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Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers a joint statement during the visit of Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the Malacanang Palace, in Manila, Philippines, on Jan. 10, 2024.

Ezra Acayan/Pool via REUTERS

Philippine president’s feud with Duterte gets worse

An escalating feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, boiled over Sunday, when Marcos said the former president’s threat to lead a secession movement would be met with force.

Secession, you say? The Philippines has seen multiple secessionist movements over the years, but the most militant ones today are aligned with the Islamic State group, and it’s unclear how Duterte would carry out his threat.

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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan speaks to Reuters during an interview in Lahore, Pakistan, in March 2023.

REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

Hard Numbers: Imran Khan faces new sentence, Russia gets economic upgrade, Philippines and Vietnam join hands in South China Sea, Germany makes big Bitcoin seizure

10: Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister ShahMahmood Qureshi were sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets. While Khan is already serving a three-year term on corruption charges, this is Qureshi’s first conviction. The new ruling comes just a week before general elections on Feb. 8. Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, called it “a sham case” and plans to challenge the decision in a higher court.

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Scene of the terrorist knife attack near the Bir Hakeim bridge and Quai de Grenelle, where one German tourist was killed, and two others were injured in Paris late Saturday.

Jeremy Paoloni/ABACAPRESS.COM

Hard Numbers: Deadly terror attack in Paris, troubled South China Sea waters, migrants in English Channel, COP28 methane plans, twins for 70-year-old mom

3: A 26-year-old French national who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State attacked three people near the Eiffel Tower in Paris late Saturday, killing a German tourist and leaving two others, including a British man, wounded. President Emmanuel Macron called the incident "a terrorist attack."

135: More than 135 Chinese vessels “swarmed” the Julian Felipe reef off the coast of the Philippines in the South China Sea on Sunday. China and the Philippines have been involved in an increasing number of such incidents, as China aggressively asserts its claim to the sea under its so-called nine-dash line.

190: French authorities rescued 190 migrants off the coast of Calais in northern France over the weekend. The migrants were trying to cross the English Channel on dinghies to reach Britain, but authorities did not specify from which country the migrants had originally come.

30: At this week’s COP28 meeting in the UAE, the Biden administration unveiled final rules aimed at reducing the US oil and gas industry’s release of methane to help in the fight against climate change. Nations attending the summit had to detail how they will cut methane emissions by 30% from 2020 levels by 2030.

70:A 70-year-old Ugandan woman has become the oldest woman in Africa to give birth. Safina Namukwaya delivered a boy and a girl on Wednesday by cesarean section after conceiving through IVF. Born at 34 weeks' gestation, the babies are healthy and weigh 2 kilograms each. They were Namukwaya’s second delivery in three years, following the birth of a girl in 2020.

FILE PHOTO: Philippine Navy welcomes the arrival of Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force ship for a two-day goodwill visit upon its arrival at the South Harbor in Metro Manila, Philippines April 26, 2018.

REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Japan looks south to bolster its security

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is in Manila Friday for a summit with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as Tokyo attempts to draw closer to partners in Southeast Asia to hedge against China.

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Tens of thousands of Icelandic women, including Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir (pictured), are expected to strike from paid and unpaid jobs on Tuesday in a protest against gender inequality.

REUTERS/Juan Medina

Hard Numbers: Iceland’s women stop cold, Zimbabwe faces fresh epidemic, China-Philippines high seas crash, oil majors keep betting on oil, moon gets older overnight

48: For the first time in 48 years, the women of Iceland are going on strike. The one-day work stoppage on Tuesday — which the country’s PM, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, will take part in — will spotlight unequal pay between men and women, as well as gender-based violence. Although Iceland tops the list for global gender pay equality among countries, women still earn 21% less than men in some jobs.

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A Philippine flag flutters from BRP Sierra Madre, a dilapidated Philippine Navy ship that has been aground since 1999 and became a Philippine military detachment on the disputed Second Thomas shoal in the South China Sea.

REUTERS/Erik De Castro

Rough waters in the South China Sea

Philippine officials say a Chinese coast guard ship and an accompanying vessel rammed a Philippine coast guard ship and a military supply boat in the South China Sea on Sunday. The incidents took place near the Second Thomas, or Ayungin, shoal in the Spratly Island chain near a Philippine naval outpost in an area Beijing claims as its territorial waters.

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The geopolitics of "Barbie"
The Geopolitics of "Barbie" | Quick Take | GZERO Media

The geopolitics of "Barbie"

Ian Bremmer's Quick Take: Hi everybody. Ian Bremmer here, and a special update, Quick take, I know you need to hear about this. The geopolitics of "Barbie".

"Barbie" is coming out. No, not in that way. Next week in the United States and the United Kingdom, massive launch. You've seen the dreamhouse, you've seen the buses, you've seen the excitement, and now you've seen the geopolitical backlash. It was not what you were expecting. I certainly don't remember there ever being a political science Barbie. Uh, there is a campaign manager Barbie that they made. That's, that's pretty much the opposite when you think about it. And there's also a Chief Sustainability Officer Barbie, that was of course, made of plastic naturally. But never a geopolitical analyst Barbie. Well, maybe that was a mistake, turns out there's a problem.

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Bar charts of Singapore, South Korea, and the Philippines's views on the US and China

Paige Fusco

The Graphic Truth: Perspectives on the US and China

The US and China are competing for influence around the globe, but tensions are particularly high in East Asia, where China is the dominant power and the US is working to stop the region’s drift toward Beijing. The Eurasia Group Foundation surveyed 1,500 people across Singapore, South Korea, and the Philippines – three countries caught in the middle of the US-China rivalry with significant historical, economic, and diplomatic ties to both superpowers – for their views.

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