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Philippines

December 2025

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Netwealth repays $100m; ANZ’s pay clawback; Meg O’Neill’s double risk

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

A passionate Josh Frydenberg channelled the anger and frustration of Australia’s Jewish community on Wednesday.

Politicians must call out Islamism to fight antisemitism

If the response to Bondi is to be meaningful, the outcome must be to better protect Jewish people by upping vigilance against Islamist terrorism.

A man lays flowers outside the Bondi Pavilion on Wednesday.

ASIO stretched by competing espionage and terror demands

Former officials say the spy agency’s monitoring of IS sympathisers after October 7 was diverted as it attempted to juggle other activities like counterespionage.

Philippine government forces fought an intense battle to recapture the southern city of Marawi on Mindanao from Islamic State fighters in 2017.

The tropical Philippines island where Bondi terror suspects trained

Australia’s investigation into the Bondi massacre has turned to an island terror hot-bed in the southern Philippines.

 For more than a year, ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess has assessed the terrorism threat as “probable”. He was criticised by some for overstatement.

Security agencies have hard questions to answer about Bondi shooting

The blowtorch has now been turned on Australia’s police and intelligence agencies. The scrutiny must be informed by some uncomfortable truths.

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Bondi funerals begin; Chalmers to release mid-year budget; Star chair steps down

Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.

Terrorists Sajid and Naveed Akram.

Terrorists spent four weeks in Philippines, were ‘ISIS inspired’

Suspected gunmen Naveed Akram, 24, and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, travelled to the Philippines in November and returned to Australia before the end of the month.

Patrol vessel under construction at Austal shipyards

Biting the bullet on Austal and Australia’s shipbuilding future

The shipbuilder is part of a bigger strategic story: rising regional tensions, neglected defence capabilities and the commercial viability of skilled manufacturing.

Donald Trump wants allies like Australia to challenge China’s state-subsidised economic model that produces many more goods than it needs at home and sends them around the world.

Trump sees China more as an economic rival than a military threat

The US is more inward-looking, more disdainful of multiculturalism and no longer a defender of democratic values. But it still has its eye on China.

In this photo released by Hong Kong Police Public Relations Branch, members of the Disaster Victim Identification Unit work in an apartment in the aftermath of Wednesday’s devastating fire at Wang Fuk Court.

Police comb fire-ravaged Hong Kong apartments, death toll at 146

The cause of the blaze that started last Wednesday and quickly fanned across the exterior of the apartments under renovation is still being investigated.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles and Minister for Defence Industry and Minister for Pacific Island Affairs Pat Conroy

Marles launches biggest Defence overhaul in five decades

To help prevent more multibillion-dollar cost blowouts, an independent agency to run major projects will be created by the government.

November 2025

An activist holds a poster with a crossed portrait of former President Suharto during a protest against the government’s decision to name the late dictator as a national hero. The poster reads “Suharto is not a hero”.

Amnesia is turning Asia’s tyrants into heroes

Indonesia’s decision to honour former dictator Suharto as a hero is a reminder that when nations forget their authoritarian pasts, they risk inviting them back.

Working holidaymakers take up casual jobs that Australians have been more reluctant to fill, particularly in regional areas.

The fight over immigration is just hotting up

It’s a divisive issue in Australia, as it is elsewhere, and the Liberals are determined not to let Pauline Hanson lead the charge.

October 2025

In this photo provided by the Philippine coast guard, a Chinese coast guard vessel, right, fires its water cannon at the Filipino vessel.

Philippines, China trade blame over South China Sea clash

Manila alleged Chinese maritime forces used water cannons and rammed a Philippine boat near Thitu Island in the latest of a string of clashes.

September 2025

Stephen Rue is less than a year into the job leading calamity prone telecommunications provider Optus.

How chaos unfolded again for Australia’s most disaster-prone company

Is Optus underfunded by its Singaporean owners, incompetent or unlucky? The unfolding of its fatal Triple Zero outage suggests it is, at best, a slow learner.

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Donald Trump loomed large over the meeting between Anthony Albanese and Xi Jinping.

Beijing warns of Australia’s ‘two-faced’ policy towards China

The China Daily said Australia’s pursuit of close economic relations with China and stronger defence ties with the Trump administration was “unsustainable”.

Armoured vehicles and soldiers take part in China’s military parade.

Xi’s military show sparked fears. The real warning was elsewhere

China’s new weapons showed off the country’s military might, as Chinese ships sent a pointed message to joint Australian exercises in the South China Sea.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa at the National Press Club on Monday.

Social media a ‘weapon of mass destruction’: Nobel winner

Journalist Maria Ressa has (so far) beaten 10 of the 11 criminal warrants issued against her by ex-Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte.

August 2025

Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney last year. He will retire at next year’s annual shareholder meeting.

Michael Chaney departs Wesfarmers with $1.7b gift to shareholders

The group behind Bunnings and Kmart said Ken MacKenzie would succeed Chaney as chairman as it delivered a solid rise in profit and a special dividend.

Bloomberg

James Hardie may be forced to raise capital after shock result

The building products giant’s shares dived 28 per cent after it slashed profit expectations, with investors wiping $7 billion from its market value.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/philippines-e8m