US Begins Philippines War Games in Thick of Middle East Conflict

Philippine and US soldiers salute as their national anthems are played during the opening ceremony of the annual Balikatan joint military exercise at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon city, suburban Manila on April 20, 2026. (AFP)

06:59-20 April 2026 AD ـ 04 Thul-Qi’dah 1447 AH

Thousands of American and Philippine troops, joined for the first time by a significant contingent of Japanese forces, began annual military exercises Monday set against the backdrop of the Middle East war.

The war games will feature live-fire exercises in the north of the country facing the Taiwan Strait, as well as a province off the disputed South China Sea, where the Philippines and China have engaged in repeated confrontations.

The Japanese military, which is contributing 1,400 personnel, will use a Type 88 cruise missile to sink a target ship off northern Paoay, Philippine exercise spokesman Colonel Dennis Hernandez said.

More than 17,000 soldiers, airmen and sailors are taking part in the 19-day Balikatan, or Shoulder to Shoulder, exercises -- about the same number as last year's edition -- including contingents from Australia, New Zealand, France and Canada.

"Balikatan... represents an opportunity to showcase our ironclad alliance with the Philippines and demonstrate our commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," US exercise spokesman Colonel Robert Bunn said ahead of Monday's opening ceremony.

Bunn added that US troop levels he described as "one of the largest deployments" in years would be unaffected by the ongoing Middle East war his country is waging, while declining to provide specific numbers.

Balikatan comes as Iran and the United States, along with Israel, are just days away from the end of the two-week ceasefire that halted the Middle East war, ignited by surprise US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.

The conflict has sparked a global energy crisis that has left import-dependent Philippines reeling.

The drills also come as Beijing ramps up military pressure around Taiwan, which it considers part of its territory and has threatened to use force to seize.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said last November that given his country's proximity to the self-ruled island and its surrounding waters, "a war over Taiwan will drag the Philippines, kicking and screaming, into the conflict".

In February, US, Japanese and Philippine aircraft patrolled over the Bashi Channel separating the Philippines from Taiwan to test what Manila called their "ability to operate seamlessly together in complex maritime environments".

Marcos considers Manila's 1951 mutual defense pact with Washington a bedrock of national security and has been building up security ties with Western nations to deter China.

Over the past two years, Manila has signed visiting forces or equivalent agreements with Japan, New Zealand, Canada and France, deals aimed at facilitating their participation in joint military exercises in the Philippines.

Bunn said American forces would have the option of firing Tomahawk and NMESIS anti-ship missiles, without confirming they would.

Integrated air and missile defense systems will also be put to the test, including technology for countering drones, Philippine spokesman Hernandez said.

Week-long naval exercises will also take place in so far unspecified waters off the main Philippine island of Luzon, he added.

Japan is deploying a tank landing ship, a destroyer, and a helicopter destroyer, while the US will use a cutter and a dock landing ship.

They will join two Philippine frigates and another from Canada.

US Midterm Early Voting Hits Record 48 Million

A vote here sign and electioneering distance marker sit outside the Tom Green County Elections Office and polling location in San Angelo, Texas, US October 28, 2026. (Reuters)

17:56-30 October 2026 AD ـ 19 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

US Midterm Early Voting Hits Record 48 Million

A vote here sign and electioneering distance marker sit outside the Tom Green County Elections Office and polling location in San Angelo, Texas, US October 28, 2026. (Reuters)

A record 47.9 million Americans have already voted in next week's US midterm elections, with participation surging in key battleground states and registered Democrats outpacing Republicans, figures showed Friday.

The University of Florida's Election Lab had recorded 47,922,669 early votes nationwide by midday, surpassing the previous midterm record of 45.9 million cast ahead of Election Day in 2022.

The surge is especially pronounced in states with fiercely contested Senate races that could determine control of the chamber during the final two years of President Donald Trump's presidency.

In Texas, more than six million people had voted early by Wednesday, according to official figures, with in-person turnout running around 50 percent ahead of the same stage in 2022.

North Carolina's election board reported early voting up nearly 37 percent on the same point four years ago, while South Carolina surpassed its entire 2022 early vote total on Monday, with five days of early voting still to go.

In Kansas, where Republican Senator Roger Marshall faces a tough re-election fight, advance ballots were running around two-thirds ahead of 2022 last week, according to the secretary of state's office.

In states that record voters' party affiliation, registered Democrats have accounted for a substantially larger share of early ballots than Republicans.

Election Lab figures showed Democrats making up around 44 percent of early voters in those states, compared with 31 percent for Republicans and 25 percent for unaffiliated or minor-party voters.

University of Florida political scientist Michael McDonald, who oversees the Election Lab, has pointed to rising participation among Black and Hispanic voters in states that report racial and ethnic data, with particularly strong turnout in heavily Hispanic communities along the Texas-Mexico border.

In Georgia, where early in-person voting broke the state's midterm record on Thursday, women accounted for 56 percent of ballots cast by that day, compared with 44 percent for men.

"Georgians continue to head to the polls in record numbers because they trust the system," top elections official Brad Raffensperger said Thursday.

But experts warn against interpreting the figures as a prediction of the election outcome.

A voter's party registration does not reveal which candidates they supported, and tens of millions more Americans are expected to cast ballots on Tuesday.

