MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday instructed the army and police to shoot him if he became a dictator and stayed on beyond his term, a scenario his foes are warning against, amid moves by his loyalists to change the constitution.
The firebrand leader sought to dispel speculation he had ordered loyalists in Congress to change the constitution to introduce a federal system that would let him stay in power beyond 2022, when his single term ends.
“If I overstay and wanted to become a dictator, shoot me, I am not joking,” Duterte told soldiers during an army base visit, adding that security forces should not allow anybody to mess with the constitution.
“It is your job to protect the constitution and to protect the people. Remember, it is your solemn duty.”
Duterte has advocated federalism to tackle inequality, empower provinces and recognize the country’s diverse makeup.
Last week, his lower house allies voted to convene a constituent assembly to revise the charter by May this year, scrapping mid-term elections next year and extending the terms of all elected officials.
Constitutional reform has been a divisive issue, with critics accusing lawmakers of trying to prolong their stay in office, or of seeking a way for the hugely popular Duterte to cling to power beyond the end of his term.
Opponents warn it could lead to a repeat of the oppressive rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, saying they are troubled by Duterte’s admiration for Marcos and his similar authoritarian traits.
Duterte’s spokesman, Harry Roque, has repeatedly said the president has no desire to stay longer than his term and, if anything, would prefer to retire earlier.
‘Shoot me’ if I become a dictator: Duterte tells troops to protect constitution
‘Shoot me’ if I become a dictator: Duterte tells troops to protect constitution
Plane with 2 aboard crashes in Philadelphia and sets multiple homes ablaze
PHILADELPHIA: A medical transport jet crashed in Philadelphia on Friday about 30 seconds after taking off, setting homes ablaze and unleashing a fireball into the night sky. Two people were on board, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he is offering all “Commonwealth resources as they respond to the small private plane crash in Northeast Philly.”
The crash comes two days after the country’s deadliest aviation disaster in almost a quarter century. An American Airlines jet carrying 60 passengers and four crew members collided in midair Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., with an Army helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors in that crash.
The plane appeared to be a Learjet 55 that quickly disappeared from radar after takeoff. It was en route to Springfield, Missouri, and registered to a company operating as Med Jets, according to the flight tracking website Flight Aware.
The crash happened less than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, which primarily serves business jets and charter flights. Photos taken at the crash site appear to show residential homes on fire.
Michael Schiavone, 37, was sitting at his home in Mayfair, a nearby neighborhood, on Friday when he heard a loud bang and his house shook. He said it felt like a mini earthquake and when he checked his home security camera footage, he said it looked like a missile was coming down. “There was a large explosion, so I thought we were under attack for a second,” he said.
Flight data showed a jet taking off from the airport at 6:06 p.m. and disappearing from radar about 30 seconds later after climbing to an altitude of 1,600 feet (487 meters).
The plane crashed in a busy intersection near Roosevelt Mall, an outdoor shopping center where first responders were blocking traffic and onlookers crowded onto a street corner in the residential neighborhood of Rhawnhurst. Philadelphia’s emergency management office said that roads are closed in the area.
One cellphone video taken by a witness moments after the plane crashed showed a chaotic scene with debris scattered across the intersection. A wall of orange glowed just beyond the intersection as a plume of black smoke quickly rose into the sky and sirens blared.
Jim Quinn, 56, lives about a half-mile (1 kilometer) from the crash site. He was leaving his home Friday evening when he heard the crash. “All we heard was a loud roar and didn’t know where it was coming from. We just turned around and saw the big plume.”
Quinn then went inside and looked at his doorbell camera footage, which captured a streak of white diving down from the sky, followed by what he described as a fireball. Quinn said that the blast shook houses in the residential neighborhood, and that it was congested with traffic that was redirected from the crash site.
The plane’s owner, Jet Rescue, provides global air ambulance services. The company, based in Mexico, flew baseball hall of famer David Ortiz to Boston after he was shot in the Dominican Republic in 2019 and was involved in transporting patients critically ill with COVID-19.
