MANILA: The Philippines on Monday started giving second COVID-19 booster doses for immunocompromised adults, joining a growing number of Asian countries offering a fourth vaccine shot.
Nearly 61 percent of the Philippines’ 110 million population have been vaccinated, while nearly 13 million people have received first booster doses, government data show.
Of 690,000 people deemed most vulnerable, between 7,000 and 13,000 have been initially targeted for the second round of boosters, to increase protection against COVID-19 and its variants.
“Because of increasing vaccination coverage, while COVID-19 is still there, in the near future we can consider this as an endemic disease,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque told a public forum.
Among those that have approved the use of second booster are South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, which is hoping to prevent a coronavirus resurgence, particularly among its elderly, as it removes most remaining curbs this week.
The Philippines has been cautious with its reopening, despite efforts to revive an economy that contracted more than 9 percent in 2020, having been one of Asia’s fastest growing before the pandemic.
With 3.68 million cases overall and more than 60,000 deaths, the country has suffered one of the worst COVID-19 crises in Southeast Asia, although new daily infections have fallen significantly, now at an average 207 per day, just 1 percent of the peak, according to a Reuters global data tracker.
Philippines starts rollout of second booster dose against COVID-19
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Philippines starts rollout of second booster dose against COVID-19
- Joins a growing number of Asian countries offering a fourth vaccine shot
- Philippines cautious with its reopening, despite efforts to revive an economy
Rubio to make debut in Panama as Trump threatens to take canal
- Marco Rubio’s travel comes the same day that Trump’s promised tariffs on the three largest US trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China – are set to come into effect
- Rubio will travel later to four other small Latin American countries for an agenda focused on migration, a highly unusual first trip for the top US diplomat
Rubio’s travel comes the same day that Trump’s promised tariffs on the three largest US trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China – are set to come into effect, another step showing a far more aggressive US foreign policy.
Rubio will travel later to four other small Latin American countries for an agenda focused on migration, a highly unusual first trip for the top US diplomat, whose predecessors were more likely to start the job with language of cooperation with major allies.
Trump has refused to rule out military force to seize the Panama Canal, which the United States handed over at the end of 1999, saying that China has exerted too much control through its investment in surrounding ports.
In his inaugural address, Trump said that the United States will be “taking it back” – and he refused to back down Friday.
“They’ve already offered to do many things,” Trump said of Panama, “but we think it’s appropriate that we take it back.”
He alleged that Panama was taking down Chinese-language signs to cover up how “they’ve totally violated the agreement” on the canal.
“Marco Rubio is going over this talk to the gentleman that’s in charge,” Trump told reporters.
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino, generally considered an ally of the United States, has ruled out opening negotiations after complaining to the United Nations about Trump’s threat.
“I cannot negotiate, much less open a process of negotiations on the canal,” Mulino said Thursday.
The issue “is sealed. The canal is Panama’s,” Mulino said.
Mulino’s government, however, has ordered an audit of CK Hutchison Holdings, the Hong Kong company that operates ports on both sides of the canal.
It remains to be seen if or how Rubio carries out the threat. Some experts believe that Trump was simply applying pressure and could declare a win by the United States ramping up investment in the canal – an outcome that most Panamanians would welcome.
Rubio has played down the military option but also not contradicted his boss.
“I think the president’s been pretty clear he wants to administer the canal again. Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of that idea,” Rubio told SiriusXM radio in an interview before the trip.
He acknowledged that Panama’s government “generally is pro-American” but said that the Panama Canal is a “core national interest for us.”
“We cannot allow any foreign power – particularly China – to hold that kind of potential control over it that they do. That just can’t continue,” Rubio said.
The canal remains the crucial link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans and coasts, with 40 percent of US container traffic going through it.
Trump administration officials said they were blaming not Mulino but previous Panamanian president Juan Carlos Varela who in 2017 – during Trump’s first term as president – moved to sever ties with Taiwan in favor of China.
“It wasn’t just a diplomatic recognition. He literally opened the floodgates and gave strategic assets throughout the Canal Zone to China,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy on Latin America.
