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Contentious legislation passing the British Parliament late tonight that will give the government the ability to send asylum-seekers arriving in the UK to Rwanda... In Ukraine late tonight explosions reported in Odessa...early Tuesday morning...explosions reported in Kiev... An investigation led by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna finding no links between the United Nations World Relief Agency and terrorist groups... The Russian military in Syria noting 14 violations of Syrian airspace by US-led coalition warplanes... 35 rockets fired into northern Israel as Passover began this evening... The trial of President Donald Trump in New York heard its first testimony today......

TUGUEGARAO CITY, CAGAYAN, Philippines — Two Cagayan Valley lawmakers have filed separate resolutions asking the appropriate committee of the House of Representatives to look into the reported surge of Chinese students in colleges and universities in this city amid the country’s tension with China over the West Philippine Sea. Representatives Joseph Lara of Cagayan’s third district and Faustino “Inno” Dy V of Isabela’s sixth district said the presence of large numbers of Chinese nationals in this region and other parts of the country pose a risk to the country’s national security and economy, particularly since these foreigners had been involved...

In Israel today hundreds of Jewish residents storming into a Palestinian village killing one... A federal judge denying Hunter Biden's motion to dismiss... After many weeks of talk a transitional council for Haiti ... The Democrat Governor of Kansas Laura Kelly vetoing legislation stopping gender changing medical treatments... Israeli politics...latest "Lazar" poll... "This is a sad day for America" Congressman Thomas Massie Reacts...Speaker Mike Johnson breaking a 212-212 tie... President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson each expressing support for the other... Trump supportive of the notion that more aid to Ukraine is going to be a "loan"... A barrage...

WASHINGTON — Reporters who were supposed to observe President Biden’s heavily promoted trilateral meeting with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines missed his remarks Thursday when press handlers left them standing downstairs in a hallway as the commander in chief spoke. The rare logistical snafu prevented journalists from witnessing the 81-year-old president’s opening remarks to Philippine President Bongbong Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in the White House East Room. The day’s print pool reporter, Michael Shear of the New York Times, relayed the unexpected dilemma in an emailed update to colleagues who were anticipating quotes from the...

The U.S., Japan and the Philippines will launch joint naval patrols in the South China Sea later this year, according to a U.S. official and a foreign diplomat familiar with the planning. It’s a major move to counter China in the region — and one likely to elicit a strong response from Beijing. The three-country naval maneuvers are part of a package of initiatives that President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will unveil at their first-ever trilateral summit next month, the official and the diplomat said. The White House is also expected...

Friction has grown between Manila and Beijing in recent months over competing claims in the South China Sea. "These waterways are critical to the Philippines, to its security, to its economy," Mr Blinken said. "They're also critical to the interests of the region, the United States and the world," "That's why we stand with the Philippines and stand by our ironclad defence commitments, including under the mutual defence treaty." The visit is also likely to be seen as bolstering American support for Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr, who has tilted towards Washington unlike his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who pushed ties...

The South China Sea has once again become a focal point of international attention following sudden clashes between coast guard vessels of the Philippines and China. As tensions rise, the involvement of global powers like the US and Japan adds further complexity to the situation, potentially pushing more nations to align against Beijing. Amid these escalating tensions, it becomes imperative for China to reconsider its assertive stance and respect the existing global order to avoid further international backlash The South China Sea (SCS) has once again come into focus following sudden skirmishes between the coast guard vessels of the Philippines...

Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels yesterday collided in the disputed South China Sea and four Filipino crewmembers were injured in high-seas confrontations. The China Coast Guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine Coast Guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) and executed dangerous maneuvers that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said. — The supply boat, crewed by Filipino navy personnel, was later hit by water cannon blasts from two Chinese coast guard ships. Its windshield shattered, injuring at least four Filipino...

Gun laws in the Philippines aren't as atrocious as many other countries in southeast Asia, but they're still wildly draconian compared to most states in the U.S. There are an estimated 4 million gun owners in the country, but in order to lawfully possess a gun owners have to jump through numerous government-imposed hoops like psychological testing and training mandates, and some guns that are commonly owned here are off-limits to the average Filipino. This week, however, the Philippine National Police announced that soon civilians will be able to purchase and possess semi-automatic rifles; a major change to the country's...

