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Philippines VP Duterte must go on trial due to severity of charges, prosecutors say

Philippines VP Duterte must go on trial due to severity of charges, prosecutors say
Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte arrives to file her counter affidavit at the Department of Justice in Manila, Philippines. (AFP)
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Philippines VP Duterte must go on trial due to severity of charges, prosecutors say

Philippines VP Duterte must go on trial due to severity of charges, prosecutors say
  • Duterte is facing removal from her post and a lifetime ban from office if convicted

MANILA: Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte must be tried, and ultimately convicted, over serious charges, including an alleged threat to have the president killed, prosecutors argued in a submission to a Senate impeachment court on Friday. Duterte is facing removal from her post and a lifetime ban from office if convicted. She has denied wrongdoing and maintains her impeachment is politically motivated and the result of an acrimonious falling out between her and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Lower house prosecutors said the weight of the evidence against Duterte justifies a full-blown trial, rejecting her defense that the allegations against her in an impeachment complaint were unsubstantiated. “The severity of the charges leaves no room for technical evasion. A trial is not only warranted but necessary to reinforce justice, uphold democratic principles, and affirm that no individual, regardless of rank of influence, stands above the law,” they said in their response to Duterte’s defense.
“It is obvious from a simple reading of (Duterte’s response), which relies on misleading claims and baseless procedural objections, that the only legal strategy of the defense is to have the case dismissed and avoid trial,” the prosecutors said. Duterte, who was impeached by the lower house in February, has described the impeachment complaint as unconstitutional and “nothing more than a scrap of paper.” Included in the complaint were allegations she misused public funds while vice president and education secretary and had plotted to assassinate Marcos, the first lady and the house speaker based on remarks during a November press conference about hiring an assassin.
Duterte’s impeachment is widely seen in the Philippines as part of a broader power struggle ahead of the 2028 election, which Marcos cannot contest due to a single-term limit for presidents and will likely seek to groom a successor to protect his legacy. Marcos has distanced himself from the impeachment.
Duterte, the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, is expected to run for the presidency in 2028 if she survives the impeachment and would be a strong contender.


Global tensions rattle COP30 build-up but ‘failure not an option’

Updated 12 sec ago

Global tensions rattle COP30 build-up but ‘failure not an option’

Global tensions rattle COP30 build-up but ‘failure not an option’
BONN: This year’s UN COP30 summit in Brazil was hotly-anticipated as a pivotal moment for the planet, as the world fast approaches a key global warming threshold.
But the hosts are yet to propose a headline ambition for the marathon November talks, raising concerns they could fall flat.
The build-up has been overshadowed by devastating conflicts on three continents and the US withdrawal from global cooperation on climate, trade and health.
Expectations have dimmed since Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s pitch three years ago to host climate talks in the Amazon.
A warm-up UN climate event in Germany that concluded on Thursday saw disputes flare over a range of issues, including finance, adding to anxiety about how much headway COP30 can make.
Brazil is a deft climate negotiator, but the “international context has never been so bad,” said Claudio Angelo, of the Brazilian organization Climate Observatory.
Given the stakes, former UN climate chief Patricia Espinosa said Brazil may have to make do with “baby steps.”
“One of the main messages that should be coming out of COP30 is the unity of everyone behind multilateralism and international cooperation. Not achieving that means everybody will suffer,” she told AFP.
“Failure is not an option in this case.”


Previous COPs have been judged on the deals clinched between the nearly 200 nations that haggle over two weeks to advance global climate policy.
Recent summits have produced landmark outcomes, from a global pledge to transition away from fossil fuels, to the creation of a specialized fund to help countries hit by climate disaster.
COP30 CEO Ana Toni said that “most of the big flashy topics” born out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change had been dealt with.
That leaves Brazil with an arguably harder challenge — trying to ensure what has been agreed is put into practice.
Much of the action is set for the COP30 sidelines or before nations arrive in the Amazonian city of Belem.
National climate plans due before COP30 from all countries — but most importantly major emitters China, the European Union and India — will be more consequential than this year’s negotiations, experts say.
It is expected this latest round of national commitments will fall well short of containing global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius, and possibly even 2C, the less ambitious of the Paris accord’s climate goals.
“I expect that the COP will need to react to that,” said Ana Toni, although what form that reaction would take was “under question.”
Uncertainty about how COP30 will help steer nations toward 1.5C has left the Alliance of Small Island States bloc “concerned,” said lead negotiator Anne Rasmussen.
“Our survival depends on that,” she told AFP.


