PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced a plan to push forward France’s defense spending, pledging to double the military budget by 2027 — three years earlier than originally planned — in response to a complex geopolitical moment.
France had aimed to double its defense budget from 2017 levels by 2030. However, Macron pledged to reach the target by 2027. A military budget that stood at 32 billion euros ($37.40 billion) in 2017 will rise to 64 billion euros by 2027, with an additional 3.5 billion euros allocated for next year and another 3 billion euros in 2027.
He said the accelerated spending, which comes as France is struggling to make 40 billion euros in savings in its 2026 budget, would be paid for by increased economic activity.
“Our military independence is inseparable from our financial independence,” he said. “This will be financed through more activity and more production.”
He said Prime Minister Francois Bayrou would provide more details in an address on his plans for the 2026 budget on Tuesday. Bayrou is facing an uphill battle to steer billions of euros worth of savings through a bitterly divided parliament, as France strives to lower its budget deficit to keep EU bean-counters and foreign investors at bay.
France’s Macron announces plan to accelerate military spending
https://arab.news/rqvc2
France’s Macron announces plan to accelerate military spending
- The French president pledged to double the military budget by 2027 in response to a complex geopolitical moment
Myanmar’s military government declares Karen ethnic rebels a terrorist group as elections loom
- The Karen National Union has been fighting on and off for greater autonomy since Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948
- The KNU, together with the other ethnic minority groups fighting with the army, boycotted the military government’s proposed peace talks
The KNU has been fighting on and off for greater autonomy since Myanmar became independent from Britain in 1948. The group located in Myanmar’s southeast has been engaged in especially fierce combat against the army in the civil war that followed the military takeover from Myanmar’s elected government in 2021.
A KNU spokesperson said Friday the group would not care about the designation. Noting that Myanmar’s military had been indicted by international tribunals, KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee said: “You don’t even need to prove anything on who the real terrorists and international criminals are, and who the unlawful association are.”
The KNU has vowed to disrupt the national elections the military plans to hold beginning Dec. 28, but the terrorist designation will make it more difficult to do even nonviolent information campaigns, which already have been declared illegal.
State-run MRTV television reported a military government committee named the KNU a terrorist group because it has “caused serious losses of public security, lives and property, important infrastructures of the public and private sector, state-owned buildings, vehicles, equipment and materials.”
A separate notice on MRTV said Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the military leader who is serving as Myanmar’s acting president, declared the KNU and its affiliated organizations to be unlawful organizations, which criminalizes contact with them.
After reporting the announcements, the MRTV repeatedly broadcast a 1947 quote from Aung San, Myanmar’s independence hero, to serve as a warning to the KNU about its plans to disrupt the election.
“Our government will not look on with indifference at those who try to disrupt the election,” were the words attributed to Aung San, who was the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian national leader who has been detained since the 2021 military takeover.
“They will be severely punished. Our government will not interfere with anyone who is competing freely in the election. However, let me clearly warn you that we will use all the power to suppress anyone who tries to disrupt it,” the Aung San broadcast continued.
The polls have been denounced by critics as a sham to normalize the army takeover. They also say that the dissolution of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, which won a landslide victory in the 2020 elections, means the polls cannot be considered fair.
Several opposition organizations, including the KNU, have said they will try to derail the election. The military government enacted an election law last month that carries the death penalty under certain conditions for anyone who opposes or disrupts the polls.
The Karen, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.
The KNU, along with seven other ethnic rebel armies, signed a ceasefire agreement in 2015 with the former quasi-civilian government led by former general Thein Sein to end more than six decades of fighting.
However, the group became allies with pro-democracy militias formed after the military seized power in 2021 and offered refuge to the opponents of the military government. After nonviolent protests against the military takeover were put down with lethal force, armed resistance arose that has now embroiled much of the country in civil war.
In addition to directly engaging the military government’s troops on the battlefield in Kayin state, the armed wing of the KNU, the Karen National Liberation Army, has been training hundreds of young activists from the cities in the rudiments of warfare. Kayin state is also known as Karen state.
The KNU, together with the other ethnic minority groups fighting with the army, also boycotted the military government’s proposed peace talks after the army takeover, saying they did not meet their demands.
The group’s demands include the military’s withdrawal from politics, implementation of federal democracy and acceptance of international involvement in solving the country’s crisis.
