Yasmin Coles

Oct 16, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Elana Gordon |Peter Bresnan |Reena Flores |Sean Carter |Yasmin Coles |Alan Sipress | +1 more

Just 140 miles off the coast of the Philippines’ largest island is a sparkling blue lagoon that is rich with fish and minerals. This ring of reefs and rocks is called Scarborough Shoal. For centuries, it has been a place of open passageway and connection, drawing fishermen from all over the region. It’s a place that captain Jory Aguian, student activist Mathew Silverio and the rest of a small Philippine flotilla of wooden boats are determined to reach.

Jun 14, 2024 | washingtonpost.com | Rebecca Tan |Yasmin Coles |Martin San Diego

EN ROUTE TO SCARBOROUGH SHOAL — As several wooden fishing boats embarked from the Philippines one recent morning, more than 40 Chinese navy, coast guard and other vessels steamed toward them from the opposite direction, staging one of the biggest demonstrations of force in the contested South China Sea in over a decade. The fishing boats were less than halfway to their destination — a ring of reefs and rocks known as Scarborough Shoal — when a Chinese coast guard ship appeared on the horizon.

Jun 14, 2024 | stripes.com | Rebecca Tan |Yasmin Coles |Martin San Diego

Jory Aguian, the son of a shipbuilder and captain of the Paty, watches as a Chinese coast guard ship maneuvers near his boat.

Sep 29, 2023 | news.yahoo.com | Ivan Watson |Rebecca Wright |Helen Regan |Kathleen Magramo |Yasmin Coles

China is behaving like a schoolyard bully toward smaller countries, the Philippine defense secretary told CNN Friday during an exclusive interview in which he warned his nation, and the wider world, had to stand up to Beijing’s territorial expansion in the South China Sea.

Mar 30, 2023 | rappler.com | Yasmin Coles

Not many women have an extraordinary life as Hadja Bainon Guiabar Karon, but her story is a common narrative among the many women who took part in “the struggle” – a term that has inevitably defined the lived experience in Muslim Mindanao. She tears up when she recalls those days of conflict that caused her pain and loss. Her eyes glimmer with hope as she talks about the increasing roles of Muslim women in influential spaces and the long but optimistic journey to peace.