‘Johnson misled MPs over COVID parties’

BORIS JOHNSON deliberately misled MPs over COVID lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.

The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for “repeated contempt (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process.”

But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.

In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee’s conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.

He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being “anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination.” Calling it “beneath contempt”, he said it was “for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman,” the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the sevenperson committee. The committee’s longawaited 106-page report was even more critical than expected, particularly in relation to the sanction it would have recommended.

MPs ordinarily have to vote on the committee’s recommendations, with any suspension over 10 days potentially trigger- ing a “recall” by-election in the offender’s constituency.

Johnson hung on to his Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat in outer northwest London at the last general election in December 2019, at which his Conservative party won a landslide. AFP

Rich in natural resources and close to key shipping routes, Papua New Guinea increasingly finds itself at the centre of a diplomatic tug-of-war between Washington and Beijing.

Former prime minister Peter O’Neill said the agreement painted a target on Papua New Guinea’s back.

“America is doing it for the protection of their own national interest, we all understand the geopolitics happening within our region,” he said.

US President Joe Biden had been due to visit Papua New Guinea to sign the deal last month, a trip that was derailed by a budget tussle in the US Congress. AFP

Citizen Trump offers ‘power to the people’

WITH his corporate suits, fussy hairstyle and penchant for glitzy decor, the Big Mac-munching former president of the United States isn’t everyone’s idea of a counterculture revolutionary.

But try telling that to the clientele at the Versailles Cuban restaurant Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood, where Donald Trump strutted between booths Tuesday telling tales of his latest run-in with the government like he was a modern-day Che Guevara.

“These accusations against Donald Trump are a political tool to hurt the Republicans and him,” Cuban-born Elizabeth Gonzalez tells AFP, echoing the views of many diners who have seen political repression up close in Latin America.

On Wednesday, the Versailles was still buzzing a day after Trump’s impromptu visit on his way back from his arrest and processing at the downtown federal courthouse on charges of mishandling classified secrets.

It was the second indictment in a little over two months for the 77-yearold Trump, who coincidentally was born exactly 18 years after the Latin American revolutionary icon Ernesto “Che” Guevara. In April, Trump appeared in a Manhattan court over accusations that he lied about paying off a porn star who was shopping tawdry tales of extracurricular sex.

“What is happening is copied from Latin American countries. It’s being transferred to us here,” Gonzalez said, reflecting on Trump’s mounting legal woes. AFP

Notice To The Public

This is to inform the public that MR. HERMAN NICOLAS whose picture appears above, is no longer affiliated with the Doña Remedios Trinidad Romualdez Medical Foundation, Inc. (DRTRMFI) and the Dr. V. Orestes Romualdez Educational Foundation, Inc. (DVOREFI), Tacloban City, as Head of Alumni Affairs and School Director of DVOREFI Training and Competency Assessment Center (TESDA Programs) effective June 8, 2023 Henceforth, all dealings and representations effective the date indicated herein are of his own and do not and will not bind the institution or its officers in whatever form and manner.

At DRTRMFI and DVOREFI, we remain steadfast in our commitment to delivering quality education in Region VIII. We continue to be dedicated to upholding the highest standards of quality, competence, and integrity.

Top Gainers

STOCKS rose Thursday after the US Federal Reserve decided against hiking interest rates, while China’s central bank cut borrowing costs to kickstart the struggling economy.

The PSE index, the 30-company benchmark of the Philippine Stock Exchange, rose 27 points, or 0.43 percent, to close at 6,461.42, as three of the six subsectors advanced.

Top Losers

Most Active

The broader all-shares index also picked up 7 points, or 0.20 percent, to settle at 3,444.07, on a value turnover of P6.1 billion. Gainers edged losers, 93 to 91, while 31 issues were unchanged. Five of the 10 most active stocks ended in the green, led by SM Prime Holdings Inc. which rose 2 percent to P33.15 and SM Investments Corp. which gained 1.32 percent to P922.00.

Most Asian markets also rose Thursday. After 10 straight increases since early 2022, US monetary policymakers stood pat at their latest meeting “to assess additional information and its implications for monetary policy”. However, they signaled more increas- es were likely later in the year as inflation was still double the bank’s target rate and the jobs market remained tight.

The move to hold rates at 5.0 to 5.25 percent came a day after figures showed prices jumped 4.0 percent last month, the slowest pace since March 2021.

The reading added to hopes the Fed could guide the economy to a soft landing and eased worries it could tip into recession.

However, bank boss Jerome Powell said: “Looking ahead, nearly all committee participants view it as likely that some further rate increases will be appropriate this year to bring inflation down to two percent over time.”

Edward Moya at OANDA said poli-