Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday was as clear as he has ever been about how he views a ceasefire and hostage agreement with Hamas.

“There’s not a deal in the making,” he told Fox News. “Unfortunately, it’s not close.”

“It’s exactly inaccurate. There’s a story, a narrative out there, that there’s a deal out there.”

Hamas “don’t agree to anything. Not to the Philadelphi Corridor, not to the keys of exchanging hostages for jailed terrorists, not to anything. So that’s just a false narrative.”

Netanyahu is facing mounting accusations that he has purposefully blocked a deal with Hamas. The Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, citing a document it obtained, reported that Netanyahu in July effectively spiked a draft hostage and ceasefire deal by introducing a raft of new, eleventh-hour demands.

In the Fox News interview, Netanyahu rejected allegations that he has obstructed a deal.

“The obstacle to the end of this war is Hamas. The obstacle to the release of hostages is Hamas. The ones who butchered in a sling, murdering six people in cold blood, riddling them with bullets and then firing bullets into their heads is Hamas. It’s not Israel. It’s not me.”

Netanyahu was also questioned about reports that the families of American hostages still held by Hamas are lobbying the US Administration to unilaterally seek their loved ones’ release.

“I don’t know,” he said. “You know, I don’t judge the families. They’re going through enormous anguish.”

Initial autopsies of four of the seven victims who died when a superyacht sank in a storm in Italy last month show they died of “dry drowning,” according to authorities.

The phenomenon, also known as “atypical drowning,” means they had no water in their lungs, tracheas or stomachs, said a spokesperson for the lawyer of the captain of the Bayesian, which went down off the coast of the Sicilian port of Porticello on August 19.

The cause of death of the first four victims suggests that they had found an air bubble in the cabin in which five of the victims’ bodies were discovered, and had consumed all the oxygen before the air pocket turned toxic due to carbon dioxide, according to local media reports.

The autopsies of American lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda Morvillo, Morgan Stanley banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Anne Elizabeth Judith Bloomer were carried out on Wednesday at the Forensic Medicine Institute of the Palermo Polyclinic hospital, officials said.

Autopsies on British tech titan Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are expected to be carried out on Friday.

No date has been set yet for the autopsy of Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s onboard chef – due to the difficulty reaching his family in Antigua.

All seven victims were scanned for injuries last Saturday, which found none had suffered broken bones or other physical injuries that might have contributed to their deaths.

The prosecutor investigating the case first suggested earlier in August the idea that the victims had been searching for an air pocket.

The autopsies are part of the criminal investigation into the ship’s captain James Cutfield, the ship’s machine engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffith, who was on watch the night of the accident. None of the men is in Italy.

They are being investigated for “multiple manslaughter” and for causing a shipwreck, but authorities say this doesn’t mean they will be charged with any crimes. They were allowed to leave the country by the prosecutor in charge of the investigation.

The 56-meter yacht sank within 16 minutes of being struck by a downburst or tornado on the early morning of August 19. The ship will have to be raised for the investigation and to ensure that the 18,000 liters of fuel onboard do not leak into the sea around the port of Porticello near Palermo.

Bids have been sent out for the salvage, which will be paid for by the company of Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, which owns the yacht.

Toxicology results on the seven victims are expected in the coming days. No alcohol or drug tests were carried out on any of the crew members, the prosecutor said in a press conference after all the victims’ bodies had been recovered.

Lynch and his business partner Sushovan Hussain, who died after being struck by a car in London the day the Bayesian sank, had been acquitted of fraud charges in a US court in June 2024. The charges were related to the sale of their company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard, which has said it will not drop its civil lawsuit for $4 billion in damages now being heard in a UK court.

Russian President Vladimir Putin raised eyebrows Thursday when he expressed his support for US Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid, flattering the Democratic nominee with some curiously timed remarks.

