BEIJING, Feb 27 (Reuters) – China’s military said on Friday it conducted a routine patrol in the South China Sea from February 23 to 26, and accused the Philippines of “disrupting” peace and stability by organising joint patrols with countries outside the region.
The military’s Southern Theatre Command will “resolutely safeguard China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests, and firmly uphold regional peace and stability,” spokesperson Zhai Shichen said in a statement.
The navies of the Philippines, the U.S. and Japan trained alongside each other in the South China Sea this week to ramp up cooperation among the military allies, the Philippines’ armed forces said on Friday.
(Reporting by Beijing Newsroom; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
China is warning its people not to gamble overseas
The CPC cited a gambler’s recent suicide in Singapore, though no media or police report has detailed such an incident
Ahead of the Chinese New Year, China is warning its people that gambling while on holiday poses significant risks, including financial ruin and even suicide.
The New Year Lantern Festival, celebrating the Year of the Horse at Shanghai Yu Garden, is pictured on Feb. 11, 2026. China is warning its people to avoid gambling if traveling cross-border during the holiday period. (Image: Shutterstock)
China bans casino gambling everywhere on the mainland. The only place under China’s control where casinos are allowed is in Macau, a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic.
By law, Chinese citizens and residents are barred from gambling in foreign countries, though, of course, that doesn’t keep many from doing so while in Australia, Singapore, the Philippines, and Las Vegas.
The 2026 Chinese New Year is tomorrow, Feb. 17. The Year of the Fire Horse, the Spring Festival holiday period, which began Sunday, runs through Monday, Feb. 23. During the celebration, most workers are afforded paid time off and take their families on vacations, with Singapore, Macau, and other parts of Southeast Asia popular destinations.
China: Don’t Gamble Overseas
Chinese President Xi Jinping links cross-border gambling to heightened national security risks. China has always prohibited casinos from marketing their operations to mainlanders.
In one high-profile case in 2017, China imprisoned 19 employees of Australia-based Crown Resorts for promoting gambling trips Down Under. Jason O’Connor, then the head of Crown’s international VIP program, spent 18 months in a Chinese prison, often described as among the world’s most brutal detention centers.
With the Chinese New Year in full swing, the CPC, through its embassies, is reminding Chinese people not to gamble internationally. Casino.org obtained and translated the gambling warning issued by the Chinese Embassy in Singapore.
The Chinese Embassy in Singapore once again solemnly reminds Chinese tourists visiting Singapore and Chinese citizens in Singapore to strengthen their legal awareness and stay away from gambling,” read the notice from the Singaporean Chinese Embassy.
Singapore is home to two casinos in Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World Sentosa.
Suicide Story Fabricated?
The Chinese Embassy in Singapore said gambling comes with significant risks to Chinese people. The Embassy cited a recent incident involving a Chinese tourist at Marina Bay Sands who killed himself after gambling.
Recently, a Chinese citizen jumped to his death after gambling at the Marina Bay Sands. The Embassy is guiding his family through the funeral arrangements,” the notice said.
However, there have been no local media or police reports of such a recent suicide at Marina Bay Sands. No story has been made public about any suicide within or from the integrated resort in months.
“In recent years, our Embassy has handled several deaths related to gambling and has previously issued relevant warnings. Gambling is strictly prohibited under Chinese law, and the amendment to the Criminal Law has formally criminalized cross-border gambling. Even if overseas casinos are legally operating, Chinese citizens who gamble across borders are suspected of violating Chinese law, especially those involved in organizing gambling activities, and will be held legally responsible. The Embassy and consulates cannot provide consular protection for illegal activities,” the statement continued.
“Participating in gambling leads to financial ruin, family breakdown, and even death. Cross-border gambling may also bring risks such as fraud, money laundering, kidnapping, illegal detention, human trafficking, and human smuggling,” the Embassy notice concluded.
O’SMACH, Cambodia, Feb 6 (Reuters) – In a Cambodian compound with rooms designed to look like Singapore and Australia police offices, papers were strewn across desks and floors: the detritus of a fraud factory abandoned in haste.
Among the documents were profiles of a 73-year-old Japanese retiree, complete with his phone number and bank account balance, and an American woman who disclosed that she was a victim of domestic abuse. Nearby were scripts to commit love scams and impersonate police, as well as a room set up to resemble a Vietnamese bank office.
This is what Reuters reporters found on Monday inside a bombed-out compound near the Thai-Cambodian border, which offers one of the clearest windows yet into the industrial-scale fraud that has fleeced billions of dollars from victims globally.
Police raids and military air strikes have forced criminal gangs to flee scores of scam compounds in Cambodia in recent weeks. The visit to the site, known as Royal Hill, was facilitated by the Thai military, which bombed it during a brief border conflict in December and has since occupied the surrounding area.
Reuters is the first news organization to authenticate some of the papers, which document the sophisticated manner in which the scams are carried out.
The news agency verified one of the documents by contacting the Japanese retiree, who said he had received a call late last year from someone claiming to be from an electricity company and who warned his power would be cut off if he did not provide the scammer with his bank details.
The target did not send any money, but disclosed personal information during the call, including details found in the log seen by Reuters. “If the power was cut off, that would be a real problem as I live up in the mountains,” he said. “I let (details) slip out without thinking and later thought that was a bad idea.”
Reuters could not establish what entity had ultimate control of the Royal Hill compound in Cambodia, where land records are not readily accessible.
Chinese-language documents found at the site outlined that the complex’s unidentified management had leased out space to different scamming groups. A person named Zhang who was identified in the documents as a tenant did not respond to calls seeking comment.
The Cambodian government said in a statement on Wednesday that the compound was a hotel that Thailand had occupied by force.
Interior Ministry spokesperson Touch Sokhak separately said in response to questions about Royal Hill that the government “has the will” to crack down on scam centers and repeated a government pledge to eliminate cyber fraud by April.
Southeast Asia has emerged in recent years as an epicenter of the global cyberfraud industry. Compounds which are mostly run by Chinese criminal gangs and staffed partly by trafficking victims living in brutal conditions have proliferated across Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and lawless areas of the Myanmar-Thai border.
Many of these countries have been pressured to crack down by foreign governments like the United States, which estimates that Americans lost $10 billion to Southeast Asian scam centers in 2024.
The December strikes by Thailand – whose military said the centers were also being used to stage drone attacks during the border conflict – and a crackdown by the Cambodian government have led to an exodus of more than 100,000 people from compounds across the country.
Many have lined up outside embassies in the capital, Phnom Penh, seeking help and funds to return home in what Amnesty International has called a “humanitarian crisis.”
Japan’s National Police Agency and the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok did not respond to requests for comment about the documents that appeared to show their citizens being targeted.
The compound visited by Reuters is located in the border town of O’Smach, which the U.S. State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report highlighted in 2024 as a hub for abuses.
Files found in a part of the compound that the Thai military said appeared to be used by the site’s managers show the extent to which criminal gangs go to protect their operations.
One document showed how bosses demanded military-style anti-riot and emergency drills, while another included orders to security guards to stop people “loitering” nearby.
A property management notice also barred the use of food delivery services that could bring outsiders on-site. Other documents prohibited unspecified “illegal activity,” forbade workers from walking around shirtless, and demanded “civilized” behavior.
Reuters also found financial statements that outlined how the unidentified managers of the scam compound charged tenants several thousands of dollars a month in rent. Some of the criminal gangs were overdue on their rent, the statements show.
The news agency also discovered details about a cryptocurrency wallet in one of the documents. Nick Smart of blockchain-analysis firm Crystal Intelligence, which reviewed the wallet at Reuters’ request, said it had interactions with “many known high-risk services,” including gambling sites and cash-conversion locations.
At least some of the businesses in Royal Hill faced occasional struggles carrying out fraud, according to one of the documents, an October 2025 entry in a notebook.
That day, workers making calls faced “only abuse and scam answers” from their targets, the note read.
One former worker of another scam compound next to Royal Hill told Reuters that the conditions Reuters observed were reflective of what he experienced.
The worker, a Madagascar citizen who said he was a trafficking victim, spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of retribution.