In recent elections Republicans have tended to turn out in greater numbers on Election Day, potentially narrowing or reversing the Democrats' early advantage.

And higher early participation does not necessarily translate into higher overall turnout, since some voters may simply be casting ballots sooner than in previous elections.

World

Pope Leo Makes History with US Midterm Vote

Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he leaves after the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 28, 2026. (AFP)

17:48-30 October 2026 AD ـ 19 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

Pope Leo Makes History with US Midterm Vote

Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he leaves after the weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican on October 28, 2026. (AFP)

Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic Church's first US-born pontiff, has voted in the United States midterm elections, the first known time a pope has voted in a political election.

The pope, who has clashed with US President Donald Trump, submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago, the Vatican said Friday.

The Chicago-born pontiff "has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so" and believes in "the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes," it said.

A rift earlier this year between US President Donald Trump and the pope sparked global headlines.

Leo and Trump repeatedly clashed over papal criticism of the harsh crackdown on immigration in the United States and of the war on Iran, with Trump calling the pontiff "weak" on crime and "terrible" on foreign policy.

The pope said he was "not afraid" of Trump.

In April, after Trump's threat to destroy Iran, Leo called on everyone to do their part for peace, urging them to "contact the authorities -- political leaders, congressmen -- to ask them, to tell them, to work for peace and to reject war and violence."

The crucial US midterm elections are scheduled to be held on November 3.

In September, Leo urged the faithful to shake off "all passivity and indifference" toward current events.

"We cannot remain as unengaged spectators; rather, we must listen with our hearts, allow ourselves to be challenged, and become involved," he said during the weekly general audience in St Peter's Square.

Robert Francis Prevost, as he was known before his papal election, voted in Democratic primaries in 2008 and 2010 and in three Republican primaries in the years that followed, according to the New York Times, citing state and local records.

In primary elections in Illinois, voters may choose any party's ballot at the polls, and Prevost varied in his selection, it said.

Prevost spent nearly two decades as a missionary in Peru and has both US and Peruvian citizenship.

"He has also confirmed that, during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so," the Vatican said.

World

EU and Canada to ‘Withstand Shocks Together’ with New Alliance

Prime Minister Mark Carney, center, flanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, right, and European Council President Antonio Costa arrive for their closing news conference during the EU-Canada summit in Montreal on Friday, Oct. 30, 2026. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)

17:43-30 October 2026 AD ـ 19 Jumada Al-Ula 1448 AH

EU and Canada to ‘Withstand Shocks Together’ with New Alliance

EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa held talks with Canada's Mark Carney in Montreal Friday to finalize a new partnership in a world dominated by the United States and China.

The two parties are set to unveil a series of deals -- from critical minerals to artificial intelligence -- and lay the groundwork for a broader alliance open to other democracies seeking to better navigate global trade tensions.

"It means affordability, more competition, more choice, easier access. It means opportunity," Carney, the Canadian Prime Minister, said of closer cooperation with the European Union, as he arrived at the talks.

"And it means, at its base, sovereignty, greater resilience, ability to withstand shocks together."

Already sharing a free trade agreement, Canada and the EU have sought to move closer together since President Donald Trump's return to the White House upended relations with Washington's traditional allies.

Both Canada and the EU have been hit with US tariffs and territorial threats.

Von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said Canada could not become a "full-fledged" EU member due to its geographical location, but said the bloc wanted to bring it "as close as possible".

A senior EU official explained the new relationship would be unique to Canada.

It entails aligning policies, such as on climate and artificial intelligence, Canada joining some EU programs, and creating a stable governance framework, the official said.

The partners are expected to kick off with a series of deals on Friday.

Critical minerals are a key focus of the two-day summit which officially began Thursday evening.

They are needed for green technologies such as batteries and wind turbines that Europe sources mostly from China but are also in plentiful stock in Canada.

But Canada needs massive infrastructure investment to jump-start its mining industry.

An agreement allowing the European Investment Bank to back Canadian critical mineral projects is expected to be unveiled at the summit.

- 'Alliance for the Future' -

Brussels and Ottawa also want to collaborate on AI, a field where they are playing catch-up with the United States and China.

Europe is ready to open its supercomputing infrastructure to Canadian researchers, industry and start-ups, von der Leyen said.

On Thursday, Ottawa announced a CAN$1.6 billion ($1.1 billion) investment in the Canadian AI firm Cohere. The company has recently partnered with Germany's Aleph Alpha in a move that Carney said was an example of what Europe and Canada could do together.

"We are not waiting for the future of AI to be decided somewhere else by those we don't know or by those we don't trust," Carney said.

A digital trade deal allowing faster and cheaper online transactions is also in the offering.

The two parties should also work towards Canada's participation in EU initiatives like the Erasmus program, which allows university students to spend a semester abroad, and the Galileo satellite program -- an alternative to the American Global Positioning System (GPS).

The summit will additionally establish the basis for a larger "Alliance for the Future" open to other "trusted partners" such as Japan, South Korea or Australia, the senior EU official said.

This idea is to form a "common space for economic prosperity" and better coordinate trade policies such as tariffs to avoid mutual harm, the official said.

"There is always a risk that inadvertently you hit one of your partners with your economic measures," the official noted.

US Begins Philippines War Games in Thick of Middle East Conflict

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