Myanmar's detained former leader and Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been moved from prison to house arrest by the military government as a precaution due to the extremely hot weather. The military spokesperson mentioned that this measure is taken not only for Suu Kyi but also for other prisoners, especially the elderly, to protect them from heatstroke. Suu Kyi, facing 27 years in prison on various charges, including treason and bribery, has been under detention since the military coup in 2021. Calls for her unconditional release have been made by world leaders and activists, emphasizing the need for her health and security.
A coup d'état in Myanmar began on the morning of 1 February 2021, when democratically elected members of the country's ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), were deposed by the Tatmadaw — Myanmar's military — which then vested power in a military junta. Acting President of Myanmar Myint Swe proclaimed a year-long state of emergency and declared power had been transferred to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. It declared the results of the November 2020 general election invalid and stated its intent to hold a new election at the end of the state of emergency. The coup d'état occurred the day before the Parliament of Myanmar was to swear in the members elected in the 2020 election, thereby preventing this from occurring. President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained, along with ministers, their deputies, and members of Parliament.On 1 February 2021, Win Myint and Aung San Suu Kyi were arrested on charges that independent analysts regarded as part of an attempt to legitimize the military’s seizure of power. Both were remanded in custody for two weeks. Between 16 February and 1 April, five additional charges were leveled against Aung San Suu Kyi.Armed insurgencies by the People's Defence Force of the National Unity Government erupted throughout Myanmar in response to the military government's crackdown on anti-coup protests.As of 13 March 2024, at least 50,000 people, including at least 8,000 civilians (570 of whom were children), have been killed by the junta forces and 26,234 individuals have been arrested. In March 2021, three prominent members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) died in police custody, and in July 2022, the junta executed four pro-democracy activists.In honour of Myanmar's 76th year of independence in January 2024, more than 9,000 prisoners are slated to receive amnesty, leading to their release from prison.In February 2024, it was announced that compulsory military service would be implemented. All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 were required to serve up to two years under military command and specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 were to serve for three years.
Aung San Suu Kyi (; Burmese: အောင်ဆန်းစုကြည်; MLCTS: aung hcan: cu. krany [ʔàʊɰ̃ sʰáɰ̃ sṵ tɕì]; born 19 June 1945), sometimes abbreviated to Suu Kyi, is a Burmese politician, diplomat, author, and a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who served as State Counsellor of Myanmar (equivalent to a prime minister) and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2016 to 2021. She has served as the general secretary of the National League for Democracy (NLD) since the party's founding in 1988 and was registered as its chairperson while it was a legal party from 2011 to 2023. She played a vital role in Myanmar's transition from military junta to partial democracy in the 2010s.The youngest daughter of Aung San, Father of the Nation of modern-day Myanmar, and Khin Kyi, Aung San Suu Kyi was born in Rangoon, British Burma. After graduating from the University of Delhi in 1964 and St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1968, she worked at the United Nations for three years. She married Michael Aris in 1972, with whom she had two children.Aung San Suu Kyi rose to prominence in the 8888 Uprising of 8 August 1988 and became the General Secretary of the NLD, which she had newly formed with the help of several retired army officials who criticized the military junta. In the 1990 elections, NLD won 81% of the seats in Parliament, but the results were nullified, as the military government (the State Peace and Development Council – SPDC) refused to hand over power, resulting in an international outcry. She had been detained before the elections and remained under house arrest for almost 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010, becoming one of the world's most prominent political prisoners. In 1999, Time magazine named her one of the "Children of Gandhi" and his spiritual heir to nonviolence. She survived an assassination attempt in the 2003 Depayin massacre when at least 70 people associated with the NLD were killed.Her party boycotted the 2010 elections, resulting in a decisive victory for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP). Aung San Suu Kyi became a Pyithu Hluttaw MP while her party won 43 of the 45 vacant seats in the 2012 by-elections. In the 2015 elections, her party won a landslide victory, taking 86% of the seats in the Assembly of the Union—well more than the 67% supermajority needed to ensure that its preferred candidates were elected president and second vice president in the presidential electoral college. Although she was prohibited from becoming the president due to a clause in the constitution—her late husband and children are foreign citizens—she assumed the newly created role of State Counsellor of Myanmar, a role akin to a prime minister or a head of government.When she ascended to the office of state counsellor, Aung San Suu Kyi drew criticism from several countries, organisations and figures over Myanmar's inaction in response to the genocide of the Rohingya people in Rakhine State and refusal to acknowledge that the Myanmar's military has committed massacres. Under her leadership, Myanmar also drew criticism for prosecutions of journalists. In 2019, Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in the International Court of Justice where she defended the Myanmar military against allegations of genocide against the Rohingya.Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party had won the November 2020 Myanmar general election, was arrested on 1 February 2021 following a coup d'état that returned the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Armed Forces) to power and sparked protests across the country. Several charges were filed against her, and on 6 December 2021, she was sentenced to four years in prison on two of them. Later, on 10 January 2022, she was sentenced to an additional four years on another set of charges. On 12 October 2022, she was convicted of two further charges of corruption and she was sentenced to two terms of three years' imprisonment to be served concurrent to each other. On 30 December 2022, her trials ended with another conviction and an additional sentence of seven years' imprisonment for corruption. Aung San Suu Kyi's final sentence was of 33 years in prison, later reduced to 27 years. The United Nations, most European countries, and the United States condemned the arrests, trials, and sentences as politically motivated.
