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Italy is the team to beat in Group A

ITALY further bolstered its status as the team to beat in Group A with host Gilas Pilipinas after a remarkable build-up marked by an unbeaten campaign in seven matches ahead of the FIBA Basketball World Cup.

Already Installed as the heavy favorites in Group A, the Azzurri scored an 88-81 win over New Zealand for its final tune-up match in the FIBA Solidarity Cup in Shenzhen, China.

The world No. 10 Italy previously bested Turkey, 90-89, China, 79-61, Serbia, 89-88, Greece, 74-70, Puerto Rico, 98-65 and Brazil, 93-87 for a clean 7-0 record in its preparation games.

That should be more than enough for the Italians’ rivals to get wary in Group A which also features No. 23 Dominican Republic and No. 41 Angola aside from the No. 40 Philippines.

Italy begins its campaign against Angola for the opening act of the World Cup on Aug. 25 at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan. Game time is at 4 p.m. Gilas and the Dominican Republic follow suit in the main event at 8 p.m. as the country seeks to surpass the standing mark of 32,616 fans in 1994 Toronto games to set a new FIBA gate attendance record at the 55,000-seater Bocaue arena. — John Bryan Ulanday

Knicks sue Raptors for stealing scouting reports, trade secrets

THE NATIONAL Basketball Association’s New York Knicks sued rivals the Toronto Raptors in Manhattan on Monday, accusing the Raptors’ new coaching staff of hiring a “mole” who gave the team their scouting reports and other confidential material.

The Knicks accused their former video, analytics and player-development assistant Ikechukwu Azotam, who left the team last week, of stealing thousands of proprietary files and forwarding them to the Raptors.

The Raptors hired Darko Rajakovic, previously an assistant coach with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, as their head coach in June.

The Knicks first hired Mr. Azotam as a video coordinator in 2020. The lawsuit said Mr. Azotam was recruited by the Raptors starting in June and told the Knicks he had received a job offer from them in late July.

The Knicks requested an unspecified amount of damages and asked the court to permanently block the Raptors and Mr. Azotam from misusing their trade secrets. — Reuters

A book of Philippine basketball history launched

IN a couple of days, the Philippines will get to celebrate basketball at its purity as the country hosts its biggest cage tournament to date — the FIBA World Cup — where the finest of the sport in the planet are seeing action.

And it is just fitting that a book chronicling some of the most glorious as well as inglorious moments of Philippine basketball was recently launched.

Written by former People’s Journal and Malaya sportswriter Noel Albano and published by Ray Roquero, the book is titled “When We Were Champions” that practically narrates most of the notable achievements by the national basketball teams in the past as well as its decline.

“This book begged to be written to be written for many years when we were sportswriters in the 70s,” said Mr. Albano during yesterday’s PSA Forum at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex.

“In this book, I go further back to 1911. It covers a period of six decades,” he added.

The book was like a time machine as it will bring the readers back to the country’s storied past when our Nationals won nine of 10 Far Eastern Games, four Asian Games, four of seven ABC Championship, or the precursor of the FIBA-Asia Championship and a bronze medal finish in the 1954 FIBA World Cup in Brazil.

Mr. Albano shares experiences after experiences of basketball greats headed by Caloy Loyzaga, the greatest Filipino basketball player of all time who will be inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in the 2023 class.

It also tells the other side of Philippine basketball history and the start of its decline in the 60s.

“In summary, this book describes the time of greatness, the interlocking factor that made the Filipinos unbeatable for dedcades, and at the same time, described the failings and flaws of the players and team officials of the era as honestly as objectively as could possibly be instructed from our data,” said Mr. Albano.

“What emerges in the end is the magnificent inspiring, uplifting, enraging and heartbreaking picture of the unsurpassed era,” he added.

The book will be circulated soon. — Joey Villar

Struggling Yankees

Once again, the Yankees ended up on the wrong side of the scoreboard. And, once again, they were telling the same stories in the aftermath. It’s not over yet, they said. Never mind that their streak of futility, at eight contests and counting, is their longest in 28 years. There’s still a chance, they argued. Forget that there’s no logical reason for them to avoid their first losing campaign in three decades. With 38 games to go before the end of the regular season, they’re hoping to catch the proverbial lightning in a bottle and finish the way their forebears did in 1995. Among other things, however, general manager Aaron Boone is not Buck Showalter.

