West Bank
Two mosques were set on fire by Israeli settlers in the illegally occupied West Bank overnight after a series of recent attacks. The mosques, in the villages of Qusra and Kour, were badly damaged. In Qusra, the attackers spray-painted “revenge Benayahu,” referring to an Israeli soldier, also a settler, who was killed on Friday. They also wrote “the land of Israel is redeemed with blood.” Separately, five vehicles were set ablaze in the village of Beitillu, and tractors and trucks were torched elsewhere. The Israeli opposition, Palestinian groups and international human rights organizations accuse Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of turning a blind eye to settler attacks against Palestinians.
More from AP here.
Episode 9 of the Proximities podcast, a conversation with journalists Zahra Joya and Amie Ferris-Rotman about their new book “The Vanishing Girl of Kabul,” is now live. This one was truly an honor for me. Zahra is one of the world’s most courageous journalists and the book is deeply moving, and deeply important.
Our conversation is on Apple Podcasts here, Spotify here and YouTube here.
Myanmar
Myanmar’s army has sharply stepped up attacks against civilians since a new military chief took over in March, according to a global war monitor. Days before the previous commander-in-chief, Min Aung Hlaing, was named president in a bogus election, he appointed longtime loyalist Ye Win Oo as his successor. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) said the onslaught against civilians was a direct result of new tactics employed by Ye Win Oo. Myanmar descended into civil war in February 2021 after the military toppled a democratically elected government. At least 100,000 people are estimated to have been killed, and millions have been forced out of their homes.
More from ACLED here.
North Korea
The daughter of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accompanied him to an annual ceremony marking the anniversary of the Korean War armistice for the first time. The girl, known as Ju Ae, is believed to be 13 years old but North Korean state media has never released those details. South Korean intelligence agencies believe that Ju Ae, who increasingly appears in public, has been chosen as her father’s successor. In March, state media published images of her driving a tank, and she has previously been photographed firing a rifle and a handgun.
More from Reuters here.
Thank-you for the post about Myanmar, especially with information on the extent of the civilian slaughter. Normally, anything in the press about Myanmar is just about the desperate Rohingya situation in the Bangladeshi camps.
Acknowledgement of the civilian slaughter in Myanmar also needs to be paired with acknowledgement that many of Myanmar's top elected officials are still imprisoned, including the people's beloved leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Free Burma