Category Archives: Philippines

Weather tracker: Tropical Storm Sara and Super Typhoon Man-yi wreak havoc

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Powerful storm systems bring heavy rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides to Central America and Asia

Tropical Storm Sara has caused significant disruption across Central America in recent days after forming in the Caribbean Sea on Thursday afternoon. It is the 18th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season and the third this month. The large number of tropical storm and hurricane formations this season can be attributed to the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico being warmer than average, thus providing more energy for the development and intensification of these systems.

Since its formation, Sara has affected Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Belize and Guatemala, bringing heavy rainfall, widespread flooding and landslides. The slow-moving nature of the storm has exacerbated the damage, prolonging the duration of its impact. However, Sara is losing strength; initially it had sustained winds of 45mph on Thursday but weakened slightly after moving inland, with winds dropping to 40mph by Sunday. According to the National Hurricane Centre, Sara is expected to dissipate into an area of low pressure as it moves north-west toward the southern region of the Yucatan peninsula on Monday.

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More than 650,000 people flee as Super Typhoon Man-yi hits Philippines

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Authorities warn of ‘life-threatening’ surges as sixth storm to pound the country in the past month intensified

Super Typhoon Man-yi has slammed into the Philippines, with the national weather forecaster warning of a “potentially catastrophic and life-threatening” impact as huge waves pounded the archipelago’s coastline.

More than 650,000 people fled their homes before Man-yi, which is the sixth major storm to batter the disaster-weary country in the past month, made landfall.

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Philippines set to be hit by fifth major storm in less than a month

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Tropical Storm Usagi is days away from making landfall, after Typhoon Toraji, Severe Tropical Storm Trami, Typhoon Yinxing and Super Typhoon Kong-rey

The Philippines issued new weather warnings on Tuesday as the fifth major storm in three weeks bore down on the archipelago, days after thousands were evacuated ahead of Typhoon Toraji.

Now a weakened tropical storm, Toraji blew out to sea overnight after causing relatively limited damage and no reported deaths.

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Duterte tells Philippines ‘war on drugs’ inquiry he kept a death squad

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Ex-president says he kept criminals to kill other criminals while mayor and offers no apologies at hearing investigating crackdowns

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has told a senate inquiry into drug killings under his leadership that he kept a “death squad” of criminals to kill other criminals while serving as a mayor.

The 79-year-old, making his first public appearance on Monday since his term ended in 2022, said he offered “no apologies, no excuses” for his presidency, during which as many as 30,000 people were killed in a “war on drugs”.

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Dozens dead in floods and landslides after tropical storm Trami hits the Philippines

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Rescue workers continue to search for missing after storm brings two months’ rainfall to some areas in 24 hours

The number of dead and missing after tropical storm Trami caused extensive flooding and landslides in the Philippines has exceeded 100, as the president said many areas remained isolated.

Trami blew away from the north-western Philippines on Friday, leaving at least 81 people dead and 34 others missing in one of the south-east Asian archipelago’s deadliest and most destructive storms so far this year, the government’s disaster response agency said. The death toll was expected to rise as reports come in from previously isolated areas.

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Sydney man charged for alleged live online child sexual abuse of young boy in Philippines

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The child’s mother and another woman, aged 22 and 37, were also arrested as part of joint investigation by police in Australia and Manila

A 33-year-old Sydney man has been charged with child sexual abuse offences against a boy living in the Philippines and is facing 10 years in prison.

Australian federal police officers were given information in September about a man in Australia who was allegedly engaging in the live online child sexual abuse of the boy, which was allegedly being facilitated by the child’s mother.

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Philippines vice-president: I’ll dig up president’s father and throw him in sea

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Sara Duterte makes threat against remains of Ferdinand Marcos’s dictator father in searing verbal attack

The Philippine vice-president, Sara Duterte, has threatened to dig up the remains of President Ferdinand Marcos’s dictator father and throw them into the sea, launching a scathing attack on her rival.

Duterte was once allied with Marcos Jr, and ran on a joint ticket with him in the 2022 election, winning a landslide victory. However, she resigned from the cabinet in June and the two powerful dynasties are now engaged in a bitter struggle for power before next year’s midterm elections, with both also preparing for presidential polls in 2028.

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Duterte drug war back in ICC spotlight after parliamentary committee hears claims his office paid police $17,000 to kill suspects

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Accusation against former Philippines president increases pressure on successor Ferdinand Marcos Jr to allow access to international criminal court

A Philippines former police colonel has testified that Rodrigo Duterte’s office offered police up to $17,000 to kill suspects as part of his “war on drugs”, sparking calls for the evidence to be referred to the international criminal court.

Royina Garma, a former police colonel who had close ties to Duterte, gave the most damning evidence yet against the former president, when she told a parliamentary committee last week he had called her in May 2016, asking her to find a police officer capable of implementing a nationwide “war on drugs”.

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Stage set for battle of the dynasties as Rodrigo Duterte eyes return to politics in the Philippines

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Former president to run for mayor of Davao amid fight for power against formidable Marcos family

Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, 79, returned to politics this week when he registered to run as mayor in his family’s stronghold, Davao city. It leaves little doubt: two of the country’s most powerful political families, the Dutertes and the Marcoses, are set for an epic struggle for power.

For the Dutertes, it could prove a battle for their survival. Rodrigo Duterte is facing an investigation by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity over his brutal war on drugs, and the family needs political clout and powerful friends.

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‘Son of God’ pastor registers from jail to run for Philippines senate election

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Apollo Quiboloy is also wanted in US on charges of sex trafficking, including of children, and bulk cash smuggling

An influential Philippine pastor who is wanted by the FBI for sex trafficking children has registered to run in the senate election despite being in prison.