He charged that Panama unfairly raised costs for US ships while also seeking assistance from the United States for canal upkeep. Panama attributes rising costs to the effects of a drought, exacerbated by climate change.
Trump has quickly made clear he will exercise swift pressure to bend other countries to his will, especially on his signature issue of deporting undocumented immigrants.
On Sunday, he threatened major tariffs against Colombia to force its president to back down after he insisted that repatriated migrants be treated in a more dignified way.
Plane with 2 aboard crashes in Philadelphia and sets multiple homes ablaze
- Jet Rescue Air Ambulance said its aircraft crashed with four crew members, one pediatric medical patient and the patient’s mother on board
A medevac plane crashed soon after takeoff in Philadelphia on Friday with a child and five others on board, the air ambulance company that operated it said, adding that it had not confirmed any survivors.
Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, based in Mexico and licensed to operate in the US, said its aircraft crashed with four crew members, one pediatric medical patient and the patient’s mother on board.
“At this time we cannot confirm any survivors,” the company said in a statement.
State and local officials said late on Friday they could not yet confirm how many people may have died on the ground after the plane slammed into a heavily populated portion of the city. Videos taken by witnesses of the crash clearly showed body parts strewn about the streets and inside nearby homes.
The Mexican government said all those on the plane were Mexican nationals, CNN reported.
The child was a girl on her way home with a final destination of Tijuana, Shai Gold, who works on corporate strategy with Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, told CNN. Her mother was also aboard, he said.
“We are terribly shocked by this tragic turn of events,” Gold said. “This was a very seasoned crew. We are a leading air ambulance company, we fly 600 to 700 times a year.”
He said the company had invested heavily in maintaining its aircraft to the highest international standards and that the plane that crashed had been in excellent flying condition.
“We really don’t know what happened,” Gold said.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told a press conference at the crash scene that “we know there will be loss in this region.”
“We want to offer our thoughts and our serious prayers for those that are grieving at this moment,” Shapiro said.
President Donald Trump wrote on social media that it was “so sad to see the plane go down in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. More innocent souls lost. Our people are totally engaged. First Responders are already being given credit for doing a great job.”
The crash follows this week’s collision of an American Airlines jet and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C., which killed 67 in the deadliest airplane crash in the US since 2009.
The Federal Aviation Administration said six people were on the Learjet 55 that crashed around 6:30 p.m. (0030 GMT) on Friday. Local media reported it was near the Roosevelt Mall in northeast Philadelphia and that there were multiple injuries on the ground.
Video aired on local TV stations showed the plane in a sharp dive before hitting the ground and exploding in a massive fireball.
Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker told a press conference at the scene that several houses and cars had been engulfed in flames. She said the situation is “all hands on deck, that’s where we are right now.”
Officials said it was not clear what led to the crash. The weather was cold and rainy and with low visibility when the plane went down.
The air ambulance had left Northeast Philadelphia Airport and was headed to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri, about 1,800km to the southwest, the FAA said in a statement.
A large fire and several fire trucks were visible at the crash scene in images broadcast by the Philadelphia CBS affiliate. About two hours after the crash the fires were mostly out, according to TV images.
The Philadelphia police and fire departments did not respond to requests for comment.
Peace prospects look bleak in Myanmar as a civil war rages
- Political situation remains tense with no negotiation space in sight between the military government and the major opposition groups
- The UN Human Rights Office said the military ramped up violence against civilians last year to unprecedented levels
BANGKOK: Peace prospects look bleak in Myanmar as a civil war rages despite international pressure on the military four years after it seized power from an elected civilian government.
The political situation remains tense with no negotiation space in sight between the military government and the major opposition groups fighting against it.
The four years after the army’s takeover on Feb. 1, 2021, have created a profound situation of multiple, overlapping crises with nearly half the population in poverty and the economy in disarray, the UN Development Program said.
The UN Human Rights Office said the military ramped up violence against civilians last year to unprecedented levels, inflicting the heaviest civilian death toll since the army takeover as its grip on power eroded.