On 4 May 2009, American citizen John Yettaw trespassed upon the residence of Burmese political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, two weeks before her scheduled release from house arrest on 27 May. This illegal visit prompted Suu Kyi's arrest on 13 May 2009. Yettaw himself was arrested by Burmese authorities on 6 May. He was charged on 14 May with illegally entering a restricted zone, illegal swimming and breaking immigration laws. It is illegal in Burma to have a guest stay overnight at one's home without notifying the authorities first.Their trial began 18 May 2009. On 11 August, Yettaw was sentenced on three counts totalling seven years, including four hard labour. Suu Kyi was sentenced to eighteen months of house arrest. On 14 August, US Senator Jim Webb arrived in Burma and successfully negotiated Yettaw's release and 16 August deportation.Burmese authorities asserted that Yettaw's visits were instigated by opposition groups as part of efforts to pressure and embarrass the Burmese government. The incident effectively meant that she was unable to participate in the 2010 elections.
An auction of Aung San Suu Kyi's lakeside home in Yangon, Myanmar, set at a reserve price of $90 million, failed as no bids were made. The property holds significant historical importance as it was where Suu Kyi grew up, started her democracy campaign, and was confined during her house arrest periods. Lawyers challenged the auction held without her consent, as she has been detained since Myanmar's military coup in 2021.
Rebels in Myanmar's Myawaddy town seized the last military base from the junta, forcing soldiers to retreat to the No 2 Friendship Bridge toward Thailand. The Karen resistance fighters, led by the Karen National Union (KNU), now control the town but not the border bridge. Myawaddy, pivotal for trade with Thailand, is also known for hosting online scam factories with foreign workers in harsh conditions. Amid this, up to 120,000 people could be held in compounds across Myanmar, per UN estimates.
Myanmar's army chief Min Aung Hlaing accuses young people of being misled into supporting the resistance against the military, blaming foreign interference. Anti-coup forces have gained ground against the military, leading to unprecedented losses. The military regime faces challenges from ethnic armed groups and civil resistance, with over 2 million displaced and thousands of casualties. The army chief announced plans to activate conscription laws amidst ongoing conflict and extended state of emergency. Western nations have imposed sanctions on the ruling generals for their actions post-coup. The army also faces accusations of involvement in illegal activities like drug trafficking and gambling.
Ales Bialiatski, the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner and prominent human rights advocate in Belarus, has spent 1,000 days in prison, with his health deteriorating in solitary confinement. His wife, Natalia Pinchuk, expressed worries about his condition, noting he lacks necessary medicines. Bialiatski was sentenced for human rights activities amidst a crackdown following the 2020 election protests against President Lukashenko. Belarus currently holds around 1,400 political prisoners, with recent convictions related to support for Ukraine's conflict. The situation in Belarus has sparked international concern, with calls for the release of political prisoners and improved conditions.
In August 2017, a deadly crackdown by Myanmar's army on Rohingya Muslims sent hundreds of thousands fleeing across the border into Bangladesh. They risked everything to escape by sea or on foot a military offensive which the United Nations later described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". In January 2020, the UN's top court ordered the Buddhist-majority country to take measures to protect members of its Rohingya community from genocide. But the army in Myanmar (formerly Burma) has said it was fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians. The country's leader Aung San Suu Kyi, once a human rights icon, has repeatedly denied allegations of genocide.
