ABOARD BRP SINDANGAN: It was a heart-pounding moment far out in the disputed South China Sea: One of at least five Chinese coast guard ships aggressively approached and sideswiped a Philippine patrol vessel, creating a loud, jarring noise that sent its Filipino crew scrambling to lower rubber fenders to cushion the boat’s hull.
As the high-seas faceoff unfolded Tuesday, two Chinese coast guard ships used water cannons against a smaller supply boat carrying a Filipino admiral and his sailors. The high-pressure spray shattered the boat’s windshield and mildly injured the admiral and four sailors with glass shards and splinters of debris.
“That’s very concerning and very worrisome,” Vice Adm. Alberto Carlos later told reporters, after witnessing firsthand the Chinese actions against the supply boat Unaizah Mae 4, which he was aboard.
As the highest-ranking Filipino military commander overseeing the disputed waters, Carlos joined the trip to ensure that any confrontation would not spiral out of control, the navy said.
It was the latest showdown in one of the world’s most hotly disputed waters that many fear could descend into a larger conflict that puts the United States and China on a collision course.
Tuesday’s hostilities off the Philippine-occupied Second Thomas Shoal lasted about five hours starting after dawn and were witnessed by two Associated Press journalists. The journalists were invited to join the trip aboard the Philippine coast guard ship BRP Sindangan, which was sideswiped by the Chinese coast guard ship in a tense and dangerous moment they caught on camera.
The Philippines adopted a strategy last year of exposing China’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed sea by embedding journalists on its coast guard patrol ships. Manila said the “transparency campaign” aims to pressure China to abide by international law, including anti-collision regulations.
It has publicly released coast guard videos and photos of dangerous Chinese actions against Philippine forces, including the use by China’s coast guard of a military-grade laser that temporarily blinded Filipino crew in an incident last year that angered Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The campaign has sparked a war of words with Beijing, which has accused the Philippines of hyping up the disputes and allowing itself to be used as a pawn in US efforts to contain China’s rise.
Aboard the BRP Sindangan, the journalists witnessed up close how a mission to deliver food, water and other supplies to a long-marooned warship was partly thwarted by a Chinese blockade of at least 26 ships, including coast guard and suspected militia vessels.
They caught on video and camera how the Chinese ships shadowed, surrounded and blocked the two Philippine coast guard ships and two small supply boats carrying Filipino sailors to the disputed shoal.
Aside from China and the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also have overlapping claims in the resource-rich and busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s commerce and oil transits.
Beijing claims almost the entire sea, a key global trade route. In the last decade, China has turned barren reefs into seven islands that now serve as missile-protected island bases, including three with runways, that have bolstered its capability to fortify its territorial claims and patrols.
In response, Washington has been strengthening an arc of military alliances in the Indo-Pacific, including with the Philippines, Vietnam and other countries at odds with China in the disputed sea.
After China effectively seized another disputed atoll, the Scarborough Shoal off the northwestern Philippines, in 2012, Manila brought its disputes with Beijing to international arbitration and largely won. China, however, rejected the 2016 ruling of the UN-backed tribunal that invalidated its expansive claims on historical grounds and continues to defy the decision.
Filipino officials said the latest confrontation was particularly serious because of the injuries sustained by its navy personnel and damage to their vessel.
“The systematic and consistent manner in which the People’s Republic of China carries out these illegal and irresponsible actions completely negates any of its calls for peaceful dialogue and de-escalation of tensions in the West Philippine Sea,” Jonathan Malaya, a spokesperson for a Philippine government task force dealing with the South China Sea disputes, told a news conference on Wednesday, using the Philippine name for the long-troubled waters.
China blamed the Philippines for the hostilities.
“China has unwavering determination and will in safeguarding its legitimate rights. The Philippines’ attempt of making infringements and provocations will not succeed,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Mao Ning said Wednesday in Beijing.
After the US repeated a warning that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its longtime treaty ally, in case of an armed attack, Mao urged Washington “to refrain from using the Philippines as a pawn to destabilize the South China Sea.”
In Washington, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the latest incidents demonstrated China’s “reckless disregard for the safety of Filipinos and also for international law,” and that China was interfering with “lawful Philippine maritime operations.”
Filipino officials said they would continue to assert Philippine rights in the disputed sea.
