📰 News & Current Affairs

Critical supplies of life-saving medicines have been blocked and children left without food and battling malnutrition as multiple effects were reported across the globe after Elon Musk resolved to shut down the US government’s pre-eminent international aid agency. Countless aid organisations have already been forced to close down or lay off staff. Analysis confirms that several thousand women and girls are likely to die from complications during pre̾gnancy and childbirth as a direct result of Trump’s order to freeze aid to the agency for 90 days. Source: Deaths predicted amid the chaos of Elon Musk’s shutdown of USAid

"The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too," Trump told reporters. "We'll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site." "If it's necessary, we'll do that, we're going to take over that piece, we're going to develop it, create thousands and thousands of jobs, and it'll be something that the entire Middle East can be very proud of," Trump added. Asked who would live there, Trump said it could become a home to "the world's people." Source: Trump says US will take over Gaza Strip

During the plenary session Monday night, lawmakers voted 190-4 to pass on third reading House Bill 11360, which seeks to amend the National Internal Revenue Code to impose structured tax hikes on ******* products. Under the bill, excise tax rates will increase by 2 percent every even-numbered year starting Jan. 1, 2026, and by 4 percent every odd-numbered year from Jan. 1, 2027, until Dec. 31, 2035. Heated ******* products will be taxed at PHP41 per pack, while *********s and **** products will carry a PHP66.15 levy per pack. The bill also grants the President authority to raise tax rates by up to 5 percent if the national government deficit exceeds the target by 2 percent. Source: House OKs 2 ******* bills to address tax losses...

In the Philippines, the freeze affected dozens of projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department that had yet to wrap up. Of the 39 ongoing projects, 14 were meant to conclude this year, while 25 others were designed to continue until 2026 to as far as 2029, according to publicly available data on US foreign assistance in the Philippines. Data shows USAID and the State Department had already committed $69.7 million (P4.06 billion) in fresh funding for these projects last year before the freeze. Source: America First? Trump aid freeze threatens critical programs in Philippines

More specifically, Lazaro-Javier pointed out that PhilHealth has prioritized investments over program benefits and lower member contributions, while also applying a different internal interpretation of the term “excess reserve funds.” “So, what I am made to understand now is that PhilHealth is not exactly complying with Section 11. That your investment comes from all sources. And then you prioritize investment over the programs that will increase its benefits to the beneficiaries and decrease the amount of members’ contributions. That is what I gathered from your statement,” Lazaro-Javier said during the four-hour-long oral arguments. Source: SC justice: PhilHealth prioritized investments, not benefits

The SC En Banc acted on the petition Tuesday, granting the respondents a non-extendible 10-day deadline to submit their comments. The petitioners argue that Republic Act No. 12116, or the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA), is unconstitutional due to alleged blank items in the bicameral report. Additionally, they claim the budget: fails to allocate mandatory funding for the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), unlawfully increases appropriations beyond the President’s recommendations, and prioritizes infrastructure spending over education Source: SC gives Bersamin, Congress 10 days to answer budget challenge

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is on the cusp of being shuttered, according the Trump administration’s billionaire adviser and Tesla CEO Elon Musk — who has been wrestling for control of the agency in recent days. “It became apparent that its not an apple with a worm it in,” Musk said. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.” “We’re shutting it down.” His comments come after the administration placed two top security chiefs at USAID on leave after they refused to turn over classified material in restricted areas to Musk’s government-inspection teams, a current and a former U.S. official told The Associated Press on Sunday. Source...

