Nearly a year after they watched the Las Vegas Aces celebrate on their own court, the New York Liberty began to exact their revenge, coming away with an 87-77 win to take Game 1 of the WNBA semi-finals.
From the start, Breanna Stewart and the Liberty sent a clear message: this was a different Liberty team than last year’s. They were more experienced. They were individually better (see: Sabrina Ionescu). They were even taller (see: Leonie Fiebich). And they desperately wanted to rectify last year’s Finals performance (see: Breanna Stewart).
Now, they hold a 1-0 series lead against the two-time defending champion Aces.
In Sunday afternoon’s match-up, everything began — and ended — with Breanna Stewart. Stewart finished the game with 34 points on 12-19 shooting, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.
“I’m just trying to use my versatility in a number of ways,” Stewart told Holly Rowe after a 20-point first half. “I’m trying to set the bar for myself and continue to be great.”
Then, there was Sabrina Ionescu, who followed a 36-point explosion against the Atlanta Dream to post 21 points and 5 assists against Game 1 against the Aces.
For the Aces, A’ja Wilson finished with 21 points (9-16 shooting), 6 rebounds and 5 assists, battling with Jonquel Jones in the post for much of the night. The 6 rebounds are tied for a season low for Wilson.
“She still ended up with 21, but overall, we did a good job on her,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said postgame. “She had to work for all those points that she got.”
“We’re playing to our scouting report really well,” Stewart added.
Kelsey Plum led the way with 24 points on 9-17 shooting, and had a monster third quarter to keep the Aces in it — scoring 12 consecutive points for Las Vegas.
But, every time the Aces made a push, the Liberty responded.
“We handled their runs really well,” Ionescu said.
Plum’s performance was critical in keep Las Vegas in the mix in the second half — they fell behind by as many as 18 — but the rest of the guard cast underperformed, at least to the standards that are likely required for Las Vegas to pull off the win in this series.
Tiffany Hayes finished with just 2 points on 0-2 shooting, Chelsea Gray with just 4 points on 2-7 shooting, and Jackie Young with 17 points on 6-16 shooting.
“There’s no doubt that Jackie [Young], Kelsey [Plum], Chelsea [Gray] and Tip [Tiffany Hayes] need to play well in this series for us to win,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon said ahead of Game 1.
Young was aggressive but continued to struggle with her shot, hitting 2-7 from beyond the arc. On the defensive end, she was tasked with containing Ionescu, who continued to find a groove from beyond the arc, making 3 of 6 from deep.
“She’s always — night in and night out — responsible for the other team’s best perimeter player, which is exhausting,” Hammon said pregame of Young. “The fatigue stuff really all comes into play with shooting and explosiveness to the rim.”
After the game, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu both addressed the raucous Barcaly’s Center crowd.
“Show up, we need you guys,” Sabrina Ionescu yelled as she walked off the floor, urging a similar level of energy for Tuesday’s Game 2.
It’s only one win, but it’s a welcome sign for the Liberty.
“We’re hungry,” Stewart said in her walk-off interview. “We just want to continue to be better.”
Next Up
The Liberty will host the Aces again on Tuesday, October first at Barclay’s Center. Then, game action heads back to Las Vegas, where the Aces will get an opportunity to play in front of their home crowd at the Michelob ULTRA Center.
Now that you know how to grill safely (see June 29th post), I’ll share some food safety tips with you.
Believe it or not, food safety begins in the grocery store. When you shop for food, pick up the perishable items last – meats, dairy, and frozen foods.
Living in Florida for the past 30-some-odd years has taught me to place a cooler – with ice packs – in the trunk before heading to the store, and to drive directly home. The trunk of your car gets hotter than hell, and the inside of the car doesn’t get cool enough, even with the air conditioner running.
Remember, the Temperature Danger Zone is 41°F to 135°F, meaning – keep foods OUT of this temperature range!
Perishable food must be kept cold, especially if you are traveling to a picnic destination. In order to prevent cross-contamination, pack uncooked meat, poultry, and fish separately from any food you are planning to serve uncooked, such as a tossed salad.