Still, the Yankees are right. For as long as there are set-tos left to play, they need to put their noses to the grindstone. Never mind that they’ve been this side of awful since reigning American League Most Valuable Player Aaron Judge suffered a freak injury in early June. In the intervening two and a half months, they’ve gone an atrocious 24-39, burdened by the worst offensive numbers in all of Major League Baseball. And the fact that they’ve had a run of bad luck doesn’t help, not with an overburdened bullpen and a roster replete with poor signings courtesy of general manager Brian Cashman.

“We[‘ve] got to be unbelievable the rest of the way,” Boone pointed after the Yankees got swept by the rival Red Sox over the weekend. As hyperbolic as it may sound, it’s arguably an understatement. They’re a whopping nine games out of securing the third AL wild card spot, with no relief in sight. Heck, they’ve become so desperate that promotion seems to be their only remedy at this point. They’re calling up outfielder Everson Pereira and shortstop Oswald Peraza from Triple-A ball in hopes that the infusion of fresh blood will trigger a turnaround

At least Boone knows enough not to “get big picture about it. You’ve just got to tackle the next day.” And for the Yankees, it means prevailing in the three-outing homestand against the similarly struggling Nationals. If they can get that done, they may yet be able to inject some life back into the dugout.

Hey, at least they’re trying, hard — but, unfortunately, not well enough, and nowhere near to justifying the payment of luxury taxes with the league’s second-largest payroll. In any case, they’ll be doing a lot of thinking in the offseason — with, presumably a lot of personnel changes as a result.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and human resources management, corporate communications, and business development.

PHL completes mission to disputed shoal after Chinese water cannon incident 

THE BRP SIERRA MADRE, a marooned transport ship which Philippine Marines live in as a military outpost, is pictured in the disputed Second Thomas Shoal, part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. — REUTERS

The Philippines said it completed a resupply mission to its grounded warship on a contested atoll in the South China Sea on Tuesday, two weeks after it had to abort a similar attempt when a China Coast Guard vessel fired water cannon at its boats.

The country’s task force on the South China Sea said in a statement the mission to the Second Thomas Shoal was carried out despite attempts by the China Coast Guard and Chinese Maritime Militia “to block, harass, and interfere.”

China’s Coast Guard said in a statement it “made temporary arrangements” for Manila to deliver food and necessities to the atoll, which it also claims, on humanitarian grounds.

But it said that it firmly opposes the Philippines taking advantage of the opportunity of resupplying troops to transport “illegal” construction materials to the grounded warship. 

A small number of Philippine troops live aboard the World War Two-era warship Sierra Madre which the Southeast Asian nation intentionally grounded in the Second Thomas Shoal in 1999 to reinforce its sovereignty claim to the atoll.

An Aug. 5 mission by the Philippines to transport provisions for its troops there was interrupted by China Coast Guard vessels, which Manila said, used water cannon against one of its boats.

The incident drew a response from the United States which condemned Beijing’s “dangerous actions” in the disputed waters. 

China maintains the Philippines’ occupation of the shoal is illegal. — Reuters

Japan to release Fukushima water into ocean starting Aug. 24

An aerial view shows the storage tanks for treated water at the tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan August 22, 2023, in this photo taken by Kyodo. — KYODO VIA REUTERS

TOKYO — Japan said on Tuesday it will start releasing more than 1 million metric tons of treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant on Aug. 24, putting into motion a plan that has drawn strong criticism from China.

The plan, approved two years ago by the Japanese government as crucial to decommissioning the plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), has also faced criticism from local fishing groups, who fear reputational damage and a threat to their livelihood.

“I have asked Tepco to swiftly prepare for the water discharge in accordance with the plan approved by the Nuclear Regulation Authority, and expect the water release to start on August 24, weather conditions permitting,” Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday morning.

The announcement comes a day after the government said it had won “a degree of understanding” from the fishing industry over the release of the water, even as a fishing group said it still feared the reputational damage would ruin livelihoods.

The first batch of water that will be released starting Thursday will total 7,800 cubic meters over about 17 days, Tepco said at a briefing held Tuesday.

That water will contain about 190 becquerels of tritium per liter, below the World Health Organization drinking limit of 10,000 becquerels per liter, according to Tepco. A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity.

Japan has said that the water release is safe. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, greenlighted the plan in July, saying that it met international standards and that the impact it would have on people and the environment was “negligible.”

About 56% of respondents to a survey conducted by Japanese broadcaster FNN over the weekend said they supported the release, while 37% opposed.

