MANILA: The Philippines accused the China Coast Guard of blocking a Filipino supply vessel and damaging it with water cannon Saturday morning off a remote and contested South China Sea reef.
The Philippine military said the nearly hour-long attack occurred off Second Thomas Shoal, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannon and collided with Filipino vessels in similar stand-offs in recent months.
The military released video clips that showed a white ship repeatedly dousing another vessel sailing alongside it with a water cannon. One clip showed two white ships simultaneously firing water at the same vessel.
It also released another clip showing a white ship marked “China Coast Guard” crossing the bow of a grey vessel it identified as the Philippine supply boat Unaizah May 4.
It said the videos were taken Saturday morning while the Unaizah May 4 was on its way to Ayungin Shoal — the Filipino name for the outcrop garrisoned by a small unit of Philippine troops that is also claimed by Beijing.
“The UM4 supply boat sustained heavy damages at around 08:52 (am) due to the continued blasting of water cannons from the CCG vessels,” the military said in a statement, without describing the nature of the damage or whether there were any casualties.
A Philippine coast guard escort vessel later reached the damaged boat “to provide assistance,” the military said.
China Coast Guard spokesman Gan Yu said in a statement that the Philippine convoy “forcibly intruded into the area despite the Chinese side’s repeated warnings and route controls,” adding the Chinese carried out “control, obstruction and eviction in accordance with law.”
“We sternly warn the Philippine side: those who play with fire will bring shame on themselves. The Chinese Coast Guard is ready at all times to resolutely safeguard our country’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Gan added.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, brushing off rival claims from countries including the Philippines and an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis.
The latest confrontation came four days after visiting Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States stood by its “ironclad” commitments to defend longtime ally Manila against armed attack in the South China Sea.
Two days after Blinken’s visit to Manila, the China Coast Guard also tried to drive away Filipino scientists who landed on two cays near Scarborough Shoal, another contested South China Sea outcrop.
The Unaizah May 4, which was also damaged in a China Coast Guard water cannon attack off Second Thomas Shoal earlier this month, had returned to the area on Saturday escorted by two Filipino coast guard vessels and two Philippine Navy ships, a Philippine military statement said.
The Philippine soldiers stationed on the shoal live on a derelict navy ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, and require frequent resupplies for food, water and other necessities.
“This particular mission was set up to ensure a full troop complement on board BRP Sierra Madre after one personnel needing serious medical attention was recently evacuated,” the military added.
Four crew members had been hurt by broken glass during the previous water cannon attack on the Unaizah May 4.
Commodore Jay Tarriela, a Philippine coast guard spokesman for South China Sea issues, said in a separate statement that its escort vessel, the BRP Cabra, was “impeded and encircled” by three Chinese coast guard and other vessels early Saturday.
As a result, Cabra was “isolated from the resupply boat due to the irresponsible and provocative behavior of the Chinese maritime forces,” he added.
Philippines accuses China of water cannon attack on supply vessel
https://arab.news/2h46p
Philippines accuses China of water cannon attack on supply vessel
- Philippine military say the nearly hour-long attack occurred off Second Thomas Shoal
Zverev shakes off recent funk to beat Muller in Munich
- Zverev has played six tournaments since losing the Australian Open final in three sets to Sinner in January, but has not made it past the quarterfinals at any
- World No. 15 Ben Shelton made a stuttering tourney start, coming from a set down to beat world No. 410 Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7-3)
MUNICH: World No. 3 Alexander Zverev got his clay court season back on track with a 6-4, 6-1 over Frenchman Alexandre Muller in the first round of the ATP event in Munich on Monday.
The German lost his opener at last week’s Monte Carlo Masters to Italian Matteo Berrettini, missing the chance to bump Jannik Sinner from the world the No. 1 position.
Instead, that defeat and the Carlos Alcaraz’s victory in the final on Sunday saw Zverev dropping down a place in the rankings and dented his preparations for next month’s French Open.
On Monday, Zverev broke his opponent in the first game. Muller broke back at 3-3 before Zverev recovered to win the set in 47 minutes.
The No. 1 seed found his rhythm in the second, breaking his opponent three times.
The 27-year-old completed victory in one hour and 20 minutes.
Zverev has played six tournaments since losing the Australian Open final in three sets to Sinner in January, but has not made it past the quarterfinals at any.
“I’m very happy with the match,” Zverev told Sky Germany: “I want to play my best tennis again — and this was a very good step in the right direction.”
Since winning back-to-back titles in Munich in 2017 and 2018, Zverev has not made it past the final eight.
He will face either countryman Daniel Altmaier or Taiwan’s Tseng Chun-hsin in the quarterfinals.
Earlier on Monday, world No. 15 Ben Shelton made a stuttering start to the tournament, coming from a set down to beat world No. 410 Borna Gojo 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7-3).