If you plan to marinate anything for the grill, be sure to marinate in the refrigerator- not at room temperature. (Refer to Temp. Danger Zone above) Since raw meat, poultry and fish juices may contain harmful bacteria, it is important to DISCARD any leftover marinade. Also leftover marinade should not be used as a sauce for the grilled meat.
If you forget yourself, and end up basting the meat using the marinade with raw meat juices in it, stop marinating for the last 5 minutes of grilling so that the raw meat juices can be thoroughly cooked.
Here’s a REALLY important tip: if you are grilling chicken, consider parboiling the chicken at home in advance, then finishing the preparation on the grill. We have been served chicken that was charred on the outside and still raw in the middle – YUCK!
Having a food thermometer on hand is a good idea, too. Instant-read models are available, so you can check, in a flash, to see if the food has reached the proper internal temperature. Check out this link for a list of proper food temperatures.
NEVER – EVER put cooked food back on the same platter that held any raw meat, poultry or fish.
I think this covers the key points, so think before you act, and enjoy a wonderful grilling season!
This page: https://www.globalissues.org/article/715/today-21000-children-died-around-the-world.
To print all information (e.g. expanded side notes, shows alternative links), use the print version:
The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. Despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage.
4 million newborns worldwide are dying in the first month of life
2 million children under 15 are living with HIV
>500,000 women die each year from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth
Back in 2000, UNICEF’s Progress of Nations report for that year tried to put these numbers into some perspective:
The continuation of this suffering and loss of life contravenes the natural human instinct to help in times of disaster. Imagine the horror of the world if a major earthquake were to occur and people stood by and watched without assisting the survivors! Yet every day, the equivalent of a major earthquake killing over 30,000 young children occurs to a disturbingly muted response. They die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
Unfortunately, it seems that the world still does not notice. It might be reasonable to expect that death and tragedy on this scale should be prime time headlines news. Yet, these issues only surface when there are global meetings or concerts (such as the various G8 summits, the Make Poverty History campaign in 2005, etc).
Furthermore, year after year, we witness that when those campaigns end and the meetings conclude, so does the mainstream media coverage.
It feels as though even when there is some media attention, the ones who suffer are not the ones that compel the mainstream to report, but instead it is the movement of the celebrities and leaders of the wealthy countries that makes this issue newsworthy.
Even rarer in the mainstream media is any thought that wealthy countries may be part of the problem too. The effects of international policies such as structural adjustments, the current form of globalization, and the influence wealthy countries have had for decades on these processes is rarely looked at.
Instead, promises and pledges from the wealthy, powerful countries, and the corruption of the poorer ones — who receive apparently abundant goodwill — make the headlines; the repeated broken promises, the low quality and quantity of aid, and conditions with unfair strings attached do not.
Accountability of the recipient countries is often mentioned when these issues touch the mainstream. Accountability of the roles that international institutions such as the World Bank and IMF, and their funders (the wealthy/powerful countries), rarely does. The risk is that citizens of these countries get a false sense of hope creating the misleading impression that appropriate action is taken in their names.
It may be harsh to say the mainstream media is one of the many causes of poverty, as such, but the point here is that their influence is enormous. Silence, as well as noise, can both have an effect.
When this page was initially written, the BBC’s top story on prime time television was about a British child kidnapped in Portugal. This is definitely a tragic story that needs reporting, but why, for the BBC and other British media outlets that pride themselves in outstanding international media coverage, is the plight of millions of children not daily headlines?
Another recent tragedy that sustained days of headline and prime time media coverage was the Virginia Tech massacre’s in the US. When media critics at Media Lens asked for the BBC’s rationale for such sustained coverage compared to more people dying each day in Iraq and receiving just a few minutes in comparison, the BBC responded that it happens every day in Iraq. See Putting Virginia Tech in Perspective for the follow up from Media Lens.
Some people fear there will be fatigue at hearing those depressing stories all the time, or the advertisers will pressure the media companies to put a bit more entertainment or good news on so that buying moods are not affected.
And does it have to be just bad news? Despite the tragedy, there is some measure of progress, which, perhaps with further public attention, could spur on more efforts in these areas and highlight important related issues.
However, news of tragedies in Iraq are also depressing, but nevertheless do received regular headline coverage.