Min Aung Hlaing (Burmese: မင်းအောင်လှိုင်; pronounced [mɪ́ɰ̃ àʊɰ̃ l̥àɪɰ̃]; born 3 July 1956) is a Burmese army general who has ruled Myanmar as the chairman of the State Administration Council (SAC) since seizing power in the February 2021 coup d'état. He additionally appointed himself Prime Minister of Myanmar in August 2021. He has led the Tatmadaw (armed forces of Myanmar), an independent branch of government, as the Commander-in-chief of Defence Services since March 2011, when he was handpicked to succeed longtime military ruler Senior General Than Shwe, who transferred leadership over the country to a civilian government upon retiring. Before assuming leadership over the Tatmadaw, Min Aung Hlaing served as Joint Chief of Staff from 2010 to 2011.Born in Dawei (formerly Tavoy), Minbu, Burma (now Myanmar), Min Aung Hlaing studied law at the Rangoon Arts and Science University before joining the military. Rising through its ranks, he became a senior general (five-star general) by 2013. During the period of civilian rule from 2011 to 2021, Min Aung Hlaing worked to ensure the military's continued role in politics and forestalled the peace process with ethnic armed groups. A United Nations fact-finding mission found he deliberately perpetrated the Rohingya genocide. He maintained an adversarial relationship with democratically-elected State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, though she defended him against genocide charges.Min Aung Hlaing baselessly claimed widespread voting irregularities and electoral fraud in the 2020 Myanmar general election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide re-election. He then seized power from her in the 2021 coup. He had been expected to run for President of Myanmar had the military proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), won enough seats in parliament to elect him, and would have been required to retire as Commander-in-Chief due to a statutory age limit. With the outbreak of mass protests against his rule, Min Aung Hlaing ordered a clampdown and suppression of demonstrations, sparking an ongoing civil war.Min Aung Hlaing's forces have employed scorched earth tactics in the civil war, including airstrikes on civilians. He has ordered the execution of prominent pro-democracy activists, the first use of the death penalty in decades. In February 2024, he activated Myanmar's conscription law to draft 60,000 young people into the Tatmadaw. In foreign policy, he has resisted influence from Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and relied on greater cooperation with Russia, China, and India. In response to his human rights abuses and corruption, Min Aung Hlaing and his government have been subjected to an extensive series of international sanctions, returning Myanmar to its former status as a pariah state. The 2022 Democracy Index rated Myanmar under Min Aung Hlaing as the second-most authoritarian regime in the world, with only Afghanistan rated less democratic.
The Rohingya genocide is a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the military of Myanmar. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world's largest refugee camp, while others escaped to India, Thailand, Malaysia, and other parts of South and Southeast Asia, where they continue to face persecution. Many other countries consider these events ethnic cleansing.The persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar dates back to at least the 1970s. Since then, the Rohingya people have been persecuted on a regular basis by the government and Buddhist nationalists. In late 2016, Myanmar's armed forces and police launched a major crackdown against the people in Rakhine State which is located in the country's northwestern region. The Burmese military was accused of committing ethnic cleansing and genocide by various United Nations agencies, International Criminal Court officials, human rights groups, journalists, and governments. The UN found evidence of wide-scale human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings; summary executions; gang rapes; arson of Rohingya villages, businesses, and schools; and infanticides. The Burmese government dismissed these findings by stating they are "exaggerations". Using statistical extrapolations which were based on surveys which were conducted with a total of 3,321 Rohingya refugee households in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, a study which was conducted in January 2018 estimated that the military and the local Rakhine population killed at least 25,000 Rohingya people and perpetrated gang rapes and other forms of sexual violence against 18,000 Rohingya women and girls. They estimated that 116,000 Rohingya were beaten, and 36,000 were thrown into fires.The military operations displaced a large number of people, triggering a refugee crisis. The largest wave of Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar in 2017, resulting in the largest human exodus in Asia since the Vietnam War. According to UN reports, over 700,000 people fled or were driven out of Rakhine State, and took shelter in neighbouring Bangladesh as refugees as of September 2018. In December 2017, two Reuters journalists who were covering the Inn Din massacre were arrested and imprisoned. Foreign Secretary Myint Thu told reporters Myanmar was prepared to accept 2,000 Rohingya refugees from camps in Bangladesh in November 2018. Subsequently, in November 2017, the governments of Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a deal to facilitate the return of Rohingya refugees to Rakhine State within two months, which drew mixed responses from international onlookers. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, visited Bangladesh and the Rohingya camps near the border with Myanmar in early August 2022. Reports covered that Bangladesh's Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina asked the refugees to return to Myanmar. However, the UN addressed that repatriation needs to be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, and when the conditions on the border and also in Myanmar are safe for the process. In late August 2022, the UN special envoy held another discussion with Bangladesh leaders, acknowledging the major pressures as a host country. At the same time, the UN emphasized the importance of engaging the Rohingya in direct discussions and decisions making processes about their future and for minimizing marginalization.The 2016 military crackdown on the Rohingya people was condemned by the UN (which cited possible "crimes against humanity"), the human rights organization Amnesty International, the U.S. Department of State, the government of neighbouring Bangladesh, and the government of Malaysia. The Burmese leader and State Counsellor (de facto head of government) and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was criticised for her inaction and silence over the issue and did little to prevent military abuses. Myanmar also drew criticism for the prosecutions of journalists under her leadership.The August 2017 persecution was launched in response to Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks on Myanmar border posts. It has been labeled ethnic cleansing and genocide by various UN agencies, ICC officials, human rights groups, and governments. The UN described the persecution as "a textbook example of ethnic cleansing". In late September 2017, a seven-member panel of the Permanent Peoples' Tribunal found the Burmese military and authority guilty of the crime of genocide against the Rohingya and the Kachin minority groups. Suu Kyi was again criticised for her silence over the issue and for supporting the military actions. In August 2018, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights declared that Burmese military generals should be tried for genocide. On 23 January 2020, the International Court of Justice ordered Myanmar to prevent genocidal violence against its Rohingya minority and to preserve evidence of past attacks.
Aung San (Burmese: ဗိုလ်ချုပ် အောင်ဆန်း; MLCTS: aung hcan:, pronounced [àʊɰ̃ sʰáɰ̃]; 13 February 1915 – 19 July 1947) was a Burmese politician, independence activist and revolutionary. He was instrumental in Myanmar's struggle for independence from British rule, but he was assassinated just six months before his goal was realized. Aung San is considered the founder of modern-day Myanmar and the Tatmadaw (the country's armed forces), and is commonly referred to by the titles "Father of the Nation", "Father of Independence", and "Father of the Tatmadaw".Devoted to ending British Colonial rule in Burma, Aung San founded or was closely associated with many Burmese political groups and movements and explored various schools of political thought throughout his life. He was a life-long anti-imperialist and studied socialism as a student. In his first year of university he was elected to the executive committee of the Rangoon University Students' Union and served as the editor of its newspaper. He joined the Thakin Society in 1938 and served as its general secretary. He also helped establish the Communist Party of Burma in 1939 but quit shortly afterwards due to vehement disagreements with the rest of the party leadership. He subsequently co-founded the People's Revolutionary Party (later the Burma Socialist Party) with the primary goal of Burmese independence from the British.Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Aung San fled Burma and went to China to solicit foreign support for Burmese independence. During the Japanese occupation of Burma, he served as the minister of war in the Japan-backed State of Burma led by Dr. Ba Maw. As the tide turned against Japan, he switched sides and merged his forces with the Allies to fight against the Japanese. After World War II, he negotiated Burmese independence from Britain in the Aung San-Attlee agreement. He served as the 5th Premier of the British Crown Colony of Burma from 1946 to 1947. He led his party, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, to victory in the 1947 Burmese general election, but he and most of his cabinet were assassinated shortly before the country became independent.Aung San's daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, is a stateswoman, politician, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. She was Burma's State Counsellor and its 20th (and first female) Minister of Foreign Affairs in Win Myint's Cabinet until the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état.
Belarusian activist Dzmitry Kuchuk has been arrested on charges that could lead to four years in prison for organizing activities against public order. The arrest follows a crackdown on dissent in Belarus, with mass protests against President Alexander Lukashenko's disputed election in 2020 resulting in arrests of over 35,000 individuals. Kuchuk's Green Party was shut down, and he was targeted for his efforts to seek the release of political prisoners. Around 1,400 political prisoners, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, are currently detained in Belarus.
