Author: INQUIRER.net

MEXICO CITY — Fátima Bosch Fernández’s Miss Universe victory resounded across Mexico on Friday, framed as the vindication of a disrespected contestant from a country where women have pushed their way into positions of power and are increasingly calling out traditional chauvinism.

The 25-year-old from the Gulf coast state of Tabasco was scolded by the competition’s Thai director, Nawat Itsaragrisil, during a livestreamed sashing ceremony for the more than 100 contestants on Nov. 4. She allegedly did not follow his guidelines for taking part in local promotional activities. He called security when she spoke up to defend herself, and she responded by walking out with a number of other contestants following in solidarity.

The Miss Universe Organization president, Mexican business owner Raúl Rocha Cantú, had released a statement condemning Nawat’s conduct as “public aggression” and “serious abuse.”

Nawat later apologized for his actions, appearing both tearful and defiant at the same time.

The fireworks in Thailand earlier in the competition had already drawn Mexico’s attention, leading even President Claudia Sheinbaum to hail Bosch.

READ: Resigned Miss Universe 2025 judge calls Miss Mexico ‘fake winner,’ alleges rigging

So on Friday, Sheinbaum did not try to hide her pleasure that Mexico’s contestant ended up winning the crown.

“I like that she spoke up when she felt that was an injustice and that is an example,” Mexico’s first woman president said during her daily news briefing. “That thing they said about being prettier when you’re quiet has been left behind. Women are prettier when we speak and we participate.”

Patricia Bustamente, a 72-year-old retiree in Mexico City, shared the president’s enthusiasm.

“How good that she didn’t let it slide and how good that she fought to stay there,” Bustamente said, noting that Mexican women used to be “submissive.” She called Bosch “very brave.”

Briana González, a 40-year-old nurse, said in general she doesn’t like beauty pageants because “beauty goes beyond the physical,” but she saw Bosch standing up for herself as a positive example. “For some time now, Mexican women have come out to defend ourselves and fight inequality.”

When Bosch was announced as the winner, cheers and screams erupted from the audience, with Mexican flags waved by elated supporters.

Her home state of Tabasco, where thousands watched the competition from a local baseball stadium in southeast Mexico, partied into the night.

In Villahermosa, Tabasco’s capital, Gabriel Arcos, who sells eyeglasses, said Bosch had represented the state well.

“For us Tabasqueños, we’re proud that she has gone so far despite the setbacks Miss Bosch had,” said the 37-year-old.

NEW YORK, United States — US markets advanced Friday while European counterparts marked time. This was in response to sharp losses in Asia at the end of a week which saw heightened fears of a bursting AI bubble.

A blockbuster earnings report from chip bellwether Nvidia on Wednesday seemed to soothe concerns that vast investments in the artificial intelligence sector may have been overdone.

But Nvidia shares closed one percent lower on Wall Street as warnings grew that the tech-led rally may have run its course across equities. This had seen several markets hit record highs and companies clock eye-watering capitalizations.

READ: PSEi nears 6,000 level as bargain hunt persists

Adding to unease were mixed US September jobs data released Thursday. This raised the possibility that the Federal Reserve could decide against cutting interest rates in December.

That unease spread to Asia. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai all ended the week down almost 2.5 percent at the close.

The clouds began to clear to a degree, however, as the Dow climbed 1.1 percent by end-Friday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.9 percent and the broader-based S&P 500 rose one percent.

“This week’s sharp sell-off in US stocks and cryptocurrencies briefly stalled as Fed December rate cut expectations increased from 41 percent to 73 percent after New York Fed President John Williams suggested the Fed may cut rates again soon,” said Axel Rudolph, senior technical analyst at IG.

But Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones added of the central bank: “The fact that we’re not going to get some key data does not make their job easier.”

Fed in a fog

This week, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics said it would not publish full employment and consumer inflation reports for the month of October. Meanwhile November figures will only be released after the next central bank interest rate meeting.

