Palace Refutes Bato's Diversion Claim, Says ICC Warrant Threat Is Real
Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro clarified that the ICC matter remains active, emphasizing the ongoing possibility of an arrest warrant issuance.
'This isn't an old or recycled issue,' Castro said, asserting that the Palace only responds to media inquiries, not to manipulate public discourse.
Dela Rosa, who is under ICC preliminary scrutiny due to his role in the Duterte-era drug war, accused the Palace of using the ICC to distract from a now-debunked police report allegedly involving the First Lady.
Castro dismissed the accusation, reiterating that the controversial police report had already been confirmed as altered by the Beverly Hills Police Department. She questioned why critics, including Dela Rosa, continue to give weight to false narratives.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
3 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Student loan caps might worsen national doctor shortage
Shalina Chatlani, Tribune News Service Twenty-eight-year-old Michaela Bonner has been working 12-hour shifts as an emergency medical technician in Norfolk, Virginia, for the past four years, while attending and paying for college to finish her prerequisites for medical school. But now that President Donald Trump's signature tax and spending law bars students from borrowing more than $50,000 annually in unsubsidised federal loans for medical school, Bonner is worried her dream of becoming a doctor is financially out of reach. 'I get told, 'Well, we really need you. We have a physician shortage, and you've done all this work leading up to this point,' and that's true as well, and it's not that I want to quit,' Bonner said in a recent interview. 'But there are no systems in place that I can rely on to support me now that I can't take out the full cost of living through loans.' The tax and spending law includes provisions that significantly alter the student loan process for higher education. The law halts current student loan repayment plans for loans that are granted on or after July 1, 2026. On that date, the law also terminates Grad PLUS loans, which have helped people pay for their higher education degrees and total cost of attendance. Current borrowers will be grandfathered in. The federal law gives current borrowers enrolled in loan repayment plans for students based on income — such as those plans known as SAVE or IBR — until July 1, 2028, to switch to a new plan. Interest collection will resume Aug. 1 for students enrolled in the Biden-era SAVE plan. At the same time, medical or law school students hoping to get unsubsidised federal loans — in which the borrower is responsible for paying the interest at all times rather than the government — will only be able to borrow $50,000 per year, with a $200,000 lifetime cap. Those seeking advanced degrees in areas such as history or philosophy have a $100,000 lifetime cap. The average yearly cost of medical school for the 2024-25 academic year ranged from around $42,000 to $72,000, depending on whether the school was private or public and whether the student was a resident or nonresident, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. Some congressional Republicans say that students need to be working harder to pay for higher education, like medical school, on their own. Others say the caps put the onus back on colleges and universities to rein in the rising cost of tuition. But critics of this legislation say the loan caps are only going to harm students, especially from lower-income backgrounds, and will exacerbate physician shortages. In recent years states have tried to ease physician shortages by implementing various policy solutions. Since 2023, at least nine states have made it easier for doctors trained in other countries to get medical licenses. States have also participated in interstate licensing compacts, allowing nurses and physician assistants to travel across state lines to work, so long as they are licensed in one state within the compact. For student loan relief, more than 20 states have enacted legislation to address student loan forgiveness, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, a group that tracks state policies. Georgia passed a measure that will expand a cancelable loan programme for physicians working in rural and underserved areas. Idaho also created the Rural Nursing Loan Repayment Program, offering nurses $25,000 in forgivable loans after three years of service in a rural area. McKenzie Richards, a health care policy fellow at the conservative think tank Cicero Institute who has been studying the pace of physician shortages, told Stateline that the national physician shortage could potentially exceed 100,000 by 2034. At the end of 2024 that projected number was closer to 64,000 physicians. Richards said states will be looking toward more policy solutions should the student loan changes exacerbate physician shortages. 'We know what's going to be happening coming down the line in just five years, so I think policies that states can adopt to get out of this are really important to be looking at now,' she said. 'The hope is that by capping (federal loans), it will encourage schools to lower tuition prices,' Richards added. 'Then maybe they need to be admitting more students, which would have a great downstream effect for getting more doctors through.' Other students will be in the same boat, said Lesley Turner, an associate professor of public policy at the University of Chicago and an economist. 'This is going to hit some students worse than others,' Turner told Stateline. 'Those (students) in more expensive programs tend to borrow more, and so for those students they will need to return to private student loans or other ways of financing their graduate education.' Many students were already questioning their capacity to go to medical school before the student loan caps, said Shannon Jimenez, dean of the Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine. 'I expect that this bill, this cap, is going to push people out of primary care and into specialties to help pay off those higher interest rate loans,' Jimenez told Stateline. She added that caps will likely deter students from lower socioeconomic statuses from going into primary care — important in places like Arkansas, where she says there is a 'maldistribution of physicians.' 'Many schools like us try to attract those students, because they're more likely to go into primary care and serve in underserved areas. So it's going to tie our hands in a lot of ways.' Large states and more rural states will feel the gaps more deeply, said Richards, of the Cicero Institute. Louisiana, for example, is projected to be short almost 5,000 doctors from a variety of specialties by 2030, including close to 400 primary care doctors. Already more than a third of Louisiana physicians are close to retirement age — similar to the situation in neighboring Arkansas. As for whether schools will just be able to lower tuition, Jimenez said, 'it makes no sense.' 'We still function in a somewhat market-driven economy and have to compete with other schools around us, so our cost is based mostly on what we have to pay our faculty, and that's not going to go down,' she said. The annual cost of attendance at her school is between $80,000 and $85,000. Bonner, the EMT, holds a political communications degree from Regent University and now is studying biomedical sciences at Old Dominion University. She already has $20,000 in loans, she said, and for the rest of college tuition, she has paid out of pocket. Since she's supporting herself, she hasn't been able to save much. She'd planned to take the medical school entrance exam next spring, but now worries about how she'd pay for living expenses while attending. 'Medical school scheduling doesn't allow for working, so you have to take out loans for living expenses,' she said. 'A lot of people, I feel, would be panicked if you had worked for eight to 10 years of your life and found out that all the systems that you were banking on in a really academically challenging space are disappearing,' Bonner said. 'I don't see a path forward for certain, but I'm fighting to make one.'
