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.


Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after occupying University of Washington building

Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after occupying University of Washington building
Updated 06 May 2025
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Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after occupying University of Washington building

Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested after occupying University of Washington building
  • Students demanded that the university sever all ties with Boeing, including returning any Boeing donations and barring the company’s employees from teaching
  • The arrests come amid a Trump administration crackdown on international students who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges and universities

SEATTLE: Police arrested about 30 pro-Palestinian protesters who occupied a University of Washington engineering building and demanded the school break ties with Boeing.
Students from the group Super UW moved into the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building in Seattle on Monday evening and unofficially renamed it after Shaban Al-Dalou, a teenage engineering student who was killed along with his mother after an Israeli airstrike caused an inferno outside of a Gaza hospital.
The students demanded that the university sever all ties with Boeing, including returning any Boeing donations and barring the company’s employees from teaching at or otherwise influencing the school. Boeing has a factory in nearby Renton that makes commercial and military aircraft, according to its website.
“We’re hoping to remove the influence of Boeing and other manufacturing companies from our educational space, period, and we’re hoping to expose the repressive tactics of the university,” Super UW spokesperson Eric Horford told KOMO News.
Another group dressed in black blocked the front of the building with furniture and used dumpsters to block nearby Jefferson Road.
UW police worked with Seattle police to clear the building at around 10:30 p.m., UW spokesperson Victor Balta said in a statement. About 30 people were taken into custody and charged with trespassing, property destruction and disorderly conduct, he said. Their cases will be referred to the King County prosecutors.
Any students identified will be referred to the Student Conduct Office, Balta said.
The arrests come amid a Trump administration crackdown on international students who took part in pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges and universities.

More than 1,000 students at 160 colleges, universities and university systems have had their visas revoked or their legal status terminated since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, correspondence with school officials and court records.


Appeals court to hear cases of 2 university students, one detained, the other recently released

Appeals court to hear cases of 2 university students, one detained, the other recently released
Updated 06 May 2025
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Appeals court to hear cases of 2 university students, one detained, the other recently released

Appeals court to hear cases of 2 university students, one detained, the other recently released
  • Immigration court proceedings for Ozturk and Mahdawi are being conducted separately
  • The appeals court paused that order last week in order to consider the government’s motion

NEW YORK: A federal appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in the cases of a Turkish Tufts University student who has been detained by immigration authorities for six weeks and a Palestinian student at Columbia University who was recently released from detention.
A three-judge panel of the US 2nd Circurt Court of Appeals, based in New York, is expected to hear motions filed by the US Justice Department regarding Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawi. The department is appealing decisions made by two federal judges in Vermont. It also wants to consolidate the students’ cases, saying they present similar legal questions.
Immigration court proceedings for Ozturk and Mahdawi are being conducted separately.
A district court judge in Vermont had ordered that Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student, be brought to the state from a Louisiana immigration detention center by May 1 for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.
The appeals court paused that order last week in order to consider the government’s motion.
Congress limited federal-court jurisdiction over immigration matters, the Justice Department said. It said an immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction over Ozturk’s case.
Immigration officials surrounded Ozturk as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to the detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university’s response to student activists demanding that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group.
The government is also challenging another judge’s decision to release Mahdawi from detention in Vermont on April 30. Mahdawi led protests at Columbia University against Israel’s war in Gaza. He was arrested by immigration officials during an interview about finalizing his US citizenship.
Mahdawi, 34, has been a legal permanent resident for 10 years. He was in a Vermont state prison since April 14. In his release order, US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford said Mahdawi has raised a “substantial claim that the government arrested him to stifle speech with which it disagrees.”
Mahdawi’s release allows him to travel outside his home state of Vermont and attend graduation next month in New York. He recently completed coursework at Columbia and planned to begin a master’s degree program there in the fall.


Canada ‘never for sale’, Carney tells Trump

Canada ‘never for sale’, Carney tells Trump
Updated 13 min 1 sec ago
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Canada ‘never for sale’, Carney tells Trump

Canada ‘never for sale’, Carney tells Trump
  • Mark Carney, speaking in front of reporters alongside Trump at the White House, said Canada was ‘not for sale, won’t be ever’
  • Trump: ‘We had another little blow-up with somebody else, that was much different — this is a very friendly conversation’

WASHINGTON: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told US President Donald Trump that his country was “never for sale” Tuesday as they met at the White House amid tensions on tariffs and sovereignty.

In their first Oval Office meeting, Trump insisted to the recently elected Carney that it would be a “wonderful marriage” if Canada agreed to his repeated calls to become the 51st US state.

But despite Trump’s claims of friendly relations, the body language became increasingly tense between the 78-year-old Republican and the 60-year-old Canadian leader.

“As you know from real estate, there are some places that are never for sale,” Carney told property tycoon Trump, comparing Canada to the Oval Office itself and to Britain’s Buckingham Palace.

“Having met with the owners of Canada over the course of the campaign in the last several months, it’s not for sale. It won’t be for sale, ever.”

Trump then replied: “Never say never.”

Carney won the Canadian election of April 28 on a pledge to stand up to Trump, warning that ties between the North American neighbors could never be the same.

Trump has sparked a major trade war with Canada with his tariffs while repeatedly making extraordinary calls for the key NATO ally and major trading partner to become part of the United States.

