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Masters to be held without patrons in 2020 due to COVID-19

THE MASTERS, which brings together the world’s best golfers in one of the sport’s four majors, will be held without patrons in November because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, Augusta National Golf Club said on Wednesday.

Organizers had been examining how best to host the global sporting event ever since the pandemic forced the postponement of the tournament, traditionally held during the first full week of April at Augusta National.

“Throughout this process, we have consulted with health officials and a variety of subject matter experts,” Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley said in a statement.

“Ultimately, we determined that the potential risks of welcoming patrons and guests to our grounds in November are simply too significant to overcome.”

Ridley said Augusta National, which will host the Masters from Nov. 12-15, will “hopefully” be able to welcome patrons back in April 2021. — Reuters

Globe, Mineski shore up strategic alliance

DETERMINED to see their common vision of advancing interest and appreciation for esports in the country, Globe and Mineski Philippines recently renewed their partnership.

The shored-up linkup will be centered around two aspects, namely, Liyab Esports and the Philippine Pro Gaming League (PPGL), the organizations said.

Liyab Esports is a professional esports team co-owned by Globe and Mineski which has steadily built its legs in the sport since being established last year.

The team is composed of the most promising local esports athletes who compete in various regional tournaments, including at the 2019 Southeast Asian Games where it won a gold medal for Starcraft II.

Under the renewed partnership, Team Liyab will further be expanded with a team for League of Legends Wild Rift now part of its roster.

League of Legends Wild Rift is Riot Games’ upcoming Multiplayer Online Battle Arena game based on the popular League of Legends franchise.

The team for League of Legends Wild Rift joins those for Starcraft II, League of Legends and Arena of Valor in Liyab Esports.

PPGL, meanwhile, is considered to be the biggest multi-platform esports league in the country. Through it, Globe and Mineski hope to further promote esports by fostering community leagues and building on relevant esports titles and emerging games.

The league recently held its grand finals for Rules of Survival Mobile (ROS Mobile), Call of Duty: Mobile (CODM) and MARVEL Super War (MSW), gathering some of the top teams in e-games in the country and crowning deserving winners.

“Our partnership has been very fruitful for both Mineski and Globe,” said Jil Bausa-Go, VP for Get Entertained Tribe at Globe, in a statement. “It is a journey marked with milestones which helped make Liyab, PPGL and our continuing vision for Philippine esports to grow stronger and more resilient.”

Ronald Robins, founder and CEO of Mineski Global, meanwhile, shared the same enthusiasm for the partnership.

“This is definitely an exciting new chapter for us, and we are happy to have our partners at Globe remain steadfast and committed in accelerating our efforts to grow the esports industry. Unfazed by the current situation, our collaboration pledges to further promote the importance of esports, and the communities that support it in both the local and global stages,” he said.

Valorant Pacific Open

Meanwhile, the group stage of the Valorant Pacific Open happens next week with teams from across Taiwan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore battling it out for the remaining prize pool of $20,000.

Mineski Global organized the qualifying legs for the Open in the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand.

The official live streams of Valorant Pacific Open will be available to viewers around the world via Facebook, YouTube and Twitch. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo

Last-gasp PSG beats Atalanta to reach Champions League semis

LISBON — Paris St Germain scored two late goals, including a stoppage-time winner from substitute Eric Choupo-Moting, to beat outsiders Atalanta 2-1 and end the Serie A side’s Champions League dream in their quarter-final on Wednesday.

Atalanta, in their first Champions League campaign, went ahead with a curling effort from Mario Pasalic in the 27th minute and held out until the 90th when Brazilian defender Marquinhos equalized for the French champions.

With Atalanta wilting, Choupo-Moting turned the ball home in the third minute of added time to end Qatari-backed PSG’s embarrassing run of recent quarter-final and round of 16 exits and send them into the last four for the first time since 1995.

The Ligue 1 side will face either Atletico Madrid or RB Leipzig, who meet on Thursday, in their semi-final.

“When I came on, I thought to myself, ‘We can’t lose, we can’t go home like that.’ I was confident in myself, confident in the team and then the rest is the history of Paris,” said Cameroon international Choupo-Moting.

“It was a crazy game, a tough game and opponents.”

The first half was all about Neymar who had four good chances but squandered them all.

The Brazilian burst clear of the Atalanta defence in the third minute but sidefooted wide with only goalkeeper Marco Sportiello to beat.

He also got caught in two minds between shooting and passing to Mauro Icardi, shot wide after another mazy run which included a nutmeg and made a complete hash of another chance gifted to him by Hans Hateboer’s wayward back-pass.

