French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, acting as the president of the 2015 United Nations climate change conference told negotiators Thursday, December 10, they are “extremely close to the finish line.” The latest draft version of a proposed global accord was released early Friday, December 11, Manila time. The new draft document is now just 27 pages long with 50 items still under debate.

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The implementation of a Philippine-US military deal with boost Manila’s maritime security as China continues with its island-building in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), retired Admiral Samuel Locklear said. The former chief of the US Pacific Command said the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, along with $79 million in US military funding, will focus on improving Philippine maritime domain awareness. The Philippine Supreme Court is expected to decide on the constitutionality of EDCA on December 16.

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The Philippine team in the Paris talks is pushing for a provision in the United Nations climate deal that will establish liability and compensation for damages caused by climate-related disasters. Thus far, the draft agreement says addressing loss and damage should be done in a way that “does not involve or provide a basis for liability or compensation.” Philippine lead negotiator and spokesman Tony La Viña said this is not acceptable because “we cannot mortgage the future, the rights of future victims.”

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The latest Labor Force Survey released by the Philippine Statistics Authority Thursday, December 10, says unemployment went down from 6% or 2.48 million in October 2014 to 5.7% or 2.35 million in the same period this year. This is the lowest recorded unemployment rate in the past 10 years, Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said. Employment rose to 94.3% from 94%, while underemployment decreased to 17.6% from 18.7% for the same period.

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Religious leaders from Bangladesh, Indonesia and Pakistan – together home to more than a third of the world’s 1.5 billion followers of Islam – were angered by billionaire Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Such hate-spreading statement helps “the cause of so-called global Islamist militants such as Islamic State,” said Jamiatul Ulama Bangladesh, chair of an Islamic scholars council. The Republican front-runner’s remarks came after an apparently radicalized Muslim couple shot dead 14 people at a workplace party in San Bernardino, California this month.

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Boosting the fight against extinction, a critically endangered monkey-eating eagle was hatched in captivity in the Philippines on December 7. This is the first in two years and the 26^th in 23 years, according to the Philippine Eagle Foundation. There are about 600 of the country’s national bird, also called the Philippine eagle, in the wild. 34 other birds, including the hatching, are kept in massive cages at a conservation center.  

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Most Filipino children prefer watching television and like watching television series or “teleseryes”. A study conducted by the National Council for Children’s Television from February to March 2015 showed that most Filipino children watch TV for close to 3 hours on weekdays and 6 hours during weekends. These are beyond the internationally-prescribed 1-2 hours of daily exposure to television.

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Volkswagen (VW) said Thursday, December 10, the roots of its massive pollution-cheating scandal go back to 2005, and while the current situation was difficult, it would not break the company. VW was plunged into its deepest-ever scandal in September, when it was forced to admit it had installed emission-cheating software into 11 million diesel engine vehicles worldwide. 

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Former president Joseph Estrada, believed to be still influential, has yet to endorse a presidential bet for 2016. Other members of his family, an influential political clan in the city of San Juan, have yet to decide as well, or end up endorsing different presidential bets who have personal or political ties to the Estrada family. Opposition standard-bearer and Vice President Jejomar Binay has been an ally of the clan; Senator Grace Poe is the adoptive daughter of Estrada’s close friend Fernando Poe Jr; Liberal Party standard-bearer Mar Roxas and Davao City Mayor Rody Duterte are also close friends of Estrada.

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Dropbox is saying goodbye to two of its applications, informing users via the app and through email that Mailbox mail app and Carousel photo and video sharing app will be shutting down in 2016. The Dropbox team said it would take key features from Carousel back to Dropbox, and would build new ways to communicate and collaborate on Dropbox, thanks to the team’s experiences with Mailbox.

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