Also there is worry that the lack of sensationalism attached to reporting the same news story each day will result in lower television viewing ratings and this may have various consequences—especially where advertising is concerned.
Finally there is the question of whether people want to hear about such depressing news stories. After all the media feels it is delivering what its viewers would like. However, it is difficult for people to know what they do or do not want to see, if they are never given the options of the alternatives. If the magnitude of this suffering is hardly reported in a sustained manner, how can viewers judge whether they wish to watch it or not?
This site’s article, Asian Tsunami in December 2004, notes that approximately 230,000 people died in that disaster.
Sources for Iraq comparison
For the Iraq estimate, the John Hopkins study (reported in the Lancet) found 400,000 to 950,000 deaths since the 2003 Iraq invasion (average of some 655,000). .
As an aside, George Bush and many others dismissed this study in the Lancet as lacking credibility, using discredited methodologies, and instead used the Iraq Body Count statistics (of 30,000 at the time, though it is now reported at about 66,000).
If Iraq Body Count statistics are to be used, then the number of days in which child deaths match the post 2003 Iraq death toll is just two or three days. The Iraq Body Count statistics are often criticized because they rely on mainstream media reporting, which is heavily censored and managed by the US in Iraq. Nonetheless they provided criticism of the John Hopkins study (often referred to as the Lancet study as that is where it was published).
The authors of the study defended it noting that they used the very methodology that the US government is teaching others (and thus dismissed Bush’s claim of using discredited methodologies). The full report in the Lancet also notes that casualty reporting in war time tends to be grossly underestimated, so their numbers may not be as hard to accept as it initially sounds. This caused controversy when reported in October 2006, and is detailed further on this site’s Iraq media reporting section which includes the relevant links.
Throughout this site, many issues are discussed that rarely sustain (or enter) mainstream media coverage. The articles listed below are ones that provide a bit more detail behind the above figures.
See also Poverty.com for more interactive information and ChildInfo for more data based on the UNICEF statistics.
We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.
In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell published the first of several bestselling books, “The Tipping Point,” in which he applied the laws of epidemics to promote positive social change. Now, he’s returned to that optimistic book’s lessons in “Revenge of the Tipping Point” (to be published October 1 by Little, Brown & Co.), to examine the flip side of those theories.
The new book’s topics range from cheetah reproduction and the Harvard women’s rugby team to the Holocaust.
Read the excerpt below, and don’t miss David Pogue’s interview with Malcolm Gladwell on “CBS Sunday Morning” September 29!
Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.
In the 1970s, zookeepers around the world began to invest more and more resources in breeding their animal populations in captivity. The logic was clear. Why go to all the trouble of capturing animals in the wild? The growing conservation movement also favored breeding programs. The new strategy was a big success — with one big outlier: the cheetah.
“They seldom had offspring that survived, and many of them when put together couldn’t breed,” remembers the geneticist Stephen O’Brien, who was then working at the National Cancer Institute.
It didn’t make sense. The cheetah seemed a perfect example of evolutionary fitness: a massive nuclear reactor for a heart, the legs of a greyhound, a skull shaped like a professional cyclist’s aerodynamic helmet, and semi-retractable claws that, as O’Brien puts it, “grip the earth like football cleats as they race after their prey at sixty miles per hour.”
“It’s the fastest animal on earth,” O’Brien said. “The second fastest animal on earth is the American pronghorn. And the reason that it’s the second-fastest is that it was running from the cheetahs.”
The zookeepers wondered if they were doing something wrong, or whether there was something about the make-up of the cheetah that they didn’t understand. They came up with theories and tried experiments — all to no avail. In the end, they shrugged and said that the animals must be “skittish.”
Things came to a head at a meeting in 1980 in Front Royal, Virginia. Zoo directors from around the world were there, among them the head of a big wildlife-conservation program in South Africa.
“And he says, ‘Do you have anybody that knows what they’re doing scientifically?’ ” O’Brien remembers. ” ‘[To] basically explain to us why our breeding program of cheetahs in South Africa has something like 15 percent success while the rest of these animals — elephants and horses and giraffes — they breed like rats?’ “
Two scientists raised their hands — both colleagues of O’Brien’s. They flew to South Africa, to a big wildlife sanctuary near Pretoria. They took blood and sperm samples from dozens of cheetahs. What they found astonished them. The sperm counts of the cheetahs were low. And the spermatozoa themselves were badly malformed. That was clearly why the animals had such trouble breeding. It wasn’t that they were “skittish.”
