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The latestbatch of documentshas revealed Epstein's network of friends and associates reach beyond his Caribbean island and East Coast circles into the gilded palaces of two of Europe'sroyal familiesand touch some of the highest offices of foreign governments.

More:Who is in the latest Epstein files release? Documents reveal new names

While inclusion in the files does not indicate a person is a criminal suspect, it does, in some cases, show a person had social or business connections. Several people in European power circles are facing inquiries or investigations, while others have stepped down from various professional roles.

What appears to be outdoor furniture is seen in a photo released by US Department of Justice from one of Jeffrey Epstein's properties.

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Epstein's house was filled with odd objects. See the photos.

While Epstein's connections to leaders in business, academia and government have been known for years, the DOJ'sJan. 30 document drophas provided a wider sense of the relationships cultivated by Epstein, who died awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges. Many maintained contact with him even after his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a prostitute and procuring a child for prostitution in Florida. His plea required him to register as a sex offender in 2009.

UK government under fire over Epstein emails

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing calls to step down, including from some within his own party, in connection with the Epstein files after he appointed Peter Mandelson, a friend of Epstein, as ambassador to the United States. (Starmer himself is not in any of the released documents.) Details of Mandelson's friendship with the late wealth manager became public after the latest round of documents from the DOJ revealed he'd corresponded with Epstein after he was a registered sex offender in 2009.

A little over a week after the Jan. 30 document dump, two of Starmer's aides have resigned: Communications chief Tim Allan and Starmer's top aide, Morgan McSweeney, who said he took responsibility for advising on the appointment of Mandelson to Britain's top diplomatic role. Mandelson has also resigned from the House of Lords.

British police are investigating Mandelson over allegations of "misconduct in public life" after he was accused of passing market-sensitive information to Epstein when he was business secretary under former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over a decade ago. Mandelson has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

Two royal families ensnared in Epstein controversy

Among the most well-known European figures who the documents show to have had yearslong friendships with Epstein are members of two royal families:Norway's Princess Mette-Maritand the United Kingdom'sAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III.

While Mountbatten-Windsor's relationship to Epstein has been known for years, the January document dump was the first time the Norwegian princess's correspondence became publicly available.

More:King Charles' brother Andrew crouches over woman in new Epstein photos

Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titlein October 2025 andpushed out of his vast homeat Royal Lodge after reports of his association with Epstein hit a fever pitch. He wasousted as a senior royalthree years prior. Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser who died by suicide in 2025, alleged she was sexually abused by the former royal multiple times when she was 17 years old. Mountbatten-Windsor has denied the allegations.

The latest release has only intensified scrutiny of the former prince, with the country's prime ministerurging him to testifyto U.S. lawmakers and forcingPrince William and Princess Kate to speak outabout the controversy after years of silence. Britain's King Charles said in a statement Feb. 9 released by Buckingham Palace that the palace isready to support the policeas they investigate allegations against the king's brother.

Princess Mette-Marit, the Crown Princess of Norway, exchanged dozens of emails with Epstein, some as recently as2014.The emails contradict a 2019 comment from the Royal Palace that she'd broken off contact with Epstein in 2011, according to theNorwegian tabloid VG.

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Mette-Marit, wife of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, has apologized for maintaining contact with Epstein, saying she displayed poor judgment. In her most recent statement, released Feb. 6, she apologized again, "for the situation that I have put the royal family in, especially the King and Queen."

Norway's prime minister on Feb. 9 said that Mette-Marit and other prominent Norwegians named in the recently released Epstein documents should provide more details about their involvement with Epstein.

Norway opens investigations into ex-leader and diplomats

Norwegian authoritiesannouncedthey are investigating two former ambassadors and a former prime minister over corruption tied to the Epstein files. All were known to have had ties to Epstein, but the new files have provided more details on their relationships and dealings with the late money manager.

The country's economic and environmental crime unit said in a statement on Feb. 9 it had conducted searches at two locations tied to former ambassador Mona Juul and her husband, Terje Rød‑Larsen. The pair is being investigated over charges of aggravated corruption and contribution to aggravated corruption. Authorities had opened a separate corruption investigation into former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland several days prior due to his alleged links to Epstein.