This adds to the fog that Fed officials have to navigate as they mull their next rate decision.

Europe lacked direction as London ended just a sliver in the green. Paris was flat — although Ubisoft provided a glimmer of light — while Frankfurt lost 0.8 percent.

READ: Can Filipino creativity shine in games? Here’s what a game studio says about it

French video game company Ubisoft resumed trading in Paris. This was a week after stunning investors by postponing its results announcement without an explanation. This triggered speculation in the video gaming world.

The “Assassin’s Creed” maker said Friday the move was due to a simple “restatement” of its half-yearly results. This was after new auditors found problems with the way it had accounted for a partnership.

The rush from risk assets saw digital currency bitcoin hit a seven-month low at $81,569.79 before pulling back to around $84,490. This extended a sell-off suffered since its record high above $126,200 last month.

“The price action across markets has been prolific, and we’ve seen some truly impressive reversals in risk assets,” said analyst Chris Weston at broker Pepperstone.

“Sentiment in so many markets remains highly challenged, and we’ve seen new evidence that managers are dumping their 2025 winners — raising expectations that the path of least resistance is for risk to trade lower in the near-term,” he added. AFP

BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombia made its largest cocaine bust in a decade, authorities announced Friday, with 14 tons confiscated at its main Pacific port amid tensions with Washington, which has branded Bogota’s anti-drug policies insufficient.

The seizure in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country comes as the White House threatens President Gustavo Petro with financial sanctions and Colombia’s removal from the list of allies in the war on drugs.

The cocaine, stored in dozens of 50-kilogram (110-pound) sacks inside a warehouse, was “camouflaged” in a mixture with plaster, the Defense Ministry posted on X.

It was “the largest seizure by the Colombian police in the last decade,” said Petro, whose term ends in nine months.

READ: Colombia’s Petro in hot water as records reveal Lisbon strip club visit

The operation was carried out — “without a single death,” according to Petro — in the southwestern port of Buenaventura, a strategic departure point for Colombian cocaine.

Petro is critical of Donald Trump’s anti-drug strategy and has rejected as “extrajudicial executions” the bombings that the US president has authorized against boats suspected of carrying drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific.

Colombia regularly breaks its own annual record for coca leaf cultivation and powder cocaine production.

It has some 253,000 hectares (625,000 acres) under drug cultivation and produces at least 2,600 tons of cocaine, according to United Nations figures for 2023, the most recent available.

Petro considers Trump’s sanctions unfair and claims that record seizures have been made under his government.

MANILA, Philippines — Four weather systems will dump rain throughout the country on Saturday, according to the state weather bureau. 

In the 5 a.m. weather forecast of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), weather specialist Daniel Villamil said that the following weather systems will prevail in the following areas: shear line and northeast monsoon or amihan in Northern Luzon; easterlies in the eastern section of Central Luzon; and intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) in Palawan and portions of Mindanao. 

Villamil said that due to the effect of the shear line, or the convergence of warm and cold winds, high chances of rains and thunderstorms are expected over Cagayan, Isabela, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Apayao, and Kalinga. The northeast monsoon will bring cloudy skies and rains over Batanes and the rest of Cordillera Administrative Region. 

The easterlies, or the warm winds coming from the Pacific Ocean, will bring cloudy skies over Quezon and Aurora. 

Villamil also said that Metro Manila and most of Luzon will experience generally fair weather with chances of rainshowers throughout the day. He added that partly cloudy to cloudy skies will continue to prevail over these areas.

Meanwhile, the ITCZ or the convergence of winds from the northern and southern hemispheres, will cause cloudy skies and rains over Palawan, and Caraga, Northern Mindanao, and Davao Region.

Villamil noted that generally fair weather conditions will prevail over the whole Visayas and the rest of Mindanao with chances of isolated rainshowers or thunderstorms throughout the day.

