PHILIPPINES
President drops holiday
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr dropped a public holiday marking the anniversary of a revolution that ousted his father as president, an official document showed yesterday. A military-backed “People Power” revolt in February 1986 ended the rule of Ferdinand Marcos Sr and forced the family into exile in Hawaii. Feb. 25 was declared a “special national holiday” in 2000 by then-president Joseph Estrada. Rights advocates typically hold rallies on the day to commemorate the restoration of democracy. A presidential proclamation declaring holidays for next year makes no mention of the anniversary. Rights group Karapatan said that the removal of the holiday showed the administration’s contempt for “meaningful social actions that pursue justice, truth and accountability.”
UNITED STATES
Senator linked to Egypt
Senator Bob Menendez on Thursday was accused of conspiring to act as an agent of the Egyptian government in a new indictment. The superseding indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, accuses Menendez of contravening the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people to register with Washington if they act as “an agent of a foreign principal.” As a member of Congress, Menendez is prohibited from being an agent of a foreign government.
UNITED NATIONS
Torture tools ban urged
A top UN expert on Thursday urged law enforcement agencies around the world to ban 20 “modern-day torture tools,” such as spiked batons, electric shock bands and caged beds. “They are as horrifying as the racks and thumbscrews favored by medieval torturers,” special rapporteur on torture Alice Edwards said at the UN. “They have no place in human rights-compliant law enforcement.” On the list of “inherently cruel, inhuman” tools compiled by Edwards were “spiked batons that literally just rip through the skin,” knuckle cuffs and finger cuffs with serrated edges, and electric shock bands worn by defendants in court. Other torture devices include “caged beds so people are literally constrained in those places,” Edwards said. “We’re talking about tiger chairs and metal chairs where people cannot move and are held in stress positions for hours while they are being interrogated,” she said.
HAITI
Border kept closed
The nation on Thursday declined to join the Dominican Republic in reopening a key commercial border crossing, leaving some trade at a standstill and prolonging a diplomatic crisis over the construction of a canal on its soil. Dominican President Luis Abinader had closed all borders, including the crossing at the Dominican city of Dajabon for nearly a month to protest the construction of the canal, which he says contravenes a treaty and would take water needed by Dominican farmers. Haiti says it has the right to build the canal. Abinader’s government partially reopened the borders on Wednesday, including the one at Dajabon, but allowed only limited trade and kept a ban on Haitians entering the Dominican Republic for work, school, tourism or medical issues. Haiti declined to follow suit at its gate in the nearby community of Ouanaminthe. President Moise Charles Pierre told reporters that the Dominican side needed to apologize and resume full border operations. “Abinader needs to respect the Haitian people and apologize publicly,” Pierre said.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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