Myanmar marks 2 months since military ousted Suu Kyi in coup
YANGON, Myanmar — Protesters in Myanmar on Thursday marked two months since the military seized power by again defying the threat of lethal violence and demonstrating against its toppling of the country’s democratically elected government.
Security forces have been unable to crush the massive public resistance to the Feb. 1 coup despite their use of escalating violence, including routinely shooting protesters. International efforts including sanctions imposed by Western nations on the military regime have failed to restore peace.
In Yangon, the country’s biggest city, a group of young people gathered shortly after sunrise Thursday to sing songs honoring the more than 500 protesters killed so far. They then marched through the streets chanting slogans calling for the fall of the junta, the release of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the return of democracy.
Protests were also held in Mandalay and elsewhere.
The demonstrations followed a night of violence including police raids and several fires.
In Yangon, several retail shops owned in whole or part by Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd., an investment arm of the military, went up in flames.
The crisis in the Southeast Asian nation has expanded sharply in the past week, both in the number of protesters killed and with military airstrikes against the guerrilla forces of the Karen ethnic minority in their homeland along the border with Thailand.
The U.N. special envoy for Myanmar warned the country faces the possibility of civil war.
London officer convicted: An officer in London’s main police force was convicted Thursday of being a member of a banned neo-Nazi group, his force said, becoming the first British police officer to be convicted of a terrorism offense, according to the BBC and other British news sources.
Benjamin Hannam, 22, a probationary police officer who applied to the London force, the Metropolitan Police, in 2017 and joined it in early 2018, was found guilty of membership of a banned organization — the neo-Nazi group National Action — as well as two counts of fraud by false representation and two counts of possession of document likely to be of use to a terrorist, the police said in a briefing.
The fraud charges related to lying on application forms for his police position, local media at a court in London reported.
Hannam demonstrated an “adherence to fascist ideology and a potentially veiled but nonetheless evident neo-Nazi mindset,” the prosecutor, Dan Pawson-Pounds, said, according to The Independent, adding that he had met with people at National Action events even after the group had been banned.
The group, which praised the murder of a British lawmaker, Jo Cox, was outlawed in December 2016.
The trial began in March, but the court had banned reporting of its details to avoid a risk of biasing future jurors in a separate case against Hannam, according to local media.
Russia-US relations: Russia’s top diplomat said Thursday that the country’s relations with the United States and its allies have “hit the bottom” and no date has been set for sending the Russian ambassador back to Washington.
Russia recalled its ambassador to the United States after U.S. President Joe Biden was asked in an interview if he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was a “killer” and replied, “I do.”
On Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Biden’s remarks “appalling” and said they had forced Moscow to rethink its ties with Washington.
Lavrov also voiced regret about Washington’s rejection of Putin’s offer to arrange a quick public call with Biden to help defuse the tension over the remarks.
“The confrontation has hit the bottom,” the Russian minister said in televised remarks. “But on the other hand, there is a hope that they are all grown-up people who realize the risks linked with inciting more tensions. I hope that common sense will prevail.”
Lavrov said it would be up to Putin to decide when Ambassador Anatoly Antonov returns to Washington.
Populist leaders meet: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted talks Thursday with populist politicians from Italy and Poland in a bid to create a new right-wing nationalist political force on the European stage.
The trilateral meeting brought Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Italy’s former interior minister, Matteo Salvini, to Hungary’s capital of Budapest. At a press briefing following the talks, the politicians vowed to continue their cooperation in pursuit of what Orban called a “European renaissance,” but offered few details on the nature of the alliance.
Orban said the politicians would meet again in May, most likely in Warsaw.
No long-term solitary: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed legislation to end long-term solitary confinement in state prisons and jails, he announced Thursday.
Under the new law, prisons and jails will not be allowed to hold inmates in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days. Solitary confinement will be banned entirely for several categories of prisoners including minors, people over 55, pregnant inmates and those with disabilities.
The legislation, which will take effect in one year, represents a victory for prison reform advocates who say prolonged isolation behind bars is torture.
WHO warns Europe: European nations’ immunization campaigns against COVID19 are “unacceptably slow” and risk prolonging the pandemic, a senior World Health Organization official said Thursday.
Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe, said vaccines “present our best way out of this pandemic,” but noted that to date, only 10% of Europe’s population has received one dose and that only 4% have been fully protected with two doses.
“As long as coverage remains low, we need to apply the same public health and social measures as we have in the past, to compensate for delayed schedules,” Kluge said.
Even those numbers hide the true scope of the problems facing the European Union’s 27 nations, where only about 5.6% of its people have had a first vaccine shot, according to the bloc. In Britain, that figure is 46% of its population.
Kluge warned European governments against having “a false sense of security” for having started their immunization campaigns. He noted that Europe remains the second-most affected region in the world in terms of new coronavirus infections and deaths.