Filipino Times
8 hours ago
- Filipino Times
Gatchalian: OVP's 2026 budget feasible without confidential funds
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said the proposed 2026 budget of the Office of the Vice President (OVP) is considered 'feasible' as long as it excludes confidential funds. At a press briefing on Monday, the Senate finance committee chairman emphasized that he will be stricter in reviewing confidential and intelligence fund requests under the proposed 2026 national budget, adding that these funds should be limited to enforcement and intelligence agencies only. 'The most contentious item has always been the confidential funds, and the OVP no longer has that in its 2025 budget. What's left are bare-bones allocations for its operations and a few projects of the Vice President,' Gatchalian said. The proposed budget of the OVP, led by Vice President Sara Duterte, increased by P170 million—from P733 million in 2025 to P903 million in 2026. OVP spokesperson Ruth Castelo clarified that the office will not seek confidential funds next year. Last year, the House slashed the proposed P2 billion OVP budget to P733 million after Duterte refused to answer queries regarding the use of confidential funds. The Senate maintained this cut despite appeals from Duterte's allies to restore funds for social services. Gatchalian also vowed to push for more transparency, saying the public should be able to access all budget documents online—from the initial National Expenditure Program to the final General Appropriations Act. He said agencies' budget request forms, specifically DBM's Form 201, should be published on official websites so Filipinos can track how funds are proposed and approved.
Middle East Eye
10 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Le Monde publishes new details of campaign against Karim Khan and ICC
French newspaper Le Monde has reported extensive details of an intensifying intimidation campaign targeting the International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor Karim Khan. The campaign has taken place against the backdrop of Khan's efforts to build and pursue a case against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and other Israeli officials over alleged war crimes. Khan went on leave in mid-May after an attempt to suspend him, prompted by a senior member of his own office, failed. This was amid an ongoing United Nations investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against the prosecutor. In a story published on Friday, the French newspaper quoted British barrister Andrew Cayley, who oversaw the ICC's Palestine investigation, saying Dutch intelligence informed him that he was at risk in The Hague. Cayley said that in December 2024 he was directly threatened: "I was told I was an enemy of Israel and that I should watch my back." New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters Cayley told the Observer in June that he left his role earlier this year fearing US sanctions, and that the pressure severely affected his health. Le Monde reported on the role allegedly played in the proceedings by Thomas Lynch, a senior legal adviser at the ICC and longstanding friend and colleague of Khan and his wife. Khan had tasked Lynch, who worked in his office as his special assistant, with liaising with Israel on the Palestine investigation. According to Le Monde, in May 2024 Lynch suggested that Khan organise a dinner in Jerusalem with prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz. The plan was that Netanyahu himself would join them in the middle of the meal. The newspaper reported that Khan described this as "a remake of Oliver Twist... Netanyahu and I eating roast turkey in front of the hungry Gazans! It's a dangerous idea!" Le Monde reported that an anonymous source in the ICC said Lynch tried to sabotage Khan's pursuit of arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. The source told Le Monde that Lynch "openly said that for him Palestine is not a state, that Israel is not a party to the Court, and that the office should not investigate it". The source further alleged that Lynch referred sexual harassment allegations against Khan to investigators "to get rid of the prosecutor" and "hijack the process" of applying for arrest warrants. Le Monde reported that a note written by Lynch was the source of press reports about the misconduct allegations against Khan in October 2024. Lynch told Le Monde that the reports in its story were "false and misleading". Cameron's threatening phone call Le Monde also reported that on 23 April 2024, then-British Foreign Secretary David Cameron threatened Khan in a phone call that Britain would withdraw from the ICC if the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. In June, MEE first revealed details of the call based on information from a number of sources - including former staff in Khan's office familiar with the conversation and who have seen the minutes of the meeting. Cameron told Khan that applying for warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant would be like dropping "a hydrogen bomb", Le Monde reported. He threatened that the UK would "withdraw from the ICC's founding treaty", the Rome Statute, "if Karim Khan followed