Philippine ex-President Duterte set to appear in Hague courtroom to face ‘war on drugs’ charges

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Updated 14 March 2025
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Philippine ex-President Duterte set to appear in Hague courtroom to face ‘war on drugs’ charges

Philippine ex-President Duterte set to appear in Hague courtroom to face ‘war on drugs’ charges
  • The hearing Friday afternoon comes days after his stunning arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly “war on drugs” he oversaw while in office
  • The 79-year-old Duterte is the first Asian former leader arrested on an ICC warrant

THE HAGUE: Former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is scheduled to make his first appearance before judges of the International Criminal Court on Friday, days after his stunning arrest in Manila on murder charges linked to the deadly ” war on drugs ” he oversaw while in office.
The 79-year-old Duterte, the first Asian former leader arrested on an ICC warrant, will be read his rights and formally informed of the charges of crimes against humanity that the court’s prosecutors filed against him after a lengthy investigation.
Estimates of the death toll during Duterte’s presidential term vary, from the more than 6,000 that the national police have reported up to the 30,000 claimed by human rights groups.
The court will also seek to set a date for a key pre-trial hearing — likely months from now — at which judges will assess whether there is enough evidence to proceed to a full trial, which could take years. If Duterte is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
Duterte was arrested Tuesday amid chaotic scenes in the Philippine capital after returning from a visit to Hong Kong. He was swiftly put on a chartered jet and flown to the Netherlands. After a series of medical checks on arrival, he was taken to the court’s detention center, located behind the high brick walls of a Dutch prison complex close to the North Sea coastline.
Prosecutors accuse him of involvement as an “indirect co-perpetrator” in multiple murders, amounting to a crime against humanity for allegedly overseeing killings from November 2011 until March 2019, first while he was mayor of the southern city of Davao and later as president of the Philippines.
Duterte will not be required to formally enter a plea at Friday’s hearing.
According to the prosecution request for his arrest, as Davao mayor Duterte issued orders to police and other “hitmen” who formed so-called “Davao Death Squads” or DDS.
He told them “that their mission was to kill criminals, including drug dealers, and provided clearance for specific DDS killings,” prosecutors allege, adding that he recruited, paid and rewarded the killers and “provided them with the necessary weapons and resources, and promised to shield them from prosecution.”
The document seeking an ICC warrant for Duterte said that prosecutors built their case using evidence including witness testimony, speeches by Duterte himself, government documents and video footage.
Human rights groups and victims’ families have hailed Duterte’s arrest as a historic triumph against state impunity, while the former president’s supporters have slammed what they call the government’s surrender of a rival to a court whose jurisdiction they dispute.
“We are happy and we feel relieved,” said 55-year-old Melinda Abion Lafuente, mother of 22-year-old Angelo Lafuente, who she said was tortured and killed in 2016.
“Duterte’s appearance before the ICC is a testament to the courage and determination of the victims, their families, and Filipino activists and journalists to pursue justice no matter how long it takes,” said Bryony Lau, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Other leaders facing ICC arrest warrants, like Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu, should take note that even those who seem untouchable today can end up in The Hague.”
Duterte’s legal team said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration should not have allowed the global court to take custody of the former leader because the Philippines is no longer a party to the ICC.
“Our own government has surrendered a Filipino citizen — even a former president at that — to foreign powers,” Vice President Sara Duterte, the ex-president’s daughter and a political rival of the current president, said Tuesday before her father was flown out of Manila.
Judges who approved Duterte’s arrest warrant said the court has jurisdiction because the crimes alleged in the warrant were committed before Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the court in 2019.


Kyiv mayor says drones and missiles attack city, triggering fires

Kyiv mayor says drones and missiles attack city, triggering fires
Updated 24 May 2025
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Kyiv mayor says drones and missiles attack city, triggering fires

Kyiv mayor says drones and missiles attack city, triggering fires
  • Officials said anti-aircraft units were in action

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv was coming under a combined drone and missile attack early on Saturday, Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said.
Timur Tkachenko, head of the capital’s military administration, said two fires had broken out in the city’s Sviatoshinskyi district. Drone fragments had hit the ground there and in three other districts.
Officials said anti-aircraft units were in action.
Reuters witnesses reported waves of drones flying over the city, which had been jolted by a series of explosions. 