“Our ‘favorite,’ if you can call it that, was the current president, Mr. [Joe] Biden. But he was removed from the race, and he recommended all his supporters to support Ms. Harris. Well, we will do so – we will support her,” Putin said Thursday at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. “She laughs so expressively and infectiously that it means that she is doing well.”

Putin also criticized former president and current Republican nominee Donald Trump for placing “so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia like no other president has ever introduced before him.”

Putin’s comments come on the heels of sweeping sanctions announced by the Biden administration to combat a Russian government-backed disinformation effort to influence the 2024 elections and boost Trump’s candidacy.

So what is Putin trying to accomplish?

If the past is any guide, Putin is simply stirring the pot of US domestic politics. In December 2015, Putin praised Trump, calling him the front-runner months before the businessman secured the Republican nomination.

And despite the Russian leader’s vocal support of the Democrats, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Wednesday that three Russian companies – at Putin’s direction – used fake profiles to promote false narratives on social media. Internal documents produced by one of those Russian companies show one of the goals of the propaganda effort was to support Trump’s candidacy or whoever emerged as the Republican nominee for president, according to an FBI affidavit.

“He is a bright and talented person without any doubt,” Putin said, calling Trump “an outstanding and talented personality.”

Did Putin know something about the 2016 US presidential elections that the pollsters didn’t? No, but the Kremlin leader did little to conceal his dislike of Hillary Clinton, then the likely Democratic nominee.

And when purloined Democratic National Committee emails were leaked just ahead of the Democratic National Convention, Putin did not hide his glee.

While US officials pointed a firm finger of blame at Russia for the hack, Putin denied the Russian state had anything to do with it. And in remarks at the same forum in September 2016, he praised the leak as a sort of service to the voters, saying, “The important thing is the content that was given to the public.”

That content being the embarrassing revelation in the leaked emails that Democratic officials gave preferential treatment to Clinton.

In other words, the whole DNC hack episode supported the Kremlin’s view that American democracy is a sham: Nothing matters but power, everything is decided in smoke-filled rooms, and hectoring countries like Russia about adherence to democracy and human rights is hypocritical.

Putin’s view of the American political system makes even more sense when we are reminded of an insight from exiled Russian political journalist Mikhail Zygar, the author of “All the Kremlin’s Men.”

Zygar noted that Putin loved “House of Cards” – the darkly cynical television series about Washington politics – and even recommended it to his ministers.

“That’s his American politics textbook,” Zygar said in an interview.

It’s also possible that Putin was simply trolling Harris by winking at a consistent insult from Trump about the way she laughs.

So if Putin’s take on US election politics is seen through the lens of “House of Cards,” then, Putin’s support of Harris is a sort of Frank Underwood move: A kind of endorsement poisonous to its recipient.

Additional reporting by Anna Chernova and Christian Edwards.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, has been named France’s new prime minister, the French president’s office says, ending two months of stalemate following inconclusive parliamentary elections.

In a statement on Thursday, the Élysée Palace said: “The President of the Republic has appointed Michel Barnier as Prime Minister. He has to form a united government to serve the country and the French people.”

The statement added that Barnier’s appointment comes after “an unprecedented cycle of consultations” in order to ensure a stable government.

Barnier, 73, a staunch Europhile, is a member of the Republicans party which represents the traditional right. He is best known on the international stage for his role in mediating the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union.

A 40-year veteran of French and European politics, Barnier has held various ministerial positions in France, including roles as foreign, agriculture and environment ministers. He served twice as a European commissioner as well as an adviser to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. In 2021, Barnier announced his bid for presidential elections but failed to garner enough support within his party.

Macron accepted the resignation of former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his government in July, after his centrist Ensemble alliance was defeated in the second round of France’s snap parliamentary election. The president has since faced calls from across the political divide to name a new PM. Last week, Macron told journalists during a trip to Serbia he was “making all the necessary efforts” to finalize a name.

Barnier’s prospects for forming a stable government are unclear. Currently, France’s far-right National Rally (RN) is one of the largest parties in parliament following the election in early July. It has previously suggested it could be open to working with Barnier and would not immediately veto him.