Despite boasting only a fraction of PSG’s spending power, Atalanta were more than equal on the pitch and went ahead when an exchange of passes ended with the ball falling to Pasalic who met it first time to curl his shot past Keylor Navas.

Berat Djimsiti should have increased Atalanta’s lead after the break but sliced the ball wide and the game turned when PSG introduced their France striker Kylian Mbappe, who had not started because of an ankle injury.

Mbappe and Neymar were both denied by Sportiello but, as PSG ramped up the pressure, Atalanta finally cracked.

Cameroon forward Choupo-Moting’s cross found Neymar and he touched the ball to Marquinhos for his fellow Brazilian to fire home from close range. Minutes later, Neymar sent Mbappe down the left and his low cross was turned in by Choupo-Moting.

Atalanta had a chance to equalise but Luis Muriel, after breaking clear, ran the ball out of play and his team mates slumped to the ground in despair as the final whistle went.

Atalanta, a rare case of a team from outside the elite group of European clubs making the last eight of the competition, are based in Bergamo which was at the epicentre of the new coronavirus pandemic in Italy earlier this year. (Reporting by Simon Evans, additional reporting by Philip O’Connor and Brian Homewood; — Reuters

Five ‘bubbles,’ 400,000 fans and full prize money at 2021 Australian Open

MUMBAI — The 2021 Australian Open could be moved to later in the year due to COVID-19 but tournament director Craig Tiley told Reuters that organizers are confident of hosting the Grand Slam in its usual January slot with full prize money and fans in the stands.

Melbourne is in the midst of a full lockdown after a second spike in COVID-19 cases but Tiley and his team have been working since shortly after the 2020 edition finished to draw up strategies to ensure next year’s tournament goes ahead.

Ticket sales will start in October and five “bio-secure bubbles” will be opened across the country six weeks before the tournament begins to allow players arriving in Australia to avoid the most restrictive quarantine measures, Tiley said.

“We’re going to open our bio bubble from the first of December and players can come at any time,” Tennis Australia’s (TA) chief executive added in a video call.

“When the players arrive, our expectation is they’re not going to be in a hotel for 14 days like the current requirements are. We’ll have an exemption within this bio-secure bubble.

“We’ve said every year that we’re the ‘happy slam’. But now we’re saying we’re the ‘very safe and happy slam.’”

TA’s crisis management team, set up because of the bushfire smoke that threatened this year’s tournament, has put a business and operational plan in place for each of the scenarios they came up with.

The first scenario was the event being held in much the same way as 2020, while the second was a tournament with limited crowds, said Tiley.

“Scenario three was behind closed doors, a broadcast-only event. Scenario four was moving to another time of the year,” he added.

“And scenario five is no event at all.”

‘THE WAY WE WERE’
Tiley was confident of being able to welcome some 400,000 fans to Melbourne Park in 2021, about half the number that attended this year’s tournament.

The vast site, which covers an area of about 2.5 kilometers, allows organizers to enforce physical distancing effectively, while the wearing of masks will be mandatory.

“We’ve established a strategy and an operational plan for all our fans and how they will be positioned around the site,” he said.

Tiley said they would consult with the main tours if they were forced to reschedule, not act unilaterally as the organizers of the French Open did when they moved their event from May to the end of September.

The Australian winter would rule out the months of May to July as prospective windows but March-April or September-October could be looked at, he added.

Tiley said organizers had employed a “global expert” to help set up the bio-security bubbles and testing facilities in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne, which will allow players to acclimatize and train for the Grand Slam.

The Australian Open, which has been held in Melbourne since 1972, is the primary source of revenue for TA and the last edition had a direct economic impact of A$387 million ($277 million) on Melbourne, Tiley said.

TA expects turnover and revenue from the next edition to decrease by a double-digit percentage but they would not be reducing the A$71 million prize purse.

“I’m optimistic and positive that we’ll have an event and it’ll be in Melbourne,” said Tiley, adding that TA had cash reserves of A$80 million to lean on in the event the tournament had to be cancelled.

“It will have some crowds and it’ll be the beginning of kind of getting back to the way we were.” — Reuters

Hardware up for grabs

The National Basketball Association cannot but be happy with how its bubble experiment has progressed so far. For the fourth consecutive week, its mass testing of players has resulted in zero positive results — proof, if nothing else, of the effectiveness of the stringent health and safety protocols it has put in place at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida. And while broadcast ratings haven’t exactly been the bonanza conventional wisdom envisioned in light of the seeming absence of entertainment options under the new normal, they nonetheless underscore the continued appeal of the league’s principal product.

