International
Philippines postpones self-rule vote in restive Muslim region
AFP
The Philippine government said Friday it will postpone elections key to ending decades of sectarian bloodshed in a troubled Muslim region, with the pandemic and a stalling peace process blamed for the delay.
The vote was a key provision in a 2014 peace agreement aimed at ending a conflict estimated to have claimed 150,000 lives and was due to take place next May in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
But former rebels from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) group appointed to lead a transitional government have said they needed more time before elections to a local legislature can go ahead and the vote will instead be held in 2025.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte signed… (the bill) yesterday resetting the elections in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao to 2025,” his spokesman Harry Roque told reporters.
The law grants Duterte the authority to appoint members of the 80-member transition authority whose terms would end with the 2025 election, Roque said.
Former MILF rebels have warned that the failure of the peace process would likely draw disillusioned Muslim youths in the region towards the more hardline Islamists still waging an armed campaign in the southern Philippines.
But restrictions imposed because of the pandemic and the transitional government’s inability to draw up an election code had left them with little choice but to delay the poll, Georgi Engelbrecht, senior analyst for the Brussels-based peace monitor International Crisis Group, told AFP last month.
“The extension is not the most perfect solution but nonetheless it’s a start,” he said.
A report by the monitor warned in April that the process of decommissioning the MILF’s 40,000 fighters was “sputtering”, with fewer than a third having laid down their weapons.
And the Duterte government “has been slow to distribute to them the economic packages meant to entice them to cooperate”, it added.
Violence has also persisted despite the peace deal, with radical Islamic groups setting up shop in what remains the poorest part of the country.
In May 2017, hundreds of pro-Islamic State foreign and local gunmen seized Marawi, the country’s largest Muslim city.
The Philippine military wrested back the ruined city after a five-month battle that claimed more than a thousand lives.
An insurgency first emerged in the mainly Catholic Asian nation in the early 1970s as a bid to set up a separate Muslim state in the Mindanao region, though the rebels later scaled down their goals to autonomy.
An earlier peace treaty between Manila and a rival Muslim rebel faction had created a self-ruled area in 1996, but it was hampered by a lack of funding and corruption while the MILF fought on.
The new entity is better-funded and slightly larger. The national government retains police powers.
International
Three Die During World Cup Celebrations in Mexico City After Mexico’s Victory
Three people died in Mexico City while celebrating Mexico’s 2-0 victory over Ecuador at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, local authorities confirmed on Wednesday.
According to the city’s Health Secretariat, the victims—a 44-year-old man, a 48-year-old woman, and a 19-year-old woman—died from asphyxiation following the post-match celebrations.
Emergency services were dispatched to the Juárez district after reports that three people had lost consciousness shortly after Tuesday night’s match.
Paramedics, firefighters, and police officers responded to the scene, where the victims received first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before being transported to a hospital for specialized medical care. Despite the efforts of medical personnel, all three were later pronounced dead.
“We are in contact with their families to provide all the support they need,” Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada Molinasaid in a statement posted on social media.
“With my hand on my heart, I extend my deepest condolences to their loved ones. We once again call on everyone to celebrate with responsibility, care, and empathy,” she added.
Mexico’s victory over Ecuador sparked massive celebrations at the Estadio Azteca and across the capital. Goals from Raúl Jiménez and Julián Quiñones secured the hosts’ place in the Round of 16, where they are set to face either England or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who meet on Wednesday in Atlanta.
Should Mexico advance to the quarterfinals, the team would face either Brazil, coached by Carlo Ancelotti, or Norway.
International
Families Sue Nicolás Maduro in U.S. Over Alleged Extrajudicial Killings
The families of five young Venezuelan men have filed a 44-page civil lawsuit in a U.S. federal court, accusing former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro of ordering extrajudicial executions carried out by the country’s former Special Action Forces (FAES) between 2017 and 2020.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, alleges that the victims were among thousands of people killed under Maduro’s administration by security units, including the FAES, which were dissolved in 2021 following widespread allegations of human rights abuses, including criticism from the United Nations.
Maduro is currently being held in a New York detention facility awaiting trial on U.S. drug trafficking charges after he was removed from power during a U.S. military operation in Venezuela in January.
The complaint argues that the killings followed a well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions allegedly carried out during Maduro’s presidency, which lasted from 2013 to 2026. Throughout his time in office, Maduro faced repeated accusations from international organizations of using state repression to maintain power.
According to the lawsuit, FAES officers arrived at the victims’ neighborhoods before dawn, dressed entirely in black and wearing face coverings. The agents allegedly separated the men from their families before fatally shooting them.
The complaint further alleges that authorities later fabricated official reports claiming the victims had “resisted arrest” in an effort to justify the killings.
“Maduro used the FAES as a political instrument and a mechanism of social control to violently suppress dissent, terrorize low-income communities, and eliminate political opposition,” the lawsuit states.
It also describes the FAES as being “widely regarded as a death squad or extermination group.”
The plaintiffs argue that Venezuela’s judicial system has failed to provide accountability for the killings, preventing the victims’ families from obtaining justice.
For security reasons, the identities of the families remain confidential. They are seeking financial compensation from Maduro under the U.S. Torture Victim Protection Act.
According to The New York Times, Maduro is expected to argue that he is entitled to head-of-state immunity in the civil proceedings.
In the separate criminal case pending against him in the United States, in which he is charged alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, Maduro has described himself as a “prisoner of war.”
He has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges, including conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States and weapons-related offenses.
International
Salvadoran National Arrested in New Jersey with Over 70 Machine Gun Conversion Devices
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of 21-year-old Salvadoran national Erick Márquez Cruz after authorities allegedly discovered more than 70 machine gun conversion devices and other firearm-related components during a search of his residence in North Bergen, New Jersey.
According to the Justice Department, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant on June 25 at Cruz’s home, where they recovered a 3D printer that was allegedly being used to manufacture firearm components. Investigators also seized 17 3D-printed firearm frames, magazines, and more than 70 machine gun conversion devices (MCDs).
Federal authorities explained that the conversion devices, which are classified as machine guns under U.S. law, are designed to convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic weapons capable of firing multiple rounds with a single pull of the trigger.
Cruz has been charged with unlawful possession of a machine gun. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gross financial gain resulting from the offense, whichever is greater.
Three Die During World Cup Celebrations in Mexico City After Mexico’s Victory
Families Sue Nicolás Maduro in U.S. Over Alleged Extrajudicial Killings
Salvadoran National Arrested in New Jersey with Over 70 Machine Gun Conversion Devices
Tec de Monterrey honors one of its students for his contribution to nanotechnology in medicine
Defense Minister commends salvadoran soldier for Central American Cross Country victory
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