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Members of the religious group Iglesia ni Cristo (Church of Christ) wave their hands during the first of a three-day anti-corruption protest at the Quirino Grandstand, Manila, Philippines, November 16, 2025.
What We’re Watching: Anti-graft protests resurface in the Philippines, Polish railway hit, Trump flips on Epstein files vote
Anti-graft protests restart in the Philippines, with help of a church
More than 200,000 people took to the streets of Manila, the Philippine capital, on Monday to protest against suspected corruption in flood-control projects. A day prior, a protestant megachurch organized a rally in the Catholic-majority country of 114 million people. These aren’t the first anti-graft demonstrations in the Southeast Asian nation this fall: there were violent protests in September after a government audit showed that the government had spent billions of dollars over the last few years on substandard or non-existent projects. A pair of typhoons also ripped through the country in recent weeks, possibly adding more fuel to the fire. Protest leaders have planned another rally later this month.
Polish railway attacked
In Poland, an explosion damaged a train line that connects Warsaw to Ukraine. The line has been used to transport aid and weapons to Ukraine, and while the investigation is ongoing, Poland’s government has said that it was a “highly probable” act of sabotage by Russia. Russia has targeted Poland for being an aid hub for Ukraine – seemingly carrying out cyber attacks, arson, and other acts of sabotage since the start of the war. If Poland uncovers the attack was carried out by Moscow, it will mark an escalation of the conflict.
Trump does U-turn on Epstein files
After piling pressure on lawmakers to halt the release of the US Justice Department files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump reversed course and said Congress should release the files. Trump said he had “nothing to hide.” It was a remarkable about-face, and showed that congressional Republicans can still press the president – it has often been the other way around since the former real estate mogul came to Washington. GOP lawmakers will hope the vote reassures voters – including the MAGA base – ahead of next year’s midterms that they are serious about investigating the Epstein case. There are still doubts over whether the bill will come to pass: The House will bring it up this week, but it remains an open question whether the Senate votes on it.Hard Numbers: Typhoon rips through the Philippines, Europe wants more rail, Israel returns bodies to Gaza, Canada’s Carney unveils first budget
85: A typhoon ripped through the Philippines on Tuesday, killing at least 85 people and forcing roughly 400,000 people to flee their homes – many of which are now flooded. The typhoon is set to continue through other parts of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.
€345 billion: Europe may be tightening its internal borders, but it’s still pushing its trains: The European Union on Wednesday laid out a €345-billion ($396-billion) plan to slash train times between major European cities over the next 10-15 years. Under the plan, there will be trains that run at 200 kilometers per hour (roughly 125 mph) between each major EU city.
15: Israel returned the bodies of 15 Palestinians to Gaza on Wednesday, as part of ongoing exchanges required by last month’s ceasefire deal. Israeli authorities have now returned 285 bodies since the deal was signed, though it is not clear how many more they are holding. Hamas still holds the remains of seven Israeli hostages.
CA$78 billion: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney unveiled his first budget on Tuesday, which includes new infrastructure spending, funds for the military, and major immigration cuts. However, the budget shows a deficit of $78 billion, the second-largest in the country’s history.
A drone view of rescue workers conducting a rescue operation at a collapsed building in the aftermath of a 6.9-magnitude earthquake in Bogo, Cebu, Philippines, on October 1, 2025.
Hard Numbers: Earthquake rocks the Philippines, UN expands Haiti mission, Moscow cuts military budget, & More
69: A 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck off Cebu, Philippines, late Tuesday night, killing at least 69 and injuring hundreds. The quake caused landslides, building collapses, and power outages in a region still recovering from recent storms.
5,500: The UN has approved expanding its Haiti security mission into a 5,500-strong force to combat rampant gang violence. Backed by the US and Panama, the decision will add to the current 1,000 officers, mostly from Kenya, already deployed to support Haitian police.
$156 billion: Russia’s military budget next year is set to be $156 billion, down from the $163 billion this year, marking the first drop since the beginning of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Still, the military budget remains high – it’s nearly four times larger than in 2021. To help fund the war effort, the government is also set to increase the value-added tax from 20% to 22%.
15: South African opposition leader Julius Malema – who heads the far-left, black nationalist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – was found guilty of publicly discharging a firearm, an offense that carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. Malema fired 14 to 15 rounds in front of 20,000 supporters during an EFF celebration in the Eastern Cape in 2018.
The Palestinian flag is raised as the Palestinian mission to the United Kingdom holds a ceremony after the UK government announced on Sunday the country's formal recognition of a Palestinian state, at the mission's headquarters in London, United Kingdom, on September 22, 2025.