But why? O’Brien’s laboratory then began testing the blood samples that had been sent to them. They had done similar studies in the past on birds, humans, horses, and domestic cats, and in all those cases the animals showed a healthy degree of genetic diversity: In most species, around 30 percent of sampled genes will show some degree of variation. The cheetah’s genes looked nothing like that. They were all the same. “I never saw a species that was so genetically uniform,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien’s findings were greeted with skepticism by his colleagues. So he and his team kept going.
“I went down to Children’s Hospital in Washington and I learned how to do skin grafts at a burn unit,” he said. “They taught me how to keep it sterile and how to take the . . . slices and how to suture it up and everything. And then we did [skin grafts on] about eight cheetahs in South Africa, and then we did another six or eight in Oregon.”
Winston, Oregon, was home to the Wildlife Safari, the largest collection of cheetahs in the United States at the time.
The idea was simple. If you graft a piece of skin from one animal onto another, the recipient’s body will reject it. It will recognize the genes of the donor as foreign. “It would blacken and slough off in two weeks,” O’Brien said. But if you take a patch of skin from, say, one identical twin and graft it onto another, it will work. The donor’s immune system thinks the skin is its own. This was the ultimate test of his hypothesis.
The grafts were small — one inch by one inch, sewn onto the side of the animal’s chest, protected by an elastic bandage wrapped around the cat’s body. First, the team gave some of the cheetahs a skin graft from a domestic cat, just to make sure the animals had an immune system. Sure enough, the cheetahs rejected the cat graft: It got inflamed, then necrotic. Their bodies knew what different was — and a domestic cat was different. Then the team grafted skin from other cheetahs. What happened? Nothing! They were accepted, O’Brien said, “as if they were identical twins. The only place you see that is in inbred mice that have been brother-sister mated for twenty generations. And that convinced me.”
O’Brien realized that the world’s cheetah population must have at some point been devastated. His best guess was that it happened during the great mammal die-off 12,000 years ago — when saber-toothed cats, mastodons, mammoths, giant ground sloths, and over thirty other species were wiped out by an ice age. Somehow the cheetah survived. But just barely.
“The numbers that fit all the data are less than one hundred, maybe less than fifty,” O’Brien said. It’s possible, in fact, that the cheetah population was reduced to a single pregnant female. And the only way for those lonely few cheetahs to survive was to overcome the inhibition that most mammals have against incest: Sisters had to mate with brothers, first cousins with first cousins. The species eventually rebounded, but only through the endless replication of the same narrow set of genes. The cheetah was still magnificent. But now every cheetah represented the exact same kind of magnificence.
Inside: Feeding hungry teens? Here are some of the best foods to include in their meals and snacks.
One moment, your baby is sitting in a highchair, gleefully scarfing down diced avocado and spoonfuls of pureed peas.
And the next moment they’re a teenager, strolling into the house with a bag of Taco Bell in one hand and a Mountain Dew in the other.
Teens have independence, their own money, and growth spurt-fueled appetite surges.
We want them to make the most nutritious choices. But often, they make the easiest ones. That usually means more packaged, ultra-processed, and nutrient-poor foods.
Why this matters
Teenagers are experiencing huge growth and development. For instance, it’s not uncommon for a teen boy in a growth spurt to shoot up four inches in one year.
All that growth means they need quality nutrients to fuel it. It also means they’re hungry. Sometimes really hungry.
What they need
Unfortunately, diet quality tends to tank during the teenage years compared to younger children. In fact, the teens years are the lowest diet quality time period in life.
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, teenage girls are lacking in…
Iron
Protein
Folate
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Choline
Fiber
Teenage boys need more….
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Choline
Fiber
WHAT ABOUT VITAMIN D? Vitamin D was singled out in the Dietary Guidelines as a “nutrient of public health concern”. It’s key for forming strong bones, which teens are still building. Vitamin D is the one supplement I have my teen take daily.