The army launched wave after wave of retaliatory airstrikes and artillery shelling on civilians and civilian populated areas, forced thousands of young people into military service, conducted arbitrary arrests and prosecutions, caused mass displacement, and denied access to humanitarians, even in the face of natural disasters, the rights office said in a statement Friday.
“After four years, it is deeply distressing to find that the situation on the ground for civilians is only getting worse by the day,” UN human rights chief Volker Turk said. “Even as the military’s power wanes, their atrocities and violence have expanded in scope and intensity,” he said, adding that the retaliatory nature of the attacks were designed to control, intimidate, and punish the population.
The United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others criticized the military takeover in a statement that also called for the release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
They said nearly 20 million people need humanitarian assistance and up to 3.5 million people are displaced internally, an increase of nearly 1 million in the last year. They also expressed concern about increased cross-border crime in Myanmar such as drug and human trafficking and online scam operations, which affect neighboring countries and risk broader instability.
“The current trajectory is not sustainable for Myanmar or the region,” the countries said in the joint statement that also included Australia, Canada, South Korea, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
The status of the fighting
The military’s 2021 takeover prompted widespread public protests, whose violent suppression by security forces triggered an armed resistance that has now led to a state of civil war. Ethnic minority militias and people’s defense forces that support Myanmar’s main opposition control large parts of the country, while the military holds much of central Myanmar and big cities including the capital, Naypyidaw.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government, said that at least 6,239 were killed and 28,444 were arrested since the takeover. The actual death toll is likely to be much higher since the group does not generally include deaths on the side of the military government and cannot easily verify cases in remote areas.
Aung Thu Nyein, director of communications for the Institute for Strategy and Policy-Myanmar think tank, told The Associated Press that Myanmar’s current situation is at its worst with peace and development being pushed back.
“What’s worse is that the sovereignty which ever-proclaimed by the military is losing, and the country’s borders could even shift,” Aung Thu Nyein said in a text message.
Myanmar’s army suffered unprecedented battlefield defeats over the past year, when a coalition of ethnic armed groups won victories in the northeast near the Chinese border and in the western state of Rakhine.
The ethnic rebels were able to quickly capture several towns, military bases and two important regional commands, and their offensive weakened the army’s grip in other parts of the country.
The ethnic minorities have been fighting for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government and are loosely allied with the People’s Defense Force, the pro-democracy armed resistance formed after the army’s 2021 takeover.
The UN Human Rights Office and rights groups including Amnesty International also made rare allegations in recent statements that armed groups opposing the military have also committed human rights violations in areas under their control.
The status of election plans
In pursuit of a political solution, the military government is pushing for an election, which it has promised to hold this year. Critics say the election would not be free or fair as civil rights have been curtailed and many political opponents imprisoned and the election would be an attempt to normalize military control.
On Friday, the military government extended a state of emergency another six months because it said more time was needed to restore stability before the election, state-run MRTV television reported. No exact date for the polls was given.
Tom Andrews, a special rapporteur working with the UN human rights office, said it wasn’t possible to hold a legitimate election while arresting, detaining, torturing and executing leaders of the opposition and when it is illegal for journalists or citizens to criticize the military government.
“Governments should dismiss these plans for what they are – a fraud,” Tom Andrews said.
Rwanda-backed rebels move deeper into eastern Congo as UN reports executions and rapes
- UN spokesman says 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured in fighting between DR Congo's army and M23 rebels in Goma and the vicinity
- The Southern African regional bloc, of which Congo is a member, resolved Friday to maintain its peacekeeping force deployed in eastern Congo in 2023
GOMA, Congo: Rwanda-backed rebels were quickly expanding their presence in eastern Congo after capturing Goma, the region’s major city, the UN said Friday, also expressing concerns over executions it learned were carried out by the rebels following a major escalation of their yearslong rebellion.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the World Health Organization and its partners conducted an assessment with Congo’s government between Jan. 26-30 “and report that 700 people have been killed and 2,800 injured” in Goma and the vicinity.
“These numbers are expected to rise as more information becomes available,” he said.