Indeed, matches over the last month have been significantly compelling. Even as the initial schedule was designed to enhance the fitness of players after having been subjected to a lengthy break, competition has been fierce. The battle for the last playoff spot in the West has, in particular, come down to the last day of the seeding games. The Grizzlies, Blazers, Spurs, and Suns all have at least partial control of their fates, underscoring the importance of every contest in today’s slate.

Parenthetically, the developments have both been a result of and led to outstanding showings from supposed fodder. The Suns, for instance, have exceeded themselves, racking up seven straight victories; one more win, and they cement their singular unbeaten status. The Spurs have likewise surprised longtime hoops habitues with consistently gritty efforts despite the absence of seven-time All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge. And the Blazers, starring prospective bubble Most Valuable Player Damian Lillard, have overcome intrinsic frailties with a heady mixture of purpose, perseverance, and pride.

All of the above translate to a turn of events the NBA will be presenting with pleasure this weekend. When the runup to the playoffs was being drawn up, the play-in series looked more like a possibility at best. Now that it has become a certainty, it figures to be a can’t-miss proposition regardless of the protagonists involved. The unique mechanics will require the ninth seed to prevail against the eighth seed twice, and the latter just once over the former, in order to claim the last postseason spot in the West.  And, make no mistake, it’s not simply a right to face the Lakers in the first round. Because there is effectively no such thing as homecourt advantage on campus, registering an “upset” against the conference top seed isn’t as Sisyphean an endeavor as it looks on paper.

In other words, motivations run high because the Grizzlies, Blazers, Spurs, and Suns know winning today won’t just mean staying alive. As far as they’re concerned, the hardware is up for grabs — and darned if they won’t make the most of the opportunity.

 

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.

Science and art merge in educational TV program

By Patricia B. Mirasol

Mind S-Cool TV is an alternative learning experience that complements basic education by merging art and science through “adventure quests” featuring show-and-tell activities, exhibitions, home experiments, and illustrations, among others. 

Mind S-Cool TV is a project of the Bonifacio Arts Foundation Inc. (BAFI), the nonprofit behind the Mind Museum and BGC Art Center. “Education should continue in the crisis. We’d like to think we’re learning for a better normal,” said BAFI managing director and curator Maria Isabel Garcia, who added that the show was planned soon after the lockdown, when she and her colleagues realized that the crisis was likely to linger.

A media preview of the TV show revolved around the question: “What is a pandemic?” In a combination of English and Filipino, co-hosts Mikee Estorga and Pecier Desierdo took the audience on a student-friendly journey on the causes, management, and prevention of a pandemic. 

Questions from children were answered by virologist Marilen Balolong. There were also insights from Ron Capinding, a writer, and Chris Carandang, a clinical psychologist. Interwoven in between was a conversation with an animated bat, informative videos, and a song number, reminiscent of educational shows like Sesame Street.

Teachers who previewed the quest found it an informative supplement to their lessons. “It’s well-intentioned and a very good concept,” said one.

Succeeding quests include “How Do You Make a Planet?” and “What Is Everything Made Of?” Topics are tied to the K-12 curriculum. The approach aims to make connections to the real world and teach children how to ask questions. 

Mind S-Cool TV will be aired weekly on free TV on CNN Philippines and live-streamed on its Facebook page beginning Aug. 22, at 8:30 a.m. with a replay at 4:30 p.m. (replay schedules may change). As a nod to the pandemic, the pilot episode is titled “What in the World Is Going On?” 

There’s also a subscription-based platform called Mind S-Cool Online which is a deep dive on topics with worksheets. It will be available at the same time as Mind S-Cool TV.

“Science will solve this crisis. The arts will make the way inspiring and transformative,” said Ms. Garcia.

Digitized education levels the playing field for students with special needs — edtech experts

By Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo

Digitized education levels the playing field for students with special needs, said Shaina Tantuico, co-founder and executive director of TinyLabs, a virtual class platform for children up to seven years old. 

In a recent webinar on education, Ms. Tantuico shared that a hard-of-hearing student had an easier time understanding her online lessons because her hearing aid was better able to pick up her teacher’s voice over the computer. “Teachers are able to teach to the whole class as if they’re all at the front row, and not at the back of the classroom,” said Ms. Tantuico.

Furthermore, multiple teaching assistants can handle smaller groups, allowing them to customize their lesson plans. “If you have fifty students, you can’t do fifty different learning styles; you only have one professor,” said Aurélien Chu, co-founder and chief operating officer of Eskwelabs, a blended learning artificial intelligence and data science training academy for adults.

