MANILA, 05 January 2023, (TON): Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to boost bilateral ties as their countries signed 14 cooperation agreements after meeting in Beijing.

Marcos’s two-day visit is his first to China since becoming president in June. It comes amid renewed tensions over territorial disputes in the South China Sea and as the two nations try to recover from economic crises linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are hoping that after the pandemic becomes more manageable, that we will not only return to the path that we were on before the pandemic, but that we even build up to greater heights,” Marcos said during his meeting with Xi, as quoted in a statement by his office.

RIYADH, 05 January 2023, (TON): The Saudi Program for the Development and Reconstruction of Yemen (SPDRY) signed a $7.3 million agreement with the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDB) and the Yemeni government to support sustainable development in Yemen.

The deal represented the first phase of the executive program for development cooperation between SPDRY and IsDB, which was signed last year, reported Saudi Press Agency.

The program aims to fund and implement projects in key economic sectors that create jobs for Yemeni youth and alleviate poverty.

LONDON, 05 January 2023, (TON): Cabinet Office seeks views on a proposal to support fast, safe and secure departmental data sharing to enable access to online government services.

The consultation, which will run for 8 weeks, focuses on amending existing legislation to make it easier for citizens to prove their identity by supporting data-sharing and identity reuse across government.

It will do this by strengthening the legal basis for public sector data-sharing for identity verification purposes.

As part of the GOV.UK One Login programme, the Government Digital Service (GDS), part of the Cabinet Office, is collaborating with departments to build a single sign-on and identity checking solution for all public services, called GOV.UK One Login.

MOSCOW, 04 January 2023, (TON): Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday blamed the illegal use of mobile phones by its soldiers for a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that it said killed 89 servicemen, raising the reported death toll significantly.

Moscow previously said 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the weekend strike. The ministry’s reaction came amid mounting anger among some Russian commentators, who are increasingly vocal about what they see as a half-hearted campaign in Ukraine.

Most of the anger on social media was directed at military commanders rather than Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has not commented publicly on the attack which was another blow after major battlefield retreats in recent months.

ISTANBUL, 04 January 2023, (TON): Turkey hosted the leaders of Syria s opposition in a bid to assuage their concern following its overtures to Damascus.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu tweeted images of his meeting in Ankara with the opposition Syrian National Council chief Mahmut al-Maslat and other leaders.

The talks came less than a week after the defence chiefs of Turkey and Syria held landmarks negotiations in Moscow the first such meeting since 2011.

LONDON, 04 January 2023, (TON): Britain said on Tuesday it was committed to leading a NATO task force in 2024, dismissing a report by Berlin-based Table.Media that British delays had prompted the German defence ministry to look into extending its leadership beyond 2023.

A spokesperson for Britain s Ministry of Defence said “the UK is ready to honour our commitment to lead NATO Very High Readiness Joint Task Force in 2024 – any suggestion otherwise is completely untrue.”

“NATO is currently reviewing its military plans and force model which may affect their requests to Alliance members,” the spokesperson added.

Citing German army sources, the Table.Media news outlet reported earlier on Tuesday that Britain would take over leadership in 2024 several months later than planned.

MEXICO CITY, 04 January 2023, (TON): Mexico’s defense ministry said on Tuesday it had flown 200 military personnel to the northern border city of Juarez to fight organized crime there, days after a deadly prison riot led to a manhunt for escaped convicts.

They said “authorities also sacked the director of the prison, from which at least 30 inmates escaped.”

State prosecutors in the border state of Chihuahua said Alejandro Alvarado, head of the Juarez prison, had been dismissed, and is also under investigation for his possible role in the jailbreak, alongside others.

On Sunday, 19 people died after gunmen attacked the prison a few miles south of El Paso, Texas, killing guards and inmates and triggering a mass escape that included cartel kingpin Ernesto Alfredo Pinon de la Cruz, also known as “El Neto.”

MOGADISHU, 04 January 2023, (TON): A government-allied militia and a local elder said “two car bombs detonated by militants killed at least 10 people and flattened several houses in central Somalia’s Hiraan region.”

Al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab has been waging an insurgency against Somalia’s government since 2007. It was pushed out of Hiraan last year by government forces and allied clan militias known as macawisley, but has continued to stage attacks.

“We were awoken this morning by two huge explosions,” Ahmed Nur, a local elder, said. “We have seen many houses levelled to the ground. At least 10 people died including civilians, soldiers and macawisley fighters.”

RIYADH, 04 January 2023, (TON): Saudi Arabia in a Cabinet meeting reaffirmed its support for international efforts aimed at reaching a political solution to the Russian-Ukrainian crisis in a way that preserves regional and international stability.

King Salman presided over the Cabinet meeting held at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh.

During the meeting, the Cabinet reviewed talks that took place between the Kingdom and friendly countries over the past few days to consolidate and advance cooperation.

Dr. Issam bin Saad bin Saeed, state minister and Cabinet member for the Shoura Council affairs, said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency that the council discussed several regional and international matters.

BRASILIA, 03 January 2023, (TON): Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was sworn in as Brazil’s president delivering a searing indictment of former far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro and vowing a drastic change of course to rescue a nation plagued by hunger, poverty, and racism.

In a speech to Congress after officially taking the reins of Latin America’s biggest country, the leftist said democracy was the true winner of the October presidential vote when he ousted Bolsonaro in the most fraught election for a generation.

Bolsonaro left Brazil for the United States after refusing to concede defeat, rattled the cages of Brazil’s young democracy with baseless claims of electoral weaknesses that birthed a violent movement of election deniers.