He said he was allowed by captors, who he did not identify, to leave the compound a few days after Thailand started bombing the area. The military action prompted the compound’s managers to return his passport, which they had seized, he said.
Scammers targeted by raids often relocate and reconstitute themselves into smaller operations, said Delphine Schantz, the regional representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Her agency shares expertise with national law enforcement agencies.
“We see those scam centers now kind of mushrooming all over the world in different places, along the same model as what we’ve seen in Southeast Asia,” she said.
(Reporting by Poppy McPherson in O’Smach, Cambodia, Thomas Suen in Bangkok, and Satoshi Sugiyama and Tim Kelly in Tokyo; Editing by Katerina Ang)
Manila, Philippines — A ferry with more than 350 people on board sank early Monday near an island in the southern Philippines, killing at least 18 people, officials said. Rescuers saved hundreds more, while a fleet of coast guard and naval ships searched for those still missing.
Coast guard officials said the cargo and passenger ferry apparently encountered technical problems and sank after midnight. The steel-hulled vessel abruptly tilted to one side and took on water, hurling people into the sea in the darkness, according to a rescued passenger who lost his 6-month-old baby.
“My wife lost hold of our baby and all of us got separated at sea,” a distraught Mohamad Khan told a volunteer rescuer, Gamar Alih, who posted a video of Khan’s remarks on Facebook.
He said he and his wife, who had been holding their child, were rescued, but the baby drowned. His wife wept by his side as Khan recounted their ordeal.
Passengers rescued by the Philippine Coast Guard are brought to safety after a ferry carrying over 350 passengers capsized in waters off Baluk-Baluk Island, Basilan, Philippines, Jan. 26, 2025.
Philippine Coast Guard SW Mindanao/Anadolu/Getty
The M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 was sailing in good weather from the port city of Zamboanga to southern Jolo island in Sulu province with 332 passengers and 27 crew members. It sank about a nautical mile from the island village of Baluk-baluk in Basilan province, coast guard Commander Romel Dua told The Associated Press.
“There were two coast guard safety officers on board and they were the first to call and alert us to deploy rescue vessels,” Dua said, adding that the two safety marshals survived.
Rescuers saved at least 316 passengers and crewmembers retrieved 18 bodies, officials said. Coast guard and navy ships, along with a surveillance plane, an air force Black Hawk helicopter and fleets of fishing boats carried out search and rescue operations for about two dozen people believed missing off Basilan, Dua said.
The cause of the ferry sinking was not immediately clear and there will be an investigation, Dua said. The coast guard had cleared the ferry before it left the Zamboanga port, and there was no sign of overloading, he said.
A map shows the approximate location of the ferry that sank on route from the southern Philippines’ Zamboanga City to Jolo Island.
Nicholas SHEARMAN/AFP via Getty
Local media reported that up to 15 passengers on the ship’s manifest decided not to board at the last minute and refunded their fare. If confirmed, that would reduce the number of missing, Dua said.
Alih, a village councilor from Zamboanga city, told The AP Press that he volunteered to help in the search and rescue because some of his relatives were among the ferry passengers. They all survived.
Basilan Governor Mujiv Hataman said several passengers and two bodies were brought to Isabela, the provincial capital, where he and ambulance vans waited.
Sea accidents are common in the Philippine archipelago because of frequent storms, badly maintained vessels, overcrowding and spotty enforcement of safety regulations, especially in remote provinces.
In December 1987, the ferry Dona Paz sank after colliding with a fuel tanker in the central Philippines, killing more than 4,300 people in the world’s deadliest peacetime maritime disaster.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta announced Sunday that he would not run for California governor, a decision grounded in his belief that his legal efforts combating the Trump administration as the state’s top prosecutor are paramount at this moment in history.
“Watching this dystopian horror come to life has reaffirmed something I feel in every fiber of my being: in this moment, my place is here — shielding Californians from the most brazen attacks on our rights and our families,” Bonta said in a statement. “My vision for the California Department of Justice is that we remain the nation’s largest and most powerful check on power.”
Bonta said that President Trump’s blocking of welfare funds to California and the fatal shooting of a Minnesota mother of three last week by a federal immigration agent cemented his decision to seek reelection to his current post, according to Politico, which first reported that Bonta would not run for governor.
Bonta, 53, a former state lawmaker and a close political ally to Gov. Gavin Newsom, has served as the state’s top law enforcement official since Newsom appointed him to the position in 2021. In the last year, his office has sued the Trump administration more than 50 times — a track record that would probably have served him well had he decided to run in a state where Trump has lost three times and has sky-high disapproval ratings.
Bonta in 2024 said that he was considering running. Then in February he announced he had ruled it out and was focused instead on doing the job of attorney general, which he considers especially important under the Trump administration. Then, both former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced they would not run for governor, and Bonta began reconsidering, he said.
“I had two horses in the governor’s race already,” Bonta told The Times in November. “They decided not to get involved in the end. … The race is fundamentally different today, right?”
The race for California governor remains wide open. Newsom is serving the final year of his second term and is barred from running again because of term limits. Newsom has said he is considering a run for president in 2028.
Former Rep. Katie Porter — an early leader in polls — late last year faltered after videos emerged of her screaming at an aide and berating a reporter. The videos contributed to her dropping behind Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican, in a November poll released by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.
California hasn’t elected a Republican governor since 2006, Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans in the state, and many are seething with anger over Trump and looking for Democratic candidates willing to fight back against the current administration.
Bonta has faced questions in recent months about spending about $468,000 in campaign funds on legal advice last year as he spoke to federal investigators about alleged corruption involving former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, who was charged in an alleged bribery scheme involving local businessmen David Trung Duong and Andy Hung Duong. All three have pleaded not guilty.
According to his political consultant Dan Newman, Bonta — who had received campaign donations from the Duong family — was approached by investigators because he was initially viewed as a “possible victim” in the alleged scheme, though that was later ruled out. Bonta has since returned $155,000 in campaign contributions from the Duong family, according to news reports.
Bonta is the son of civil rights activists Warren Bonta, a white native Californian, and Cynthia Bonta, a native of the Philippines who immigrated to the U.S. on a scholarship in 1965. Bonta, a U.S. citizen, was born in Quezon City, Philippines, in 1972, when his parents were working there as missionaries, and immigrated with his family to California as an infant.
In 2012, Bonta was elected to represent Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro as the first Filipino American to serve in California’s Legislature. In Sacramento, he pursued a string of criminal justice reforms and developed a record as one of the body’s most liberal members.
Bonta is married to Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), who succeeded him in the state Assembly, and the couple have three children.
Times staff writer Dakota Smith contributed to this report.
Rescue workers searched on Friday for dozens of people buried under a mountain of garbage that collapsed at a landfill in the central Philippines, killing at least one.
Nearly 50 people were buried when the towering pile of refuse toppled onto them Thursday at Binaliw Landfill, a privately operated facility in Cebu City, officials said.
Landfill workers were among them but it wasn’t clear if any neighboring residents or others were, The Associated Press reported.
“There are signs of life,” Cebu Mayor Nestor Archival told a news briefing, adding that hundreds of rescuers already on site would be joined by “another 500” for search efforts he expected to last at least until Sunday.
Search and rescue teams look for people after a landslide at a landfill in Cebu City in the Philippines on Jan. 9, 2026.
Cheryl Baldicantos / AFP via Getty Images
Rescuers were limited in the equipment they could use because any sparks threatened to ignite methane gas emitted by the landfill, he said.
Thirty-four people remain missing, according to Archival, revising downward a tally of 38 given earlier on his Facebook page.
At least 12 employees have been pulled alive from the garbage and hospitalized.
Jason Morata, a city assistant public information officer, told AFP the trash mountain “must be four stories high.”
Aerial photos released by police showed what appeared to be multiple structures crushed under the weight of the garbage.
Relatives and others wait for updates after a huge mound of garbage collapsed at a waste segregation facility in Cebu city on Jan. 9, 2026.
Jacqueline Hernandez / AP
Morata said the buildings had housed “company offices, HR, admin, maintenance staff” for the private firm that runs the site.
Morata added that information was emerging in a trickle because there was “no signal” at the dump site.
