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There has been a strategic battle taking place in the South China Sea this year between China and the Philippines. As you probably know, China has laid claim to most of the South China Sea and over the past decade has been using a strategy called the cabbage strategy to gradually claim individual islands.The cabbage strategy involves surrounding islands with Chinese boats like the leaves of a cabbage. China starts with fishing vessels, dozens of which anchor around an island or shoal making it difficult for any other vessels to approach. Once that’s done, Chinese Coast Guard vessels move in...

An image posted on Facebook by a man who claims he served Stephen Paddock room service shows that the gunman was with a guest during his time at the Mandalay Bay hotel four days before the massacre took place. The receipt shows an employee named Antonio served two guests an “IRD_MB,” which means “In Room Dining, Mandalay Bay.” The table number is “32135” – which equates to Paddock’s room number (135) on the 32nd floor. Paddock ordered a burger, a bagel with cream cheese, a potato soup, one bottle of water and two Pepsis, suggesting that there was another person...

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — The Philippine government summoned China’s ambassador on Monday and presented a strongly worded diplomatic protest over the Chinese coast guard’s use of water cannons in a weekend confrontation with Philippine vessels in the disputed South China Sea, officials said. The tense hours-long standoff occurred Saturday near Second Thomas Shoal, which has been occupied for decades by Philippine forces stationed onboard a rusting, grounded navy ship but is also claimed by China. It was the latest flareup in long-seething territorial conflicts in the South China Sea involving China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei. The United...

On July 28, Fujian Province was struck by the year's most powerful typhoon, which brought with it strong winds and torrential rainfall that swept across the region. The province faced an unprecedented deluge, leading to severe flooding and presenting significant challenges to local authorities and residents.

Stone tools found in the Philippines show microscopic evidence of some of Southeast Asia’s oldest plant technology, dating back 33,000 to 39,000 years ago.Unlike stone tools, prehistoric technology that uses plant fibres (like textiles and woven baskets) rarely survive very long in the archaeological record before breaking down. This is especially true in the tropics.In Southeast Asia, the oldest artefacts known to date made from plant fibres are about 8,000 years old...Stone tools found in Tabon Cave on the Philippine island of Palawan, are nearly 40,000 years old. Etched onto their hard surfaces are the microscopic marks of damage produced...

Officials have raised the alert level due to various seismic events being recorded. Smoke rises from Mayon volcano as seen from Daraga, Albay province in the Philippines Mayon has increased chances of lava flows and a potential for explosive activity within weeksImage: Caroline Francis via REUTERS Authorities in the Philippines on Friday began evacuating around 10,000 people living near the Mayon Volcano after volcanic earthquakes and hundreds of rockfall events were detected. Mount Mayon is situated in the eastern province of Albay, some 330 kilometers south of the Filipino capital of Manila. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs)...

A former special education teacher at Española Valley High School pleaded no contest in state District Court in Tierra Amarilla to three charges stemming from an incident in which she was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage student. Makana Masacayan, 26, was arrested in June of last year and initially was charged with fourth-degree criminal sexual penetration, fourth-degree criminal sexual contact of a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and enticement of a child. ---------- Masacayan appeared in court wearing a mask and stood next to her attorney, Dorie Biagianti Smith, while entering her plea. She accepted a...

Mission impossible ? Declare it isn't so ! For you are My Joseph and Daniels that will always go !!! Being the spear head and sword I can always count on, Deep behind enemy lines defeating and then carrying on, Bringing the spoils of the enemy, Back to the righteous for all to see, You move with the force of water in the form of The Lord as an invisible mirage, My spirit is your camouflage, Returning from battle with nothing left undone, I AM as your shield of Virtue that the cross has already won, Now to their surprise...

Overcrowding at Santo Tomas caused the Japanese to establish another civilian internment camp at Los Baños, some 25 miles southeast of Manila, in May 1943. The Japanese sent 800 young men, internees from Santo Tomas, to make the 40-acre site of the abandoned agricultural college habitable. Nash recalled the five-hour train ride in overcrowded, stifling boxcars: “As we stopped at different stations, they [the Japanese guards] would open the doors to let just a little air in. It was suffocating and maliciously unhuman.”On arrival at Los Baños, the internees found primitive conditions; almost everything that could be carried away had...

The U.S. recommitted to a security pact with the Philippines on Monday as concerns grow about China’s influence in the Pacific. Both President Joe Biden and leader Ferdinand Marcos Jr alluded to pressure from Beijing in a White House visit. The trip marks a sharp turnaround after a decade of icier relations with Manila. "The United States also remains ironclad, remains ironclad in our commitment to the defense of the Philippines, including the South China Sea. And we are going to continue to support the Philippines' military modernization goals." A joint statement said new guidelines for stronger military ties meant...

Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines, has said he will not allow his country to become a “staging post” for military action ahead of a four-day official visit to Washington DC for security talks. Mr Marcos’s official visit will be the first by a Philippine president in more than 10 years and comes amid heightened tensions between the United States and China as they compete for strategic advantage in the Indo-Pacific. Manila has recently faced Beijing’s ire after granting the US access to four additional Filipino military bases. The move gives American forces a stronger foothold in locations close...

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged a Kenyan man with plotting to stage an attack in the style of Sept. 11 at the direction of al-Shabaab, a terrorist group that serves as al Qaeda’s principal wing in East Africa. Cholo Abdi Abdullah, 30 years old, traveled to the Philippines in 2016 to train as a pilot and researched how to hijack an aircraft in preparation for crashing a commercial aircraft into a building in the U.S., Manhattan federal prosecutors said. They said he acted at the direction of an unidentified senior al-Shabaab commander who was also responsible for planning a 2019...

Cholo Abdi Abdullah Obtained Pilot Training and Researched How to Hijack Aircraft in Order to Conduct a 9/11-Style Attack at the Direction of al ShabaabThe Department of Justice announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Cholo Abdi Abdullah with six counts of terrorism-related offenses arising from his activities as an operative of the foreign terrorist organization al Shabaab, including conspiring to hijack aircraft in order to conduct a 9/11-style attack in the United States. Abdullah was arrested in July 2019 in the Philippines on local charges, and was subsequently transferred on Dec. 15, 2020 in connection with his deportation from...

The U.S. and the Philippines began their largest joint combat exercises in decades Tuesday, making a show of force on land as well as in the disputed South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. It’s a clear message to the Chinese as Washington has repeatedly warned the CCP over its aggressive actions in the area.From ABC News:The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan — Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder” — will run up to April 28 and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. It will be the latest display of American firepower in Asia, as the Biden administration strengthens...

The US drills had been earlier planned. Filipino and US officials say the drills show their commitment to peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region that is open and free. Washington announced last month that their annual Balikatan exercise with the Philippines would be their largest ever - involving more than 17,000 troops, including 12,000 from the US. The two-week Balikatan operation will also see the militaries execute a drill to blow up a mock target warship in the South China Sea - a move that could incur China's wrath. The exercises, however, should not be viewed as a response...

In the aftermath, the Trump administration signed off on a bump-stock ban that went into effect in 2018. It’s been challenged in the courts. We never got a solid motive for Paddock’s rampage, only a lot of conjecture. Every avenue regarding this investigation wound up being a dead end. For years, we knew nothing about Paddock’s motivations for committing mass murder until now, but skepticism abounds as the new theory is that the casinos were mistreating him. After nearly a decade of investigating, Paddock committed the worst mass shooting by a single person in US history because he felt disrespected...

In the year of our Lord 1521, on Easter Sunday, March 31, the first Mass on what would later be known as the Philippine archipelago was said on a small island known as Limasawa. Little did those attending that Mass realize that the seed planted that day would blossom into a brilliant faith that, 500 years later, would make the Philippines one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in the world. An account of that epochal event exists, written by Antonio Pigafetta, a Venetian accompanying Ferdinand Magellan on his voyage of circumnavigation, who kept a detailed journal of events: Here...

John Hay was President Lincoln's personal secretary, a position that began nearly five decades of public service. A diplomat who served multiple Administrations from Lincoln to Roosevelt, he was a central figure in defining the U.S. foreign policy that would be the basis of the United States role on the world stage in the twentieth century.This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for...

Manila apparently ran out of patience.After a decade of suffering China's aggressive acts against Philippine vessels, fishermen and energy exploration efforts in waters within the archipelago country's Exclusive Economic Zone, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently welcomed an expanded US military presence.Marcos now has responded to continued Chinese belligerence by granting US forces access to five additional military bases on Philippine territory.In a direct rebuke to China, two of these new bases are on Palawan, one of the disputed Spratly Islands, which are also claimed, as is much else, by Communist China.Philippine officials have failed to persuade China to abide by...

A Philippines court has issued an international arrest warrant for Bill Gates, as part of an investigation into the Covid-19 vaccination roll-out in the territory. Excess deaths have spiked in the aftermath of the vaccination drive in the Philippines with hundreds of thousands of citizens dying unnecessarily and many more injured and maimed, according to prosecutors. The judge said Gates, as the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is “wanted in connection with hundreds of thousands of deaths, a number which cannot be estimated at present and is certain to increase exponentially in time. The Philippines had already...