PHILIPPINES
No coup talk: security head
National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano yesterday rejected talk of a plot to destabilize the government of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, saying the military and entire security sector were loyal to the commander-in-chief. “Yes, there were healthy and passionate exchanges [and] debates among some retired or former military officers and even some criticism against certain policies of the current administration, but they are within the bounds of our democratic space,” National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano said. “There is no destabilization plot [and] movement against the government,” he said in a statement. His remarks came after Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces General Romeo Brawner was quoted in the media as telling troops on Friday that he had heard of “destabilization efforts,” with some military officers saying “the president should be replaced for many reasons” and “there should be another coup d’etat.”
PAKISTAN
Forces kill base attackers
The military said its forces killed nine armed men who attacked an air force training base yesterday, with a group affiliated with the Pakistan Taliban claiming responsibility. “All nine terrorists have been sent to hell,” the military said in a statement, adding that its operation had concluded. Three men were killed before they entered the base, and three other attackers had been “cornered/isolated,” the military said earlier. The Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan, a newly emerged militant group that is an affiliate of the home-grown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan movement, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement to media.
GUINEA
Camara freed in shoot-out
Gunmen yesterday stormed the main prison in the capital and freed former military leader Moussa “Dadis” Camara, the justice minister said, announcing the closure of the nation’s borders. The announcement by Minister of Justice Charles Alphonse Wright came several hours after heavy gunfire erupted in the Kaloum district of the capital, Conakry. Among the others who escaped were Claude Pivi and Blaise Goumou, Wright said. “We will find them. And those responsible will be held accountable,” Wright told local Radio Fim FM. Camara, who came to power in a 2008 coup d’etat, had been detained in connection with a stadium massacre during his brief time in power. He had lived for years in exile after surviving an assassination attempt before returning home in late 2021. “The city center has been sealed since dawn, we can neither enter, nor leave,” a shopkeeper said of the shooting, speaking on condition of anonymity.
AUSTRALIA
PM to ask Xi about detainee
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said that he would protest a lack of transparency in China’s treatment of a detained Australian democracy blogger when meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Beijing during a trade-focused state visit. The detention of Yang Hengjun (楊恆均) without conviction for almost five years would be one of the topics raised with Xi when they meet in the Great Hall of the People tomorrow. Yang is being held in a Beijing detention center awaiting the verdict of a 2021 closed-door trial on espionage charges. “I’ll be saying that Dr Yang’s case needs to be resolved and I’ll be speaking about his human rights, the nature of the detention and the failure to have transparent processes,” Albanese told reporters in Darwin, hours before he was to fly to Shanghai.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
Four decades after they were forced apart, US-raised Adamary Garcia and her birth mother on Saturday fell into each other’s arms at the airport in Santiago, Chile. Without speaking, they embraced tearfully: A rare reunification for one the thousands of Chileans taken from their mothers as babies and given up for adoption abroad. “The worst is over,” Edita Bizama, 64, said as she beheld her daughter for the first time since her birth 41 years ago. Garcia had flown to Santiago with four other women born in Chile and adopted in the US. Reports have estimated there were 20,000 such cases from 1950 to
CONFIDENT ON DEAL: ‘Ukraine wants a seat at the table, but wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have a say? It’s been a long time since an election, the US president said US President Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and added that he was more confident of a deal to end the war after US-Russia talks. Trump increased pressure on Zelenskiy to hold elections and chided him for complaining about being frozen out of talks in Saudi Arabia. The US president also suggested that he could meet Russian President Vladimir Putin before the end of the month as Washington overhauls its stance toward Russia. “I’m very disappointed, I hear that they’re upset about not having a seat,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida when asked about the Ukrainian
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