The landfill “processes 1,000 tons of municipal solid waste daily, according to the website of operator Prime Integrated Waste Solutions. It has 110 employees, the AP says.
Calls to the company went unanswered on Friday.
“We don’t know what caused the collapse. It wasn’t raining at all,” said Marge Parcotello, a civilian staff member of the police department in Consolacion, a town that shares a common boundary with the dump site.
“Many of the victims are from Consolacion,” she said.
Safety and health worries have long surrounded landfills in many cities and towns in the Philippines, especially ones near poor communities whose residents scavenge for junk and leftover food in the garbage heaps, the AP points out.
More than 200 people were killed in July 2000 when an avalanche of garbage consumed a Manila shanty town populated by several thousand scavengers.
That tragedy, the worst of its kind in Philippine history, prompted public outrage over open landfills. Legislation aimed at better regulation of waste management was passed months later.
Filipino tech entrepreneur Diosdado “Dado” Banatao died at the age of 79.
Banatao is known for pioneering the technology that made personal computers possible, thus putting Silicon Valley on the map. He also co-founded three technology companies and started a nonprofit to help support Filipinos in STEM fields.
“Rising from humble beginnings in Cagayan, he went on to co-found transformative technology companies and played a pivotal role in advancing the global semiconductor and graphics industries,” said the National Federation of Filipino American Associations on LinkedIn in honor of Banatao’s passing. “Just as importantly, he invested deeply in people opening doors, mentoring founders and strengthening communities.”
According to a post on his website by his family, Banatao passed away peacefully on Christmas Day, surrounded by family and friends. His family said he “succumbed to complications from a neurological disorder that hit him late in his life.” He would have been 80 in May.
His family wrote, “We are mourning his loss, but take comfort from the time spent with him during this Christmas season, and that his fight with this disease is over.”
Banatao was born to a rice farmer and housekeeper in Iguig, Cagayan, according to ABS-CBN. According to his 2015 documentary, he didn’t have access to electricity growing up and was taught math using bamboo sticks. He said it was typical for his classmates to stop going to school after sixth grade to help their parents work in the fields, but his father told him to continue studying.
He developed a love for engineering and graduated with a degree in electric engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology, a private research university in Manila. He said in his documentary that there were no design jobs for engineers in the Philippines, so he moved to the U.S. and pursued a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford University. He graduated in 1972.
Soon after college, Banatao worked as a design engineering at Boeing. ABS-CBN reported that he then went on to work for other technology companies, like National Semiconductor and Intersil. While at Commodore International, he designed the first single chip, 16-bit microprocessor-based calculator.
He is credited with developing the first 10-Mbit ethernet CMOS chip in 1981 while working at Seeq Technology. He also developed the first system logic chipset for IBM’s PC-XT and PC-AT and one of the first graphics accelerators for personal computers. These inventions allowed for faster computer performance, according to Inquirer.net. The Harvard Club of Southern California credited Banatao for bringing GPS technology to consumers.
“Dado is the man who invented a graphical chipset that took us from black screens with green writing to the dynamic displays we have today,” the club wrote for a description of a lecture he gave in 2017 for the Harvard Business School Association of Orange County.
Banatao founded the chipset company Mostron with a business partner in 1984. One year later, he also co-founded Chips and Technologies, a graphics adapter company that Intel later acquired for around $430 million.
The CEO of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, expressed his grief at Banatao’s passing on LinkedIn, crediting his friend for challenging him when he became CEO of Cadence Design in 2009.
“I am forever grateful for your challenge and encouragement as I continue my life journey following your footstep as CEO of Cadence Design for 12 years and continuing as CEO intel,” Tan said in his post. “Dado, you are the best technology entrepreneur and legend from (the) Philippines.”
He then founded S3 Graphics in 1989, which led the local bus concept and developed Windows accelerator chips, becoming the third-most profitable technology company in 1993. In 2000, Banatao entered the world of venture capital by founding Tallwood Venture, a firm focused on investing in semiconductor technology, and served as managing partner.
While working at Tallwood in 2011, Banatao told Bloomberg News that he encouraged his companies to expand internationally, focusing particularly in China, due to greater government support and lower production costs.
“It used to be that we started companies here and we didn’t think about going offshore until we were substantially big,” Banatao said when he was 64 at his office in Palo Alto. “At the outset now, as we fund the company, we think about going outside right away.”
Dinakar Munagala, co-founder and CEO at Blaize, Inc., a computer hardware manufacturer in El Dorado Hills, wrote on LinkedIn that he was “deeply saddened” by Banatao’s death.
“Dado was instrumental in shaping Blaize during its formative years,” Munagala said. “His belief in our mission, steady counsel, and generous spirit left a lasting mark on all of us who had the privilege of learning from him.”
Banatao has received several awards and recognitions for his contributions, including the Pamana ng Filipino Award in 1997, Asian Leadership Award in 1993, and the Ramon V. Del Rosario Award in 2018, according to ABS-CBN. In 2003, the Asian American Activities Center at Stanford recognized Banatao in the university’s Multicultural Alumni Hall of Fame.
Inquirer.net also reported that an institute at the University of California bears his name: the Banatao Institute at the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society.
Banatao founded the Philippine Development Science and Technology Foundation, a nonprofit also known as PhilDev that provides scholarships, mentorship and training programs to young Filipinos in STEM fields. His family urged people to donate to PhilDev in Banatao’s memory.
“We (Filipinos) know hardship,” Banatao said in his documentary. “It’s time we learn success.”
Staff writer Kyle Martin contributed to this report.
Melbourne, Australia — A man accused of killing 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach obtained firearms training in New South Wales state outside Sydney with his father, according to Australian police documents released on Monday.
The documents, made public following Naveed Akram’s video court appearance from a Sydney hospital where he has been treated for an abdominal injury, said the two men recorded footage justifying the meticulously planned attack.
Officers wounded Akram at the scene of the Dec. 14 shooting and killed his father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram.
The state government confirmed Naveed Akram was transferred Monday from a hospital to a prison. Authorities identified neither facility.
The 24-year-old and his father began their attack by throwing four improvised explosive devices toward a crowd celebrating an annual Jewish event at Bondi Beach, but the devices failed to explode, the documents said.
Police described the devices as three aluminum pipe bombs and a tennis ball bomb containing an explosive, gunpowder and steel ball bearings. None detonated, but police described them as “viable” IEDs.
The pair had rented a room in the Sydney suburb of Campsie for three weeks before they left at 2:16 a.m. on the day of the attack. CCTV recorded them carrying what police allege were two shotguns, a rifle, five IEDs and two homemade ISIS flags wrapped in blankets.
Police also released images of the gunmen shooting from a footbridge, providing them with an elevated vantage point and the protection of waist-high concrete walls.
Australian police
The largest IED was found after the gun battle near the footbridge in the trunk of the son’s car, which had been left draped with the flags.
Authorities had been looking into a month-long trip by the father and son to the Philippines, where there’s been a decades-long Islamist insurgency in the south of the country.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said last week that the attack was inspired by ISIS, and there is an ISIS-affiliated militant group operating in a remote area of the Philippines.
But a receptionist at a hotel in Davao City told CBS News the attackers never left their room for more than a day.
Authorities have charged Akram with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder, 40 counts of causing harm with intent to murder in relation to the wounded survivors and one count of committing a terrorist act.
The antisemitic attack at the start of the eight-day Hanukkah celebration was Australia’s worst mass shooting since a lone gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania state in 1996.
The New South Wales government introduced draft laws to Parliament on Monday that Premier Chris Minns said would become the toughest in Australia.
The new restrictions would include making Australian citizenship a condition of qualifying for a firearms license. That would have excluded Sajid Akram, who was an Indian citizen with a permanent resident visa.
Sajid Akram also legally owned six rifles and shotguns. A new legal limit for recreational shooters would be a maximum of four guns.
Police said a video found on Naveed Akram’s phone shows him with his father expressing “their political and religious views and appear to summarise their justification for the Bondi terrorist attack.”
The men are seen in the video “condemning the acts of Zionists” while they also “adhere to a religiously motivated ideology linked to (ISIS),” police said.