What We’re Watching: More Western nations recognize Palestinian state, Southeast Asian unrest spreads to the Philippines, Putin wants to de-facto extend nuclear arms deal
Troupe of Western nations recognize Palestinian state ahead of UN meeting
Australia, Canada, Portugal, and the United Kingdom all followed through with pledges to recognize a Palestinian state on Sunday, just in time for the start of the United Nations General Assembly’s main meetings. France is set to formally follow suit today. The move is an effort to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza, but it seems to have had the opposite effect: citing the news, several Israeli ministers urged the military to annex the West Bank. Not every major Western nation was on board with the plan: Germany said recognition should come at the end of the peace process, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said recognizing Palestinian statehood now would be “counter-productive.”
Philippine protests turn violent
The Philippines became the latest country in Southeast Asia to face disorder, as 33,000 people gathered in Manila on Sunday to decry the government’s reported misuse of funds allocated for flood relief efforts. The protests also took a violent turn, as police arrested dozens of people suspected of hurling various makeshift weapons at officers stationed near the presidential palace. The unrest began earlier this month when a wealthy couple that leads many flood-control projects showed off their luxury cars during media interviews – this was especially painful for Philippine citizens, since the country is regularly hit with storms and many live in poverty.
Russia tacks another year onto key nuclear arms treaty
Russian President Vladimir Putin says Russia will observe the last remaining US-Russia nuclear arms pact for one more year. The so-called “New START” Treaty of 2010, which limits the number of warheads and bombers each side can hold and deploy, is set to expire in February. Bilateral inspections collapsed several years ago due to the Ukraine war and no new treaty has been negotiated; at least theoretically, New START remains in effect. Putin’s decision is welcome, but it merely punts two key questions: will the US and Russia reach a new pact to limit the world’s most destructive weapons, and how will any new arms control system take into account the growing nuclear arsenal of China?
Police officers disperse protesters during riots in front of the House of Representatives building in Jakarta, Indonesia, on August 30, 2025.
Why Asia’s “Gen Z” revolts matter
Across South and Southeast Asia, something unusual is brewing.
Massive economic protests in Indonesia were inflamed in late August when a police car rammed into a taxi and killed the young driver. “Gen Z” demonstrators in Nepal earlier this month burned the parliament and forced the prime minister to resign. And this week in Timor-Leste, protestors – including many students – set cars ablaze in objection to a government plan to buy vehicles for politicians.
A common thread among widely different contexts? Young people are fed up with corruption by entrenched leaders. The Indonesian unrest was touched off when young people struggling with high living costs learned all 580 members of the House of Representatives were receiving a housing benefit – President Prabowo Subianto has replaced certain high-level ministers in a desperate bid to quell the unrest.
Protestors in Timor-Leste – including many students – fumed about a similar proposal in their country, where lawmakers already make 10 times the country’s median income. Nepal’s young people have suffered from a stagnant economy, and when the government banned most social media as part of a broader crackdown on speech, it tipped them over the edge, beginning what has been dubbed the “Gen Z revolt.”
These upheavals have only added to the pile of political crises in the region. Three weeks ago a court removed Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office over a deferential phone call with a leading Cambodian politician during a border dispute. Myanmar is in perpetual crisis as a military junta fights a grinding civil war against multiple armed groups. In the Philippines, the House speaker has just resigned over a corruption scandal amid a broader battle between two ruling families.
Though young people are at the heart of the latest protests in Indonesia, Nepal, and Timor Leste, it’s not an issue that’s specific to Southeast Asia, according to Joshua Kurlantzick, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“I don’t think it has to do with the region,” Kurlantzick told GZERO. “You can see that in tons of other places around the world, young people are completely fed up with politics… The center is falling apart in all of these places.”
Though the domestic ramifications of each of these revolts are unclear – Prabowo remains in charge in Indonesia, while Nepal is still trying to determine its next leader – one thing is certain: the region’s collective foreign policy is now under strain, lacking any coherent vision at a time when the rivalry between United States and China is white hot.
“It definitely has an effect on regional politics and leadership,” said Kurlantzick. “You don’t have the region’s most-powerful countries being devoted to foreign or regional policy. That is a huge problem.”
This has major economic ramifications, as the countries are dealing with Washington and China on a one-to-one basis, weakening their bargaining position against these two superpowers.
“In the past, the 10 Southeast Asia states negotiated trade agreements with other powerful countries, like Japan and China.” Kurlantzick added. “They could have all worked together and rejected the Trump administration’s transshipment tariffs, and you have a billion people and huge exporters in this region, but they couldn’t.”
