City Manila Financial News

That was Mohammad Ali talking about his epic boxing match against Joe Frazier in 1974, known as the Thrilla in Manila, in which the two great fighters attacked and mauled each other for 14 rounds before Ali came up victorious. Writing for Sports Illustrated, Mark Kram, in his inimitable post-match reportage wrote: “A couple of miles away in the bedroom of a villa, the man who has always demanded answers of Ali, has trailed the champion like a timber wolf, lay in semi-darkness. ‘Man, I hit him with punches that’d bring down the walls of a city,’ said Frazier. ‘Lawdy, Lawdy, he’s a great champion.”

For the emerging megacities of Asia, the oil crisis that spread out from the Strait of Hormuz is like the acute phase of a chronic condition. The largest migration in human history is filling their streets and alleyways to bursting point.Urbanization and births will add a billion more people between now and 2050. Jakarta and Dhaka, with 42 million and 37 million people respectively, have overtaken Tokyo at 33 million as the world’s biggest metropolises.

Humanity’s future lies in some of the most vulnerable spots on the planet. We’ve seen that in stark relief of late. A United Nations report last month concluded that the world’s population is increasingly crowded into a group of often low-lying, middle-income megacities in Asia and Africa.Jakarta and Dhaka dethroned Tokyo’s long-held status as the world’s biggest city, with 42 million, 37 million and 33 million people respectively.

The State Department said it was green-lighting a sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States. The sale would «improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia,» a State Department statement said. It would also boost «the Philippine Air Force's ability to conduct maritime domain awareness» and «enhance its suppression of enemy air defenses,» the statement said. The news follows months of escalating confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.

prime residential space in 2024, followed by 237 sq ft in Hong Kong and 344 sq ft in Singapore, according to a Knight Frank report. In comparison, Mumbai offers 1,066 sq ft, marking a 2.6% decline over the past decade as prices have risen. Bengaluru has also become less affordable, with space purchasable for $1 million decreasing by 9% to 3,617 sq ft. In Delhi, one can buy 2,239 sq ft, up 11% from a decade ago. The Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100), which tracks luxury property price changes across 100 global cities, has recorded a 3.6% annual increase in 2024. Of these, 80 cities saw either positive or stable price growth. Seoul 18.4%, Manila 17.9%, and Dubai with 16.9% growth led global price appreciation in prime real estate.

South China Sea have made freedom of navigation exercises «even more important», France's ambassador to the Philippines said Sunday, as the nuclear-powered Charles De Gaulle made its first port visit to the country.

Online platform Ixigo reported an 80-100% year-on-year (YoY) increase in bookings to destinations such as Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, and London. Agoda supported this trend, noting a 53% surge in international accommodation searches. Cleartrip observed a 1.2x jump in international leisure travel, with Southeast Asia and the Middle East emerging as key regions. Emerging destinations are a highlight this year. MakeMyTrip recorded 248% growth in searches for Azerbaijan and 100% growth for Malaysia. Similarly, Cleartrip observed spikes in bookings for Manila (2.5x) and Tbilisi (1.7x), alongside strong growth for Bali (2.6x) and Phuket (2.3x).

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Countries in Asia-Pacific will need to spend big to adapt to climate change. But the cost of inaction could be higher, according to a new report by the Asian Development Bank.

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A dismissed town mayor who fled the Philippines after being accused of helping establish an illegal online gaming and scam center catering to clients in China has been arrested near Indonesia’s capital

Pop star Dua Lipa, who is set to headline the second edition of the Zomato Feeding India Concert in November, says she is looking forward to returning to the country after she rang in the new year here. The Grammy winner, known for songs such as «Levitating», «Houdini», and «Dance The Night», shared a post on Instagram expressing her excitement for the upcoming show. «India, I'm coming back!!! My trip at the start of this year was a beautiful reminder of how much I love this place. »The warmth and energy I felt from everyone I met there was amazing, and I can't wait to see you again to perform in November!!!!" Lipa wrote on Saturday alongside a series of pictures from her previous India visit and the announcement poster of the concert.

Marcos Jr on Sunday condemned Chinese air force actions in waters of the South China Sea claimed by both countries, calling the actions «unjustified, illegal and reckless». Manila and Beijing accused each other on Saturday of disrupting their militaries' operations around the Scarborough Shoal in the first incident since Marcos took office in 2022 in which the Philippines has complained of dangerous actions by Chinese aircraft, as opposed to navy or coast guard vessels. The Philippine military on Saturday condemned «dangerous and provocative actions» when two Chinese aircraft dropped flares in the path of a Philippine aircraft during a routine patrol around the shoal on Thursday.

Philippine military chief condemned Saturday what he said was the provocative actions of two Chinese air force aircraft that executed a dangerous manoeuver and dropped flares in the path of a Philippine air force plane on routine patrol in the South China Sea. All those aboard the Philippine air force NC-212i light transport plane were unharmed and returned safely to Clark Air Base north of Manila after Thursday morning's incident over the Scarborough Shoal, Gen Romeo Brawner said, without providing other details. A top Philippine security official told The Associated Press that the Chinese jets flew at a «very close distance» to the Philippine air force turbo-prop plane and «put the lives of our pilots in real risk and danger». Another security officer said at least eight flares came from the Chinese fighter jets. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the incident.

PARIS—Carlos Yulo won two Olympic gold medals for the Philippines. As it turned out, that was just the beginning of the gymnast’s epic prize haul. At home, he will get a congressional medal and at least $350,000 from the government.

military drills near a territory in the South China Sea near Philippines. The Southern Theatre Command of China's Peoples Army said on Wednesday that it had carried out air and sea combat patrols near Scarborough Shoal to test «strike capabilities», Al Jazeera reported. The exercises came on the same day that the United States, Australia, Canada and the Philippines conducted military manoeuvres within Manila's exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which includes the West Philippine Sea.

South China Sea and aiming to counter Beijing's continuing violations of international treaty obligations, countries in the region are galvanising their defences. Two warships from the Philippines and Japan each, for the first time ever, conducted a joint exercise in the contested waters. This exercise followed a bilateral defence treaty, termed the Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA), signed between Manila and Tokyo to facilitate joint exercises for closer security cooperation, amid China's growing assertion in the regional resource-rich waters.

Marcos said Thursday that the Philippines needs to do more than protest Beijing's «illegal actions» in the South China Sea. Chinese coast guard personnel wielding knives, sticks and an axe surrounded and boarded three Filipino navy boats last week, video showed, foiling what Manila said was a resupply mission to troops manning a grounded warship on Second Thomas Shoal. It was the latest and most serious incident in a series of escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to nearly all of the strategically located waterway.

An influential politician in the Philippines who supported expansion of natural gas power is behind a company that planned to make a fortune from it, an Associated Press investigation has found

troops stationed on a warship grounded on a disputed South China Sea shoal held on to their weapons after Chinese coast guard boats came very close to the ship but they did not point their guns at them, military officials said on Tuesday.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies asked state forces and combatants Thursday to respect its neutrality and work of delivering urgent humanitarian help to the most destitute in war and other high-risk zones, saying 24 of its aid workers had been killed so far this year mostly in the Gaza Strip. IFRC President Kate Forbes, who is visiting the Philippines, said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that two more of her group's aid workers, Palestine Red Crescent Society paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, were killed Wednesday when their ambulance was hit west of Rafah, Gaza's southernmost city.