Apollo Quiboloy, who claims to be the “appointed son of God” and is an ally of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, was until recently one of the country’s most high-profile fugitives.

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Philippines: Duterte to run as mayor despite inquiry into his drugs crackdown

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Former president to run in his home city of Davao despite ICC’s investigation into possible crime against humanity

The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, whose anti-drugs crackdown is being investigated by the international criminal court as a possible crime against humanity, has registered to run for mayor of his home city.

Duterte, 79, filed his papers with the Election Commission in Davao City, where he had served as mayor for about two decades before winning the presidency in 2016. His son, incumbent Davao city mayor, Sebastian Duterte, would run as his vice-mayor in next year’s midterm elections, officials said.

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Healthier rice variety could counter rise in diabetes, Philippine scientists say

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Researchers develop grain with lower glycaemic index and more protein that ‘could have big impact in Asia and Africa’

Scientists in the Philippines have created a new variety of rice that could help reduce the growing burden of diabetes.

More than 537 million adults worldwide are living with the chronic disease – a number that is expected to grow to 783 million by 2045. Being overweight, genetics and a lack of exercise contribute to type 2 diabetes, which is the most common form. Type 2 occurs when the pancreas fails to produce enough of the insulin hormone, leaving too much glucose in the blood, and cells develop a resistance to insulin.

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Religious groups ‘spending billions to counter gender-equality education’

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Report reveals how US Christians, Catholic schools and Islamists fight sex education, LGBTQ+ and equal rights

Extreme religious groups and political parties are targeting schools around the world as part of a coordinated and well-funded attack on gender equality, according to a new report.

Well-known conservative organisations aim to restrict girls’ access to education, change what is on the curriculum, and influence educational laws and policies, according to Whose Hands on our Education, a report by the Overseas Development Institute.

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Almost 200 people killed last year trying to defend the environment, report finds

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Latin America was the most deadly region in which to defend ecosystems from mining and deforestation, with Indigenous people among half the dead

At least 196 people were killed last year for defending the environment, with more than a third of killings taking place in Colombia, new figures show.

From campaigners who spoke out against mining projects to Indigenous communities targeted by organised crime groups, an environmental defender was killed every other day in 2023, according to a new report by the NGO Global Witness.

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow the biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X for all the latest news and features.

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Celebrity ‘son of God’ pastor surrenders in Philippines after two-week manhunt

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Apollo Quiboloy, who is also wanted in US on child trafficking charges, hands himself over to police after ultimatum

An influential pastor wanted in the US on child trafficking charges has been arrested in the Philippines, after a 16-day manhunt across a vast compound that included a network of underground tunnels and dozens of buildings.

Apollo Quiboloy, the founder of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (KOJC) church, who claims to be the “appointed son of God” and was a spiritual adviser of the former president Rodrigo Duterte, is facing various charges, including in the US where he is wanted over alleged trafficking of women and girls as young as 12.

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Fugitive former mayor Alice Guo arrives in Philippines after deportation from Indonesia

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Arrest warrant was issued for Guo, who is accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates, after she failed to appear before a Senate inquiry

Alice Guo, a fugitive former mayor of a town in the Philippines accused of having links to Chinese criminal syndicates, has arrived back in the Philippines after she was deported from Indonesia.

Guo, whose case has gripped the Philippines, was the subject of an arrest warrant after she failed to appear before a Senate inquiry investigating financial scams and human trafficking found to be taking place at a sprawling compound in her town, Bamban, in Tarlac province.

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A new flashpoint has emerged at Sabina Shoal in the South China Sea – and a new danger

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Analysts warn that the dispute over Sabina Shoal could lead to an even more drawn-out struggle between Manila and Beijing

Hopes that tensions in the South China Sea might ease have been short lived. Just weeks after the Philippines and China struck a deal to try to stop dangerous confrontations at Second Thomas Shoal, a new flashpoint has emerged.

Over recent weeks, Manila has accused Chinese personnel of ramming its boats, blasting them with water canon and firing flares at its aircraft, with incidents often centred on a new location, an atoll called Sabina Shoal. It comes as tensions in the South China Sea, a strategically important waterway that links the Indian and Pacific Oceans, were already at their highest in a decade.

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‘Hyper-violent’ Typhoon Gaemi was made fiercer by climate crisis, say scientists

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Researchers warn Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced

The “hyper-violent” Typhoon Gaemi was made fiercer and more likely to strike by the climate crisis, scientists have found. They said “Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced”.

The typhoon hit the Philippines, Taiwan and Hunan province in China in late July, with floods and landslides destroying homes, killing at least 100 people and affecting millions. Winds reaching 145mph (233 km/h) sank two large ships, while floods in Manila were as deep as a one-storey building.

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Japan says airspace violation by Chinese spy plane ‘utterly unacceptable’

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Two-minute incursion by military surveillance aircraft comes amid regional tensions in Asia-Pacific

Japan has condemned an unprecedented violation of its airspace by a Chinese military aircraft as “utterly unacceptable” and a threat to its security.

The incursion comes after repeated maritime provocations by Chinese vessels near disputed islands in the East China Sea in an escalation of regional tensions.

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Philippines accuses Beijing of ‘dangerously’ firing flares near its aircraft in South China Sea

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Manila alleges ‘harassment’ in past week, including deploying flares just 15 metres away from its aircraft in latest confrontation on strategic waterway

The Philippine government accused China on Saturday of firing flares just metres away from one of its aircraft as it flew patrols over the South China Sea in the past week.

A Chinese fighter jet “engaged in irresponsible and dangerous manoeuvres” on 19 August as the plane from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) made a “maritime domain awareness flight” near Scarborough Shoal, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said.

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