White House National Security Council hit by more firings, sources say

White House National Security Council hit by more firings, sources say
Updated 24 May 2025
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White House National Security Council hit by more firings, sources say

White House National Security Council hit by more firings, sources say
  • The restructuring of the NSC is expected to grant more authority to the State Department, the Defense Department and other agencies

WASHINGTON: A large restructuring of the White House National Security Council got under way on Friday as President Donald Trump moved to reduce the size and scope of the once-powerful agency, five sources briefed on the matter said.
Staff dealing with a variety of major geopolitical issues were sent termination notices on Friday, said the sources, who requested anonymity as they were not permitted to speak to the media.
The move comes just weeks after Secretary of State Marco Rubio took over from Mike Waltz as national security adviser. The NSC declined to comment.
The restructuring of the NSC is expected to grant more authority to the State Department, the Defense Department and other agencies, the sources said. The aim is to reduce the size of the NSC to just a few dozen people.
The NSC is the main body used by presidents to coordinate national security strategy. Its staff often make key decisions regarding America’s approach to the world’s most volatile conflicts and play a key role in keeping America safe.
The firings will reduce the NSC’s already pared-down staff. The body had more than 300 staffers under Democratic President Joe Biden, but even before the recent firings under Trump was less than half the size of Biden’s NSC.
The NSC staffers who are cut from the agency will be moved to other positions in government, two of the sources told Reuters.


Russia to present peace accord draft after prisoner exchange, Lavrov says

Russia to present peace accord draft after prisoner exchange, Lavrov says
Updated 24 May 2025
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Russia to present peace accord draft after prisoner exchange, Lavrov says

Russia to present peace accord draft after prisoner exchange, Lavrov says
  • Lavrov says Europe encourages Ukrainian drone attacks, seeks to disrupt peace talks
  • Ukraine accuses Moscow of mass drone attacks, says leaders’ meeting should include Trump

MOSCOW: Russia will be ready to hand Ukraine a draft document outlining conditions for a long-term peace accord once a prisoner exchange now under way is completed, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday.
Lavrov, in statements on his ministry’s website, said Russia was committed to working out a peaceful settlement in the more than three-year-old war pitting Moscow against Kyiv.
He also accused Ukraine of launching waves of drone attacks over several days on Russian targets that caused casualties and disrupted air traffic. He suggested European countries had encouraged Kyiv to launch the attacks to undermine peace efforts led by US President Donald Trump.
Russia and Ukraine each released 390 prisoners on Friday and said they would free more in the coming days, an initiative agreed in talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkiye last week.
“We remain committed to a peace settlement. We are always open to talks...and let me stress that we are committed to the agreements that were achieved recently in Istanbul,” Lavrov said.
“We are working actively on the second part of the agreements which call for preparation by each side of a draft document setting out the conditions for achieving a reliable, long-term agreement on a settlement.”
“As soon as the exchange of prisoners of war is completed we will be ready to hand to the Ukrainian side a draft of such a document which the Russian side is now completing.”
Lavrov said the surge of Ukrainian drone attacks — some 800 sent against Russian targets over the last three days — was “a direct consequence” of support for Ukraine by European Union countries whose leaders visited Kyiv in recent days.
“We are certain that they will be held accountable for their share of responsibility for these crimes,” Lavrov said, referring to the European countries.
“This is clearly an attempt to disrupt peace talks and undermine progress made in Istanbul following the agreements between the presidents of Russia and the United States...We will continue this work no matter what provocations there may be.”
Lavrov’s ministry earlier vowed to respond to the attacks.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters that Kyiv was waiting for Russia’s proposals on the form of talks, a ceasefire and a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.
Sybiha, quoted by Ukrainian media, said Kyiv would be in favor of expanding such a meeting to include US President Donald Trump.

