MANILA: Japan and the Philippines will hold high-level defense talks next month, Manila said Friday, as the two countries seek to boost ties in the face of an increasingly confrontational China.
Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara and Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa will discuss “bilateral and defense and security issues affecting the region” at the July 8 meeting in Manila, a Philippine foreign affairs department statement said.
The talks follow escalating confrontations at sea between Chinese and Philippine ships as Beijing steps up efforts to push its claims to nearly all of the South China Sea.
Tokyo and Beijing are also at loggerheads over Japan-controlled disputed islands in the East China Sea.
Japan, which occupied the Philippines during World War II, is negotiating a Reciprocal Access Agreement (RAA) with Manila that would allow the countries to deploy troops on each other’s territory.
Ex-defense minister Itsunori Onodera, now a ruling-party member of the Japanese parliament, said Friday he hoped negotiations on the defense pact would “make rapid progress” at next month’s meeting.
“We recognize the need to further deepen security and defense cooperation between our two countries,” Onodera told a press conference on the last day of a five-day visit to Manila.
Onodera said he had met with National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano, Defense Minister Gilberto Teodoro and Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo to reiterate Japan’s commitment to a strategic defense partnership with the Philippines.
“Japan is committed, ready to provide necessary assets to Philippines to protect Philippine security,” said Yoshiaki Wada, another member of Onodera’s parliamentary delegation.
Tokyo has been building the newest and largest ships of the Philippine Coast Guard, a key element of Manila’s efforts to assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea.
Onodera said Japan was “very concerned” by China’s behavior during the latest confrontation between Manila and Beijing off the Second Thomas Shoal.
A Filipino sailor lost a thumb on June 17 when Chinese coast guard members wielding knives, sticks and an axe foiled a Philippine Navy attempt to resupply a garrison on a derelict warship deliberately grounded on the shoal to assert Manila’s claim there.
“We oppose any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo by force, or any action that will escalate tension,” Onodera said.
Tokyo’s Maritime Self-Defense Force held joint naval and air drills with the United States, Australia and the Philippines in the South China Sea in April.
The drills aimed to demonstrate what the participants said was their “collective commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Philippines, Japan move for stronger security ties in face of rising China threat
https://arab.news/gks34
Philippines, Japan move for stronger security ties in face of rising China threat
- High-level defense talks follow escalating confrontations between Chinese and Philippine ships in South China Sea
- Tokyo and Beijing are also at loggerheads over Japan-controlled disputed islands in the East China Sea
’Astonished’ Germany says Hungary canceled foreign minister meeting
The Moscow meeting was the first meeting of an EU leader with Putin
FRANKFURT: Hungary has canceled a meeting for Monday in Budapest with Germany’s foreign minister and her Hungarian counterpart, a German foreign ministry official said on Friday.
The German ministry said it was “astonished” and that a “serious and honest” discussion was needed after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.
The Hungarian foreign ministry and a government spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Moscow meeting was the first meeting of an EU leader with Putin in Moscow since April 2022, two months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The talks angered some European Union leaders who warned against appeasing Moscow and said Orban did not speak for the EU.
The German foreign ministry official said that the meeting would be rescheduled.
Russian strikes kill 7, wound dozens in east Ukraine
- Moscow has centered its firepower on the industrial region
- Two Russian strikes on the town of Selydove, which lies close to the front where Moscow’s forces are advancing, killed at least five and injured eight
KYIV: Multiple Russian attacks killed at least seven and wounded more than two dozen others in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine on Friday, officials said.
Moscow has centered its firepower on the industrial region, which it claims to have annexed and has been partially controlled by Kremlin-backed forces since 2014.
Russian-installed officials also said Ukrainian shelling killed five people on its side of the front line in the Donetsk region.
Two Russian strikes on the town of Selydove, which lies close to the front where Moscow’s forces are advancing, killed at least five and injured eight, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said.
“Russians dropped two guided aerial bombs on the town,” he said in a statement on Telegram.
The regional prosecutor’s office said the strikes were an hour apart and used cluster munitions and a glide bomb.
A 32-year-old woman was killed and 20 others were wounded by Russian shelling in the town of Komar, damaging homes, shops, and an administrative building, Filashkin also said.
And one person was killed and another was wounded in a Russian Smerch rocket attack on the town of Ukrainsk.
“It is dangerous to stay here, as well as in the rest of Donetsk region,” he wrote on social media.
