№ 792. Ann Dunham

She was just 17 when classmates called her “the original feminist,” long before the world had a name for what she already was.

Ann Dunham

In 1950s America, when girls were expected to be quiet, obedient, and agreeable, Stanley Ann Dunham — who insisted everyone call her “Ann” — spent her teenage years reading existentialist philosophy, questioning every social rule around her, and challenging the conservative community she grew up in. While other girls practiced how to be polite, she practiced how to think.

№ 791. High Speed Rails are Greenest

 

They burn less gasoline, make less noise than cars and take up less space than freeways.
 

№ 790. State of the Nation (SONA) 2025

 

SALN Lockdown

MANILA, Philippines — Hundreds of thousands gathered Sunday for the start of a three-day rally organized by a religious group in the Philippine capital to demand accountability over a flood-control corruption scandal that has implicated powerful members of Congress and top government officials.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, crowds came in droves. The Manila City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office estimated attendees to be at 650,000 by 6 p.m.

It’s the latest show of outrage over accusations of widespread corruption in flood-control projects in one of the world’s most typhoon-prone countries. Various groups have protested in recent months following the discovery that thousands of flood defense projects across the country were substandard, incomplete or simply did not exist. 

№ 789. Technical experts: Are they truly heard?

Technical experts: Are they truly heard?

By: Raymund Narag 

 

Brainly

 

№ 788. The Western Sea

 

 

 BATANES, Philippines - Marilyn Hubalde still remembers the first time she heard the thunderous chop of military helicopters swooping over this northernmost outpost of the Philippines, less than 90 miles from Taiwan. It was April 2023, when Filipino and American troops descended on the cluster of 10 emerald green islands of Batanes province for amphibious warfare drills. 

“We were terrified,” the 65-year-old Hubalde recalled. “We thought China might attack when they learned there were military exercises in Batanes.” Hubalde’s helper, who was in the fields when the troops arrived, panicked and hid in the woods until nightfall. “She thought the war had already started,” said Hubalde, who owns a variety store in the provincial capital, Basco. 

Since then, Batanes’ 20,000 residents have become accustomed to high-tempo war games in these islands of tightly packed towns and villages wedged between rugged slopes and stony beaches. Among them: a series of joint exercises from April to June this year in which U.S. forces twice airlifted anti-ship missile launchers here.

Until recently, locals say, this smallest and least populous province of the Philippines was a peaceful backwater. But geography dictates that it is now on the frontline of the great power competition between the United States and China for dominance in the Asia-Pacific region. The islands sit on the southern edge of the Bashi Channel, a major shipping lane between the Philippines and Taiwan that connects the South China Sea with the Western Pacific. 

This year’s exercises revealed how the U.S. and its Philippine ally intend to use ground-based anti-ship missiles as part of efforts to deny the Chinese navy access to the Western Pacific by making this waterway impassable in a conflict, Reuters reporting shows. These missiles could also be used to attack a Chinese fleet attempting to invade Taiwan or mount a blockade against the democratically governed island.

 

The ability to conduct operations deep into the Pacific would be vital for the Chinese navy if it wanted to counter U.S. and Japanese attempts to intervene in a Taiwan crisis. Chinese naval and air forces would also need to operate in the Western Pacific to stymie any counter-measures by the U.S. and its allies if Beijing imposed a blockade on Taiwan.

 

“We should have the ability to deny the Chinese control of the Bashi Channel,” retired Rear Admiral Rommel Ong, a former vice-commander of the Philippine Navy, told Reuters in an interview. “In a conflict scenario, that decisive point will determine who wins or who loses.”

 

Retired General Emmanuel Bautista, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, put it even more plainly: “The invasion of Taiwan is almost impossible if you don’t control the northern Philippines.”

New York Times

China views Taiwan as its own territory, and President Xi Jinping has said that Beijing refuses to renounce the right to use force to gain control of the island. Taiwan's government rejects China's sovereignty claims, saying only the island's people can decide their future.

 

“The Taiwan issue is China's internal affair,” the foreign ministry in Beijing said in response to questions. “How to resolve it is solely China's own business and does not warrant interference from others.” The ministry also said it advised the Philippines “against using any pretext to draw in external forces” and not to provoke confrontation and create "tensions in the South China Sea.”

 

The Pentagon did not respond to questions. Taiwan’s defense ministry declined to comment for this story.

 

 

 

№ 787. A History of God by Karen Armstrong

Calvin & Hobbes

A History of God: The 4000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Karen Armstrong is a comprehensive exploration of how the concept of God has evolved across three major monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Below, is the outline of the thesis, a detailed summary, and strategic insights based on the key arguments and themes Armstrong develops in the book.

Thesis of the Book

The central thesis of A History of God is that the concept of God has evolved over time in response to changing cultural, historical, and social contexts. Armstrong argues that the image of God is not static, but rather, it is continuously reinterpreted and shaped by human experience, philosophical development, and theological reflection. Throughout history, each of the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—has wrestled with the nature of God, and these struggles have influenced not only religious thought but also broader societal structures, political ideologies, and personal identities.

Armstrong proposes that religion, especially in these three traditions, often becomes more about human attempts to understand the divine and its relationship to humanity, rather than a purely objective revelation. The quest for understanding God, according to Armstrong, is a deeply human endeavor marked by constant tension between faith, reason, and experience.

№ 786. Saving the House, Not Burning It Down

SAVING THE HOUSE, NOT BURNING IT DOWN: A Moral Call Amid a Political Crisis

Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David 

(Please spare ten minutes of your time to read this reflection.)

In the midst of the nation’s latest political turmoil—sparked, ironically, by the President’s own call to investigate corruption—we find ourselves at a moral crossroads. The crisis has revealed both the fragility and the resilience of our democratic institutions. It also confronts us with a question that transcends partisan divides: How do we purge the rot of corruption without destroying the house of democracy that generations of Filipinos have struggled to rebuild?

For decades, our cries of protest—ibagsak! and lansagin!—were formerly directed against oppressive regimes or unjust structures. But today, we raise those same cries in a different spirit. We say ibagsak at lansagin—calling for a dismantling, not of the government itself, but the corrupt networks that have captured and crippled it. We seek not the collapse of the state but its redemption.

As my brother, the sociologist Randy David, reminds us in his PDI Sunday column today (October 12, 2025), “The government of the day—the administration of President Marcos Jr. and Congress—is not the entire state. Its failures may expose flaws in the Constitution, but they do not necessarily undermine the viability of the constitutional state itself.” This distinction is crucial. It means that to criticize, investigate, and hold accountable is not to destroy but to strengthen. To reform is to renew. We do not need to burn the house down to get rid of the rats. It would be folly to throw the baby out with the bath water.

 

№ 785. New Orleans 2025