THE GOLDEN GAZZETTE (7 DILIGENCE)

July 08 2021

The Golden Gazette Benigno Aquino, the former President of the Philippines, has died at the age of 61 Continue on page 1

Effects COVID-19 has on animals: Is your pet safe from the virus?

Continue on page 9

Mother allegedly uses drugs on her 2-year-old son to keep him from crying By: Sheridon Reyes

The Vaccines Are Here

A 34-year-old mother in Cebu City was reported to NBI Region 7 because her 2-year-old son was allegedly using drugs.

“The woman does this to stop her child from crying and not to disturb their neighbors.” Said the NBI. “The child could hardly sleep because of the drug.” Said the neighbors.

Continue on page 7

Nozomi Okuhara said that last year was a year she had never experienced before Continue on page 11

The NBI and DSWD rescued the child. The authorities said that the first time they looked at the child, they could see that the abuse was done to him.

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News Mother allegedly uses drugs on her 2-year-old son to keep him from crying By: Sheridon Reyes

could see that the abuse was done to him.

“He doesn't have normal behavior for a two years old, usually jolly. I even carried him then played with him but his reaction for a two years old kid, it’s like nothing.” Said Aga Guerran NBI-7.

victim over to the neighbor as well as her 8 -month -old brother. They are now in the custody of the DSWD. From the investigation by the authorities, the woman was also driving drugs and allegedly used their house as a drug den. Authorities are already searching for the said lady.

They didn’t reach the child's mother at home, and allegedly only handed the

A 34-year-old mother in Cebu City was reported to NBI Region 7 because her 2-year-old son was allegedly using drugs.

“The woman does this to stop her child from crying and not to disturb their neighbors.” Said the NBI. “The child could hardly sleep because of the drug.” Said the neighbors.

The NBI and DSWD rescued the child. The authorities said that the first time they looked at the child, they

Benigno Aquino, the former President of the Philippines, has died at the age of 61

By Isabel Bandoquillo

Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino died after a prolonged illness, according to his family. The Aquino family said that the former president died "peacefully in his sleep" at 6:30 a.m. Manila time on Thursday, after suffering from renal disease caused by diabetes.

gery. According to ABSCBN news, he was admitted to the hospital early last Thursday.

The family also thanked Aquino's supporters and those who helped in his household during his final Based on reports, Aquino had days. been on dialysis for more than five months and had just had heart sur-

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News Almost 50 people were killed on a military plane in Jolo, Philippines.

By: Allianna Adeva

On Sunday July 4, 2021 a military plane called C-30 having 96 people on board crashed on Jolo killing at least 50 people. All had been accounted for by Military Chief Cirilito Sobejana on Monday.

He said that 49 soldiers were injured in the fiery crash, which happened when the C-130 Hercules transport plane missed the runway while trying to land on the southern island of Jolo where the military is fighting the Abu Sayyaf and other armed groups. It was also confirmed by the department of National Defence that three civilians on the ground had been killed while four were injured. It was also stated by the military that three pilots among those who survived the crash are in a serious condition.

The plane was one of two ex-US Air Force aircraft handed over to the Philippines as part of military assistance this year. In order to help from the crash, helicopters were deployed to transport

the injured to a nearby hospital. While those who have serious injuries have been taken to Zamboanga City. The plane was one of the newly acquired planes of the Philippines and was transporting soldiers, many of whom had just undergone basic training from the southern Cagayan de Oro for deployment in Sulu, as stated by the officials.

A military spokesman says there is no indication of an attack on the plane, but efforts are focused on rescue and treatment. Soldiers and other rescuers with stretchers could be seen dashing into and from the smoke-shrouded crash site. Among those who survived the crash were Private Roejader Colata and Private First Class Reymart Bulat-ag.

Colata Roejader, who had just completed his military training on June 23. Before boarding the flight, Colata held a video call with his older brother, Rayrafar, to update him about his first deployment after his training.