Indonesian students vow more protests after one killed in Jakarta demonstration
- Muzammil Ihsan, head of Indonesia’s largest student union, said that students will protest against police violence on Friday afternoon
- An armored police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle rideshare driver during clashes on Thursday
JAKARTA: Indonesian students said they will protest at Jakarta’s police headquarters on Friday after a motorcycle rider died when he was hit by a police vehicle during violent clashes following a demonstration outside the parliament the day before.
Muzammil Ihsan, head of Indonesia’s largest student union, said that students will protest against police violence on Friday afternoon, and he expected other student groups to attend.
On Thursday, demonstrators were protesting a number of issues including lawmakers’ pay, education funding and the government’s school meals program. As the protest persisted into the night, local media reported that riot police fired tear gas and used water cannons to try to disperse people.
The capital’s police chief, Asep Edi Suheri, said that during the clashes an armored police vehicle hit and killed a motorcycle rideshare driver. A motorcycle drivers’ association said the dead man was not involved in the protests. “As police chief and on behalf of the entire unit, I would like to express my deepest apologies and condolences,” he said in a press conference late on Thursday. The seven crew of the armored vehicle have been arrested and an investigation is underway, Abdul Karim, head of the professional and security division of the Indonesian police, told the news conference.
Following the death, a group led by motorcycle drivers protested in front of the riot police’s headquarters on Thursday night, local media reported. Kompas TV reported on Friday that military officers were sent to the building to calm dozens of protesting drivers.
Jakarta Legal Aid, in a post on Instagram, urged the government and police to release 600 people who had been arrested during the demonstrations.
Powerful US senator arrives in Taiwan to discuss security
- US Senator Roger Wicker is chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the strongest advocates for Taiwan
- The US is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties
TAIPEI: US Senator Roger Wicker, the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the strongest advocates for Taiwan in the US Congress, arrived in Taipei on Friday to discuss security at a time of a rising threat from China.
Wicker, a Republican, said he and Senator Deb Fischer were visiting to reinforce and emphasize the “great partnership” the United States and Taiwan had and would have in the future. Fischer is also a Republican and a member of the armed services committee.
“We’re here to talk to our friends and allies in Taiwan about what we’re doing to enhance worldwide peace, the kind of peace through strength that Ronald Reagan talked about,” he told reporters at Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport, referring to the late US president.
“We stand here to re-emphasize the partnership and the security friendship agreement that the United States has had with Taiwan for some decades.”
The US Senate is due to consider next week the National Defense Authorization act, or NDAA, a nearly $1 trillion bill that sets policy for the Pentagon.
Wicker said that this year’s NDAA would “add to the provisions again” when it came to Taiwan, though he gave no details.
The Chinese embassy last month urged Wicker and other lawmakers to cancel plans to go to Taiwan. Beijing, which views the island as its own territory, regularly denounces any shows of support for Taipei from Washington.
China has increased its military activities around Taiwan over the past five years or so, including staging war games. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
Wicker’s trip takes place as some members of Congress – both President Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans and Democrats – have expressed concern that Trump is de-emphasizing security issues as he works on negotiating a trade deal with China.
Administration officials have said Trump remains fully committed to Asia-Pacific security matters as he pursues his trade agenda and a good personal relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The United States is Taiwan’s most important international backer and arms supplier despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties.
South Korea’s former first lady and former prime minister indicted by special prosecutors
- The wife of jailed former President Yoon Suk Yeol was charged with violating financial market and political funding laws and receiving bribes
- Three special prosecutor investigations were launched under the government of liberal President Lee Jae Myung that targeted Yoon’s presidency
SEOUL: South Korea’s former first lady Kim Keon Hee and former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo were indicted Friday in special investigations that followed the ousting of the former president for imposing martial law.
The wife of jailed ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol was charged with violating financial market and political funding laws and receiving bribes, about two weeks after a court ordered her arrest.
Han was charged with abetting Yoon’s imposition of martial law imposition, which investigators say amount to a rebellion, and also falsifying and destroying official documents and lying under oath.
Three special prosecutor investigations were launched under the government of liberal President Lee Jae Myung that targeted Yoon’s presidency and the actions taken to impose martial law last December.
Yoon’s defense minister, military commanders and police officers have been arrested for their involvement in imposing martial law.
Yoon was removed from office in April and rearrested last month over his December martial law decree.
