A US marine soldier said fellow marine Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton admitted in October that he might have choked to death a transgender. Jarin Michael Rose took the witness stand Tuesday, May 19 in an Olongapo court. Pemberton is accused of killing Filipino transgender Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude in October, 2014. Laude was found dead in a Olongapo hotel room. Laude’s body bore signs of physical trauma and strangulation. Rose and Pemberton were buddies in the military. They were in the Philippines for joint-military exercises.

Read the full story on Rappler.

At least 2,000 migrants, many of them from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been trapped for weeks on boats off Myanmar, suffering from hunger and violence, the UN said Tuesday, May 19. The UN has received reports of “food shortages, dehydration and violence” in ships off Myanmar that are believed to be packed with Rohingya and Bangladeshis. The ships have yet to sail across the Andaman Sea because of the crackdown. International pressure is growing for Southeast Asian nations to open their ports to the vessels rather than pushing them back to sea. Indonesia made calls for a regional effort to tackle the growing crisis.

Read the full story on Rappler.

After holding a two-day hearing, the ad hoc committee on the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law finished voting on all proposed amendments to the bill on Tuesday, May 19. The final committee vote on the proposed is set for Wednesday, May 20. Most provisions governing the creation of the Bangsamoro Parliament and the budget of the new autonomous region were retained after the grueling 13-hour vote that ended at 11pm. The proposed Bangsamoro basic law seeks to create a new autonomous region in Mindanao with greater powers than what is currently in place. The BBL will implement the peace deal between the government and rebel group Moro Islamic Liberation Front, signed after 17 years of negotiations.

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Human Rights Watch called on the Philippine government to investigate the links between Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte and extrajudicial killings in the city. Phelim Kine, deputy Asia director of HRW said the government should take a “zero-tolerance approach” to Duterte’s statements that he would kill any criminals in Davao City. Duterte had been tagged as the country’s “Punisher” and “Dirty Harry” for his unconventional leadership style in Davao. That same style gave rise to Duterte’s alleged association with anti-crime and anti-drug vigilantes in the city. A statement from his office dismissed the complaint of Human Rights Watch.

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Senate President Franklin Drilon on Tuesday, May 19, signed the detention and arrest order against 14 people linked to Vice President Jejomar Binay, including his financial adviser Gerardo Limlingan and businessman Antonio Tiu. Drilon said he signed the order, upon the recommendation of the Senate blue ribbon committee, because of the individuals’ “repeated refusal to appear before the committee investigating the questionable transactions involving the construction of various government projects, which allegedly involved Vice President Jejomar Binay and Makati City Mayor Junjun Binay.” Drilon said the Senate must show everyone that its authority must be respected, “otherwise people will ignore the Senate’s invitations.” In a statement, the Binay camp reiterated that the contempt charge and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) report, are “nothing but political harassment designed to bring the Vice President down to his knees.”

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Kiev on Tuesday, May 19, showed off two purported Russian soldiers it captured during a gun battle in the separatist east that Ukraine’s pro-Western leadership says proves the Kremlin’s direct involvement in the war. The two wounded men are recovering in a Kiev military hospital. Russia insists that Captain Yevgeny Yerofeyev and Sergeant Aleksander Aleksandrov had been decommissioned from the armed forces by the time Kiev believes they entered the Ukranian war zone more than a month ago. But Ukraine’s military has released interrogation videos in which the two say they were part of a force of about 200 men contracted to serve with the main military intelligence branch of the Russian General Staff.

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Saudi Arabia advertised vacancies for eight executioners Tuesday, May 19, after beheading nearly as many people since the start of the year as it did in the whole of 2014. According to the government, no qualifications are necessary and applicants would be exempted from the usual entrance exams. It said that as well as beheadings, the successful candidates would be expected to carry out amputations ordered by the courts under the kingdom’s strict version of Islamic sharia law. Last year, Saudi Arabia executed 87 people, according to an Agence France-Presse tally, ranking it third in the world for use of the death penalty. Already this year, it has put 85 people to death in what human rights group Amnesty International has described as a “macabre spike.”

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A cyber security firm continued to raise the alarm that the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries are being targeted by sophisticated hacking groups “likely sponsored by the Chinese government.” Security firm FireEye Incorporated detailed the threat in a briefing for reporters and businessmen in Manila on Tuesday, May 19. Wias Issa, senior directory at FireEye said that hacking groups maintain operations on a large scale and are even able to break into computers not connected to the Internet. The report further states that their targets possess information that serves the intelligence needs of the Chinese government.

Read the full story on Rappler.

US President Barack Obama is not new to Twitter, the microblogging app, relying on the White House or his own personal account to Tweet updates about his job. On Monday, May 18, the president created a new ‘presidential’ account @POTUS, which stands for President of the United States. The move signals the continued role of social media in a post-Obama White House, where whoever gets elected president will get to inherit the account. While the rest of his White House family welcomed the new account, former president Bill Clinton had a special question for Obama: “does the account stay with the office?” Clinton appended the Tweet with the hashtag #askingforafriend, referring to his wife and presidential contender Hillary Clinton.

Read the full story on Rappler.

The idea of what’s beautiful is certainly not a constant. Online magazine, Cut.com is exploring this idea by looking at how the concept of beauty has changed over time through creative make-up and hairstyle videos. In its latest video, Cut.com takes a look at Filipino beauty over 100 years. The video creators invited Filipino model and singer April Villanueva to change her look depending on the period. The results show the different fashion and style trends that correspond to the various periods of history of the Philippines, from the pre-hispanic days to more contemporary times.

Watch the full video here and read more about it on Mashable.