“We believe that this meeting could take place in an expanded format,” Sybiha was quoted as saying. “We would like very much for President Trump to be included.”
Upsurge nin drone strikes
Ukraine has offered little comment on the drone strikes, though it acknowledged hitting a battery plant on Friday in Russia’s central Lipetsk region.
Ukraine has also accused Russia of staging periodic mass drone attacks. One such attack on Sunday, described as the largest in the three-year-old war, destroyed homes and killed one woman.
Authorities in Ukraine’s southern city of Odesa accused Russia of striking port infrastructure with missiles on Friday, killing two people.
Prosecutors in eastern Donetsk region, the focal point of the war’s frontline, said three people were killed in shelling incidents in different parts of the region.


Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure

Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure
Updated 24 May 2025
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Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure

Sanction on Harvard’s foreign students strikes at the heart of the university’s global allure
  • Students say their hopes and dreams are at stake

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.: For students around the world, an acceptance letter to Harvard University has represented the pinnacle of achievement, offering a spot among the elite at a campus that produces Nobel Prize winners, captains of industry and global leaders.
That allure is now in jeopardy. In its intensifying fight with the White House, Harvard was dealt its heaviest blow yet on Thursday, when the government blocked the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students. The move threatens to undermine Harvard’s stature, its revenue and its appeal among top scholars around the world.
Even more than the government’s $2.6 billion in research cuts, the administration’s action represents an existential threat for Harvard. The school summed it up in a lawsuit seeking to block the action: “Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.”
Within hours of the decision, the consequences started becoming clear. Belgium’s Princess Elisabeth, who just finished her first year in a Harvard graduate program, is waiting to find out if she can return next year, the royal palace said. The Chinese government publicly questioned whether Harvard’s international standing will endure.
“The relevant actions by the US side will only damage its own image and international credibility,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing in Beijing.
A federal judge on Friday blocked the administration’s decision as the lawsuit plays out, but the order is only temporary.
Students say their hopes and dreams are at stake
On the Harvard campus, international students said they were stunned, confused and deeply concerned about what the revocation means for their degrees, their future plans and their legal status in the United States.
Walid Akef, a Harvard graduate student in art history from Egypt, said the Trump administration action would cost him “dreams, hopes and 20 years of my life.”
“Coming to Harvard, I’m not exaggerating. I planned for it for 15 years,” Akef said. He earned two master’s degrees and learned multiple languages before arriving at the university. He also worries what the changes will mean for his family, since his wife is pregnant and will soon be unable to travel.
“So this is absolutely disastrous. I’m going to lose not just stability, but I also lose my dreams and then lose, I don’t know, my beautiful life.”
Akef is cautiously optimistic that Harvard “will take care of this,” but he is also considering other options as US policy becomes increasingly inhospitable to foreign students.
A graduating law student from Asia said he had planned to stay in the United States and find work, “but not anymore.”
“I don’t know what I’ll do, but my future doesn’t appear to be here,” said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
Changes could erase a quarter of the student body
With a $53 billion endowment, Harvard has the means to weather federal funding losses that would cripple other institutions. But this new sanction strikes at the heart of its campus.
Already, the change is causing disarray, as thousands of students consider whether to transfer elsewhere or risk being in the country illegally. It could wipe out a quarter of the university’s total student body, while halving some of its graduate schools and threatening students who work as lab researchers and teaching assistants. Some sports teams would be left nearly empty.
For many, it has been a time of panicked calls home and huddles with fellow international students. For Kat, a data science math student from China, the news comes as she prepares to graduate from Harvard next week.
“My biggest fear is whether I would get deported immediately, because we’re not sure about our status,” said Kat, who spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her first name out of concern about retaliation.
If the government’s action stands, Harvard would be banned from admitting new international students for at least two school years. Even if it regains its place as a global magnet, top students may shy away for fear of future government reprisals, the school said in its lawsuit.
The university enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Boston. India and China send more students to the US than any other countries.
Asked if he was considering restrictions on other universities, President Donald Trump said, “We’re taking a look at a lot of things.”
“Harvard’s going to have to change its ways. So are some others,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office. He added, “We don’t want troublemakers here.”
A time to weigh other opportunities
In its court filing, Harvard listed some of its most notable alumni who enrolled as foreign students. The list includes Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan; Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the former president of Liberia; Empress Masako of Japan; and many leaders of major corporations.
While foreigners set to graduate from Harvard next week can still do so, the remaining current students and those bound for the university in the fall were weighing other opportunities. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, for one, said Friday that it would welcome international students already at Harvard and those who have been admitted.
“It feels like my world has exploded,” said Fang, a Chinese student who was accepted to Harvard for a master’s program. She also spoke on the condition that only her first name be used out of fear that she could be targeted.
Her student visa to the US was approved the day before the latest Harvard news broke. “If America becomes a country that doesn’t welcome me, I don’t want to go there.”
The action has dominated news in countries around the world, said Mike Henniger, president and CEO of Illume Student Advisory Services, a company that works with colleges in the US, Canada and Europe to recruit international students. He is currently traveling in Japan and awoke to the news Friday with dozens of emails from colleagues.
The reactions from the international community, he said, were incredulous: “’Unbelievable!’ ‘Oh My God!’ ‘Unreal!’“
For incoming freshmen who just got accepted to Harvard — and already committed — the timing could not be worse, but they are such strong students that any top university in the world would want to offer them a spot, he said.
“I think the bigger story is the students around the country that aren’t a Harvard student, the students that scraped by to get into a state university and are thinking: ‘Are we next?’” he said. “The Harvard kids are going to be OK. It’s more about the damage to the American education brand. The view of the US being a less welcoming place for international students.”

