Philippines halts deployment of first-time workers to Kuwait after maid’s murder

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Overseas Filipino workers repatriated from Kuwait wait at the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration holding area in the Philippines, Jan. 20, 2023. (Department of Migrant Workers)

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Updated 08 February 2023

Ellie Aben

February 08, 2023 18:24

Philippines halts deployment of first-time workers to Kuwait after maid’s murder

Manila suspended accreditation of new recruitment agencies in Kuwait last week
Philippine officials are preparing for labor talks with Gulf nation’s authorities

Updated 08 February 2023

Ellie Aben

February 08, 2023 18:24

MANILA: The Philippines halted on Wednesday the deployment of first-time workers to Kuwait following increasing reports of abuse, including murder, of Filipino migrant workers in the Gulf state.

More than 268,000 Filipinos live and work in Kuwait, where 35-year-old maid Jullebee Ranara was killed and her charred body found abandoned in a desert last month.

The killing had sent shockwaves across the Philippines, sparking calls for a deployment ban until a review of bilateral labor agreements. The Philippine government has so far suspended the accreditation of new recruitment agencies in the Gulf country and is now stopping first-time workers from seeking employment in Kuwait.

“The application of first-time migrant workers specifically for household services in Kuwait shall be deferred until after significant reforms have been made resulting from upcoming bilateral talks with the said country,” the Department of Migrant Workers said in a statement.

Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople said the department is not yet imposing a total deployment ban in consideration of other overseas Filipinos who had worked for years in Kuwait, and Philippine officials are preparing for talks with the Kuwaiti government.

Ople cited as an example the Philippines’ labor relations with Saudi Arabia, which since November have improved after the creation of a joint technical working group that holds virtual discussions weekly to flesh out various problems and concerns. With more than 700,000 Filipinos living in the Kingdom, it is the most popular destination for overseas Filipino workers.

“We have also been informed through diplomatic channels of the willingness of the Kuwait government to engage in bilateral labor talks. We are preparing well in advance for these talks, bringing with us an accumulation of abuse done over the years, hence the need for significant changes,” Ople said, as quoted in the statement.

Another abuse case emerged from Kuwait this week, after media reported that a Filipina worker was reportedly paralyzed after jumping from a window to escape her abusive employer.

There were more than 24,000 cases of violation and abuse of Filipino workers in Kuwait in 2022 according to Department of Migrant Workers data — a significant increase from 6,500 such cases in 2016.

But the latest policy to suspend the deployment of first-time workers is likely to affect Filipinos as well.

“The Department of Migrant Workers has issued a new advisory that would affect the deployment of 5,000 mobilized HSWs (household service workers) for Kuwait,” migrant work expert Emmanuel Geslani told Arab News. He based his estimates on the current number of workers deployed to Kuwait weekly, which is around 500.

Filipino lawmaker Ron Salo said in a statement that new workers headed for Kuwait should receive cultural training prior to their departure.

“We need to ensure that those who will be deployed in Kuwait … have the requisite experience and knowledge on the culture of Kuwait,” he said.

Bangladesh opposition party holds protest as it boycotts Jan. 7 national election amid violence

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 09:39

Bangladesh opposition party holds protest as it boycotts Jan. 7 national election amid violence

Reports say many independent candidates belong to ruling Awami League, who were encouraged to contest polls to make them look competitive
The events have drawn concern from observers at home and abroad over the health of democracy in Bangladesh, despite its economic success

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 09:39

DHAKA: Hundreds of opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party supporters protested Sunday to mark International Human Rights Day, as the country gears up for a general election on Jan. 7 that the opposition says should be held under a non-partisan, caretaker government.

The party, led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is boycotting the election, leaving voters in the South Asian nation of 166 million with little choice but to re-elect Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League for a fourth consecutive term.

At Sunday’s protest in front of the National Press Club in downtown Dhaka, opposition activists said they do not think a fair and free election can take place under Hasina’s watch. The gathering took place weeks after a massive opposition rally on Oct. 28 turned violent.

The party’s decision to boycott the polls comes amid a monthslong crackdown that has reportedly seen hundreds of opposition politicians jailed and critics silenced, an allegation authorities have denied.