“The IAEA and many other countries have said it’s safe, so I believe it is. But fishermen are facing so many problems so the Japanese government needs to do something to convince them,” said 77-year-old NGO worker Hiroko Hashimoto.

Despite assurances, some neighboring countries have expressed skepticism over the safety of the plan, with Beijing emerging as the biggest critic. Foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said in July that Japan had shown selfishness and arrogance, and had not fully consulted the international community about the water release.

China bans seafood imports from 10 prefectures in Japan, including Fukushima and the capital, Tokyo.

South Korean activists have also protested the plan, although Seoul has concluded from its own study that the water release meets international standards and said it respects the IAEA’s assessment.

Mr. Kishida said on Tuesday that he believed an “accurate understanding” of the matter was spreading in the international community.

“There is an understandable perception that all radioactive materials are always and everywhere dangerous… but not all radioactive materials are dangerous,” Tony Irwin, an honorary associate professor at the Australian National University, said in a note.

“Nuclear power plants worldwide have routinely discharged water containing tritium for over 60 years without harm to people or the environment, most at higher levels than the 22 TBq per year planned for Fukushima,” he added.

Japan says the water will be filtered to remove most radioactive elements except for tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is difficult to separate from water. The treated water will be diluted to well below internationally approved levels of tritium before being released into the Pacific.

The water was used to cool the fuel rods of Fukushima Daiichi after it melted down in an accident caused by a huge tsunami in 2011 that battered Japan’s eastern coast.

A Japanese official said the first test results of the seawater after the discharge may be available at the start of September. Japan will also test fish in the waters near the plant, and make the test results available on the agriculture ministry’s website. — Reuters

Thailand’s fugitive ex-PM Thaksin returns to jail from years in self-exile

FORMER Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — REUTERS

BANGKOK — Thailand’s fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra on Tuesday set foot on Thai soil for the first time since 2008, returning from self-exile to prison just hours before his allies contest a parliamentary vote in a bid to form a government.

Mr. Thaksin, the billionaire figurehead of the populist juggernaut Pheu Thai Party, fled abroad 15 years ago before he was jailed in absentia for abuse of power, two years after the military toppled him in a coup, alleging corruption and disloyalty to the powerful monarchy, which he refutes.

Mr. Thaksin, 74, appeared briefly with family members at a private jet terminal at Bangkok’s Don Mueang airport, smiling and waving to hundreds of supporters, before he was escorted in a police convoy to the Supreme Court, then taken to prison, where, the court said, he will serve eight years.

As he emerged from the airport wearing a black suit, red tie and yellow lapel pin bearing a royal insignia, Mr. Thaksin clasped his hands together and bowed in a traditional wai greeting before a portrait of the king and queen.

Mr. Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, confirmed he had arrived safely and posted images on Facebook of a smiling Thaksin with his family, including seven grandchildren.

“Dad has returned to Thailand and has entered the legal process,” Ms. Paetongtarn said.

The vaunted arrival of Thailand’s most famous politician came as the lower house and military-appointed Senate convened ahead of a vote later on Tuesday on prime ministerial candidate Srettha Thavisin, a real estate mogul who was thrust into politics by Pheu Thai just a few months ago.

Thailand has been under a caretaker government since March and its new parliament has been deadlocked for weeks after the anti-establishment winner of a May election, Move Forward, were blocked by conservative lawmakers, leaving heavyweight Pheu Thai to lead a new effort.

A winner of five elections over the past two decades, Pheu Thai, founded by the Shinawatra family, has agreed a contentious alliance including two parties backed by a military that overthrew governments led by Mr. Thaksin and sister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2006 and 2014 coups.

His return has prompted widespread speculation that Pheu Thai’s alliance with its old enemies in the military and the establishment is part of a behind-the-scenes deal to allow him to come back safely.

Mr. Srettha, 60, on Monday said Pheu Thai had not choice but to partner with some rivals that it had earlier vowed not to work with.

“We are not lying to the people, but we have to be realistic,” said Mr. Srettha, who has the support of 317 lawmakers and needs 58 votes from the Senate to secure the requisite backing of half of the legislature.

LOVED AND LOATHED
The return of Mr. Thaksin, who is loved and loathed in equal measure in Thailand, is almost certain to overshadow that vote. Hundreds of red-shirted supporters carrying banners gathered at the airport, outside the court and the prison to greet him, some chanting “PM Thaksin.”