 


UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents

UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents
Updated 24 May 2025
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UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents

UN refugee agency fears more than 400 fleeing Rohingya died this month in separate boat incidents
  • UNHCR said it has collected reports from family members and others of two separate boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar
  • About 1 million Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are in camps in Bangladesh after leaving Myanmar

GENEVA: The UN refugee agency said Friday it fears that 427 Rohingya fleeing Myanmar and a refugee camp in Bangladesh may have died at sea this month.
UNHCR said it has collected reports from family members and others of two separate boat tragedies off the coast of Myanmar in May. It acknowledged that details remained unclear but that enough information has been collected and verified to bring the incidents to light publicly.
About 1 million Rohingya, who are predominantly Muslim, are in camps in Bangladesh after leaving Myanmar. They include about 740,000 who fled a brutal “clearance campaign” in 2017 by Myanmar’s security forces, who were accused of committing mass rapes and killings.
A first boat that left from a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, and traveled to Rakhine State in neighboring Myanmar to pick up more people sank on May 9, with only 66 survivors among a total of 267 people on board, UNHCR said.
The Geneva-based agency said reports indicated a second boat with 247 people on board that made a similar journey capsized a day later, with only 21 survivors.
“Reports have been coming in and it has been very hard to confirm what has happened, but the fear is that this number of people may have lost their lives at sea in the region,” said UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch.
“Before these two tragedies, some 30 Rohingya were reported to have died or gone missing in boat journeys in 2025,” he said. “So if confirmed, this is a huge jump.”
Thousands of Rohingya each year attempt to cross the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea, and often the fates of those who have gone missing go unexplained. Even when officials knew the boats’ locations, maritime authorities to rescue some of them have gone ignored, UNHCR has said.
A total of 657 people died or went missing in the regional waters in more than 150 boat journeys by fleeing Rohingya last year, UNHCR said.
The recent monsoon season brought perilous maritime conditions including strong winds, rain and rough seas, UNHCR said, adding that it was investigating reports about the fate of a third boat carrying 188 Rohingya that left Myanmar on May 14.
Many Rohingya have fled by sea to Indonesia, which has reported an increase in the number of Rohingya refugees in recent months.