Cesar Chavez

Sweden has met its target of becoming smoke-free by 2025, with fewer than five percent of its population smoking ci******es daily, although some still use ni****ne in other forms, a report showed.

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NEW BUSINESS INVESTMENTS IN MANILA HIT P3.3-BILLION DESPITE GLOBAL OIL SHOCK

NEWS ALERT: Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno said business activity in the nation's capital remained remarkably strong through the first five months of 2026, with new business registrations surging year-on-year and total new business investment reaching P3.303 billion.

This is even as the ongoing US-Iran war roils the global economy and pushes fuel prices to historic highs across the Philippines.

Data presented by Bureau of Permits director Levi Facundo showed that in the three months following the outbreak of war on February 28, 2026, Manila recorded some of its strongest business registration figures in recent history.

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Major pharmaceutical companies are racing against time to develop a vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus, which is rapidly spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Moderna — one of the manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines — has been given additional funding to accelerate the development of an Ebola vaccine.

Aside from Moderna, other firms such as University of Oxford, which partnered in developing the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, have also received additional funding for Ebola vaccine, Reuters reports.

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FIVE-DAY WORKWEEK AT DOLE COVERS INSPECTORS, FRONTLINE AGENCIES, TUPAD PROGRAMS

NEWS ALERT: Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino has written Executive Secretary Ralph Recto to clarify that the Department of Labor and Employment's return to a standard five-day workweek will only apply to specific offices and personnel whose functions require uninterrupted, daily on-site presence.

In a letter dated June 1, 2026, Tolentino specified that the five-day workweek will be strictly limited to the Office of the Secretary, the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, the National Labor Relations Commission, all labor inspectors, and personnel actively engaged in the TUPAD-Brigada Eskwela program.

All other DOLE bureaus, services, and regional offices not covered by the clarification will continue to operate under the compressed workweek schedule in compliance with Office of the President Memorandum Circular No. 114.

Tolentino cited the Angeles City building collapse as among the enforcement situations that underscored the need for labor inspectors to maintain continuous on-site presence.

The letter stated that the targeted approach ensures that "critical frontline dispute resolution, regulatory enforcement, and immediate community-based social protection programs operate at maximum, uncompromised capacity."

The Land Bank of the Philippines will waive fees for select online government payments from June 1 to December 31, 2026, in response to rising global economic pressures, it said in a statement.

The bank said it will implement zero fees on eligible person-to-government (P2G) transactions made via QRPh as part of its support for government efforts to address rising costs.

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NEWS ALERT: As of 7:00 PM on Monday, June 1, the Senate remained without a quorum as not a single member of the majority bloc had appeared in the plenary—leaving only the minority bloc present, who posed for a photo on the Senate floor.

The session has yet to start, as the majority bloc stays away on the same day Senator Jinggoy Estrada surrendered to PNP-CIDG authorities following the Sandiganbayan’s issuance of a no-bail arrest warrant against him for plunder.

(📸: Office of Senator Risa Hontiveros)