China, U.S. friendship beneficial to Philippines, says VP Robredo

The US Defense Secretary said Chinese military activity around the self-governing island threatened to change the status quo. Lloyd Austin said Washington would continue to stand by Taiwan at an event in Singapore.

Would Beijing back away from its strategic partnership with Moscow if the war in Ukraine goes nuclear?

Beijing has no reason to sanction Australia, said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. The call comes after ministers from two countries met for the first time in years.

Joe Biden is set to travel to Israel on July 13 before heading to the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia. The trip's announcement comes despite pledges to side-line the "pariah" Saudi state.

Burkina Faso's leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba traveled to Seytenga on Wenesday to visit people who survived an attack that reportedly killed over 100 people over the weekend. Soldiers have recovered 79 bodies so far after the attack in the northern Seno province, the government said on Tuesday, as new details of the assault emerged.

Hundreds demonstrated in Tunis on Sunday (June 19) in a second day of protest against a constitutional referendum called by President Kais Saied that his opponents say would cement his hold on power. The demonstration was organized by the Salvation Front, a coalition including the moderate Islamist Ennahda, the largest party in a parliament that Saied dissolved in March.

Marcos Jr. has given himself the position of secretary of agriculture ahead of taking his presidential office and amid prohibitively high global prices. The Philippines is heavily reliant on importing its staple — rice.

A violent attack on several women in northern China earlier this month has raised questions over gender-based violence in the country. CCTV footage from a restaurant in the city of Tangshan showed a man getting rebuffed after he put his hand on the back of a woman. He then slapped her, then with other men beat the group of women before punching, kicking and dragging them outdoors. For more on women's safety and their rights in China, we talk to Professor Maria Jaschok from the University of Oxford.

French politics continues to dominate the papers as Emmanuel Macron desperately seeks an alliance to secure a parliamentary majority. The US Senate finds bipartisan support for new gun possession laws for the first time in 30 years. Organisers of the Miss France beauty pageant introduce radical new changes to shake up the contest. Finally, a man escapes his kidnappers by driving erratically on a highway in order to be stopped by authorities.

Colombians have elected a new president. Gustavo Petro, 62, is set to become the first leftist in the country's top job. The former rebel of the now defunct M-19 movement beat millionaire businessman Rodolfo Hernandez in Sunday's election. Petro will take the oath of office in August, replacing the deeply unpopular Ivan Duque. For analysis, we speak to Gerard Martin, a political sociologist based in Medellin, Colombia.

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Ecuador's president has accused Indigenous protesters of attempting a coup. Clashes between protesters and security forces have left six people dead, and six of the country's 24 provinces are under a state of emergency.