Daily News Highlights – April 2, 2015 Edition

Typhoon Chedeng (international name: Maysak) entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) late Wednesday evening, April 1, through Eastern Samar. Chedeng is forecast to move west northwest at 19 km/h, and is seen to be 850 km east of Legazpi City in the Bicol region by Thursday evening, April 2. The US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center downgraded Chedeng from super typhoon to typhoon status, while, the Japan Meteorological Agency still labels Chedeng as a “very strong” typhoon. Landfall was earlier predicted to occur between late Saturday, April 4, and early Sunday, April 5, in the vicinity of Aurora, Quezon, or Isabela provinces.

Read the full story on Rappler.

MovePH, the civic engagement arm of Rappler, needs volunteers who will help gather critical information online that can help save lives and property in times of disaster. Project Agos volunteers can either monitor online information or report to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council beginning Thursday, April 2. The information that volunteers gather will be relayed to national government agencies and local responders who can use the information to prepare for and respond to Typhoon Chedeng (international name: Maysak). Citizen journalists can also send reports, photos, and videos on how their families and communities are preparing for Chedeng.

Check out how you can volunteer on Rappler.

The twin invitation of Holy Thursday is the invitation to self-disarmament and to forgiveness, says Fr Johnny Go in Rappler’s online Holy Week retreat. Go, who goes by the online name “Fr J,” helps us with this online retreat with the theme “God in a Season of Disquiet,” which runs from Holy Thursday, April 2, to Holy Saturday, April 4. “It’s possible that even if it’s calm outside, we still experience disquiet inside. Or when it’s turbulent outside, we can also experience peace inside. We want to imitate our Lord because our Lord was able to maintain his peace regardless of what’s happening outside,” said Go.

Join the Holy Week retreat and recollection on Rappler.

During the transition from the old curriculum to the new K to 12 program, the Department of Education (DepEd) still procured 16.3 million newly-printed textbooks even if these are “no longer responsive” to the new curriculum, the Commission on Audit said in a report. DepEd bought 16,296,231 textbooks under the 2011-2012 textbook replenishment program but these were delivered during school year 2012-2013, when the enhanced curriculum for grades 1 and 7 was first rolled out. But the state audit agency called the textbooks “unnecessary expenses” which “brought indiscriminate wastage of government funds” that could have gone instead to the provision of resources needed for K to 12. 

Read the full story on Rappler.

Thailand’s junta lifted martial law on Wednesday, April 1, but replaced it with new orders retaining sweeping powers for the military under a section of the interim constitution that has been lambasted by rights groups. Special security measures – including a ban on political gatherings of more than 5 people – will continue to blanket the kingdom, which has seen civil liberties eroded since the military declared martial law and seized power from an elected government last May. The royal order comes a day after junta chief and premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha said he had asked the country’s ailing 87-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej for permission to lift the controversial law.

Read the full story on Rappler.

More than 20 jihadist groups have pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) movement and 10 others have voiced their support for the extremist organization, according to US monitoring body IntelCenter. A list published by the center which monitors extremist groups shows these 31 organizations are dotted across the world in an arc going from Algeria in the west to Indonesia in the east. These groups are very different in size and importance – some meticulously structured with hundreds and even thousands of fighters, others barely existing or break-aways from known jihadist movements, experts say. 

Read the full story on Rappler.

Migrant workers and advocates staged rallies across Canada on March 29 and 30 to call for a moratorium on the four-year employment limit for temporary foreign workers, which took effect April 1. They also called on Ottawa to grant permanent resident status to migrant workers. Under the controversial “4 and 4 rule,” introduced April 1, 2011, temporary foreign workers who have been working for Canada for four years or more must leave the country. Advocacy groups estimate there could be as many as 70,000 whose time-limited work permits will expire this year. There are  about 330,000 who live and work in Canada under the temporary foreign worker program (TFWP), a number that has tripled in the last 10 years.

Read the full story on Rappler.

With summer vacation ahead, here are 4 titles for your game consoles that may be worth your time.

Following the Dark Souls series, from Software’s PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne pits the player against the grotesqueries of the city of Yharnam. Your task is to skillfully slash and shoot your way through fearsome foes to uncover the city’s secret. We recommend Bloodborne for fans of tough action games requiring skill rather than luck to succeed.

Check the other games on Rappler.

You’re down with the flu and have no energy to come to work. What to do? Take a selfie in your pajamas while in bed to show your workmates and boss just how sick you are. With Firebox, you can make your sick leave more believable by taking a photo of the mucus inside your nose. This is just one of the pranks played on April Fools’ Day by big brands. April Fools’ Day, celebrated annually on the 1st day of the month of April, is sometimes the only chance every year that some brands and organizations get to showcase their humor.

Read the full story on Rappler.

Cynthia Lennon, the British first wife of The Beatles’ songwriter John Lennon, has died aged 75 at her home in Mallorca, Spain, the couple’s son Julian said Wednesday, April 1. Cynthia met John Lennon at an art class in the British city of Liverpool when she was 18 and the couple married in 1962. They stayed together until 1968, as The Beatles grew to be the world’s biggest group. John left her for Japanese artist Yoko Ono in 1968 and the couple was divorced. 

Read the full story on Rappler.