Jagland served as prime minister from 1996 to 1997, and also held top positions as chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and secretary general of the Council of Europe.

The diplomatic couple, Juul and Rød‑Larsen, helped facilitate contacts between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Israeli government that led to the 1993-1995 Oslo Accords. Juul had been Norway's ambassador to Jordan and Iraq upon the latest Epstein file release, and has stepped down from the position. Rød‑Larsen is a former Deputy Prime Minister.

The files suggest that the couple and their children visited Epstein's island, and were named in a version of his will released in the Epstein documents. The two children stood to inherit $5 million apiece from him, according toReuters.

French and Slovakian officials scrutinized, among others

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, has stepped down from his role as the head of a cultural center in Paris following allegations he previously had financial ties to Epstein. The allegations have triggered a tax investigation. Lang denies wrongdoing and has described the allegations against him as "baseless."

Lang was the head of the Arab World Institute, an organization that promotes exchanges between France and Arab nations. In a letter to Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, viewed by the AFP news agency, Lang said that he would submit his resignation at the next board meeting of the Arab World Institute. Lang served as France's culture minister between 1981 and 1993. He later served as minister of education.

Miroslav Lajčák, an ally of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and his national security adviser, resigned after it emerged in documents from the Epstein files that he had exchanged text messages with Epstein about women and diplomacy. The texts date from when Lajčák was Slovakia's foreign minister in 2018.

In a statement, Lajčák said he was resigning to avoid causing any political damage to Fico. He denied any wrongdoing. He also condemned Epstein's alleged crimes.

Contributing: Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY; Reuters.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her atkapalmer@usatoday.comand on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletterhere.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Epstein file revelations spark probes, controversy in Europe

While passport revocations for unpaid child support of more than $2,500 have been permitted under 1996 federal legislation, the State Department had in the past acted only when someone applied to renew their travel document or sought other consular services. In other words, enforcement depended on the person approaching the department for assistance.

Starting soon, however, the department will begin to revoke passports on its own initiative based on data shared with it by the Health and Human Services Department, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the plan. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the change has not yet been publicly announced.

The number of people who could be affected was not immediately clear, but it is believed to be in the thousands. Because of the potentially large universe of those owing child support who currently hold passports, the State Department will make the change in tiers, the officials said.

The first group to be affected will be passport holders who owe more than $100,000 in past-due child support, the officials said. One of the officials said fewer than 500 people meet that threshold and could avoid having their passport revoked if they enter into a payment plan with HHS after being notified of the pending revocation.

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The official acknowledged, though, that if and when the threshold is lowered to a smaller past-due amount, the number of those affected will rise significantly. The official could not say when any further changes would take effect or estimate how many people might then lose their passports.

In an emailed response to the AP's queries about the change, the State Department said it "is reviewing options to enforce long-standing law to prevent those owing substantial amounts of child support from neglecting their legal and moral obligations to their children." It added: "It is simple: deadbeat parents need to pay their child support arrears."

Since the Passport Denial Program began with the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, the initiative has taken in nearly $621 million in past-due child support payments, with nine collections of more than $300,000, according to the Office of Child Support Enforcement at the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS did not respond to questions about how many people are in arrears.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this report.

The groups said the lawsuit filed late last month by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway would violate the law and require a recount of the U.S. population from 2020, costing billions of dollars.

"That unlawful request would distort representation for millions of Americans and shake the foundations of our representative democracy," said the motion from the immigrant rights groups, which are seeking to intervene and are being represented by several ACLU Foundation chapters.

The lawsuit is the latest effort by Republicans to exclude people who are in the U.S. illegally or other noncitizens from the census figures. Those numbers guide thedistribution of federal moneyand determine the number of congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state receives in a process known as apportionment.

The Missouri lawsuit asks that theapportionment processthat used the 2020 census figures be redone without including people in the U.S. illegally and that the process after the 2030 census be conducted in the same manner.

A similar lawsuit filed by four other GOP state attorneys general is pending in federal court in Louisiana, and Republican lawmakers in Congress have introduced legislation that would accomplish the same goal.

ARepublican redistricting experthad written that using only the citizen voting-age population, rather than the total population, for the purpose of redrawing congressional and state legislative districts could be advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.

