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
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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
France detains two filmmakers over sexual abuse allegations
- Renewed #MeToo reckoning rocks France’s film industry
- Directors interrogated over alleged sexual abuse, some dating back to the 1980s
Their interrogation over the alleged abuse, some dating back to the 1980s and all of which they deny, comes as activists say cinema has too long provided cover for abuse.
An AFP journalist saw Jacquot, 77, and Doillon, 80, arrive at a Paris police station on Monday morning accompanied by their lawyers.
Judith Godreche, a 52-year-old actor and director, earlier this year formally accused Jacquot of rape and Doillon of sexual assault when she was a minor, accusations both men deny.
She has described Jacquot as having had an unhealthy “hold” over her during a relationship with him that started when she was 14, from 1986 to 1992.
And she has accused Doillon of groping her during an unplanned sex scene in one of his films when she was 15.
Several other actors have also filed complaints against both men.
Isild Le Besco, 41, has accused Jacquot of raping her between 1998 and 2007 during a toxic relationship that started when she was 16 and he was 52.
Julia Roy, a 34-year-old actor who has appeared in several of his films, has accused him of sexual assault in “a context of violence and moral constraint which lasted several years,” a source close to the case said.
Le Besco has also charged Doillon made advances during work sessions, while actor Anna Mouglalis alleged the filmmaker forcefully kissed her in 2011.
The directors’ lawyers said there had been no need to detain them in order to question them, and stressed they should be considered innocent until proven guilty.
Jacquot’s lawyer, Julia Minkowski, said her client would “finally be able to express himself before the law,” slamming what she called the “unacceptable excesses” of media coverage on the issue.
Doillon’s attorney, Marie Dose, said no legal criteria could justify his being detained for questioning “36 years” after the incident alleged by Godreche, adding he could have answered queries without being held in custody.
Sources close to the case said their interrogation could include a confrontation with those accusing them.
Godreche on Instagram said she was deeply moved.
“I’m crying,” she wrote.
“I don’t know if I have the strength, but I will have it. I will have it... For her,” she wrote, posting a picture of her teenage self next to Jacquot, 25 years her senior.
Her lawyer, Laure Heinich, did not wish to comment.
Since breaking her silence, Godreche has become a leading voice in France’s #MeToo movement.
After she appealed for a cinema oversight body, parliament in May voted to create a commission to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in the film industry and other cultural sectors.
The head of France’s top cinema institution, Dominique Boutonnat, stepped down on Friday after he was convicted of sexually assaulting his godson in 2020.
And cinema legend Gerard Depardieu, 75, is to stand trial in October for sexually assaulting two women.
He also risks a second trial after he was charged in 2020 with rape after actor Charlotte Arnould alleged he raped her in 2018 when she was 22 and anorexic.
He denies all claims.
Taliban to press international community on Afghanistan sanctions
- The two-day meeting began on Sunday and is the third such summit to be held in Qatar in a little over a year, but the first to include the Taliban authorities who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021
The two-day meeting began on Sunday and is the third such summit to be held in Qatar in a little over a year, but the first to include the Taliban authorities who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, senior foreign ministry official Zakir Jalaly said the Taliban government delegation would use Monday’s meetings to address “financial and banking sanctions” and the “challenges” these pose to Afghanistan’s economy.
His statement followed an opening salvo late Sunday by the head of the Taliban delegation, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, as he addressed more than 20 envoys and UN officials.
“Afghans are asking why they are being ganged up on, on the basis of unilateral and multilateral sanctions,” Mujahid said as he questioned whether ongoing sanctions were “fair practice” after “wars and insecurity for almost half a century as a result of foreign invasions and interference.”
The talks are being held to discuss increasing engagement with the impoverished country of more than 40 million and a more coordinated response, including economic issues and counter-narcotics efforts.
In the aftermath of the Taliban’s return to power, the international community has wrestled with its approach to Afghanistan’s new rulers.
The Taliban government in Kabul has not been officially recognized by any other government since it took power.
It has imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women subjected to laws characterised by the UN as “gender apartheid.”
The inclusion of a Taliban delegation but the exclusion of civil society and women’s rights groups sparked outrage, with organizations accusing the UN and attendees of legitimising Taliban government policies.
“Caving into the Taliban’s conditions to secure their participation in the talks would risk legitimising their gender-based institutionalized system of oppression,” Amnesty International chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement ahead of the talks.
The Taliban authorities have repeatedly said the rights of all citizens are guaranteed under Islamic law.