To motivate students, Unifinity, a virtual academy, set up a reward system based on cryptocurrency. Coins are loaded in students’ digital wallets and can be used for actual transactions.  “We are rewarding the students based on their proof of activity, proof of attendance, and proof of performance by distributing their scores into a transparent distributed ledger technology,” said Veronica Andrino, Unifinity founder and chief executive officer.

With President Rodrigo R. Duterte mandating the physical closure of schools until a vaccine is found, the Department of Education (DepEd) had to find a solution that would accommodate students of varying socioeconomic backgrounds.

DepEd came up with two options for distance learning: modular distance learning, which provides printed or digital self-learning modules for students who either have no devices or no Internet access; and online distance learning, wherein a teacher facilitates a virtual class in real-time, for students who have reliable Internet connections.

However, slow digital adoption poses a challenge for both students and teachers. “They may have laptops and computers, but prior to COVID-19, these gadgets were for encoding and social media purposes only,” said Antonio E. Etrata, Jr., a faculty member of the University of Sto. Tomas. While his institution has had a learning management system for 20 years, Mr. Etrata admitted that, pre-pandemic, he would only use it for making announcements.

“We can never tell something will not work unless we will try. This is my assurance, and I think, this is our commitment to our students,” he said.

The education webinar was part of a series of breakout sessions held during the Impact Hackathon, a virtual event that aims to create sustainable digital solutions.

Half of Filipino small business owners use social media as their main channel of communication

By Mariel Alison L. Aguinaldo

Sixty percent of small business owners in the Philippines are relying on technology to keep their ventures afloat during the pandemic, according to the GoDaddy 2020 Global Entrepreneurship Survey, with 51% using social media and messaging apps as their main channel of communication. 

The survey conducted in June by GoDaddy, an Internet domain registrar and web-hosting company, also found that 43% percent of Filipino business owners are looking into creating a website, while 38% are considering getting into the e-commerce space.

To compete in the digital space, a business must have both social media presence and a website, said Tina Shieh, marketing director for GoDaddy Asia.

COVID-19 has negatively impacted many small businesses, with 81% reporting a decrease in their revenues. Nearly half said that they had to close their businesses temporarily.

However, 76% are optimistic that they can recover within a year; 92% expect to grow their business in three to five years.

The pandemic also presented opportunities for some respondents, with one out of three starting a business at this time. The Department of Trade and Industry previously reported that 33,559 and 17,351 business names were registered in June and July respectively, a huge increase from the 418 tallied in March.

Despite the challenges that they faced during this time, 72% said that it’s important they’re able to have a positive impact in their communities. This is the highest percentage among all of the countries that were surveyed. Thirty percent used their business to make donations or perform other acts of charity.

The GoDaddy 2020 Global Entrepreneurship Survey was conducted in 10 countries, namely the Philippines, Australia, Canada, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Of the 5,265 entrepreneurs interviewed, 93% said they had 10 or fewer employees. In the Philippines, 70% were aged 24 to 39.

China says frozen chicken wings from Brazil test positive for virus

Consumers should be cautious when buying imported frozen foods and aquatic products, said Chinese government officials. Image via ProjectManhattan / CC BY-SA

Consumers in the Chinese city of Shenzhen have been urged to exercise caution when buying imported frozen food after a surface sample of chicken wings from Brazil tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from the local government.

The positive sample appears to have been taken from the surface of the meat, while previously reported positive cases from other Chinese cities have been from the surface of packaging on imported frozen seafood.

The chicken came from an Aurora Alimentos plant in the southern state of Santa Catarina, according to a registration number given in the statement.

Virus tests of people who have possibly come into contact with the product, and tests of related products, all came back negative, the statement said. Consumers should be cautious when buying imported frozen foods and aquatic products, the government added.

Three packaging samples of imported frozen seafood tested positive for COVID-19 in Yantai, a northern city of China’s Shandong province, the city government said on its official Weibo account on Tuesday. State television on Wednesday reported that the outside of an Ecuador frozen shrimp package tested positive for the virus in a restaurant in Wuhu, a city in China’s Anhui province. — Bloomberg

 

Delay routine dental checkups in areas of COVID spread — WHO

GENEVA — Dental patients and staff need to be protected from any potential infection by aerosol-generating procedures, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, as dentists return to work in areas where the COVID-19 pandemic is easing.

There is currently no data on the spread of coronavirus from the dentist’s chair, it said, calling for more research into common procedures that produce tiny floating particles that may cause infection if inhaled.

These include three-way air/water spray, ultrasonic cleaning equipment that removes deposits from the tooth surface, and polishing, the WHO said in new guidance.

