(UPDATE) THE monthlong 24/7 free ride on the Edsa Busway rolled out on Thursday, December 1, as the government's gift to commuters this Christmas season. According to the Department of Transportation (DoTr), the free ride scheme will last until December 31. The Edsa Busway was a concept initiated at the height of the pandemic. Bautista earlier disclosed that they are now in the process of completing the terms of reference for the privatization of the EDSA Busway by 2023. Bautista said through this move, operations of the EDSA Busway would be more efficient.

During the exercise, Indian soldiers were dropped from helicopters to flush out gunmen from a house in a demonstration of unarmed combat skills. India and China fought a war along the border in 1962. The latest dispute flared in June 2020, when at least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese troops were killed in a brawl in the Ladakh region. Some Indian and Chinese soldiers have pulled back from a key friction point, but tensions between the two countries have persisted. The exercise also reflects the strengthening of defense ties between India and the US.

DA eyes soft loans from JapanMANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) plans to secure soft loans from Japan to bump up the food security programs under the two countries’ bilateral cooperation. Representatives of the Embassy of Japan and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), led by Economic Minister Nihei Daisuke and First Secretary and Agriculture Attache Tachikawa Jumpei, met with the DA to identify key areas of agricultural cooperation between the Philippines and Japan. During the meeting, DA Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban expressed the Philippines’ interest in seeking financial assistance from Japan. This is either through soft loans or the Japan Food Security Project for Underprivileged Farmers (formerly called the 2KR Program) to help support the agency’s programs toward food security. The project aims to come up with a vegetable value chain roadmap to identify major bottlenecks, provide solutions, and distinguish the roles of each stakeholder along the value chain.

The fines for traffic violations were updated. NCAP served its purpose like the Panopticon did in a previous age. The Panopticon was a watchtower inside prisons where the prisoners could be observed by unseen guards. The Palace has not been shy about touting the survey results. The survey results indicate a broad constituency for the current administration and its continuity program of policy modernization.

BEIJING — Chinese authorities have begun inquiries into some of the people who gathered at weekend protests against COVID-19 curbs, three people who were at the Beijing demonstrations told Reuters, as police remained out in numbers on the city’s streets. Simmering discontent with COVID prevention policies three years into the pandemic ignited into broader protests in cities thousands of miles apart over the weekend. “The large number of police, it’s really scary,” said Beijing resident Philip Qin, 22, who witnessed the protests on Sunday. Officials say the zero-COVID policy has kept the death toll in the world’s most populous country in the thousands, avoiding the millions of deaths elsewhere. RELATED STORIESA timeline of COVID-related protests in ChinaChina protests highlight Xi Jinping’s COVID-19 policy dilemma–to walk it back or notFor more news about the novel coronavirus click here.

The government will ask China's top legislative body to interpret the city’s national security law on whether foreign lawyers can be involved in national security cases, Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said on Monday. This came after the Court of Final Appeal dismissed an appeal by the Justice Department to overturn an earlier court decision allowing a British lawyer to defend media tycoon Jimmy Lai in his upcoming national security trial. Under the existing system, the government is powerless to prevent overseas lawyers from being subject to “dubious interference” or ensure they keep state secrets, Lee added. The Standing Committee has offered five interpretations of Hong Kong’s Basic Law -- its mini constitution -- since the UK handed the city back in 1997. The ruling effectively blocked two elected “localists” from taking their seats in the Hong Kong’s legislature.

A trace amount of banned veterinary drug metabolite has been found in a sample of prepackaged frozen shrimp tested by the Centre for Food Safety. "The CFS collected the shrimp sample from a supermarket in Tin Shui Wai for testing under its routine food surveillance programme. The test result showed that it contained AOZ (metabolite) at a level of 6.6 parts per billion," the spokesman said. The Dairy Farm Company Limited, the sole distributor, has initiated a recall on the affected batch of the product. CFS has also informed the vendor concerned to stop the sale and remove from shelves the affected batch of the product.

