Philippine VP Duterte exits Marcos cabinet as their alliance crumbles

Philippine VP Duterte exits Marcos cabinet as their alliance crumbles
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, who continues to enjoy high trust ratings based on independent opinion polls, would now have more leeway to criticize Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s policies. (AFP)
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Updated 19 June 2024
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Philippine VP Duterte exits Marcos cabinet as their alliance crumbles

Philippine VP Duterte exits Marcos cabinet as their alliance crumbles
  • President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had accepted Duterte’s resignation from the posts of education minister and vice chair of an anti-insurgency task force

MANILA: Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte resigned on Wednesday from the cabinet of President Ferdinand Marcos and another key post, in the latest sign that her alliance with Marcos Jr has crumbled.
Marcos had accepted Duterte’s resignation from the posts of education minister and vice chair of an anti-insurgency task force, Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Garafil said in a statement, adding that the vice president did not provide a reason for the move.
Duterte, who will remain vice president, said in a press conference that her “resignation is not because of weakness but because of true concern for teachers and the youth.”
In the Philippines, where the president and vice president are elected separately, without a cabinet position, the vice president’s powers are largely limited to ceremonial roles.
The Marcos and Duterte families joined forces in 2022 with Sara Duterte standing as Marcos’ vice presidential running mate, allowing him to tap the Duterte family’s huge support base and seal a comeback for the disgraced Marcos dynasty.
That alliance was always expected to collapse, but analysts were surprised by how soon the gloves came off after Marcos’ predecessor, and Sara’s father, Rodrigo Duterte, accused the president in January of using drugs.
Duterte’s son, the mayor of Davao city, also called for Marcos’ resignation at the time, and Sara did not object to the calls either. “It is the break we have all been waiting for,” Jean Encinas-Franco, a political science professor at the University of the Philippines, said of the vice president’s decision to step down from her cabinet post.
Franco said Sara Duterte, who continues to enjoy high trust ratings based on independent opinion polls, would now have more leeway to criticize Marcos’ policies.
Since coming to power in 2022, Marcos has reversed Rodrigo Duterte’s pro-China stance and pivoted back to the United States, granting Washington greater access to Philippine bases amid China’s assertiveness in the South China Sea and near Taiwan.
He also brought to the fore a 2016 arbitral ruling, fortifying Manila’s territorial claims in the South China Sea, which former president Rodrigo Duterte had largely set aside.
A major blow to the Marcos-Duterte relationship came late last year when Marcos said the government was considering rejoining the International Criminal Court, nearly five years after Rodrigo had withdrawn membership over objections to a bid by the court to investigate a bloody anti-narcotics campaign under him.


UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi

UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi
Updated 17 sec ago
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UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi

UN authorizes evacuation of staff families from Burundi
  • DR Congo’s government and rebels traded blame for several explosions at a rally in the eastern city of Bukavu that killed 13 people and wounded scores of others the previous day

NAIROBI: The UN has authorized the evacuation of families of its international staff from Burundi following violence in DR Congo, according to a letter seen by AFP on Friday.
The Rwanda-backed M23 group has, in recent weeks, seized two major cities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, giving the armed group a significant foothold in the mineral-rich region since taking up arms again in late 2021.
The group has continued its advance, and the fighting has moved closer to the Burundian border, with the small Great Lakes nation — which has supported Kinshasa with some 10,000 troops under a previous agreement — increasingly sounding the alarm.
The UN authorized the evacuation of Bujumbura-based families of its staff last week, according to a letter dated Feb. 21 from the UN’s Department of Safety and Security and seen by AFP.
Several flights have been chartered since then, a UN employee with knowledge of the departures said on Thursday.
“Others are expected ... to bring these families and certain non-essential personnel to safety,” the employee added.
“We are acting with the greatest discretion so as not to upset the government,” the source said, stressing these are “instructions that apply everywhere ... when there are security risks.”
On Thursday, Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye — who previously warned against the threat posed by Rwanda — adopted a more conciliatory tone.
“We are still committed to resolving the differences between our two countries by peaceful means,” he told the diplomatic corps in Burundi’s capital of Gitega.
However, his statement came as military and local sources said Burundi had placed troops on its border, some 10 km from Kamanyola town and the M23 advance.
Burundian military sources said troops were being withdrawn earlier this month, although officials denied this.
Burundi is also seeing the most significant influx of refugees in 25 years, with more than 43,000 people crossing the border in the last two weeks, the UN said.
DR Congo’s government and rebels traded blame for several explosions at a rally in the eastern city of Bukavu that killed 13 people and wounded scores of others the previous day.
The finger-pointing over the deadly incident has further inflamed tensions in eastern Congo.
Congo’s army said Rwandan troops, who it accuses of supporting the rebels, fired rockets and grenades into a crowd gathered in Bukavu’s central square for a speech by one of the uprising’s leaders on Thursday.
“The Rwandan army and its (proxies) bombed and fired live ammunition at the civilian population who, although forced to attend this meeting, expressed their disapproval of the Rwandan aggression,” Congo’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.
Corneille Nangaa, leader of a rebel alliance that includes M23, blamed Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi for the violence in Bukavu.
He told a press conference on Thursday that the grenades used were the same type as those used by the Burundian army, which has backed Congo’s military. Reuters could not independently verify this.

