Vietnamese authorities say typhoon was the most devastating storm to hit the country this year
The death toll from Typhoon Bualoi in south-east Asia has risen to more than 30 as heavy rains continued to lash the region.
In Vietnam, authorities said 19 people had been killed and 21 were missing, making it the most devastating storm to hit the country this year. Heavy rain on Tuesday raised the risk of more flooding and landslides in northern regions.
Continue reading...Huge clear-up efforts start after storm leaves trail of destruction, with 25 reported dead in Taiwan and the Philippines
Huge clear-up operations were under way in southern China and Hong Kong on Thursday, after Super Typhoon Ragasa battered the region, causing widespread flooding and damaged roads.
Ragasa, the most powerful tropical cyclone so far this year, left a trail of damage across Hong Kong, which resumed international flights on Thursday but kept kindergartens and some schools closed. In the economic hub of Guangdong province in mainland China, where more than 2 million people were evacuated ahead of the super typhoon, crews used excavators to clear thousands of toppled trees and unblock roads.
Continue reading...Chinese businesses and schools shut and residents in high-rises ordered to evacuate as storm makes landfall on Guangdong coast
Fierce winds, pounding rain and high seas battered Hong Kong as Super Typhoon Ragasa headed into southern China after causing a lake to burst in Taiwan, killing at least 17 people.
Hong Kong experienced widespread damage on Wednesday, including fallen trees and flooding in many areas, with the storm surge smashing the glass doors of an upmarket hotel and flooding its lobby, according to footage circulating online.
Continue reading...Three charges against Duterte stem from his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed thousands
International criminal court prosecutors have charged the former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte with three counts of crimes against humanity over bloody campaigns carried out during his “war on drugs”.
A charge sheet, dated 4 July but made public on Monday, laid out accusations against the 80-year-old former leader, who has been in ICC detention in The Hague since March.
Continue reading...Dozens of police officers injured as anger erupts over billions allegedly spent on bogus relief projects
Tens of thousands of Filipinos took to the streets on Sunday to protest against government corruption after it was alleged that taxpayers have lost billions of dollars to bogus flood relief projects.
Students, church groups, celebrities, and citizens from different political camps filled the streets in Manila and other cities.
Continue reading...Nobel prize-winner says US institutions have collapsed much quicker than expected under the Trump administration
The Nobel prize-winner Maria Ressa has said Americans are like “deer in the headlights” amid the collapse of US institutions and free speech under the Trump administration, particularly after Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
Speaking to Jon Stewart on the satirical news programme The Daily Show, the journalist and author of How to Stand Up to a Dictator, said the speed at which Donald Trump had “collapsed” US institutions happened much faster than she anticipated.
Continue reading...USS Higgins and USS Cincinnati sailed near Scarborough Shoal after Chinese tried to drive away Philippine vessel
The US has briefly deployed two warships in a disputed South China Sea shoal where two Chinese ships collided earlier in the week while trying to drive away a smaller Philippine ship in a high-seas accident that raised alarms about maritime safety.
Both China and the Philippines claim Scarborough Shoal and other outcroppings in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also lay overlapping claims in the contested waters.
Continue reading...Footage shows Chinese coastguard vessel with its entire bow caved in after colliding with warship near contested Scarborough Shoal
The Philippines has released dramatic footage of a Chinese warship colliding with a vessel from its own coastguard while chasing a Philippine patrol boat in the South China Sea.
The incident occurred near the contested Scarborough Shoal on Monday as the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) escorted vessels distributing aid to fishers in the area, Philippine authorities said.
Continue reading...Former president of nation re-elected as mayor of city of Davao despite his enforced absence
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has been re-elected as mayor of the city of Davao, the family’s stronghold, despite being imprisoned thousands of miles away in The Hague for alleged crimes against humanity.
With more than 60% of returns in, Duterte, 80, had an insurmountable lead of 405,000 votes – far ahead of his nearest competitor who trailed on 49,000, according to unofficial results from the election commission published by local media.
Continue reading...Senate race will be key to future of Sara Duterte as she faces impeachment trial, while her could become mayor despite being detained in The Hague
Millions of Filipinos began voting on Monday in a midterm election widely seen as a referendum on the explosive feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and impeached vice-president Sara Duterte.
Workers in the capital, Manila, were busily setting up polling stations on Sunday for a race that will decide more than 18,000 posts, from seats in the House of Representatives to hotly contested municipal offices.
Continue reading...Beijing and Manila accuse each other of illegal activities around Sandy Cay near the Spratly Isles, as joint US-Filipino military drills get under way in region
China and the Philippines have displayed their national flags in competing photo opportunities on a disputed sandbank in the South China sea, ratcheting up longstanding regional tensions between the two countries.
The dispute played out at Sandy Cay, which is part of the disputed Spratly Islands, and comes days after the US and the Philippines launched their annual joint military drills called “Balikatan”, or “shoulder to shoulder”, which this year will include an integrated air and missile defence simulation for the first time.