Still, RN politician Laurent Jacobelli spoke disparagingly of Barnier, telling French television network TF1: “They are taking out of mothballs those who have governed France for 40 years.”

Barnier served as the chief negotiator during the UK’s exit from the European Union. The lengthy talks between London and Brussels ran from 2016 to 2021 and he is known among Brexiteers in the UK for driving a hard bargain.

Born in January 1951 in a suburb of the Alpine city of Grenoble, Barnier was first elected to parliament at the age of 27.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

A new Maori Queen was anointed Thursday, taking on the role at a time when New Zealand is facing some of the biggest challenges to race relations in two decades.

A statement released by representatives said Nga Wai Hono i te Po had been chosen by Maori elders to replace her father, King Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII, who died aged 69 last week following surgery.

“The new monarch was raised up in a ceremony known as Te Whakawahinga, in front of thousands of people gathered for the tangihanga (funeral and burial) of Kiingi Tuheitia,” a spokesperson for the Kiingitanga or royal family said.

The new queen is not crowned and instead a bible that has been used since 1858 was placed upon her head and Archbishop Don Tamihere used sacred oils to bestow prestige, sacredness, power and spiritual essence upon her.

Thousands gathered at Tuurangawaewae, the meeting place of the King movement, to farewell him in a traditional funeral.

Following the anointment of his daughter, the King’s coffin was taken to the Waikato River by hearse before being paddled in a flotilla of traditional Maori waka or canoe to Taupiri Mountain, where he was to be buried alongside other royals and high-profile Maori.

The Maori King or Queen is considered the paramount chief of several tribes, or iwi, but is not affiliated with all of them. The monarch’s role has no judicial or legal authority in New Zealand and is largely ceremonial.

The role is not necessarily hereditary but voted on by representatives from iwi across the country. The new queen, or Kuini, is the only daughter and youngest child of the former King and his wife Te Atawhai Makau Ariki and is aged 27.

Radio New Zealand says that the new monarch, who has two older brothers, was favored to ascend the throne, although it had not been a foregone conclusion.

The new queen holds a Master of Arts in Tikanga (societal lore of) Maori and has served on a number of boards include that of the Te Kohanga Reo National Trust, an organization charged with revitalizing Maori language, according to 1News.

New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government welcomed the new queen’s appointment as she carries forward the mantle of leadership left by her father.

Her anointment comes at a time when New Zealand is struggling with race relations.

New Zealand’s center-right coalition which took office last year has started undoing policies of previous governments, particularly those promoting the official use of the Maori language, the enhancement of Indigenous living standards and rights and efforts to repair some of the wrongs undertaken during colonization.

King Tuheitia held a gathering of tribes from across the country in January to discuss how to respond to government plans. As King Tuheitia told the thousands who attended that their voices matter, his daughter, the new queen stood beside him.

German police shot dead an armed man after an exchange of fire near the Israeli consulate in central Munich on Thursday, officers said.

The suspect was armed with an older long gun when he was shot on Karolinenplatz, a square near the Israeli consulate and a Nazi documentation center, according to police in Munich.

The suspect was fatally injured after shots were exchanged, Munich police said in a post on X.

Police have not revealed a possible motive, and an investigation is under way. A helicopter was deployed to provide a more detailed assessment of the incident, according to Reuters.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Since his papacy began in 2013, Pope Francis has signaled his intention to build bridges with other faiths. The global growth of Islam, and the rise of extremism across religions, also made this an urgent priority.

On Thursday, in the biggest mosque in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, the pontiff used a joint statement with Indonesia’s Grand Imam Nasaruddin Umar to pinpoint “two serious crises” facing the world: dehumanization and climate change.

“The global phenomenon of dehumanization is marked especially by widespread violence and conflict, frequently leading to an alarming number of victims,” said the statement, signed in the sprawling capital Jakarta.