The Philippines' fishing bureau has accused Chinese fishing vessels of using cyanide to destroy Scarborough Shoal, a fish-rich atoll in the South China Sea contested by both Manila and Beijing. "These Chinese fishermen use cyanide," Nazario Briguera, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, said on Saturday, per a translation from Filipino by The Philippine Star. Cyanide fishing is a controversial fishing method that typically involves dumping the highly toxic chemical near coral reefs or in fishing grounds to stun or kill fish so they can be easily captured. It's widely condemned because it indiscriminately affects most...

American foreign policy experts have long argued that China has been laying the groundwork for a permanent rise as a major global power, and U.S. politicians (particularly on the Republican side) have certainly counted the ways in which China is clearly our No. 1 geopolitical foe. However, China's ascendency isn't without its setbacks, and at times it seems possible that China is closer to declining than rising. Their economy hasn't recovered since COVID-19, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has been dealing with more internal struggles than were previously let on. One such problem for the leader of the Chinese Communist...

The PRC has adopted a sustained coercive campaign against the Philippines to seize its sovereign territory. The world is witnessing this aggression today in the South China Sea. Awarning from the 20th century is that dictatorships tend to use aggression not first against great powers but against smaller states. Hitler pressured Austria and seized the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia before seizing the rest of the Czech Republic, turning Slovakia into a protectorate, and seizing Memel (Klaipeda) from Lithuania. After checking Japan in 1938 and 1939 in the Far East, Stalin aggressed against Poland with his ally Nazi Germany before turning to...

The Chinese coast guard targeted Philippine vessels with water cannon blasts Sunday and rammed one of them, causing damage and endangering Filipino crew members off a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, just a day after similar hostilities at another contested shoal, Philippine officials said. The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, immediately condemned the latest confrontation near the Second Thomas Shoal, where two Philippine navy-operated supply boats and two Philippine coast guard escort ships had sailed to deliver food and other supplies to Filipino forces in a long-marooned navy ship that serves as a territorial outpost....

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An explosion at a university gymnasium in the southern Philippines has killed three people and wounded nine others, according to local authorities. The blast ripped through a Catholic mass service on Sunday at Mindanao State University in Marawi City... Police said they were investigating the explosion, including the possibility that it was carried out by pro-Islamic State militants...

The Philippine Commission on Elections has banned Smartmatic Philippines Inc. from the nation’s elections, ending 13 years of the company being the main provider of election technology to the nation. The decision revolved around allegations of bribery that claim commission chairman Andres Bautista was paid off to ensure Smartmatic won the contract for the 2016 elections, according to the Philippine edition of CNN. Bautista has denied the allegations. Although Smartmatic argued it has followed the rules, noting that there are nothing but allegations against it, the commission was unmoved. “Although these allegations, stemming from incidents potentially spanning at least three...

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Tsunami warnings have ended for parts of the coastal Philippines after a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck off the southeastern coast Saturday night, according to the USGS. The quake struck at 10:37 p.m. local time Saturday night, or 9:37 a.m. ET, near the province of Surigao del Sur in Mindanao, the second-largest island of the Philippines. The USGS noted the quake occurred at a depth of 32.8 km, or just over 20 miles deep out at sea.

An earthquake of magnitude 7.6 struck Mindanao, Philippines on Saturday, the European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) said. The quake was at a depth of 63 km (39.15 miles), EMSC added.

The death toll from a strong earthquake off the southern Philippines rose to five on Saturday as authorities reported more casualties across two provinces. The 6.7-magnitude quake that struck the Mindanao region mid-afternoon on Friday caused part of a shopping mall ceiling to collapse, triggered power cuts and sent people fleeing into the streets. Falling debris from the mall in General Santos City crushed a woman to death, while 19 other people were treated for shock, city police captain Ari Noel Cardos said. Police earlier reported the death of a couple pinned under a collapsing concrete wall in General Santos,...

There have been several recent incidents where China has done its best to bully the Philippines in the South China Sea. Those incidents haven’t gone unnoticed by some of China’s neighbors. Now Japan and the Philippines are teaming up to create a new defense pact. Japan’s PM headed to the Philippines today for two days of talks.Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan said on Friday that his country would start formal talks with the Philippines to allow the deployment of Japanese troops to the Southeast Asian country, further strengthening ties between two countries that have embraced each other as bulwarks...