World
The Philippines' publicity approach to South China Sea clashes tests Beijing
- In February 2023, the government of the Philippines decided to change tactics and publicize their encounters with the Chinese military in an effort to build international support and awareness, as well as to force Beijing to face reputational consequences.
- Publicizing China’s actions, combined with Manila’s deepened military alliance with the U.S., has constrained Beijing’s ability to escalate matters at sea but raised the risks of Chinese economic retaliation and U.S. involvement.
- A main point of conflict between China and the Philippines is sovereignty over Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, where clashes involving aggressive maneuvering and water cannons have taken place.
Huddled in the presidential situation room in February last year, senior Philippines officials faced a stark choice.
Military and intelligence leaders watched as coast guard officers showed photos of what the agency said was a military-grade laser that China had pointed at a Philippines ship in disputed waters days earlier.
Eduardo Ano, the national security adviser and chair of the South China Sea taskforce, had to decide whether to release the pictures and risk Beijing’s ire, or refrain from aggravating his giant neighbor.
CHINA ATTACKS ON PHILIPPINE BOATS ARE TO PROVOKE US, PREP FOR TAIWAN WAR, EXPERTS WARN
“The public deserves to know,” the retired general told the officials. “Publish the photographs.”
The previously undisclosed meeting marked a pivotal moment, as Manila began a publicity blitz to highlight the intensifying territorial dispute in the South China Sea, where the ramming of ships, use of water cannons and ensuing diplomatic protests have sharply raised tensions.
“It was a turning point and the birth of the transparency policy,” National Security Council spokesperson Jonathan Malaya, who attended the meeting and recounted the exchange, told Reuters. “The goal was to eventually impose severe costs to Beijing’s reputation, image and standing.”
An aerial view shows the BRP Sierra Madre on the contested Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea, March 9, 2023. The Philippine navy intentionally ran this ship aground in 1999 to reinforce Manila’s sovereignty claims on the shoal. (Reuters/File Photo)
Malaya said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr had directed officials to “civilianize and internationalize” the dispute, which they had achieved by using the coast guard and routinely embedding foreign journalists on missions. “This became an important component of building international support for the Philippines, because our audience is also foreign governments,” he added.
This account of the Philippines’ policy switch and its implications is based on interviews with 20 Philippine and Chinese officials, regional diplomats and analysts. They said publicizing China’s actions, combined with Manila’s deepened military alliance with the U.S., had constrained Beijing’s ability to escalate matters at sea but raised the risks of Chinese economic retaliation and U.S. involvement.
The February 2023 meeting occurred days after Marcos granted the U.S. access to four more military bases in the Philippines, rekindling defense ties that had suffered under his predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
“China has few escalatory options left without triggering the U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty and risking a military confrontation between Chinese and U.S. forces,” said Ian Storey, a security scholar at Singapore’s ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute.
Marcos has also pursued a diplomatic offensive, gaining statements of support for the Philippines’ position from countries such as Canada, Germany, India and Japan.
The South China Sea is rich in oil and gas. About $3 trillion in trade passes through it annually. U.S. access to Philippine bases could prove important in a war over Taiwan.
PHILIPPINES WARNS OF ‘RED LINE’ WITH BEIJING AMID HEIGHTENED TENSIONS IN SOUTH CHINA SEA
China, whose claims to most of the sea were invalidated by an international tribunal in 2016, says Philippine vessels illegally intrude into waters surrounding disputed shoals. It has warned Marcos, who took office in June 2022, against misjudging the situation.
“This is brinkmanship, poker,” said Philippine legal scholar Jay Batongbacal. “Brinkmanship is taking things to the edge, trying to see who loses his nerve. Poker is a game of bluffing and deception – one could be doing both at the same time.”
In response to Reuters questions, China’s foreign ministry said the Philippines had been stoking tensions with “provocative actions at sea in an attempt to infringe on China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights”.
China, it said, would defend its interests while handling the dispute peacefully through dialogue.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson said Manila’s transparency initiative had succeeded in calling greater attention to China’s “disregard for international law” and actions that endangered Philippine service members.
The spokesperson would not comment on the risk of U.S. military involvement but said the U.S. would support the Philippines if it faced economic coercion from China.