“We continue to view with great alarm the continuing dangerous maneuvers and dangerous actions,” Marcos told reporters Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia, where he attended a Southeast Asian summit that had the territorial disputes high on its agenda.
China coast guard flexes its might against the Philippines in disputed waters as journalists look on
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China coast guard flexes its might against the Philippines in disputed waters as journalists look on
- Latest showdown in one of the world’s most hotly disputed waters that many fear could descend into a larger conflict
- The Philippines adopted a strategy last year of exposing Beijing’s increasingly assertive actions in the disputed South China Sea
World’s most polluting cities revealed at COP29 as frustration grows at fossil fuel presence
- Cities in Asia and the United States emit the most heat-trapping gas that feeds climate change, and Shanghai is the most polluting
- That’s according to new data that combines observations and artificial intelligence to quantify emissions around the world
Nations at UN climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan are trying to set new targets to cut such emissions and figure out how much rich nations will pay to help the world with that task. The data comes as climate officials and activists alike are growing increasingly frustrated with what they see as the talks’ — and the world’s — inability to clamp down on planet-warming fossil fuels and the countries and companies that promote them.
Seven states or provinces spew more than 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases, all of them in China, except Texas, which ranks sixth, according to new data from an organization co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore and released Friday at COP29.
Using satellite and ground observations, supplemented by artificial intelligence to fill in gaps, Climate Trace sought to quantify heat-trapping carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, as well as other traditional air pollutants worldwide, including for the first time in more than 9,000 urban areas.
Earth’s total carbon dioxide and methane pollution grew 0.7 percent to 61.2 billion metric tons with the short-lived but extra potent methane rising 0.2 percent. The figures are higher than other datasets “because we have such comprehensive coverage and we have observed more emissions in more sectors than are typically available,” said Gavin McCormick, Climate Trace’s co-founder.
Plenty of big cities emit far more than some nations
Shanghai’s 256 million metric tons of greenhouse gases led all cities and exceeded those from the nations of Colombia or Norway. Tokyo’s 250 million metric tons would rank in the top 40 of nations if it were a country, while New York City’s 160 million metric tons and Houston’s 150 million metric tons would be in the top 50 of countrywide emissions. Seoul, South Korea, ranks fifth among cities at 142 million metric tons.
“One of the sites in the Permian Basin in Texas is by far the No. 1 worst polluting site in the entire world,” Gore said. “And maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but I think of how dirty some of these sites are in Russia and China and so forth. But Permian Basin is putting them all in the shade.”
China, India, Iran, Indonesia and Russia had the biggest increases in emissions from 2022 to 2023, while Venezuela, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States had the biggest decreases in pollution.
The dataset — maintained by scientists and analysts from various groups — also looked at traditional pollutants such as carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, ammonia, sulfur dioxide and other chemicals associated with dirty air. Burning fossil fuels releases both types of pollution, Gore said.
This “represents the single biggest health threat facing humanity,” Gore said.
Climate talks wrestle with fossil fuel interests
Gore criticized the hosting of climate talks, called COPs, by Azerbaijan, an oil nation and site of the world’s first oil wells, and by the United Arab Emirates last year.
“It’s unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and the petrostates have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree,” Gore said. “Next year in Brazil, we’ll see a change in that pattern. But, you know, it’s not good for the world community to give the No. 1 polluting industry in the world that much control over the whole process.”
Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for more to be done on climate change and has sought to slow deforestation since returning for a third term as president. But Brazil last year produced more oil than both Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
On Friday, former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, former UN climate chief Christina Figueres and leading climate scientists released a letter calling for “an urgent overhaul” on climate talks.
The letter said the “global climate process has been captured and is no longer fit for purpose” in response to Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev saying that oil and gas are a “gift of the gods.”
UN Environment Programme Executive Director Inger Andresen said she understands much of the frustration in the letter calling for massive reform of the negotiation process, but said their push to slash emissions fits nicely with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ constant prodding.
One key benefit of the UN climate talks process is it is the only place where victim small island nations have an equal seat at the table, Andersen told The Associated Press. But the process has its limits because “the rules of the game are set by member states,” she said.
An analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition said Friday that the official attendance list of the talks featured at least 1,770 fossil fuel lobbyists.