"We were so worried for many hours, because we only received information that my brother survived after 5pm on Sunday," he says. "Those hours were so excruciating when we had to wait for the news of his condition. Now my parents are somewhat relieved. But we still haven’t talked to him yet.The accident comes after a Black Hawk helicopter crashed last month during a night-time training flight, killing all six on board.Three pilots and three airmen died when their S70-i went down near the Crow Valley training range north of Manila, prompting the grounding of the entire flee

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News At least 3,800 people staying in evacuation centers amid Taal’s activity By: Sheridon Reyes

“At least 3,807 people or 1,066 families are staying in different evacuation centers as Taal Volcano is showing activity that could drive an explosive eruption,” the Batangas Provincial Police Office said on Wednesday. As of 10:30 a.m, The police said evacuations were reported in Laurel, Nasugbu, Talisay, Balete, Agoncillo, and Balayan. Most of the evacuees are in Laurel with 2,040 people who are taking brief shelter in eight evacuation centers, followed by Agoncillo with 1,208 people in eight evacuation centers. “Minimum public health standards are being applied in evacuation centers to prevent possible transmission of COVID-19.” the Batangas police said.

The checkpoint was also set at the control point leading to barangays inside the seven-kilometer danger zone, it added. Aside from this, the police said patrolling is being controlled in Agoncillo and Laurel to ensure security and order in the area.

These earthquakes included one explosion -type earthquake, 44 low-frequency volcanic earthquakes, five volcanic tremor events with durations of two to five minutes, as well as five hybrid earthquakes. More than 7,560 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) gas was released from the According to PHIVOLCS, a small phreatovolcano on Tuesday. PHIVOLCS had been magmatic eruption occurred in Taal Volca- expecting a phreatomagmatic eruption in no on Wednesday morning. “At 5:18 AM Taal Volcano similar to the explosion on today, a short-lived phreatomagmatic July 1. Alert Level 3 is still up over the Taal eruption happened at Main Crater and Volcano, which means magma released produced a grayish plume that rose 300 from the volcano’s main crater could trigmeters before drifting southeast,” ger an "explosive eruption."

PHIVOLCS said in its 8 a.m. bulletin.

PHIVOLCS said 55 volcanic earthquakes with weak background tremors were also recorded in Taal in the last 24 hours.

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Editorial Should abortion be legal?

By: Jem Lianne Dela Cruz

maternal care in the Philippines.

cies.

Because abortion is frowned upon and illegal, women have resulted in performing “unsafe” abortions – meaning that women do it without the help of professionals. Unsafe abortions can cause serious risks for the woman and can even lead to death. 45 percent of all abortions in the world are performed this way – wherein 8-11 percent of which causes death to the woman performing the said abortion. Even when women that perform these “unsafe” abortions need to be taken into the hospital because of the complications due to the procedure, they still wouldn’t go willingly because of the fear of getting reported to the authorities and face jail time. A study that was conducted in 1997 says that in 1994, 400,000 abortions were performed illegally in the Philippines and 80,000 hospitalizations of women for abortion-related complications.

Pro-choice states that the choice of whether the pregnant woman wants to keep or abort their unborn child would be acceptable.

People that identify as pro-choice believe that everyone has the basic human right to decide when and if they would like to have children. Everyone should be taking responsibility for one's actions. People should practice safe sex or abstinence. And I believe that the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy can be worse than the "benefits" of having irresponsible sex. However, in some cases, I believe that abortion IS taking responsibility. Bringing an unwanted child into the world is irresponsible and damaging. Most of the reasons in which women choose to have an abortion are that they have no support from the family/ father of the unborn child and friends, financially unstable, and overall not ready to have kids yet.

In conclusion, we should focus on what women need and what is convenient for them. We should do better and create more laws in favor of providing young teenagers with safe sex, contraceptives, and sex education. We should also teach them about the dangers of unprotected sex and irresponsible choices in life.

