COVID-19 SITUATION: 6/21/2022

                                                                                   

The latest in the ongoing COVID-19 situation:

• Metro Manila’s COVID cases rise to 255, positivity rate at 4.4% — DOH
• DOH says PH ready for face-to-face classes despite rise in COVID-19 cases
• Duque OKs booster for ages 12-17, guidelines possibly out today
• Uptick in COVID cases recorded in parts of Calabarzon, Benguet, Iloilo - OCTA
• DOH-7 reports low COVID-19 healthcare utilization rate

UKRAINE CONFLICT: 6/21/2022

                         

The latest in the ongoing Ukraine conflict:

• Russian Nobel laureate sells medal for $103.5M to benefit Ukraine kids
• War in Ukraine: Latest developments
• "You're my hero," Ben Stiller tells Zelensky in Kyiv

Let's Do The News! (June 21, 2022)

                           

Your daily round-up of today's news:

- Former COMELEC Commissioner Rowena Guanzon filed before the Quezon City Prosecution Office a libel and unjust vexation complaints against Ronald Cardema.

- The MIAA has cited "seeming miscalculation" in the Saudia plane that veered off the NAIA runway.

- Incoming Philippine President Bongbong Marcos takes the post as the Department of Agriculture secretary and vows to reorganize the organization.

- The DILG has confirmed intel reports about possible disruption of Bongbong Marcos's inauguration.

- The Bulusan Volcano has recorded over 80 quakes in 24 hours.

- Over a hundred thousand protesters marched across Georgia in support of the country's EU membership bid after the European Commission recommended deferring Tbilisi's candidacy.

- Hundreds of thousands evacuated in China after the heaviest rains in decades.

- The Prodrive P25 was unveiled and it's a reimagined Subaru Impreza 22B STi with a 400hp boxer engine in it.

Prodrive P25

- The Assetto Corsa Competizione video game will be featured in the 2022 FIA Motorsport Games.

- Japanese toymakers Bandai and Takara Tomy collaborate on Zoids and Gundam toys. Bandai created a reimagined Liger Zero toy while Takara Tomy created a Gundam White Base toy.

- Lee Tae Hwan announces his military enlistment.

- The Golden State Warriors held their fourth parade in eight years to celebrate their recent NBA Finals win.

- Game 3 of the NHL Stanley Cup finals saw the Tampa Bay Lightning stealing the game after defeating the Colorado Avalanche at the score of 6-2. Colorado leads by 2-1.

TTFN.

THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: South Korean Air Force conducts large-scale exercise to counter ‘enemy provocations’

 

The South Korean Air Force on Monday kicked off a large-scale aerial military exercise to enhance combat readiness and prepare for possible “enemy provocations,” including a surprise invasion.

The theater-level “Soaring Eagle” combat training exercise is being staged over five days through Friday at the 29th Tactical Fighter Weapons Group located at an air base in the central city of Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

South Korea’s Air Force has conducted the Soaring Eagle exercise twice a year since 2008 with the goal to maintain a firm defense posture in airspace and prepare combat-ready pilots for potential future contingency missions.

The aerial drill is staged in a simulated, high-threat combat environment, which puts fighter pilots and support personnel through scenarios such as a “large-scale, surprise invasion by enemy’s air forces,” the Air Force said Monday in a statement.

During the Soaring Eagle exercise, South Korea’s virtual friendly force “Blue Air” fights against the virtual enemy, “Red Air.”

The Air Force explained that pilots are able to “master combat skills to effectively respond to aerial threats posed by the enemy through experiencing the enemy’s tactics” in the simulated environment.

The Air Force conducts various types of military drills, including defensive operations to detect, identify and intercept enemy air targets as well as large-scale offensive operations led by an airstrike package to “punish and strike the enemy’s core power and the origin of provocations.”

The training exercises for battlefield air interdiction, which is an air operation conducted to destroy an enemy’s military potential such as missile bases and supplies en route to the battlefield, are staged in a simulated combat environment.

“The exercise aims to develop the (Air Force’s) ability to quickly respond to enemy provocations and ensure that we are equipped with the best operational capabilities by verifying the ability to strike high-threat targets,” said Col. Lee Chul-woo, head of the 29th Tactical Fighter Weapons Group.

