PHILIPPINES
China offers joint drills
Beijing has offered to hold joint military drills with Manila, armed forces Chief of Staff Romeo Brawner Jr said late on Wednesday. The Chinese ambassador to Manila made an “informal” proposal for defense exercises, he said, adding that his office would study China’s pitch. The joint drills would not be held in the disputed South China Sea if it pushes through, Brawner said. “We are opening up to any country who would like to help us,” he told reporters in Manila. More modern countries could help Manila with its anti-insurgency efforts, he said.
PAKISTAN
China rolls overs loan
China has rolled over a US$2.4 billion loan for the Islamic nation for two years, Pakistani Minister of Finance Ishaq Dar said yesterday. The latest extension in loan maturities is a boost to the nation’s fragile foreign exchange reserves, which are still only enough to pay the import bill for two months. In a post on the X platform, Dar said the Export-Import Bank of China rolled over for two years the “principal amounts” of the US$2.4 billion loan, which Islamabad was to have paid back next year and in 2025. Islamabad would now only make interest payments in both years.
AUSTRALIA
97 beached whales die
The last of nearly 100 whales that beached in Western Australia were euthanized on Wednesday after a second day of frantic, but unsuccessful efforts to rescue them, authorities said. The pod of 97 long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves on Tuesday on Cheynes Beach, with scores stranding themselves on the sand. Despite the efforts of 100 wildlife officers and 250 volunteers wearing wetsuits to protect against the southern hemisphere winter cold, 52 stranded whales died on the beach. The remaining 45 were euthanized on Wednesday after efforts to lead them to deeper water failed. The survivors continually returned to the shallows, the Western Australia Parks and Wildlife Service said in a statement late on Wednesday. “Sadly, the decision had to be made to euthanize the remaining whales to avoid prolonging their suffering,” it said.
UNITED KINGDOM
London jury acquits Spacey
A London jury on Wednesday acquitted Kevin Spacey on sexual assault charges after a four-week trial at Southwark crown court in which the actor said he was a “big flirt” who had consensual flings with men and whose only misstep was touching a man’s groin while making a “clumsy pass.” Three men accused the Oscar winner of aggressively grabbing their crotches. A fourth, an aspiring actor seeking mentorship, said he awoke to the actor performing oral sex on him after going to Spacey’s London apartment for a beer and either falling asleep or passing out. The 64-year-old Oscar-winning actor sobbed in the dock as he was found not guilty of the charges.
KUWAIT
Five prisoners executed
The nation yesterday executed a man convicted over involvement in a suicide attack that killed 27 worshipers in a mosque in 2015, prosecutors said. Authorities did not specify his role in the attack, though they previously said they had arrested the suicide bomber’s driver. The man, a bedouin, was found guilty of murder and of membership of Islamic State, the prosecutor’s office said. Four other people were executed, including an Egyptian and a Sri Lankan, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on messaging platform X.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Sri Lanka’s fragile economic recovery could be hampered by threatened trade union strikes over reduced benefits for government employees in this year’s budget, the IMF said yesterday. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s maiden budget raised public sector salaries, but also made deep cuts to longstanding perks in a continuing effort to repair the island nation’s tattered finances. Sri Lanka’s main doctors’ union is considering a strike from today to protest against cuts to their allowances, while teachers are also considering stoppages. IMF senior mission chief for Sri Lanka Peter Breuer said the budget was the “last big push” for the country’s austerity
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