Further north in the Donetsk region, Russian forces are pushing toward the hilltop settlement of Chasiv Yar.
Images distributed by Ukrainian forces show rows of destroyed and smoldering Soviet-era housing blocks in the town.
Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed official of the Donetsk region, said five people were killed in various Ukrainian attacks on territory that Russia controls.
Russia claimed to have annexed the Donetsk region in 2022, even though its forces do not have full control of the area.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that Ukraine must abandon four regions in the east and south — including Donetsk — if Kyiv wants peace.
Biden says ‘staying in the race’ as he scrambles to save candidacy, braces for ABC interview
- In front of roughly 300 supporters at a Wisconsin middle school, Biden again acknowledged his subpar debate last week
- Interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos expected to be intensive and probing
MADISON, Wisconsin: President Joe Biden, fighting to save his endangered reelection effort Friday, defiantly declared that “I’m staying in the race” during a campaign rally in a critical battleground state as he prepares to sit down for a network television interview where his every answer is sure to be scrutinized for evidence of his competency and fitness to run for office.
In front of roughly 300 supporters at a Wisconsin middle school, Biden again acknowledged his subpar debate last week, saying he “can’t say it was my best performance” but that amid speculation over what he would do, he had an answer: “I am running, and I’m going to win again.”
“I beat Donald Trump,” Biden said. “I will beat him again.”
The rally preceded an interview that could be a watershed moment for Biden, who is under pressure to bow out of the campaign after his disastrous debate performance against Republican Donald Trump ignited concern that the 81-year-old Democrat is not up for the job for another four years.
The interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, being taped after a campaign rally in Madison, Wisconsin, is expected to be intensive and probing, and two people familiar with the president’s efforts said he had been preparing aggressively. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
There was broad agreement that Biden cannot afford to have another “bad day,” which is how he wrote off his debate flop. It was not clear that even a so-so performance would be enough to satisfy concerns about his fitness to serve.
The White House itself was raising the stakes for Biden’s interview, with press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre saying that “millions of Americans” are expected to watch.
While private angst among Democratic lawmakers, donors and strategists is running deep after Biden’s damaging debate performance, most in the party have held public fire as they wait to see if the president can restore some confidence with his weekend travel schedule and his handling of the Stephanopoulos interview. It will air in full on ABC on Friday night.
But at least three House Democrats have called for Biden to step down as the nominee, with Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., expressing his concerns in a Thursday radio interview and joining Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, and Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, in seeking an alternative.
“President Biden has done enormous service to our country, but now is the time for him to follow in one of our founding father, George Washington’s footsteps and step aside to let new leaders rise up and run against Donald Trump,” Moulton told the radio station WBUR on Thursday.
While not going that far, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said in a carefully worded statement Friday that Biden now has a decision to make on “the best way forward.”
“Over the coming days, I urge him to listen to the American people and carefully evaluate whether he remains our best hope to defeat Donald Trump,” Healey said. “Whatever President Biden decides, I am committed to doing everything in my power to defeat Donald Trump.”
Many Democratic lawmakers, who are hearing from constituents at home during the holiday week, are split on whether Biden should stay or go. Lawmakers have been deeply frustrated by his campaign’s response to the crisis. Privately, discussions among the House Democrats flared this week as word spread that some of them were drafting public letters suggesting the president should quit the race.
Yet pushback from other House Democrats was fierce, and none of the letters from either Democrats in competitive reelection bids or those in easier races that were reportedly being discussed were ever made public.
“Any ‘leader’ signing a letter calling for President Biden to drop out needs to get their priorities straight and stop undermining this incredible actual leader who has delivered real results for our country,” said Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., an influential member of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Biden appears to have pulled his family and inner circle closer while attempting to prove that he’s still the Democrats’ best option for competing in November’s election.
The ubiquitous presence of Hunter Biden in the West Wing since the debate has become an uncomfortable dynamic for many staffers, according to two Democrats close to the White House who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter.
For many staffers, the sight of Hunter Biden, just weeks after his conviction on felony gun charges, taking a larger role in advising his father has been unsettling and a questionable choice for the high-stakes moment, they said.
Biden’s reelection campaign is pushing ahead with aggressive plans despite the uncertainty. It plans to pair his in-person events with a fresh $50 million ad campaign this month meant to capitalize on high viewership moments like the Summer Olympics that begin in Paris on July 26.
Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff are scheduled to travel to every battleground state this month, while organizers are planning to knock on more than 3 million doors in July and August to do personal outreach to voters in a new $17 million effort.