Video shot in October shows them “firing shotguns and moving in a tactical manner” on grassland surrounded by trees, police said.
“There is evidence that the Accused and his father meticulously planned this terrorist attack for many months,” police allege.
An impromptu memorial that grew near the Bondi Pavilion after the massacre, as thousands of mourners brought flowers and heartfelt cards, was removed Monday as the beachfront returned to more normal activity. The Sydney Jewish Museum will preserve part of the memorial.
Victims’ funerals continued Monday with French national Dan Elkayam’s service held in the nearby suburb of Woollahra, at the heart of Sydney’s Jewish life. The 27-year-old moved from Paris to Sydney a year ago.
The health department said 12 people wounded in the attack remained in hospitals Monday.
MANILA, Dec 17 (Reuters) – There is no evidence indicating that the two suspects involved in the Bondi Beach attack received any form of military training while in the Philippines, the Philippines’ National Security Adviser said on Wednesday.
In a statement, Eduardo Año said that a mere visit to the country does not substantiate allegations of terrorist training, and the duration of their stay would not have permitted any meaningful or structured training.
The alleged father-and-son gunmen opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing 15 in an attack that shocked Australia and heightened fears of antisemitism and violent extremism.
Año said the government was investigating the two men’s travel from November 1 to 28 and coordinating with Australian authorities to determine the purpose of the visit, dismissing media reports portraying the southern Philippines as a hotspot for violent extremism as “outdated” and “misleading”.
Immigration records show the pair landed in Manila and travelled to Davao City in Mindanao, a region long-plagued by Islamist militancy, before the attack that Australian police say appeared to have been inspired by Islamic State.
The men stayed mostly in their rooms for almost a month at a budget hotel in Davao, MindaNews reported.
The father and son checked in at noon on November 1 and rarely went out for more than an hour, a hotel staffer told the online news outlet, which is based in Mindanao. Hotel staff said the two kept to themselves, never spoke to other guests, or had visitors. They were only seen walking nearby and never taking rides or getting picked up in front of the hotel.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Calls to a hotel officer and Davao police went unanswered.
Since the 2017 Marawi siege, a five-month battle in which the Islamic State-inspired Maute group seized the southern city and fought government forces, Philippine troops have significantly degraded ISIS-affiliated groups, Año said.
“The remnants of these groups have been fragmented, deprived of leadership, and operationally degraded,” he added.
(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by David Stanway and Sharon Singleton)
Ever wondered how long it would take to build an accessory dwelling unit, or ADU, in your backyard?
In the case of Alvaro “Al” and Nenette Alcazar, a retired couple, who downsized from a six-bedroom home in New Orleans to a one-bedroom ADU in Los Angeles, it took just 3½ months.
“We went on vacation to the Philippines in November, right as they were getting started on construction,” Al says of the ADU his son Jay Alcaraz and his partner Andy Campbell added behind their home in Harbor Gateway. “When we returned in March of this year, the house was ready for us.”
The Alcazars were surprised by the rapid completion of their new 570-square-foot modular home by Gardena-based Cover. By the time construction was finished, they hadn’t yet listed their New Orleans home, where they lived for 54 years while raising their two sons.
Andy Campbell, seated left, and his partner Jay Alcazar’s home is reflected in the windows of the ADU where Alcazar’s parents Al and Nenette Alcazar, standing, now reside.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell’s backyard in Harbor Gateway before they added an ADU.
(Jay Alcazar)
Alexis Rivas, co-founder and CEO of Cover, was also surprised by how quickly the ADU was permitted, taking just 45 days. “The total time from permit submittal to certificate of occupancy was 104 days,” he says, crediting the city’s Standard Plan and the ADU’s integrated panelized system for making it the fastest Clover has ever permitted.
For Al, a longtime religious studies professor at Loyola University New Orleans and community organizer, the construction process was more than just demolition and site prep. Seeing the Cover workers collaborate on their home reminded him of “bayanihan,” a Filipino core value emphasizing community unity and collective action.
“Both of my parents were public school teachers,” says Al, who was exiled from the Philippines in 1972. “When they moved to a village where there were no schools, the parents were so happy their children wouldn’t have to walk to another village to go to school that they built them a home.”
“It’s only one bedroom but we love it,” says Nenette Alcazar. “It’s the right size for two people.”
Like his childhood home in the village of Cag-abaca, Al says his and Nenette’s ADU “felt like a community built it somewhere and carried it into the garden for us to live in.” Only in this instance, the home was not a Nipa hut made of bamboo but a home made of steel panels manufactured in a factory in Gardena and installed on-site.
Jay Alcaraz, 40, and Campbell, 43, had been renting a house in Long Beach for three years when they started looking for a home to buy in 2022. Initially, they had hoped to stay in Long Beach, but when they realized they couldn’t afford it, they broadened their search to include Harbor Gateway. “It was equidistant to my job as a professor of critical studies at USC, and Jay’s job as a senior product manager at Stamps.com near LAX,” Campbell says.
When they eventually purchased a three-bedroom Midcentury home that needed some work, they were delighted to find themselves in a neighborhood filled with multigenerational households within walking distance of Asian supermarkets and restaurants.
The ADU does not overwhelm the backyard. “It looks like a house in a garden,” says Al Alcazar.
“We can walk to everything,” says Jay. “The post office. The deli. The grocery store. We love Asian food, and can eat at a different Asian restaurant every day.”
Adds Campbell: “We got the same thing we had in Long Beach here, plus space for an ADU.”
At a time when multigenerational living is growing among older men and women in the United States, according to the Pew Research Center, it’s not surprising that the couple began considering an ADU for Jay’s parents soon after purchasing their home, knowing that Al and Nenette, who no longer drives, would feel comfortable in the neighborhood.
They started by reviewing ADUs that the city has pre-approved for construction as part of the ADU Standard Plan Program on the city’s Building and Safety Department website. The initiative, organized by former L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office in collaboration with Building and Safety in 2021, was designed to simplify the lengthy permitting process and help create more housing.
The 570-square-foot house has a single bedroom and bathroom.
Jay and Al Alcazar have coffee in the kitchen of the ADU.
They reached out to several potential architects and secured a line of credit for $300,000. They decided to go with Cover after touring its facility and one of its completed ADUs. “We liked that they were local and their facility was five minutes away from us,” Campbell says.
The couple originally envisioned removing their backyard pergola and lawn and adding an L-shaped ADU. But after consulting with Rivas, they decided on a rectangular unit with large-format glass sliders and warm wood cladding to preserve the yard.
The configuration was the right choice, as the green space between the two homes, which includes a deck and drought-tolerant landscaping, serves as a social hub for both couples, who enjoy grilling, sharing meals at the outdoor dining table and gardening. Just a few weeks ago, the family celebrated Al’s 77th birthday in the garden along with their extended family.
Nenette, a self-described “green thumb,” is delighted by the California garden’s bounty, including oranges, lemons, guava trees and camellias. “I can see the palm trees moving back and forth and the hummingbirds in the morning,” she says.
“They’re a lot of fun,” Jay Alcazar says of his parents. “They are great dinner companions.”
Although some young couples might hesitate to live close to their parents and in-laws, Jay and Campbell see their ADU as a convenient way to stay close and support Jay’s parents as they age in place.
Besides, Jay says, they’re a lot of fun. “They are great dinner companions,” he says.
Campbell, who enjoys having coffee on the outdoor patio with Al, agrees. “When I met them for the first time 12 years ago, they had a group over for dinner and hosted a karaoke party until 3 a.m.,” he said. “I was like, ‘Is this a regular thing?’”
A teak bed from the Philippines and family mementos help to make the new ADU feel like home.
Unlike the Alcazars’ spacious 1966 home in New Orleans, their new ADU’s interiors are modern and simple, with white oak floors and cabinets and Bosch appliances, including a stackable washer and dryer. Despite downsizing a lifetime of belongings, Al and Nenette were able to keep a few things that help make the ADU feel like home. In the living room, mother of pearl lamps and wood-carved side tables serve as a reminder of their old house. In their bedroom, a hand-carved teak bed from the Philippines, still showing signs of water damage from Hurricane Katrina, was built by artisans in Nenette’s family.
