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With the unwinding of the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the utility of Washington’s oldest alliance in the Indo-Pacific hangs in the balance.In February, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the termination of a 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, accusing Washington of “neocolonial” interference in his country’s domestic affairs. As political disagreements continue to fester, recent Chinese actions in the South China Sea underscore the need for a functioning U.S.-Philippines alliance. Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing in Foreign Affairs earlier this month, warned that declining U.S. leadership and mounting global discord, coupled with...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has rolled the dice with a US$ 374 million bid to acquire storied British soccer club Newcastle United. If approved by Britain’s Premier League that nominally maintains a high bar for the qualification of aspiring club owners, Prince Mohammed would have demonstrated that he has put behind him an image tarnished by Saudi conduct of a five-year long war in Yemen, the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, systematic abuse of human rights and, more recently, the kingdom’s badly-timed oil price war with Russia. A successful acquisition would send a message that the kingdom...

While lockdown was underway, some of the leading Pakistani scholars from the Deobandi, Barelvi and Ahle Hadith schools of thought, announced, they were ready to resume daily and Friday prayers in mosques. Most people, suffering loss of livelihood, welcomed the announcement. People, in general, have been convinced by social media of disutility of lockdown of mosques. Social media describes COVID19 as a Zionist conspiracy to pave way for Israel’s world government. Religious scholars on media channels tell people that the virus is a hoax. Some scholar naively suggest Aab-e-Zamzam, Kalongi (black seeds) or Ajwa dates as a cure for it....

Police arrested first-term state Rep. Derek J. Lewis of London early Thursday on a drunken-driving charge. Lewis became belligerent and cursed police during the arrest, according to a citation filed by Gary Mehler, an officer with the Laurel County Sheriff’s office. According to the citation, Mehler was responding to a call on Hatcher Road, which Lewis listed as his address on election records, when he saw a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck sitting against a fence in a ditch. When he stopped to help, Lewis got out of the truck. He was “extremely unsteady” on his feet, almost falling backwards into...

“Real Housewives of Orange County” star Kelly Dodd offered her surprising take on the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, calling it “God’s way of thinning the herd.” On Instagram, Dodd, 44, has suggested she was both tested for COVID-19 and recently traveled on an airplane. Responding to a commenter that took issue with her air travel amid such conditions, the reality star replied, “If it’s dangerous why are the airlines still flying? You think I want to fly? I had to get back, how is that elitist?”

More than 20 years ago, the Dutch Supreme Court approved the assisted suicide of a woman in despair because her children had died. So we shouldn’t be surprised that it has now explicitly approved the forced euthanasia of patients with dementia if they asked to be killed before becoming incompetent. From Reuters: The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that doctors could legally carry out euthanasia on people with advanced dementia who had earlier put their wishes in writing even if they could no longer confirm them because of their illness. What the Reuters story failed to mention — and...

A second coronavirus outbreak could emerge this winter in conjunction with the flu season to make for an even more dire health crisis, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told The Washington Post in an interview. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a story published Tuesday. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.” “We’re going to...

California officials have discovered what are possibly the earliest known coronavirus deaths in the United States. Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that three people who died at home during February and March tested positive for COVID-19 during their autopsies. The deaths took place on Feb. 6, Feb. 17 and March 6. It was previously believed that the first US victim of the virus was a man in Washington state who died on Feb. 29.

Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton is allowing some businesses in his city to reopen this week, provided they are open for appointment only and not to the general public, while also allowing residents to attend religious services in person so long as they observe physical distancing guidelines. The amended disaster declaration signed this week by Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton, still encourages religious services be conducted through remote or virtual methods, but on-site services are no longer prohibited. The latter is a position reinforced by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday who offered guidance on the governor's...

Felt it!

A woman who survived a close-range gunshot wound to the chest was saved because of her silicone breast implants, doctors believe. In a case study published to the SAGE medical journal last week, doctors described how a silicone breast implant deflected a bullet away from a 30-year-old woman’s vital organs. The incident, which took place in 2018 in Toronto, Canada, is one of only a handful of instances recorded in medical literature where a breast implant played a role in saving a patient’s life, and the first recorded instance of a silicone implant doing so, surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue told CNN....