“It is particularly worrying that religion is often instrumentalized in this regard, causing suffering to many, especially women, children and the elderly,” it continued. “The role of religion, however, should include promoting and safeguarding the dignity of every human life.”

On climate change, the declaration stated that “human exploitation of creation” had led to “various destructive consequences such as natural disasters, global warming and unpredictable weather patterns,” and an “obstacle to the harmonious coexistence of peoples.”

Francis arrived at Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia, in the morning, driving past streets lined with well-wishers in a metropolis that is one of the fastest sinking cities in the world. That concern has sparked a controversial and expensive plan to relocate Indonesia’s capital entirely.

The mosque is next-door to the city’s Catholic cathedral, and the pope visited an underpass known as the “tunnel of friendship” which connects the places of worship.

As part of the event, the pope also listened to Islamic prayers being recited by a young blind girl named Syakila, the winner of a national Quran recitation competition.

His Indonesia trip and the signing of the declaration are in keeping with his bridge-building approach. But while about 87% of Indonesia’s 280 million people practice Islam, the visit also puts the spotlight on its 8.6 million Catholics and other minorities.

His arrival in the archipelago nation “is good news for us, something that strengthens our faith,” said Father Hieronymus Sridanto Ariwobo, a Catholic priest in Jakarta.

“And secondly, the pope will come here as a symbol (of) the relationship between the Christian and Muslim here in the country.”

Historically, the country’s form of Islam has been moderate and syncretic, often sitting comfortably alongside animist and other pre-Islamic practices, while the state ideology, known as “Pancasila,” encourages religious freedom and social justice.

“Indonesia is a great country, a mosaic of cultures, ethnicities and religious traditions, a rich diversity, which is also reflected in the varied ecosystem,” Francis said during Thursday’s inter-faith meeting, which the pontiff spent in a wheelchair. “May no one succumb to the allure of fundamentalism and violence.”

The 87-year-old is currently on the longest trip of his pontificate, despite facing health challenges and having started to use a wheelchair in recent years.

He is scheduled to hold a mass at Jakarta’s National Stadium later Thursday, which is expected to be attended by about 80,000 people.

The following day he leaves for Papua New Guinea, the second leg of a marathon 12-day visit of four countries in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, which also includes East Timor and Singapore.

Religious plurality

Indonesia is a symbolically strong choice for the kind of inter-faith approach Francis has embraced.

In the 13th century, traders from Arabia, Gujarat and China reached what is now Indonesia, buying cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Some of those spice-trade merchants also brought with them Islam and, as some settled on the islands of Java and Sumatra, the religion gradually blended with local animist beliefs.

Christianity came to Indonesia with Portuguese traders more than 200 years later, mainly in the eastern islands of Maluku and Timor. The Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier worked in the Maluku islands, but by the late 1600s the Dutch East India Company had expelled all Catholic missionaries.

After Japanese occupation during the Second World War, nationalist leaders Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declared Indonesian independence in 1945. Muslims and Christians have coexisted in Indonesia for decades since its modern founding, and most of its Islamic believers are broadly moderate and syncretic.

But there have been occasional bouts of religious tension. In 2021, two suicide bombers attacked Sacred Heart Cathedral in Makassar on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island during a Palm Sunday Mass, injuring at least 14 people. In 2018, at least seven were killed in three church bombings in Indonesia on the same day.

Religious minorities have at times faced attacks from vocal Islamist extremist groups and some parts of Indonesia are more conservative, such as the province of Aceh, which practices strict Islamic laws.

“Indonesia [is] like a huge laboratory for experiencing a different kind of Islam, a different kind of democracy,” said Ulil Abshar Abdalla, a leader of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country’s biggest Islamic organization.

Milawati, a Catholic who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said she hopes the pope’s visit will send a message to her compatriots to “live a life of mutual love, respect and tolerance between other religions” so that the country may progress.

“⁠As Catholics, we view all religions as having the same goal, living a good and righteous life and believing in God the Creator,” she said.

