of civil war, Syria’s opposition militias sensed an opportunity to loosen President Bashar al-Assad’s grip on power when, about six months ago, they communicated to Turkey plans for a major offensive and felt they had received its tacit approval, two sources with knowledge of the planning said.

Launched barely two weeks ago, the operation’s speedy success in achieving its initial goal — seizing Syria’s second city, Aleppo — took almost everybody by surprise. From there, in a little more than a week, the rebel alliance reached Damascus and on Sunday put an end to five decades of Assad family rule.

The lightning advance relied on an almost perfect alignment of stars for the forces opposed to Assad: his army was demoralized and exhausted; his main allies, Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, were severely weakened by conflict with Israel; and his other key military supporter, Russia, was distracted and losing interest.

There was no way the rebels could go ahead without first notifying Turkey, which has been a main backer of the Syrian opposition from the war’s earliest days, said the sources, a diplomat in the region and a member of the Syrian opposition.

Turkey has troops on the ground in northwest Syria, and provides support to some of the rebels who were intending to take part, including the Syrian National Army (SNA) — though it considers the main faction in the alliance, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), to be a terror group.

The rebels’ bold plan was the brainchild of HTS and its leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, the diplomat said.

Because of his former ties to al Qaeda, Golani is designated as a terrorist by Washington, Europe and Turkey.

However, over the past decade, HTS, previously known as the Nusra Front, has tried to moderate its image, while running a quasi-state centered on Idlib, where, experts say, it levied taxes on commercial activities and the population.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s government, which struck a deal with Russia in 2020 to de-escalate fighting in northwestern Syria, has long opposed such a major rebel offensive, fearing it would lead to a new wave of refugees crossing its border.

However, the rebels sensed a stiffening of Ankara’s stance towards Assad earlier this year, the sources said, after he rebuffed repeated overtures from Erdogan aimed at advancing a political solution to the military stalemate, which has left Syria divided between the regime and a patchwork of rebel groups with an array of foreign backers.

The Syrian opposition source said the rebels had shown Turkey details of the planning, after Ankara’s attempts to engage Assad had failed.

The message was: “That other path hasn’t worked for years — so try ours. You don’t have to do anything, just don’t intervene.”

Reuters was unable to determine the exact nature of the communications. Hadi Al-Bahra, head of the internationally-recognized Syrian opposition abroad, told Reuters last week that HTS and SNA had had “limited” planning together ahead of the operation and agreed to “achieve cooperation and not clash with each other”. He added that Turkey’s military saw what the armed groups were doing and discussing.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, speaking in Doha on Sunday, said Erdogan’s effort in recent months to reach out to Assad failed and Turkey “knew something was coming”.

However, Turkey’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Nuh Yilmaz, told a conference on Middle Eastern affairs in Bahrain on Sunday that Ankara was not behind the offensive, and did not provide its consent, saying it was concerned about instability.

Turkey’s foreign and defence ministries did not respond directly to Reuters questions about an HTS-Ankara understanding about the Aleppo operation. In reply to questions about Turkey’s awareness of battlefield preparations, a Turkish official told Reuters that the HTS “does not receive orders or direction from us (and) does not coordinate its operations with us either.”

The official said that “in that sense” it would not be correct to say that the operation in Aleppo was carried out with Turkey’s approval or green light. Turkish intelligence agency MIT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters was unable to reach a representative for HTS.

VULNERABLE
The rebels struck when Assad was at his most vulnerable.

Distracted by wars elsewhere, his military allies Russia, Iran, and Lebanon’s Hezbollah failed to mobilise the kind of decisive firepower that had propped him up for years.

Syria’s weak armed forces were unable to resist. A regime source told Reuters that tanks and planes were left with no fuel because of corruption and looting — an illustration of just how hollowed out the Syrian state had become.

Over the past two years morale had severely eroded in the army, said the source, who requested anonymity because of fear of retribution.

Aron Lund, a fellow at Century International, a Middle-East focused think-tank, said the HTS-led coalition was stronger and more coherent than any previous rebel force during the war, “and a lot of that is Abu Mohammed al-Golani’s doing”. But, he said, the regime’s weakness was the deciding factor.

“After they lost Aleppo like that, regime forces never recovered and the more the rebels advanced, the weaker Assad’s army got,” he said.

The pace of the rebel advances, with Hama being captured on Dec. 5 and Homs falling on or around Sunday at the same time government forces lost Damascus, exceeded expectations.