Kim and Yoon are suspected of exerting undue influence on the conservative People Power Party to nominate a specific candidate in a 2022 legislative by-election, allegedly at the request of election broker Myung Tae-kyun. Myung faces accusations of conducting free opinion surveys for Yoon using manipulated data that possibly helped him win the party’s presidential primaries before his election as president.
Kim apologized for causing public concern earlier this month but also hinted she would deny the allegations against her, portraying herself as “someone insignificant.”
Assistant special counsel Park Ji-young told a televised briefing that Han was the highest official who could have blocked Yoon’s attempt to impose martial law. Park said Han still played an “active” role in Yoon’s martial law declaration by trying to get Yoon’s decree passed through a Cabinet Council meeting as a way to give “procedural legitimacy” to it.
Han has maintained he conveyed to Yoon that he opposed his martial law plan.
Han, who was appointed prime minister, the country’s No. 2 post, by Yoon, was South Korea’s acting leader after Yoon was impeached in mid-December.
After Yoon was formally dismissed as president in a Constitutional Court decision, Han was supposed to continue to head the caretaker government until the June presidential election. Han resigned to seek the presidential nomination instead, but Yoon’s conservative party chose someone else.
Swiss court rejects Islamic scholar Ramadan’s rape conviction appeal
GENEVA: Switzerland’s supreme court said Thursday it had rejected an appeal by Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan against his rape conviction, but his lawyers said he would take the case to Europe’s rights court.
“The Federal Court dismissed Tariq Ramadan’s appeal against the conviction for rape and sexual coercion handed down by the Geneva Court of Justice,” the high court said in a statement.
Ramadan’s lawyers Yael Hayat and Guerric Canonica said in a statement sent to AFP: “The defense takes note of the decision by the Federal Court and contests it.”
They added that “the final word will belong to the European Court of Human Rights.”
After being acquitted in 2023, a Geneva appeals court last year found the 63-year-old former Oxford University professor “guilty of rape and sexual coercion” of a woman in a Geneva hotel 17 years ago.
It sentenced him to three years in prison, two of which were suspended.
The ruling marked the first guilty verdict against Ramadan, who faces a string of rape allegations in Switzerland and France.
It was that verdict that the supreme court confirmed on Thursday.
READ MORE:
• Muslim Brotherhood founder's grandson accused of rape, sexual assault
• Swiss prosecutor seeks three-year sentence for rape-accused Tariq Ramadan
• Tariq Ramadan faces fourth claim of rape
Switzerland’s supreme court revealed Thursday that it had back in July “dismissed Tariq Ramadan’s appeal against the conviction for rape and sexual coercion handed down by the Geneva Court of Justice.”
The supreme court said the lower cantonal court verdict was “admissable,” concluding in the verdict that Ramadan’s appeal did “not demonstrate that the judgment appealed against is based on an arbitrary assessment of the evidence.
“The appeal arguments do not demonstrate any violation of the presumption of evidence by the cantonal court,” it added.
“Nothing in the appeal brief renders untenable the conclusion drawn by the cantonal court... (establishing) serious events of a sexual nature.”
A charismatic yet controversial figure in European Islam, Ramadan has always maintained his innocence.
His lawyers insisted Thursday that the supreme court decision to reject their appeal “in no way undermines the truth asserted by Mr. Ramadan, even if it does not confirm it.”
“Long ordeal”
Lawyers for the woman who brought the complaint — a Muslim convert identified only as “Brigitte” — hailed the supreme court decision.
“This marks the end of a long ordeal and a long legal battle for our client and her lawyers,” they said in an email statement sent to AFP.
Brigitte had testified before the Geneva appeals court that Ramadan had subjected her to rape and other violent sex acts in a Geneva hotel room during the night of October 28, 2008.
Ramadan had said Brigitte invited herself up to his room. He let her kiss him, he said, before quickly ending the encounter, insisting he was the victim of a “trap.”
Brigitte, who was in her forties at the time of the alleged assault, filed her complaint 10 years later, telling the court she felt emboldened to come forward following similar complaints filed against Ramadan in France.
Ramadan was a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford and held visiting roles at universities in Qatar and Morocco.
He was forced to take a leave of absence in 2017 when rape allegations surfaced in France at the height of the “Me Too” movement.
In France, he is due to stand trial next year over allegations that he raped three women between 2009 and 2016.
