Bloody siege ends Myanmar army control of western border
Jonathan Head and BBC Burmese
The end, when it came for the BGP5 barracks, was loud and brutal. First, a crackly speaker calling out for their surrender; then, a thunderous barrage of artillery, rockets and rifle fire that tore chunks out of the buildings in which hundreds of soldiers were hiding.
BGP5 – the letters stand for Border Guard Police – was the Myanmar military junta's last stand in northern Rakhine State, which lies along the border with Bangladesh.
Video by the insurgent Arakan Army (AA) which was besieging the base shows their rag-tag fighters, many barefoot, firing an assortment of weapons into the base, while air force jets roar over their heads.
Syrian rebels reveal year-long plot that brought down Assad regime
Exclusive: Abu Hassan al-Hamwi’s HTS group coordinated rebels to create a unified war effort that included a specialist drone unit
Fri 13 Dec 2024 14.00 GMT
Syrian rebels began planning the military assault that toppled the Assad regime a year ago, in a highly disciplined operation in which a new drone unit was deployed and where there was close coordination between opposition groups around the country, the top military commander of the main rebel group has revealed.
In his first interview with foreign media since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s 54-year-rule, Abu Hassan al-Hamwi, the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s (HTS) military wing, spoke about how his group, which was based in the country’s north-west, communicated with rebels in the south to create a unified war room with the goal of ultimately surrounding Damascus from both directions.
François Bayrou, Emmanuel Macron's centrist ally and France's new PM
French President Emmanuel Macron appointed François Bayrou as prime minister on Friday, tasking the veteran centrist with leading the country out of its second major political crisis in the past six months. Bayrou will be the sixth prime minister of Macron's presidency after Michel Barnier and his government fell to a historic vote of no-confidence last week.
François Bayrou, one of few political heavyweights to have stood by French President Emmanuel Macron since he came to power in 2017, now faces his biggest challenge after finally being promoted to prime minister.
Bayrou, 73, heads the liberal Democratic Movement (MoDem) party that is allied to, but not part of, Macron's centrist force and has supported the president ever since his victorious 2017 election campaign.
"He is not someone who has been plucked from obscurity," Andrew Smith, director of Liberal Arts at Queen Mary University of London told FRANCE 24. "He is one of the long-time, foundational Macron supporters who created this space for the centre, realising that dream back in 2017."
Ukraine’s reformed military procurement agency drives the country’s NATO ambitions
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry unveiled a new state agency for its armed forces last year. It was the government’s answer to the rampant corruption within the ministry’s procurement companies, and meant to be a driver of reform on the elusive path toward NATO membership.
The enterprise, in charge of purchasing nonlethal military goods such as food, clothes and fuel, has already contracted 95% of the products requested for supply, and saved 25% in the process, says Arsen Zhumadilov, the CEO of the State Logistics Operator, known by th
China sentences former Premier League soccer star to 20 years in prison for corruption
A former Chinese soccer star and coach of the country’s national men’s team has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for corruption, state media reported on Friday.
Li Tie, 47, who played for the English Premier League Everton alongside Wayne Rooney in the early 2000s, is the biggest name to fall foul of a sweeping crackdown on rampant graft in China’s professional soccer league.
Despite leader Xi Jinping’s vision to turn China into a “world soccer superpower,” Chinese professional soccer has been mired with poor financial decision making, deep-rooted corruption and disappointing performance.
Kennedy’s Lawyer Has Asked the F.D.A. to Revoke Approval of the Polio Vaccine
Aaron Siri, who specializes in vaccine lawsuits, has been at Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s side reviewing candidates for top jobs at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death.
That campaign is just one front in the war that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, is waging against vaccines of all kinds.
Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccine mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions.
No comments:
Post a Comment