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Philippine Defense Chief Says Taiwan Strait Situation an 'Internal Matter'

The Philippines' Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro arrives to attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Pool/ File Photo
The Philippines' Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro arrives to attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Pool/ File Photo
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Philippine Defense Chief Says Taiwan Strait Situation an 'Internal Matter'

The Philippines' Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro arrives to attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Pool/ File Photo
The Philippines' Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro arrives to attend the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) in Jakarta, Indonesia, November 15, 2023. REUTERS/Willy Kurniawan/Pool/ File Photo

The situation in the Taiwan Strait, where China has carried out military exercises, is an "internal matter," Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said on Friday, declining to comment on drills that Taiwan has condemned.
China's military conducted a second day of war games around Taiwan on Friday, with drills to test its ability to "seize power" and control key areas. Beijing has said the exercises were launched to punish Taiwan's new president, Lai Ching-te, Reuters reported.
"I will not comment on anything on the Taiwan Strait, as that's an internal matter for them," Teodoro told reporters on the sidelines of a Philippine Navy anniversary event.
China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and denounces Lai as a "separatist". It strongly criticized his inauguration speech on Monday, in which he urged Beijing to cease threats and said the two sides of the strait were "not subordinate to each other".
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr drew China's ire in January when he congratulated Lai after winning an election, referring to him as president.
China in response summoned the Philippine ambassador and warned the country "not to play with fire", calling the message from Marcos gross interference and a serious violation of the "One China" principle.
Marcos later defended his remarks, stressing that his message was "common courtesy" and he did not endorse Taiwan independence. US ally Manila has said it wanted to recognise the Philippines and Taiwan's "mutual interests", including 200,000 Filipino workers on the island.

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Assange Heads to Australia after US Guilty Plea

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
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Assange Heads to Australia after US Guilty Plea

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves the US Federal Courthouse in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, on June 26, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange walked free on Wednesday from a court on the US Pacific island territory of Saipan after pleading guilty to violating US espionage law in a deal that allowed him to head straight home to Australia.
His release ends a 14-year legal saga in which Assange spent more than five years in a British high-security jail and seven years in asylum at the Ecuadorean embassy in London battling extradition to the US, where he faced 18 criminal charges, Reuters reported.
During the three-hour hearing, Assange pleaded guilty to one criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense documents but said he had believed the US Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech, shielded his activities.
"Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information," he told the court.
"I believed the First Amendment protected that activity but I accept that it was ... a violation of the espionage statute."
Chief US District Judge Ramona V. Manglona accepted his guilty plea and released him due to time already served in a British jail.
"We firmly believe that Mr. Assange never should have been charged under the Espionage Act and engaged in (an) exercise that journalists engage in every day," his US lawyer, Barry Pollack, told reporters outside the court.
WikiLeaks' work would continue, he said.
His UK and Australian lawyer, Jennifer Robinson, thanked the Australian government for its years of diplomacy in securing Assange's release.
"It is a huge relief to Julian Assange, to his family, to his friends, to his supporters and to us and to everyone who believes in free speech around the world that he can now return home to Australia and be reunited with his family," she said.
Assange, 52, left the court through a throng of TV cameras and photographers without answering questions, then waved as he got into a white SUV.
He left Saipan on a private jet to the Australian capital Canberra.

Assange had agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count, according to filings in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

The US territory in the western Pacific was chosen due to his opposition to travelling to the mainland US and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.