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Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines, has said he will not allow his country to become a “staging post” for military action ahead of a four-day official visit to Washington DC for security talks. Mr Marcos’s official visit will be the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years and comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and China as they compete for strategic advantage in the Indo-Pacific. Manila has recently faced Beijing’s ire after granting the US access to four additional Filipino military bases. The move gives American forces a stronger foothold in locations close...

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged a Kenyan man with plotting to stage an attack in the style of Sept. 11 at the direction of al-Shabaab, a terrorist group that serves as al Qaeda’s principal wing in East Africa. Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 30 years old, traveled to the Philippines in 2016 to train as a pilot and researched how to hijack an aircraft in preparation for crashing a commercial aircraft into a building in the U.S., Manhattan federal prosecutors said. They said he acted at the direction of an unidentified senior al-Shabaab commander who was also responsible for planning a 2019...

Cholo Abdi Abdullah Obtained Pilot Training and Researched How to Hijack Aircraft in Order to Conduct a 9/11-Style Attack at the Direction of al ShabaabThe Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Cholo Abdi Abdullah with six counts of terrorism-related offenses arising from his activities as an operative of the foreign terrorist organization al Shabaab, including conspiring to hijack aircraft in order to conduct a 9/11-style attack in the United States. Abdullah was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges, and was subsequently transferred on Dec. 15, 2020 in connection with his deportation from...

The U.S. and the Philippines began their largest joint combat exercises in decades Tuesday, making a show of force on land as well as in the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. It’s a clear message to the Chinese as Washington has repeatedly warned the CCP over its aggressive actions in the area.From ABC News:The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan — Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens...

The US drills had been earlier planned. Filipino and US officials say the drills show their commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region that is open and free. Washington announced last month that their annual Balikatan exercise with the Philippines would be their largest ever - involving more than 17,000 troops, including 12,000 from the US. The two-week Balikatan operation will also see the militaries execute a drill to blow up a mock target warship in the South China Sea - a move that could incur China's wrath. The exercises, however, should not be viewed as a response...

In the aftermath, the Trump administration signed off on a bump-stock ban that went into effect in 2018. It’s been challenged in the courts. We never got a solid motive for Paddock’s rampage, only a lot of conjecture. Every avenue regarding this investigation wound up being a dead end. For years, we knew nothing about Paddock’s motivations for committing mass murder until now, but skepticism abounds as the new theory is that the casinos were mistreating him. After nearly a decade of investigating, Paddock committed the worst mass shooting by a single person in US history because he felt disrespected...

In the year of our Lord 1521, on Easter Sunday, March 31, the first Mass on what would later be known as the Philippine archipelago was said on a small island known as Limasawa. Little did those attending that Mass realize that the seed planted that day would blossom into a brilliant faith that, 500 years later, would make the Philippines one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in the world. An account of that epochal event exists, written by Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian accompanying Ferdinand Magellan on his voyage of circumnavigation, who kept a detailed journal of events: Here...

John Hay was President Lincoln's personal secretary, a position that began nearly five decades of public service. A diplomat who served multiple Administrations from Lincoln to Roosevelt, he was a central figure in defining the U.S. foreign policy that would be the basis of the United States role on the world stage in the twentieth century.This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for...

Manila apparently ran out of patience.After a decade of suffering China's aggressive acts against Philippine vessels, fishermen and energy exploration efforts in waters within the archipelago country's Exclusive Economic Zone, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently welcomed an expanded US military presence.Marcos now has responded to continued Chinese belligerence by granting US forces access to five additional military bases on Philippine territory.In a direct rebuke to China, two of these new bases are on Palawan, one of the disputed Spratly Islands, which are also claimed, as is much else, by Communist China.Philippine officials have failed to persuade China to abide by...

A Philippines court has issued an international arrest warrant for Bill Gates, as part of an investigation into the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in the territory. Excess deaths have spiked in the aftermath of the vaccination drive in the Philippines with hundreds of thousands of citizens dying unnecessarily and many more injured and maimed, according to prosecutors. The judge said Gates, as the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is “wanted in connection with hundreds of thousands of deaths, a number which cannot be estimated at present and is certain to increase exponentially in time. The Philippines had already...

