HEADS UP: Mayor Isko Does TikTok, 2022 Plans Can Wait (April 30)

Here’s a Heads Up from Reportr.World on news that you need to know today, April 30:

POLITICS EXPLAINED

• Manila Mayor Isko Moreno is on TikTok, connecting to Gen Z while he weighs his options in the 2022 elections. "Chill chill lang," he told Summit Sandwich Sessions. It's a peak into the social media strategy that made him one of the country's most popular mayors.

CULTURE EXPLAINED

• Why is Home Buddies on Facebook such a hit? We asked Frances Lim Cabatuando, the Mayora of the one-million strong community, why interior makeovers appeal to quarantined Filipinos

TODAY I LEARNED

• What’s so super about the supermoon? Heads up, too, on May 26, there will be a total lunar eclipse called the Super Blood Moon. In other moon news, one of the members of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, American astronaut Michael Collins, has died of cancer at 90.

NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• The Philippines owes China a huge debt of gratitude for vaccines and other aid, President Rodrigo Duterte said. However, this should not compromise the nation’s interest in the West Philippine Sea.
• Instead of today, the MECQ in the NCR Plus Bubble will last until May 14. Here’s what we know so far about the rules.
• Meralco extended the no-disconnection policy to May 14, in step with the MECQ.
• Here’s what we know so far about coronavirus variants that have been fueling surges around the world.
• Hospicio de San Jose, Manila’s orphanage on an island, is seeking donations after it was placed on COVID lockdown.
• Two congressmen are distributing Ivermectin for COVID treatment in Quezon City and the FDA says there’s nothing wrong as long as it’s doctor-prescribed.
• The Philippines received 500,000 more Sinovac COVID vaccines from China.
• Essential workers can book a stay at the Manila Peninsula, the only hotel in Makati CBD that is allowed to accept such reservations.
• History was made. Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi sat behind U.S. President Joe Biden as he addressed a joint session of Congress, a first for women in American politics.