How countries will make good on their promise to transition away from fossil fuels may also become a point of contention.
Angelo said he hoped Brazil would champion the idea, included in the country’s climate plan, of working toward “schedules” for that transition.
But he likened Brazil’s auctioning of oil and gas extraction rights near the mouth of the Amazon river this month — just as climate negotiators got down to business in Bonn — to an act of “sabotage.”
Another key priority for Brazil is forest protection, but otherwise COP30 leaders have mostly focused on unfinished business from previous meetings, including fleshing out a goal to build resilience to climate impacts.
According to the hosts of last year’s hard-fought climate talks, global tensions might not leave room for much else.
“We need to focus more on preserving the legacy that we have established, rather than increasing ambition,” said Yalchin Rafiyev, top climate negotiator for COP29 host Azerbaijan.
He fears that trying and failing to do more could risk undermining the whole UN process.
Those close to the climate talks concede they can move frustratingly slowly, but insist the annual negotiations remain crucial.
“I don’t think there’s any other way to address a threat to humanity as big as this is,” Espinosa told AFP.

Eel-eating Japan opposes EU call for more protection

Eel-eating Japan opposes EU call for more protection
Updated 32 min 24 sec ago

Eel-eating Japan opposes EU call for more protection

Eel-eating Japan opposes EU call for more protection
  • Japanese media have reported that the EU could soon propose that all eel species be added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species which limits the trade of protected species

TOKYO: Japan’s agriculture minister said Friday the country would oppose any call by the European Union to add eels to an endangered species list that would limit trade in them.
Eel is eaten worldwide but is particularly popular in Japan, where is called “unagi” and traditionally served grilled after being covered in a sticky-sweet sauce.
Minister Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters that the country carefully manages stock levels of the Japanese eel in cooperation with neighboring China, Taiwan and South Korea.
“There is a sufficient population, and it faces no extinction risk due to international trade,” he said.
Japanese media have reported that the EU could soon propose that all eel species be added to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which limits trade of protected animals.
There are 19 species and subspecies of eel, many of them now threatened due to a range of factors including pollution and overfishing.
In 2014, the Japanese eel was listed as endangered, but not critically endangered, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which cited factors including habitat loss, overfishing, pollution and migration barriers.
Protecting the animal is complicated by their complex life cycle, which unfolds over a vast area, and the many unknowns about how they reproduce.


US envoy leaves Russia as detente faltering

US envoy leaves Russia as detente faltering
Updated 46 min 36 sec ago

US envoy leaves Russia as detente faltering

US envoy leaves Russia as detente faltering
  • Moscow earlier this week accused Washington of not being ‘ready’ to take steps to restore the normal functioning of their embassies

MOSCOW: The US ambassador to Russia, Lynne Tracy, is departing Moscow, leaving Washington without a top envoy in the country as a rapprochement being pushed by US President Donald Trump falters.

Moscow earlier this week accused Washington of not being “ready” to take steps to restore the normal functioning of their embassies, hobbled by years of tit-for-tat restrictions and expulsions of diplomats.

Trump has not yet nominated a successor to Tracy, the first woman to hold the post and who was appointed by ex-President Joe Biden and is leaving after two-and-a-half years in the role.

Trump has overhauled Biden’s policy of isolating Vladimir Putin over his Ukraine offensive, holding several calls with the Kremlin chief and raising the prospect of boosting bilateral ties.

“I am proud to have represented my country in Moscow during such a challenging time,” Tracy said in a message posted by the embassy on social media.

She also quoted lines from a poem by Alexander Pushkin, Russia’s famed national poet.

Diplomats from the two countries have held several rounds of negotiations under Trump on issues ranging from the Ukraine conflict and prisoner exchanges to normalizing embassy operations.

But on Wednesday the Kremlin accused Washington of being “not yet ready” to remove barriers to the work of their respective diplomatic missions.

Trump has shown increasing frustration with Putin over his refusal to end Moscow’s three-year offensive on Ukraine.