Shelton, seeded second in Munich, fought off three match points, winning both of his sets via tiebreak in two hours and 24 minutes.
Defending champion Jan-Lennard Struff, who beat American Taylor Fritz in the final last season, opens his campaign against Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo on Tuesday.
Norris feels ‘nowhere near’ his best as Formula 1 title contest heats up inside McLaren
- After finishing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix, which was won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, Norris said he felt far more confident last year when he lost out on the title to Max Verst
- Norris says “something is just not clicking” for him with McLaren’s dominant car and that he even lacked confidence when he won the Australian Grand Prix last month
Lando Norris may be top of the F1 standings but he feels like he’s driving “nowhere near” his best and can’t work out why.
After placing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix — won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri — Norris said he felt far more confident last year, when he lost out on the drivers’ title to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes,” Norris said. “I have no doubt about that, that I’m good enough, but something is just not clicking with me in the car.”
Norris, who qualified sixth for Sunday’s race, saw Piastri close to within three points of him in the standings.
“As soon as you’re not gelling (with the car), then you’re going to be in issues, and that’s what I have at the moment,” Norris said.
Even though he’s still leading and won the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia last month, Norris said he hasn’t felt comfortable all year with McLaren’s car — widely considered the fastest on the grid.
Last year, “I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year could not have felt more opposite so far,” Norris said.
“Even in Australia, I won the race but never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say.”
Norris and Piastri combined to help McLaren won the constructor title in 2024, the team’s first since 1998.
Teammate battles which shaped F1
The years when F1 has been dominated by a single team have produced some of the most bitter rivalries, as McLaren witnessed in the late 1980s with a feud between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.
More recently, the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg turned sour during their championship fight at Mercedes in 2016.
Norris and Piastri are keeping things civil, though there were awkward moments last year when Norris was asked to make way for his teammate in a race.
McLaren has faced tests from other teams, with Verstappen winning in Japan last week for Red Bull and Mercedes’ George Russell competing with Norris and Piastri on Sunday. Still, the pace of the other teams seems to be fluctuating from race to race, and McLaren’s isn’t. The gap of 58 points on the constructor standings to second-place Mercedes after just four races is vast.
“We haven’t had a consistent challenger week-in, week-out,” Piastri, a 24-year-old Australian, said. “As long as we have the best car, it’s going to be tight between Lando and I.”
Trump envoy says Putin open to ‘permanent peace’ deal with Ukraine
- Donald Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin
- Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s special envoy said Monday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was open to a “permanent peace” deal with Ukraine, following talks seeking to end the more than three-year war.
Trump has been pressing Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin, despite repeated negotiations between Russian and US officials.
On Friday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin in Saint Petersburg – their third meeting third since the Republican leader returned to the White House in January.
Witkoff said during a Fox News interview televised Monday that he sees a peace deal “emerging,” and that two key Putin advisers – Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev – were in the “compelling meeting.”
“Putin’s request is to get to have a permanent peace here. So beyond the ceasefire, we got an answer to that,” Witkoff said, acknowledging that “it took a while for us to get to this place.”
“I think we might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.”
He added that business deals between Russia and the United States were also part of the negotiations.
“I believe there’s a possibility to reshape the Russian-United States relationship through some very compelling commercial opportunities, that I think give real stability to the region too,” he said.
Despite a flurry of diplomacy, there has been little meaningful progress on Trump’s main aim of achieving a Ukraine ceasefire.
Putin last month rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for a full and unconditional pause in the conflict, while the Kremlin has made a truce in the Black Sea conditional on the West lifting certain sanctions.
Xi’s Vietnam trip aiming to ‘screw’ US, says Trump
- Xi Jinping is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia
- Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs
HANOI: China’s President Xi Jinping paid tribute to Vietnam’s late revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh on Tuesday, his last day of a trip to Hanoi that President Donald Trump said was aiming to “screw” the United States.
Xi is in Vietnam as part of a Southeast Asia tour that will include Malaysia and Cambodia, with Beijing trying to position itself as a stable alternative to Trump as leaders confront US tariffs.
The Chinese leader called on his country and Vietnam Monday to “oppose unilateral bullying and uphold the stability of the global free trade system,” according to Beijing’s state media.
Hours later, Trump told reporters at the White House that their meeting was aimed at hurting the United States.
“I don’t blame China. I don’t blame Vietnam. I don’t. I see they’re meeting today, and that’s wonderful,” he said.
“That’s a lovely meeting... like trying to figure out, how do we screw the United States of America.”
China and Vietnam signed 45 cooperation agreements on Monday, including on supply chains, artificial intelligence, joint maritime patrols and railway development.
Xi said a meeting with Vietnam’s top leader To Lam on Monday that their countries were “standing at the turning point of history... and should move forward with joint hands.”
