MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Saturday cut short the term of the military chief of staff he appointed five months ago and replaced him with a retiring general without explaining the surprise move.
Marcos’s office announced the replacement of Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro, who had received the highest military award for combat bravery. A statement late Friday that did not specify any reason for the change in military leadership. Bacarro’s three-year term was supposed to end in August 2025.
The appointment of military chiefs is a sensitive issue. The military has a history of restiveness, failed coup attempts, corruption scandals and has faced accusations of human rights violations. Efforts have been made for years to instill professionalism in the military and insulate it from the country’s traditionally chaotic and corruption-tainted politics.
Lt. Gen. Andres Centino, the military chief of staff who Bacarro replaced in August last year, was installed by Marcos to the top post of the 144,000-strong armed forces. Centino, who was due to retire next month, was chosen over a dozen senior generals and will have a fresh three-year term.
Asked for reaction on his removal, Bacarro told reporters without elaborating Friday night in a text message that the military would support the new chief.
National police spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said police forces have been placed on “heightened alert” mainly to secure an annual religious gathering in Manila. He denied the move was linked to purported military restiveness that has been reported by social media.
A new law that took effect last year fixed the term of the military chief of staff to three years to allow a top general more time to initiate reforms and press a yearslong campaign to modernize an underfunded military confronting Muslim and communist insurgencies and increasingly aggressive actions by China in the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines lays claim to contested islands, islets and reefs with other coastal states.
In a turnover ceremony at the main military camp in the capital on Saturday, Bacarro handed a saber symbolizing military leadership to Centino and thanked the military, his family and the president. Marcos did not attend but was represented by his close advisers, including Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin.
Bersamin stressed in a speech he was impressed by the smooth military leadership transition, which he said should be emulated by politicians to avoid disruptive post-election unrest like what has happened in America.
“Continue with this tradition, where you respect each other, where you give so much consideration to the qualifications of your fellow officers in order to enable your organization … to move forward instead of looking back,” Bersamin said.
Marcos, he said, had asked him and other key presidential advisers to show the “highest respect” to Bacarro for his battlefield exploits and hinted the general may be given another government post after the end of his military career.
In 1991, Bacarro received a medal of valor for thwarting an attack by about 150 communist guerrillas on a northern Philippine town despite his smaller force. Wounded in the thigh by rebel fire, he commandeered a dump truck and rammed a fence to allow government militiamen, who were pinned down, to escape.
His sudden removal follows a decision by the national police chief, Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr., to tender his resignation on Thursday after Marcos’s interior secretary appealed to nearly 1,000 police generals and colonels to quit and allow a committee to investigate and weed out top officials involved in illegal drugs.
Azurin asked top police officials to support Interior Secretary Benhur Abalos’s drastic move. But he added some generals opposed the call for them to resign within the month because they were not facing any criminal lawsuits and have not been linked to the drug trade.
Philippine president replaces military chief with retiring general
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Philippine president replaces military chief with retiring general
- The appointment of military chiefs is a sensitive issue in the Philippines, where the military has a history of restiveness, failed coup attempts, corruption scandals and has faced accusations of human rights violations
Iran summons British envoy after arrest of nationals
TEHRAN: Iran has summoned a British envoy in Tehran to protest the arrest of several of its nationals on charges of spying, state media reported Monday.
“Following the unjustified arrest of a number of Iranian nationals in the UK... the British charge d’affaires in Tehran was summoned on Sunday,” the IRNA news agency said, describing the arrests as “politically motivated.”
Three Iranian men appeared in a London court on Saturday charged with spying for the Islamic republic.
They were arrested on May 3 and identified as Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, all living in London.
The British Home Office said they were irregular migrants who arrived by small boat or other means, such as hidden in a vehicle, between 2016 and 2022.
The alleged spying took place from August 2024 to February 2025, according to UK police.
A fourth man was arrested on May 9 as part of the investigation, but has now been released without charge, the police said in a statement.
Five Iranians were also arrested on May 3 in a separate investigation.
Four of the men — who had been held on suspicion of preparation of a terrorist act — had been released, although the investigation “remains active and is ongoing,” police said.
The fifth was earlier bailed to an unspecified date in May.
Indonesia searches for 19 people after landslide at gold mine in Papua
JAKARTA: Indonesian rescue teams were searching for 19 people missing after heavy rain caused a landslide at a gold mine in its easternmost region of Papua, officials said on Monday.
Torrential rain triggered a landslide late on Friday in a small-scale mine run by local residents in the Arfak mountains in West Papua province, said Abdul Muhari, the spokesperson of Indonesia's disaster mitigation agency.
The landslide hit temporary shelters used by the miners and killed at least one person and injured four with 19 others still missing, he added.
At least 40 rescuers with police and military personnel had been deployed to search for the missing, officials said.
Small-scale and illegal mining has often led to accidents in Indonesia, where mineral resources are located in remote areas in conditions difficult for authorities to regulate.