And Elia Dimas Indahputro, a 47-year-old sound engineer, said the significance of religion is sometimes overstated in parts of Indonesia, adding that mingling between people of different creeds is common.

Francis’ Indonesia visit follows trips to other majority-Muslim nations such as Egypt, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates, with the latter marking the first time a pope had travelled to the Arabian Peninsula. While in Abu Dhabi in 2019, he signed a historic declaration on inter-faith co-operation with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the leading Sunni Muslim leader.

China is enjoying its “best in history” ties with African nations, leader Xi Jinping said on Thursday, as he pledged $50 billion in financial support for the continent, in addition to military aid.

China and Africa should rally their populations together to become a “powerful force” and write a “new chapter in peace, prosperity and progress,” Xi said in a sweeping speech to delegations from more than 50 African nations as he sought to bolster relationships seen as key to Beijing’s position as a rising global power.

“China-Africa relations are at their best in history. Looking to the future, I propose that China’s bilateral relations with all African countries, with which it has diplomatic ties, be elevated to the level of strategic relations,” the Chinese leader said while flanked by African dignitaries seated on stage in the cavernous Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Xi also separately pledged another $280 million in aid to African countries, split evenly between military and food assistance.

The pledge of $140 million in military aid is the largest amount that China has earmarked for this purpose at the three-yearly Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. In 2018, China said it would provide $100 million to support the African Standby Force and African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crisis.

The freshly promised military aid signals the increasing importance of security in the relationship between Beijing and its partners in Africa.

Leaders including South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, Kenya’s William Ruto and Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu have assembled in the Chinese capital this week for the three-day forum that Beijing has hailed as its largest diplomatic gathering in years.

This year’s event comes amid questions about the direction of those relations as Beijing, long the driving foreign economic power in Africa, has been recalibrating its extensive economic ties to the continent, while other major powers are ramping up their own efforts to engage Africa.

China has been pulling back on big-ticket spending under Xi’s signature Belt and Road Initiative. That infrastructure drive saw it fund projects like railways, roads and power plants and expand its influence on the continent. However, it also faced criticism that unsustainable lending contributed to heavy international debt loads now shouldered by many African countries.

Xi did not mention these debt challenges in his address but did make broad pledges for China to deepen cooperation with Africa in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, trade and investment.

Raft of support

Xi’s pledge of $50 billion to the continent over the next three years — a mix of credit funds, assistance and private investment from Chinese firms — outstrips a previous pledge made three years ago of around $30 billion during a prior iteration of the forum in Dakar, Senegal.

While lower than the $60 billion pledged in 2015 and 2018 respectively, it appears to be aimed at sending a strong signal to visiting leaders about China’s commitment to the continent.

In his 10-minute speech, Xi outlined 10 action areas for cooperation over the coming three years, including infrastructure connectivity, trade, security and green development – an area where Beijing is widely seen as pushing to enhance its exports of green technology.

It’s unclear how Xi’s pledges would align in practice with the expectations from visiting African leaders, analysts say. Fulfillment of past pledges has also been difficult to track, they say.

Leaders in Beijing are seeking investment, trade, and support to industrialize and create jobs. That includes a push for China to import more processed goods from Africa, rather than simply exporting and processing raw materials – like Africa’s highly sought after critical minerals.

Following Xi’s speech, African leaders also gave remarks, with South Africa’s Ramaphosa praising China’s “solidarity” with the continent. He pointed to global challenges including conflict, climate change and a “global contestation for critical minerals” that is fueling geopolitical rivalry.

“These challenges affect all nations but are more often severely felt on the African continent, yet amid these challenges there is hope and opportunity,” he said.

Typhoon Yagi has rapidly intensified to a super typhoon as it powers its way towards the Chinese holiday island of Hainan, where it is forecast to make landfall towards the end of the week.

Yagi is currently packing winds of up to 240 kph (150 mph), according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) Wednesday. That makes it a high-end Category 4 Atlantic Hurricane and is only 7 mph shy of being a Category 5 Atlantic hurricane.