Conflict in the South China Sea
The conflict is over Scarborough Shoal and Second Thomas Shoal, where the Philippine navy maintains a rusting warship, BRP Sierra Madre, that it beached in 1999 to reinforce Manila’s sovereignty claims. A small crew is stationed on it.
Chinese ships have sought to block resupply missions, by encircling Philippine vessels and firing water cannons that in March shattered a boat’s windshield, injuring its crew. Manila released footage of the incident; China said it acted lawfully and professionally.
In February, Philippine ships recorded Chinese counterparts placing a barrier across the entrance to Scarborough Shoal. This week, both sides traded accusations over a collision involving their vessels near Second Thomas Shoal.
Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela taunts Chinese officials and state media on X, sometimes posting drone footage of maritime clashes. “If I were doing anything incorrect, I would have been shut down,” he said.
Tarriela said the transparency drive had worked, by galvanizing support for Manila while the threshold of China’s aggression had not changed, despite an increase in incidents.
“They are still depending on their water cannon … they are still stuck with that kind of tactic,” he said.
The number of Chinese vessels around Second Thomas Shoal during Philippine resupply missions has grown from a single ship on average in 2021 to around 14 in 2023, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in January.
CHINESE COAST GUARD BLOCKED MEDICAL EVACUATION, PHILIPPINES SAYS: ‘BARBARIC AND INHUMANE’
Last month, China’s coast guard came within feet of the Sierra Madre and seized supplies air-dropped to troops stationed there, according to Philippine officials. China, whose navy patrolled nearby, said Filipino soldiers pointed guns at its coast guard; Manila said they just held their weapons.
Philippine officials say they fear a fatal accident could escalate into open hostilities.
“That keeps a lot of us awake at night,” the Philippines’ ambassador to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez, told Reuters.
Manila also wants to avoid the kind of economic pressure it faced around a decade ago, when protracted Chinese customs checks caused Philippine bananas to rot on Chinese docks.
China was the Philippines’ second-biggest export market in 2023, taking nearly $11 billion worth or 14.8% of all its shipments. China is the Philippines’ top source of imports, mainly refined petroleum products and electronics.
Romualdez said Manila hoped China would “see the value of continuing our economic activity while trying to peacefully resolve the issue”.
Edcel John Ibarra, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines, said Marcos risks provoking China into “a harder approach”, such as non-tariff barriers and tourism restrictions. He pointed to changes China announced in May that allow its coast guard to detain foreigners without trial for 60 days.
China ‘feeling the squeeze’ of the Philippines’ publicity approach
The intensity of Manila’s campaign has surprised its neighbors. Vietnam and Malaysia, which also have maritime disputes with Beijing, have been more cautious about what they release from their skirmishes with China.
“We are all watching this and talking amongst ourselves,” said one Asian diplomat, who was not authorized to be named. “The Philippines has carved out a new strategy in standing up to Beijing over a point of friction.”
Marcos said in December that diplomacy with China had achieved little, calling on Southeast Asia “to come up with a paradigm shift”.
China’s state media have expressed irritation with the transparency push.
The Philippines has been “playing the victim to deceive international public opinions”, the state-backed Global Times said in an op-ed in May.
A key aspect of Manila’s approach has been solidifying the U.S. alliance. Both countries made clear in May last year that their defense treaty also covers the coast guard. In April, Marcos participated in an unprecedented summit with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts.
A U.S. official involved in U.S.-China talks that month said Chinese officials have complained about these diplomatic breakthroughs behind closed doors, adding that Beijing was “feeling the squeeze”.
Some Chinese scholars, like Zha Daojiong, at Peking University’s School of International Studies, say the situation is at an impasse and that China will continue to be “essentially reactive” at flashpoints like Second Thomas Shoal.
“By responding to the Philippines’ action, I guess they want to keep the message that this shoal is in dispute,” he said.
The Walt Disney Company’s live action “Moana” may be the No. 1 movie at the domestic box office, but it did not make a big splash in its first weekend in theaters.
The movie, which cost a reported $250 million to produce, earned just $43 million from ticket sales in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Internationally, it earned $52 million from 50 markets, adding up to a $95 million global debut.
The studio bet big on “Moana,” one of its most popular franchises. The 2016 animated film is the most watched movie on Disney+. Its sequel, which was stitched together from a planned streaming series, made over $1 billion and scored a Thanksgiving record when it opened with $225 million in 2024. “Moana 2” was also released just 19 months ago.