The rebels were now about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from South Kivu’s provincial capital of Buakavu and “seem to be moving quite fast,” UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said at a press briefing on Friday. M23 has captured several towns after seizing neighboring Goma, a humanitarian hub critical for many of the 6 million people displaced by the conflict.
The central African nation’s military has been weakened after it lost hundreds of personnel and foreign mercenaries surrendered to the rebels after the fall of Goma.
Goma’s capture has brought humanitarian operations to “a standstill, cutting off a vital lifeline for aid delivery across eastern (Congo),” said Rose Tchwenko, country director for Mercy Corps aid group in Congo. “The escalation of violence toward Bukavu raises fears of even greater displacement, while the breakdown of humanitarian access is leaving entire communities stranded without support.”
The Southern African regional bloc, of which Congo is a member, resolved Friday to maintain its peacekeeping force deployed in eastern Congo in 2023. The group’s chairman, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa, called for “bold” and “decisive steps” to boost the force’s capacity. At their meeting in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare, the 16-nation bloc also pledged to work toward a ceasefire.
At the United Nations, France circulated a draft Security Council resolution to all 15 members Friday urging a halt to the current offensive in eastern Congo, the withdrawal of “foreign elements,” and a resumption of talks to achieve a cessation of hostilities, France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere said. He expressed hope it can be adopted soon.
The M23 group is the most potent of more than 100 armed groups vying for control in Congo’s mineral-rich east, which holds vast deposits critical to much of the world’s technology. They are backed by around 4,000 troops from neighboring Rwanda, according to UN experts, far more than in 2012 when they first captured Goma for days in a conflict driven by ethnic grievances.
Observers say that unlike the rebels’ first takeover in Congo, their withdrawal could be more difficult now.
The rebels have been emboldened by Rwanda, which feels Congo is ignoring its interests in the region and failed to meet demands of previous peace agreements, according to Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the Crisis Group think tank. “Ultimately, this is a failure of African mediation (because) the warning signs were always there,” said Mutiga.
Executions, rape as human rights crisis worsens
UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence spoke at a briefing on Friday about the worsening human rights crisis in the aftermath of the rebellion, including bomb strikes on at least two internally displaced persons camps that killed an unspecified number of people.
“We have also documented summary executions of at least 12 people by M23” from Jan. 26-28, Laurence said, adding that the group has also occupied schools and hospitals in the province and are subjecting civilians to forced conscription and forced labor.
Congolese forces have also been accused of sexual violence as fighting rages on in the region, Laurence said.
“We are verifying reports that 52 women were raped by Congolese troops in South Kivu, including alleged reports of gang rape,” he said.
Rebels repelled as young people volunteer to fight
An attack by the rebels in Kalehe territory, about 140 kilometers (about 85 miles) from the South Kivu provincial capital, on Thursday was repelled by security forces, said Lt. Gen. Pacifique Masunzu, who commands a key military defense zone in South Kivu.
Congolese military bases in Bukavu were being emptied on Thursday to reinforce those along the way to the provincial capital, residents have told The Associated Press.
Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said the United Nations has about 1,200 international and national staff and dependents in Bukavu. “We’re moving some people out of there as a precaution,” he said.
Hundreds of young people on Friday registered as volunteers to join military training in the provincial capital, according to Gabriel Kasanji, a local administrative officer. This follows Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi’s call on Thursday for a mass military mobilization.
As he took office on Friday as the new governor of North Kivu, which includes Goma, Maj. Gen. Somo Kakule Evariste vowed to “move as soon as possible” to Goma to restore government control.
“This is not the time for speeches,” the general said. “The flame of resistance will never be extinguished.”
A devastated Goma grapples with occasional shooting and unexploded ordnance
In Goma, UN peacekeeping chief Lacroix said “the situation remains tense and volatile, with occasional shooting continuing within the city.”
Overall, calm is gradually being restored and water and electricity have been restored in much of Goma, but the airport remains closed and the runway unusable, he said.
The UN peacekeeping force in the city, known as MONUSCO, continues to grapple with unexploded ordnance that is “a very serious obstacle to freedom of movement,” Lacroix said.
