(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the creation of an interagency committee to prepare for the commemoration of the 125th anniversary of Philippine independence on June 12. In Administrative Order 8, the President said the committee will "facilitate the planning and execution of programs and projects" for the event. The committee will be headed by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) seconded by the Department of the Interior and Local Government. The committee's members are the Department of Tourism, Department of Education, Department of National Defense, Department of Information and Communications Technology, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Budget and Management, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Transportation, and the Metro Manila Development Authority. The funds for the event will be drawn from the NHCP and the participating government agencies.

In addition to Tarrio, Proud Boys members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy – a plot to oppose the government with force – under a Civil War-era law. Dominic Pezzola, the only one of the five defendants who did not play a leadership role in the Proud Boys, was acquitted of the charge. The trial of the Proud Boys members was the longest of any of those arising from the Capitol attack, with the jury hearing about 50 days of testimony since January. ADVERTISEMENTDuring closing arguments, prosecutor Conor Mulroe said the Proud Boys viewed themselves as a “fighting force lined up behind Donald Trump and ready to commit violence on his behalf” in order to overturn his 2020 election defeat. Defense lawyers told the jury their clients had no plans to attack the Capitol and had traveled to Washington merely to protest.

MANILA, Philippines — The Court of Appeals (CA) has affirmed its decision allowing homeowners of BF Homes in Parañaque City to regulate the entry of non-residents’ vehicles through five roads leading to the subdivision. In the motion, the HSAC insisted that the reclassification of the roads as commercial areas meant that they had become public roads and should be open to all vehicles. However, the CA ruled that El Grande and Aguirre Avenues remain private properties, despite their reclassification as commercial areas by virtue of a Supreme Court ruling in 2007, stressing that the SC did not declare them as public roads. The CA also affirmed the authority of the BFFHAI to regulate passage through the subdivision and village roads under the Magna Carta for Homeowners and Homeowners’ Association. The appeals court noted that BFFHAI has consistently explained that the fees collected are intended for the salary of security guards, maintenance of the roads and payment of real property taxes.

BloombergAn affiliate of Chinese state-backed developer Sino-Ocean (3377) is adding to a wave of debt extensions among Chinese builders by seeking to delay a coupon payment as liquidity worsens further in the real estate sector. Sino-Ocean Capital is proposing to set back its interest payment to October instead of April for its 6 percent dollar notes maturing in October, a consent solicitation document shows. The proposal would require approval from creditors holding at least 75 percent of the note's outstanding value, the document says. The development suggests weaker support from Sino-Ocean Group, China's 24th largest builder by sales, which holds a 49 percent stake in Sino-Ocean Capital, and raises questions about the ability of the major shareholder to service its own debt. Sino-Ocean Capital is also facing a winding-up petition in Hong Kong filed by Great Wall International Investment VIII, and a court hearing has been scheduled for June 7.

DUBONA, Serbia — A gunman was on the loose on Friday after killing eight people and wounding 13 others near Belgrade, local media reported, the second deadly mass shooting around the Serbian capital in two days. The shooting comes less than 48 hours after a 13-year old boy shot dead nine and injured seven at a school in Belgrade before turning himself in. Inside the village of Dubona near Mladenovac, a Reuters witness saw heavily armed police establishing a checkpoint and searching incoming traffic. Nation in mourningThe Balkan nation begins three days of official mourning on Friday following its first mass school shooting on Wednesday. RELATED STORIES5 killed, 20 injured in cafe shooting in Serbia13 people killed in shooting spree in SerbiaYour subscription could not be saved.

MANILA, Philippines — Share prices rallied back into the green yesterday after the US central bank hiked its key rate to a 16-year high but hinted at a possible pause to its streak of 10 consecutive rate increases. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 index fell 0.7 percent on Wednesday after the Fed announced a 0.25 percentage point increase in its lending rate. The Fed dropped a reference to “additional policy firming” in its statement but stopped short of declaring an end to rate hikes. “The key takeaway, in my view, is that we are likely at or very near the end of the rate hike cycle,” Kristina Hooper of Invesco said in a report. Traders expect the Fed to start cutting rates as early as this year to prop up weakening economic growth.

(UPDATE) WASHINGTON: United States Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin 3rd assured President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the US military's support in dealing with China's aggressive actions in the South China Sea. Austin made the commitment during Marcos' visit to the Pentagon on Wednesday. Austin also echoed President Joe Biden's message that the US' commitment to defend the Philippines, as stipulated in the 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty, "is ironclad." Austin and Marcos' meeting with key defense officials of both governments caps the Philippine leader's agenda to expand discussions on the defense pacts between Washington and Manila. The guidelines were presented to Marcos during his visit to the Pentagon.