“Madonna and Jack Nicholson both ordered this bed,” Nenette says proudly.
The couple chose a thermally processed wood cladding for its warmth. “It will develop a silver hue over time,” says Alexis Rivas of Cover. “It’s zero maintenance.”
But one thing didn’t work out in their move West. When they realized their sofa would take up too much room in the 8-foot portable storage pod they rented in New Orleans, they decided to purchase an IKEA sleeper sofa in L.A. It’s now in the mix along with their personal artifacts and family photos that further add memories to the interiors, including a reproduction of the Last Supper, a common tradition in many Filipino homes symbolizing the importance of coming together to share meals. With limited storage, the families share the two-car garage, where Al stores his tools.
“It’s only one bedroom, but we love it,” says Nenette, 79, of the ADU, which cost $380,000. “It’s just the right size for two people.”
The ADU feels private, both couples say, thanks to the 9-foot-long custom curtains they ordered online from Two Pages Curtains. “When the curtains are open, we know they are awake, and when their curtains are down, we know to leave them alone,” Jay says, laughing at their ritual.
In terms of aging in place, the ADU can accommodate a wheelchair or walker if necessary, and Rivas says a custom wheelchair ramp can be added later if necessary.
Now, if only Jay could mount the flat-screen television on the wall, Al says, teasing his son. It’s hard to escape dad jokes when he’s living in your backyard — and that’s the point.
“It’s really nice having them here,” Andy says.
Jay Alcazar and Andy Campbell enjoy having Al and Nenette Alcazar close. “They feel like neighbors,” Jay says.
After losing his family and home in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in the country, Al, who once studied to be a priest, says he’s deeply moved to be the recipient of the bayanihan spirit once again.
“I was tortured in the Philippines, and it didn’t break me,” he says. “So having a home built by a friendly community really points to a shorter but more spiritual meaning of bayanihan, which is, ‘when a group of friends,’ as my grandma Marta used to say, ‘turns your station of the cross into a garden with a rose.’ Now, we have Eden here in my son’s backyard.”
The father and son suspects in the terror attack on Jewish people gathered for a Hanukkah event in Bondi Beach, Australia, spent most of November in the Philippines, police said Tuesday. Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, meanwhile, that the attack was “motivated by ISIS ideology.”
New South Wales Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon told reporters that investigators were still looking into the reasons for the trip and where exactly the men went between Nov. 1 and 28. The Philippines Bureau of Immigration said Sajid Akram, 50, who was killed during the attack, and his 24-year-old son, identified widely by Australian media as Naveed Akram, had listed the southern city of Davao as their final destination on the trip.
Australian public broadcaster ABC reported the men had undergone “military-style training” in the Asian nation, citing security sources.
Philippines officials denied it. Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro, quoting a National Security Council statement, said “there is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines,” according to French news agency AFP.
“People have traveled and networked amongst these groups, but very, very rarely,” Tom Smith, the academic director of the Royal Air Force College who studies security and terrorism in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, told CBS News. “And this is often overblown.”
An Australian flag is placed near flowers laid as a tribute to honor the victims of a terror attack that targeted a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025.
Reuters/Flavio Brancaleone
The Philippines’ history with Islamist insurgency
Islamist separatists have operated in the southern Philippines for decades — it’s “an insurgency which is almost 100 years in the making,” according to Smith.
He said two longstanding militant groups in the region — the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, known as the MILF, and the Moro National Liberation Front, or MNLF — have been “sort of the grandfather, old rebellious groups of the Islamist movement” in the region.
But, Smith said, “when you have two rather, sort of beefy militant groups, people get disgruntled. And so there’s loads of other fringe, much smaller militant groups” in the region as well, including one called Abu Sayyaf, which is affiliated with ISIS.
Smith said these groups are “much smaller in number, but probably more vicious in their attacks against civilians and government officials.”
“Analysts now describe Abu Sayyaf as fragmented remnants with residual ideological affinity to Islamic State (ISIS), but little evidence of real operational direction or sustained funding” from ISIS, Lucas Webber, a senior research fellow at the New York-based Soufan Center think tank, told CBS News.
Based in the Philippines’ remote Sulu archipelago, Abu Sayyaf’s main business is kidnapping for ransom, Smith said.
They “wrapped themselves in the ISIS flag, or the al Qaeda banner in years gone by, because they want to inflate their sense of danger. Because, quite frankly, there’s an economic incentive to that. Because it means that they will get a higher ransom paid more efficiently, and these guys don’t play,” he said. “They will actually behead people.”
That is a view shared by the U.S. government, which designated Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization in 1997, not long after it emerged as an offshoot of the larger Islamist groups in the region.
According to the U.S. State Department’s most recent assessment from 2023, it is “one of the most violent terrorist groups in the Philippines.”
“Some Abu Sayyaf Group factions have been reported to interact and coordinate with ISIS-P [ISIS-Philippines], including by participating in attacks that are claimed by ISIS in the Sulu Archipelago,” the U.S. government assessment said, adding that it had “committed bombings, ambushes of security personnel, public beheadings, assassinations, extortion, and kidnappings for ransom.”
But both Smith and Webber told CBS News that Abu Sayyaf, and other regional factions, had been dealt a serious blow in recent years.
“Years of military pressure [with U.S. support], better local governance in Bangsamoro, and amnesty/reintegration programs have broken up many networks, led to mass surrenders, and sharply reduced the frequency and scale of attacks,” Webber said. “At the same time, small pockets of militants and ex‑fighters with IS ideology remain in parts of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, and individuals can still be radicalized online or through personal ties. The main risk today is less a large ‘IS province’ on Philippine soil, and more the possibility that residual cells or sympathizers could attempt sporadic attacks or link up with transnational plots if local conditions deteriorate or security efforts are neglected.”
Terror training camps?
The Associated Press cited Philippine military and police officials on Tuesday as saying there has been no recent indication of any foreign militants operating in the south of the country.
Smith said to travel to receive weapons training with Abu Sayyaf militants would be very difficult for foreigners in the Philippines, especially without any local language skills.
“They would stick out like a sore thumb,” Smith said. “When I go there, you know, I’m there with military support. I have a Ph.D. in the area, and even I stick out like a sore thumb.”
He said there are “plenty of armed people in Mindanao, in the Philippines, for them to go and practice, you know, firing rifles and what have you. But it’s a long way to say that that equals a terrorist camp.”
Referring to the suspects in the Bondi Beach attack, Smith said it was “much more likely that they could have got some ex-rebels and gone somewhere in the jungle for a couple of weeks and been shown how to fire and clean their rifles and stuff like that.”
The two larger militant groups, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Moro National Liberation Front — which are not affiliated with ISIS — do “have the training camps. They’re left alone to their territories. But it would be very unusual if the Bondi Beach attackers got orientated with them, because I just can’t imagine that the MILF or the MNLF would have countenanced that. So it is really unusual,” Smith said.
BEIJING, Dec 12 (Reuters) – China’s military said on Friday it had driven away a Philippine aircraft that had “invaded” airspace above the disputed Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea.
The Embassy of the Philippines in Beijing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s leaders oversaw a ceremony on Saturday to mourn the at least 128 people killed in a high-rise apartment complex fire, a toll that is likely to rise further with 200 others still unaccounted for days after the tragedy.
Authorities have arrested 11 people in connection with the city’s worst blaze in nearly 80 years as they investigate possible corruption and the use of unsafe materials during renovations at the Wang Fuk Court complex.
Rescue operations at the site in the district of Tai Po, near the border with mainland China, concluded on Friday, though police say they may find more bodies as they search the burnt-out buildings as part of ongoing investigations.
The fire started on Wednesday afternoon and rapidly engulfed seven of the eight 32-storey blocks at the complex, which were wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh and layered with foam insulation for the renovations.
Authorities have said the fire alarms at the estate, home to more than 4600 people, had not been working properly.
SEARCH FOR BODIES CONTINUES
Hong Kong leader John Lee, other officials and civil servants, all dressed in black, stood in silence for three minutes early on Saturday outside the central government offices, where flags were lowered to half-mast.