This latest “Moana,” directed by Thomas Kail, brings Dwayne Johnson back as the demigod Maui and introduces Catherine Lagaʻaia as the adventuring Polynesian princess. Despite praise for Lagaʻaia, the film set sail on a wave of dismal reviews from critics for being essentially a shot-for-shot remake of the original.
What audiences say about “Moana”
It’s currently sitting at a 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, the majority of whom were women (66%), were less negative: According to PostTrak, 63% said they would “definitely” recommend the film to their friends. Parent reactions were even stronger, with 78% saying they would recommend it to other parents. It also got a promising A- CinemaScore.
Disney’s live action remakes of beloved animated films, new and old, have had their share of successes and disappointments. Some have made over $1 billion, including “Lilo & Stitch,” “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast.” Others have floundered, most notably last year’s “Snow White,” which made only $205 million worldwide. “Moana” opened more on par with “Snow White” ($42.2 million).
Paul Dergarabedian, the head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, said “Moana’s” debut could also be a product of PG-rated oversaturation in the marketplace: Universal’s “Minions & Monsters” was in second place with $20.5 million and “Toy Story 5” was close behind in third place with $18.5 million.
“Families love going to the movies, but right now there are three of them,” Dergarabedian said. “That’s a lot of competition.”
PG-rated films outgrossed others in 2024 and 2025, so “Moana’s” performance may not be a case of “family movie fatigue,” he said, but simply shows there can be a ceiling. Families have to make a choice, and after four weekends, “Toy Story 5” is still going strong with a running global total of $879.1 million.
There also are signs that these movies might not sink or swim based on the opening weekend alone. Although “Minions & Monsters” opened below expectations over the Fourth of July holiday, it also had a modest 45% drop this weekend. Its running domestic total is currently sitting at $108.3 million.
Elsewhere at the box office, horror and history
The weekend’s other big new opener was definitely not PG: The R-rated horror “Evil Dead Burn,” a Warner Bros. release, opened in fourth place with $13.7 million. It’s a significant dip from the previous two films in the series, which both opened in the $25 million range.
Angel Studios’ George Washington movie “Young Washington” rounded out the top five films in its second weekend in theaters, with $6.4 million. Olivia Wilde’s chamber dramedy “The Invite” landed in sixth place in its first weekend in wide release, with $5.7 million from 1,610 theaters.
And though it has dropped out of the top 10 domestically, “Michael” has officially crossed $1 billion at the worldwide box office, only the second film this year to do so after “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” It’s also now the highest grossing musical biopic of all time, a title previously held by “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The total domestic box office for the year is currently sitting just under $5.2 billion, up about 10.7% from this point last year. While both May and June were very strong — both generating over $1 billion in North America — July, Dergarabedian said, has faced some headwinds with a string of underperformers, including “Supergirl.” Things will likely pick up next week with the arrival of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” followed by “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” the weekend after.
“They could power a stronger August than July at the box office, which would be very unusual,” Dergarabedian said.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak:
1. “Moana,” $43 million.
2. “Minions & Monsters,” $20.5 million.
3. “Toy Story 5,” $18.5 million.
4. “Evil Dead Burn,” $13.7 million.
5. “Young Washington,” $6.4 million.
6. “The Invite,” $5.7 million.
7. “Obsession,” $3.8 million.
8. “Supergirl,” $3.6 million.
9. “Disclosure Day,” $3.2 million.
10. “Backrooms,” $1.5 million.
Report exposes scale of alleged UK grooming gang scandal
Fox News host Will Cain reports on a bombshell UK inquiry detailing shocking alleged child sex exploitation by organized grooming gangs in 149 local authority areas. The report reveals crimes committed for decades, with an estimated 250,000 victims nationwide.
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
New German crime figures and an expanding investigation into an alleged sexual exploitation of teenage girls near the Nuremberg, Germany, central railway station are intensifying a broader European battle over migration, integration and whether officials have been too reluctant to confront patterns of organized sexual abuse.
Germany recorded 751 cases categorized as group rapes in 2025, according to the federal government’s response to a parliamentary inquiry submitted by the opposition Alternative für Deutschland party. All parties represented in the Bundestag German federal parliament may submit formal questions requiring government responses, a key tool through which opposition lawmakers scrutinize federal policy.