The Senate overwhelmingly passed a near half-trillion-dollar coronavirus bill on Tuesday to replenish a small-business loan program and fund hospitals and testing efforts. The $484 billion bill is the fourth large coronavirus deal since last month — and comes after a political standoff caused a lapse last week in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, which gives businesses loans that will be forgiven if they don’t lay off workers. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sought unsuccessfully to pass a $250 billion expansion of the loan program this month, but was blocked by Democrats who wanted a larger package...

Fitness apparel brand Lululemon is apologizing after a senior staffer promoted a T-shirt design for “bat fried rice” during the coronavirus pandemic. Senior global art director Trevor Fleming, whose social media accounts now have all been deactivated, posted the design featuring a Chinese takeout box and pair of chopsticks with bat wings on his Instagram on Sunday. The design was created by California artist Jess Sluder who was selling it digitally for $60. “Where did COVID-19 come from? Nothing is certain, but we know a bat was involved,” the artist wrote in a post of the design online.

President Trump on Tuesday wished North Korean leader Kim Jong Un well during the White House's coronavirus press briefing after being asked about the dictator's reportedly deteriorating health. Fox News' Bret Baier inquired about Kim's medical status after it has been reported that the rogue nation's leader underwent a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. "Well, these are reports that came out, and we don't know. We don't know," Trump said. "I've had a very good relationship with him. I wouldn't -- You know, I can only say this -- I wish him well. Because if he is in the kind...

A member of the far-left "Squad" of freshmen congresswomen slammed President Trump’s coronavirus response this week, alleging it was “akin to war crimes.” U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., made her allegations in a video posted Monday. Claiming “criminal negligence, science denials, [and] a sluggish response,” on the part of Trump, she said the U.S. was now playing catchup during the pandemic, “which is the last place that you want to be in the midst of any public health crisis.”

After showing up on late-night TV in front of her $24K refrigerators, showing off her $13 ice cream a visibly disheveled, filthy-rich Pelosi is back in front of the cameras, this time begging for money.

Earth's last Glacial Maximum period began around 33,000 years ago, when vast ice sheets covered much of the Northern Hemisphere. At the time, the Eurasian ice sheet -- which covered much of Scandinavia -- contained approximately three times the amount of frozen water held in the modern-day Greenland ice sheet. But rapid regional warming saw the ice sheet collapse over a period of just 500 years, according to authors of the study published in Nature Geoscience. Analysing sediment drill cores from the Norwegian Sea, the team found that the ice sheet's collapse contributed to an event known as Meltwater 1A...

Whoopi Goldberg defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after an attack ad juxtaposed her comments about stalling small business funding and her appearance on a late-night comedy show. Goldberg and cohost Joy Behar appeared to claim that because the ice cream in Pelosi’s well-stocked freezer came from a small business, any argument that she was working against small businesses in Congress was invalid. Goldberg began by airing the attack ad, which showed part of an interview Pelosi did for “The Late Late Show” with James Corden alongside her comments about stalling Republican efforts to pass a boost to the Paycheck Protection...

Most Social Security recipients will be paid automatically, but there are some big exceptions. The U.S. Treasury Department recently announced that Social Security beneficiaries who aren't typically required to file a tax return won't need to take any special action to get a $1,200 stimulus payment. Because of this, most Social Security beneficiaries don't have to take any special action -- the payment will be automatically paid in the same manner as their Social Security benefits. On the other hand, there are some Social Security recipients who may still need to take action, especially if they want to maximize the...

Award-winning journalist John Solomon obtained a 2019 letter House Intel Chairman Adam (D-CA) sent then-Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats revealing how he secretly hid dozens of transcripts in Obama’s Spygate scandal. The transcripts in question pertain to the ‘Russian collusion’ investigation. In September of 2018, the GOP-led House, with bipartisan support, voted to make public the transcripts of 53 witnesses in the bogus Russia probe. Here we are 19 months later and the transcripts are still hidden from the public even though US Intelligence has declassified and cleared for release. he reason? Adam Schiff has been able to keep...