SEOUL — Over the years, the average energy intake of Koreans has been on a decrease. The percent of energy intake from carbohydrates dropped from 64.9 percent in 2012 to 59.4 percent in 2021. On the contrary, the percentage of energy intake from fat increased from 20.4 percent to 24.6 percent. The average energy intake from protein was 16.4 percent for men and 15.5 percent for women. The numbers show why Koreans’ rice consumption has dropped over the years.

Hong Kong’s civil service chief said over 11,000 people have booked their booster shots that protect against both the highly-infectious Omicron variant and the original Covid strain, with the jabs available in the city starting Thursday. The BioNTech bivalent jabs would only be available as a fourth dose alternative. She added that the 1.9 million doses of the vaccine procured by the government should be enough to handle the demand. He worried the vaccine authorities procured would not be enough for everyone, with people willing to take up the jabs for overseas travel. Chui also called on authorities to make the Omicron boosters available as a third dose option.

The Competition Commission started a joint operation with other government departments at Aberdeen to search and locate wholesalers that were reported to be involved in price fixing when selling fisheries products. The city’s competition watchdog, together with the Hong Kong Police, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department and several other departments conducted the operation early this morning at Aberdeen Wholesale Fish Market. Competition Commission stated that they have received a complaint regarding the price fixing and therefore carried out survey to understand better the situation from the responses of the fish wholesalers. The Commission surveyed practitioners from over 30 wholesalers in the market. The Commission calls on fisheries practitioners and public members who can provide information on the case or the practices in the industry to contact the Commission.

OTTAWA — Canada launched its long-awaited Indo-Pacific strategy on Sunday, vowing more resources to deal with a “disruptive” China while working with the world’s second-biggest economy on climate change and trade issues. But the focus is on China, which is mentioned more than 50 times, at a moment when bilateral ties are frosty. “China is an increasingly disruptive global power,” said the strategy. Official data for September show bilateral trade with China accounted for under 7% of the total, compared to 68% for the United States. Canada needed to keep talking to nations it had fundamental disagreements with, it said, but did not name them.

NEW DELHI — An octogenarian man burned himself to death in southern India in protest at what he called New Delhi’s attempts to impose nationwide usage of Hindi, a language mostly spoken in the north, police said Sunday. ADVERTISEMENTAccording to the most recent census in 2011, fewer than half of Indian citizens speak Hindi — just under 44 percent. Most southern Indian languages are Dravidian, a completely different language family to the Indo-European group which includes Hindi. MV Thangavel, 85, a farmer in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, doused himself in petrol and kerosene and set himself alight, police said. RELATED STORIESTibetan burns himself to death in China protestJapanese man sets himself on fire in apparent protest at Shinzo Abe’s state funeral–mediaRead Next

File PhotoChairman of the Hospital Authority Henry Fan Hung-ling has tested positive for Covid-19. The HA spokesman said that Fan is undergoing isolation under the guidelines of the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health. Fan last attended the HA activity on Saturday. He has no recent travel history. The HA will conduct thorough cleaning and disinfection operation at the Chairman office and the offices concerned.

TOKYO — The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and other organizations are planning to establish an observatory on the moon. The observatory may be able to gather information about what the universe was like soon after its birth. The first radio telescope for the facility is expected to be launched in fiscal 2028. “If the project goes well, it would allow the world’s first observation of the Dark Ages. RELATED STORIESJapan counts down to first moon landingJapan space rocket ordered to self-destruct after failed launchRead Next

Hong Kong Customs arrested a female passenger at the Hong Kong International Airport, seizing three kilograms of suspected cocaine with an estimated market value of about HK$2.6 million. The arrested, 43, claimed she was a homemaker and arrived in Hong Kong for "traveling" from São Paulo, Brazil, via Doha, Qatar, during the arrest yesterday. According to Leung Chi-pang, Senior inspector of the Customs’ Drug Investigation Group, officers found two unusually weighted empty pieces of luggage - a hand-carried suitcase and a briefcase - that the woman carried during the clearance. Officers conducted an X-ray inspection of the luggage and found six packs of cocaine weighing three kilograms inside. "Customs will continue to apply a risk assessment approach and focus on selecting passengers from high-risk regions for clearance to combat transnational drug trafficking activities," Leung said.