“WHO guidance recommends in case of community transmission to give priority to urgent or emergency oral cases, to avoid or minimize procedures that may generate aerosol, prioritize a set of clinical interventions that are performed using an instrument and of course to delay routine non-essential oral health care,” Benoit Varenne, a WHO dental officer, told a news briefing.

He added: “The likelihood of COVID-19 being transmitted through aerosol, micro-particles or airborne particles… today I think is unknown, it’s open to question at least. This means that more research is needed.”

The WHO last month released general guidelines on the transmission of the coronavirus which acknowledged some reports of airborne transmission, but stopped short of confirming that the virus spreads through the air.

Dental facilities must have adequate ventilation to reduce the risk of the virus spreading in closed settings, it said on Tuesday.

“We think that the most pressing issue is related to the availability of essential personal protective equipment, PPE, for all health care personnel undertaking or assisting in the clinical procedures,” Mr. Varenne said. — Reuters

Pilipinas Shell permanently shuts refinery to convert into import terminal

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. is permanently closing its Tabangao refinery and converting it into a full import terminal. 

The listed fuel company on Thursday said it decided to close the 110,000-barrel-per-day refinery in Batangas as the slump in regional refining margins worsened due to the global coronavirus pandemic. 

“It is no longer economically viable for us to run the refinery. It is with a heavy heart that we announce the cessation of oil refining activities in Tabangao,” Pilipinas Shell President and Chief Executive Officer Cesar G. Romero said. 

The facility will be converted into an import terminal, “one that will sustain and grow Pilipinas Shell’s competitive advantages,” the company’s official added, noting that the supply shift to import-based won’t affect the company’s capability to deliver fuel needs. 

The refinery suspended operations on May 24 to cushion the company from declining refining margins and aid in cash preservation. 

“It is unfortunate that [Pilipinas Shell] had to permanently close its refinery operations in the country,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said in a statement. 

The Energy chief expressed his concern for refinery workers who will be displaced because of the closure. “I hope they will find employment with the other industry players,” Mr. Cusi said. 

Pilipinas Shell said it would look out for its employees. “We will be guided by our core values of honesty, integrity and respect for people in safeguarding their well-being, addressing their needs sensitively and preparing them for their next journey ahead,” Mr. Romero said. 

In the first six months of 2020, Pilipinas Shell shed P6.7 billion as demand for fuel products plummeted by as much as 70%, which the DoE recorded in April.

 The upcoming import terminal will supply the fuel needs of Luzon and northern Visayas. 

“Shell remains committed to the Philippines and will pursue opportunities where we can leverage our global expertise in line with our growth strategy,” Mr. Romero said. 

Shares in Pilipinas Shell were trading lower by 5.03% to P16.62 apiece after the company made the announcement on Thursday.

Manila malls may become e-commerce storage amid retail slump

Property developers in the Philippines are considering novel alternative uses for shopping malls as people stay home and prefer to buy things online.

SM Prime Holdings Inc., the nation’s biggest landlord, is leasing out some of its parking lots for longer-term car storage, while a unit of Ayala Land Inc. plans to convert areas in its shopping centers to e-commerce backend facilities and medical clinics.

Southeast Asia’s worst coronavirus outbreak has made Filipinos fearful of going about their daily business and they’re seeking to avoid high-traffic spots. That’s putting extra pressure on retail landlords already weathering slump in demand and a recession.

SHOPPERS’ PARADISE
The Philippines is home to some of Asia’s biggest malls; capital Manila and surrounds boast total retail space of 7.3 million square meters, according to Joey Bondoc, a research manager at Colliers International Group Inc. That’s more than twice the size of New York’s Central Park.

Retail vacancy rates in Manila are forecast to climb to 12% this year while rents will drop for the first time since the global financial crisis, forcing shopping centers to either “innovate or evaporate,” Mr. Bondoc said.

AyalaLand Logistics Holdings Corp. is studying turning parts of its malls into last-mile fulfillment facilities, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.

“We continue to explore opportunities,” said Francis Montojo, the unit’s chief finance officer. He added that other commercial areas may be converted to healthcare clinics or office space.

SM Prime, meanwhile, has leased out a floor in the car park of a shopping mall to a bank, as well as leased another floor in an office tower, President Jeffrey Lim said in a text message.

“Retail developers must look at possible areas to pivot and re-purpose space,” said Kash Salvador, an associate director at property services company Santos Knight Frank. “We see an opportunity in storage and warehousing given higher logistics demand as shoppers go online.”

Mall owners should also consider leasing vacant space to co-working companies as businesses seek smaller offices in various locations, Colliers’ Mr. Bondoc said. — Bloomberg

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