September 17, 2014 Edition

Will it make a dent on deadlocked negotiations? The United Nations is set to host what it calls the biggest gathering of world leaders on climate change at the UN Climate Summit 2014, which opens September 23 at the UN headquarters in New York. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said he expects leaders from government, business and civil society to announce commitments in key areas like energy, cities, industry, transportation and forestry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet the benchmark to keep global temperature rise to two degrees Celsius. The Philippines’ Albay Governor Joey Salceda is the co-chair of the Green Climate Fund. He will attend the summit along with President Benigno Aquino III.

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At the 2014 PH+SocialGood Summit organized by Rappler on September 16, experts provided the audience a peek into the latest technology and innovations that can spell the difference between life and death during and after calamities. Jackie Chang of Facebook talked about Internet.org, an initiative by technology leaders that aims to improve Internet access for the two-thirds of the world population that are still not online. Another technology to watch out for is TV White Space, which rides on unused television frequencies to broadcast Internet connection without being limited by barriers and line of sight. Microsoft said TV White Space can provide connectivity up to 10 or 12 kilometers away from a TV White Space antenna, unlike current WiFi routers that no longer work beyond 300 to 500 meters.

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Albay officials ordered residents within the danger zone in Mayon to evacuate as a state of calamity was declared in areas near the restive volcano. At least 39 rockfall events were recorded from September 15, symptoms of the build-up of magma at the summit dome. The alert level for Mayon was raised to Level 3 or “Critical” by the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs), after “increasing abnormalities” were observed in the volcano. “A hazardous eruption is possible within weeks,” Phivolcs director Renato Solidum Jr said.

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It’s not a remote possibility – US military advisors in the combat zone alongside Iraqi troops against the Islamic State (ISIS) group. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said they could “provide close-combat advising” to Iraqi forces. Dempsey is President Barack Obama’s chief military advisor, but the White House insisted the idea of US troops in battle was a “purely hypothetical scenario.” Military leaders warned of a further escalation in their battle against the jihadists just as two branches of the rival Al-Qaeda group called for a united front against the war coalition Washington is building.

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As fires ripped through forests in the western side of the country and choked neighboring Singapore with hazardous smog, Indonesia’s legislature voted to ratify the ASEAN treaty on cross-border haze – the last signatory to do so. Officials in Singapore and Malaysia have responded furiously to the annual problem of Indonesia’s forest fires, which have intensified and become more frequent in recent years. The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution obliges signatories to strengthen its policies on forest fires and haze, actively participate in regional decision-making on the issue, and dedicate more resources to the problem, regionally and domestically. All 10 ASEAN-member countries signed the agreement in June 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, but Indonesia will be the last one to ratify it. It only began deliberations on the bill on the ratification of the treaty in January.

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Portraying a common stance likely to agitate China, the Philippines and the European Union (EU) both upheld a key United Nations treaty that China allegedly violates in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea). Philippine President Benigno Aquino III told European Commission President José Manuel Barroso that the Philippines “remains committed to advancing a peaceful, rules-based resolution to the disputes in the South China Sea.” For his part, Barroso said the EU is for a peaceful resolution of the dispute “in accordance with international law – in particular with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

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A homemade bomb exploded September 16 evening near the General Santos City Hall, hurting at least 6 people. Authorities said an improvised explosive device was planted in a box at the city’s monument of national hero Jose Rizal. On the same night, a grenade exploded in warehouse in another Mindanao city, Lamitan in Basilan. Authorities are looking into a possible terror angle in the General Santos City blast.

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The Senate hearing on the country’s slow and expensive Internet connection on September 16 focused on a long-running policy that the government has failed to implement because of protests coming from dominant telco player PLDT – mandatory IP peering. IP peering is when two networks exchange traffic with each other freely, providing access to their caches, bringing about a faster connection for the end users. It could improve Internet connectivity in the Philippines on top of telcos improving their infrastructure. The government has been pushing for IP peering among providers but can’t impose it on them. Globe recently challenged rival PLDT to peer with the neutral internet exchange.

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South Koreans are banned from carrying North Korean flags into Asian Games venues and anyone waving one at an event could face arrest, games organizers in Seoul said. On the other hand, North Korea’s reporters at the Asian Games will have to file stories using fax because their web access is restricted in South Korea. North Korea’s presence has been one of the main talking points in the build-up to the Asian Games, which officially open in the South Korean port city of Incheon on Friday. Organizers have removed all national flags from venue neighborhoods after anti-Pyongyang activists protested about having the North Korean emblem flying among them.

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It’s a new chapter in human spaceflight. NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX on to build America’s next spacecraft to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) by 2017, opening the way to a new chapter in human spaceflight. NASA, which has been unable to send astronauts to space since the retirement of the space shuttle in 2011, awarded a total of $6.8 billion to the two companies for their respective spacecraft. The agency has spent more than $1.4 billion since 2010 to help private companies develop their own crew transport vehicles. In the past, the world’s space powers had to rely on Russia’s Soyuz for transporting rocket scientists to the orbiting outpost.

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