“We will maintain a flawless defense posture in the airspace through intensive and realistic training so that we can immediately and quickly respond to any kind of enemy provocations.”

The Air Combat Maneuver Instrumentation training systems that help fighter pilots accurately understand the battlefield situation and improve their air combat capabilities are also applied to this year’s first Soaring Eagle exercise.

The training systems, which were introduced in late March, provide real-time information such as altitude, direction, location and speed of aircraft flying in the air, and notify of aircraft launching an armed attack.

The Air Force also plans to operate fourth- and fifth-generation fighters together in a training environment to verify aircraft integration this year.

The Soaring Eagle exercise includes approximately 200 military personnel from 19 Air Force units as well as around 70 aircraft, including the F-35A, F-15K, KF-16, FA-50, F-4E, F-5 fighter jets, KA-1 light attack aircraft, E-737 Peace Eye airborne early warning and control aircraft and CN-235 transport aircraft.

The Soaring Eagle exercise is open to the public for the first time since 2017, although the Air Force has conducted the large-scale exercise regularly in that time. The South Korean military had stopped publicly sharing information on the aerial drill in 2018 when the two Koreas thawed relations and established an atmosphere for reconciliation.

The Air Force reportedly has decided to publicly announce the beginning of the Soaring Eagle exercise in light of the changing security environment on the Korean Peninsula.

Under the Yoon Suk-yeol government, the military expects to publicize standalone and combined military exercises as a counteraction to North Korea’s record-breaking flurry of missile launches.

The South Korean, US and Japanese defense chiefs this month also committed to regularizing and publicizing trilateral warning and ballistic missile search and tracking exercises that have been conducted regularly but at a low profile until now. The decision aims to send a message to the Kim Jong-un regime, which has launched 31 ballistic missiles in less than six months this year.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry last week announced that the Navy will join the Pacific Dragon multilateral ballistic missile defense exercise in August and separately conduct a live-fire drill to test the ability and performance of surface-to-air missile interceptors.

Source: The Korea Herald

UKRAINE CONFLICT: 6/20/2022

                        

The latest in the ongoing Ukraine conflict:

• The war in Ukraine could last 'for years': NATO chief
• Four months into war, more Ukrainians decide to flee besieged areas
• China May oil imports from Russia soar to a record, surpass top supplier Saudi

COVID-19 SITUATION: 6/20/2022

                                                                                  

The latest in the ongoing COVID-19 situation:

• PH records 3,051 Covid-19 cases from June 13-19, per DOH
• PH Red Cross 'bakuna' bus continues its service in Sulu
• Hong Kong keeps tracing COVID-19 through sewage surveillance
• Dementia amid COVID: Patients, carers both need care and support
• North Korea abruptly stops importing COVID-19 containment goods from China

Let's Do The News! (June 20, 2022)

                          

Your daily round-up of today's news:

- Outgoing Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wishes his daughter, Vice-President Sara Duterte, "good luck" after she took her oath yesterday.

- The PH Department of Justice formed a panel to investigate complaints about the "forceful takeover" of Okada Manila.

- Incoming Philippine President Bongbong Marcos will take charge as the secretary of the PH Department of Agriculture temporarily.

- A Filipino lawyer was killed following a random shooting in Philadelphia.

- The Japanese court rules that the same-sex marriage ban is constitutional.

- A strong quake hits eastern Taiwan.

- China tested its missile-interception system.

- Gustavo Petro was elected as Colombia's first left-wing president.

- French President Emmanuel Macron lost control of the National Assembly in the legislative elections. His Ensemble coalition was on course to end up with the most seats but will be well short of the majority needed to control parliament, according to its near-final results.

- The Renault Zoe was updated for 2023MY with up to 395km of driving range from its 52kWh battery pack.

- Geely has acquired the Chinese smartphone maker Meizu.

- JTBC unveiled a new idol survival TV show featuring debuted male idol groups.

- The Daihatsu Copen gets a 20th-anniversary special model which is limited to 1000 units.

- The FINA will restrict the participation of transgender athletes in women's competitions and create a group that will establish an "open" category for them in some events.

TTFN.