Demonstrators on Sunday carried banners that read “Human chain of family members of the victims of murder and enforced disappearances” and “We want the unconditional release of all prisoners.”

After the Oct. 28 rally, authorities arrested thousands of party leaders and activists including Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir. Many others have gone into hiding, and hundreds have been convicted by courts on charges of violence or subversive acts that the opposition says are politically motivated.

New York-based Human Rights Watch in a report last month put the number of arrested opposition activists at 10,000 since Oct. 28 and said that at least 16 people including two police officers died during the period of violence.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, joint secretary general of Zia’s party, told a video conference from hiding that the government has arrested or punished political leaders and activists under fictitious charges to ensure a lopsided election result.

He urged the people to boycott “the stage-managed election” that he said would deepen the country’s political crisis and push it toward danger.

“The upcoming one-sided election is not just a renewal of Sheikh Hasina’s power, but a license to destroy Bangladesh,” he said.

While critics have slammed the election as a farce, the government has rejected allegations of a crackdown on the opposition and says the polls will be democratically held and inclusive.

“Our stand is very clear. Those who are involved in acts of sabotage or arson attacks, those who attacked police and killed them, are being dealt with on specific charges. We clearly reject the claim that there has been any crackdown against the opposition party,” Mohammad A. Arafat, a ruling party lawmaker and member of the International Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press.

“It has no relation with the election. It’s a constitutional mandate to hold the election on time. It’s a matter of their choice to join the polls. But they are resorting to violence in the name of protests, rather than joining the race,” he said.

The election will be the country’s 12th after it gained independence from Pakistan in 1971.

In the 2008 election, the main challenger BNP and its allies won more than 40 percent of the vote, but lost to Awami League, which got an absolute majority. Subsequent elections took place in 2014 — which Zia’s party boycotted — and again in 2018 under Hasina’s administration, but the opposition rejected the results, saying the election was rigged. Hasina rejected the allegations.

This time again, while candidates from 29 out of 44 registered political parties have filed nominations, no one from Zia’s party is contesting the polls. After a review, the country’s Election Commission accepted 1,985 nominations and rejected 731 for a total of 300 constituencies.

Media reports say many independent candidates belong to the ruling Awami League party, which has encouraged them to contest the election to make it look competitive.

The events have drawn concern from observers at home and abroad over the health of democracy in Bangladesh, even as it transforms into an economic success story under Hasina.

Hasina’s administration has faced pressure from Western democracies, especially from the United States, while the United Nations and the European Union have also pressed for a free, fair and inclusive election.

“Specifically, we have emphasized that it is important to have free and fair elections that all stakeholders have the ability to participate peacefully. The holding of free and fair elections is the responsibility of everyone — all political parties, voters, the government, the security forces, and the media,” a US State Department spokesperson said in an email to The Associated Press.

Analyst Iftekhar Zaman, the head of the anti-corruption group Transparency International Bangladesh, said the election may be held on time but it will be “non-inclusive” and “morally void.”

During the last election in 2018, Joydeb Sana, a private security guard working at a five-story apartment building in the capital, Dhaka, traveled to his ancestral village in southwestern Bangladesh to cast his vote.

But on election day, he found that someone else had already cast his vote.

“I don’t know who did it. In the end my candidate won the election and Sheikh Hasina became the prime minister. I was happy for that, but I could not vote for my candidate, and that was upsetting,” Sana told the AP.

He hopes he can cast his own vote this time.

“It’s my right to vote for my preferred candidate. Last time I was deprived of that,” he said.

