MANILA: China has assured the Philippines it will not occupy new features or territory in the South China Sea, under a new status quo brokered by Manila as both sides try to strengthen their relations, the Philippine defense minister said.
The minister, Delfin Lorenzana, told a congressional hearing that the Philippines and China had reached a “modus vivendi,” or a way to get along, in the South China Sea that prohibits new occupation of islands.
“There is status quo now that is happening in the South China Sea brokered by the secretary of Foreign Affairs,” he told lawmakers late on Monday.
“According to him, the Chinese will not occupy new features in the South China Sea nor they are going to build structures in Scarborough Shoal,” he said, referring to a prime fishing ground close to the Philippines that China blockaded from 2012 to 2016.
“It would be a very serious thing if China will occupy any of the islands.”
Lorenzana did not comment when lawmakers, citing reports from the military, told him five Chinese ships had showed up almost 5 km off the Philippine-held Thitu Island in the Spratly archipelago on Saturday.
Congressman Gary Alejano told Reuters that Chinese fishing boats had blocked a Philippine marine surveillance ship in the area two days ago.
Thitu Island is the largest of nine reefs and shoals the Philippines occupies in the Spratlys.
The military’s public affairs chief, Col. Edgard Arevalo, declined to comment until the armed forces had the “whole picture on the current situation.”
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has berated traditional ally the United States over several issues since he took office just over a year ago, while courting China for its business and investment and avoiding the rows over maritime sovereignty that dogged his predecessors.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, a waterway through which about $3 trillion worth of sea-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have conflicting claims in the area.
China has built seven islands upon reefs in disputed areas, three of which, experts say, are capable of accommodating fighter jets. They have runways, radars and surface-to-air missiles which China says are for defense.
One of the manmade islands is Subi Reef, visible some 24 km away by the small community of Filipinos who since the 1970s have lived on Thitu.
Alejano, a former Marine Corps officer who led a failed coup against the government of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2003, urged the government to lodge a diplomatic protest and tell China to leave Philippine territory in the Spratlys.
Philippines says China has agreed no new expansion in South China Sea
Philippines says China has agreed no new expansion in South China Sea
Iran artist’s vision for culture hub enlivens rustic district
- Arabesque patterns and relief faces carved with intricate details and painted in vivid hues of greens, pinks, blues, and purples now adorn the walls
SHIRAZ, Iran: In the winding alleys of southern Iran, artist Adel Yazdi has taken it upon himself to turn his rustic old neighborhood into a cultural and tourist hub through vibrant paintings and carved relief faces.
Narenjestan, a neighborhood characterized by crumbling, uninhabited houses, is nestled in Shiraz, a southern city celebrated for its historic architecture, lush gardens, and revered poets.
“Most of the dilapidated walls in old Shiraz have no historical value,” said Yazdi, a bushy-bearded, bespectacled 40-year-old artist who has dedicated himself to revitalizing Narenjestan.
Over the years, Yazdi has turned the long-neglected neighborhood walls into a vivid visual tapestry “telling the stories of the people living here,” he said.
Arabesque patterns and relief faces carved with intricate details and painted in vivid hues of greens, pinks, blues, and purples now adorn the walls.
With its striking designs and bright colors, Yazdi’s art can be reminiscent of Surrealism. It often comes across as surprising, showcasing a different side of Iran’s artistic heritage that goes beyond the conventional focus on traditional architecture.
The artwork includes the face of Scheherazade, Yazdi said, referencing the legendary storyteller from the “One Thousand and One Nights” collection of folktales.
Yazdi’s work stands out in Shiraz, where graffiti and murals are rare, and it has become a social media sensation and a tourist attraction.
Yazdi said he drew inspiration from the Pompidou Center in Paris, a cultural hub that transformed the heart of the French capital in the 1970s. He hopes his efforts can turn Shiraz’s alleyways into a more vibrant cultural center.
At his residence, visitors are particularly drawn to what Yazdi calls “the Finger Room.”
Inside, he installed around 14,000 finger sculptures on the ceiling, all pointing downward.
“The room is inspired by the legend of an angel that counts raindrops with thousands of fingers,” he said, referring to a religious fable.
“These fingers constantly remind us that the present moment is precious and that we must seize it.”
Mike Johnson reelected House speaker in dramatic floor vote, overcoming hard-right Republican holdouts after a tense standoff
- A small collection of hard-line Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber, one by one declining to vote or choosing another lawmaker
- But Johnson was able to flip two remaining holdouts who switched to support him, drawing applause from Republicans. The tally was 218-215
WASHINGTON: Republican Mike Johnson narrowly won reelection Friday to the House speakership on a first ballot, overcoming hard-right GOP holdouts after a tense standoff and buoyed by a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump.
