International
Filipinos Seeks Freedom, Demand Right To Divorce
The Philippines is the only place outside the Vatican where divorce is outlawed, as a Philippine mother-of-three, Stella Sibonga is desperate to end a marriage she never wanted. But divorce in the Catholic-majority country is illegal, and a court annulment takes years.
Pro-divorce advocates argue the ban makes it harder for couples to cut ties and remarry, and escape violent spouses.
People wanting to end their marriage can ask a court for an annulment or a declaration that the nuptials were invalid from the start, but the government can appeal against those decisions.
The legal process is slow and expensive — cases can cost as much as $10,000 or more in a country plagued by poverty — with no guarantee of success, and some people seeking a faster result fall for online scams.
“I don’t understand why it has to be this difficult,” said Sibonga, who has spent 11 years trying to get out of a marriage that her parents forced her into after she became pregnant.
Sibonga’s legal battle began in 2012, when she applied to a court to cancel her marriage on the basis of her husband’s alleged “psychological incapacity”, one of the grounds for terminating a matrimony.
After five years and $3,500 in legal fees , a judge finally agreed. The former domestic worker’s relief was, however, short-lived.
The Office of the Solicitor General, which as the government’s legal representative is tasked with protecting the institution of marriage, successfully appealed the decision in 2019.
Sibonga said she requested the Court of Appeals to reverse its ruling, but is still waiting for an answer.
“Why are we, the ones who experienced suffering, abandonment and abuse, being punished by the law?” said Sibonga, 45, who lives near Manila.
“All we want is to be free.”
International
US vice president’s wife, Usha Vance, announces fourth pregnancy
The couple, who married in 2014, already have three children — Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.
FILE – Vice President JD Vance, right, and second lady Usha Vance.
Usha Vance, the wife of United States Vice President JD Vance, has announced that she is pregnant with her fourth child.
In a post on X on Tuesday, the second lady said she is expecting a baby boy in late July.
“Usha and the baby are doing well,” a statement posted on Tuesday to the second lady’s social media account read.
The couple, who married in 2014, already have three children — Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel.
Usha Vance, née Chilukuri, was born and raised in the working-class suburbs of San Diego, California, to a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother who moved to the US from Andhra Pradesh, India.
International
South Korea Confirms New African Swine Fever Outbreak, Culls 20,000 Pigs in Swift Response
Authorities in South Korea have confirmed a fresh case of African Swine Fever (ASF) at a pig farm in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, marking the country’s first outbreak in nearly two months since November 2025.
The infection was detected after 32 pigs died at the facility on January 16, 2026, with laboratory tests confirming that 29 of them tested positive for the highly contagious and fatal virus.
The outbreak, reported by the Gangwon provincial government and covered by major outlets including Yonhap News Agency and The Korea Herald, prompted immediate quarantine measures.
In response, officials culled approximately 20,000 pigs at the affected farm to halt the spread of the disease.
A 48-hour standstill order was also imposed on pig farms across six neighboring cities and counties, restricting movements to prevent further transmission.
Prime Minister Kim Min-seok directed emergency containment efforts, including restricted site access, intensive disinfection protocols, and investigations into the outbreak’s origin.
The government is prioritizing rapid tracing and biosecurity enhancements to safeguard the nation’s pork industry.
ASF, a viral disease devastating to domestic pigs and wild boars, causes high mortality rates but poses no risk to human health or food safety when pork is properly cooked.
This incident in Gangwon Province — the first ASF case recorded in the region in about 14 months — underscores ongoing challenges in controlling the virus, which has affected South Korea since 2019 through both farm infections and detections in wild boars.
Officials continue monitoring nearby farms and wild populations as part of heightened national vigilance.
International
High-speed train collision in Spain kills at least 39
Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente described the incident as “extremely strange” as officials launched an investigation.
At least 39 people have died in a train collision in southern Spain and dozens more have been injured in the country’s worst rail crash in more than a decade, according to Spain’s Civil Guard.
Carriages on a Madrid-bound train derailed and crossed over to the opposite tracks, colliding with an oncoming train in Adamuz, near the city of Córdoba.
Four hundred passengers and staff were onboard both trains, the rail networks said.
At least 73 people were taken to hospital – 24 of them seriously injured, including four children – according to Andalusia’s emergency services.
Spanish Transport Minister Óscar Puente described the incident as “extremely strange” as officials launched an investigation.
All the railway experts consulted by the government “are extremely baffled by the accident”, Puente told reporters in Madrid.
Rail network operator Adif said the collision happened at 19:45 local time (18:45 GMT), about an hour after the train left Málaga heading to Madrid, when it derailed on a straight stretch of track.
The force of the crash pushed the carriages of the second train into an embankment, Puente said.
He added that most of those killed and injured were in the front carriages of the second train, which was travelling from Madrid to Huelva.
The type of train involved in the crash was a Freccia 1000, which can reach top speeds of 400 km/h (250 mph), a spokesperson for the Italian rail company Ferrovie dello Stato told the Reuters news agency.
Credit: BBC
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