It would be a “catastrophe” for the next Philippine president to withdraw Manila’s historic arbitration case against China, Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said. “If a new president comes in and the case is still going on, there’s nothing wrong with talking to China. What’s wrong is if the case is withdrawn. That would be catastrophic,” the legal expert on the South China Sea said. Presidential aspirants should spell out their position on China, Carpio said, adding, “The question in the debates of the Commission on Elections should be whether you would withdraw the case if it’s still pending.”

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US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday, November 5, a bomb may have brought down a Russian plane that crashed over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. “I think there is a possibility that there was a bomb on board and we are taking that very seriously,” Obama told a US radio station. Cameron, for his part, said, it was “more likely than not that it was a terrorist bomb” that caused the crash. The declarations undermine efforts by Egypt and Russia to downplay suggestion of an attack. The Islamic State (ISIS) has claimed responsibility for the crash, in which a Saint Petersburg-bound jet crashed after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, where the ill-fated plane departed from Saturday.

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Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said the international arbitral tribunal hearing Manila’s historic case against China “totally ignored” Beijing’s controversial 9-dash line in its initial ruling on jurisdiction. The 9-dash line is what China uses to claim almost the entire South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) without explaining its legal basis for doing so. Manila wants the tribunal to strike down the 9-dash line for being inconsistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The initial ruling, which China rejected as “null and void”, is already indicative, according to Carpio, of how the tribunal will decide on the Philippine case.

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International foreign aid groups are worried victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda would slide back to poverty and where they were before the hurricane struck about two years ago. International Labor Organization consultant Jonathan Price told the media on Thursday, November 5, that after being able to help 150,000 individuals recover from tragic events, they want to make sure that the employment situation does not “slide back to status quo.” Other aid groups like Save the Children and Oxfam launched the “Decent Work” campaign to remind workers and employers about the importance of sustainable livelihood. ILO is also pushing for sustained social protection and social safety nets.

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US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter visited an aircraft carrier in the disputed South China Sea Thursday, November 5, a move that is expected to further rile Beijing and possibly heighten tensions in the area. During his 3-hour visit to the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Carter said there is a “lot of concern” about Chinese behavior and that the presence of the ship is a “sign of the critical role” that the US military power plays in what he described as a “very consequential region for the American future.”

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A one-year-old girl in Britain was treated with “designer” immune cells genetically engineered to reverse her cancer, doctors said Thursday, November 5. She is the first in the world. Layla Richards was suffering from leukemia but was cured after she was given a small infusion of what was known as UCART19 cells. Doctors said her leukemia was so aggressive that such a response is “almost a miracle.”

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While more politicians earlier announced their intent to run for vice president, only a few actually filed their certificates of candidacy for the post. Compared to the over 100 vying for the presidency, only 19 filed candidacies for vice president. Demographic data from the COCs also revealed the following: only 6 are incumbent members of Congress, only two are women, only 10 have confirmed running mates, and most are from Luzon.

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Childhood malnutrition in the Philippines has gone down over the years, but its pace is still the slowest among all ASEAN countries, a 2015 study by the World Bank and the Food and Nutrition Research Institute showed. Only a third of Filipino households can be considered food secure, official statistic also indicated. Dr Cecilia Acuin of FNRI-Department of Science and Technology said under-nutrition interventions across ASEAN countries are pretty much the same but the Philippines might be doing things differently because results are not as good as its neighbors.

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The state-run Bases Conversion Development Authority officially turned over operations and management of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) to Manila North Tollways Corporation (MNTC) on Thursday, November 5. The Manuel Pangilinan-led company said that because it expects up to 9% growth in annual vehicular traffic in the country’s longest toll road, it also expects operations to be “viable from the start.” The concessionaire paid upfront P3.5 billion ($74.6 million) for the contract.

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An American from California suffering from violent headaches discovered the cause: a tapeworm larvae lodged in his brain. The tapeworm grew inside a cyst that cut off circulation and water flow to the rest of Luis Ortiz’s brain, the BBC reported. The live tapeworm was discovered during a brain scan and was removed during emergency surgery. Larval cysts in the brain develop after microscopic eggs are passed in the feces of a person who has an intestinal pork tapeworm, the BBC explained. Once inside the body, the eggs hatch and worms can make their way to the brain.

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A related story is on the BBC.