The rescuers started the search operation only on Sunday because it took at least 12 hours for teams to travel to the site, Yefri Sabaruddin, the head of the local rescue team, told Reuters on Monday.
"The damaged roads and mountainous tracks as well as bad weather hampered the rescue efforts," Yefri said.
The number of casualties could rise, he added.
At least 15 people died in the collapse of an illegal gold mine in West Sumatra province September last year after a landslide caused by heavy rains.
Another landslide in a gold mine on Sulawesi island killed at least 23 people in July last year.
Trump to hold call with Putin in push for Ukraine ceasefire
- Says he would also speak to Ukraine's President Zelensky and NATO officials
- Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will hold a phone call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday as part of his long-running effort to end the war set off by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump had vowed during the US election campaign to halt the conflict within a day of taking office, but his diplomatic efforts have so far yielded little progress.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine held direct negotiations in Istanbul last week for the first time in almost three years, but the talks ended without a commitment to a ceasefire.
Both sides traded insults, with Ukraine accusing Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.
After the negotiations, Trump announced that he would speak by phone with the Russian president in a bid to end the “bloodbath” in Ukraine, which has destroyed large swathes of the country and displaced millions of people.
Trump also said he would speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and NATO officials, expressing hope that a “ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war... will end.”
Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly stressed that he wants to see an end to the conflict, and has recently backed calls for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.
So far, he has mainly focused on upping the pressure on Ukraine and abstained from criticizing Putin.
Both Moscow and Washington have previously stressed the need for a meeting on the conflict between Putin and Trump.
The US president has also argued that “nothing’s going to happen” on the conflict until he meets Putin face-to-face.
At the talks in Istanbul, which were also attended by US officials, Russia and Ukraine agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners each and trade ideas on a possible truce, but with no concrete commitment.
Ukraine’s top negotiator, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, said that the “next step” would be a meeting between Putin and Zelensky.
Russia said it had taken note of the request.
“We consider it possible, but only as a result of the work and upon achieving certain results in the form of an agreement between the two sides,” the Kremlin’s spokesperson said.
Ukraine’s western allies have since accused Putin of deliberately ignoring calls for a ceasefire and pushed for fresh sanctions against Russia.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy held a phone call with Trump on Sunday.
“Looking ahead to President Trump’s call with President Putin tomorrow, the leaders discussed the need for an unconditional ceasefire and for President Putin to take peace talks seriously,” said a spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“They also discussed the use of sanctions if Russia failed to engage seriously in a ceasefire and peace talks,” the spokesman said.
Zelensky also discussed possible sanctions with US Vice President JD Vance when they met after Pope Leo’s inaugural mass at the Vatican on Sunday.
“We discussed the talks in Istanbul, where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram following the meeting.
“We also touched on the need for sanctions against Russia, bilateral trade, defense cooperation, the situation on the battlefield and the future exchange of prisoners.”
A senior Ukrainian official from the president’s office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that they had also discussed preparations for Monday’s telephone conversation between Trump and Putin.
It was the first meeting between Zelensky and Vance since their heated White House exchange in February.
In the Oval Office, Vance publicly accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” toward Trump, who told the Ukrainian leader he should be more grateful and that he had no “cards” to play in negotiations with Russia.
Ukraine on Sunday said that Russia had launched a record number of drones at the country overnight, targeting various regions, including the capital Kyiv, where a woman was killed.
Another man was killed in the southeastern Kherson region, where a railway station and private houses and cars were hit.
In an interview with Russian state TV published on Sunday, Putin said that Moscow’s aim was to “eliminate the causes that triggered this crisis, create the conditions for a lasting peace and guarantee Russia’s security,” without elaborating further.
Russia’s references to the “root causes” of the conflict typically refer to grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for launching the invasion in February 2022.
They include pledges to “de-Nazify” and demilitarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east, push back against NATO expansion and stop Ukraine’s westward geopolitical drift.
However, Kyiv and the West say that Russia’s invasion is an imperial-style land grab.
Trump to carry out tariff threats if nations don’t negotiate in ‘good faith,’ US treasury chief warns
- Bessent: Notified countries likely to see April 2 rates return
- Says Trump administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will impose tariffs at the rate he threatened last month on trading partners that do not negotiate in “good faith” on deals, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in television interviews on Sunday.
He did not say what would constitute “good faith” negotiations or clarify the timing to announce any decisions to return a country to the various rates Trump initially imposed on April 2.
Trump has repeatedly reversed course since then, notably on April 9, when he lowered his tariff rates on most imported goods to 10 percent for 90 days to give negotiators time to hash out deals with other countries. He separately lowered the rate for Chinese goods to 30 percent. On Friday, he reiterated that his administration would send letters telling nations what their rates would be.
On Sunday, Bessent said the administration was focused on its 18 most important trading relationships and that the timing of any deals would also depend on whether countries were negotiating in good faith, with letters going out to those that did not.