Topics: Bangladesh opposition party national election

China’s Xi looks to strengthen Vietnam ties after Biden visit

Updated 10 December 2023

AFP

December 10, 2023 06:09

China’s Xi looks to strengthen Vietnam ties after Biden visit

China and Vietnam have a border in common, as well as close economic ties and ruling communist parties, but Xi’s two-day trip will be his first visit to the country in six years
Like the United States, Vietnam has concerns about its neighbor’s growing assertiveness in the contested South China Se

Updated 10 December 2023

AFP

December 10, 2023 06:09

HANOI: China’s President Xi Jinping will arrive in Vietnam on Tuesday on a mission to strengthen relations, just months after Washington and Hanoi upgraded their diplomatic ties.
China and Vietnam have a border in common, as well as close economic ties and ruling communist parties, but Xi’s two-day trip will be his first visit to the country in six years.
It comes hot on the heels of US President Joe Biden’s stopover in Hanoi in September, when he sought to shore up support against Beijing’s growing influence in the region.
“From China’s perspective, the visit is to emphasize that it has not lost Vietnam to the rival camp,” said Huong Le Thu, Deputy Director of the Asia Program at the International Crisis Group.
“For Vietnam, it represents its successful ‘bamboo diplomacy’, in which it is able to maneuver between the competing great powers without being forced to take one side over another,” she told AFP.
After an official welcome at the presidential palace on Tuesday, Xi will hold talks with Nguyen Phu Trong, the leader of Vietnam’s ruling communist party.
On Wednesday, there will be a wreath-laying ceremony at the mausoleum of revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, before Xi meets Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and President Vo Van Thuong.
Vietnam and China already share a comprehensive strategic partnership, Vietnam’s highest diplomatic status. Hanoi and Washington upgraded to that same level in September.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the visit would involve discussions on “bringing China-Vietnam relations to a higher position.”
Items on the agenda include “politics, security, practical cooperation, the formation of public opinion, multilateral issues and maritime issues,” said Wang.

Like the United States, Vietnam has concerns about its neighbor’s growing assertiveness in the contested South China Sea.
China upset several ASEAN members, including Hanoi, with its September 1 release of a new official map, showing sovereignty over almost the entire resource-rich waterway.
The issue of maritime borders is a sensitive issue for Hanoi, which in July banned the “Barbie” movie from being shown domestically due to a brief appearance of a map that included a depiction of the nine-dash line used in official Chinese maps of the region.
Political researcher Nguyen Khac Giang told AFP that Xi’s visit presented an opportunity for Beijing to draw Vietnam closer, possibly through invoking the Xi-era foreign policy concept of the ‘Community of Common Destiny’.
The loosely defined phrase refers to a vision of future cooperation on economic, security and political issues.
“While Vietnam may remain cautious about joining China-led political initiatives, we can expect to see further progress in economic cooperation, especially in infrastructure development and green energy transitions,” he said.
Vietnamese state-controlled media reported last month that China Rare Earth Group Co. was looking for opportunities to work together with Vietnam’s mining giant Vinacomin.
It comes after the United States and Vietnam in September agreed to cooperate to help Hanoi quantify and develop its rare earth resources.
The United States has said Vietnam — with the world’s second-largest deposits of rare earths after China — has a key role to play as it looks to source less from China after supply chain shocks rocked the global economy in recent years.

Topics: China-Vietnam ties South China Sea dispute Chinese President Xi Jinping

Chinese ships assault Philippine fisheries vessels en route to disputed shoal

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 05:36

Chinese ships assault Philippine fisheries vessels en route to disputed shoal

The noontime assault by Chinese ships off the Scarborough Shoal was one of the most aggressive this year
It’s the latest flare-up of the long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a flashpoint in Asia that has put the US and China on a collision course

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 05:36

MANILA, Philippines: The Philippines and its treaty ally, the United States, separately condemned a high-seas assault Saturday by the Chinese coast guard together with suspected militia ships that repeatedly blasted water cannons to block three Philippine fisheries vessels from a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