Women have the right to their bodily autonomy and that should include the right to their reproductive system. Bodily autonomy indicates the right for the person to control what happens to their own body. This indicates that women should have free reign over their bodies and reproductive system.

So why is choosing to have an abortion frowned upon and illegal in many countries? Why are women scared to be expressive with their choices for their well-being?

Women should have control over their Abortions have also caused a worldwide choices and what they choose to do with disagreement between being pro-life or protheir bodies. choice. Pro-life states the abortion is murder and that it is wrong. People that identiVarious anti-abortion laws have been in fy as pro-life tend to side with the life of force in each state since at least 1900. One the unborn child because of their morals that is in the Philippines is Articles 256, and what they believe in religiously. Most 258, and 259 of the Revised Penal Code of people that have chosen pro-choice usualthe Philippines – which clearly says that ly say that “it is just a blob of tissue” and women who undergo abortion and anyone that we don’t know when life bethat assists in the procedure are expected to gins. But both of those statements serve time in prison. Unwanted pregnancies have been disproven by science. usually occur when there is a lack of sex The moment when a human education that should be taught in school sperm penetrates a human and the lack of contraceptives like con- ovum or egg, usually in the updoms, birth control pills or birth control per portion of the Fallopian implants, emergency contraception pills, Tube, a new entity comes into etc. Though there are still some laws that existence. “Zygote” is the discuss contraceptives. One of which is The name of the first cell formed Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive at conception, the earliest Health Act of 2012, also known as the Re- developmental stage of the productive Health Law or RH Law, and human embryo. The zygote officially designated as Republic Act No. is composed of human DNA 10354, is a Philippine law that provided and other human molecules, universal access to methods of contracep- so its nature is undeniably hution, fertility control, sexual education, and man and not some other spe-

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Editorial Women’s rights By: Jem Lianne Dela Cruz Gender equality, to vote freely, not to be followed home, not to be sexually harassed in broad daylight, stop getting catcalled, stop gender stereotypes, safety when walking outside alone, respect for women, equal opportunity to all genders, to stop sexism and more women in positions of power – that is all women ask for. It’s disappointing that women have to ask for basic human decency. Sadly, we have to ask and plead for human rights that should be given to us automatically.

Women deal with these things and more daily.

on housework and motherhood and not working outside and also due to the common phrase “Women belong in the kitchen” – clearly stating that a woman’s job is to cook and clean.

Most people think that women can’t lead but women continue to correct them and prove that they can. Women fight to earn fair and equal wages because most women don’t get paid as much as a man does even if their jobs are the same. They fight for the freedom to vote because they were restricted to do so.

There are many ways to help women’s movements for their rights. Some are raising your voice, spreading awareness about the topic, attending/ supporting protests and marches, and donating to women’s movements. You can spread awareness about fighting for women’s rights by posting about it and educating your friends and family regarding this issue.

You can also attend protests to help spread the word because the more people, the greater the power. There are many movements wherein you can donate to help the women in need. Feminism was also created to fight for the social equality of all genders.

Feminist movements strive to achieve women’s right that includes: voting, working, own property, earn equal pay, receive education, have equal rights within marriage, etc.

If we continue like this, women’s safety will be in grave danger every single day. Women encounter creepy men catcalling, following, and sexually harassing them. Catcalling is a process wherein a person will whistle or shout a comment of a sexual nature towards women passing them. This behavior is disgusting and uncomfortable for us women but sadly, it happens regularly in many countries. This world is a scary place for women. Most women can’t walk outside alone due to the fear of men sexually abusing them. There are many cases where these actions have been reported but most of these men have not yet stopped and carried on with harassing women. It is depressing that women have been robbed of their basic human rights.

To try and make a change, women have conducted a plethora of moveMost of the things women ask for are ments and protests concerning womequality in job opportunities – which en’s rights and feminism. Protests and they should have already gotten since movements like these started in the the beginning. Women are overlooked late 19th century – many successful in certain jobs because for hundreds of and many failed. In these movements years women were expected to focus and marches, women fought for repro-

ductive rights, women’s right to vote, respect, equal pay, and more. Women were determined to make a change even if it had meant that their life was endangered. Marches are a great way for women to express their feelings and what they want because of years and years of being forced not to speak their minds and express their wants.