“We are going to struggle until we restore democracy,” said Corneille Nangaa, one of the political leaders of M23. “From a failed state to a modern state.”
US envoy leaves Venezuela with six Americans after meeting Maduro
- Richard Grenell met Nicolas Maduro in Caracas
- Migration, sanctions also discussed
WASHINGTON/BOGOTA: US President Donald Trump’s envoy Richard Grenell said on Friday he was headed back to the United States with six American citizens, a surprise development after he met with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas.
Officials from the Trump administration had said earlier on Friday that one of Grenell’s top aims for the visit was to secure the release of Americans detained in the country, at a time when the Trump administration has been driving a deportation and anti-gang push in the United States.
Grenell did not name the six men, shown with him aboard an airplane in a photo he posted online. They were dressed in light blue outfits used by the Venezuelan prison system.
“We are wheels up and headed home with these 6 American citizens,” Grenell posted on X. “They just spoke to @realDonaldTrump and they couldn’t stop thanking him.”
Trump cheered the move in his own post, saying Grenell was bringing “six hostages home from Venezuela.”
It is unclear exactly how many Americans were being held by Venezuela, but Venezuelan officials have spoken publicly of at least nine.
Maduro’s officials have accused most of them of terrorism and said some were high-level “mercenaries.” The Venezuelan government regularly accuses members of the opposition and foreign detainees of conspiring with the US to commit terrorism. US officials have always denied any plots.
“American hostages that are being held in Venezuela ... must be released immediately,” Mauricio Claver-Carone, the US special envoy for Latin America, said earlier on Friday, adding the Grenell-Maduro meeting was “not a negotiation in exchange for anything.”
In late 2023, Venezuela’s government released dozens of prisoners, including 10 Americans, after months of negotiations, while the US released a close ally of Maduro.
Maduro told officials in an annual speech to the judiciary late on Friday evening that the meeting between him and Grenell had been positive.
“There are things where we’ve reached initial deals and when they are complied with, new issues will open, hopefully new deals for the good of the two countries and the region,” Maduro said, adding he would be looking to see if what had been discussed with Grenell was reflected in what is communicated by the US about the meeting.
“President Donald Trump, we have made a first step, hopefully it can continue,” Maduro said. “We would like it to continue.”
Maduro and Grenell also discussed migration and sanctions at the presidential palace, the Venezuelan government said in a statement earlier on Friday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier on Friday that Grenell was also focused on ensuring 400 members of the Tren de Aragua gang in US custody are returned to Venezuela.
An agreement on Tren de Aragua deportations was “non-negotiable,” Claver-Carone said.
Venezuelan attorney general Tarek Saab said last week that the gang had been dismantled in Venezuela in 2023, but that it was willing to restart legal cooperation with the US in order to extradite gang members.
Since taking power on Jan. 20, Trump has kicked off a sweeping immigration crackdown, pledging mass deportations.
Some 600,000 Venezuelans in the United States were eligible for deportation reprieves granted by the previous administration, but US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she would cut the duration of the protections. She must decide by Saturday whether to terminate them.
SANCTIONS, ELECTIONS AND OIL
Grenell’s visit does not mean the United States recognizes Maduro as Venezuela’s legitimate leader, Leavitt said.
The two countries have a fraught recent history marked by broken relations, sanctions and accusations of coup-plotting.
But they share interest in several pending bilateral issues, including a license allowing US oil major Chevron to operate in Venezuela.
The administration of former US President Joe Biden reinstated broad oil sanctions after it said Maduro failed to keep promises for a free presidential election and later increased rewards for the capture or conviction of leaders including Maduro, leaving Trump limited options for further penalties.
Maduro’s government-backed victory in the July 2024 vote is contested by the opposition, international observers and numerous countries, including the United States.
Maduro’s government has always rejected sanctions by the United States and others, saying they are illegitimate measures which amount to an “economic war” designed to cripple Venezuela.
The Financial Times reported on Friday that Chevron is trying to protect a special US license allowing it to operate in Venezuela.
Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth told the newspaper the company would engage with the White House, after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the license should be reconsidered and Trump said the US would likely stop buying oil from Venezuela.
