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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘POINT OF NO RETURN’: The Caribbean nation needs increased international funding and support for a multinational force to help police tackle expanding gang violence The top UN official in Haiti on Monday sounded an alarm to the UN Security Council that escalating gang violence is liable to lead the Caribbean nation to “a point of no return.” Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Haiti Maria Isabel Salvador said that “Haiti could face total chaos” without increased funding and support for the operation of the Kenya-led multinational force helping Haiti’s police to tackle the gangs’ expanding violence into areas beyond the capital, Port-Au-Prince. Most recently, gangs seized the city of Mirebalais in central Haiti, and during the attack more than 500 prisoners were freed, she said.
RSS