In conclusion, we have to make this world a safer place for women and children. Do we want our sisters, mother, and daughters to live in fear of going outside alone and being overlooked? Of course not, so we have to fight for women’s safety and rights. If we want to see a change in our world, we have to start with ourselves. We have to take charge and correct certain issues.

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Editorial Call-Out Culture: A Double-Edged Sword By: Jem Lianne Dela Cruz On December 20, 2013, Justine Sacco, 30 years old, and the senior director of corporate communications at IAC, tweeted “Going to Africa.

Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” on her journey to New York to South Africa to visit` family during holidays. Resulting in receiving many negative replies to her tweet and going viral on Twitter. 2 days later after the incident, The president of the U.S. replied to Justine’s tweet, “#HadJustinLandedYet- Justine, what the hell are you doing, are you crazy? Not nice or fair! I will support @AidForAfrica. Justine is FIRED!” He said, and Justine lost her job.

other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram or Tumblr. It is also notorious because it leaves no room for forgiveness. People who participate in cancel culture believe that one simple mistake cannot be erased, reversed or revoked because it has already been done. They also do not accept forgiveness from the person or people that have been canceled. Sometimes actions done a long time ago, say 5 years, can be used against you to cancel culture - even if that action was done while intoxicated.

huge impact on someone, good or bad - this statement is greatly associated with call-out culture. Though, using our voices to call-out culture or “cancelling” someone is perceived as negative and toxic since it can do things such as damaging one’s mental health, career, income, and relationships. Not only that, but it can go as far as the people in a target’s personal life being harassed as well. People abuse their power to hurt others thinking they’re educating them, neglecting the fact that they’re humans too, and that mistakes will be made. This is the reason why The effects of canceled culture on people are call-out culture should be addressed as soon as especially damaging to their career, and especial- possible, before it can cause even greater damOn the web or via web-based media, there are ly the psyche. This drives some people to avoid age in the media. numerous instances of call-out culture. We can't saying even the littlest bit of divergent opinions avoid it, especially now that people, specifically in fear of getting cancelled simply because anothyoung people, are soaked in social media. In er person disagrees with his or her opinions. Call many platforms there’s always a trend issue and -out culture is toxic, not only because of how fast because of it people exchange opinions and this and how frequent it happens, but because they where mostly causes a call-out culture. It is not leave no space for the person being called out to right and should not be tolerated, but we should improve and learn from their mistake. Some teach them proper manners. It can also be inter- even go as far as reaching out to the family and preted as some form of bullying. People who school of the person being called out. It need participate in "Call-Out culture" tend to attack not matter when the action in which you are other people for having a different opinion. getting called out for happened. Even if it Victims of "Call-Out culture" can experience happened several years ago, you will still get depression and anxiety from the comments canceled. Call-out culture can get to the other people give. What's messed up about it, is extremities of ending someone’s career, that most of the hate they are giving tends to breaking up a relationcome from basic things like old tweets or past ship, ending someone’s actions. This type of culture is inherently wrong source of income, and should be stopped. Cancel culture can also causing fights be known as “call-out culture”, or simply between people and “cancelling” Cancel culture is similar in nature to many more. Cancel a “boycott”, but often the targets of cancel culculture heavily impacts one's ture are people, especially celebrities and influmental health because the encers. It should also be noted that cancel culcalling-out happens pubture is often associated with the social networklicly, wherein a lot of people ing site Twitter - due to Twitter’s nature of post- can watch you get called out. ing short text posts known as Tweets.

Call-out can get as far as something you said, an action, a post you liked, a The simple nature of Twitter allows people to comment, a post you made, and the list goes on. post their own opinions, and some of those opinions may not be accepted by other people.