Police identified 1,087 suspects in the cases, including 509 German citizens and 578 non-German nationals. Syrians were the largest foreign-national group, with 110 suspects, followed by Afghans with 64, Iraqis with 46 and Turks with 44.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT SOCCER COACH WHO USED ALCOHOL AND DRUGS TO SEXUALLY ABUSE KIDS LEARNS FATE
Two defendants hold folders in front of their faces while a defense attorney talks to one of them at a trial in Freiburg, Germany, July 23, 2020. (Philipp von Ditfurth/dpa via AP)
The government cautioned that “group rape” is not a separate criminal offense or standardized police category. Officials generated the figures by filtering recorded rape cases in which suspects were listed as not acting alone. The numbers represent suspects identified during police investigations, not people convicted in court.
The figures emerged as investigators in Nuremberg, Germany, pursued allegations that vulnerable girls were deliberately drawn into a network involving affection, gifts, narcotics and sexual exploitation.
Bavarian police said in May that men operating around the city’s main railway station allegedly approached girls from unstable or vulnerable backgrounds, initially offering them attention, clothing or cosmetics. Investigators said some were later given hard drugs, including crystal meth, and that their resulting dependency was allegedly exploited to obtain sexual acts or other “services.”
STEPDAD ACCUSED OF SEX ASSAULT AS COPS WIDEN PROBE INTO GIRL’S LETHAL BENADRYL INGREDIENT DOSE
Protesters gather before a party convention of Alternative for Germany, or AfD in Erfurt, Germany, July 4, 2026. (Ebrahim Noroozi/The Associated Press )
The investigation, known as EKO Kajal, has continued to expand. Police said Tuesday that 10 suspects were being held in pretrial detention in cases involving alleged sexual offenses against girls and young women and the distribution of drugs or medication to minors.
In the latest arrests, police alleged that a 21-year-old Syrian man raped two girls, ages 15 and 18, in a Nuremberg, Germany, apartment after they were given narcotics by a 40-year-old Syrian man. Both men were detained, but the accusations remain allegations and have not been adjudicated.
Emma Schubart, a research fellow at the London-based Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital that the Nuremberg allegations bear similarities to grooming-gang cases uncovered in Britain, where girls were plied with drugs and alcohol before being repeatedly abused by groups of men.
“It’s a severe failure in both countries,” Schubart said, arguing that the problem begins with insufficient screening and continues with inadequate integration after migrants arrive.
“The first step that both authorities in the U.K. and in Germany really are not doing is screening migrants effectively,” she said. “But then, once the migrants are already here, the integration policy is completely lacking.”
Schubart said the isolation of some immigrant communities can contribute to “ghettoization” and create environments in which criminal networks operate with limited scrutiny or cooperation with authorities.
She also challenged the argument that disparities in some sexual-offense statistics can be explained primarily by poverty.
POLYGAMOUS SECT LEADER CONVICTED ON STATE CHARGES AFTER GIRLS FOUND IN UNVENTILATED TRAILER
A supporter wearing a plastic policeman’s helmet and holding fake money criticizes the way the police dealt with the grooming gang scandal on Jan. 29, 2022, in Telford, England. (Martin Pope/Getty Images)
“Socioeconomic factors matter, but they absolutely do not fully explain the disparities,” Schubart said. “Native Germans from similar socioeconomic backgrounds absolutely do not show equivalent rates in group sexual offending.”
Schubart said she viewed the apparent intersection between drugs and sexual exploitation as an especially important parallel with Britain.
“In the U.K. and in Germany, it’s a very similar pattern where it’s basically drug trafficking that also involves sex trafficking,” she said. “These drug-trafficking networks and cells operate across the country, not just in those cities where we see the crimes playing out.”
Britain has spent years reckoning with grooming scandals in places such as Rotherham, Rochdale, Telford and Oxford, England, where official reviews found that police, social workers and local authorities repeatedly missed or ignored evidence that vulnerable children were being systematically abused.
Baroness Louise Casey’s national audit, published by the British government in June 2025, concluded that inconsistent definitions, incomplete records and failures to collect ethnicity data made it impossible to establish the full national scale of group-based child sexual exploitation. It nevertheless found evidence of the disproportionate representation of Pakistani-heritage suspects in some local datasets and cases, while warning against extrapolating those findings to the entire country.