Sen. Mark Villar is pushing for mandatory inclusion of Muslim prayer rooms in public offices and establishments through Senate Bill No. 2288. The bill is the proposed Act Mandating the Establishment of Muslim Prayer Rooms in all Public Offices and Establishments. It would mandate all public offices and establishments nationwide to designate and set up at least one separate Muslim prayer room within their premises and take care of its maintenance. Source: Mark Villar pushes for mandatory Muslim prayer rooms in public offices

Commissioned and released by Stratbase Group on Monday, the SWS survey showed that the country’s two highest government officials started the year on “equal footing” with Marcos scoring a 50 percent “much trust” rating while Duterte scored a 49 percent “much trust” rating. Source: SWS trust ratings for Marcos, Duterte continue to drop

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday his government will remove a US missile system from the Philippines if Beijing ends its "aggressive and coercive behavior" in the contested South China Sea and ceases claiming Filipino territory. "I don't understand the comments on the Typhon missiles. We don't make any comments on their missile systems, and their missile systems are a thousand times more powerful than what we have," Marcos told reporters Thursday during a visit to the central city of Cebu. Source: Philippines to remove US missile system if China ends 'coercive behavior'

Petitioners led by former executive secretary Victor Rodriguez and Davao City 3rd District Rep. Isidro Ungab have filed a case before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the General Appropriations Act (GAA) of 2025.The petitioners argued that the 2025 national budget violates several provisions of the Constitution, including: the right to health (PhilHealth zero budget) the prohibition against increasing congressional appropriations beyond the president's recommendations (AKAP, TUPAD causing the budget bloating) he mandate to prioritize education in the national budget (manipulating education budget by merging non-educational agencies) The petition mentions the House of Representatives, the Senate, and Executive...

Source: Marcos admin's Senate slate tops SWS commissioned survey

Two neighboring pawnshops along Calderon Street in downtown Cebu City were robbed by six armed men on Thursday morning, August 8. Source: https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/588914/2-pawnshops-in-downtown-cebu-city-robbed-in-broad-daylight

In an interview posted on social media Saturday, Ungab said that certain budget items for the Department of Agriculture (DA) and unprogrammed appropriations were missing amounts. He emphasized that these gaps couldn’t be attributed to typographical or printing errors. “These are not just ordinary figures; these are billions of pesos… There are many pages like this… This means there is a discrepancy, so how did this discrepancy happen?” said Ungab, a former chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Source: Duterte claims discrepancies on panel report on nat‘l budget - Manila Standard

Joe Biden in the final minutes of his presidency on Monday issued pardons to five more members of his family—his brother James and wife Sarah, his younger sister Valerie Biden Owens and husband John T. Owens, and his brother Francis Biden—after he says they were "subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats" motivated by a desire to hurt him. Source: Biden Pardons Five More Family Members—Minutes Before Leaving Office

The 47th president will set to work almost immediately with a series of presidential decrees intended to drastically reduce the number of migrants entering the country. “First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” Trump said. “All îllégâl entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. “I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,” he said. Source: Trump says to declare national emergency, use military at Mexico border

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to begin the process of withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). Carrying out this executive action on day one makes it more likely the US will formally leave the global agency. The order said the US was withdrawing "due to the organization's mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states". Source: Trump orders US to leave World Health Organization

Some TikTok users reported the app has started working again—just over 12 hours after service was suspended. Trump had announced earlier he will sign an executive order Monday delaying the TikTok ban and called for the platform to be taken over by a joint venture with U.S. and current owners, also urging companies to prevent TikTok from “going dark” and vowing “no liability” for any tech firms that act before Monday. Source: TikTok Ban Live Updates: Trump Says ‘TikTok Is Back’ In Victory Rally As App Restores Access

A cursory reading of the bill readily shows that the bill clashes with the constitutional child-rearing rights of parents over their minor children. This is evident in the bill's provision which provides minors the access to se̾xual and reproductive health care, which is composed of a full range of methods, techniques, services and health facilities — without the need for parental consent. All of this implies that se̾x by minors is permitted under a state policy that substitutes the will of the state over that of the parents. Source: Proposed sexuality education law interferes with parents', schools' rights

4th Quarter of 2024: Bangag Jr. (65% trust) (64% performance) VP Sara (49% trust) (48% performance) Senate President (63% trust) (65% performance) Tambaloslos (58% trust) (59% performance) Source: PBBM retains majority support; VP ratings fall in Q4: OCTA | Philippine News Agency

