MYANMAR
Junta destroying country: UN
The junta appears to be “trying to destroy a country it cannot control,” the UN special rapporteur to the country said yesterday. Clashes between an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups and the military have shredded a Beijing-brokered truce forged in January. The ceasefire had briefly halted widespread fighting in the northern part of the nation since a military coup ended democratic rule in 2021. “The junta is on its heels, it’s losing troops, it’s losing military facilities, it is literally losing ground,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said during a briefing to the national security body of Thailand. “It almost appears as if the junta is trying to destroy a country that it cannot control.” The military’s response to its losses has been to attack civilians, he said, adding that there had been a substantial increase in the number of attacks on schools, hospitals and monasteries in the past six months. “The stakes are very, very high,” he added.
SOUTH SUDAN
Finance minister fired
President Salva Kiir has sacked the finance minister, who was just four months into the job, state-owned television reported on Wednesday, the sixth replacement in the post since 2020. Kiir gave no reason for firing Awow Daniel Chuong, who was appointed in the middle of March, the report said. Economist Marial Deng has been tapped to replace him as finance minister, it said. The nation’s economy has been under pressure in recent years amid communal violence, with crude oil export revenue having dwindled since a 2013-2018 civil war and more recently export disruptions due to war in neighboring Sudan.
UNITED STATES
Chinese boats spotted
A Coast Guard cutter on routine patrol in the Bering Sea came across several Chinese military ships in international waters, but within the nation’s exclusive economic zone, officials said on Wednesday. The crew detected three vessels about 200km north of the Amchitka Pass in the Aleutian Islands, the Coast Guard said in a statement. A short time later, a helicopter aircrew from Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak spotted a fourth ship about 135km north of the Amukta Pass. All four of the Chinese vessels were “transiting in international waters, but still inside the US exclusive economic zone,” which extends 200 nautical miles (370km) from the shoreline, the statement said. “The Chinese naval presence operated in accordance with international rules and norms,” said Rear Admiral Megan Dean, 17th Coast Guard District commander. “We met presence with presence to ensure there were no disruptions to US interests in the maritime environment around Alaska.”
UNITED STATES
Bell license plate unveiled
A new state license plate design refers to Pennsylvania’s critical role in establishing the nation’s independence from England and features the phrase “Let Freedom Ring.” The red, white and blue plate design announced this week includes an image of Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell. “Let Freedom Ring” is a phrase in the early 19th-century song My Country, ’Tis of Thee. The Liberty Bell, inscribed with Leviticus 25:10, a Bible verse exhorting people to “proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof,” was in use in Philadelphia before the Revolutionary War. It became a rallying point for those fighting to abolish slavery and for supporters of giving women the right to vote and of civil rights.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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