The recent incident in the South China Sea has significantly escalated tensions between the Philippines and China. The Philippines accused China of using bladed weapons against its coast guard near the Second Thomas Shoal, a contested area in the Spratly Islands. This clash, part of ongoing aggressive interactions in the resource-rich waterway, raises concerns about a potential conflict involving the United States due to its mutual defence treaty with the Philippines.
The Philippine military reported that Chinese coast guard officers attacked Filipino soldiers, damaged their rubber boat, and looted equipment. In response, China reasserted its territorial claims and accused the Philippines of carrying smuggled weapons. The incident has drawn sharp international reactions, with the U.S. condemning China’s actions and reaffirming its commitment to the Philippines.
This clash highlights the volatile nature of South China Sea disputes and the risk of minor incidents escalating into major conflicts involving significant powers. China’s aggressive tactics appear to test the boundaries of Philippine and U.S. responses, raising the stakes in an already tense regional situation.
Belize City resident, forty-eight-year-old Doris Grant, is on her way to prison. She was arraigned today after being criminally charged with being a member of a gang.
Thirty-one-year-old Austin Underwood was also charged with being a member of a gang. Both are said to have connections to the Southside Gangsters of Belize City, with Underwood said to be one of the reputed gang bosses, allegedly.
While on her way to prison, Grant said, “See how they chance people, police.”
Grant and Underwood are expected to reappear in court on July 31st, 2024.
The University of Belize Faculty and Staff Union (UBFSU) has come out swinging at the ruling PUP government in a press release dated Monday, June 17th. The union says it is disappointed with the People’s United Party for “not fulfilling its commitments to the University of Belize (UB).”
In its release, the union says that the PUP has yet to restore and increase the university’s annual subvention.
“However, with deep frustration, the UBFSU notes the PUP’s failure to follow through on these promises. Despite the party’s strong rhetoric and stated commitments, UB continues to face significant financial challenges, and the promised increase in funding has not materialized.”
The University of Belize Faculty and Staff Union’s Press Release.
In an interview with News 5 in July 2020, Education Minister Francis Fonseca criticised the then Barrow Administration’s decision to slash UB’s subvention. Fonseca called this decision “misguided,” “wrong-headed,” and “counterproductive.”
The UBFSU is calling on the PUP to “honor its commitments to the University of Belize and its faculty, staff and students.” The union is seeking “immediate restoration and increase of UB’s funding, as well as the recognition and inclusion of the UBFSU in all relevant Board meetings and decisions.”
News Five has confirmed that three individuals were rushed to the hospital following a road traffic incident earlier this morning. Two of them are police officers.
We are told that investigators are at the scene.
The vehicular crash happened in Ladyville Village, Belize District.
Video of the accident shows persons rescuing the accident victims.
At least three lives were claimed by the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Tropical Storm Alberto, after making landfall along the Mexican coast and southern Texas, the BBC reports. The three deaths occurred in the northern Nuevo León state due to the rains brought by the system. According to the Mexican government, one of them, age fifteen, drowned while trying to retrieve a ball in the La Silla River, south of Monterrey. The other two, both ages twelve, died from an electric shock in the municipality of Allende. The three deaths were confirmed by Nuevo León’s governor, Samuel García, Telemundo reported.
In response to the situation, García implemented a temporary halt to public transportation, while schools in nearby Tamaulipas have been shut down. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration over the border in Texas, saying that “widespread and severe property damage, injury, and loss of life” are possible. Although the system has been upgraded from a tropical cyclone, there are warnings of “life-threatening” flooding and possible mudslides in north-eastern Mexico and southern Texas.
There was a murder in Belize City on Tuesday night and police are trying to figure out who the gunmen were that ambushed Jahiem Fitzgibbon and his father near La Croix Boulevard. The deadly shooting happened sometime around seven p.m., as the men were wrapping up some repair work they were doing on a vehicle that fifty-three-year-old Nimrod Fitzgibbon had recently bought. The fatal attack comes a surprise to the Fitzgibbon family, especially since Jaheim was described as an easygoing individual. News Five’s Isani Cayetano has more on the latest homicide in the Old Capital.
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
A father and son duo came under deadly gunfire on Tuesday night just off La Croix Boulevard in the Lake Independence area. Nimrod Fitzgibbon and twenty-year-old Jaheim Fitzgibbon were winding down for the evening after spending the day repairing a vehicle. The father is a mechanic who was working on a van that he had recently purchased. His sister is Christobel Fitzgibbon.
Christobel Fitzgibbon
Christobel Fitzgibbon, Aunt of Deceased
“He tell me that dehn mi di fix this vehicle because he just buy this vehicle because he run di dollar van and then he seh di two persons dehn just pass. From deh, after a while ih seh well he gaan upstairs because dehn deh eena di vehicle di sihdown, so he gaan gaan light wahn mosquito coil fi bring down cause dehn di chill eena di vehicle.”
It was during that time that the gunmen pounced on the unsuspecting victim. When Nimrod Fitzgibbon heard the reports of gunfire, he immediately rushed outside to see what was happening. His response, nonetheless, was equally met with a volley of bullets.
Christobel Fitzgibbon
“When he come, he sih ih son drop. Soh when he sih ih son drop now, like he just gwein behind di gunman dehn and dehn staat to fire shot and one graze ahn ya pan ih left side and soh he seh he pick up ih son and he holla fi di neighbors and ask dehn fi help, and then dehn pick up ahn and ker ahn to the hospital.”