That’s why we need to cancel “Call-out culture”.

Cancel culture is also easy to start on Twitter But in the end, “call-out culture” is a doublebecause it just takes a click away to post your edged sword that can either protect or hurt, we own opinion, reply to others’ opinion and start need to address this dilemma now more than Internet wars. Cancel culture is also prevalent in ever. Our voices are powerful and can leave a

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Feature The Vaccines Are Here People have heard the news - the vaccines are here. Vaccines for Covid-19, developed by various big pharma companies, like Pfizer, Moderna, and SinoVac. They are gradually rolling out in many countries - especially the USA, where vaccinated people can now roam free maskless, and participate in crowded places. The vaccines were developed in just a year, and people can now grab one and get themselves pricked by a needle so that they can be vaxxed. The big deal with the vaccines is that they don’t exactly protect people from Covid-19 - it just makes Covid-19 not deadly, so when vaccinated people get Covid-19, they will experience all of the traditional fare of symptoms - but they will not die.

But that’s not to say that people are 100% happy with the vaccine everything is bound to have some controversy. In the big and wild country of Brazil, where SinoVac tests were carried out, researchers who were testing it during trials said that the vaccine was over 50% effective, but they refused to reveal any further details, raising the eyes of many. Furthermore, due to China’s mishandling of the initial Covid-19 outbreak more

than a year ago, the general public’s trust in China has fallen, leading to doubts over the real efficacy of the SinoVac vaccine, as well as general sinophobia and a general hatred against Asian Americans, but that’s a story for another day.

By: Paris Kiel Matienzo

government is also having vaccinations. In Marikina City, a large -scale vaccination was held in the Marikina Sports Center event grounds, where people can go there and get pricked. However, unlike in the USA, people are still expected to wear masks, vaccinated or not. Furthermore, as with Brazil, people in the Philippines are also having doubts about the SinoVac vaccine’s efficiency, as the people who do the vaccinations don’t always say what’s in their vaccine vials, so people may be injected with a placebo and not even know.

In the USA meanwhile, they have a ton of vaccines as the USA is a more developed country than, say, Brazil, so the government can spend more on buying vaccines and releasing it to the public. And because of statesponsored vaccinations, many people are now vaccinated from the Covid-19 virus, and because But the future's looking good. of that, people Very good. And it’s all thanks to the researchers who worked hard to make vaccines in crunch time

can now discard their masks in Walmarts, Apple Stores, and other kinds of stores. Furthermore, since Covid-19 is no longer deadly after vaccination, people are now crowding in stores, maskless. Social distancing, what’s that?

In the Philippines, meanwhile, the

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Feature The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Retrospective By: Paris Kiel Matienzo

It’s been more than a year since Covid-19 wreaked havoc upon our lives. Ever since the pandemic began, the world was faced with one dilemma: How do we get ourselves out of this sticky situation?

Turns out, it wasn’t easy to unstick ourselves from this situation, as we’ve been faced with more dilemmas than we could handle, like chip shortages, a container ship blocking the Suez Canal, and the arrival of every student’s bane of existence: Online school.

The pandemic first started last December 2019 but didn’t escalate until a few months later when China was the hotspot of Covid19 (then called nCov) and people started being wary of the disease. Lax regulations furthered the spread of the disease, as some new cases started appearing in the United States.

It was February and the situation was just getting worse and worse. It got worse as the World Health Organization had to declare that the disease was becoming a public health concern, and then the disease kept on spreading and spreading until it was hard to contain it in one country.

You see, Covid-19 is a perfect virus. It takes quite a while for you to start showing symptoms after first being infected - and that window allows you to spread the disease without even knowing. Furthermore, the disease doesn’t always show symptoms - some people who were infected with the virus didn’t show symptoms. And most people were able to recover from the disease, but sadly, other people have died.

Not to mention the fact that the disease can be spread to animals too, making it much harder to contain, especially if said animal just roams out in the wild.