Best Foods For Teens
The good news is that while they’re still living under your roof, you can stock the house with nutritious foods for meals and snacks.
So what are the best foods for teens to eat? Obviously, offering a variety of foods is best. But I’ve picked 10 stand-outs. They’re based on nutrients that most teens aren’t getting enough of.
1. Beans
They’re one of the best foods for teens because they’re a rich source of plant-based protein and contain at least three of the nutrients that teenagers need more of: fiber, protein, and iron. A cup of black beans packs 16 grams of protein, nearly as much as three eggs.
Ways to serve them:
In a batch of homemade hummus
Combined with ground turkey in these Baked Turkey Tacos
Tucked into a burrito with cheese and salsa
Stacked in a 7-Layer Dip with cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, tomato, and lettuce
Cooked white beans whirled into a smoothie
In a veggie burger
Cold on a protein-rich “power salad”
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: 29 Ways to Serve Chickpeas To Kids
2. Oats
They’re a natural whole grain, and teens aren’t getting enough whole grains in general. They’re rich in the kind of fiber that fights constipation and the kind that helps lower cholesterol. They’re also filling, so they make a good stick-with-you meal in the morning.
Ways to serve them:
All oats (old-fashioned, quick, and steel-cut) are 100 percent whole grain and have the same health benefits.
3. Eggs
Each egg packs six grams of protein. And don’t toss the yolk: Both the yolk and the white contain protein, and the yolk has valuable nutrients like vitamin D (eggs are one of the only foods that naturally contains vitamin D), choline (a nutrient that’s most people don’t get enough of), and antioxidants like lutein (which is good for eye health).
Ways to serve them:
On a Make-Ahead Egg Muffin or Bagel Sandwich
Inside a Make-Ahead Breakfast Burrito: Top burritos with scrambled eggs and a sprinkle of cheese, roll up tightly and wrap in foil. Reheat in toaster oven or oven.
Baked into Make-Ahead Scrambled Egg Muffins
As an “Egg-in-a-Hole”: Cut out a hole from the center of buttered bread, place it in a pan and crack an egg in the center, flipping and cooking until egg is at desired doneness.
Boiled and stashed in the fridge to eat as is, or chopped onto a power salad
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Are brown eggs healthier than white? Should you buy “cage free” eggs? Find out in Egg Myths & Facts You Should Know
4. Peanuts & Peanut Butter
Peanuts contain more plant-based protein than any other nut and they’re one of the most affordable nut too. Plus, a two-tablespoon serving of peanut butter costs about 18 cents on average. Peanuts also contain magnesium, a mineral teens need more of.
Way to serve it:
All nuts are nutritious. For instance, pistachios are a source of complete protein, which means they have all the amino acids we need to get from food. Teenage girls are more at risk than boys for not getting enough protein.
5. Soy
Soy foods like edamame are a high-quality plant protein. That means they pack all the amino acids we need to get from food. Soy is also a good source of iron that’s well-absorbed compared to iron in other plant foods. A half-cup of edamame in the pods has 5 grams of protein and 4 grams of fiber, plus calcium, magnesium, and potassium–all nutrients that teens need.
How to serve it:
Research has found that girls who eat soy as a teen and young adult may have a lower risk of breast cancer later in life.
6. Yogurt
Teens have higher calcium needs in this intense period of growth and change, and they’re still building bone. Dairy foods contain phosphorus, a nutrient teens more of. Yogurt also has vitamin B12, which girls tend to lack. Greek yogurt contains more protein per cup than regular because more liquid is strained off, which concentrates the protein. Yogurt is good for the gut too.
Ways to serve it:
Want more ideas for the best foods for teens? See my lists of Healthy Breakfast Ideas For Teens and Healthy Lunches For Teens.
7. Berries
All fruits are good for teens, but by the late teens, fruit and veggie intake is only about half of where it should be. Berries are a star because they’re especially rich in fiber, which most teens lack in their diets. Plus they score high for antioxidants, plant compounds that protect cells from the kind of damage that can lead to disease later in life. Blueberries may also have the potential to positively affect learning and memory.