“This means that they’re not negotiating in good faith. They are going to get a letter saying, ‘Here is the rate.’ So I would expect that everyone would come and negotiate in good faith,” he told NBC News’ “Meet the Press.”
He added that those countries that are notified would likely see their rates return to the levels set on April 2.
Asked when any trade deals could be announced, Bessent separately told CNN’s “State of the Union” program: “Again, it will depend on whether they’re negotiating in good faith.”
“My other sense is that we will do a lot of regional deals -this is the rate for Central America. This is the rate for this part of Africa,” he added.
Trump’s ongoing trade wars have severely disrupted global trade flows and roiled financial markets as investors grapple with what Bessent has called the Republican president’s “strategic uncertainty,” in his drive to reshape economic relationships in the US’ favor
Companies of all sizes have been whipsawed by Trump’s swift imposition of tariffs and sudden reversals as they seek to manage supply chains, production, staffing and prices. Congress is also grappling with the tariffs as it weighs revenues and tax cuts in its spending bill.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, last week said it would have to start raising prices later in May due to the high costs of tariffs, prompting Trump to slam the company for blaming the increases on his trade policies.
“Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING,” Trump posted online on Saturday.
Bessent said he had spoken to Walmart CEO Doug McMillon on Saturday and that the company would absorb some tariffs. Representatives for the retailer declined to comment.
“Walmart is, in fact, going to ... eat some of the tariffs,” Bessent told NBC. “I didn’t apply any pressure.”
Britain poised to reset trade and defense ties with EU
- Starmer taking a political risk with closer EU ties
- Deal likely to cover defense, trade, fish
LONDON Britain is poised to agree the most significant reset of ties with the European Union since Brexit on Monday, seeking closer collaboration on trade and defense to help grow the economy and boost security on the continent.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who backed remaining in the EU, has made a bet that securing tangible benefits for Britons will outweigh any talk of “Brexit betrayal” from critics like Reform UK leader Nigel Farage when he agrees closer EU alignment at a summit in London.
Starmer will argue that the world has changed since Britain left the bloc in 2020, and at the heart of the new reset will be a defense and security pact that could pave the way for British defense companies to take part in a 150 billion euros ($167 billion) program to rearm Europe.
The reset follows US President Donald Trump’s upending of the post-war global order and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which have forced governments around the world to rethink ties on trade, defense and security. Britain struck a full trade deal with India earlier this month and secured some tariff relief from the United States. The EU has also accelerated efforts to forge trade deals with the likes of India and deepen partnerships with countries including Canada, Australia, Japan and Singapore.
Negotiations between the two sides continued into Sunday evening, before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa were due in London on Monday morning. One EU diplomat cautioned that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” From the issues up for discussion, Britain is hoping to drastically reduce the border checks and paperwork slowing down UK and EU food and agricultural exports, while access to faster e-gates for UK travelers at EU airports would be hugely popular.
In return, Britain is expected to agree to a limited youth mobility scheme and could participate in the Erasmus+ student exchange program. France also wants a long-term deal on fishing rights, one of the most emotive issues during Brexit.
Limited room for maneuver
Britain’s vote to leave the EU in a historic referendum in 2016 revealed a country that was badly divided over everything from migration and sovereignty of power to culture and trade.
It helped trigger one of the most tumultuous periods in British political history, with five prime ministers holding office before Starmer arrived last July, and poisoned relations with Brussels.
Polls show a majority of Britons now regret the vote although they do not want to rejoin. Farage, who campaigned for Brexit for decades, leads opinion polls in Britain, giving Starmer limited room for maneuver.
But the prime minister and French President Emmanuel Macron have struck up a solid relationship over their support for Ukraine, and Starmer was not tainted with the Brexit rows that went before, helping to improve sentiment.
‘Break the taboo’
The economic benefit will be limited by Starmer’s promise to not rejoin the EU’s single market or customs union, but he has instead sought to negotiate better market access in some areas — a difficult task when the EU opposes so-called “cherry picking” of EU benefits without the obligations of membership.
Removing red tape on food trade will require Britain to accept EU oversight on standards, but Starmer is likely to argue that it is worth it to help lower the cost of food, and grow the sluggish economy.
Agreeing a longer-term fishing rights deal will also be opposed by Farage, while the opposition Conservative Party labelled Monday’s event as the “surrender summit.”
One trade expert who has advised politicians in both London and Brussels said the government needed to “break the taboo” on accepting EU rules, and doing so to help farmers and small businesses was smart.
Trade experts also said Britain benefited from the greater focus on defense, making the deal look more reciprocal, and said improved ties made sense in a more volatile world.
When “trade disruption is so visible and considerable” anything that reduced trade friction with a country’s biggest trading partner made sense, said Allie Renison, a former UK government trade official at consultancy SEC Newgate.