He also said that while there is no gale warning raised in any seaboards of the country, the northern and western seaboards of Northern Luzon will experience moderate to rough sea conditions. 

Temperature forecast:

• Laoag, Ilocos Norte: 24°C to 32°C
• Baguio: 16°C to 25°C
• Metro Manila: 25°C to 31°C
• Tagaytay: 23°C to 29°C
• Tuguegarao: 23°C to 29°C
• Legazpi: 25°C to 31°C
• Kalayaan Islands: 25°C to 30°C
• Puerto Princesa: 24°C to 31°C
• Iloilo: 25°C to 31°C
• Cebu: 26°C to 31°C
• Tacloban: 25°C to 31°C
• Cagayan de Oro: 24°C to 31°C
• Zamboanga: 24°C to 33°C
• Davao: 23°C to 31°C

LPA monitoring

Villamil said that the agency is monitoring cloud clusters outside the Philippine area of responsibility (PAR), which are associated with the ITCZ. 

“We are continuously monitoring because based on our analysis, there might be a formation of LPA in the next coming days and it might enter the [PAR] and affect the country in the coming weeks,” Villamil said. 

The Pagasa on Friday said that a LPA is “highly likely” to form inside the PAR in the coming days and may start affecting the country by Sunday, November 23. 

Meanwhile, Villamil shared the four-day weather outlook from Sunday to Wednesday:

• Sunday to Monday: shear line will continue to affect the eastern section of Northern Luzon. ITCZ will bring scattered rains and thunderstorms over most Mindanao, Visayas, and Southern Luzon; and
• Tuesday to Wednesday: ITCZ/LPA will bring scattered rains and thunderstorms over Central and Southern Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Shear line and northeast monsoon will continue to prevail over Northern Luzon. /das

 

 

 

 
 

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday met the man who had proudly proclaimed himself “Donald Trump’s worst nightmare,” but he seemed to find the opposite.

The Republican president and New York City’s Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani were warm and friendly, speaking repeatedly of their shared goals to help Trump’s hometown rather than their combustible differences.

Trump, who had in the past called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” and a “total nut job,” spoke openly of how impressed he was with the man who had called his administration “authoritarian.”

Trump said he was surprised by their “great” meeting and said of the democratic socialist, “I think he is going to surprise some conservative people, actually.”

Mamdani and Trump said they discussed housing affordability and the cost of groceries and utilities, as Mamdani successfully used frustration over inflation to get elected, just as the president did in the 2024 election.

“We’re going to be helping him, to make everybody’s dream come true, having a strong and very safe New York,” the president told reporters with Mamdani beside him in the Oval Office.

“What I really appreciate about the president is that the meeting that we had focused not on places of disagreement, which there are many, and also focused on the shared purpose that we have in serving New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

The president brushed aside Mamdani’s criticisms of him over his administration’s deportation raids and claims that Trump was behaving like a despot. Instead, Trump said the responsibility of holding an executive position in the government causes a person to change, saying that had been the case for him.

He seemed at times even protective of Mamdani, jumping in on his behalf at several points when reporters asked him tough questions.

For example, when reporters asked Mamdani to clarify his past statements indicating that he thought the president was acting like a fascist, Trump said, “I’ve been called much worse than a despot.”

When a reporter asked if Mamdani stood by his comments that Trump is a fascist, Trump interjected before the mayor-elect could fully answer the question.

“That’s OK. You can just say yes. OK?” Trump said. “It’s easier. It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”

Trump jumped in again when a reporter asked Mamdani why he flew to Washington instead of taking transportation that used less fossil fuels.

“I’ll stick up for you,” Trump said.

READ: New York’s incoming leftist mayor to face off with Trump

All about affordability

Mamdani, who takes office in January, said he sought the meeting with Trump to talk about ways to make New York City more affordable. Trump has said he may want to help him out — although he has also falsely labeled Mamdani as a “communist” and threatened to yank federal funds from his hometown.