“Intensification will continue while in the warm tub of the South China Sea,” the typhoon warning center said.

Just a day ago, Yagi was a tropical storm with top winds of 90 kph (60 mph). Scientists have found that hotter oceans caused by the human-caused climate crisis are leading storms to intensify more rapidly.

It is expected to make landfall Friday evening across the southwest portions of China, near northern tip of Hainan.

The island is often dubbed “China’s Hawaii,” boasting sandy beaches, good surf, five-star resorts and duty-free luxury shopping. It is not currently peak travel season, however, and the island generally has a good track record of weathering powerful storms.

Intercity bus services have been suspended on the island since midnight Thursday, according to Hainan’s provincial government.

Train and high-speed rail services will be suspended on Thursday starting 6p.m. local time, while all flights departing after 8p.m. will also be cancelled until Friday midnight, it added.

Several tourist attractions have already shut down, with authorities warning that winds could be “massive and destructive.”

On Thursday morning, Yagi was churning to the south of Hong Kong, prompting the city to cancel kindergarten and several flights.

The local observatory warned it expected to hoist a higher storm warning later in the day, a step which will trigger further travel restrictions. If that warning remains in place until Friday, the city’s stock market — one of Asia’s largest — will be suspended.

Yagi, known as Enteng in the Philippines, brought heavy rainfall across the country earlier in the week. At least 13 people were killed, Reuters reported. In some parts of Luzon, rainfall totaling 400 millimeters (15.8 inches) were reported.

A disgraced mayor wanted in the Philippines for alleged links to Chinese criminal networks has been arrested in Indonesia after several weeks on the run, Philippines officials announced Wednesday, as they vowed to prosecute cases against her.

Alice Leal Guo, identified as Chinese national Guo Hua Ping by Philippine immigration authorities, fled the country in July as speculation swirled over her true identity after raids exposed a huge scam center staffed by hundreds of people in her home town.

The scandal captivated the country for months as lawmakers dug deeper into the allegations against Guo, through a senate inquiry that heard claims of illegal gambling activities, money laundering, human trafficking and fraud.

As pressure grew on Guo, 34, to explain how she amassed millions in assets as a first-time politician within two years of being elected to public office, she vanished, fleeing the country allegedly via a covert network of vans and small boats.

From the Philippines, authorities believe she crossed the sea to Malaysia, then Singapore and Indonesia, where local police caught up with her in the early hours of Wednesday.

Dressed in a baby pink pajama set and a white jacket, Guo was seen being led down a staircase by Indonesian authorities in Jakarta’s Tangerang City in a video released by Philippine authorities.

In a video statement posted to Facebook, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. commended law enforcement officials for Guo’s arrest.

“Let this serve as a warning to those who attempt to evade justice. Such is an exercise in futility. The arm of the law is long, and it will reach you,” he said.

Fall from grace

With long black hair and a beaming smile, the bespectacled candidate running for mayor of Bamban, a small town in Tarlac province about 60 miles north of Manila, appeared in 2022 campaign material posted to YouTube with the description: “Get to know the real Alice Guo.”

Dressed in a pink polo shirt and jeans, she’s seen waving to her supporters, who are also dressed in pink, her signature color. The campaign worked, and Guo was elected.

Her provincial life seemed ordinary. On her YouTube videos, she’s seen tending her chickens and having deep fried dried fish for breakfast, like a typical Filipino.

However, Guo’s image as an enthusiastic, young public servant was called into question earlier this year when the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) received separate tip-offs from two workers from Malaysia and Vietnam.

They had asked for help to be sent back to their home countries after claiming to have been held against their will in a building in Bamban, home to just 78,000 people.

The building was suspected to be a Philippine Offshore Gaming Operation (POGO), which caters to punters based in China, where gambling is illegal. Until July, POGOs were popular places of employment for tens of thousands of foreign workers.

