Myanmar is on the brink of collapse. Its armed forces are continuing a brutal crackdown—arresting, torturing and killing protesters—as Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de-facto leader, is detained. Our experts answer your questions.
Chapters 00:00 – What will happen to Aung San Suu Kyi? 02:15 – What are India and China doing? 03:37 – Should the West intervene? 05:25 – What’s happening to the Rohingya refugees? 07:16 – How will Myanmar’s neighbours be affected? 08:44 – Will civil war break out? 10:36 – Can the protesters win? 12:05 – Will Myanmar become a failed state?
Armed drones are growing in military importance as conflicts around the world have proven the utility of these effective tools of war. Companies in China, Turkey, and Russia, among others, have developed advanced remotely piloted aircraft that can use guided weapons on and off the battlefield.
The widespread use of drones in Iraq and Afghanistan by the United States to target and kill insurgents jump started a new chapter in the history of conflict. These high flying and remotely piloted aircraft could engage targets with impunity while the operators were safely working in a ground control station. Keeping the crews out of danger also made the drones politically cheap to use over dangerous skies.
Now more and more countries are gaining this military capability for their own purposes. “At the moment, we’ve seen over 100 states worldwide using military drones and that number is growing significantly” said Wim Zwijnenburg, Project leader, Humanitarian Disarmament at PAX. “We have over 20 states that are using armed drones in conflicts or outside of armed conflicts.”
Although larger and more complex drones, like the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper are not cheap to develop or operate, smaller drones are becoming more ubiquitous in conflict zones. Limiting the proliferation of these smaller drones, and the ability to weaponize them, is a regulatory nightmare for government agencies around the world.
“Drones are just model airplanes with great sensors on them. And all of these are dual use and have been used in the civilian realm” said Ulrike Franke, a Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “And in fact, drones have risen enormously in the civilian realm over the last five to 10 years. And so controlling their export is really difficult.”
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 1,250-kilometre-long (777 mi) peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about 270,000 km2 (104,248 sq mi). The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula’s eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific coast of the peninsula runs the 10,500-metre-deep (34,449 ft) Kuril–Kamchatka Trench.
Clashes between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists continued after Moscow’s large-scale military maneuvers at the border. WSJ’s Georgi Kantchev reports from the front line of a conflict that is seen as a test for the Biden administration. Photo: Anastasia Vlasova for The Wall Street Journal
Five stories to know for April 19: Shooting in Louisiana, Shooting in Austin, Texas, Derek Chauvin trial, Alexei Navalny and UEFA statement on the breakaway Super League.
1. Five people were hospitalized after being shot and injured in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the third multiple shooting reported in the United States with 24 hours.
2. After an Austin, Texas shooting, police searched for a former deputy sheriff believed to be the suspected gunman. Three people died.
3. Derek Chauvin trial: jurors will hear closing arguments before they begin deliberating on whether the way former Derek Chauvin knelt on the neck of a dying George Floyd in last year’s arrest was second-degree murder.
4. An ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny said she was braced for bad news on the health of the hunger-striking opposition politician when his lawyers see him again, after they were kept away over the weekend.
5. European soccer’s governing body UEFA will hold a crisis meeting, hours after 12 of the continent’s leading clubs shocked the football world by announcing the formation of a breakaway Super League.
Winter Baikal – is an amazing place for aerial shooting. Endless ice fields, rough rocks and beautiful sunrises and sunsets make every moment great.
Lake Baikal is an ancient, massive lake in the mountainous Russian region of Siberia, north of the Mongolian border. Considered the deepest lake in the world, it’s circled by a network of hiking paths called the Great Baikal Trail. The village of Listvyanka, on its western shoreline, is a popular starting point for summertime wildlife-spotting tours, plus wintertime ice-skating and dog sledding.
A.M. Edition for April 15. WSJ’s Konrad Putzier discusses global investment in the U.S. housing market. WSJ’s Anna Hirtenstein on the growth of luxury goods.
The Biden administration is set to punish Russia. Efforts to make band practice safe in the pandemic. Marc Stewart hosts.
The troops and hardware piling up at the border are probably just posturing. But look closely: Russia’s military is swiftly getting better-equipped and better-trained.
Outsized inflation numbers in America are partly a statistical quirk—but also a sign of the tricky balance pandemic-era policymakers must navigate. And why you may soon be getting a lift from a flying taxi.
Five stories to know for April 13: Protests continue after Minneapolis shooting, Knoxville school shooting, Japan nuclear waste water, Derek Chauvin trial and Russia warns U.S. on Crimea.
1. Minnesota police released body camera footage that shows police officer Kim Potter apparently drawing her gun by mistake, instead of her Taser, when she shot a young Black man, Daunte Wright, to death during a traffic stop. Protests continued overnight in Minneapolis following the incident.
2. A Knoxville school shooting ends with a student shot and killed by police and one officer wounded. Police said the high school student opened fire on them in a campus bathroom, wounding an officer.
3. Prosecutors neared the end of their case in the Derek Chauvin trial. George Floyd’s younger brother Philonise Floyd gave emotional testimony about how his sibling grew up obsessed with basketball and doting on his mother.
4. Japan will release more than 1 million tons of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, the government said, a move China called “extremely irresponsible,” while South Korea summoned Tokyo’s ambassador in Seoul to protest.
5. Russia warned the United States to ensure its warships stayed well away from Crimea “for their own good,” calling their deployment in the Black Sea a provocation designed to test Russian nerves.
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