But Trump on Friday didn’t sling that at the mayor. He acknowledged that he had said he had been prepared to cut off funding or make it harder for New York City to access federal resources if the two had failed to “get along.”

But the president pulled back from those threats, saying: “We don’t want that to happen. I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Trump loomed large over the mayoral race this year, and on the eve of the election, endorsed independent candidate and former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, predicting the city has “ZERO chance of success, or even survival” if Mamdani won. He also questioned the citizenship of Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a naturalized American citizen after graduating from college, and said he’d have him arrested if he followed through on threats not to cooperate with immigration agents in the city.

Mamdani beat back a challenge from Cuomo, painting him as a “puppet” for the president, and said he would be “a mayor who can stand up to Donald Trump and actually deliver.” He declared during one primary debate, “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare, as a progressive Muslim immigrant who actually fights for the things that I believe in.”

The president, who has long used political opponents to fire up his backers, predicted Mamdani “will prove to be one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican Party.” As Mamdani upended the Democratic establishment by defeating Cuomo and his far-left progressive policies provoked infighting, Trump repeatedly has cast Mamdani as the face of Democratic Party.

For Mamdani, a sit-down with the president of the United States offered the state lawmaker who until recently was relatively unknown the chance to go head-to-head with the most powerful person in the world.

The meeting gave Trump a high-profile chance to talk about affordability at a time when he’s under increasing political pressure to show he’s addressing voter concerns about the cost of living.

“Some of his ideas are really the same ideas that I have,” the president said of Mamdani about inflationary issues.

Some had expected fireworks in the Oval Office meeting

The president has had some dramatic public Oval Office face-offs this year, including an infamously heated exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in March. In May, Trump dimmed the lights while meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and played a four-minute video making widely rejected claims that South Africa is violently persecuting the country’s white Afrikaner minority farmers.

A senior Trump administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said Trump had not put a lot of thought into planning the meeting with the incoming mayor — but said Trump’s threats to block federal dollars from flowing to New York remained on the table.

Mamdani said Thursday that he was not concerned about the president potentially trying to use the meeting to publicly embarrass him and said he saw it as a chance to make his case, even while acknowledging “many disagreements with the president.”

Instead, both men avoided a public confrontation in a remarkably calm and cordial series of comments in front of news reporters.

Mamdani, who lives in Queens — where Trump was raised — has shown a cutthroat streak just as Trump has as a candidate. During his campaign, he appeared to borrow from Trump’s playbook when he noted during a televised debate with Cuomo that one of the women who had accused the former governor of sexual harassment was in the audience. Cuomo has denied wrongdoing.

But the tensions were subdued Friday as Trump seemed sympathetic to Mamdani’s policies to want to build more housing.

“People would be shocked, but I want to see the same thing,” the president said.

BELEM, Brazil — Negotiators pushed into overtime Friday to salvage UN climate talks in Brazil as a bitter fight over whether to mention fossil fuels threatened to derail a final agreement.

At stake at COP30 is securing a deal that paves the way for faster cuts to planet-warming emissions that are driving ever more extreme weather — and proving that international cooperation can still function in a fractured world.

After nearly two weeks of negotiations in the Amazonian city of Belem, a new draft agreement unveiled by COP30 host Brazil made no mention of “fossil fuels” or the word “roadmap” that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had himself publicly supported.

European Union climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the text was “unacceptable” and that the summit risked ending without an agreement.

“I am saying it with a heavy heart, but what is now on the table is clearly no deal,” Hoekstra told reporters as negotiators huddled again in efforts to reach a compromise.

READ: Fire stalls final stretch of COP30 climate talks

Consensus required

Thirty-six countries — including wealthy nations, emerging economies and small island states — had warned in a letter to Brazil that they would reject any deal that did not include a plan to move away from fossil fuels.

France’s ecological transition minister, Monique Barbut, told AFP that oil-rich Russia and Saudi Arabia, along with coal producer India and “many” emerging countries, were blocking a deal on fossil fuels.