The officials then signed a condolence book for the dead.
At Wang Fuk Court, police officers from the disaster victim identification unit, wearing oxygen masks and helmets, prepared to enter the charred building to continue their search for remains.
Families there had the grim task of looking at photographs of the dead taken by rescue workers. Security Chief Tang said on Friday that only 39 of the 128 dead had been identified.
Hong Kong’s Lee has said the government would set up a HK$300 million ($39 million) fund to help residents while some of China’s biggest listed companies have pledged donations.
Hundreds of volunteers have also mobilised to help the victims, sorting and distributing items from diapers to hot food.
They formed teams to collect, transport and distribute goods in round-the-clock shifts and have set up a sprawling support camp for displaced residents beside a shopping mall across from the complex.
At least two of the dead were domestic workers from Indonesia, the country’s consulate said. Dozens of domestic workers from the Philippines were also caught up in the disaster and 19 were still missing, said Edwina Antonio, executive director at migrant women refuge association Bethune House.
Hong Kong has around 368,000 domestic workers, mostly women from low-income Asian countries who live with their employers, often in cramped spaces.
DEADLIEST BLAZE SINCE 1948
The fire is Hong Kong’s deadliest since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze, and has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017.
Residents of the housing complex were told by authorities last year that they faced “relatively low fire risks” after complaining repeatedly about fire hazards posed by ongoing renovation works, the city’s Labour Department told Reuters.
The residents had raised concerns in September 2024, including about the potential flammability of the protective green mesh contractors had used to cover the bamboo scaffolding, a department spokesperson said.
Hong Kong’s anti-graft body said it had arrested eight individuals on Friday including an engineering consultant, a scaffolding subcontractor, and an intermediary.
Earlier, police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm identified by the government as doing maintenance on Wang Fuk Court for more than a year on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows.
Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment.
(Reporting by John Geddie, Farah Master, Artorn Pookasook and Yuddy Cahya Budiman in Hong Kong; Editing by Stephen Coates)
THE HAGUE (Reuters) -Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, will remain in detention in The Hague, appeals judges at the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled on Friday, dismissing defence arguments the 80-year-old should be released due to his advanced age and alleged declining health.
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg and Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Bart Meijer)
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong fire authorities said they expected to wrap up search and rescue operations after the city’s worst fire in nearly 80 years tore through a massive apartment complex on Friday, killing at least 94 people and leaving scores more missing.
Soon after dawn on Friday, firefighters had mostly contained the blaze that destroyed the Wang Fuk Court housing complex in the northern district of Tai Po. The eight-tower estate housing more than 4,600 people had been undergoing renovations and was wrapped in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh.
Police said they had arrested three construction company officials on suspicion of manslaughter for using unsafe materials, including flammable foam boards blocking windows.
Firefighters said they expect a search and rescue operation at the still-smoldering complex to be completed by 9 a.m. (0100 GMT).
“We’ll endeavor to effect forcible entry to all the units of the seven buildings, so as to ensure there are no other possible casualties,” Deputy Fire Services Director Derek Chan told reporters early on Friday.
As many as 279 people were listed as missing in the early hours of Thursday morning, but that figure has not been updated for more than 24 hours. Chan said 25 calls for help to the Fire Department remain unresolved, including three in recent hours which would be prioritised.
Rescuers battled intense heat, thick smoke and collapsing scaffolding and debris as they fought to reach residents feared trapped on the upper floors of the complex.
A distraught woman carrying her daughter’s graduation photograph searched for her child outside a shelter, one of eight that authorities said are housing 900 residents.
“She and her father are still not out yet,” said the 52-year-old, who gave only her surname, Ng, as she sobbed. “They didn’t have water to save our building.”
Most of the victims were found in two towers in the complex, while firefighters found survivors in several buildings, Chan said, but gave no further details.
The confirmed death toll rose to 94 early on Friday, the Hospital Authority said. It is Hong Kong’s deadliest fire since 1948, when 176 people died in a warehouse blaze.
Police arrested two directors and an engineering consultant of Prestige Construction, a firm that had been doing maintenance on the buildings for more than a year.
“We have reason to believe that the company’s responsible parties were grossly negligent, which led to this accident and caused the fire to spread uncontrollably, resulting in major casualties,” Police Superintendent Eileen Chung said on Thursday. Prestige did not answer repeated calls for comment.
Police seized bidding documents, a list of employees, 14 computers and three mobile phones in a raid of the company’s office, the government added.
The city’s development bureau has discussed gradually replacing bamboo scaffolding with metal scaffolding as a safety measure.
Hong Kong’s leader, John Lee, said the government would set up a HK$300 million ($39 million) fund to help residents while some of China’s biggest listed companies announced donations.
On the second night after the blaze, dozens of evacuees set up mattresses in a nearby mall, many saying official evacuation centres should be saved for those in greater need.
People – from elderly residents to schoolchildren – wrapped themselves in duvets and huddled in tents outside a McDonald’s restaurant and convenience shops as volunteers handed out snacks and toiletries.
Hong Kong, one of the world’s most densely populated cities, is scattered with high-rise housing complexes. Its sky-high property prices have long been a trigger for discontent and the tragedy could stoke resentment towards authorities despite efforts to tighten political and national security control.
The leadership of both the Hong Kong government and China’s Communist Party moved quickly to show they attached utmost importance to a tragedy seen as a potential test of Beijing’s grip on the semi-autonomous region.
The fire has prompted comparisons to London’s Grenfell Tower inferno, which killed 72 people in 2017. That fire was blamed on firms fitting the exterior with flammable cladding, as well as failings by the government and the construction industry.
(Reporting by Joyce Zhou, Tyrone Siu, Jessie Pang, Anne Marie Roantree, Clare Jim, Greg Torode, Farah Master and James Pomfret in Hong Kong; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Stephen Coates)
HAY YAI, Thailand/KUALA PERLIS, Malaysia (Reuters) -Rescuers in Thailand readied drones on Thursday to airdrop food parcels, as receding floodwaters in the south and neighbouring Malaysia brightened hopes for the evacuation of those stranded for days, while cyclone havoc in Indonesia killed 28.
Severe floods after a week of heavy rain have killed at least 33 in Thailand and two in neighbouring Malaysia, with tens of thousands huddling in evacuation centres, some after being cut off for days by waters as much as 2 m (7 ft) high.
“It’s a race against time,” Thai government spokesperson Siripong Angkasakulkiat told Nation TV, adding that rescue teams were preparing to use drones to deliver food parcels, relying on satellite internet in the face of telecoms outages.
“We have to help them out,” he added, saying authorities expected to rescue even more people on Thursday.
The receding floodwaters are allowing disaster teams in Thailand and Malaysia to boost aid deliveries and efforts to move people out of waterlogged homes.
The floods affected nearly 3 million in nine southern Thai provinces, authorities said, with 3,000 moved to safety from the worst-hit city of Hat Yai, including some critically ill airlifted on Wednesday from a partially swamped hospital.
Thousands have been marooned on rooftops in the commercial hub by record rainfall, which stood at 335 mm (13 inches) on Friday, its highest in a single day for 300 years.
Thailand pushed relief efforts into higher gear when the military drafted in at least 20 helicopters, planes and convoys of trucks to deliver food, medicine and small boats on Wednesday, and made a public appeal for boats and jet skis.
The country’s only aircraft carrier, Chakri Naruebet, is also providing air support, food and medicines.
TROPICAL CYCLONE DEVASTATES INDONESIAN PROVINCE
In Indonesia’s province of North Sumatra, a tropical cyclone unleashed floods and landslides to kill at least 28, with 10 missing. Power outages and damaged bridges and homes hampered rescue efforts, the disaster agency said.
Kompas TV showed images of earth sliding down a hillside to pile up in front of homes, while gushing waters higher than 1 m (3.5 ft) high swept along debris and the branches of trees.
Meteorologists say current extremes of weather in Southeast Asia could stem from the interaction of two active systems, Typhoon Koto in the Philippines and the unusual formation of Cyclone Senyar in the Malacca Strait.