A message seeking comment was left with Jet Rescue’s US headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida.
The FAA said the National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation. The NTSB, which investigates air crashes, said it was gathering information about the crash.
Trump says he will speak with Russia’s Putin
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday he would be speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he thinks they will perhaps do something he described as significant.
Trump did not elaborate. He made the comments to reports in the White House’s Oval Office. He also said that Washington was having serious discussions with Moscow.
Russian missile attack targets historic buildings in Odesa, wounding seven
- The Black Sea city known for its picturesque streets of 19th-century buildings is regularly targeted by Russian strikes, often on its port area
- Russian military bloggers alleged that foreign military specialists were staying in the hotel that was targetted
KYIV: A Russian missile attack struck the center of the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa on Friday evening, wounding at least seven people and damaging historic buildings, officials said.
The Black Sea city known for its picturesque streets of 19th-century buildings is regularly targeted by Russian strikes, often on its port area.
“Currently, seven people are known to have been injured in the attack by Russian terrorists on the historical center of Odesa,” the regional governor Oleg Kiper wrote on social media.
All were in “moderate” condition, he said, and receiving medical assistance.
Kiper said in earlier posts that two women and a child were among the wounded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned what he called an “absolutely deliberate attack by Russian terrorists,” saying it was fortunate that it caused no deaths.
Kiper posted photos showing rescuers wheeling a woman on a stretcher outside the city’s historic Hotel Bristol. The photos also show damage to the 19th-century hotel’s ornate facade and interior, including a grand staircase.
Ukraine’s emergency service posted video showing debris littering the street outside the Bristol and a woman with dust on her clothes being helped by rescuers.
It said firefighters had rescued a woman trapped in her room on the second floor and extinguished a fire on the roof.
“Among the people who were at the epicenter of the attack were Norwegian diplomatic representatives,” Zelensky said.
“There is a lot of damage and destruction in the UNESCO-protected area,” Odesa’s mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said.
Odesa’s historic center is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Its Transfiguration Cathedral — destroyed by the Soviets and rebuilt in the 2000s — was badly damaged by a Russian strike in July 2023.
“As a result of the explosions, a number of historical monuments, including the Literary, Historical and Local Lore, Archaeological Museums, Museum of Western and Eastern Art, and the Philharmonic, have had their windows smashed and their facades damaged,” Kiper said.
Ukrainian media posted photos showing what appeared to be a large crater near the hotel, and fallen masonry, blown-out windows and debris littering the floor inside.
Russian military bloggers alleged that foreign military specialists were staying in the hotel.
The Taliban take over Afghanistan’s only luxury hotel, more than a decade after attacking it
The Serena Hotel said Friday it was closing its operations in the Afghan capital on Feb. 1, with the Hotel State Owned Corporation taking over. The corporation is overseen by the finance ministry.
The finance ministry wasn’t immediately available for comment. Neither the Serena nor the government clarified the terms under which the hotel was changing hands.
The Taliban first targeted the Serena in 2008 and again in 2014. Acting Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani acknowledged planning the 2008 attack, which killed eight, including US citizen Thor David Hesla.
A statement from the Serena, a brand owned by the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development, said it had trained thousands of Afghan nationals, hosted large numbers of foreign guests and delegations, and set high international benchmarks in hospitality standards.
It asked people to direct their queries to the Hotel State Owned Corporation. Kabul no longer appears as a destination on the Serena website.
According to information on the finance ministry website, the corporation’s mission is to revive and develop Afghanistan’s hotel industry. It operates three other hotels in Afghanistan, two in Kabul and one in the eastern city of Nangarhar.
Tourism official Mohammad Saeed told The Associated Press last year that he wanted Afghanistan to become a tourism powerhouse.
At that time, in a sign the country was preparing for more overseas visitors, the Serena reopened its women’s spa and salon for foreign females after a monthslong closure, only to shut them again under pressure from authorities.