Arunabha Ghosh, a special envoy for South Asia at the talks, shot back against “finger pointing.”

“To assume that one side cares about the planet and the other side, because they are unhappy with the formulation, does not care about the planet does grievous harm to the spirit of negotiations,” he told AFP.

Ghosh also defended the exclusion of the fossil fuel phaseout roadmap, arguing developing countries needed to ensure energy security for their countries and a transition for workers dependent on the sector.

Consensus is needed among the nearly 200 nations to land an agreement at the UN climate conference, which this year is taking place without the United States as President Donald Trump shunned the event.

The head of COP30, Brazilian diplomat Andre Correa do Lago, said ruefully that those who doubt that cooperation is the best way forward for climate change “are going to be absolutely delighted to see that we cannot reach an agreement between us.”

The conference, which was disrupted for several hours by a fire at the site on Thursday, was supposed to end on Friday evening at 6:00 pm (2100 GMT) — a time that came and went, as is often the case at such summits.

Money fight

The push for a phaseout of oil, coal and gas — the main drivers of global warming — grew out of frustration over a lack of follow-through on the COP28 agreement in Dubai in 2023 to transition away from fossil fuels.

Divisions also remain over trade measures and finance for poorer nations to adapt to the impacts of climate change, such as floods and droughts, and move to a low-carbon future.

The rejected draft said there was a need for a “manyfold increase” in financial support for developing countries. It also called for “efforts to triple adaptation finance” by 2030 compared to 2025 levels.

“The EU is stuck with a much earlier tripling of adaptation finance than they’re comfortable with and in exchange they got nothing,” said Jake Schmidt, senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Schmidt told AFP.

Hoekstra said the EU was “willing to be ambitious on adaptation” but that “any language on finance should squarely be within the commitment reached last year” at COP29 in Baku, where developed nations agreed to provide $300 billion in annual climate finance by 2035.

The EU is also fighting resistance led by China and India to its “carbon tax” on imports such as steel, aluminum, cement and fertilizers — measures Britain and Canada are also preparing to adopt.

MANILA< Philippines — An air patrol by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) faced 40 radio challenges from Chinese ships and aircraft at Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal on Friday.

The West Philippine Sea Transparency Office of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) said the BFAR plane conducted the maritime domain awareness (MDA) over the shoal.

The aircraft, a Cessna Caravan, received 34 radio challenges from a People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLA-N) vessel and six from a Chinese military aircraft, the PCG said, adding that the pilot responded professionally even as he emphasized to the encroaching Chinese that they were in Philippine waters.

Floating barriers

Panatag Shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc, is located some 220 kilometers away from Luzon in the West Philippine Sea, well within the country’s exclusive economic zone.

Much of that area remains occupied by Beijing after a 2012 standoff with the Philippine Navy.

The BFAR plane also observed several Chinese Coast Guard ships operating as close as one nautical mile into the shoal, and three buoys illegally installed in those waters, one in the northwest.

In October, the PCG found a yellow buoy installed at the northern tip of the shoal during an MDA flight at that time. The Philippine Navy also spotted floating barriers near the shoal during a maritime inspection.

Rear Adm. Roy Vincent Trinidad, Navy spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, said then that China placed floating barriers in areas where it found a high number of Filipino fishermen and Philippine vessels.

‘Focus on our jobs’

A Chinese fighter jet flew near the southeastern approach, while an unidentified PLA-N helicopter was seen west of the shoal. PLA-N warships 553 and 165 were spotted further south.

BFAR said the air patrol was completed safely.

Commodore Jay Tarriela, PCG spokesperson for the West Philippine Sea, told reporters on Friday: “We are still focusing our attention on this patriotic duty. With regard to the domestic politics, it’s not something that we need to meddle in.”

“For us, this is our sworn duty so we are just going to focus on our jobs,” he said.