The Constitution's 14th Amendment says "the whole number of persons in each state" should be counted for the numbers used for apportionment. The Census Bureau has interpreted that to mean anybody living in the U.S., regardless of legal status.

The Missouri lawsuit comes asPresident Donald Trump has been pressuringRepublican-led state legislatures to redraw their congressional districts to benefit the GOP ahead of this year's midterm elections. Last August,Trump instructedthe Commerce Department to have the Census Bureau start work on a new census that would exclude immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally from the head count.

Intervenors recentlysucceeded in getting another lawsuitagainst the Census Bureau tossed out. A three-judge panel in Tampa last week dismissed a challenge by Republican groups to the agency's statistical methods during the 2020 census.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick acknowledged that citizenship wasn't a factor in the apportionment process under the Constitution. When asked if a citizenship question would be included, he said the agency hadn't determined the questions on the 2030 census form yet. The Commerce Department oversees the Census Bureau.

"What the questionnaire is, I don't know, and we've not decided," Lutnick said.

Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky:@mikeysid.bsky.social.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Census Bureau athttps://apnews.com/hub/us-census-bureau.

Delgado-Garcia, 25, died on Sept. 13, 2024, a day after becoming unresponsive during a boxing match at the State Police Academy in New Braintree, a town about 68 miles west of Boston. At the time, theWorcester Telegram & Gazette, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported that the boxing program was previously halted due to injury concerns.

Following his death, state police suspended full-contact boxing training activities for recruits, and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell appointed attorney David Meier toconduct an independent investigationinto the incident.

After anine-month grand jury investigation, Meier said evidence revealed that members of the State Police Academy committed a "series of wanton and reckless acts" in connection with various defensive tactics and physical confrontation training exercises.

The head of the academy's defensive tactics unit, Sgt. Jennifer Penton, and three troopers under her command – Edwin Rodriguez, David Montanez, and Casey LaMonte – were each charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing serious injury to a person participating in a physical training exercise, Meier said.

Penton has also been charged with perjury for allegedly giving false testimony to a special statewide grand jury, according to Meier.

"Each of these individuals owed a duty of care to Enrique Delgado-Garcia and to his fellow trainees," Meir said during anews conferenceon Monday, Feb. 9. "Each of them interacted with Mr. Delgado-Garcia and his fellow trainees on a daily basis, and each of them committed a series of wanton and reckless acts and omissions that resulted in Enrique Delgado-Garcia's death."

Autopsy: Enrique Delgado-Garcia died from blunt trauma

Delgado-Garcia was rushed to a hospital in Worcester, a city about 20 miles east of New Braintree, on Sept. 12, 2024, after being injured during a training exercise.

In a statement, Meier said "wanton and reckless conduct resulted in Enrique Delgado Garcia suffering concussion-like symptoms as the result of unauthorized, unapproved, and unsupervised boxing-related sparring exercises that occurred during Academy training activities on Wednesday, September 11, 2024."

He added that Delgado-Garcia sustained multiple blunt force injuries to the head and "massive brain bleeding" after instructors at the State Police Academy failed to stop a training boxing match on Sept. 12, 2024. Delgado-Garcia died the next day as a result of the "head injuries sustained during the recruit-on-recruit boxing match," according to Meier.

Last year, Michael Wilcox, a lawyer representing Delgado-Garcia's family, confirmed that Delgado-Garcia died from blunt trauma to the head. Citing an autopsy report from the medical examiner, Wilcox said Delgado-Garcia suffered a myriad of injuries to his head, including contusions in both his eyes, thyroid, and neck.

The autopsy report also found that Delgado-Garcia had contusions on his chest and back, as well as on one of his arms and knees, according to Wilcox. Delgado-Garcia's family has previously said they were told the 25-year-old suffered injuries during a few minutes of boxing, which was part of the training program at the academy.

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Hostile gunfire:How many police officers have been killed in the line of duty in 2025?

Law enforcement, lawyers react to indictments

During the news conference, Campbell said it was necessary to conduct an independent investigation into Delgado-Garcia's death due to the "extraordinary nature of these events and the complexity of this case."

Delgado-Garcia's death rocked the Worcester District Attorney's Office, where he had once served as a victim witness advocate, and left members of his family calling for answers. The Worcester District Attorney's Office recused itself from the investigation due to its close connection to Delgado-Garcia.