Ways to serve them:
8. Popcorn
Surprised to see this on a best foods for teens list? A lot of kids and teens gravitate to crunchy snacks already, and popcorn delivers some bonus fiber and whole grains compared to snacks like chips. Popcorn is a natural whole grain, which teens (and everyone else) need more of. Have them sprinkle it with nutritional yeast, a cheesy vegan seasoning, and they’ll also be getting bonus B vitamins.
How to serve it: Get my recipe for foolproof stovetop popcorn, which I make at least a couple times a week!
9. Leafy greens
A lot of people (including teens) are consuming most of their veggie servings in the form of French fries and not getting enough leafy greens. Leafy greens contain vitamin C, fiber, and folate, a B vitamin that teen girls especially need. The pigments that make them green also give them disease-fighting properties.
Ways to serve them:
10. Breakfast cereal
Cereal is an easy and affordable breakfast: A bowl of cereal with milk costs, on average, 50 cents per serving! Fortified kinds supply needed nutrients like iron, B vitamins, and folate. (Keep in mind that organic varieties don’t tend to be fortified.) Look for a box with at least 3 grams of fiber per serving. Here are other guidelines for picking a breakfast cereal for kids.
Ways to serve it:
As is, straight from the box
“Gussied Up” cereal: Top cold cereal with berries or sliced fruit, nuts and seeds.
Mixed with nuts and dried fruit in a trail mix
FAQ About Foods for Teens
What foods do teens need LESS of?
Most kids get too many ultra-processed food, which tend to contain more fat, salt, and sugar and may be related to health risks. And about one-third of teens’ sugar consumption comes in the form of sweet drinks. That includes soft drinks, sports drinks, and bottled teas.
What about fast food?
Most teens get more saturated fat and sodium than recommended, two things fast food tends to be packed with. But fast food is inexpensive and tasty, so a lot of teens are naturally drawn to it. As a dietitian, I don’t demonize fast food with my kids, but since they eat it when they’re out and about, we don’t get it as a family.
Do teen athletes need more food?
Yes. Teens who exercise need extra calories to fuel activity. They also need more protein for a few things: rebuilding muscle that was damaged during exercise (a normal part of the process), supplying energy for workouts, and building new muscle.
What are some easy dinner ideas for teens?
Give yourself the night off! Here are 25 dinners that teens can make themselves.
How much caffeine is okay for teens?
The American Academy of Pediatrics says that adolescents shouldn’t have more than 100 mg of caffeine each day. Health Canada sets their caffeine recommendation maximum daily amount at 2.5 mg per kg of body weight. That’s about 150 mg of caffeine for a 130-pound teenager. A 12-ounce can of Coke has about 34 mg of caffeine.
One of the biggest drawbacks of caffeine for teens is that it disrupts sleep, and most teens don’t get enough shut-eye already. It can also cause restlessness, a racing heart, and irritability. Be sure your teen understands the risk of energy drinks, which can pack as much caffeine as four cups of coffee.
How many fruits and vegetables does my teen need?
Teens ages 14-18 need 1.5 cups of fruit (2 cups of fruit for boys) and 2.5 cups of veggies (3 cups of veggies for boys). Here’s an example of what that looks like:
Does my teenager need a multivitamin?
As a registered dietitian, I always suggest people get good nutrition through real food, instead of supplements. That’s because you get the whole package with foods–like fiber and disease-fighting compounds–not just the isolated nutrients.
But if your teen is very picky and eats relatively few foods or doesn’t eat many fruits or vegetables, a daily multivitamin can be a good insurance policy. Talk to your pediatrician about what’s best. A good rule of thumb is to look for multivitamins with levels at or around the Daily Values (no need to mega-dose).
Why are teen girls at risk for not getting enough protein?
Teen girls tend to eat fewer calories than boys, and are more likely to restrict their diets for weight loss and not eat enough calories in general.
But protein can be low for both teen girls or boys if they go vegetarian or vegan by simply cutting out animal foods–without including other protein sources like beans, lentils, and soy.
If your teen is an extremely picky eater, they might also be skimping on protein.