LOS ANGELES: Carrie Fisher is receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a May the Fourth tribute to one of the "Star Wars" franchise's most beloved figures. Fans have long campaigned for her to receive a Walk of Fame star. Devotees worldwide celebrate with a variety of tributes, while retailers hold special sales on Star Wars merchandise. Fisher will be given the 2,754th star on the Walk of Fame. Walk of Fame stars are given to performers who are nominated and a $75,000 fee is now required to create the star and maintain it.

A 22-year-old man was arrested on Wednesday after a video taken by his wife showed her choking his Alaskan Malamute at their Shatin home. In the video, the man can be seen using the lid of a cage trying to suffocate the Malamute, with the animal’s neck stuck between the cage and the lid. It is understood the video was first shared by the man’s wife on a WhatsApp chat group, with the couple asking for tips to “educate” their pet dog. The video then circulated online, with a concerned citizen eventually filing a report to the police of the suspected animal abuse. Further investigation found evidence of animal abuse, leading to the arrest of the man on suspicion of cruelty to animals.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the US may run out of cash by June 1 unless the debt ceiling is raised. In 1960, exasperated by the government’s propensity to borrow, the US Congress imposed a debt ceiling. Since then, the debt ceiling has been raised or revised 78 times – or more than once a year. The imposition of a debt ceiling gives the US Congress strong leverage over the policies pursued by the executive branch. It will probably require volumes to analyze all the factors that converged to create this social media carnival.

NEW YORK CITY: Regulators have barely written the epitaph for First Republic Bank, but investors on Wall Street have already moved onto speculating which bank might be the next to fail. Bank stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, led downward by smaller banks with heavy exposure to uninsured deposits and commercial banks such as Western Alliance Bank, PacWest Bancorp, Comerica and Zions Bank. Shares of Western Alliance dropped 15 percent and PacWest fell 28 percent, with trading of both stocks halted briefly due to high volatility. The second day of bank stock declines comes after regulators closed First Republic Bank on Monday and sold the vast majority of its operations to JPMorgan Chase in a fire sale. It was the second-largest bank failure in US history and the third bank failure in six weeks, following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

Here is a who’s who in Charles and Camilla’s “modern family”. The ex-husbandAndrew Parker Bowles, 83, was a page at the coronation of Charles’s mother Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. Parker Bowles is a widower after the death of his second wife. Tom Parker Bowles: Camilla and her first husband’s son, 48, is Charles’s godson and speaks highly of the monarch. Freddy Parker Bowles, 13, is Camilla’s grandson and will be one of her pages, alongside Laura Lopes’s 12-year-old twin boys Gus and Louis.

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY — Days after dive yacht M/Y Dream Keeper sank in the waters of Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park on April 30, search and rescue teams have yet to find its four missing passengers, the Coast Guard said Monday, May 1. He told reporters that the boat sank some 4 nautical miles northeast of the reefs’ north atoll. The dive yacht, which departed from San Remegio, Cebu on April 27, arrived on Tubbataha Reefs around 10 p.m. on Saturday. Labay further explained that considering the depth of the waters where the yacht sank, it was not possible to conduct a dive search. GERALDFORD TICKE INQRELATED STORIES28 rescued, 4 missing as boat sinks in Tubbataha ReefTwo Edca sites used during rescue efforts to find divers in Tubbataha …Dive yacht sinks near Tubbataha; 28 rescued, 4 still missinglzbYour subscription could not be saved.

4 MRT-3 passengers injured after emergency brakes usedPhoto of workers enjoying a free ride at the MRT-3 during Labor Day, May 1, 2023MANILA, Philippines — Passengers of the Manila Metro Rail Transit System Line 3 (MRT-3) were hurt Wednesday morning after the train system activated one of its safety features. "Four passengers who sustained minor injuries are also already being provided with first aid by Lifeline emergency medical technicians (EMTs)." "Assistant Secretary for Railways and MRT-3 Officer-in-Charge Jorjette B. Aquino, on behalf of MRT-3, wishes to extend her utmost apology to all affected passengers, for the inconvenience brought about by the incident," added the MRT-3 system. "Stations and security personnel have been instructed to provide all assistance to the passengers on-board the train when its emergency brake was activated." The MRT-3 system offered it's "libreng sakay" program for workers last Monday, Labor Day, with the line servicing 23,527 people that day.

In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Arvind Krishna said that his company would enact a pause in hiring in those roles, and potentially reduce the payroll by 7,800 jobs over several years. "I could easily see 30 percent of that getting replaced by AI and automation over a five-year period." "We're being very selective when filling jobs that don't directly touch our clients or technology," the IBM spokesman added. On Monday, Geoffrey Hinton, sometimes considered the godfather of AI, announced that he was leaving Google's industry-leading AI research team and criticized Microsoft for moving too quickly in making ChatGPT-style technology available. Hinton said that competition between tech giants was pushing companies to release new AI technologies at dangerous speeds, threatening jobs and posing a danger to society.