“There was a window of opportunity but no one expected the regime to crumble this fast. Everyone expected some fight,” said Bassam Al-Kuwatli, president of the Syrian Liberal Party, a small opposition group, who is based outside Syria.

A U.S. official said on condition of anonymity that while Washington had been aware of Turkey’s overall support for the rebels, it was not informed of any tacit Turkish approval for the Aleppo offensive. The White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Turkey’s role.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said that Russia’s abandonment of Assad led to his downfall, adding that Moscow never should have protected him in the first place and then lost interest because of a war in Ukraine that never should have started.

Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday noted his country’s role in weakening Hezbollah, which sources told Reuters withdrew its remaining troops from Syria on Saturday.

GAZA FALLOUT
Sources familiar with Hezbollah deployments said the Iran-backed group, which propped up Assad early in the war, had already withdrawn many of its elite fighters from Syria over the last year to support the group as it waged hostilities with Israel — a conflict that spilled over from the Gaza war.

Israel dealt Hezbollah heavy blows, particularly after launching an offensive in September, killing the group’s leader Hassan Nasrallah and many of its commanders and fighters.

The rebel offensive in Syria began the same day as a ceasefire came into effect in the Lebanon conflict on Nov. 27. The sources familiar with Hezbollah said it did not want to engage in big battles in Syria as the group focused on starting a long road to recovery from the heavy blows.

For the rebel alliance, the withdrawal of Hezbollah presented a valuable opportunity. “We just wanted a fair fight between us and the regime,” the Syrian opposition source said.

Assad’s fall marks a major blow to Iranian influence in the Middle East, coming so swiftly after the killing of Nasrallah and the damage done by Israel to Hezbollah.

Turkey, on the other hand, now appears to be Syria’s most powerful external player, with troops on the ground and access to the rebel leaders.

In addition to securing the return of Syrian refugees, Turkey’s objectives include curbing the power of Syrian Kurdish groups that control wide areas of northeast Syria and are backed by the United States. Ankara deems them to be terrorists.

As part of the initial offensive, the Turkey-backed SNA seized swathes of territory, including the city of Tel Refaat, from U.S.-backed Kurdish forces. On Sunday, a Turkish security source said the rebels entered the northern city of Manbij after pushing the Kurds back again.

“Turkey is the biggest outside winner here. Erdogan turned out to be on the right — or at least winning — side of history here because his proxies in Syria won the day,” said Birol Baskan, Turkey-based political scientist and former non-resident scholar at Middle East Institute. — Reuters

Amid the reality of climate change, ‘No way but net zero’

Federico R. Lopez, the Chairman and CEO of the First Philippine Holdings Corporation, during his keynote message.

Amid the undeniable reality of climate change, “there is no other way to go but net zero,” emphasized one of the leading movers of climate action in the Philippine private sector at the country’s first-ever annual conference on net zero, which was attended by an estimated 400 participants from businesses, policy-making bodies, financial institutions and other stakeholders.

Federico Lopez, chairman and chief executive of Energy Development Corp. (EDC) parent First Philippine Holdings Corp., opened the event with a keynote message that underscored a multi-sectoral approach of policy, funding and innovation in tackling the country’s decarbonization goals.

“While addressing the climate crisis feels such a daunting task, we remain optimistic and encouraged as we see a myriad of sectors of society coming together and taking collective action,” he remarked.

One such vital effort is the Net Zero Carbon Alliance (NZCA), the pioneering consortium of Philippine businesses and enterprises convened by EDC, the all-renewable energy arm of the Lopez Group’s First Gen Corp. The launch of the Net Zero Conference coincided with NZCA’s third anniversary.

“Our mission [at the Lopez Group] to forge collaborative pathways to a decarbonized and regenerative future continues to guide our path, and we reaffirm our commitment to work together with all stakeholders, including the Net Zero Carbon Alliance to rally more businesses and organizations across all sectors to achieve our net zero ambition,” added Mr. Lopez.

The conference conducted plenary sessions that focused on policy, finance and technological innovations as critical climate action strategies in order to achieve the country’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) to the global mission of attaining net zero by 2050.

Representative Jose Manuel F. Alba of the 1st District of Bukidnon as one of discussants on the opening plenary session: Strengthening resilience: Scaling the Philippines’ net zero ambitions.

Representative Jose Manuel F. Alba of the 1st District of Bukidnon was one of the special guests at the event, being a member of the House Committee on Climate Change and co-author of House Bill 7705 or the Low-Carbon Economy Bill. The legislation aims to engage the private sector toward decarbonization through viable and cost-competitive, low-carbon investments.