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LAPU-LAPU CITY, Cebu — A late Sunday evening fire destroyed five houses and displaced 38 individuals in Sitio Sto. Niño, Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City. Fire Officer III Jopet Obiña, fire investigator of the Lapu-Lapu City Fire Station, estimated the damage to property at P3 million. Obiña said that they were still trying to find out what caused the fire. He also said that they were also verifying allegations that the fire started from the kitchen of one of the houses. READ MORE: 80-year-old grandma dies in Lapu-Lapu City fire Consolacion fire: Embers from burnt out egg tray started blaze? Fire […]…
Keep on reading: Lapu-Lapu fire: P3M worth of properties lost, 38 people displaced
Manila, the Philippines – Veronica Bebero recalls the despair she felt being interrogated by police inside a locked room at the United States Embassy in Manila.
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) investigators wanted to know why she had used fake marriage annulment documents for her US visa application.
Tears streaming down her face, the Manila-based acupuncturist remembers saying: “This has to be a nightmare, right?”
Bebero had turned to a woman who claimed to be a judicial official to secure an annulment after the COVID-19 pandemic derailed her efforts to go through the usual court process.
After she and her US finance had paid some 500,000 Philippine pesos (USD 8,862) in legal and admin fees, Bebero was attracted by the promise of a speedy annulment for a fee of 210,000 Philippine pesos ($3,722).
“She said I’d have my annulment in three to six months,” Bebero, 50, told Al Jazeera.
Bebero’s annulment never came. As she learned from the police, she had been scammed.
“There is someone out there who wants what I want, a nice peaceful marriage. If someone is willing to give that then I want to be able to give that back,” said Bebero, whose engagement with her fiancé fell apart under the strain of losing so much money.
The extraordinary lengths Bebero was willing to go to annul her marriage reflects the Philippines’s status as the only jurisdiction in the world, apart from the Vatican, that does not recognise divorce.
That leaves Filipino couples who wish to sever ties with no other option than an annulment – a gruelling process for Filipinos of modest means, in particular.
In the deeply Catholic Philippines, annulments typically take about two years, cost about half a million pesos and are usually only granted in extreme cases of abuse or incompatibility.
With legislative moves afoot, the reliance on annulments could finally be about to change.
In June, the Absolute Divorce Bill moved to the Senate after passing the House of Representatives in May.
Bebero and other backers of the bill view the prospect of legalised divorce as a lifeline, particularly for spouses who cannot afford a costly annulment.
One of the divorce bill’s main proponents is Congresswoman Arlene Brosas, who says the reform would offer a way out for “marriages that have failed and have no other remedy”, Brosas told Al Jazeera.
“It’s for women who don’t have a choice and are financially trapped in abusive households.
Conservative senators have expressed their aversion to the bill, suggesting instead that amendments be made to the annulment law.
“Instead of divorce, why don’t we study how to make marriage annulments more acceptable and their processes less taxing?” Senator Jinggoy Estrada said in a statement earlier this year.
Philippine Senator Jinggoy Estrada [Rolex Dela Pena/EPA-EFE]
The Catholic Church, which holds significant sway in a country where about 80 percent of the population identifies with the religion, has been among the most fervent opponents of the bill.
Father Jerome Secillano, spokesperson for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), recently asked lawmakers why they were “harping on divorce” when they could amend existing laws.
Secillano blamed “unscrupulous lawyers” for charging excessive fees for annulments, making the process of invalidating a marriage “anti-poor”.
To prevent exorbitant legal expenses, the divorce bill proposes a cap on costs of 50,000 pesos ($886), much less than the typical cost of an annulment.
Attorney Minnie Lopez, counsel for the national women’s group Gabriela, said that annulments are costly by design to make the ending of marriages as difficult as possible.
“In court, it’s clear that most clients are well-off,” Lopez told Al Jazeera.
Lopez said that the push to legalise divorce is not just about affordability, but accessibility, too.
“Divorce expands the grounds where marriages can end, it expedites the process. It considers economic incapacity and urgency,” Lopez said.
Lopez acknowledged that the provisions in the proposed divorce legislation are part of an “ideal scenario” and bills often go through extensive revisions before becoming law.
If passed in its current form, the divorce bill would make court rulings immediate and allow applicants to represent themselves in cases where a lawyer is not necessary, such as in cases of bigamy or where a couple has been separated for at least five years.
The proposed law lists 13 grounds for divorce, including irreconcilable differences, compared with the eight allowed grounds for annulment.