In response to the indictments announced on Monday, Feb. 9, Massachusetts State Police Col. Geoffrey Noble said in a statement that it was a "difficult and somber day" for the department, which he said has "cooperated fully" with Meier's probe.

Noble said the department has taken several steps to strengthen the academy, including "expanding support" for recruits and commissioning a forthcoming "independent review" by the International Association of Police Chiefs.

Brian Williams, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts, said "veteran training staff indicted today are entitled to the same presumption of innocence and due process guaranteed to every citizen."

Williams added that the association "stands firmly behind its members and intends to vigorously defend them against these charges as we continue to work collaboratively with the Department to strengthen and enhance training standards, ensuring Troopers are fully prepared to meet the complex and demanding realities of the job."

Lawyers for Civil Rights, a nonprofit based in Boston, praised the charges, saying that while state police "failed" Delgado-Garcia, it was "heartened" to see troopers would be held accountable.

"The grieving Delgado-Garcia family deserves justice, and this tragedy must lead to meaningful reforms," the nonprofit said in a statement.

Most charges to be tried in Worcester

As of 5 p.m. local time on Monday, Feb. 9, it did not appear that arraignment dates for the troopers had been set.

Online court records indicated the manslaughter and training injury-related charges against the troopers will be prosecuted in Worcester Superior Court, while the perjury charge against Penton would be prosecuted in Middlesex Superior Court.

Campbell's office did not immediately respond to the Worcester Telegram & Gazette's query about the reason for the different sites. Meier noted during the news conference that the indictments had been brought by a statewide grand jury.

Lawyers for Penton and LaMonte declined to comment. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette has reached out to lawyers listed for other troopers.

State police also did not immediately respond to queries about the job status of the charged troopers. Online records listed Penton as a lieutenant. Campbell's office, which identified her as a sergeant, didn't immediately return a request for clarification.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette:Enrique Delgado-Garcia case: 4 charged with manslaughter

On Thursday, the Ariane 64 rocket — named after its four boosters — is scheduled to make its maiden launch from the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, aiming to deploy 32 satellites for Amazon Leo's broadband constellation.

The flagship of Europe's rocket industry is racing in a highly competitive environment against heavy weight players across the world, including the global market leader, Elon Musk's SpaceX.

At ArianeGroup's plant in Vernon, engineers design, integrate and test engines for the European heavy-lift launcher. At another site west of Paris, in Les Mureaux, the rocket's main stage components are being carefully built and assembled.

Associated Press journalists were provided rare access to facilities placed under strict security and confidentiality rules where teams of highly-specialized workers make from space conquest a daily reality.

"It's a special launch — something new for us on Ariane 6," ArianeGroup Chief Technical Officer Hervé Gilibert said. This flight marks the debut of the four-booster configuration, making the rocket roughly twice as powerful as the version flown since 2024, he said.

"Don't be surprised if you see it accelerate much more than Ariane 62, the version we have already launched five times," Gilibert said. "It delivers significantly more power, allowing much heavier payloads to be sent into space."

Components make trans-Atlantic journey

The launcher, its engines and avionics are built across Europe as 13 nations, members of the European Space Agency, agreed to cooperate and finance the Ariane 6 program.

"We are working with more than 600 subcontractors," Gilibert said. "Everything comes together at two main sites — Bremen in Germany for the upper stage, and Les Mureaux in France for the lower, or main stage of the launcher."

Ahead of Thursday's launch, all components have crossed the Atlantic to French Guiana for final assembly. The rocket stands about 62 meters (203 feet) tall, roughly the height of a 20-story building.

"We check everything until the very last minute, and then we fly," Gilibert said.

Once airborne, the mission will last about one hour and 50 minutes — nearly a full orbit around Earth — before the satellites are deployed in pairs from the top of the rocket. Amazon Leo's constellation is intended to compete with SpaceX's thousands of Starlink satellites.

The Vulcain 2.1 engine built at Vernon ignites first at liftoff.

"For a few seconds, we verify that it is functioning properly," said Emmanuel Viallon, director of the Vernon site. "Once we are fully confident it will operate correctly for the eight minutes that follow, we ignite the solid boosters and the rocket lifts off."