Mujahid said diplomats should “find ways of interaction and understanding rather than confrontation,” despite “natural” differences in policy.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is keen on engaging constructively with Western nations as well,” Mujahid said.
“Like any sovereign state, we uphold certain religious and cultural values and public aspirations that must be acknowledged.”
India overhauls colonial-era laws with new criminal codes
- The three overhauled laws were passed last year during India’s previous parliament
- First person charged under the new codes was a street vendor blocking a footbridge in New Delhi
NEW DELHI: India on Monday implemented an overhaul of colonial-era criminal laws, praised as a “watershed” movement by the top judge but which critics said could worsen an already glacially slow pace of justice.
Amit Shah, the interior minister, said the codes would help India “become the world’s most modern justice delivery system.”
The three overhauled laws — the penal code, and codes relating to criminal procedure and evidence — were passed last year during India’s previous parliament, but only came into effect on Monday.
Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachud said they “signify a watershed moment for our society.”
Laws dealing with sexual assault have been strengthened, while a previous law criminalizing sodomy has been removed.
Key changes include the amount of time police can hold a suspect rising from 15 days to 60, and, in some special cases, up to 90.
Previously it was up to a judge to decide if a case could proceed to trial, but the new laws bolster the power of the police to decide, something Supreme Court lawyer Nipun Saxena criticized.
“Judicial functions cannot be transferred to police,” Saxena said.
The code has also been modernized — requiring video recordings to be made at the scene of serious crimes, as well as updating admissible digital evidence.
But critics say the new laws could create confusion, as they will run parallel to those on trial charged under the previous system.
India already has a notoriously slow justice system, with millions of cases pending in the courts at any time.
Saxena warned the changes could increase the number of cases awaiting trial by “30-40 percent.”
Opposition parties said the laws were passed when more than 100 lawmakers were suspended from the house, meaning key issues were not debated.
“Many crucial safeguards have been omitted completely,” Saxena said, adding the new laws violate “at least four articles of the constitution and many important judgments of the Supreme Court.”
He said these relate to procedural safeguards, protection against illegal detention, and laws against self-incrimination.
At independence in 1947, India inherited the 19th-century penal code imposed by British rule, although it has been overhauled by previous parliaments.
“The claim that the changes decolonialize the criminal procedure code is spurious,” Saxena said.
The first person charged under the new codes was a street vendor blocking a footbridge in the capital New Delhi, the Times of India reported.
Athletes who are ‘human rights defenders’ need protection, says UN
- “When athletes use their voice to promote equality in sport, they are human rights defenders,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
GENEVA: Athletes who speak out for equality or denounce abuses in their sport often do so at great personal risk and must be given the same protection as all other defenders of human rights, the UN human rights chief said on Monday.
“When athletes use their voice to promote equality in sport, they are human rights defenders,” said Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
“They often speak out at great risk to themselves and to their careers, in a context that has not always been open to criticism from the inside. Because — as in other areas — power dynamics are still very much at play in the sporting world, and more is needed to dismantle them.”
Turk, who did not name any athletes, said those who use their voice to address issues in their sport or in society should be protected and given “avenues to speak out and seek redress, safely and without fear of reprisals.”
Turk was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on a panel alongside Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), on human rights and the Olympics ahead of the Paris Summer Games.
Paris will host the Olympics from July 26 to Aug. 11, and the Paralympic Games from Aug. 28 to Sept. 8.
18 inmates escape after overpowering guard in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
- Prison’s chief and some other officers dismissed from their post while some officials had been arrested for question
- Six of the prisoners were on death row, while another three were serving life sentences
MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan: Eighteen inmates, including some on death row, have escaped from a prison in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir after overpowering a guard with a pistol, Pakistani officials said on Monday.
Local police chief Riaz Mughal said one of the prisoners was shot and killed in the breakout from Rawalakot prison the previous day.
A massive search has been launched to trace and arrest all those inmates who fled the prison, Mughal said, authorities opened an investigation into what lead up to the prison break. The prison’s chief and some other officers have already been dismissed from their post while some officials had been arrested for question, he said.
Mughal said six of the prisoners were on death row, while another three were serving life sentences. Such jail breaks are rare in Pakistan, he said.
Officials say one of the inmates had a pistol that was used to overpower a guard and snatch the keys to the prison cells.
The disputed Himalayan region is divided between India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons. The South Asian neighbors have fought three wars since their independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
