Comment on Report: US seeks military expansion in Philippines

As Spanish race walker Laura García-Caro approached the finish line of the 20 km race at the European Athletics Championship on Friday, she began to celebrate the bronze medal she was in good stead to win. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] She punched her fist in the air and stuck out her tongue cheekily, with the Spanish flag tucked in her shirt billowing behind her.

SEACREST, Florida — Authorities are using boats to patrol the ocean and warning swimmers about sharks this weekend along Florida’s Gulf Coast, where three people were hurt in two separate shark attacks on Friday. The attacks off beaches in the Florida Panhandle led authorities to temporarily close several beaches to swimmers on Friday.

PARIS — President Joe Biden said France was America’s “first friend” at its founding and is one of its closest allies more than two centuries later as he was honored with a state visit Saturday by French President Emmanuel Macron aimed at showing off their partnership on global security issues and easing past trade tensions. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Biden and Macron attended ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day on Thursday and met separately the following day with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris.

In a new letter, Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, apologized to the Irish Guards—a Foot Guards regiment of the British Army—for missing today’s final rehearsal of the annual Trooping the Colour event and wished the regiment good luck. “I wanted to write and let you know how proud I am of the entire Regiment ahead of the Colonel’s Review and Trooping the Colour,” Middleton wrote in the letter.

By CLAUDIA LAUER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, RANDALL CHASE and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER (Associated Press) WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Pictures of President Joe Biden’s son with drug paraphernalia and bare-chested in a bubble bath. Text messages between Hunter Biden and drug dealers. Testimony from Hunter’s exes about relationships destroyed by his drug use. Hunter Biden’s trial on gun charges brought by his father’s Justice Department has put on full display tawdry and embarrassing details about the president’s son, all while first lady Jill Biden watches from the courtroom in Wilmington, Delaware. Prosecutors on Friday rested their case accusing Hunter Biden of lying when he swore that he was not a drug user on a federal form to buy a gun in October 2018.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida says he’ll be voting in November against a ballot amendment to legalize recreational marijuana in his state, a deeply personal decision based on his brother’s long history of addiction. The senator and former Florida governor said he watched his brother Roger Scott begin smoking marijuana as a teenager and then struggle with substance use for the rest of life. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “People end up with addictive personalities, and so he did,” Scott said in an interview.