The four boosters help propel the rocket at launch, consuming 142,000 kilograms (313,056 pounds) of solid propellant in just over two minutes until they burn out.

Ariane 6, through both its launcher and engines, was designed to halve operating costs compared with its predecessor, Viallon said. Ariane 5 was last launched in 2023, concluding a program that began in the late 1970s to give Europe independent access to space.

Engines tested under near-real conditions

Engines produced in Vernon are tested on site under near-real launch conditions. Deep in the surrounding forest, reinforced structures hold the engines in place as they fire at full power, while test teams operate from underground control rooms.

Laurence, the engine firing test director at Vernon, said the full testing cycle takes two to three weeks, before the engines return to the assembly facility for final adjustments. Laurence's last name was not disclosed for security reasons.

For the team, each launch "is always a joy, it's always very intense," she said. "When an engine arrives here, those are really important moments for the team. And then, seeing that the launch goes well ... that brings a great deal of gratitude."

At Les Mureaux facility, engineers have started preparing rocket components for upcoming missions. Huge white cylinders lie horizontally to form the rocket's main stage that is 5.4 meters (17.7 feet) wide including tanks for supercooled hydrogen and oxygen that will feed the Vulcain engine.

Caroline Arnoux, business unit director at ArianeGroup, said seven to eight launches are planned this year.

"We have a very strong order book, equivalent to about 30 launches," Arnoux said. "Roughly one-third are institutional missions and two-thirds commercial. And our commercial customers are all waiting for the Ariane 64 version, which will be extremely important in the coming years."

Europe's independence at stake

Ariane 64 "is an additional level of performance," Hermann Ludwig Moeller, director of the European Space Policy Institute, said. "In itself, this is an important step in the whole program, hoping to demonstrate that this configuration works as reliably as Ariane 6 has been working so far."

The rocket's institutional missions last year included launches of a French military reconnaissance satellite, a weather satellite, and EU-sponsored Earth-observation radar and navigation satellites.

Moeller argued there can hardly be any comparison with SpaceX, which dominates the sector with its reusable rocket model.

SpaceX "builds the rockets, builds the satellites and also sells the service" while Europe operates under a different industrial setup with separate companies responsible for launchers, satellite manufacturing and satellite operations, he said.

For Ariane 6, a key challenge will be diversifying its European customer base, which could involve a system of European preference for government missions and further development of commercial markets across the continent, Moeller argued.

Independent access to space remains the core objective of the program to "allow Europe to meet its own needs," stressed Arnaud Demay, the Ariane 6 project manager.

ArianeGroup is also preparing for the future, working "on key technology bricks ... to enable the reuse of certain launcher components. Ideally, we would like to be able to reuse an entire stage, including the engines that powered its liftoff," Demay said.

Demay confided he almost always cries with emotion at seeing the rocket lifting off.

"We do it so rarely, and it's so majestic when it takes off: that little touch of magic inevitably overwhelms me with emotion every time," he said.

Nicolas Garriga contributed to this report.

Scientists say snow cover and snow depth are both at the lowest levels they've seen in decades, while at least 67 Western weather stations have measured their warmest December through early February on record. Normal snow cover this time of year should be about 460,000 square miles — about the size of California, Utah, Idaho and Montana — but this year it's only California-sized, about 155,000 square miles, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

"I have not seen a winter like this before," said center director Mark Serreze, who has been in Colorado almost 40 years. "This pattern that we're in is so darned persistent."

The snowpack — measured by how much water is trapped inside — in Oregon is not only record low, but 30% lower than the previous record, said Jason Gerlich, regional drought early warning system coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Much of the U.S. east of the Rockies is snowbound and enduring more than two weeks ofbone-chilling abnormal cold, but in West Jordan, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, Trevor Stephens went to the store last week in gym shorts and a T-shirt.

"Right now there's no snow on the ground," he said in a video interview, looking out his window and lamenting the lack of snowboarding opportunities. "I'd definitely rather have icy roads and snow than whatever is going on out here right now."

Concerns over water supply and wildfires

Ski resorts had already been strugglingthrough a difficult season, but the lack of snow has been persistent enough that concerns are growing about wider effects.