Despite that, the two leaders began their meeting with warm words toward each other.

Twice-elected Trump hailed Carney, whose Liberal Party surged from behind to win the election, for “one of the greatest comebacks in the history of politics, maybe even greater than mine.”

But while they expressed a willingness to work toward a trade deal to end the tariffs, it became clear that common ground would be hard to find.

Carney at points gripped his hands tightly together and his knee jiggled up and down while Trump spoke.

“No. It’s just the way it is,” Trump said when asked if there was anything Carney could say in the meeting that would persuade him to drop car tariffs in particular.

And when the US president pressed his claim that Canadians might one day want to join the United States, Carney raised his hand and pushed back.

“Respectfully, Canadians’ view on this is not going to change on the 51st state,” said Carney.

A visibly tense Trump then referenced his blazing Oval Office row with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February — if only to insist that there would be no repeat.

“We had another little blow-up with somebody else, that was much different — this is a very friendly conversation,” Trump said.

Carney gave a thumbs up to reporters as he left the White House after just over two hours. He is due to give a press conference at 3pm (1900 GMT).

The meeting was highly anticipated after a Canadian election during which Carney vowed that the United States would never “own us.”

Carney has since vowed to remake NATO member Canada’s ties with the United States in perhaps its biggest political and economic shift since World War II.

Trump has slapped general tariffs of 25 percent on Canada and Mexico and sector-specific levies on autos, some of which have been suspended pending negotiations. He has imposed similar duties on steel and aluminum.

The US president inserted himself into Canada’s election early on by calling on Canada to avoid tariffs by becoming the “cherished 51st state.”

Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party had been on track to win the vote but Trump’s attacks, combined with the departure of unpopular premier Justin Trudeau, transformed the race.

Carney, who replaced Trudeau as prime minister in March, convinced voters that his experience managing economic crises made him the ideal candidate to defy Trump.

The political newcomer previously served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and in the latter post he played a key role reassuring markets after the 2016 Brexit vote.

Carney is known for weighing his words carefully but still faced a challenge dealing with the confrontational Trump on the US president’s home turf.

“This is a very important moment for him, since he insisted during the campaign that he could take on Mr.Trump,” Genevieve Tellier, a political scientist at the University of Ottawa, told AFP.

One point in Carney’s favor is that he is not Trudeau, the slick former prime minister whom Trump famously loathed and belittled as “governor” of Canada, she added.


Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided

Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided
Updated 06 May 2025
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Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided

Ukraine’s Zelensky says Russian artillery fire has not subsided
“Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow,” Zelensky said

KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that, according to his top commander, Russian artillery fire had not subsided despite the Kremlin’s proclamation of an Easter ceasefire.
“As of now, according to the Commander-in-Chief reports, Russian assault operations continue on several frontline sectors, and Russian artillery fire has not subsided,” Zelensky wrote on the social media platform X.
“Therefore, there is no trust in words coming from Moscow.”
He recalled that Russia had last month rejected a US-proposed full 30-day ceasefire and said that if Moscow agreed to “truly engage in a format of full and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act accordingly — mirroring Russia’s actions.”
“If a complete ceasefire truly takes hold, Ukraine proposes extending it beyond the Easter day of April 20,” Zelensky wrote.

Kyiv calls on foreign troops not to take part in Russia’s May 9 parade

Kyiv calls on foreign troops not to take part in Russia’s May 9 parade
Updated 06 May 2025
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Kyiv calls on foreign troops not to take part in Russia’s May 9 parade

Kyiv calls on foreign troops not to take part in Russia’s May 9 parade
  • “The Russian army has committed and continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine,” Kyiv’s foreign ministry said
  • “These people are not liberators of Europe, they are occupiers and war criminals“

KYIV: Ukraine warned Tuesday against any foreign troop participation in Russia’s May 9 parade to mark 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany, saying it would be “unacceptable” and seen as helping Moscow “whitewash its war crimes.”
A handful of countries have in recent years sent their militaries to take part in Russia’s traditional May 9 parade — a showpiece event that has become the country’s most important public holiday under President Vladimir Putin’s quarter-century in power.
“The Russian army has committed and continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine on a scale that Europe has not seen since World War II,” Kyiv’s foreign ministry said.
“It is this army that will march on Red Square in Moscow on May 9. These people are not liberators of Europe, they are occupiers and war criminals.”
Kyiv said marching with Russian soldiers would be considered as “sharing responsibility” for Moscow’s actions during its three-year Ukraine invasion.
“To march side by side with them is to share responsibility for the blood of murdered Ukrainian children, civilians and military, not to honor the victory over Nazism.”
Ukraine was one of the most devastated countries during World War II, with Kyiv saying it “touched every Ukrainian family.”
The foreign ministry also said that six million Ukrainians fought in the Red Army — with five million Ukrainian civilians killed and three million Ukrainian troops.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin attributed the victory over Nazism in Europe as a feat primarily achieved by the Russian nation.
Central Asian troops have often taken part in the Moscow parade.
The Kremlin has this year not ruled out that North Korean soldiers could take part for the first time, after Pyongyang’s troops helped Moscow oust Ukrainian soldiers from Russia’s Kursk region.