It was March and the cases were just getting higher and higher. The United States was finding it quite hard to deal with the virus, especially with people outright refus-

ing to wear a mask or downright claiming that the virus doesn’t exist and that the quarantines were just made for the government to install 5G towers. And speaking of 5G, the rampant misinformation on the Internet claimed that 5G was the cause of Covid-19, which led people to throw gasoline at 5G masts and set them on fire. It became so bad that the WHO had to issue a pamphlet proclaiming that diseases cannot be spread via radio waves. However, barely anyone trusted the WHO anymore because they sided with China.

And speaking of China, they had a bad situation on their hands. Because China is the origin of the virus, and because their government did a bad job of containing the virus, fiery hate was directed towards Chinese-Americans, and to a bigger extent, all Asian-Americans, because people believed that they were spreading the virus and that they had to go to their home countries because of it. Some Asians were even harmed using box cutters or pushing them to the ground. It became so bad that an organization called Stop AAPI Hate was set up to monitor and report the anti-Asian crime.

Now, in the Suez Canal, something else was happening - a huge container ship got stuck because of strong winds. The ship Ever Given owned by Evergreen became trending on social media, and became a source of memes, giving people a break from all the pandemic-related news to laugh at a ship getting stuck. There was even a mobile game based on it.

Eventually, after a few days, the ship went back on its tracks.

And then Sony released their brandnew PlayStation 5 console - which was affected by a global chip shortage, causing the game console to be sold out very fast. Some people even bought the console and resold it at high prices to people looking for a PS5. The global chip shortage was

caused by a high demand for semiconductors and few available supplies - causing industries like the smartphone industry and the automotive industry to suffer.

Aside from chip shortages and ship blockages, one thing that has been burning out students for around a year now is online classes. Students took to Twitter to voice their opinions against online classes because they are “bombarded with assignments” and because they are “bored, uninspired and burned out”. When the Department of Education announced that the summer break in school would last only 2 weeks, it caused a massive surge of hate comments on Twitter from students, parents, and even teachers themselves. Only a very small fraction of people accepted the change. It has caused DepEd to reconsider its summer break duration.

And now, companies all over the world are mass-producing vaccines, most of which are directed to first-world countries instead of third-world countries, where more people need vaccines. However, the vaccine does not protect against Covid-19 - you will still get infected with the disease but it will not be fatal.

Eventually, the world will get back up on its feet.

But when?

Certainly not now...

Although there is hope in the future.

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Science Effects COVID-19 has on animals: Is your pet safe from the virus?

By: Frank Lawrence Danga

COVID-19 is on a rampage these days, spreading from one person to another but who’s to say that your pet isn’t affected by it too? Based on recent reports, it is indeed possible for the virus to be transmitted from humans to animals. Animals can catch the virus in the same way humans do, by droplets in the air emitted when someone sneezes, coughs, etc.

Like humans, animals can either be symptomatic or asymptomatic. In some cases, animals who tested positive for COVID got mildly ill, but most cases hardly even show symptoms at all.

Now we know that animals can get affected by the virus. You might wonder about how we can protect our pets from the threat of getting infected?

According to the CDC,

you should keep your pets inside and prevent them from interacting with outsiders. Avoid taking them to crowded areas and areas with a lot of people. Notice how these protocols are similar to how humans prevent spreading COVID. This is because, as stated above, animals can get infected the same way humans do.

If you want to keep your pet safe, follow these safety protocols.

Your pets are one thing, but you should also take care of yourself and the people around you.

That’s why you should always follow government safety protocols to prevent COVID-19 from further wreaking havoc.

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Science An environment during a pandemic: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect our surroundings?

By: Frank Lawrence Danga

The pandemic has been hard on us all, forcing us to stay inside our homes. Most would think that the pandemic gave the earth a breath of fresh air (no pun intended) from us humans, but is this the case? The answer goes much deeper. Being inside our homes and all, a lot fewer people use their cars and other vehicles to go places.