This morning, a team of investigators returned to the crime scene where several expended shells had been recovered. The grief-stricken family is still trying to understand why Fitzgibbon and his son were visited with extreme violence of action.
Christobel Fitzgibbon
“He have no issue with nobody. He like talk and he like run joke, you know, and he da somebody he wahn play games, you know, and dehn wah quarrel ova games, “Bwai, I di beat you.” Things like that. But he da noh wahn person weh trouble nobody or nothing, nothing, nothing.”
So, were the gunmen there to execute Nimrod Fitzgibbon instead?
Christobel Fitzgibbon
“Last month, my bredda get a death threat and he call me and seh, “Bella, I get a death threat.” And I seh, “Okay then, we gwein da di police go report this because then we noh play like that, you know.” And he seh, “I noh gwein da no police.” Ah tell ahn, yes, we gwein.” Ah tell ahn I noh play, we gwein, and so we gaan by Mahogany [Street] Extension and we mek di report. I call di person and mek di police dehn hear all ah di conversation we me and this person have and weh paat dis person seh he work and everything. And when di police dehn gaan he noh work da di call center or nothing by Coney Drive weh ih seh ih work. And from deh di police dehn neva did tek wahn statement or so fahn he.”
Instead, Fitzgibbons was informed that he needed to get in touch with CIB personnel for a request to be made through the telephone company to determine who the number belongs to. To date, the owner of the SIM card remains undetermined. In the aftermath of last night’s shooting, police have detained a close relative of the deceased.
Christobel Fitzgibbon
“So while at the hospital now, the GI3 gaan and dehn just start rough up Ervin Fitzgibbon and have ahn eena custody, stating that dehn di pick up ahn fi gang affiliation, and he done get charged fi gang affiliation and he di goh da court right now fi gang affiliation. Soh I really noh know how dehn di pick up ahn again fi that.”
Isani Cayetano
“Ervin Fitzgibbon is the other one from the other side of the city?”
Christobel Fitzgibbon
“Yes, that’s my son and he not even mi deh round when di incident happened or nothing. He neva deh nowhere near this area.”
A murder trial involving twenty-three-year-old Earl Baptist as a prime suspect in the shooting death of Burrell Boom businessman Leslie Gillett has concluded in the High Court. Baptist is one of two men who allegedly entered Matilda’s Shop and executed Gillett in January 2022. A second suspect was never identified. Tonight, Baptist remains at the Belize Central Prison after appearing before Justice Derick Sylvester earlier today. The crown is relying on testimonies from Sergeant Santiago Perez, the police officer who retrieved the surveillance footage that captured Gillett’s murder, and Sergeant Rollington Fuller who positively identified Baptist as one of two shooters seen at Matilda’s Shop on the night in question. However, attorney Leeroy Banner is challenging the crown’s evidence, submitting that footage of the individual that Fuller claims to be Earl Baptist is not clear for anyone to identify with a degree of certainty. Justice Sylvester has reserved his ruling for June twenty-seventh.
Today, a man was handed two years and two months in prison for assaulting a police officer with a firearm. He is twenty-one-year-old Kenyon Flores. Reports are that around eight a.m. on June eighteenth, 2024, Luis Santoya, an off-duty police officer, was walking towards Wood Street in Belize City when he heard a woman shouting for help. He then spotted two men in the area, both of whom he recognized. One of the men, ran past Santoya while the other, identified as Flores, threw a purse, he had grabbed from the woman in his accomplice’s direction, causing it to fall to the ground. Santoya said that when he bent down to pick up the fallen bag, he came face-to-face with a revolver pistol, which he alleges Flores pulled from his pants. Fearing for his life, Santoya remained still, allowing the men to grab the purse and make good their escape. Shortly after, Santoya filed a report against Flores who was found guilty in court earlier today. The second suspect remains at large but his identity is known to the police. No charges have been levied for the robbery as the victim has yet to file a report.
Health authorities in Japan are on high alert as the country has recorded a significant increase in cases of streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS), caused by a rare and aggressive group A streptococcus bacteria, also known as “flesh-eating bacteria.”
In an interview with Bloomberg, Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Adalja explains that “In certain individuals,” STSS “can be a much more severe infection, where it cause what we call necrotizing or flesh-eating type of skin infection. And can also spread systemically, and cause multiple different organ systems to shut down, that’s when we use the kind of term toxic shock syndrome,” leading to “high levels of morbidity and mortality.”
The alarming rise in STSS cases had Japan reporting over 1,000 cases by early June, surpassing last year’s total. Experts fear the number could climb to 2,500 by the end of this year. This “flesh-eating bacteria” progresses rapidly, often proving fatal within 48 hours.
Tokyo has seen a significant impact, particularly among adults over thirty years. Health officials in Japan emphasise early detection and swift medical response with appropriate antibiotics as critical in combating this deadly outbreak.
The Biden administration announced a new policy on Tuesday that is expected to benefit thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States. President Biden says, “The steps I’m taking today are overwhelmingly supported by the American people, no matter what the other team says. In fact, polls show over seventy percent of Americans support this effort.”
Applicants must have lived in the US for at least ten years and be legally married to a US citizen. The programme is expected to open for applications by the end of summer.
This action of embracing “the American principle” of keeping “families together” alludes to a similar action in 2013 during the Obama administration that allowed “undocumented spouses and children of America’s servicemen to stay together while they apply for legal status,” Biden says.