The plans follows Australia's decision to ban children under 16 from accessing social media, with fines for tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok if they failed to prevent children accessing their platforms. "We discussed how to protect children in digital space," she said in a video uploaded on the YouTube channel of the president's office. "The president said to carry on with this plan. He is very supportive on how this kind of child protection will be done in our digital space," she said. Source: Indonesia plans minimum age for social media use

TikTok plans to shut U.S. operations of its social media app used by 170 million Americans on Sunday, when a federal ban is set to take effect, barring a last-minute reprieve, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. The law signed in April mandates a ban on new TikTok downloads on Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab or Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab app stores if Chinese parent ByteDance fails to divest the site. Users who have downloaded TikTok would theoretically still be able to use the app, except that the law also bars U.S. companies starting Sunday from providing services to enable the distribution, maintenance, or updating of it. Source...

"None," Escudero told ABS-CBN News, when he was asked if the impeachment or any political agenda was discussed during the dinner. "Our respective spouses were also invited and most were there… It was socials," he said. He said the dinner was “chillax” and was originally intended to be held in December. Source: https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/2025/1/15/escudero-no-impeachment-talks-in-senators-chillax-palace-dinner-1102

Meta deleted nonbinary and trans themes for its Messenger app this week, around the same time that the company announced it would change its rules to allow users to declare that LGBTQ+ people are “mentally ill,” 404 Media has learned. Meta did not respond to a request for comment about why the company removed these themes, but the change comes right as Mark Zuckerberg’s company is publicly and loudly shifting rightward to more closely align itself with the views of the incoming Donald Trump administration. Source: Meta Deletes Trans and Nonbinary Messenger Themes

A motorcade was seen leaving the gates of his hillside residence where Yoon has been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire barriers and a small army of personal security. Earlier more than 3,000 police officers and anti-corruption investigators had gathered there before dawn, pushing through throngs of Yoon supporters and members of his ruling People Power Party protesting attempts to detain him. Source: South Korean investigators arrest impeached President Yoon

Even toy guns or replicas are covered by the gun ban imposed in connection with the May 2025 midterm polls, according to the Commission on Elections (Comelec). “Airsofts, Air guns, imitation firearms replicas are included in the ban,” Comelec spokesman John Rex Laudiango said yesterday. Source: Gun ban covers airsoft, gun replicas – Comelec

The House of Representatives would send the wrong signals if it delays the processing of impeachment complaints against Vice President Sara Duterte, former senator Leila de Lima said on Tuesday. De Lima, spokesperson for the first batch of complainants, said in a statement that delaying the impeachment complaints might be taken as tolerating incompetence and abuse of public funds. Source: De Lima: House delaying impeachment vs VP Sara sends wrong signals

After a weekend spent blocking the explosive growth of fires that destroyed thousands of homes and killed at least 24 people in the Los Angeles area, firefighters got a slight break with calmer weather but cast a wary eye on a forecast for yet more wind. The National Weather Service issued red flag warnings for severe fire conditions through Wednesday, with sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (80 kilometers per hour) and gusts in the mountains reaching 70 mph (113 kph). The most dangerous day will be Tuesday, fire behavior analyst Dennis Burns warned during a community meeting on Sunday night. Source: More winds feared as LA wildfire death toll hits 24

44 na libreng online courses, alok ng UP Open University

Yoon was given the scheduled pay rise, according to the civil servant salary table for 2025, even as he remains holed up in the presidential residence using his security detail to resist arrest. The document from the ministry of personnel management, seen by Agence France-Presse on Monday, indicates Yoon’s salary will rise to 262.6m won (£147,000) – a 3% raise compared with last year. Source: South Korea's impeached president gets a pay rise while still resisting arrest

The legal counsel of individuals behind the third impeachment complaint filed against Vice President Sara Duterte gave a rather savage reaction to the huge "peace rally" held in Manila on Monday, Jan. 13. "Filipinos are for peace, but we are NOT stupid," lawyer Amando Virgil Ligutan wrote on X Monday night, the emphasis his. "Peace without justice is no peace. It’s appeasement to greed, corruption, and impunity," he further said. Source: 'We are not naive': Impeachment case lawyer reacts to Iglesia Ni Cristo 'peace rally'