The noontime assault by Chinese ships off the Scarborough Shoal, one of the most aggressive this year, caused “significant damage” to the communication and navigation equipment of one of the three Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources ships, Filipino officials said.
They said without elaborating that suspected militia vessels accompanying Chinese coast guard ships used a long-range acoustic device that could impair hearing, causing “severe temporary discomfort and incapacitation to some Filipino crew.”
It’s the latest flare-up of the long-seething territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a flashpoint in Asia that has put the US and China on a collision course. China claims virtually the entire strategic waterway, but the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also pressed their separate claims.
Territorial standoffs between China and the Philippines over a number of disputed offshore areas, including the Scarborough and the Second Thomas shoals, have been particularly heated this year. The US has warned that it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its longtime treaty ally, if Filipino forces, aircraft or ships come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
China has warned the US to stay away from what it calls a purely Asian dispute. It has deployed ships and aircraft to closely shadow US Navy ships and aircraft, which periodically undertake freedom of navigation and overflight patrols in one of the world’s most hotly disputed seas.
A Philippine government task force that deals with the long-seething territorial disputes said Saturday it “vehemently condemns the illegal and aggressive actions carried out by the Chinese coast guard and Chinese maritime militia against the civilian Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources vessels.”
“We demand that the Chinese government take immediate action to halt these aggressive activities and uphold the principles of international law and desist from actions that would infringe on Philippine sovereignty and endanger the lives and livelihood of Filipino fishermen,” it said.
US Ambassador to Manila MaryKay Carlson condemned China’s “aggressive, illegal actions.”
“This (Chinese) behavior violates international law and endangers lives and livelihood,” Carlson said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “We stand with our Philippine friends, partners, allies in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
The Chinese coast guard said in a single sentence announcement on its website that it “implemented control measures in line with the law” Saturday against three BFAR vessels that “intruded into waters adjacent to Huangyan Island,” the Chinese name for the Shoal.
Separately, the coast guard said it had “implemented controls in accordance with laws and regulations” on Sunday against two Philippine coast guard vessels, including one official ship and one supply ship that were attempting to transport construction materials to the Second Thomas Shoal.
China has long sought to blockade the submerged reef, where a small contingent of Filipino marines has stood guard for years aboard a long-marooned but still actively commissioned warship, the BRP Sierra Madre.
The statement gave no details about the measures taken, but said the Philippines action “seriously infringed on China’s sovereignty.”
Philippine fisheries bureau’s ships had sailed to the Scarborough Shoal to provide humanitarian aid, mainly free fuel and Christmas grocery packs, to poor Filipino fishermen aboard nearly 30 boats in the rich but far-flung fishing area, Philippine officials said.
They said the swarm of Chinese coast guard and accompanying ships took dangerously aggressive actions, including the use of water cannons at least eight times, as the Philippine government ships approached about 2.6 kilometers to 3.5 kilometers (1.6 to 2 miles) from Scarborough Shoal.
They added that the Chinese coast guard installed a floating barrier at an entrance to the vast fishing lagoon of Scarborough Shoal and deployed personnel aboard small motor boats to drive away Filipino fishermen waiting for the distribution of fuel and food supplies at sea.
“To prevent the distribution of humanitarian support is not only illegal but also inhumane,” the Philippine government task force said.
In past faceoffs in the high seas off disputed shoals, the Chinese coast guard has used a military-grade laser that caused Filipino crewmen temporary blindness, and resorted to dangerous blocking and shadowing maneuvers, including one that caused minor collisions.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has allowed a larger US military presence in local military bases under a 2014 defense pact partly to strengthen territorial defense amid China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed waters. China has strongly opposed and expressed alarm over increasing deployments of US forces, warning that it would threaten regional peace and stability.
The Philippines has also launched joint sea and air patrols separately with the US and Australia, and plans to expand this to a multilateral patrol, possibly including Japan and other like-minded nations to deter aggression in the South China Sea, National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano told reporters last week.

Topics: South China Sea dispute Philippines China Scarborough Shoal

Liz Magill, University of Pennsylvania president, resigns as antisemitism testimony draws backlash

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 01:53

Liz Magill, University of Pennsylvania president, resigns as antisemitism testimony draws backlash

Calls for Magill’s resignation exploded after her testimony in a US House committee on antisemitism on college campuses
Universities across the US have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid fallout from Israel’s intensifying war in Gaza

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 01:53

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania: The University of Pennsylvania’s president has resigned amid pressure from donors and criticism over testimony at a congressional hearing where she was unable to say under repeated questioning that calls on campus for the genocide of Jews would violate the school’s conduct policy.