Biden himself is scheduled to campaign in Pennsylvania on Sunday. He was initially scheduled to speak before the National Education Association in Philadelphia on Sunday, but the campaign called off the plans following the group’s strike announced Friday. The president will not cross a picket line, the campaign said.
He will also travel to southwestern states, including Nevada, after hosting the NATO summit in Washington next week, the campaign said Friday. He’ll also continue to focus his travel on the so-called “blue wall” states –- Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan — that have been critical for him in the past.
In a strategy memo released Friday morning, the campaign also specifically emphasized that Biden would participate in “frequent off-the-cuff moments” –- once a hallmark of the gregarious, glad-handling politician’s career that have nonetheless dwindled throughout his presidency.
For Biden, every moment now is critical to restoring the lost confidence stemming from his shaky performance in Atlanta last week. Yet the president continued to make slipups that did not help that effort.
During an interview with WURD radio in Philadelphia that aired Thursday, Biden tripped up and said “I’m proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, the first Black woman to serve with a Black president” – scrambling some of his often-used lines about his pride in serving with the first Black president and choosing the first Black woman to be vice president.
Such verbal glitches are not out of the ordinary for Biden but are getting magnified attention in this environment.
In a hastily organized gathering with more than 20 Democratic governors Wednesday evening, Biden acknowledged that he needs to get more sleep and limit evening events so he can be rested for the job, according to three people granted anonymity to speak about the private meeting. California Gov. Gavin Newsom later told reporters in Holland, Michigan, that Biden’s remark about limiting events after 8 p.m. was said in jest, noting that he said it “with a smile on his face.”
In trying to explain away those comments, Jean-Pierre stressed that Biden “works around the clock” but that he “also recognizes the importance of striking a balance and taking care of himself.”
Still, Newsom said no one in the room was “sugar-coating” the reality of last week’s debate.
“You watched the physiology. You saw everything about it. It was the breathing, it was the physical, the whole thing,” Newsom said at a subsequent event in Holland.
He said Biden asked all the governors for advice, and he told the president to focus more on discussing the future.
There are signs that key groups are already staking out positions on who should succeed Biden as the Democratic nominee.
Glynda C. Carr, CEO of the Higher Heights for America PAC, which supports Black women candidates, said that Harris should lead the ticket if Biden steps down, saying anyone else would be “yet another example of the ongoing dismissal of Black women’s leadership in the national narrative.”
“To put it plainly, Vice President Harris shouldn’t appear on a list of potential replacements — Kamala Harris is the only successor,” Carr said.
Biden is expected to use his rally in Madison to tick through his favorite talking points as he works to defeat Trump, touching on safeguarding democracy, the economy, and “our rights and freedoms,” according to his campaign.
Wisconsin officials including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, US Rep. Mark Pocan and the state party chair, Ben Wikler, will speak. Notably, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, who is running for reelection in one of the more critical races for Senate control this year, will be elsewhere.
France’s N. African doctors consider emigration with rise of far right
- Polls predict that the RN will win the largest share of seats in parliament but not a majority
PARIS: In the southern French town where Tunisian doctor Tasnime Labiedh works, the far-right National Rally, or RN, came top with 41 percent in the first round of France’s election. Now, she’s thinking of moving to Switzerland.
“Already, we are not spoilt here, but if we have (Jordan) Bardella as prime minister, it will be grim. They play on the fear of the other,” said Labiedh, 33, referring to the president of the RN.
She moved to France in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic for her medical internship and now works as a microbiologist on a salary lower than that of her French counterparts.
After the RN came top in the first round in France’s legislative election last Sunday, some foreign doctors question whether they will stay in a country that does not respect their rights or make them feel welcome.
Polls predict that the RN will win the largest share of seats in parliament but not a majority.
Among 11 doctors of North African origin or nationality interviewed by Reuters, six said they were considering leaving France because of the political situation.
One doctor emigrated to Canada a month ago.
BACKGROUND
Tunisian doctor Tasnime Labiedh moved to France in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic for her medical internship and now works as a microbiologist on a salary lower than that of her French counterparts.
With only 3.17 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants, France has the most severe doctor shortage among the OECD countries after Luxembourg. In Labiedh’s town, there are 1.73 doctors per 1,000 inhabitants.