However, when authorities raided the Bamban complex in March, they found more than 800 Filipinos, Chinese, Vietnamese and other nationals, who claimed to have been working there against their will.

The government-run Philippine News Agency reported police found “love scam” scripts, firearms and mobile phones allegedly used for scam transactions.

The rescued workers were allegedly made to pose as lovers to lure people to send money, in what’s commonly known as “pig-butchering” – a type of confidence fraud in which victims are lured by scammers often impersonating young women on the internet.

To get to the bottom of what was happening in Bamban, the Philippine senate ordered an inquiry into Guo on May 7 headed by Senator Risa Hontiveros.

Guo failed to show up for at least three of the hearings, citing death threats and poor mental health, according to a statement on Facebook before her official account was taken down.

While she was absent from the hearings, raids on casino hubs continued and public criticism intensified over POGOs, which have spread across the country.

Subsequent probes into the complexin Bamban also uncovered alleged links between the mayor and the shady underworld of gambling centers, with some suspected of being vehicles to launder money.

President Marcos Jr. expressed his growing concern about the explosion of offshore casinos in an address to the nation on July 22. Amid a standing ovation from lawmakers, he ordered a total ban with immediate effect.

“Disguising as legitimate entities, their operations have ventured into illicit areas furthest from gaming, such as financial scamming, money laundering, prostitution, human trafficking, kidnapping, brutal torture — even murder,” Marcos said. “The grave abuse and disrespect to our system of laws must stop.”

Suspected ties with China

Against this heightened scrutiny, the senate inquiry into Guo’s possible links to Chinese criminals, which began in May, has been compulsive viewing for Filipinos hooked on the intrigue.

Many parts of Guo’s life story did not add up, lawmakers said during the publicly broadcasted sessions that lasted for hours, filled with the dizzying back and forth of questions aimed at Guo and her suspected accomplices.

During her testimony, Guo claimed she grew up on a livestock farm in the town of Bamban, and was the love child of a Filipino maid and Chinese man.

Guo speaks Tagalog fluently, but she does not speak the regional language, Kapampangan, which is typically spoken in the town. She said she was homeschooled by a woman called “Teacher Rubilyn” and claimed she did not have any childhood friends who would vouch for her.

Suspicion that she was working as an “asset” for Beijing grew among lawmakers, as they cited her evasive answers to questions about her Chinese parentage. Her alleged business ventures with foreigners who have criminal records also appeared to raise doubts.

Speculation intensified when the senate probe revealed that her real name was “Guo Hua Ping” based on immigration records from 2005. Later, the National Bureau of Investigation found that her fingerprints matched a Chinese national of the same name.

The Philippine senate investigation presented documents showing Guo had incorporated Baofu Land Development in 2019 with supposed business partners Zhang Ruijin and Lin Baoying. It was registered to the same sprawling complex in Bamban where the workers were rescued by authorities.

Her suspected Chinese business partners Zhang and Lin are both serving prison time in Singaporean for fraudulently using forged documents to launder millions of dollars.

Armed with mounting evidence, Philippine law enforcement agencies, including the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), jointly filed multiple counts of money laundering against Guo and 35 others before the Department of Justice, for allegedly laundering over $1.8 million (100 million Philipine pesos) in proceeds from criminal activities.

The AMLC also filed to forfeit assets valued over 6 billion Philippine pesos ($106 million) from Guo and her associates.

Among those charged include Guo, her alleged sister, Shiela, and a business partner named Cassandra Li Ong for alleged scam farm operations undera number of companies: QSeed Genetics, Zun Yuan Technology Inc, Hongshen Gaming Technology Inc, QJJ Farms and Baofu Land Development Inc.

But by the time the charges were filed on August 30, Guo was already on the run.

President Marcos Jr. said Guo would be entitled to standard legal rights but stressed the Philippines would waste no time in seeking justice and vowed to track down those who had helped her to flee.

“We will not allow this to prolong the resolution of the case whose outcome will be a victory for the Filipino people,” he said.