 


Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says

Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says
Updated 26 sec ago
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Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says

Pope had coughing fit, inhaled vomit and now requires assisted ventilation, Vatican says
  • The episode, which occurred in the early afternoon, resulted in a “sudden worsening of the respiratory picture”
  • Doctors decided to keep Francis’ prognosis as guarded and indicated they needed 24 to 48 hours to evaluate how and if the episode impacted his overall clinical condition

ROME: Pope Francis suffered an isolated coughing fit on Friday that resulted in him inhaling vomit and requiring non-invasive mechanical ventilation, the Vatican said in relaying an alarming setback in his two-week long battle against double pneumonia.
The 88-year-old pope remained conscious and alert at all times and cooperated with the maneuvers to help him recover. He responded well, with a good level of oxygen exchange and was continuing to wear a mask to receive supplemental oxygen, the Vatican said.
The episode, which occurred in the early afternoon, resulted in a “sudden worsening of the respiratory picture.” Doctors decided to keep Francis’ prognosis as guarded and indicated they needed 24 to 48 hours to evaluate how and if the episode impacted his overall clinical condition.
The development marked a setback in what had been two successive days of increasingly upbeat reports from doctors treating Francis at Rome’s Gemelli hospital since Feb. 14. The pope, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has lung disease and was admitted after a bout of bronchitis worsened and turned into pneumonia in both lungs.
Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episode as relayed by the Vatican was alarming and underscored Francis’ fragility and that his condition “can turn very quickly.”
“I think this is extremely concerning, given the fact that the pope has been in the hospital now for over two weeks, and now he’s continuing to have these respiratory events and now had this aspiration event that is requiring even higher levels of support,” he told The Associated Press.
“So given his age and his fragile state and his previous lung resection, this is very concerning,” added Coleman, who is not involved in Francis’ care.
Dr. William Feldman, a pulmonary specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said it was a good sign that the pope remained alert and oriented, but concurred that the episode marked “a worrying turn.”
“Often we will use noninvasive ventilation as a way of trying to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation,” Feldman said.
Types of noninvasive ventilation include a BiPAP machine, which helps people breathe by pushing air into their lungs. Doctors will often try such a machine for a while to see if the patient’s blood gas levels improve so they can eventually go back to using oxygen alone.
The episode, which doctors described as an “isolated crisis of bronchial spasm” began as a coughing fit in which Francis inhaled vomit. The longer respiratory crisis Francis suffered on Feb. 22 was a longer crisis in actually breathing, the Vatican said.
Doctors did not resume referring to Francis being in “critical condition,” which has been absent from their statements for three days now. But they say he isn’t out of danger, given the complexity of his case.
Earlier on Friday, Francis had spent the morning alternating high flows of supplemental oxygen with a mask and praying in the chapel. He had breakfast, read the day’s newspapers and was receiving respiratory physiotherapy, the Vatican said.
The Vatican also published a document signed by Francis on Feb. 26 “From the Gemelli Polyclinic,” a new official tagline that showed Francis was still working from the hospital.
Prayers continued to pour in
Late on Friday, Francis’ closest friend in the Vatican bureaucracy, Argentine Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, led the nightly prayer in St. Peter’s Square to pray for Francis’ health.
With other cardinals bundled against the night chill, Fernández urged the crowd to pray not just for Francis but for others as the pope himself would.
“Certainly it is close to the Holy Father’s heart that our prayer is not only for him, but also for all those who in this particular dramatic and suffering moment of the world, bear the hard burden of war, of sickness, of poverty,” said Fernández, the Vatican’s doctrine chief.
In Mexico City, a few dozen people gathered Thursday night at the cathedral to pray for Francis’ recovery.
“He is like part of the family,” said Araceli Gutiérrez, who treasures the time she saw the pope during his trip to the country of nearly 100 million Catholics in 2016. “That’s why we feel so concerned for him.”
María Teresa Sánchez, who was visiting from Colombia with her sister, said that she has always felt close to Francis — the first Latin American pope.
“That’s like having a relative within the higher-ups, with God,” she said. “He has done so much for religion; he’s such a humble person.”


Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties

Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties
Updated 23 min 9 sec ago
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Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties

Macron urges Algeria to help mend diplomatic ties
  • Hard-line French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has led the verbal attacks on Algeria in the media, fueling tensions between the countries

LISBON: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday warned Algeria against playing “political games” with frayed diplomatic ties between the two countries, notably over immigration.
Relations between Paris and Algiers have been strained since Macron recognized Moroccan sovereignty of the disputed territory of Western Sahara in July last year.
But they have worsened after Algiers refused to accept the return of undocumented Algerian migrants from France.
Last weekend, one of them, a 37-year-old man, went on a stabbing rampage in the eastern city of Mulhouse, killing one person and wounding several others.
“We won’t make progress if there’s no work, we can’t talk to each other through the press, that’s ridiculous, it never works like that,” Macron told journalists during a visit to the Portuguese city of Porto.
“(Relations) shouldn’t be subject to political games,” he said.
He hoped “millions of French people born to Algerian parents” would not be “caught up in these debates.”
Hard-line French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has led the verbal attacks on Algeria in the media, fueling tensions between the countries.
“Nothing can take precedence over the security of our compatriots,” Macron said, with emotions still high after last weekend’s attack in Mulhouse.
Agreements mandating the automatic return of nationals, signed between the two countries in 1994, “must be fully respected,” he added.
In recent months, France has arrested and deported several undocumented Algerians on suspicion of inciting violence, only for Algeria to send back one of those expelled.
France warned that it could restrict visas and, as a result, limit development aid.
Macron also voiced fears about the health of detained Franco Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, arrested in November last year and held in Algeria on national security charges.
In mid-December, his publishers, Gallimard, said he had been hospitalized.
Macron said that Sansal was being held in “arbitrary detention” and that resolving the matter would help restore confidence in diplomatic ties.
Sansal, 75, is known for his strong support of free speech and for opposing authoritarianism and Islamism.
Algeria’s government has previously criticized Macron for “blatant and unacceptable interference in an internal Algerian affair.”

 


EU top diplomat says ‘free world needs new leader’ after Trump-Zelensky clash

EU top diplomat says ‘free world needs new leader’ after Trump-Zelensky clash
Updated 20 min 5 sec ago
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EU top diplomat says ‘free world needs new leader’ after Trump-Zelensky clash

EU top diplomat says ‘free world needs new leader’ after Trump-Zelensky clash
  • “It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge,” Kallas wrote on social media

BRUSSELS: The European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas vowed to stand by Kyiv and questioned America’s leadership of the West Friday after an extraordinary clash between President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.


“Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader. It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge,” Kallas wrote on social media following the Oval Office confrontation. “Ukraine is Europe! We stand by Ukraine.”


Russian air defenses down 17 drones in six Russian regions

Russian air defenses down 17 drones in six Russian regions
Updated 34 min 29 sec ago
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Russian air defenses down 17 drones in six Russian regions

Russian air defenses down 17 drones in six Russian regions
  • Drones had been downed over three regions bordering Ukraine

MOSCOW: Russian air defenses downed 17 drones in six Russian regions over a period of nearly 2-1/2 hours late on Friday, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
A ministry statement said drones had been downed over three regions bordering Ukraine — Bryansk, Belgorod and Voronezh — as well as in Smolensk region in western Russia, Tver region in central Russia and the Crimea peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014.
The incidents took place, the ministry said, between 8:05 and 10:30 p.m. Moscow time (1705-1930 GMT).