Since the Republican returned to the White House, Putin has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire, demanded Kyiv cede more territory, urged his troops to keep advancing and escalated deadly missile and drone attacks on Ukraine.


Fusion between culture and modernity as children dance in Kenyan refugee camp

Fusion between culture and modernity as children dance in Kenyan refugee camp
Updated 59 min 57 sec ago

Fusion between culture and modernity as children dance in Kenyan refugee camp

Fusion between culture and modernity as children dance in Kenyan refugee camp
  • The Acholi people, mostly from Uganda and South Sudan, are among refugees who live in Kakuma camp, which was established in 1992 as a safe haven for people fleeing conflict from dozens of east African countries

KALOBEYEI: Beads of sweat drip from the faces of young girls and boys as they dance to the rhythm of traditional drums and open calabashes, while their peers watch them in awe.
These are refugee children, some who were born in one of Africa’s largest camps — Kakuma, located in northern Kenya, where more than 300,000 refugees’ livelihoods have been affected by funding cuts that have halved monthly food rations.
The children use the Acholi traditional dance as a distraction from hunger and have perfected a survival skill to skip lunches as they stretch their monthly food rations that are currently at 30 percent of the UN nutritional recommendation per person.
The Acholi people, mostly from Uganda and South Sudan, are among refugees who live in Kakuma camp, which was established in 1992 as a safe haven for people fleeing conflict from dozens of east African countries.
For a moment, the melodious sound of one of the refugee mothers stops the playground buzz of activity as dozens of children sit down to enjoy the traditional dance performance.
The colorful swings doting the community center at Kakuma’s Kalobeyei Refugee Settlement were donated by a Swiss organization, Terre des hommes, which still manages the playground aptly named “Furaha” — Swahili for Happiness.
But the happiness of these children isn’t guaranteed now as funding cuts have affected operations here. Fewer resources and staff are available to engage the children and ensure their safety.
One of the dancers, Gladis Amwony, has lived in Kakuma for 8 years now. In recent years, she has started taking part in the Acholi traditional dances to keep her Ugandan roots alive.
The now 20-year-old doesn’t imagine ever going back to Uganda and has no recollection of life in her home village.
“I’m happiest when I dance, I feel connected to my ancestors,” the soft-spoken Amwony says after her dance session.
While Amwony and her friends are looking for a cultural connection, just about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from their village in neighboring Kalobeyei Village 3, some boys are in touch with modernity.
The five boys have been practicing a one-of-a-kind dance where they mimic robots, complete with face masks that hide their human faces.
They make their sharp synchronized moves that they have been perfecting for months.
The boys will be part of performances that will be showcased during this year’s World Refugee Day, as an example of the talent and resilience that exists among the refugee community.
This younger generation of dancers make precision moves in a small hall with play and learning items stored in a cabinet that is branded with an American flag, an indication that it was donated by the USgovernment.
Such donations are now scarce, with the United States having cut down on funding in March.
These cuts have affected operations here, with the future stardom hopes for these children dimming by the day.
The center, which previously featured daily programs such as taekwondo and ballet, may not be operational in a few months if the funding landscape remains as is.
“We are now reducing some of the activities because we are few. The staff are few and even per day we only have one staff remaining in the center and it is really hard for him/her to conduct 500 children,” said John Papa, a community officer for Terre des hommes in Kalobeyei Village 3.
These programs do more than entertain the children — they keep them away from issues such as child labor, abuse and crime which as a major concern for humanitarian organizations in Kakuma.
And as the children dance and play beneath the sweltering sun, the only hope is that these child friendly spaces remain operational for years.


Germany charges Syrian national in connection with Taylor Swift concert plot

Germany charges Syrian national in connection with Taylor Swift concert plot
Updated 27 June 2025

Germany charges Syrian national in connection with Taylor Swift concert plot

Germany charges Syrian national in connection with Taylor Swift concert plot
  • Germany charges Syrian national in connection with Taylor Swift concert plot

BERLIN: Germany has charged a Syrian national with supporting a foreign terrorist organization for helping to plan a foiled attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last year, the prosecutor general said in a statement on Friday.
Identified as Mohammad A, the suspect helped the would-be attacker by translating Arabic bomb-building instructions and putting him in contact with a member of the Islamic State militia online, according to the charges against him.