The British government later backed an independent inquiry intended to examine failures or obstruction by police, councils and other public bodies in relevant local areas.
Schubart argued that officials in both countries have sometimes avoided discussing offenders’ backgrounds out of concern that doing so could damage relations with minority communities.
“In the U.K., it’s usually the phrase ‘community relations,’” she said. “There’s a huge effort to not threaten community relations.”
Germany’s ifo Institute reported in February 2025 that its analysis of district-level police data from 2018 through 2023 found no correlation between a rising foreign population and local crime rates, including in areas receiving more refugees.
“We find no correlation between an increasing share of foreigners in a district and the local crime rate,” ifo researcher Jean-Victor Alipour said when the findings were released. “The same applies in particular to refugees.” Researchers said differences in suspect rates can be influenced by age, sex, urban concentration and other demographic factors.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
A woman poses with a sign as members of the public queue to enter a council meeting during a protest calling for justice for victims of sexual abuse and grooming gangs, outside the council offices at City Centre on Jan. 20, 2025, in Oldham, England. (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)
Germany’s Syrian population also plays a significant role in sectors facing severe labor shortages.
The German Medical Association reported that 7,959 Syrian citizens were working as physicians in Germany at the end of 2025, making Syrians the country’s largest group of foreign doctors.
The competing evidence presents European governments with a difficult test: investigating organized exploitation and demographic patterns without political hesitation, while avoiding the suggestion that hundreds of suspects define millions of immigrants.
France is gearing up to host a meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” ahead of this year’s 14 July celebrations, with at least 25 heads of state or government due to meet in Paris on Monday to discuss support for Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Created in Paris and jointly led with the United Kingdom, the coalition has now expanded to include 37 countries, meeting both in person and via video conference. Two new members, Moldova and North Macedonia, are scheduled to take part in Monday’s meeting for the first time.
Meeting at the Hôtel des Invalides, the allies will aim to “strengthen,” according to the French presidency, a renewed sense of unity and cooperation in support of Ukraine, which was reaffirmed at the recent G7 summit in Évian and at the NATO summit in Ankara, where allies committed to sending €70 billion in military aid to Kyiv in 2026.
The objective is to show that Western allies are continuing their support for Ukraine and that Moscow cannot rely on “war fatigue,” according to an adviser to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Coalition leaders will focus on air defence cooperation, including newly announced US plans for the licensed production of Patriot missiles in Ukraine. They will also discuss the creation of an anti-ballistic missile system.
As for security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a hypothetical ceasefire, the French presidency says that plans to deploy a multinational force, stationed away from the front lines, are “ready”. They remain, however, “subject to change”, given that the prospect of an end to hostilities still appears distant.
Beyond the presence of troops on the ground, these guarantees would be based on “legally binding” bilateral agreements and on US involvement in monitoring a ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to be in Paris on both Monday and Tuesday.
Bastille Day parade
The meeting is set to take place on the eve of France’s annual Bastille Day celebrations.
The Élysée Palace has said that this year’s parade will bring together nearly 6,800 service personnel, with 15% more troops than last year and a 30% increase in the number of vehicles and aircraft taking part.
In total, nearly 500 service members representing the countries of the Coalition of the Willing are expected to lead the parade.
The French military’s aerial acrobatics team, the Patrouille de France, is also expected to take part, accompanied by two Mirage fighter jets carrying Ukrainian co-pilots trained in France. German, British, Croatian, Danish, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, and Swedish aircraft are also set to feature in the parade.
-
California6 minutes agoExclusive: Paramount weighs leaving California over Warner Bros. rift
-
Colorado12 minutes agoNew Colorado wildfire sparks evacuations south of Steamboat Springs
-
Connecticut18 minutes agoCyclosporiasis outbreak prompts food safety concerns in Connecticut
-
Delaware24 minutes agoDelaware still in drought despite heavy rainfall
-
Florida30 minutes agoFlorida leaders react to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death, remembering his legacy of public service
-
Georgia36 minutes agoGeorgia leaders remember Sen. Lindsey Graham after longtime South Carolina lawmaker’s death
-
Hawaii42 minutes agoHawaii’s JJ Mandaquit took roundabout route to reunite with Tommy Lloyd
-
Idaho48 minutes agoIdaho leaders mourn the sudden passing of Senator Lindsey Graham