Lam said after the talks that the two leaders “reached many important and comprehensive common perceptions,” according to Vietnam News Agency.
On the final day of his visit, Xi laid a red wreath emblazoned with his name and the words “Long live Vietnam’s great leader President Ho Chi Minh” at the late leader’s mausoleum in central Hanoi.
He is also due to attend the launch of the Vietnam-China Railway Cooperation, which will help manage an $8-billion rail project – announced this year – to link Vietnam’s largest northern port city to the border with China.
Xi’s trip comes almost two weeks after the United States – the biggest export market for Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, in the first three months of the year – imposed a 46 percent levy on Vietnamese goods as part of a global tariff blitz.
Although the US tariffs on Vietnam and most other countries have been paused, China still faces enormous levies and is seeking to tighten regional trade ties and offset their impact during Xi’s first overseas trip of the year.
Xi will head to Malaysia later Tuesday and then Cambodia on a tour that “bears major importance” for the broader region, Beijing has said.
Xi earlier urged Vietnam and China to “resolutely safeguard the multilateral trading system, stable global industrial and supply chains, and open and cooperative international environment.”
He also reiterated Beijing’s line that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere” in an article published on Monday in Vietnam’s major state-run Nhan Dan newspaper.
China and Vietnam, both ruled by communist parties, already share a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” Hanoi’s highest diplomatic status.
Vietnam has long pursued a “bamboo diplomacy” approach – striving to stay on good terms with both China and the United States.
The two countries have close economic ties, but Hanoi shares US concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.
High-level IFC delegation in Pakistan to identify ‘viable opportunities’ for investment
- Investment in infrastructure, energy, transport, public finance, and privatization top discussions
- PM Sharif has vowed to reduce dependence on foreign loans and seek more direct investment
KARACHI: Top officials from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) are visiting Pakistan this week to explore the market and engage with key government stakeholders on identifying “viable opportunities” for investment,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government has vowed to reduce dependence on foreign loans in the coming years and seek more direct investment.
The country in 2023 nearly defaulted on the payment of its foreign debts until it was rescued by a last-gasp $3 billion bailout loan from the IMF. Last year, Islamabad secured a new $7 billion loan deal from the international lender.
Since then, the country’s economy has started improving, with inflation dropping to 0.7 percent year-on-year in March 2025, the lowest in sixty years and a sharp contrast to the 38 percent peak experienced in May 2023. Aggressive interest rate cuts by Pakistan’s central bank, removal of energy subsidies in line with fiscal reform, increased inflows through remittances and exports and stabilization efforts under Pakistan’s economic framework supported by global partners have all come together to support the stabilization efforts.
At Monday’s meeting with Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, Linda Rudo Munyengeterwa, IFC Global Director for Public Private Privatization & Corporate Finance, reiterated the international financial institution’s commitment to “supporting the country’s macroeconomic reform, investment, and privatization initiatives.”
“The delegation conveyed that they had come to Pakistan with an open mind, intending to explore the market and engage with key government stakeholders to identify potential areas for investment,” the finance ministry said in a statement.
“IFC’s extensive global experience across various sectors, including infrastructure, energy, transport, public finance, and privatization, was highlighted as a valuable asset that could be leveraged to support Pakistan’s development agenda.”
The delegation emphasized their readiness to partner with Pakistan in “exploring viable opportunities for collaboration and investment,” the statement added.
Recognizing the fiscal challenges in managing public finances and meeting the country’s expanding development needs, Aurangzeb stressed the importance of utilizing the expertise and financial resources of international institutions like the IFC through public-private partnerships.
“He affirmed that such collaborations could facilitate the implementation of essential reforms and enhance efforts to develop efficient energy, transport, and infrastructure systems in response to the demands of a growing population,” the statement added.
The IFC delegation also called on Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari in Islamabad on Monday and discussed “promoting private investment in the energy sector through Public Private Partnership models,” Radio Pakistan reported.
Leghari appreciated the role of the IFC in introducing modern technology for investment in the energy sector.
“Demand and pricing are our major problems, and we are thankful for IFC’s guidance for sustainable solutions,” Radio Pakistan reported the minister as telling the IFC delegation.
“Appreciating the IFC’s technical expertise and global experience, the Minister said the government is committed to provide a conducive environment to investors.”
The report said the IFC expressed its willingness to support the power ministry’s digital meterization policy and offered to assist in policy formulation and reforms.
The delegation presented examples of successful models in Brazil, Peru, Colombia and India where increased investment, integration of renewable energy and open access had been promoted.
“It is important for Pakistan to learn from international experiences for the right strategy,” the report said. “The meeting agreed that cooperation will be further promoted in the future and joint efforts will be implemented in various energy projects.”
