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.
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
ESPIONAGE: The British government’s decision on the proposed embassy hinges on the security of underground data cables, a former diplomat has said A US intervention over China’s proposed new embassy in London has thrown a potential resolution “up in the air,” campaigners have said, amid concerns over the site’s proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables. The furor over a new “super-embassy” on the edge of London’s financial district was reignited last week when the White House said it was “deeply concerned” over potential Chinese access to “the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.” The Dutch parliament has also raised concerns about Beijing’s ideal location of Royal Mint Court, on the edge of the City of London, which has so
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