The uneasy scene brought an ominous start to the first day of the new Congress. A small collection of hard-line Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber, one by one declining to vote or choosing another lawmaker. Johnson’s face turned grim, acknowledging fresh turmoil and signaling trouble ahead under unified GOP control of Washington.
In the end, however, Johnson was able to flip two remaining holdouts who switched to support him, drawing applause from Republicans. The tally was 218-215.
Johnson in his first speech vowed to “reject business as usual” as Republicans take charge.
“We’re going to drastically cut back the size and scope of government,” he promised.
Johnson’s weak grip on the gavel has threatened not only his own survival but President-elect Trump’s ambitious agenda of tax cuts and mass deportations as Republicans sweep to power. Even his close alliance and backing from Trump himself, usually a sure bet for Republicans, was no guarantee Johnson will stay in power.
The House Democratic leader Hakeem Jefferies attempted to push past the Republican tumult of the past two years, saying it was time to come together, put party politics aside “to get things done” for Americans.
What was once a ceremonial day with newly elected lawmakers arriving to be sworn into office, often with family, friends and children in tow, has evolved into a high-stakes vote for the office of House speaker, among the most powerful elected positions in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris was swearing in the senators.
While the Senate is able to convene on its own and has already elected party leaders — Sen. John Thune as the Republican majority leader and Sen. Chuck Schumer for the Democratic minority — the House must first elect its speaker, a role required by the Constitution, second in the line of succession to the president.
With opposition from his own GOP colleagues, Johnson arrived at the Capitol with outward confidence after working into the night to sway hard-line holdouts. A flop by Johnson could have throw Monday’s congressional certification of Trump’s 2024 election victory into turmoil without a House speaker.
“A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party,” Trump posted ahead of the vote on social media.
Congress has been here before, when it took Republicans nearly a week and 15 rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker in 2023, a spectacle otherwise unseen in modern times. McCarthy was then dumped by his party, a historic first, but he was also part of a long list of GOP speakers chased to early exits.
The stakes are higher this year as Trump prepares to return to the White House with the House and Senate in GOP control and promising to deliver big on a 100-day agenda.
Johnson worked diligently to prevent losing his post, up to the final moments, spending New Year’s Day at Mar-a-Lago as he positioned himself alongside Trump. The speaker often portrays himself as the “quarterback” who will be executing the political plays called by the “coach,” the president-elect.
During the dramatic roll call, the strain on Johnson was clear as more than a half-dozen Republicans refused to vote for him, many from the conservative Freedom Caucus. He was falling short.
As the chamber stood still, a few Republican holdouts announced their support, but it was still not enough for Johnson to keep the gavel. One hard “no” was Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Kentucky, who voted for a different GOP Leader, as did two other Republicans.
Johnson’s allies huddled with some lawmakers, and others took calls passing their phones to the other holdouts.
But Johnson also had warned that without a House speaker there would be a “constitutional crisis” heading into Jan. 6, when Congress by law is required to count the electoral votes for president, weeks before Trump is set to be inaugurated Jan. 20.
“We don’t have any time to waste, and I think that everybody recognizes that,” he said.
Johnson commands one of the slimmest majorities in modern times, having lost seats in the November election. With the sudden resignation of Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the tally dropped to 219-215. That leaves Johnson relying on almost every Republican for support in the face of Democratic opposition.
Heading into Friday he did not have the full support needed.
Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy was among the most notable holdouts, an unflinching member of the Freedom Caucus who lashed into Republican leadership’s handling of the year-end spending bill for failing to cut spending and adhere to House rules.
“Something MUST change,” Roy posted on social media. He eventually voted for Johnson.
What’s unclear is what other concessions Johnson can make to win support. Two years ago, McCarthy handed out prime favors that appeared to only weaken his hold on power.
Already, Johnson has clawed back one of those changes, with a new House rule pushed by centrist conservatives that would require at least nine members of the majority party on any resolution to oust the speaker — raising the threshold McCarthy had lowered to just one.
“I think the holdouts are going to have to realize that, listen, Trump is right all the time,” said Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, exiting the speaker’s office late Thursday. “Just know that Trump is right all the time, it’ll help you make a decision real simple.”
In many ways, Johnson has no choice but to endure political hazing by his colleagues, as they remind him who has leverage in their lopsided relationship. He was a last-ditch choice for the office, rising from the back bench once other leaders failed in the aftermath of McCarthy’s ouster.
The speaker’s election is set to dominate the opening of the new Congress, which also brings a roster of history-making members, as the Senate expects to quickly begin hearings on Trump’s nominees for top Cabinet and administrative positions.
In the Senate, two Black women — Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland — were being sworn in, both wearing suits in the white of the suffragettes, the first time in the nation’s history two Black women senators will serve at the same time.
