Daily News Highlights – April 5, 2015 Edition

A weak Chedeng (Maysak) made landfall as a tropical depression Sunday morning, April 5 in Isabela province – thankfully, a far cry from the destructive super typhoon it once was. The storm’s center hit Dinapigue, Isabela at around 8 am, and state meteorologists say it will continue to weaken within the next 24 hours. 

The storm is still forecast to cross northern Luzon, and is expected to further weaken and will exit the Philippine Area of Responsibility in the coming days.

Read more on Rappler, and follow updates on Project AGOS. For more weather updates, visit #WeatherAlert.

Two days after Shebab militants lined up non-Muslim students, taunting them, then executing them at a university in the town of Garissa, President Uhuru Kenyatta warned Saturday, April 4, they would face justice for the “mindless slaughter”. The day-long siege claimed 148 lives, including 142 students, 3 police officers and 3 soldiers, and is now Kenya’s deadliest attack since the 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi.

Kenyatta declared 3 days of national mourning beginning Sunday, April 5, calling for the killings to unite and not divide the country. Earlier on Saturday, the Shebab warned of a “long, gruesome war” unless Kenya withdrew its troops from Somalia, and threatened “another bloodbath”.

Read more on Rappler.

Iran vowed to stand by a nuclear deal with world powers Friday, April 3, as President Hassan Rouhani promised it would open a “new page” in the country’s global ties. The framework agreement – reached Thursday, April 2, after marathon talks in Switzerland – was hailed by world leaders as a major breakthrough in the 12-year standoff between Iran and the West, which has long feared Tehran wants to build a nuclear bomb.

In a live televised address, Rouhani said it could mark a turning point for the Islamic republic’s relations with the rest of the world. “If the other side honors its promises, we will honor our promises,” he said.

Read more on Rappler.

Sky-gazers in parts of the Pacific Rim observed an “unusually brief” total eclipse of the Moon on Saturday night, April 4, with the rare red-tinged satellite glimpsed from Japan’s far north to the Hollywood Hills.

The eclipse – which occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are lined up so that the Moon passes through the Earth’s shadow – was seen in northern Japan, parts of Australia, and parts of western North America.

Read more, or watch the eclipse again, on Rappler.

The Muslim and Christian populations could be nearly equal by 2050, with Islam expected to be the fastest-growing faith on the planet, according to projections released by the Pew Research Center on Thursday, April 2. “Over the next four decades, Christians will remain the largest religious group, but Islam will grow faster than any other major religion,” according to the report.

The authors predicted there will be 2.76 billion Muslims on the planet by then, and 2.92 billion Christians. Those figures would correspond to about 29.7% and 31.4%of the world population, respectively.

They also have projections for the other major global religions, including Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, as well atheism and agnosticism.

Read more on Rappler.

“Today, I invite you to turn your hearts to another very rampant and widespread abuse among priests – homily abuse,” so went a homily delivered by Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas last Thursday, April 2. He described these as the “abuse of the kindness of the people who are forced to listen to long, winding, repetitious, boring, unorganized, unprepared, mumbled homilies.”

“Long, winding, repetitious, irrelevant, unprepared homilies are signs of a sick spiritual life of the priest,” Villegas says, and called on his fellow priests to instead be sincere, simple, and study more to help inspire their parishoners. 

Read his homily on Rappler.

Rappler introduces The Inside Track, a weekly podcast discussing Investigative Reporting and some of the thorniest issues in the country. 

This week, multi-awarded investigative journalist and Rappler’s editor-at-large Marites Vitug talks to investigative desk head Chay Hofileña about her first foray into investigative reporting, how she pieced together some of her stories, her motivations, the threats she’s had to face, and the importance of doing investigative journalism. She has survived attacks on social media because as she put it, if a story is accurate, it will stand on its own and on solid ground. 

Listen to the podcast on Newsbreak.

The cities of Metro Manila are dotted by old houses and buildings just waiting to be revitalized – and despite a heritage law to protect them, lack of funds and political will make these structures vulnerable.

Now, more and more entrepreneurs are realizing that old buildings have a unique charm and compelling history that no new building on the block can match. That charm and history can tickle curiosity, drum up interest, and eventually drive good business.

Here are 5 buildings in Metro Manila that have been brought back to life, to the pleasure of visitors and customers looking for something different but familiar; old but new.

Internet movie and TV subscription service Netflix is available in many countries in the West. Its launch in Australia, however, marks its first step towards the East, with the company planning inroads in Japan by fall 2015. In February, the company disclosed plans to expand into Japan, including opening a regional office in order to work with local TV and film creatives. The model is not new to the Philippines: look at iWanTV and HOOQ. But Netflix has an ace up its sleeve, if it ever decides to enter the Philippine market: original content. 

Read more about why the Philippines should be excited by Netflix’s move to the east, on Rappler.

Chess lovers marked Black Saturday with double grief as Filipino champ Wesley So, the world’s fifth-ranked player, lost to a 15-year-old grandmaster in the third round United States Chess Championship in St Louis, Missouri.

The game, broadcast on many chess portals Saturday morning, stunned viewers who were mostly Filipinos cheering for the Philippines’ former top player who transferred from the National Chess Federation of the Philippines to the US Chess Federation last October 2014.

Read more on Rappler.