PHILIPPINES
US alliance ‘strong’: Blinken
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday met with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr in a bid to bolster the countries’ “strong” alliance. Blinken is the most senior US official to visit the country — a treaty-bound US ally — since Marcos took office on June 30. “The alliance is strong and I believe can grow even stronger,” Blinken told Marcos, who hailed the “special relationship” between the two countries. Washington has a security pact with Manila and has backed its former colony in increasingly heated disputes in the South China Sea with Beijing.
NORTH KOREA
Pelosi called peace threat
The government yesterday slammed US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a visit earlier this week to the fortified Demilitarized Zone, calling her the “worst destroyer of international peace.” Pelosi became the highest-ranking US official to visit the area between the two Koreas since then-US president Donald Trump met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un there in 2019. Prior to the visit, Pelosi discussed the “grave situation” and growing threat posed by the North’s nuclear weapons program with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo. They called for “strong and extended deterrence against North Korea,” and vowed to support joint efforts to achieve Pyongyang’s denuclearization.
PAKISTAN
Lahore zoo to auction lions
A zoo is auctioning off a dozen lions to private collectors next week to free up space for a pride that will not stop growing. The Lahore Safari Zoo has so many lions that they have to take turns to access the paddocks, zoo deputy director Tanvir Ahmed Janjua said. The zoo is planning to next week auction 12 of its 29 lions, he said, adding that “expenses for meat to feed them will also decrease.” Conservationists are opposed to the sale, with the WWF saying the creatures should be moved to other established zoos, or breeding females sterilized or given contraceptives.
LIBYA
Clashes erupt in capital
Clashes between armed groups erupted overnight in Tripoli, local media reported. An Agence France-Presse journalist heard gunfire and explosions at about 1am yesterday. The fighting, with light and heavy weapons, occurred in the El Jebs district, media reports said. Tensions have been rising for months, as two prime ministers vie for power, raising fears of renewed conflict two years after a landmark truce ended a ruinous attempt by National Army Commander Khalifa Haftar to seize Tripoli. The clashes were between groups loyal to Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, head of the unity government based in Tripoli, and others following his rival Fathi Bashagha, named in February as prime minister by a parliament based in the east after he made a pact with Haftar.
NICARAGUA
Bishop prosecuted
Police on Friday said they had begun an investigation against a Catholic bishop who has been an outspoken critic of President Daniel Ortega. They accused Bishop Rolando Alvarez of “organizing violent groups” and inciting them “to carry out acts of hate against the population.” Police blocked his attempt to go to the cathedral in Matagalpa on Friday so he instead celebrated Mass from home. The announcement came hours after first lady and Vice President Rosario Murillo criticized “sins against spirituality” and “the exhibition of hate” in an apparent reference to Alvarez.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
The US deployed a reconnaissance aircraft while Japan and the Philippines sent navy ships in a joint patrol in the disputed South China Sea yesterday, two days after the allied forces condemned actions by China Coast Guard vessels against Philippine patrol ships. The US Indo-Pacific Command said the joint patrol was conducted in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone by allies and partners to “uphold the right to freedom of navigation and overflight “ and “other lawful uses of the sea and international airspace.” Those phrases are used by the US, Japan and the Philippines to oppose China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the
‘ANCIENT AND MODERN’: The project, which took 22 years to complete, unearthed more than 300,000 treasures now on display across the network It caused untold commotion, decades of disruption and — among historians and archeologists — controversy and despair, but at midday on Saturday, the antiquities-rich subterranean world of Thessaloniki opened to a world of driverless trains and high-tech automation with the inauguration of its long-awaited subway. The excitement on the streets of the northern Greek port city is almost palpable. “Archaeologically, it has been an extremely complex and difficult endeavor,” said Greek Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs Lina Mendoni of the more than 300,000 finds made since construction began 22 years ago. “To get here required a battle on many
‘AMERICA FIRST’: Patel, 44, previously called for stripping the FBI of its intelligence-gathering role and purging its ranks of anyone who refuses to support Trump’s agenda US president-elect Donald Trump has tapped Kash Patel to be FBI director, nominating a loyalist to lead the chief US law enforcement agency — which Trump has long derided as corrupt. Patel rose to prominence expressing outrage over the agency’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. With the nomination of Patel, Trump is signaling that he is preparing to carry out his threat to oust FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Republican first appointed by Trump during his first term as president, whose 10-year term at the FBI does not expire until 2027. FBI
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