Senator and presidential candidate Miguel Uribe Turbay (photo) died on August 11, after being the victim of an attack last Saturday, June 7, while attending a political rally in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogotá.
Hard Numbers: Colombian presidential candidate dies after June shooting, Al Jazeera journalists killed in Gaza, South Korean military dropoff, Chinese ship hits its own man
39: At the age 39, center-right presidential candidate Miguel Uribe died on Monday, nine weeks after he was shot by a 14-year-old boy during a campaign rally in Bogota, the Colombian capital. Before his death, the shooting had catapulted Uribe to the top of the polls for next year’s election. The incident has revived fears in Colombia of a return to political violence, which was endemic in the 1980s and 1990s – read more here.
5: Five Al Jazeera journalists – and one freelance reporter — were killed in an Israeli strike on al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, including prominent Arabic-language correspondent Anas al-Sharif. The Israeli military accused al-Sharif of leading a Hamas cell, a claim that Al Jazeera, the Committee to Protect Journalist and a UN expert have denied.
20%: South Korea’s paltry birthrate is now affecting the size of its military ranks, which have dropped 20% in the past six years to 450,000 troops. This is less than half of North Korea’s military, which numbers 1.2 million. South Korea has conscription – even soccer star Son Heung-min had to complete a military training, albeit a shortened one.
3104: There was some friendly fire, so to speak, in the South China Sea on Monday, as a Chinese warship accidentally rammed a Chinese coast guard ship – Coastguard Vessel 3104 – as it was chasing after a Philippine boat. The South China Sea has been a major area of dispute between Beijing and Manila, ever since China seized the Scarborough Shoal area in 2012.Police in and around a high school in Graz, Austria, after a gunman killed nine people at the school, on June 10, 2025.
What We’re Watching: School shooting in Austria, Duterte impeachment update, Crapo shoots for the moon
Shooter kills nine at Austrian school
A gunman killed at least nine people at a school in Graz, Austria, on Tuesday, in what appears to be the worst school shooting in the country’s post-war history. The 21-year-old suspect, who was an ex-student of the school, reportedly took his own life. Austria has relatively liberal gun laws, compared to some other European countries, so we’ll be watching to see if this tragedy prompts any debate about tighter restrictions.
Could Duterte nab an impeachment reprieve?
The Philippines Senate on Tuesday sent impeachment articles against Vice President Sara Duterte back to the House for constitutional clarifications. It’s a reprieve for Duterte, who faces impeachment on allegations of high crimes, including a plot to kill her political (and dynastic) rival, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The stakes are high: if impeached, Duterte could be blocked from running for president in 2028. The political blowback could be severe, thoug: The vice president’s party outperformed expectations in last month’s midterm elections.
Trump’s Big Bill is now a Crapo-shoot
All eyes in Washington are today on Sen. Mike Crapo, Republican from Idaho who, as chairman of the Finance Committee, will be marking up President Donald Trump’s “Big, Beautiful” tax-and-spending bill. Crapo has his work cut out: A cadre of budget hawk GOP senators have called for cuts to the spending outlined in the House-passed version of the bill, while others are worried that any significant savings will come at the expense of Medicaid or other popular programs. Rock, meet hard place: Over to you, Mike.
Members of US and Russian delegations, led by US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin, attend a meeting in Moscow, Russia, on April 25, 2025.
Putin and Zelensky’s diplomatic dance
Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have called for direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul this Thursday.
Behind these calls for talks, though, is a battle over whether the US will continue funding Zelensky’s army.
Here’s the bottom-line: Putin won’t stop the war. He hopes instead that US President Donald Trump will grow frustrated (or bored) with the quagmire and withdraw support for Kyiv. That, Putin believes, would allow Russia to seize more of Ukraine.
Zelensky will keep calling for a ceasefire to persuade Trump – who toyed with the idea of coming to Istanbul on Thursday – that Putin’s the problem, in hopes of keeping some US support in place.
In the Philippines, Duterte edges latest edition of family feud
The battle for power in the Philippines is fought between two families: the Marcoses and Dutertes. Monday’s midterm elections favored the latter.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s partners look set to retain the Senate, but allies of Vice President Sara Duterte – who faces an impeachment trial – won more seats than expected. Duterte’s conviction is now less of a surefire bet.
In spite of the politics, House Republicans seek extra Medicaid requirements
When one House committee released its plan for adjusting Medicaid, it omitted the cuts that some ardent deficit hawks in the Republican Party sought. However, it still includes changes that could leave millions of recipients uncovered.
Politically, this is a risky move – polls show huge support for the welfare program. Fiscal conservatives in the GOP, though, will feel that the party must do it now, while they hold unified control of Congress.