A former policeman, telecoms tycoon and English Premier League football club owner, Mr. Thaksin won the hearts of millions of working-class Thais with populist giveaways ranging from cash handouts and village loans to farm subsidies and universal healthcare.

But his popularity and his support for a new wave of capitalist upstarts put him at odds with a nexus of royalists, military and old money families, triggering an intractable power struggle that is still being played out.

Mr. Thaksin maintains all charges and allegations against him were trumped up to keep him from power and has over the years repeatedly reneged on promises to return home. He has spent 17 years in self-imposed exile since he was toppled in the 2006 coup.

Pheu Thai has denied Mr. Thaksin’s involvement in its bid to form a government and the former leader has for months denied conspiring with the generals who toppled him and sister Ms. Yingluck.

Ms. Yingluck, who also lives in self-imposed exile to avoid a jail term for government negligence, said she backed his decision to return.

“For the past 17 years, you feel isolated, lonely, troubled and missing home but you persevered,” she posted on Facebook.

“I believe that you have spent time thinking before deciding … I respect your decisive decision.” — Reuters

San Francisco Archdiocese files for bankruptcy amid abuse cases

Raimond Spekking/CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons

THE ROMAN Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco filed for bankruptcy on Monday, saying a Chapter 11 reorganization will facilitate a settlement of about 500 lawsuits accusing the church of enabling childhood sexual abuse by priests.

The filing in US bankruptcy court in San Francisco will put the lawsuits on hold and buy time for settlement talks, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said in a statement.

“We believe the bankruptcy process is the best way to provide a compassionate and equitable solution for survivors of abuse while ensuring that we continue the vital ministries to the faithful and to the communities that rely on our services and charity,” Mr. Cordileone said.

The “overwhelming majority” of the alleged abuse occurred in the 1960s and 1970s, involving priests who are deceased or no longer in ministry, Mr. Cordileone said.

The Archdiocese said in its bankruptcy petition that it has between $100 million and $500 million in assets and between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities.

The current wave of lawsuits came after California passed a 2019 law allowing people to bring claims for childhood sexual abuse that otherwise would have been barred due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

The dioceses of Oakland and Santa Barbara this year also filed for bankruptcy, each citing the impact of hundreds of sex abuse lawsuits.

The Catholic Church has been roiled in the US and abroad by revelations of widespread sexual abuse that occurred for decades. Several US states have passed laws allowing victims to file new lawsuits based on older sexual abuse claims, leading to a wave of Catholic Diocese bankruptcies in states like New York and California.

The Archdiocese serves 442,000 Catholics in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Marin counties.

Jason Amala, a lawyer who represents sexual abuse survivors in lawsuits against dioceses around the US, including about 20 in San Francisco, said he hopes the Archdiocese will quickly move toward a fair settlement rather than lingering in bankruptcy for years.

A successful bankruptcy will depend on the Archdiocese being transparent with its finances and resolving disputes with insurers, who have generally been slow to negotiate in other Catholic bankruptcies around the country, Mr. Amala said. — Reuters

India and ASEAN agree to review trade pact by 2025

ASEAN.ORG

NEW DELHI — India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed to review their trade pact by 2025, the Indian government said on Monday, less than a month after India’s trade minister called the agreement unfair to the Indian industry.

The decision came at a meeting of economic ministers from the two sides in Indonesia on Monday, the statement from Indian government said. The ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) was signed in 2009.

“The review of AITIGA is expected to enhance and diversify trade while addressing the current asymmetry in the bilateral trade,” the statement said.

In July, India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal had termed the pact “ill-conceived” and unfair to Indian industry. — Reuters

Trump plans to turn himself in on Thursday over Georgia indictment

Former U.S. President Donald Trump — REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS/FILE PHOTO

WASHINGTON — Former US President Donald Trump plans to surrender on Thursday in Atlanta in connection with his indictment in Georgia on charges he sought to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state, he said on social media on Monday.

“I’ll be going to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be ARRESTED,” Trump, who is running for reelection in 2024, said on his Truth Social platform. He described the indictment as a politically motivated effort to derail his reelection campaign.

CNN earlier reported that Mr. Trump planned to turn himself in at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta on Thursday. The date was set during negotiations between Trump’s lawyers and the Fulton County district attorney’s office on Monday over Trump’s consent bond and release conditions, according to CNN.