Opponents of army rule in Myanmar carried out drone attacks on two military targets in Naypyitaw, the capital, in a blow to the junta's governance. The National Unity Government announced coordinated drone attacks on the headquarters of the military and Alar Air Base, with preliminary reports suggesting casualties. This incident challenges the military's credibility as the protector of Myanmar's sovereignty, facing its biggest test since 1962. Myanmar is in a civil war between the military and ethnic minority rebels, with Western governments accusing the military of systematic atrocities and excessive force in civilian areas.
Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, head of the military council, and military officers inspect and march during a parade in Naypyitaw to commemorate Myanmar's 79th Armed Forces Day on March 27, 2024.
Three activists of Viasna, the main human rights group in Belarus, have been arrested and charged with participating in an extremist organization. President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian rule since 1994 has led to ongoing crackdowns on opposition and independent media. The activists could face up to seven years in prison if convicted. Viasna reports around 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus, including founder Ales Bialiatski, a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Myanmar (Burmese: မြန်မာ; MLCTS: Mranma, pronounced [mjəmà]), officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also known as Burma (the official name until 1989), is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (formerly Rangoon).Early civilisations in the area included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Myanmar and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Myanmar. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy valley, and following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language, culture, and Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the country. The Pagan Kingdom fell to Mongol invasions, and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo dynasty, the country became the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia for a short period. The early 19th-century Konbaung dynasty ruled over an area that included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur and Assam as well. The British East India Company seized control of the administration of Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century, and the country became a British colony. After a brief Japanese occupation, Myanmar was reconquered by the Allies. On 4 January 1948, Myanmar declared independence under the terms of the Burma Independence Act 1947.Myanmar's post-independence history has continued to be checkered by unrest and conflict. The coup d'état in 1962 resulted in a military dictatorship under the Burma Socialist Programme Party. On 8 August 1988, the 8888 Uprising then resulted in a nominal transition to a multi-party system two years later, but the country's post-uprising military council refused to cede power, and has continued to rule the country through to the present. The country remains riven by ethnic strife among its myriad ethnic groups and has one of the world's longest-running ongoing civil wars. The United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systemic human rights violations in the country. In 2011, the military junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election, and a nominally civilian government was installed. Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners were released and the 2015 Myanmar general election was held, leading to improved foreign relations and eased economic sanctions, although the country's treatment of its ethnic minorities, particularly in connection with the Rohingya conflict, continued to be a source of international tension and consternation. Following the 2020 Myanmar general election, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's party won a clear majority in both houses, the Burmese military (Tatmadaw) again seized power in a coup d'état. The coup, which was widely condemned by the international community, led to continuous ongoing widespread protests in Myanmar and has been marked by violent political repression by the military, as well as a larger outbreak of the civil war. The military also arrested Aung San Suu Kyi in order to remove her from public life, and charged her with crimes ranging from corruption to the violation of COVID-19 protocols; all of the charges against her are "politically motivated" according to independent observers.Myanmar is a member of the East Asia Summit, Non-Aligned Movement, ASEAN, and BIMSTEC, but it is not a member of the Commonwealth of Nations despite once being part of the British Empire. Myanmar is a Dialogue Partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The country is very rich in natural resources, such as jade, gems, oil, natural gas, teak and other minerals, as well as also endowed with renewable energy, having the highest solar power potential compared to other countries of the Great Mekong Subregion. However, Myanmar has long suffered from instability, factional violence, corruption, poor infrastructure, as well as a long history of colonial exploitation with little regard to human development. In 2013, its GDP (nominal) stood at US$56.7 billion and its GDP (PPP) at US$221.5 billion. The income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by cronies of the military junta. Myanmar is one of the least developed countries; as of 2020, according to the Human Development Index, it ranks 147 out of 189 countries in terms of human development, the lowest in Southeast Asia. Since 2021, more than 600,000 people were displaced across Myanmar due to the surge in violence post-coup, with more than 3 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
Local authorities in Aceh province, Indonesia, discovered six more bodies of Rohingya refugees, bringing the total deaths to eleven after a boat carrying over 150 people capsized. The United Nations refugee agency confirmed the identity of the deceased women. About 1 million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh, including 740,000 who fled Myanmar's brutal campaign in 2017. Indonesia, like Thailand and Malaysia, is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention but offers temporary shelter to refugees in distress.
