PHILIPPINES
China tensions irk Marcos
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday said that tension in the disputed South China Sea “keeps him up at night,” but his country was committed to peace despite Beijing’s territorial claims. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Marcos said his nation was watching as a “bystander” whenever tensions rise after Chinese or US warships cross the region. “If something goes wrong here we are going to suffer,” he said. The situation “keeps you up at night, keeps you up in the day, keeps you up most of the time,” Marcos said. The comments came after Marcos discussed the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a visit to Beijing earlier this month. “It’s very dynamic, it is constantly in flux. So you have to pay attention to it to make sure that you are you are at least aware of the present situation so that you’re able to respond,” Marcos said.
TIBET
Avalanche kills at least eight
An avalanche trapped vehicles outside a highway tunnel, and at least eight people have died. The falling snow and ice collapsed at the exit of the tunnel connecting the southwestern city of Nyingchi with Medog County on Tuesday evening. Authorities on Wednesday said that the search-and-rescue mission was ongoing, although it was not clear how many people remained missing. A total of 131 rescuers and 28 emergency vehicles were sent to the site, with the Chinese Ministry of Emergency Management sending a team to assist. Nyingchi lies at an elevation of about 3,040m, about five hours by vehicle from Lhasa along a highway opened in 2018.
CZECH REPUBLIC
No-confidence vote fails
The government late on Wednesday survived an opposition attempt to topple it in a no-confidence vote, a widely expected outcome of the motion, which the Cabinet had called a publicity stunt related to the upcoming presidential election. The Chamber of Deputies voted 102-81 against the no-confidence motion after more than 25 hours of debate over two days. The center-right, five-party coalition has 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house and has shown no cracks to make it vulnerable. The main opposition Action of Dissatisfied Citizens party of former prime minister Andrej Babis called the vote just days after Babis and retired general Petr Pavel won the top two spots in the first round of a presidential election, lining up a run-off between the two later this month. Babis has framed the election as an attempt to install a president that would pressure the Cabinet to provide more handouts to people affected by soaring living costs.
UNITED KINGDOM
Soho deploys anti-pee paint
A central London district famous for its nightlife, but also home to thousands of residents, is trying out a novel way to tackle the persistent problem of public urination: so-called anti-pee paint. Officials in Soho are treating walls at nearly a dozen problem sites with the special spray-on liquid. The industrial strength “surface protection” creates a transparent water-repellent layer that splashes back urine when it hits, providing instant payback for offenders. “It is very effective — the proof is in the pudding,” Westminster City Council Deputy Leader Aicha Less said, demonstrating the innovative invisible paint’s splash-back ability with a bottle of water. The council has launched the initiative following complaints from some of Soho’s approximately 3,000 residents, as well as from workers and business operators.
Philippine vlogger Rosanel Demasudlay holds a heart-shaped “virginity soap” bar in front of the camera and assures her hundreds of YouTube followers that it can be safely used to “tighten” their vaginas. The video is part of a barrage of bogus and harmful medical posts on social media platforms where Filipinos rank among the world’s heaviest users. Even before COVID-19 pandemic restrictions confined people to their homes and left them fearful of seeing a doctor, many in the Philippines sought remedies online because they were cheaper and easier to access. During the pandemic, the Agence France-Presse’s (AFP) Fact Check team saw an explosion
BACKING THE APPLICATION: Ankara’s move is expected to enable Helsinki to join the alliance, while the Turkish president is still opposed to backing Sweden’s application Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday ended months of diplomatically charged delays and asked the Turkish parliament to back Finland’s bid to join NATO. A simultaneous decision by fellow holdout Hungary to schedule a Finnish ratification vote for March 27 means the US-led defense alliance would likely grow to 31 nations within a few months. NATO’s expansion into a country with a 1,340km border with Russia would double the length of the bloc’s frontier with its Cold War-era foe. Finland had initially aimed to join together with fellow NATO aspirant Sweden, which is facing a litany of disputes with Turkey that
LEADERS MEET: Australia’s Anthony Albanese met Fiji’s Sitiveni Rabuka to reiterate that the submarines would not carry nuclear weapons, amid unease over the plan A former Australian prime minister yesterday rubbished the country’s landmark nuclear-powered submarine deal, saying that it unnecessarily targeted China and could have “deadly consequences.” Australia on Monday announced that it would buy up to five US submarines in an ambitious effort to bulk up Western muscle in the face of a rising China. With the help of the US and UK, Australia is also embarking on a 30-year plan to build its own fleet of nuclear-powered submarines. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that the deal was the country’s biggest-ever military upgrade, while US President Joe Biden said it would ensure that the
The US and the Philippines plan to announce new sites as soon as possible for an expanded Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA), which gives the Western power access to military bases in the Southeast Asian country. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr last month granted the US access to four military bases, on top of five existing locations under the 2014 EDCA, amid China’s increasing assertiveness regarding the South China Sea and Taiwan. Speaking at the Basa Air Base in Manila, one of the existing EDCA sites, US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said the defense agreements between the two countries
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