Myanmar's military junta extends state of emergency by six months

Today's news: two Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin refugee camp; Exports to South Korea fall due to fears over US duties; China and Vietnam are responsible for the destruction of large areas of coral reefs in the South China Sea; In Quetta a father killed his daughter because he disapproved of her videos on TikTok.

MYANMAR

The military junta in Myanmar extended the state of emergency for another six months, a day before the fourth anniversary of the coup that threw the country into chaos after a decade of tentative democracy. In the past two months, the military has outlined its plan for the 2025 elections, releasing the results of a census conducted to prepare voter lists, and announced to state media that it was working to ensure ‘stability’. Promises repeatedly called hollow by opposition forces and militias controlling large areas of the country.

ISRAEL - PALESTINE

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the Jenin governorate in the occupied West Bank, bringing the total number of people killed in the area in a fortnight to 19. The two were killed by Israeli forces late Thursday evening during an Israeli army operation inside the Jenin refugee camp. The latest Israeli assault in Jenin followed the army's announcement of the killing of one of its soldiers.

SOUTH KOREA

South Korea's exports are expected to fall for the first time in 16 months due to uncertainty caused by US tariff announcements and a slowdown in the technology sector, underscoring risks to trade-dependent economies from the Trump administration's policies. Exports this month are expected to fall 13.5 per cent year-on-year, after a 6.6 per cent increase last month.

CHINA - VIETNAM

China and Vietnam are responsible for 65% and 33% respectively of the destruction of coral reefs in the South China Sea. The cause is the development of artificial islands to support their territorial claims. ‘China has caused the most destruction, having buried about 4,648 acres (18.8 square kilometres) of reef since 2013,’ the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said in a new report, adding that Vietnam ranked second with about 2,362 acres (9.5 square kilometres).

INDIA - USA

A man who recently moved with his family to Pakistan from the US confessed to killing his teenage daughter because he disapproved of her videos on TikTok. Anwar ul-Haq was charged with murder after admitting to shooting his daughter Hira in the southwestern city of Quetta. He initially told investigators that unidentified men were behind the shooting. The father, who holds US citizenship, said he found his daughter's posts ‘objectionable’.

SYRIA - RUSSIA

Syria's new political authorities asked Russia for ‘compensation for the damage and mistakes made, respecting the will of the Syrian people to rebuild relations of mutual trust,’ at a meeting in Damascus with the Moscow delegation, where the Russians pledged ‘their support for the current positive changes in the country,’ hoping to reopen their military and logistical bases. The parties expressed their desire to develop bilateral cooperation on ‘friendly’ principles.

GEORGIA - EU

The EU and Polish ambassadors to Georgia, Pavel Gerčinskij and Artur Gebal, outlined the measures decided by Brussels with the cancellation of the visa-free entry regime for Georgian diplomats, which former president Salome Zurabišvili considers ‘irrelevant’, advising to ‘focus on demanding new honest elections’.

• Asia
• Today