#ThewRap: Things you need to know, August 28, 2017

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#ThewRap: Things you need to know, August 28, 2017

AFP

Hello! Here are the stories you shouldn't miss this Monday.

Dear Rappler reader,

Over the weekend, massive flooding unleashed by deadly monster storm Harvey left Houston – the fourth-largest city in the United States – practically isolated as its airports and highways shut down, and residents scampered onto rooftops to escape raging waters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) calls it a “landmark event,” one that is bound to have long term impact. 

Is the Houston flood an indicator of the new normal? Scientists freely acknowledge they don’t know everything about how global warming affects hurricanes. But what they do know is enough to keep them up at night. The amplifying impact of sea level rise, warming oceans, and hotter air – all incontrovertible consequences of climate change – is basic physics, they say.

Clearly, we face tough times ahead. 

In the Philippines, we face a different storm: a systematic assault on press freedom aided to a substantial degree by a digitally-powered, state-sponsored propaganda machinery.  

This week’s #AnimatED reminds the President that his enemy is not the media. It is the abusive and the corrupt. It draws attention to why a free and independent press is critical in these challenging times: because it serves as the check and balance to abuses committed by the powerful.  

Houston battles floods, Trump set for Texas trip

Massive flooding unleashed by deadly monster storm Harvey leaves Houston – the fourth-largest city in the United States – increasingly isolated

Cyclones and climate change: connecting the dots

What’s missing is a detailed track record of hurricanes past, the kind of decades-long log of measurements that climate scientists need to discern the fingerprint of human influence

How the PNP’s one-time, big-time operations work

Here is a look at the controversial police operations against drugs and criminality, and how these can be traced back to the Aquino administration

Tillerson slams North Korea missile test but still seeks talks

‘We are going to continue our peaceful pressure campaign … to see if we can bring the regime in Pyongyang to the negotiating table,’ says US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson

FAST FACTS: What makes a Filipino historical figure a national hero?

While there are no laws that officially proclaim a Filipino a national hero, there are criteria that determine how a historical figure qualifies as a national hero

‘Do not be afraid to be minority’: Chief Justice Sereno, 5 years on

Five years after she was appointed the first female Chief Justice of the Philippines, Maria Lourdes Sereno faces impeachment threats. Is she a target of the Duterte administration?

Makati’s 2016 garbage hauling costs lowest since 2007 – COA

The drop in expenses is attributed to the local government’s environmental programs, according to the Commission on Audit

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