Global warming can bring more frequent extreme events as higher sea surface temperatures supercharge tropical storms.
The most recent floods follow a series of deadly typhoons and heavy monsoon rains that have lashed the Philippines and Vietnam and swelled floods elsewhere.
‘THE WATER WAS LIKE THE OCEAN’
In Malaysia, with floods in seven states, authorities said more than 34,000 people were evacuated, and about 500 nationals were still stranded in the Thai tourist destination of Hat Yai.
Container lorries were used to bring home some Malaysians, the foreign minister told parliament on Thursday, as smaller vehicles were unable to traverse the floodwaters.
In the smallest state of Perlis, Gon Qasim said rising waters trapped her in her home in the middle of a paddy field.
“The water was like the ocean,” the 73-year-old evacuee said.
Teams in Hat Yai worked into the dark on Wednesday, racing to reach the stranded after more boats arrived for the rescue effort, navigating the challenges of both strong currents and shallows.
A tearful Kritchawat Sothiananthakul described the inexorable rise of waters in his home, as he waited with his dog to be rescued.
“We had to climb down from the roof, get into the boat,” said the 70-year-old, stroking the animal while sitting on a mat in a makeshift evacuation centre in a sports hall.
“I needed to carry it and then get onto a truck.”
(Reporting by Cong Sun in Hat Yai, Thailand, Mandy Leong and Hasnoor Hussein in Kuala Perlis, Malaysia and Stanley Widianto in Jakarta; Additional reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat and Chayut Setboonsarng in Bangkok and Danial Azhar and Rozanna Latiff in Kuala Lumpur; Writing by Martin Petty)
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Leo will embark on his first trip outside Italy on Thursday, travelling to Turkey and Lebanon. Here is a history of papal foreign visits, which have become a major part of the agenda for the leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
POPE PAUL VI (1963 to 1978)
Pope Paul VI was the first leader of the Church to leave Italy in 150 years. He made nine foreign visits, with the first a trip to Israel and Jordan in 1964. He travelled to the U.N. headquarters in New York in 1965, where he addressed the General Assembly in French, pleading: “No more war, never again war!”
POPE JOHN PAUL II (1978 to 2005)
Pope John Paul II, whose pontificate spanned nearly 27 years, made 104 foreign visits, logging well over one million km (600,000 miles) and visiting 129 countries. Elected pope at age 58, he was known for energetic, non-stop itineraries and for emphasizing international diplomacy. On a trip to Asia in 1984, he made a stopover in Alaska, where U.S. President Ronald Reagan travelled to welcome him and discuss world issues.
POPE BENEDICT XVI (2005 to 2013)
Pope Benedict XVI, from Germany, made 25 foreign visits, largely to European countries. On a trip to Germany in 2006 he caused widespread anger among Muslims by suggesting Islam was violent, quoting a passage by a 14th-century Byzantine emperor. Later that year, he made a trip to Turkey to foster reconciliation between Christians and Muslims. Benedict’s last visit was to Lebanon, in September 2012.
POPE FRANCIS (2013 to 2025)
Pope Francis made 47 foreign visits to 66 countries, often choosing places with non-Catholic populations to highlight people and problems in what he called the “peripheries” of the world. He was the first pope to visit Mongolia, Myanmar, South Sudan, and Iraq, among others. A visit to the Philippines in 2015 included the largest papal event to date, with crowds estimated as high as seven million for a Mass in Manila.
POPE LEO XIV (Elected in 2025)
Pope Leo, 70 and in good health, is widely expected to undertake many foreign visits. A trip to Peru, where he served as a missionary for decades, is all but certain during 2026. Leo said he would also like to visit Portugal, Mexico, Uruguay and Argentina, in comments on November 18.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
Manila, Philippines — Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. refused to respond on Monday to an allegation by his estranged sister, a senator, that he has been a longtime drug addict whose cocaine dependence has undermined his governance, saying with a somber tone that he didn’t want to discuss a family rift in public.
That split has been growing since Imee Marcos publicly aligned with his political arch rival, Vice President Sara Duterte, ahead of midterm elections in May. Sara Duterte is the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, Ferdinand Maros Jr.’s harsh critic and predecessor.
Imee Marcos poses for a photo during the proclamation of elected senators in Manila on May 17, 2025.
JAM STA ROSA / AFP via Getty Images
Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro has said that Sen. Imee Marcos’ accusations against her own brother before a huge religious rally in Manila last week were “a web of lies” and may have been a desperate attempt to distract from ongoing investigations into a corruption scandal that may implicate her opposition allies in the Senate.
Aides have said in the past that Marcos Jr. had tested negative for cocaine and methamphetamine. When asked to respond to his elder sister’s allegations, the president briefly paused and then said in a televised news conference, “It’s anathema to talk about family matters generally in public. We do not like to show our dirty linen in public.”
The president suggested that something was troubling her sister. “The lady that you see talking on TV is not my sister and that view is shared by our cousins, friends, that it’s not her,” he said without elaborating.
In this photo provided by the Malacanang Presidential Communications Office, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. speaks on Nov. 21, 2025.
Malacanang Presidential Communications Office via AP
“That’s why we are worried, we are very worried about her. I hope she feels better soon,” the president said. When asked if he plans to talk to her, Marcos said that he and his sister “no longer travel in the same circles, political or otherwise.”
Marcos, 68, and his sister are children of then dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr., who was overthrown in an army-backed but largely peaceful “people power” uprising in 1986 after an authoritarian era that was notorious for human rights and political repression and plunder. The dictator died in exile in Hawaii in 1989. His family returned to the Philippines in 1991 and slowly regained a political foothold.
Marcos Jr. won the presidency in 2022 with a landslide margin in one of the greatest political comebacks in Philippines history.
In a speech Monday night before a huge rally by a religious group in a Manila park, Imee Marcos said her brother’s drug addiction allegedly started when their father was still president and has continued to this day. She claimed it has affected his health and ability to govern.
Rodrigo Duterte was arrested on an International Criminal Court warrant in March and flown to and detained in the Netherlands for alleged crimes against humanity over his brutal anti-drug crackdowns that left thousands of mostly poor suspects dead. Duterte has denied any wrongdoing.
Duterte’s family and allies, including Imee Marcos, have blamed Marcos Jr. for what they claim was the ex-president’s illegal arrest and detention by the global court.
The QCinema Project Market concluded its third edition by distributing over PHP18 million ($310,000) in production, post-production, development and marketing support to filmmakers across Southeast Asia.
The event carries added significance following Quezon City’s recent designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Film, positioning the Philippines capital alongside recognized global cinema centers. The industry arm of the QCinema International Film Festival held its 2025 edition in Quezon City over two days of pitch sessions, curated meetings and industry dialogues.
Dominic Bekaert’s “Daddy Cool” captured the top honor, receiving the Quezon City Best Project Award worth PHP1 million ($17,240). The Philippine project also earned the Kongchak Studio Award for audio post-production services valued at $10,000, plus color correction services from Central Digital Lab.
Russell Morton’s Singapore project “Penumbra” took first place in the QPM Southeast Asian Project Award category with PHP500,000 ($8,620), while Mai Huyền Chi’s Vietnamese film “The River Knows Our Names” placed second with PHP300,000 ($5,170).
In the Filipino project category, Arjanmar H. Rebeta’s “There Is, There Isn’t” (Meron, Wala) claimed first place and PHP500,000, with Sam Manacsa’s “The Void is Immense in Idle Hours” taking second and PHP300,000. Manacsa’s project proved particularly successful, accumulating multiple partner awards including equipment support, color correction services and a film residency.
Malaysian filmmaker Joon Goh received the QPM Discovery Award worth PHP500,000 for “The Willing,” while Khavn De La Cruz earned the Best Pitch prize of PHP100,000 for “Jollywood.”
Partner awards extended the support significantly beyond cash prizes. Dean Colin Marcial’s “Jaguar” received comprehensive post-production services from Mocha Chai Laboratories valued at $50,000. CMB Equipment Support distributed PHP1 million in film equipment across six projects from the Philippines, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Multiple projects benefited from color grading, audio post-production and marketing support through partnerships with Central Digital Lab, Barebones, Terminal Six, Narra, Puregold and Stage Post Audio and Music Productions.
