More than a million people displaced in Myanmar
The other news of the day: Malaysia ends price controls on chicken, South Korea’s conservatives boost their power, Australia takes action in the Pacific to counter Chinese influence, Uzbekistan ends subsidy meant to encourage people to walk, two Ukrainian prisoners of war speak about their experience in a Russian detention centre.
MYANMAR
For the first time, the number of internally displaced people in Myanmar has exceeded one million, the United Nations announced yesterday. The civil war that broke out after the military coup of 1 February 2021 drove 700,000 people from their home. To these must be added some 300,000 already displaced in the country. The vast majority are in Sagaing, a region where fighting has been most intense for months.
AUSTRALIA – PACIFIC
Australia will provide the Samoan Coast Guard with a new patrol boat, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on a visit to the Pacific Ocean country in a bid to counter Chinese influence in the region. Wong is expected to travel to Tonga as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ends a 10-day tour of the Pacific.
SOUTH KOREA
The conservative People Power Party (PPP) of President Yoon Suk-yeol, who was elected in March by a margin of 0.7 per cent, won big in local elections, taking control of the country's two largest cities, namely the capital, Seoul, and Busan. The PPP also won five out of seven by-elections to the National Assembly. The Democratic Party acknowledged its “complete defeat”.
MALAYSIA
After banning chicken exports due to a supply crunch that saw prices double, Malaysian authorities announced an end to price controls for chicken and eggs next month, leaving prices to market forces. Instead, direct cash assistance will go to low-income households. It is unclear how long the export ban will stay in place.
INDIA
India is considering setting up an appeals panel with the power to reverse content moderation decisions by online social media, this despite the fact that Facebook, Google and Twitter already have in-house grievance redressal procedures. The Indian government is among the first in the world in terms of requests to Twitter and Meta for content takedowns.
TURKEY – SYRIA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the next military operation in Syria will target the cities of Tal Rifat and Manbij in order to create “a 30-kilometre security zone along our southern border.” The area is held by a Syrian Kurdish armed group, the People’s Protection Units (YPG).
UZBEKISTAN
Uzbekistan ended a state subsidy for people who regularly jog. Introduced in June last year as part of a "Healthy Lifestyle" programme, it paid out 3,000 sum (US$ 0.27) per 10,000 steps. In 2021, it cost a total of around US$ 3.2 million.
RUSSIA
Two Ukrainian pilots, Ivan Pepelyashko and Oleksiy Chyzh, shot down and held in Russian captivity returned home following a prisoners’ swap. Speaking about their experience, they said that the Kursk detention centre was hell. Their captors took away their cross, telling them that God did not exist anyway. The two pilots were beaten, their bones broken, in what captors called a “massage conversation”.
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12/02/2016 15:14
04/10/2023 18:52