Cici Leuenberger-Jueco of Divorce for the Philippines Now-International warns that scammers are preying on people such as Bebero who are desperate to leave their marriages.
In October 2023, the Supreme Court ordered the NBI to investigate the matter.
Leuenberger-Jueco said that very few women come forward to press charges against scammers because “they feel ashamed”.
“Or they sometimes settle if half of the money is returned,” Leuenberger-Jueco told Al Jazeera.
According to the latest Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) census, just 1.9 percent of Filipinos had either received an annulment, or gotten separated or divorced – the latter including those who wed overseas.
The census data from June also showed that just 51 percent of women were in the labour force, compared with 75 percent of men, meaning half of Filipino women depend on spousal or familial income.
The House of Representatives passed the Absolute Divorce Bill in May [Francis R. Malasig/EPA-EFE]
Sarah Abella, who heads a Violence Against Women complaint desk in Marikina City, said she receives calls from up to 10 distressed wives each day.
For them, any form of separation is too much of a financial burden to contemplate, Abella said.
“A wife can’t afford to leave, so she endures the pain of each fist,” Abella told Al Jazeera.
Some observers argue that legalising divorce could bring broader benefits for the economy as a whole.
Ella Oplas, an expert on gender and economics at De La Salle University, believes that allowing divorce could spur the country’s growth.
Assuming the pent-up demand for divorce is high, Oplas said separating couples would need to seek out new accommodations, creating a “higher demand for real property”.
Oplas said that allowing divorce could also result in “an increase in family consumption” as the rise in the number of households would bring about “two sets of groceries and expenditures.”
Since many women remain financially dependent on their spouses, however, Oplas said the country should expect transitional challenges.
The PSA recorded a poverty rate among women of 18.4 percent in 2021, up from 16.6 percent in 2018.
The statistics agency found that women ranked as the third-most economically vulnerable segment of society, after residents of rural areas and children.
Oplas said that while she supports the legalisation of divorce, the government also needs to do more to support women seeking financial independence.
For Bebero, the idea of saving up for another annulment application on an acupuncturist’s salary seems “impossible”.
She hopes that lawmakers will follow through on the proposed law change to give women like her a fresh start.
“Each paycheck goes to the bills and my two kids. I have no plans and I don’t really know where my life is going. But I carry on,” Bebero said.
CHEAT ON DESSERT WITH QUESTIFIED CHOCOLATE BROWNIE TRUFFLES. These chocolate wrecking balls are about to destroy every illusion you ever had about sweets. Imagine rich, decadent Quest Bake Shop Chocolate Brownies getting a cream cheese glow-up, followed by a deep dive into silky, sugar-free chocolate. And just when things start to settle and your taste buds are basking in chocolatey goodness, a pile of delicious brownie crumbles tumbles in from above to seal the deal. Prepare for a massive detonation of chocolate and protein that’s bound to leave other desserts in the dust.
In a bowl, use your hands to break the brownies into small crumbles.
Reserve 2 tbsp of crumbles and set aside.
Add in the cream cheese and use your hands to combine. Separate the mixture into 10 evenly sized balls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Melt the chocolate and the coconut oil together until smooth. Use a form to cover each ball in chocolate, letting the excess drip off before returning to the baking sheet.
Top with brownie crumbles and chill for 1 hour before serving.
George Kittle was determined to make their third touchdown stick.
First, a holding penalty from Kittle nullified what would have been a 38-yard touchdown pass from Brock Purdy to running back Jordan Mason. Then a potential touchdown strike from Purdy to Kyle Juszczyk was taken off the board due to an illegal shift.
Then, with the 49ers facing 3rd and 10 at the Patriots’ 12-yard line, Purdy looked in Kittle’s direction on a corner route in the back-left corner of the end zone. Somehow the tight end lept over a trio of New England defenders to haul in this incredible touchdown:
In addition to a little redemption for Kittle, who was called for the holding penalty earlier in the drive, Purdy was finally able to celebrate a touchdown on the drive:
He also made sure to say hi to his mom:
So far it is all San Francisco this afternoon, as the 49ers currently enjoy a 20-0 lead over the visiting Patriots.