Senator-elect Andy Kim of New Jersey also is making history as the first Korean American to join the chamber.
In the House, Sarah McBride is the first openly transgender person in the Congress.
And Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, who recently suffered a fall overseas and underwent hip replacement surgery, will make her own return to Washington, a reminder of the power she wielded when Democrats last held the majority.
Canary Islands received record 46,843 migrants in 2024
- Sanchez government ‘maintains a transversal policy that prioritizes human rights’
MADRID: A record 46,843 migrants reached Spain’s Canary Islands illegally in 2024 via the increasingly deadly Atlantic route, the second consecutive year of unprecedented arrival numbers, official data showed.
The landmark came as the European country received 63,970 irregular migrants last year, the vast majority in the Atlantic archipelago, up from 56,852 in 2023, the Interior Ministry said.
Spain has moved to the forefront of the EU’s migration crisis as tighter controls in the Mediterranean push more migrants to attempt the perilous trip from West Africa to the Canaries.
BACKGROUND
Spain, a major gateway to Europe along with Italy and Greece, has emerged as an outlier in European migration policy.
EU border agency Frontex has said irregular crossings into the bloc from January to November 2024 fell 40 percent overall.
However, they grew 19 percent on the Atlantic route, with Mali, Senegal, and Morocco being the most common nationalities.
The latest figures confirmed data published in December that showed the record for annual migrant arrivals by boat in the Canaries had been broken for the second year running by November.
Last year’s arrivals surpassed the 39,910 migrants who reached the islands off northwestern Africa by sea in 2023, a level that had smashed the previous record from 2006.
The national figure for 2024 fell short of the record of 64,298 arrivals set in 2018 but exceeded the 56,852 migrants who reached Spain illegally in 2023.
A report last week by NGO Caminando Fronteras said at least 10,457 migrants died or disappeared while trying to reach Spain by sea from Jan. 1 to Dec. 5, 2024.
Caminando Fronteras said it was a 50-percent increase on 2023.
The highest toll since its tallies began in 2007, attributing it to the use of ramshackle boats, dangerous waters and a lack of resources for rescues.
“The loss of a single life is a cause for sadness, and we regret every one of them,” the Migration Ministry said in reaction to the report.
“This government maintains a transversal policy that prioritizes human rights and works in collaboration with other ministries and countries of origin and transit to promote regular and safe migration.”
Local authorities in the Canaries say they are overwhelmed by the waves of arrivals.
Spain’s political parties, however, have failed to agree on a plan to distribute thousands of unaccompanied minors nationwide to ease the burden.
Government minister Angel Victor Torres criticized the conservative opposition Popular Party, or PP, for the impasse.
The children would go to school, “learning our language and integrating into our society” if the PP adopted an attitude of “true solidarity,” Torres told Cadena SER radio.
Despite the crisis, Spain, a major gateway to Europe along with Italy and Greece, has emerged as an outlier in European migration policy.
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez defends the necessity of migration to support the welfare state and workforce needs as Europe’s population ages.
His successive leftist governments since 2018 have eased regularization rules for illegal migrants in Spain, even as far-right parties with anti-immigration platforms have surged in Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and beyond.
Sanchez last year embarked on a tour of Senegal, Mauritania, and The Gambia, the main departure points for Spain-bound boats, to promote local efforts to curb illegal migration.
PP spokesman Borja Semper slammed the government for presiding over rising immigration numbers while levels fell in other frontline countries such as Italy.
The government uses immigration “frivolously because there is no policy, and when it puts forward something, it’s behind a banner,” he said.
Judge says Trump must be sentenced in criminal case, but signals no jail term
- Judge Juan Merchan denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the criminal case due to his presidential election victory
- Says a sentence of “unconditional discharge” — meaning no custody, monetary fine, or probation — would be “the most viable solution”
NEW YORK: Donald Trump must be sentenced on Jan. 10 in the criminal case in which he was convicted on charges involving hush money paid to a porn star, a judge ruled on Friday, adding that he is not inclined to impose a jail sentence.
Justice Juan Merchan said he denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case due to his presidential election victory. The judge said the Republican president-elect may appear for the sentencing, which will take place just 10 days before his inauguration, either in-person or virtually.
Merchan wrote that a sentence of “unconditional discharge” — meaning no custody, monetary fine, or probation — would be “the most viable solution.”
A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Trump’s second motion to dismiss the case filed since his May conviction, his defense lawyers argued that having the case hang over him during his presidency would impede his ability to govern.
Merchan rejected that argument, writing that setting aside the jury’s verdict would “undermine the Rule of Law in immeasurable ways.”