The departure of Liz Magill, in her second year as president of the Ivy League school, was announced by the school late Saturday afternoon. The statement said Magill will remain a tenured faculty member at the university’s Carey Law School. She has agreed to keep serving as Penn’s leader until the university names an interim president.
Calls for Magill’s resignation exploded after Tuesday’s testimony in a US House committee on antisemitism on college campuses, where she appeared with the presidents of Harvard University and MIT.
Universities across the US have been accused of failing to protect Jewish students amid rising fears of antisemitism worldwide and fallout from Israel’s intensifying war in Gaza, which faces heightened criticism for the mounting Palestinian death toll.
The three presidents were called before the committee to answer those accusations. But their lawyerly answers drew renewed blowback from opponents, focused particularly on a line of questioning from Rep. Elize Stefanik, R-N.Y., who repeatedly asked whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” would violate Penn’s code of conduct.
“If the speech turns into conduct it can be harassment, yes,” Magill said. Pressed further, Magill told Stefanik, “It is a context-dependent decision, congresswoman.”
Criticism rained down from the White House, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, members of Congress and donors. One donor, Ross Stevens, threatened to withdraw a $100 million gift because of the university’s “stance on antisemitism on campus” unless Magill was replaced.
A day later, Magill addressed the criticism, saying in a video that she would consider a call for the genocide of Jewish people to be harassment or intimidation and that Penn’s policies need to be “clarified and evaluated.”
Magill had been under fire from some donors and alumni this fall over the university’s handling of various perceived acts of antisemitism.
That included allowing a Palestinian literary arts festival to be held on its campus in September featuring speakers whose past statements about Israel had drawn accusations of antisemitism.
A former US Supreme Court law clerk, Magill, 57, is the daughter of a retired federal judge and was dean of Stanford University’s law school and a top administrator at the University of Virginia before Penn hired her as its ninth president last year.
Earlier Saturday, New York’s governor called on the state’s colleges and universities to swiftly address cases of antisemitism and what she described as any “calls for genocide” on campus.
In a letter to college and university presidents, Gov. Kathy Hochul said her administration would enforce violations of the state’s Human Rights Law and refer any violations of federal civil rights law to US officials.
Hochul said she has spoken to chancellors of the State University of New York and City University of New York public college systems who she said confirmed “that calling for genocide of any group” or tolerating antisemitism violates codes of conduct on their campuses “and would lead to swift disciplinary action.”
The governor’s letter doesn’t address any specific incidents. Her office didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
A popular chant at pro-Palestinian rallies at Penn and other universities has been falsely misrepresented in recent months as claiming to call for “Jewish genocide.”
Experts and advocates say the chant, “Israel, we charge you with genocide,” is a typical refrain heard at pro-Palestinian rallies. Jewish and Palestinian supporters both acknowledge protesters aren’t saying “We want Jewish genocide.”

Topics: War on Gaza University of Pennsylvania Liz Magill

A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 01:46

A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza

Human rights groups have alleged that Israeli forces have dropped shells containing white phosphorus on densely populated residential areas in Gaza and Lebanon during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war