Fewer cars, less pollution that ends up in our atmosphere.

Based on recent data at the start of the pandemic, most places where there’s usually a lot of pollution finally saw cleaner air. This effect of the pandemic is considered on the good side of things.

For the same reason, more people use more electricity than usual while they are at home, thus eating up more and more of Earth’s resources. Another thing that badly affects

our environment is the waste we accumulate. Used face masks, face shields, alcohol bottles, all of these things end up in our oceans and our land, with pieces of these found in the reefs of the Philippines alone. While the pandemic did indeed improve the condition of the environment, this isn’t a sign that we should continue slacking off.

Even while in a pandemic, we need to continue practicing activities that help our environment. Recycling plastics, saving electricity, saving water, all of these things can significantly improve the condition of our environment even without a pandemic.

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Sports Nozomi Okuhara said that last year was a year she had never experienced before By: Sheridon Reyes

Former World's No. 1 in BWF rankings for the women's singles, Nozomi Okuhara. said that last year was a year she had never experienced before and had different feelings about. But at the end of it all, she thought that badminton is irreplaceable for her on the 385th episode of Badminton Unlimited, May 26, 2021.

tionally and the fans in Japan after a while.

Okuhara said rules are rules so she has no choice so she just does her best while following the rules. She added that it’s not just athletes having a hard time, everyone is struggling, so she tries not to be negative, and think positive, do what she can do.

She said that she always thought that she is not the only one feeling disappointed fans and everyone out there is having a hard time, so she thought of what she can do and communicate with her fans through social media. Through that, she got powers from fans and supporters, and she tried to encourage them back.

They’ve always encouraged her and they’ve been her big help.

She also said that she gets to stay connected with fans, supporters, and everyone because there is badminton. She said she loves badminton and she wants to be connected with everyone through badminton so she participates in a tournament (all England), however, she had Denmark Open and the J a pa nese Na tio na l Championships last year.

Okuhara said the positive was that there was She thinks it’s a good no match for such a opportunity to show her long time, so she got to play to the fans interna- train and practice as

much as she could. She said the negative was that because there were no tournaments. She said she knew from social media that the fans were waiting and there wasn’t much she could do for them but by participating in tournaments, there is still hope and she believes that there is something she can show them.

Okuhara has been an example of striving for and finding success on the elite stage in badminton especially a period that has been tragically influenced by the global COVID-19 pandemic. After the HSBC BWF World Tour was suspended in March 2020, Okuhara focused on training through lockdown to settle the Denisa Denmark open 2020 title in October.

Followed by the All England open 2021 displaying all of the characteristics of a true champion.

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Sports China Surprised Everyone after a Spectacular Comeback By; Krizzia Mae Raymundo

China overpowered Italy in 5 sets, 3-2 (18 - 25, 22 - 25, 25 - 23, 26 24, 15 - 13), in the Women’s Volleyball Nations League, Thursday, June 6, 2019, held at Hong Kong.

Despite losing the first two rounds, China led the way with an overall of 106 points, 41 digs, and 16 receptions.

"I am very thankful to my team and the fans. We are happy with the victory, and we will work hard to improve." said the team captain Zhu Ting of China.

China has won their last six Volleyball Nations League matches, since a 3-1 defeat in their second match.

Italy held strong in the first two sets but lost its control by the 3rd set.

"We did lose a few critical points in the match today.

We will perform better next time." Italy captain

Cristina Chirichella said.

However, I am happy and satisfied with our team's match toItaly won 15 of their last 16 Vol- night. It is a good start for this leyball Nations League matches, season." including seven of eight in 2019.

Their only defeat in this run was China is scheduled to compete a 3-2 loss against the United with Poland on Tuesday, June 11, States on 29 May 2019.

2019.

Italy head coach Davide Mazzanti said: "Congratulations to China. It was an amazing match. I feel upset for Italy but our team has already had good performances. At this moment, Team China is better t h a n Team Italy.