In terms of financing, “the transition to net zero represents one of the largest economic shifts of our time,” said Orkhan Mustafayev, Senior Advisor to the High-Level Champion on Business Engagement for COP29. He cited the International Energy Agency (IEA) in estimating that the global net zero journey will require clean energy investments to grow to US$4 trillion annually by 2030.

In the Philippines, implementing the NDC will require an estimated total investment of around USD 72 billion, according to Secretary Robert E.A. Borje, vice-chairperson and executive director of the Climate Change Commission. Thus, he urged the private sector to see this as an opportunity to invest in opportunities in a green economy.

Secretary Robert E.A. Borje, Vice Chairperson and Executive Director of the Climate Change Commission with the delegates of the first Philippine Net Zero Conference after his closing remarks.

“Our country is well-positioned to benefit from the transition to a low-carbon economy, and the private sector has a crucial role to play in driving this transformation,” said Mr. Borje. “The private sector possesses the capital, technology and innovation necessary to drive low-carbon and climate-resilient development pathways.”

The event also included activities that marked NZCA’s third anniversary, such as signing the new partners’ pledge of commitment toward net zero, launching its Net Zero Stages of Progress, and the release of its current partners’ decarbonization accomplishments.

Companies joined NZCA as new Partner-Doers committed to going net zero.

As of the conference, NZCA has counted 34 partner-members from various industries and enterprises such as manufacturing, real estate, hospitality, information technology, mobility, finance, and the academe, as well as five partner-enabler organizations.

Its new partners include Calibr8 Systems, Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc., Container Living PH, Control Union, De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Inc.,First Philec, Fluor Daniel Inc., GHD Pty. Ltd., Hocheng Philippines Corporation, InterCharge Corporation, OCS Philippines, SLB, and Weave Solutions Inc.

 


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New ‘ReClassified’ designs by McDonald’s aim to transform public school spaces

McDonald’s Philippines remains steadfast in its commitment to improving public school classrooms across the country through its ReClassified initiative. The program repurposes decommissioned furniture from its renovated restaurants, to address the ongoing challenges faced by Filipino learners in their classrooms. By transforming materials from over 70 McDonald’s restaurant renovations each year — including still-usable chairs, tables, and steel — McDonald’s ReClassified provides durable, functional, and aesthetically pleasing furniture to public schools in need.

Rather than letting these materials go to waste, McDonald’s reimagines and repurposes them into classroom furniture that meets the specific needs of public school students. To date, McDonald’s ReClassified has distributed over 500 chairs to public schools in Isabela, Marikina, Cebu, and Sta. Rosa, benefiting 1,500 students. The program will continue to expand with an additional 250 which will be delivered to schools in Zamboanga and Agusan del Sur by the end of the year.

In an exciting new collaboration, McDonald’s has partnered with the College of Saint Benilde’s (CSB) Interior and Industrial Design programs. The partnership invited students to create innovative furniture designs to be used in public schools across the Philippines. This collaboration not only provided students with the opportunity to apply their skills to real-world projects but also allowed them to make a meaningful contribution to improving education in the country. The furniture designs were showcased at the Main Activity Center of Ayala Malls Manila Bay on Nov. 25, 2024. Notable designs included a chair by Willie Garcia from Junknot, a design expert in transforming waste into functional furniture, as well as three finalists from the ReClassified Student Competition.

According to Adi Hernandez, AVP for Corporate Relations and Impact at McDonald’s Philippines, the company is excited about the potential impact of the new designs. “We are proud of the furniture created by these talented and passionate Industrial Design and Interior Design students from CSB. Their creativity and passion have resulted in pieces that we’re confident will help improve the learning environment of students in our public schools. We look forward to rolling out these designs across more schools in the country and will continue to work on making a positive difference in public education together with organizations that share our goals and commitment,” Ms. Hernandez shared.

McDonald’s ReClassified is a program with a clear mission: to enhance the learning experience for students in public schools by providing them with the furniture they need and creating better classroom environments. By repurposing decommissioned restaurant furniture and partnering with creative design professionals, McDonald’s is giving new life to old materials, turning them into valuable educational tools.

The company’s efforts are not only making a difference in the lives of students but are also encouraging other companies to adopt similar sustainable, community-driven initiatives. McDonald’s hopes that this innovative approach to furniture design and waste reduction will inspire other organizations to contribute to improving public education in the Philippines.

Through ReClassified, McDonald’s is proud to play a part in creating more inviting and functional classrooms for the country’s students, proving that even the smallest efforts can make a big impact in shaping a better future for the next generation.

 


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