Updated 10 December 2023

December 10, 2023 01:46

BEIRUT: A British Palestinian surgeon who spent weeks in the Gaza Strip during the current Israel-Hamas war as part of a Doctors Without Borders medical team said he has given testimony to a British war crimes investigation unit.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a plastic surgeon specializing in conflict medicine, has volunteered with medical teams in multiple conflicts in Gaza, beginning as a medical student in the late 1980s during the the first Palestinian uprising. He has also worked in other conflict zones, including in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.
Abu Sitta crossed from Egypt into Gaza on Oct. 9, two days after the war began and remained in the besieged enclave for 43 days, working mainly in the Al-Ahli and Shifa hospitals in northern Gaza.
The war was triggered by a deadly Hamas-led incursion on Oct. 7 into southern Israel in which militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel has launched a punishing air and ground campaign that has killed more than 17,700 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled territory.
Abu Sitta told The Associated Press in an interview during a visit to the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut on Saturday that the intensity of other conflicts he experienced and the war in Gaza is like “the difference between a flood and a tsunami.” Apart from the staggering numbers of killed and injured, he said, the health system itself has been targeted and destroyed in Gaza.
“The worst thing was initially the running out of morphine and proper strong analgesics and then later on running out of anesthetic medication, which meant that you would have to do painful procedures with no anesthetic,” Abu Sitta said.
He said that when he returned to the UK, he was asked by the war crimes unit at the Metropolitan Police to give evidence in a possible war crimes investigation, and did so.
The police had issued a call for people returning from Israel or the Palestinian territories who “have witnessed or been a victim of terrorism, war crimes or crimes against humanity” to come forward.
Abu Sitta said much of his testimony related to attacks on health facilities.
He was working in Al-Ahli hospital in northern Gaza on Oct. 17 when a deadly blast struck the hospital’s courtyard, which had become a shelter for displaced people, killing hundreds. Israeli authorities, along with US and French intelligence agencies, have said the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Hamas maintained that it was an Israeli strike. Abu Sitta said many of the injuries he saw were more consistent with damage caused by an Israeli Hellfire missile which he said “disintegrates into shards of metal that cause amputations.”
The international group Human Rights Watch said the fragmentation pattern around the impact crater lacked the pattern typical of the Hellfire missile or others used by Israel.
Abu Sitta said while in Gaza he also treated patients who had burn wounds consistent with white phosphorus shelling, which he had also seen during the 2009 war.
Phosphorus shells cause a “chemical burn that ... bursts into the deep structures of the body rather than a thermal burn, which starts at the outside and (covers a) much larger surface area,” he said.
Human rights groups have alleged that Israeli forces have dropped shells containing white phosphorus on densely populated residential areas in Gaza and Lebanon during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Israel maintains it uses the incendiaries only as a smokescreen and not to target civilians.
Abu Sitta, who rotated between Al-Ahli and Shifa hospital, had left Shifa when Israeli forces encircled the hospital, eventually storming it in search of what they described as a Hamas command center. Israeli officials released visuals of an underground tunnel and rooms that they said were used by Hamas, but have not provided further evidence.
Abu Sitta, like other medical workers in the hospital, denied the allegations.
He said he had complete access to Shifa and there “was never, ever even any military presence.” He said policemen whose job was to control the crowds in front of the emergency department only carried truncheons.
The physician said he hopes the UK war crimes investigation will lead to prosecutions, locally or internationally.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said after a visit to the West Bank and Israel last week that a probe by the court into possible crimes by both Hamas militants and Israeli forces is a priority for his office.

Topics: War on Gaza

Philippines halts deployment of first-time workers to Kuwait after maid’s murder

Philippines halts deployment of first-time workers to Kuwait after maid’s murder

Calls mount on Philippine government to review labor agreements with Kuwait

Philippine president Duterte signs into law creating a department for overseas Filipino workers

Bangladesh opposition party holds protest as it boycotts Jan. 7 national election amid violence

Bangladesh opposition party holds protest as it boycotts Jan. 7 national election amid violence

China’s Xi looks to strengthen Vietnam ties after Biden visit

China’s Xi looks to strengthen Vietnam ties after Biden visit

Washington warns about China-Vietnam standoff

Chinese ships assault Philippine fisheries vessels en route to disputed shoal

Chinese ships assault Philippine fisheries vessels en route to disputed shoal

Chinese ships assault Philippine fisheries vessels en route to disputed shoal

Philippines builds new coast guard station on island in South China Sea

China drives away Philippines navy gunboat from Scarborough Shoal waters

Liz Magill, University of Pennsylvania president, resigns as antisemitism testimony draws backlash

Liz Magill, University of Pennsylvania president, resigns as antisemitism testimony draws backlash

More than 180,000 people across France march against soaring antisemitism amid the Israel-Hamas war

US interfaith coalition opposes antisemitism definition shielding Israel from criticism

A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza

A British Palestinian surgeon gave testimony to a UK war crimes unit after returning from Gaza

Arab, Turkish foreign ministers call for urgent Gaza ceasefire during Canada visit

Israel-Hamas war in Gaza takes heavy toll on Palestinian cultural heritage

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Philippines halts deployment of first-time workers to Kuwait after maid’s murder

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