Oregon, Colorado and Utah have reported their lowest statewide snowpack since the early 1980s, as far back as records go.

A dry January has meant most states have received half their average precipitation or even less. Along with sunny days and higher-than-average temperatures, that's meant little snow buildup in a month that historically gets a lot of snow accumulation across much of the Pacific Northwest and Northern Rockies. Because of heavy rains in December, California is in better shape than the other states, scientists said.

As of Monday, it had been 327 days since Salt Lake City International Airport got 1 inch of snow, making it the longest stretch since 1890-91, according to the National Weather Service.

The meager snow in Colorado and Utah has put the Upper Colorado River Basin at the heart of the snow drought, said Gerlich.

A robust mountain snowpack that slowly melts as winter warms to spring provides a steady flow of water into creeks and rivers. That helps ensure there's enough water later in the year for agriculture, cities, hydropower electric systems and more.

But lack of snow or a too-fast melt means less water will replenish rivers like the Colorado later in the season.

"This is a pretty big problem for the Colorado basin," said Daniel Swain of the University of California's Water Resources Institute.

Experts said the snow drought could also kick-start an earlywildfireseason. Snow disappearing earlier than average leaves the ground exposed to warmer weather in the spring and summer that dries soils and vegetation quicker, said Daniel McEvoy, researcher with the Western Regional Climate Center.

Too warm to snow

While it's been dry, the record-low snowpack is mostly due to how warm the West has been, which is connected to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas, several scientists said. Since Dec. 1, there have been more than 8,500 daily high temperature records broken or tied in the West, according to NOAA data.

Much of the precipitation that would normally fall as snow and stay in the mountains for months is instead falling as rain, which runs off quicker, Swain and other scientists said. It's a problem scientistshave warned about with climate change.

Going snowless happens from time to time, but it's the warmth that has been so extreme, which is easier to tie to climate change, said Russ Schumacher, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University and Colorado State Climatologist.

"It was so warm, especially in December, that the snow was only falling at the highest parts of the mountains," McEvoy said. "And then we moved into January and it got really dry almost everywhere for the last three to four weeks and stayed warm."

Wetter, cooler weather is coming

Meteorologists expect wetter, cooler weather across the West this week with some snow so this may be the peak of the snow drought. But it'll still be warmer than usual in many areas, and scientists aren't optimistic the snow will be enough.

"I don't think there's any way we're going to go back up to, you know, average or anywhere close to that," said Schumacher. "But at least we can chip away at those deficits a little bit if it does get more active."

The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visithttps://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said Manila's relationship with Beijing should not be defined solely by maritime disputes, even as ‌the Philippines continues to call out actions it deems unlawful.

"We have a continuing bilateral conversation with them," Romualdez told reporters. "We will continue with that one and see how we can work, especially in the economic front."

"That's what we want to do... there are some signs that our Chinese friends ⁠are also prepared to see some ‌opportunities where we can work, you know, and isolate this situation in the West Philippines Sea," Romualdez added, using the term Manila uses to refer ‍to waters within its exclusive economic zone.

The Philippines and China have been locked in a series of maritime confrontations in recent years, with the Philippines accusing China of aggressive actions inside its EEZ, including dangerous ​manoeuvres, water-cannoning, and interference in resupply missions.

China, in turn, has accused the Philippines of intruding ‌into what it claims as its territory.

Recent weeks have seen sharper exchanges between the Chinese Embassy and Philippine officials, prompting Manila to reiterate that differences between states are best handled through diplomacy, not public rhetoric.

With the Philippines chairing ASEAN this year, Romualdez said easing friction is vital to secure China's full engagement in efforts to finally conclude a long‑delayed Code of Conduct in ⁠the South China Sea.

"We are the chair of ASEAN ​and I would like the participation of China to be ​significant, especially in the Code of Conduct," he said. "Who knows, we might be able to finally nail it down after more than 20 years."

Manila has said ‍it will insist that ⁠the Code of Conduct explicitly references the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea as it works to complete the document within the year.

The Philippine foreign ministry said ⁠on Monday it remains the country's "authoritative voice" on regional and international issues, with its newly appointed spokesperson for maritime ‌affairs reiterating that Philippine diplomacy will continue to be anchored on "sober assessments of ‌facts".

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by David Stanway)