The Biden administration has denounced the actions of China's military after a new significant incident involving the Philippine and Chinese Coast Guards. It happened on Feb.6, but has only this week been revealed.State Department spokesman Ned Price in a Tuesday briefing blasted China’s "provocative and unsafe" interference aimed at disrupting Philippine vessels' "lawful operations" in the South China Sea. "More broadly, the PRC’s dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the South China Sea as guaranteed under international law, and undermines the rules-based international order," Price said. Specifically, the allegation is that...

As if balloons and UFOs on this side of the planet weren’t enough, China’s been busy poking people’s peace in the Pacific as well, specifically in the Philippines.With all the uber-nationalistic, anti-American rhetoric and actions that came out of the administration of former PI president Rodrigo Duterte, the Chinese made huge inroads unopposed all through the Pacific. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday said Filipino forces can fight insurgents and Muslim extremists without American military help, in a defense of his recent decision to terminate a U.S. security pact.Duterte also said in a speech that he would stick to a...

Armed with a wooden stick, a bucket and a headlamp, Philippine construction worker Johnny Manlugay hunts every night for the eggs of sea turtles on the pristine beaches of the northern province of La Union. The 55-year-old can easily spot nesting sites, having been trained in his youth by his grandfather how to track the animals and their eggs, which his family traded at the time or ate. But his egg-stealing days are over. Now Manlugay has turned his skills to helping protect marine turtles on the provincial beaches favoured by the endangered Olive Ridley species to build nesting sites.

Maj. Gen. Joseph Ryan is the Commanding General of the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Division, based in Hawaii. He’s in the Philippines this week, meeting with some of his Asian counterparts and preparing for several weeks of scheduled military exercises with our allies in the region. He gave an interview to the Associated Press yesterday and seemed to fire a verbal broadside at China, declaring that America is “battle ready” and our allies will stand united if forced to do so by countries that have “decided they want to change the world order” in the western Pacific. This is the...

"Turn on your Heart Light" My proximity to you is an eternal embrace so let go of your life for it is in my hand and your destiny is everlasting as long as you love to forgive with a true heart found only through me for my love is the window to your peace and joy found in the power of Virtue for holiness must be the voice in your mind perpetually to see as I see and hear The Shepherd of your heart light !

The United States and the Philippines have agreed to restart joint patrols in the South China Sea as the longtime allies seek to counter China's military rise, a US Defense Department statement said. The two countries had suspended maritime patrols in the hotly contested area under the rule of former president Rodrigo Duterte. During a visit to Manila by US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, he and Philippine counterpart Carlito Galvez "agreed to restart joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea to help address (security) challenges", the statement said on Thursday (Feb 2).

The strange saga of the Filipino onion – a humble vegetable transformed into a priceless treasure by a combination of high demand, supply problems, and imbecilic government policies – took another turn on Saturday when blushing bride April Lyka Biorrey walked down the aisle with a bouquet of onions instead of flowers. By all accounts, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Onions have become so scarce in the Philippines that travelers are returning from overseas with suitcases full of them and black-market smugglers are fighting gang wars for onion turf. To make a long story short, almost every...

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake shook eastern Indonesia and southern Philippines on Wednesday, with no damage immediately reported and no tsunami warning issued. Some residents tried to escape from houses in the Indonesian town of Tobelo in North Maluku province. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake occurred 48 kilometres deep under the sea, centred 154 km northwest of Tobelo. Resident Pius Ohoiwutun said some people ran from houses when the quake shook. “I felt a little swaying as the lamps also swayed,” Ohoiwutun said. The undersea quake was also felt in several provinces and cities across the southern Philippines, but...

This afternoon mainstream media reporting a 'storming' of Brazil's Congress and Presidential Palace by supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The same grounds where today's event occurred were heavily guarded last Sunday for President Lula's inauguration. His supporters found themselves frustrated by the tight security. Today a thin line of police quickly gave way to a group of protesters many of whom were adorned with Brazil's flag. There was some pepper spray and tear gas used half-heartedly by the small groups of police present. A crowd in the thousands quickly moved towards government buildings in the capital city of Brasilia....

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said Wednesday (Jan 4) he hoped to strengthen ties with Beijing on his first state visit to China since taking office. China and the Philippines are at odds over the hotly disputed South China Sea, with Marcos expected to sign a deal in Beijing this week to establish direct communication on maritime issues. Manila considers it "of primary importance to... strengthen the relationship between China and the Philippines", Marcos said in a meeting on Wednesday with top Chinese legislator Li Zhanshu.