Aliaksandr Kulinich, a 51-year-old Belarusian man, died in a detention center in Brest, Belarus while awaiting trial for insulting President Alexander Lukashenko. His death, attributed to coronary heart disease, has sparked calls for an investigation into the treatment of political prisoners in Belarus. The country has faced intensified crackdowns on dissent and protests following the disputed 2020 presidential election, leading to thousands being detained and reports of torture. Viasna human rights center reports nearly 1,400 political prisoners in Belarus, including Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski.
Insurgencies have been ongoing in Myanmar since 1948, the year the country, then known as Burma, gained independence from the United Kingdom. The conflict has largely been ethnic-based, with several ethnic armed groups fighting Myanmar's armed forces, the Tatmadaw, for self-determination. Despite numerous ceasefires and the creation of autonomous self-administered zones in 2008, many armed groups continue to call for independence, increased autonomy, or the federalisation of the country. The conflict is the world's longest ongoing civil war, having spanned more than seven decades.
Russian blogger Alyona Agafonova has been sentenced to 10 months of correctional labor for rehabilitating Nazism in an Instagram video where she pretended to tickle the Motherland Calls monument in Volgograd. The court also ordered 10% of her income to be garnished, banned her from posting online for two years, and the maximum punishment for rehabilitating Nazism is five years in prison. President Putin signed the law criminalizing Nazi propaganda in 2014. The incident highlights Russia's crackdown on behaviors deemed inappropriate and the imposition of traditional values.
Myanmar's main pro-democracy resistance group's armed wing launched drone attacks on Naypyitaw International Airport and a military headquarters, countered by the military claiming destruction or seizure of over a dozen drones. Karen ethnic minority guerrilla fighters are close to seizing a major trading town bordering Thailand, prompting soldiers and civil servants loyal to the military government to prepare to abandon their positions.
The Myanmar civil war, also called the Burmese Spring Revolution, Burmese civil war or People's Defensive War, is an ongoing civil war following Myanmar's long-running insurgencies, which escalated significantly in response to the 2021 military coup d'état and the subsequent violent crackdown on anti-coup protests. The NUG and major ethnic armed organisations repudiated the 2008 Constitution and called instead for a democratic federal state. Besides engaging the rebels, the junta also contends with anti-junta forces in areas under its control. As of February 2024, thousands of soldiers have surrendered without a fight, including six generals of the Tatmadaw, the regime’s military. A group of observers write that the Tatmadaw's forces remain "formidable and well-equipped", with "external allies and economic resources".As of March 2023, the United Nations (UN) estimated that since the coup in February 2021, 17.6 million people in Myanmar required humanitarian assistance, while 1.6 million were internally displaced, and over 55,000 civilian buildings had been destroyed. UNOCHA said that over 40,000 people had fled into neighboring countries, such as Bangladesh, India and Thailand.As of October 2023, the Tatmadaw controlled under 40% of the country, although they maintained that they controlled around two thirds of the country's 330 townships. In the second half of 2023, Chinland Defense Forces in the state of Chin had captured a majority of the state, with a few holdouts in urban areas and along the India–Myanmar border remaining. In October 2023, the Tatmadaw began facing manpower issues, with desertions and low morale being extremely common, coinciding with the PDF and Three Brotherhood Alliance's major rebel offensive in the west of the country, Operation 1027, which was successful in taking 80 bases, 220 junta positions and several towns by 28 November 2023.October and November 2023 saw a series of concurrent counter-offensives, including Operation 1111 besieging the state capital of Loikaw and renewed conflict by anti-junta forces in northern Rakhine and Chin states. In Operation 1027, anti-junta forces seized the district-level town of Kawlin, Sagaing Region (later recaptured by junta forces) in early November 2023 as well as Laukkai, the capital of Kokang Self-Administered Zone, in early January 2024. Operation 1027 continued past a ceasefire in northern Shan State with Mrauk U, among others, falling to Arakan Army forces in February 2024.
A vulnerable girl at YOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire, UK, was forcibly stripped by multiple male guards twice under restraint to prevent self-harm, sparking shock and criticism from Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor. The prison had no female officers present during the incidents, leading to concerns about trauma. The Ministry of Justice defended the use of restraint in rare cases and highlighted the decrease in girls in youth custody since 2015. Calls for reform in youth justice have been raised following the incident.
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