At a press conference with small island nations chair Cedric Schuster said the negotiating bloc feels the need to remind everyone else why the talks matter.
“We’re here to defend the Paris agreement,” Schuster said, referring to the climate deal in 2015 to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). “We’re concerned that countries are forgetting that protecting the world’s most vulnerable is at the core of this framework.”
Daesh group gunmen kill politician in Pakistan
- Attackers escaped after shooting the Islamist politician in Bajaur district, near the border with Afghanistan where militants remain active
PESHAWAR, Pakistan: Gunmen from the regional branch of the Daesh group have killed a politician in northwest Pakistan, police and the militants said Friday.
“Jamaat-e-Islami Bajaur leader Sufi Hameed was leaving the mosque after offering prayers after sunset (Thursday) when two masked men on a motorcycle opened fire on him,” senior police official Waqar Rafiq said.
The official said the attackers escaped after shooting the Islamist politician in Bajaur district, near the border with Afghanistan where militants remain active.
Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) said its “soldiers shot an official of the apostate political party,” in a message on Telegram.
The local chapter of the Daesh group accuses religious political parties of going against strict religious preachings and supporting the country’s government and the military.
IS-K has recently carried out several attacks against political parties, including a suicide bomb blast at a rally in Bajaur last year which killed at least 54 people including 23 children.
“In this year alone, they have killed at least 39 people in targeted attacks and bomb explosions” in Bajaur, a senior local security official said on the condition of anonymity.
In both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where Bajuar is located, and Balochistan province in the southwest, armed Islamist or separatist groups regularly target security forces and state representatives.
Militants operating in Pakistan include Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the country’s homegrown Taliban group.
Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in militant attacks in regions bordering Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in the country in 2021.
Fire breaks out at a Spanish nursing home, killing at least 10 people
- Authorities were alerted of the blaze early Friday morning in Villa Franca de Ebro
- Fire took place just weeks after devastating flash floods in Valencia killed more than 200 people
MADRID: At least 10 people died in a blaze at a nursing home in Zaragoza, Spain, before firefighters managed to extinguish it, local authorities reported on Friday.
Authorities were alerted of the blaze early Friday morning in Villa Franca de Ebro, about 30 minutes from the northeastern city.
The cause of the fire was not yet known, local media reported.
Jorge Azcon, head of the regional government of Aragon, whose capital city is Zaragoza, confirmed the deaths and said on X, formerly Twitter, that all government events in the region were canceled for the day.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez also expressed his shock over the fire and deaths.
The fire took place just weeks after devastating flash floods in Valencia killed more than 200 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The floods were the worst natural disaster in Spain’s recent history.
South Korean opposition leader handed suspended jail term
- Case concerns statements Lee Jae-myung made on the campaign trail, when he narrowly lost to incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022
SEOUL: A South Korean court handed the country’s opposition leader a suspended prison sentence Friday for violating election laws — a ruling that may prevent him from running in the next presidential election.
The Seoul Central District Court found Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party, guilty and handed him a suspended one-year jail term, a court spokesperson told AFP.
The case concerns statements Lee made on the campaign trail, when he narrowly lost to incumbent President Yoon Suk Yeol in 2022.
Prosecutors had asked for a two-year prison sentence, saying Lee made a false statement in a TV interview in December 2021 that made people think he did not know Kim Moon-ki, a key figure in a controversial development project.
Kim had been found dead days earlier, although police found no evidence of foul play.
Lee was also accused of lying during a parliamentary hearing in 2021 in connection with another controversial development in Seongnam, where he was previously mayor.
The court ruled that the fact Lee made false statements on TV “greatly amplified their impact and reach,” it said in the written verdict.
Supporters wept outside the court after the verdict was announced, and Lee immediately vowed to appeal.
“The verdict is very difficult to accept,” he said.
If it is upheld on appeal, Lee will be stripped of his parliamentary seat and prohibited from running for public office for the next five years — which would include the 2027 presidential election.
Lee is seen as a leading contender in South Korea’s upcoming presidential election, due for early 2027, but the 60-year-old faces a slew of legal cases.
His other trials relate to corruption involving the Seongnam development project, an illegal $8 million cash transfer to North Korea, and pressuring a former mayoral secretary to provide false court testimony in his favor.