“Quezon City’s UNESCO Creative City of Film designation inspires us to aim even higher,” said QPM managing director Liza Dino-Seguerra. “These awards reflect our belief in the region’s filmmakers and our dedication to supporting their stories as they travel to global audiences.”
The 2025 edition featured projects from the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Indonesia.
2025 QCinema Project Market Award Winners
MAJOR AWARDS
Quezon City Best Project Award “Daddy Cool,” directed by Dominic Bekaert (Philippines) Prize: PHP1,000,000 ($17,240)
QPM Southeast Asian Project Award — 1st Place “Penumbra,” directed by Russell Morton (Singapore) Prize: PHP500,000 ($8,620)
QPM Southeast Asian Project Award — 2nd Place “The River Knows Our Names,” directed by Mai Huyền Chi (Vietnam) Prize: PHP300,000 ($5,170)
QPM Filipino Project Award — 1st Place “There Is, There Isn’t” (Meron, Wala), directed by Arjanmar H. Rebeta (Philippines) Prize: PHP500,000 ($8,620)
QPM Filipino Project Award — 2nd Place “The Void is Immense in Idle Hours,” directed by Sam Manacsa (Philippines) Prize: PHP300,000 ($5,170)
QPM Discovery Award “The Willing,” directed by Joon Goh (Malaysia) Prize: PHP500,000 ($8,620)
Best Pitch “Jollywood,” directed by Khavn De La Cruz Prize: PHP100,000 ($1,700)
PARTNER AWARDS
Mocha Chai Laboratories Award “Jaguar,” directed by Dean Colin Marcial – Comprehensive post-production services valued at up to $50,000
CMB Equipment Support Grant “Luzonensis and Floresiensis,” directed by Glenn Barit (Philippines) “Dear Wormwood,” directed by Dodo Dayao (Philippines) “Ozzy and Onie,” directed by Jaime Pacena II (Philippines) “The Void is Immense in Idle Hours,” directed by Sam Manacsa (Philippines) “When The World Is Paused,” directed by Han Thit Htoo Aung (Myanmar) “Romdoul, The Evening Fragrance,” directed by Lomorpich Rithy (Cambodia) Film equipment support worth PHP1,000,000 ($17,240) tailored to the project’s requirements
Kongchak Studio Award “Daddy Cool,” directed by Dominic Bekaert (Philippines) – $10,000 worth of audio post-production services
Central Digital Lab Color Correction Grant “The Void is Immense in Idle Hours,” directed by Sam Manacsa (Philippines) “Daddy Cool,” directed by Dominic Bekaert (Philippines) Color grading and digital mastering services worth PHP300,000 ($5,170)
Barebones Award “There Is, There Isn’t” (Meron, Wala), directed by Arjanmar H. Rebeta (Philippines) “Romdoul, The Evening Fragrance,” directed by Lomorpich Rithy (Cambodia) “Ghost of the Currents,” directed by Patiparn Boontarig (Thailand) “KOMIXXX,” directed by Jopy Arnaldo (Philippines) Color grading services worth $14,000
Terminal Six Post-Production Award “Dear Wormwood,” directed by Dodo Dayao (Philippines) $10,000 in post-production support including offline editing and digital intermediate preparation
Narra Post-Production Grant “What’s Left of Us,” directed by Tyrone Acierto (Philippines) “Penumbra,” directed by Russell Morton (Singapore) “Dancing Gale,” directed by Sammaria Sari Simanjuntak (Indonesia) One Filipino project and two Southeast Asian projects each receive PHP500,000 ($8,620) in audio post-production services
Puregold Cine Panalo Film Marketing Grant “Ozzy and Onie,” directed by Jaime Pacena II (Philippines) PHP200,000 ($3,445) in marketing support; may be considered as the CinePanalo Film Festival opening film
Pop Up Film Residency x FAP Project Award “The Void is Immense in Idle Hours,” directed by Sam Manacsa (Philippines)
Pop Up Film Residency x FAP Skill Up Award Eero Yves Francisco (Production Designer) “Sentinel”
Kingyo Productions Award “When The World Is Paused,” directed by Han Thit Htoo Aung (Myanmar) $5,000 plus music mentorship and collaborative support with Kingyo’s Taiwanese composer
Stage Post Audio and Music Productions, Inc. Audio Post-production and Music Grant “Luzonensis and Floresiensis,” directed by Glenn Barit (Philippines) “There Is, There Isn’t” (Meron, Wala), directed by Arjanmar H. Rebeta (Philippines) “Sentinel,” directed by Carl Joseph E. Papa (Philippines) “Ozzy and Onie,” directed by Jaime Pacena II (Philippines) PHP600,000 worth of complete audio post-production and original musical scoring, all handled by the Stage Post team
A United States commander said treaty allies South Korea, Japan and the Philippines could form a “strategic triangle” to contain China if military planners view the region from a nontraditional perspective, with east orientation at the top.
General Xavier T. Brunson, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, wrote in a Sunday article that the east-up map, rather than the standard north-up one, shows the collective potential of connecting the three allied nations as a triangle, creating what he called “an integrated network” for situational awareness and coordinated responses.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry for comment.
Why It Matters
The U.S. has long leveraged the territories of allied and partner nations in the western Pacific to deter potential Chinese aggression. Under its island chain strategy, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines form a north-south defensive line east of China, intended to help U.S. forces project power in the region amid China’s growing military presence.
Brunson’s concept of the east-up map comes as the U.S. and South Korea modernize their 72-year alliance to address security challenges outside the Korean Peninsula. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently suggested that the U.S. Forces Korea could be deployed for “regional contingencies” in addition to deterring North Korea’s threats.
What To Know
In an article published on the U.S. Forces Korea website, Brunson said the Indo-Pacific is a region where geographic relations determine “operational possibilities and alliance effectiveness,” noting that hidden strategic advantages could be revealed by simply rotating the standard north-up map to show Japan and the Philippines above China.
“When the same region is viewed with east orientation toward the top, the strategic picture transforms dramatically,” the general wrote, adding that this new perspective revealed his forces are no longer “distant assets” but are “positioned inside the bubble perimeter that the U.S. would need to penetrate in the event of crisis or contingency.”
The U.S. military deploys about 28,500 troops in South Korea, along with fighter jets and unmanned aircraft. Its primary mission is to deter aggression and defend South Korea to maintain regional stability, a role the U.S. has held since the Korean War.
“This shift in perspective illuminates [South] Korea’s role as a natural strategic pivot,” the commander said, noting that the ally is positioned to address threats from Russia while providing reach against Chinese activity in the waters between the two nations, demonstrating its significant strategic potential to influence adversary operations.
The U.S. general was referring to China’s military presence in the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea, where Beijing and Seoul have yet to establish a maritime boundary.
Regarding the strategic triangle framework, Brunson said South Korea has what he called the “added advantage of cost-imposition capabilities” against both Russian and Chinese forces, due to its strategic depth and central position on the east-up map.
While Japan has advanced technologies and controls key maritime chokepoints along Pacific shipping lanes, the Philippines provides southern access points and oversight of vital sea lanes connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, the general explained.
The commander urged military planners to experiment with east-up mapping when analyzing opportunities for alliance coordination and existing force positioning advantages in the Indo-Pacific, which traditional north-up mapping still obscures.
What People Are Saying
General Xavier T. Brunson, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, wrote in an article on Sunday: “The geographic advantages we seek may already exist, waiting to be recognized through a simple shift in perspective. The question for military planners is not whether geography matters, it is whether we are seeing it clearly enough to recognize the strategic opportunities it provides, and whether we have the courage to view familiar perspectives through fresh eyes.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on November 4: “There’s no doubt flexibility for regional contingencies is something we would take a look at, but we are focused on standing by our allies [in South Korea] and ensuring the threat of the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea] is not a threat to the Republic of Korea and certainly continue to extend nuclear deterrence as we have before.”
What Happens Next
It remains unclear how the U.S. Forces Korea will adjust its posture to respond to regional contingencies while continuing its mission to deter North Korea’s aggression.