through with his intentions". Exclusive: David Cameron threatened to withdraw UK from ICC over Israel war crimes probe Read More » In June, Cameron did not respond to MEE's requests for comment and the British foreign office declined to comment. Le Monde also reported on a meeting on 1 May this year between Khan and British-Israeli ICC lawyer Nicholas Kaufman, which was first revealed by MEE last month. Le Monde cited a "report of the meeting" which said Kaufman told Khan that if ICC arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant were not dropped, he and the ICC would be destroyed. Kaufman told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu's legal adviser Roy Schondorf and offered Khan a way out, Le Monde reported. Khan, Kaufman suggested, should reclassify the arrest warrants as confidential. This would allow Israel to challenge them in private. In response to questions from MEE in July, Kaufman denied threatening Khan. He denied having been authorised to make any proposals on behalf of the Israeli government and said he had shared his personal views with Khan on the Palestine situation. Kaufman told Le Monde he "did not dispute the meeting", but said he was looking to help Khan "get out of his mistakes". Intensifying intimidation campaign The meeting came less than two weeks before allegations of sexual assault against Khan, which he has strenuously denied, were first published, and as he was reportedly preparing to seek arrest warrants for more members of the Israeli government. There is no suggestion of any connection between the Kaufman-Khan meeting and the publication of the allegations. Khan went on indefinite leave shortly afterwards. Exclusive: How Karim Khan's Israel war crimes probe was derailed by threats, leaks and sex claims Read More » Le Monde quoted Cuno Tarfusser, a former ICC judge, who said Khan going on leave was a "coup d'état". Tarfusser described the ongoing UN investigation into misconduct allegations against Khan as an "irregular procedure", "tailor-made" and conducted with a "disregard for confidentiality". On Friday MEE published extraordinary details of the intimidation campaign targeting Khan, which has involved threats and warnings directed at Khan by prominent figures, close colleagues and family friends briefing against him, fears for the prosecutor's safety prompted by a Mossad team in The Hague, and media leaks about sexual assault allegations. MEE reported details of Lynch's role in the process by which Khan was forced on leave. Lynch triggered the initial investigation by the ICC's Internal Oversight Mechanism (IOM) into harassment allegations against Khan in May 2024, after Khan told him to follow the established procedures. On 4 May, just after the investigation was launched, Khan's wife Shyamala Alagendra met up with Lynch. According to the material reviewed by MEE, Lynch privately expressed his own doubts about the allegations and said their timing was 'suspicious'. ICC lawyer linked to Netanyahu advisor warned Khan to drop war crimes probe or be 'destroyed' Read More » But following the publication in May this year of the sexual assault allegations against Khan, Lynch approached the ICC's presidency in a bid to have the prosecutor suspended. Lynch urged the presidency to start a process by which ICC member states could vote to formally suspend Khan. When this attempt failed, Lynch approached the two deputies and urged them to make the same case to the presidency. This followed leaked reports that Khan was preparing to request arrest warrants for more Israeli officials. It was amid this internal turmoil that the decision was made that Khan should step away on leave while the investigation continued. Lynch told MEE: "As you are aware, there is an ongoing confidential investigation into this matter that limits my right to reply." He said questions put to him by MEE were "false and misleading". Sanctions and pressure Since being subjected to sanctions by the US in February, Khan has had his American visa revoked, and his wife and children have been banned from travelling to the country. His bank accounts have also been frozen and his credit cards cancelled in the UK. At present, the progress and future direction of the ICC's investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes rests with Khan's deputies, pending the outcome of the ongoing OIOS investigation. On 27 May, the Wall Street Journal reported that just before he took leave, the prosecutor had been preparing to seek new warrants for Smotrich and Ben Gvir, Netanyahu's key far-right allies in his coalition government, over their roles in expanding illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Whether or not those applications have been filed is no longer public knowledge after the court recently ordered that any further warrants cannot be publicised. But the pressure on both the prosecutor's office and the court itself has continued to build, with US sanctions on four ICC judges on 8 June. In a further threat to the court last month, US State Department legal adviser Reed Rubinstein warned that "all options remain on the table" unless all arrest warrants and the investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes are dropped.