“Defendant’s status as President-elect does not require the drastic and ‘rare’ application of (the court’s) authority to grant the (dismissal) motion,” Merchan wrote in the decision.
Trump was initially scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 26, but Merchan pushed that back indefinitely after Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which brought the case, said there were measures short of the “extreme remedy” of overturning the jury’s verdict that could assuage Trump’s concerns about being distracted by a criminal case while serving as president.
They suggested several options for Merchan, including delaying the sentencing until Trump, 78, leaves the White House in 2029, or guaranteeing a sentence that would not involve prison time.
The prosecutors also said the judge could simply terminate the case with a notation that Trump was never sentenced and that his conviction was neither affirmed nor reversed on appeal. They said a similar approach was used in cases where a defendant dies after being convicted but before being sentenced.
The case stemmed from a $130,000 payment that Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film actor Stormy Daniels. The payment was for her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she has said she had a decade earlier with Trump, who denies it.
A Manhattan jury in May found Trump guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up the payment. It was the first time a US president — former or sitting — had been convicted of or charged with a criminal offense.
Trump pleaded not guilty and called the case an attempt by Bragg, a Democrat, to harm his 2024 campaign.
Trump on Dec. 16 lost a separate bid to toss the conviction in light of the US Supreme Court’s July 1 decision that presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted over their official actions, and that evidence of their official actions cannot be presented in criminal cases over personal conduct.
In denying Trump’s motion to dismiss, Merchan said the prosecution over “decidedly personal acts of falsifying business records poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the executive branch.”
Falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years in prison, but incarceration is not required. Before his election victory, legal experts said it was unlikely Trump would be locked up due to his lack of a criminal history and advanced age.
Trump was charged in three other state and federal criminal cases in 2023: one involving classified documents he kept after leaving office and two others involving his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
He pleaded not guilty in all three cases. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the two federal cases after Trump’s election victory.
Trump’s state criminal case in Georgia over charges stemming from his effort to overturn his 2020 election loss in that state is in limbo.
UN experts slam Israel’s blatant assault on health rights in Gaza
- Reiterating charges that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, two independent UN rights experts said they were “horrified” by the raid last Friday on Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital
- UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the world body
GENEVA: UN experts have denounced Israel’s raid on an embattled hospital in northern Gaza, demanding an end to the “blatant assault” on health rights in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Reiterating charges that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, two independent UN rights experts said they were “horrified” by the raid last Friday on Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning major hospital.
“For well over a year into the genocide, Israel’s blatant assault on the right to health in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory is plumbing new depths of impunity,” the experts said.
The joint statement was from Francesca Albanese, the independent UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, and Tlaleng Mofokeng, the special rapporteur on the right to health.
FASTFACT
The joint statement was from Francesca Albanese, the independent UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, and Tlaleng Mofokeng, the special rapporteur on the right to health.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva dismissed the statement as “far removed from the truth,” saying it “completely ignores critical facts and the broader context of Hamas’s exploitation of civilian infrastructure for military purposes.”
The Israeli military has repeatedly accused Hamas of using hospitals as command centers, something Hamas denies.
The military “undertook every effort to protect civilians,” the Israeli mission said, insisting its “actions highlight Israel’s commitment to international law and the protection of civilian infrastructure, even under the most challenging circumstances.”
Israel’s military said it had killed more than 20 suspected militants and detained more than 240, including the hospital’s director, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, describing him as a suspected Hamas militant.
In their statement, Albanese and Mofokeng said they were “gravely concerned” at Safiyeh’s detention and demanded his “immediate release.”
“Yet another doctor to be harassed, kidnapped, and arbitrarily detained by the occupation forces,” they said.
“This is part of a pattern by Israel to continuously bombard, destroy, and fully annihilate the realization of the right to health in Gaza.”
UN special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but do not speak on behalf of the world body.
The experts also highlighted “disturbing reports” that Israeli forces had allegedly carried out extrajudicial executions of some people near the hospitals, including a Palestinian man reportedly holding a white flag.
They pointed to figures provided by the Health Ministry in Gaza indicating that at least 1,057 Palestinian health and medical professionals have been killed since the war erupted following the Palestinian group’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack inside Israel.
The World Health Organization has repeatedly denounced the high number of attacks on health care staff and facilities in the war: 1,273 attacks on health care in Gaza and the West Bank have been recorded since the start of the war.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on X that the pace of desperately needed medical evacuations out of Gaza was “excruciatingly slow.”
“Only 5,383 patients have been evacuated with support from WHO since October 2023, of which only 436 since the Rafah crossing was closed” last May, he said.
He said more than 12,000 people were awaiting medical evacuation from Gaza.
“At this rate, it would take 5-10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients, including thousands of children,” he added.
“In the meantime, their conditions get worse and some die.”
