12/08/2025

TUESDAY | AUG 12, 2025

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Marcos: Comments misinterpreted

China’s coast guard said it had taken necessary measures to expel Philippine vessels from Scarborough Shoal, which China claims as its own territory. It described the operation as “professional, standardised, legitimate and legal”. A 2016 ruling of an international arbitral tribunal voided Beijing’s sweeping claims in the region, saying they had no basis under international law, a decision China rejects. – Reuters

countries have had a series of maritime run-ins over the past years. Yesterday, a Philippine vessel transporting provisions to Filipino fishermen in the Scarborough Shoal was sprayed at with a water cannon by a Chinese coast guard ship, the Philippine Coast Guard said. The vessel managed to evade being hit. China’s embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the president’s remarks. Responding to the incident,

confrontation and war. Over a hundred thousand Filipinos live and work in Taiwan, according to Philippine government data. “War over Taiwan will drag the Philippines kicking and screaming into the conflict. That is what I was trying to say,” Marcos said. Marcos’ comments come at a time of heightened tensions between Manila and Beijing over territorial disputes in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway where the two

“This resulted in substantial damage to the CCG vessel’s forecastle, rendering it unseaworthy,” he said. Gan Yu, a Chinese coast guard spokesperson, confirmed that a confrontation had taken place without mentioning the collision. “The China Coast Guard took necessary measures in accordance with the law, including monitoring, pressing from the outside, blocking and controlling the Philippine vessels to drive them away,” he said in a statement. It was unclear if anyone was hurt in yesterday’s incident. Tarriela said the Chinese crew “never responded” to the Filipino ship’s offer of assistance. Earlier in the confrontation, the BRP Suluan was “targeted with a water cannon” by the Chinese but “successfully” evaded it, Tarriela’s statement said. – AFP said during a visit to India that “there is no way that the Philippines can stay out of it” due to its proximity to the democratically governed island. “We are, I think for propaganda purposes, misinterpreted,” Marcos told a press briefing. “I’m a little bit perplexed why it would be characterised as such, as playing with fire,” he said. Marcos said Filipinos working and living in Taiwan will have to be evacuated if a conflict does arise but maintained that he wishes to avoid

MANILA: Ferdinand Marcos Jr said yesterday that Beijing has “misinterpreted” his comments saying Manila will be inevitably drawn into a conflict between China and Taiwan should one erupt. China accused Marcos of “playing with fire” after the Philippine leader o Philippines keen to avoid confrontation President

Chinese vessels collide MANILA: A Chinese navy vessel collided with one from its coast guard while chasing a Philippine patrol boat in the South China Sea, Manila said yesterday, releasing dramatic video footage of the confrontation.

The incident occurred near the contested Scarborough Shoal as the Philippine coast guard escorted boats distributing aid to fishermen in the area, spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said in a statement. Video released by Manila showed a China Coast Guard ship and a much larger vessel bearing the number 164 on its hull colliding with a loud crash. “The (China Coast Guard vessel) CCG 3104 , which was chasing the (Filipino coast guard vessel) BRP Suluan at high speed, performed a risky manoeuvre from the (Philippine) vessel’s starboard quarter, leading to the impact with the Navy warship,” Tarriela said.

A Chinese Navy vessel (left) and a Chinese Coast Guard ship (right) collide as seen from a Philippine fisheries boat near Scarborough Shoal. – AFPPIC / PHILIPPINE COAST GUARD HANDOUT

Artefacts challenge migration theory SOPPENG: Scientists have found a series of stone tools on Sulawesi island they say may be evidence of humans living 1.5 million years ago on islands between Asia and Australia, the earliest known humans in the Wallacea region.

Archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia found the small, chipped tools, used to cut little animals and carve rocks, under the soil in the region of Soppeng in South Sulawesi. Radioactive tracing of these tools and the teeth of animals found around the site were dated at up to 1.48 million years ago. The findings could transform theories of early human migrations, according to an article published in the journal Nature this month. The earliest Wallacean humans, pre-historic persons known as Homo erectus, were thought to have only settled in Flores and Luzon island around 1.02 million years ago, as they were thought to be incapable of distant sea travel, proving the significance of the Sulawesi findings in theories of migration.

Stone tools found in Soppeng, South Sulawesi. – REUTERSPIC long before the evolution of our species, Homo sapiens,” said Adam Brumm, lead archaeologist from Griffith University in Queensland. “We think Homo erectus somehow got from the Asian mainland across a significant ocean gap to this island, Sulawesi, at least 1 million years ago.” Wallacea is a region in Eastern Indonesia including islands such as Sulawesi, Lombok, Flores, Timor, Sumbawa that lie between Borneo and Java and Australia. The region is named after naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who studied the plants and animals in the area. – Reuters

PEACE MARCH ... Buddhist monks taking part in a march for peace in Phnom Penh on Sunday. This follows clashes last month between Thailand and Cambodia over a border dispute. – REUTERSPIC Rahul Gandhi among Indian politicians detained during protest against polls panel “These were artefacts made by ancient humans who lived on Earth

NEW DELHI: Dozens of Indian opposition leaders were detained here yesterday as they shouted slogans, jumped barricades and marched to the Election Commission in a rare public protest against what they say are electoral malpractices.

The commission has said that changes in voters’ lists are shared with political parties and all complaints are investigated. It has also said that voters’ lists need to be revised to remove dead voters or those who have relocated. – Reuters

barricades before being detained and taken away in buses. Gandhi and Congress have alleged that voters’ lists in states where the party lost are corrupted, with voters’ names deleted or included more than once to rig elections.

from parliament to the office of the independent election panel but were stopped by police. The protesters shouted slogans against the panel and the government, saying elections were being “stolen”, and tried to push past

The credibility of elections has rarely been questioned in recent decades in the world’s most populous democracy. Around 300 opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the main opposition Congress party, marched