The vice president of the Philippines has appeared in court to face impeachment proceedings in a trial that has brought long-standing political tensions to a head. Sara Duterte (pictured above) denies charges including corruption, bribery and threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, in what she claims is a “clear case of political harassment”. The trial, which began on Monday, is the culmination of a fallout between the country’s most powerful political dynasties.

Who are the Duterte and Marcos families?
The vice president is the daughter of Rodrigo Duterte, who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist from 2016 to 2022. In the 2022 election, she became the running mate of presidential candidate Marcos Jr, son of the dictator who ruled for 20 years before being deposed in 1986. The two younger scions seemed “unstoppable” and won a landslide, said the BBC. In the end, however, “there was not enough power to share between them”.

What happened?
Cracks appeared when Marcos’ allies in the Senate began investigating Duterte for alleged misuse of government funds. The pair also disagreed on their approach to Beijing. Marcos ordered the navy to “stand up to China” in the South China Sea, said Al Jazeera, in “sharp contrast” to pro-China Duterte.

In October 2024, Duterte told reporters that their relationship had become so “toxic” that she had the urge to “chop off his head”. In November, Duterte said during a livestream that she had told someone, “If I get killed, go kill BBM” (Marcos, commonly referred to as Bongbong). His supporters filed an impeachment complaint based on the livestream, and the alleged misuse of funds. This trial shifts the “power struggle” to “a new battleground”, said the BBC, and it will “play out on livestreams for the entire nation”.

What is the significance of the trial?
Prosecutors view the case as “a test of accountability ‌and public trust”, said Reuters, while the defence denounces it as a “politically driven bid” to unseat an elected official. The outcome could “shape the 2028 presidential race”, in which Duterte says she intends to run. Should Duterte be convicted and barred from standing, there are “fears of widespread protests” and political turmoil that would “impact the Philippines’ economic growth”.

Nasa has launched a spacecraft to catch a falling telescope, in an unprecedented rescue attempt. Launched in 2004, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory telescope detects some of the most powerful explosions in the universe, and the mission has been repeatedly extended. But it’s now sinking faster than expected due to recent solar storms and is at risk of crashing back to Earth in the coming months unless something is done to change its orbit.

‘Especially tricky’ task
Nasa has enlisted the help of Arizona-based Katalyst Space Technologies, which has engineered a “custom capture mechanism” that will use three guided robotic arms “to latch onto” the Swift telescope, which contains no engines and was not built with docking hardware, said Astronomy. 

Katalyst’s Link spacecraft successfully launched last week and is now undergoing a series of checks. The car-sized telescope will then be surveyed to determine the best point of contact, before being captured and lifted back into its correct altitude. The capture will be “especially tricky because Swift was never meant to be touched again once it reached orbit”. 

‘A spacecraft worth saving’
At a cost of $30 million, the mission to save “a nearly 22-year-old space telescope” that is “well past its prime” might seem, “on paper” at least, to be poor value for money, said Space. But Swift “is still worth it, according to Nasa”.

“We didn’t want to set the precedent that anything that comes out of orbit has to be boosted, because it is part of our space ecosystem to have things deorbit frequently,” Nasa’s astrophysics division director Shawn Domagal-Goldman said in June. But Swift is “not just any spacecraft” and has a unique ability to “quickly pivot across the night sky to find things that go boom in the night”.

“In short,” said BBC science correspondent Pallab Ghosh, “there is nothing like Swift, and Nasa deemed that it was a spacecraft worth saving.”

A crowd flocks around the coffin of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in the Iraqi city of Karbala. Following a six-day funeral procession through holy Shia sites in Iran and Iraq, the slain ayatollah is being buried today in his hometown of Mashhad

Stringer / Anadolu / Getty Images

“A weekend spent at a water park might be the perfect family trip,” said Sophie Dickinson in The Telegraph. And “mercifully”, given the heat, the UK boasts plenty of options. Here are some favourites.

Alton Towers Waterpark, Staffordshire
Attractions including the Master Blaster coaster, Rush ’N’ Rampage waterslides, and the interactive Wacky Waterworks draw visitors from across the UK to this waterpark. Entry is not included with a standard ticket to the Alton Towers theme park, but “if you enjoy hurtling down flumes it’s well worth the additional cost”, said Adam England on Time Out.

Alpamare, Scarborough, North Yorkshire
Alpamare’s four major slides – “twisting Snow Storm, frightening Black Run, double-tube Olympic Run and thrilling Cresta Run” – will keep the whole family “entertained for hours”, said Dickinson in The Telegraph. And there’s a “breathtaking” infinity pool overlooking the bay if visitors need a break from the chaos.

Coral Reef Waterworld, Bracknell, Berkshire
Coral Reef Waterworld is within “splashing distance” of the English capital and boasts a “whopping” five slides of varying speed and scariness, said Katie Forge on Secret London. To top it all, there is a “humungous” pirate ship in the middle of the pool.

Let’s Go Hydro, Belfast, Co Down
If indoor slides and wave pools aren’t your thing, give this outdoor water park a try, said The i Paper. Located at the Knockbracken Reservoir in Carryduff, Let’s Go Hydro features “seven-foot-high slides, climbing walls and floating trampolines” among other attractions, as well as a “Puddle Park” for the smallest visitors.

I was gaslighted by Virgin Media for years – this is how they ‘trapped’ customers like me
James Moore in The Independent
“About damn time,” writes James Moore. Virgin Media has been “hit with a £28 million Ofcom fine” after the watchdog found that the company used a “corporate dirty tricks” manual to “frustrate, infuriate” and “lock in customers”. The “tin hat brigade was right”: a commission scheme “effectively encouraged and financially rewarded call-centre agents” for such tactics. This “record” fine doesn’t go “far enough” to punish the “everyday slapdash-ery much of corporate Britain thinks is an acceptable substitute for customer service”.

Ruth Ellis was a murderer. She doesn’t deserve a pardon
Theodore Dalrymple in The Telegraph
“In no murder could premeditation have been clearer” than in the case of the last woman executed in Britain, writes Theodore Dalrymple in The Telegraph. Ruth Ellis undoubtedly suffered abuse and exploitation, but there was no “question of self-defence or active coercion” when she shot her lover. The idea that her being “under some kind of Svengali-type influence of the man she killed” is “a grounds of excusing murder” is “dangerous” and “demeaning to women”.

The Ankara summit exposes ugly truths about Nato
Morning Star editorial board
The sight of Nato leaders “abasing themselves before Donald Trump in Ankara” undermines “claims that the military spending splurge makes us more independent of Washington”, says the Morning Star. To “appease” Trump, heads of state flaunted multibillion-dollar arms deals, most of which “primarily benefit US arms companies” and “embed us still more deeply in a US-controlled war machine”. It’s “time to campaign for withdrawal from Nato, and the expulsion of US troops from our country”.