Continue reading...Defence secretary’s Philippines visit, aimed at bolstering ties in Asia-Pacific, comes amid rising tensions with Beijing and calls for his resignation
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has met with the Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos, in Manila saying the two countries must stand “shoulder to shoulder” in the face of the threat represented by China.
Hegseth’s meeting at the presidential palace comes as he opens a tour of Pacific allies that risks being overshadowed by a mounting scandal over leaked plans for military strikes.
Continue reading...Maria Ressa says rules-based order ‘can perhaps still exist’ but social media is being used to undermine democracy around the world
The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is a welcome sign that the rules-based order continues to hold, the Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has said, even as the global order has been marred by the US “descending into hell” at the hands of the same forces that consumed the Philippines.
Ressa’s remarks came after Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, made his first appearance before the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, accused of committing crimes against humanity during his brutal “war on drugs”.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: the former Philippines president was arrested and taken to The Hague after a tense standoff. It’s a much needed win for the international criminal court – but success is far from a given
Good morning.
Last Tuesday, chaos erupted at Manila’s main airport as authorities arrested the Philippines’ 79-year-old former president Rodrigo Duterte, who had arrived from Hong Kong. An arrest warrant issued in secret by the international criminal court (ICC) accused him of crimes against humanity for his alleged involvement in killings during his brutal “war on drugs”.
Benefits | Keir Starmer is to defy growing anger by driving through welfare cuts for some of the UK’s most severely disabled people, with an overhaul that could see more than 600,000 benefit claimants lose out on an average of £675 a month.
Ukraine | Donald Trump has said he plans to discuss ending the war in Ukraine with Vladimir Putin on Tuesday and that negotiators have already discussed “dividing up certain assets”. “We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” Trump said, when asked about concessions.
Space | A pair of US astronauts stuck for more than nine months on the International Space Station will be returned to Earth on Tuesday evening, Nasa has said. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams are to be transported home with another American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut after a SpaceX Crew Dragon craft arrived at the ISS early on Sunday.
Business | Buy-to-let has become the largest single type of business in the UK – nearly four times as prevalent as fast food takeaways or hairdressers.
Healthcare | The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has said he believes there is an “overdiagnosis” of some mental health conditions as well as “too many people being written off” – factors he said were key to the government’s welfare measures.
Continue reading...Duterte faces charges over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups say killed tens of thousands. This live blog is closed
Philippine ex-president Rodrigo Duterte is appearing by video link before judges at the international criminal court.
Duterte would follow the proceedings through a video link, a court spokesperson said.
To some Duterte’s arrest this week came as a sudden shock. But for years many brave Filipinos, from priests, politicians, pathologists, to relatives of the victims and journalists, have worked tirelessly, in and out of the spotlight, to expose the horrors of the deadly campaign and collect enough evidence to hold Duterte to account.
Continue reading...Former Philippines president filmed a video message en route to the Hague, saying ‘I will be responsible for everything’
Former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has said he will accept responsibility for his government’s so-called “war on drugs” in a video message filmed on board a plane shortly before he was taken into the custody of the international criminal court (ICC).
“Whatever happened in the past, I will be the front of our law enforcement and the military. I said this already, that I will protect you, and I will be responsible for everything,” he said.
Continue reading...Former president was surrendered to The Hague amid a row between his family and that of the current president
Few expected things to move so quickly. Supporters of the Philippines’ former president Rodrigo Duterte barely had time to protest before he was jetted off to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his country’s so-called “war on drugs”. According to activists, this bloody crackdown has seen as many as 30,000 people killed since 2016.
The charges brought against the former leader are the culmination of years of work by activists, lawyers and victims, who documented abuses committed under his government, often at great personal risk. But Duterte arguably would not have been surrendered to The Hague if it weren’t for his family’s dramatic feud with that of Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the current president.
Continue reading...Daughter accuses government of ‘kidnapping’ the former president as victims of his ‘war on drugs’ express jubilation over his arrest
Lawyers for the former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte have demanded that he be returned to Manila in a petition filed to the supreme court, as victims of the former leaders’ bloody “war on drugs” expressed jubilation.
Duterte, who was flown to The Hague on Tuesday night to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to anti-drugs crackdowns is the first former Asian leader to be served an arrest warrant filed by the ICC. Activists say as many as 30,000 people were killed in the “war on drugs”.
Continue reading...Ex-president to face charges of crimes against humanity over ‘war on drugs’ that rights groups say left 30,000 dead
The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has left Manila on a plane headed to The Hague, hours after he was served with an arrest warrant from the international criminal court over the killings resulting from his “war on drugs”.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr told a press conference that a plane carrying Duterte took off at 11.03pm local time on Tuesday. “The plane is en route to The Hague in the Netherlands, allowing the former president to face charges of crimes against humanity in relation to his bloody war on drugs,” he said.
Duterte’s youngest daughter, Veronica Duterte, said on social media that the plane had been used to “kidnap” her father.
Continue reading...Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters
For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.
“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”
Continue reading...