The Taliban have barred women from gyms, public spaces including parks, and education. Last year, they ordered the closure of beauty salons, allegedly because they offered services forbidden by Islam.
White House says Trump tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China will come Saturday
- “Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday
- The tariffs carry both political and economic risks for Trump
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will put in place 25 percent tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on goods from China effective on Saturday, the White House said, but it provided no word on whether there would be any exemptions to the measures that could result in swift price increases to US consumers.
Trump had been threatening the tariffs to ensure greater cooperation from the countries on stopping illegal immigration and the smuggling of chemicals used for fentanyl, but he has also pledged to use tariffs to boost domestic manufacturing and raise revenues for the federal government.
“Starting tomorrow, those tariffs will be in place,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Friday. “These are promises made and promises kept by the president.”
The tariffs carry both political and economic risks for Trump, who is just two weeks into his second term. Many voters backed the Republican on the promise that he could tamp down inflation, but the possibility of tariffs could trigger higher prices and potentially disrupt the energy, auto, lumber and agricultural sectors.
Trump had said he was weighing issuing an exemption for Canadian and Mexican oil imports, but Leavitt said she had no information to share on the president’s decision on any potential carveouts.
The United States imported almost 4.6 million barrels of oil daily from Canada in October and 563,000 barrels from Mexico, according to the Energy Information Administration. US daily production during that month averaged nearly 13.5 million barrels a day.
Trump has previously stated a 10 percent tariff on Chinese imports would be on top of other import taxes charged on products from the country.
Shortly after Leavitt spoke, the S&P 500 stock index sold off and largely erased its gains on the day.
“We should expect all three countries to retaliate,’’ said Wendy Cutler, a former US trade negotiator. China responded aggressively to tariffs Trump imposed on Chinese goods during his first term, targeting the president’s supporters in rural America with retaliatory taxes on US farm exports.
Both Canada and Mexico have said they’ve prepared the option of retaliatory tariffs to be used if necessary, which in turn could trigger a wider trade conflict that economic analyzes say could hurt growth and further accelerate inflation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that Canada is ready is a respond if Trump goes ahead with the tariffs, but he did not give details.
“We’re ready with a response, a purposeful, forceful but reasonable, immediate response,” he said. “It’s not what we want, but if he moves forward, we will also act.”
Trudeau said tariffs would have “disastrous consequences” for the U.S, putting American jobs at risk and causing prices to rise. Trudeau reiterated that less than 1 percent of the fentanyl and illegal crossings into the US come from Canada.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Friday that Mexico has maintained a dialogue with Trump’s team since before he returned to the White House, but she emphasized that Mexico has a “Plan A, Plan B, Plan C for what the United States government decides.”
“Now it is very important that the Mexican people know that we are always going to defend the dignity of our people, we are always going to defend the respect of our sovereignty and a dialogue between equals, as we have always said, without subordination,” Sheinbaum said.
Liu Pengyu, spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said the two countries should resolve their differences through dialogue and consultation. “There is no winner in a trade war or tariff war, which serves the interests of neither side nor the world,” Liu said in a statement. “Despite the differences, our two countries share huge common interests and space for cooperation.”
A study this month by Warwick McKibbin and Marcus Noland of the Peterson Institute for International Economics concluded that the 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 10 percent tariffs on China “would damage all the economies involved, including the US’’
“For Mexico,’’ the study said, “a 25 percent tariff would be catastrophic. Moreover, the economic decline caused by the tariff could increase the incentives for Mexican immigrants to cross the border illegally into the US — directly contradicting another Trump administration priority.’’
Cutler, now vice president at the Asia Society Policy Institute, said the extent of the economic damage will depend on how long the tariffs are in effect.
If it’s just a few days, “that’s one thing. If they are in place for weeks onto months, we’re going to see supply chain disruptions, higher costs for US manufacturers, leading to higher prices for US consumers,’’ she said. “It could have macroeconomic impacts. It could affect the stock market. Then internationally it could lead to more tension with our trading partners and make it harder for us to work with them.”
