China claims Philippine arbitration case...

the Duterte administration, which announced an independent foreign policy that saw the Philippines developing warmer relations with China and Russia. President Rodrigo Duterte also played down the ruling, saying the Philippines cannot provoke China.

The Philippine Coast Guard recounted an incident on Monday, February 13, saying a China vessel blocked them and directed a military-grade laser against them while they were on a rotation and resupply mission in the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal.

The laser caused temporary blindness among Filipino crew onboard. Beijing denied the incident, saying the China Coast Guard was "professional and restrained." It said they were defending their territorial waters and that Philippine ships were intruding in the area.

The United States was the first country to back the Philippines, calling China’s actions "provocative and unsafe." Manila has a decadeslong mutual defense pact with Washington and the latter continuously reiterates its "ironclad" commitment to its oldest ally in Southeast Asia.

"The PRC’s dangerous operational behavior directly threatens regional peace and stability, infringes upon freedom of navigation in the

South China Sea as guaranteed under international law, and undermines the rulesbased international order," U.S. Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said. The Philippines filed a diplomatic protest a day after it was publicized,expressing disappointment as the incident happened just weeks after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. went on a state visit to China. Marcos Jr. summoned Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian on Tuesday afternoon to express concern over the “increasing frequency and intensity” of China’s actions against the PCG and Filipino fishermen.

The embassy said the two discussed ways to implement agreements made during Marcos Jr.’s state visit and ways forward on how to “properly manage maritime differences between China and the Philippines.” g

California homeless crisis looms as...

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Darry Sragow, a Los Angelesbased political strategist. “People want strong, tough leadership and progress on this issue, but if Gavin Newsom is going to make headway in reducing homelessness, he’s going to have to have a pretty stiff spine.”

* * * Daniel Goodman slept on sidewalks, in a tent, or on a jail bunk throughout much of his 20s and early 30s. Now 35, he only in recent years committed to a regimen of psychiatric medication and counseling for schizophrenia, a condition he was diagnosed with at 24.

“I didn’t want to take medication for a lot of years; I absolutely refused,” he said, eager to discuss a change of heart that has enabled him to reclaim a life with his mom in a comfortable neighborhood in the Gold Country city of Folsom.

Tall, with a bright smile and rock-’n’-roll hair, Goodman said he was addicted to methamphetamines for a decade, self-medicating to calm the voice in his head he calls “the witch.”

He panhandled, pushed shopping carts, and bellowed his agony in public fits of rage. It was a hungry, ragged existence during which he cycled from the streets to jail on charges of drunk and disorderly and then back to the streets.

His mom, Susan Goodman, in her form of tough love, eventually closed her home to him after his untreated illness devolved into threatening behavior, including stealing from her and a violent bout of vandalism during which he shattered every window in her house.

“I lived from second to second, and I didn’t have anything to eat or blankets, so I’d think, ‘What can I steal?’” Daniel said. “I put my mom through a lot.”

Her heart broken, Susan would seek out her son on the streets, bringing supplies to his tent. In 2019, after a particularly cold spell, he begged her to let him come home. She responded with an ultimatum: He could move back home if he agreed to get clean and stay on his meds.

Susan, a lawyer, is among thousands of parents who support Newsom’s CARE Court initiative.

For years, families who have watched in despair as children or siblings lost themselves to untreated mental illness have petitioned lawmakers to make it easier to mandate conservatorship and treatment, and CARE Court is a major stride in that direction.

Eight counties, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, and Riverside, have volunteered to launch the program this year. All 58 counties will be required to start programs by the end of 2024.

Newsom calls it a paradigm shift. Pushing the measure to passage meant standing against virulent opposition from civil and disability rights groups that argued people have the right to refuse treatment, and warned of a return to the horrors of forced confinement depicted in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

“There’s no compassion in stepping over people on the streets and sidewalks,” Newsom said as he signed the Community Assistance, Recovery & Empowerment, or CARE, Act into law last fall. “They need intervention — sometimes that’s tough.”

Some county leaders have also balked, saying Newsom is sentencing people to a system of care that doesn’t exist. They worry a crush of patient referrals will overwhelm county behavioral health systems. They say they need more money, more time, and funding streams guaranteed year after year.

“There isn’t enough treatment capacity. And we can write a prescription for housing, but the reality under CARE Court is we don’t have what it takes to fill that prescription,” said Michelle Doty Cabrera, executive director of the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California. “It’s a matter of having the level of funding and housing that is going to help that person be successful.”

Newsom’s response to the pushback has grown heated. He points out that local governments already get billions every year to provide mental health services and that recent state budgets have included funding to expand the system of care.

“I’m exhausted by that — $15.3 billion we’ve provided,” Newsom said at a January news conference, referencing homeless investments over the past two years. The state has provided “unprecedented support,” he said, pounding his fist on the podium. “I want to see unprecedented progress.”

Dr. Tom Insel, who formerly led the National Institute of Mental Health and has served as an adviser to Newsom, credits the governor for bold efforts to direct resources and attention to the nexus of mental illness and homelessness. Research indicates roughly 1 in 20 Americans have a serious mental illness, but for unsheltered homeless people, it’s 1 in 4, Insel said.

He sees CARE Court as a “two-sided mandate,” making counties legally liable for providing services for people whose survival is at risk because of untreated mental illness while putting individuals on notice that they are responsible for accepting that help. Still, he worries the state’s homeless population is so overwhelming in scope, their isolation so entrenched, that it will be difficult to make headway.

“You can have all the clinics and all the medicines and all this