A former child factory worker who suffered an industrial accident as a teenage school drop-out, Lee rose to political stardom partly by playing up his rags-to-riches tale.
But his bid for the top office has been overshadowed by a series of scandals. He has also faced scrutiny due to persistent rumors linking him to organized crime.
At least five individuals connected to Lee’s various scandals, including late official Kim, have been found dead, many in what appeared to be suicides.
In January, Lee was stabbed in the neck by an attacker — who said he wanted to prevent him from “becoming president.”
Despite strict legal time limits, Lee’s cases are moving slowly through the courts, and public, acrimonious, drawn-out appeals could cause “considerable chaos in the political landscape,” Shin Yul, professor of political science at Myongji University, said.
“The Democratic Party is set to significantly escalate its attacks on the ruling party,” in a bid to convince the public their leader is not guilty, he said.
“However, it is also probable that the South Korean public will not be entirely supportive of Lee Jae-myung. Once a one-year prison sentence is issued, most people are now likely perceive him as guilty.”
Sri Lankan president’s coalition wins majority in snap election
- Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s National People’s Power coalition won 137 seats of 196 for which direct elections were held
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s leftist coalition won a thumping victory in a snap general election, gaining power to push through his plans to fight poverty in the island nation recovering from a financial meltdown.
Dissanayake’s Marxist-leaning National People’s Power (NPP) coalition won 137 seats of 196 for which direct elections were held, a two-thirds majority, Friday’s ballot counting showed. Local media projected its tally would cross 150 in the 225-member parliament after more seats are distributed under a proportional seat distribution system.
That would give Dissanayake sweeping powers to even abolish the contentious executive presidency as he has planned.
While the clear mandate strengthens political stability in the South Asian country, some uncertainty on policy direction remains due to Dissanayake’s promises to try and tweak the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue program that bailed the country out of its economic crisis, analysts said.
Dissanayake, a political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades, comfortably won the island’s presidential election in September.
But his coalition had just three seats in parliament before Thursday’s snap election, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate.
The NPP secured almost 62 percent or almost 7 million votes in Thursday’s election, up from the 42 percent Dissanayake won in September, indicating that he had drawn more widespread support including from minorities and built on his victory.
“We see this as a critical turning point for Sri Lanka. We expect a mandate to form a strong parliament, and we are confident the people will give us this mandate,” Dissanayake said after casting his vote on Thursday.
“There is a change in Sri Lanka’s political culture that started in September, which must continue.”
Voters directly elect 196 members to parliament from 22 constituencies under a proportional representation system. The remaining 29 seats will be distributed according to the island-wide proportional vote obtained by each party.
TENTATIVE ECONOMIC RECOVERY
Celebrations were largely muted, with the exception of a few NPP loyalists who lit fireworks on the outskirts of the capital, Colombo.
The Samagi Jana Balawegaya party of opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the main challenger to Dissanayake’s coalition, won 35 seats and the New Democratic Front, backed by previous President Ranil Wickremesinghe, won just three seats.
Sri Lanka typically backs the president’s party in general elections, especially if voting is held soon after a presidential vote.
The president wields executive power but Dissanayake still required a parliamentary majority to appoint a fully-fledged cabinet and deliver on key promises to cut taxes, support local businesses, and fight poverty.
A nation of 22 million, Sri Lanka was crushed by a 2022 economic crisis triggered by a severe shortage of foreign currency that pushed it into a sovereign default and caused its economy to shrink by 7.3 percent in 2022 and 2.3 percent last year.
Boosted by a $2.9 billion bailout program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the economy has begun a tentative recovery, but the high cost of living is still a critical issue for many, especially the poor.
Dissanayake also aims to tweak targets set by the IMF to rein in income tax and free up funds to invest in welfare for the millions hit hardest by the crisis.
But investors worry his desire to revisit the terms of the IMF bailout could delay future disbursements, making it harder for Sri Lanka to hit a key primary surplus target of 2.3 percent of GDP in 2025 set by the IMF.
“The country has given a clear mandate politically. The key question would be if this is at the cost of economic policy,” said Raynal Wickremeratne, co-head of research at Softlogic Stockbrokers in Colombo.
“I think with this majority they may try to negotiate a bit more on the (IMF) targets as well,” he said. “A continuation of the current reform program on a broader extent would be positive for the country.”