In a 98-page Georgia indictment revealed last week, Mr. Trump and 18 other defendants were charged with a total of 41 criminal counts in connection with efforts to reverse his defeat in the state’s 2020 election.

John Eastman, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer who has also been indicted in the Georgia case, plans to surrender to Fulton County authorities on Wednesday, a court filing showed on Monday. Eastman had reached a $100,000 bond agreement with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis earlier on Monday.

The Georgia case marked Trump’s fourth indictment. He faces a New York state trial in March involving a hush money payment to a porn star and a federal trial in May in Florida for allegedly mishandling federal classified documents.

Another indictment, in Washington federal court, accuses him of illegally seeking to overturn his 2020 election defeat. US Special Counsel Jack Smith has requested a January trial, but a date has not yet been set.

Mr. Trump has pleaded not guilty in all criminal cases and could spend much of next year in court, even as he campaigns to retake the White House.

In Georgia, the former president will face a $200,000 bond and orders not to send threatening social media messages as the he awaits trial, according to a bond agreement on Monday signed by Mr. Trump’s attorneys and the Fulton Country district attorney. Security will be tightened around the jail when Mr. Trump surrenders, the local sheriff’s office said.

Mr. Trump has repeatedly asserted without evidence that indictments against him are “witch hunts.” He has regularly attacked Willis online and called her “radical left” and “corrupt.”

Mr. Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and his co-defendants were indicted on Aug. 14. Willis gave them until Friday at noon ET (1600 GMT) to surrender or face arrest.

Prosecutors in the case have proposed that the trial start on March 4, while Mr. Trump’s lawyers have asked for a 2026 trial.

Mr. Trump’s surrender on Thursday will come a day after the first Republican primary presidential debate that the former president does not plan to attend. — Reuters

Investor pressure group urges G20 to reform agricultural subsidies

LONDON — A group of 32 investors managing $7.3 trillion in assets have urged the G20 group of wealthier countries to align agricultural subsidies with their climate and nature goals by the end of the decade, a statement seen by Reuters showed.

The group, which includes Britain’s biggest asset manager Legal & General Investment Managers and the fund arm of BNP Paribas, issued their first ever call to the countries’ finance chiefs ahead of a G20 summit in September in India.

The intervention marks the first time investors have grouped together to tackle global subsidies in this way, they said, and follows a narrower 2021 request to the European Union, amid concern about the risks to investment portfolios of inaction.

A 2021 United Nations report said around 87% of the $540 billion in total annual subsidies to agricultural producers included measures that were price distorting and potentially harmful to nature and human health.

In addition, subsidies caused $4-$6 trillion in damage to nature each year, a landmark 2021 UK report on the economics of biodiversity said.

While a global deal to preserve biodiversity, including reform of subsidies, was struck in December in Montreal, it was crucial that richer countries acted quickly, said Helena Wright, policy director at the FAIRR Initiative, a grouping of investors managing $70 trillion focused on farming issues.

“Investors are calling on the G20 to lead by example and ensure these commitments are met – to the benefit of the climate and nature.”

To help fix the issue, the investors called for governments to link their financial support to the sector with their environmental obligations, including the Paris Agreement on climate change and the pledge to protect biodiversity.

They should also shift incentives to focus on sustainable agriculture; remove subsidies from products with a high impact on climate-damaging emissions, such as dairy or red meat; and increase funding to help workers impacted by the switch.

“We need wholesale transformation of the food system, because it’s one of the most-damaging systems of all to the climate and nature,” Rachel Crossley, head of stewardship for Europe at BNP Paribas Asset Management told Reuters.

Launched in 2016, the FAIRR Initiative provides data, research and advocacy initiatives that address the risks and opportunities in the food sector.

Among its most high-profile wins was the successful lobbying of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization to create a global roadmap for the food sector out to 2050, with the results due to be released at November’s COP28 climate talks in Dubai.

A call two years ago for G20 nations to disclose targets to reduce agricultural emissions in their national net-zero plans was also picked up by the COP28 hosts, who are asking governments to sign a declaration that includes such a pledge. — Reuters

BSP sees room to intervene in forex market – deputy gov

BW FILE PHOTO

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) could intervene in the foreign exchange market to prevent a repeat of what happened last year when the peso slumped close the 60 per US dollar level, a senior official said on Tuesday.

BSP Deputy Governor Francisco G. Dakila, Jr., speaking during a panel discussion ahead of ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Indonesia, said “there is room to have intervention in the forex market.” — Reuters

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