“We are living in an immense hypocrisy. The far-right prospers in France on the subject of immigration, with migrants depicted as a problem. But if migrants stopped working tomorrow, our whole social and economic system would be paralyzed,” Hicham Benaissa, a sociologist with France’s National Center for Scientific Research, the CNRS, told Reuters.
In a study of 350 doctors of North African background in France, which will be published next year, Benaissa found that 75 percent of doctors, including people trained abroad and those born in France, were considering emigrating.
The RN did not respond to requests for comment.
Bardella, the most likely candidate for prime minister should the RN defy the polls and win a working majority, said last month that “our compatriots of foreign nationality or origin who work, pay their taxes, respect the law, and love our country have nothing to fear.”
RN leader Marine Le Pen has previously proposed to “drastically reduce” the employment of doctors with qualifications from outside the EU and prioritize French candidates for jobs.
In 2023, 29,238 doctors working in France were trained outside the EU, a 90.5 percent increase compared to 2010, making up around 7 percent of the total workforce, according to the National Council of the Order of Doctors, or CNOM.
North African doctors account for more than half of them.
Doctors with qualifications from outside the EU must complete exams and administrative procedures to be registered with the Order of Doctors, which generally takes three to five years. Before this, they are paid less than French doctors.
Widad Abdi, a doctor and representative of the SNPADHUE union for doctors qualified outside of the EU, says that politicians are not dealing with structural problems.
“Whether foreign or not, more and more doctors are leaving — the health system does not encourage them to stay: The working conditions, the pay, the hours, the number of patients has increased, and the number of doctors has gone down.”
In the first round of the legislative elections, the RN performed better in regions with poor healthcare access, with a correlation rate of -52 percent, Reuters analysis of the results and data on access to a local doctor showed, an indicator of the party’s success in deprived rural areas.
In towns that placed RN candidates first, more than a quarter of the population do not have access to a local doctor, compared to 13 percent in towns that placed President Emmanuel Macron’s group first and 8 percent in towns won by the left-wing alliance.
Improving access to public health services in areas with poor healthcare access, dubbed “medical deserts,” is among the RN’s campaign pledges.
Foreign doctors, as well as French doctors of immigrant origin, play an essential role in these areas, where the posts are less prestigious than in big city hospitals, says Benaissa.
In Ales in the south of France, half the vote went to the RN. A&E doctor Leila Elamrani, who moved to France from Morocco in 2004, says they feel the pressure in their service which takes patients from surrounding areas.
“People don’t have GPs so they come here for a cold, for a doctor’s note to take sick leave,” she said. “That, plus an aging population and lack of resources, creates a huge mess.”
Lydia Boumaarafi, a French doctor of Algerian heritage specialized in addictology, is not waiting to see what happens. She moved to Canada a month ago in part because of “its approach to multiculturalism.”
“The situation is now at a climax (with the RN vote) but the climate has been this way for a while,” she said. (Reporting by Layli Foroudi; additional reporting by Leigh Thomas; Editing by Richard Lough and Angus MacSwan)
US to complete withdrawal from Niger’s air base on Sunday
WASHINGTON: The US military is set to complete the withdrawal on Sunday of its personnel from Niger’s Air Base 101 in the nation’s capital and then shift its focus to exiting a major drone base in the coming weeks, a US general said.
Niger’s junta in April ordered the US to withdraw its nearly 1,000 military personnel from the country, in an embarrassing setback for Washington that followed a coup last year.
Before the coup, Niger had been a key partner in the US fight against insurgents in the Sahel region of Africa, who have killed thousands of people and displaced millions more.
Washington is searching for a Plan B in West Africa, but officials caution that US intelligence on fast-growing extremist groups in the region is dimming.
Air Force Major General Kenneth Ekman, who is on the ground in Niger to coordinate the departure, said the US exit from Air Base 101 will be finalized with a ceremony.
The base is located next to Diori Hamani International Airport in the capital Niamey.
“We will do a joint ceremony on that occasion that marks the departure of the last US C-17 (aircraft). The government of Niger will assume control of former US areas and facilities,” Ekman said, speaking by video conference.
As the US exits, Russia has deployed several military forces to the same base, where they are carrying out training activities.
US officials say there has been no contact between US and Russian personnel there, and Ekman stressed he has received assurances from Niger the forces will be kept separate.
“When I last talked to a Nigerian interlocutor, he quantified the presence of Russian forces as under 100. And he also talked about how when the Russians are done training them, they tell the Russians that they have to go home,” Ekman said.
