YANGON: Muslim countries in Asia led a growing chorus of criticism on Monday aimed at Myanmar and its civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi over the plight of its Rohingya Muslim minority.
Nearly 90,000 Rohingya have flooded into Bangladesh in the past 10 days following an uptick in fighting between militants and Myanmar’s military in strife-torn western Rakhine state.
The impoverished region bordering Bangladesh has been a crucible of communal tensions between Muslims and Buddhists for years, with the Rohingya forced to live under apartheid-like restrictions on movement and citizenship.
The recent violence, which kicked off last October when a small Rohingya militant group ambushed border posts, is the worst Rakhine has witnessed in years with the UN saying Myanmar’s army may have committed ethnic cleansing in its response.
De facto leader Suu Kyi, a former political prisoner of Myanmar’s junta, has come under increasing fire over her perceived unwillingness to speak out against the treatment of the Rohingya or chastise the military.
The growing crisis threatens Myanmar’s diplomatic relations, particularly with Muslim-majority countries in Southeast Asia where there is profound public anger over the treatment of the Rohingya.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi met Suu Kyi as well as Myanmar’s Army Chief Gen. Min Aung Hlaing in Naypyidaw on Monday in a bid to pressure the government to do more to alleviate the crisis.
“Once again, violence, this humanitarian crisis has to stop immediately,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo told reporters on Sunday as he announced Retno’s mission there.
Hours before Widodo spoke, a petrol bomb was thrown at Myanmar’s embassy in Jakarta.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif added in a recent tweet: “Global silence on continuing violence against #Rohingya Muslims. Int’l action crucial to prevent further ethnic cleansing — UN must rally.”
Muslim-majority Malaysia has also seen public protests since the latest round of Rakhine violence began.
“We urge for calm and restraint,” Prime Minister Najib Razak tweeted. “The dire situation facing our Rohingya brothers and sisters must be alleviated for good of Myanmar and region.”
Despite years of persecution, the Rohingya largely eschewed violence until October’s attacks by the little-known Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.
Analysts have long warned that Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya would lead to homegrown militancy.
Since the latest fighting broke out, Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Yemen has called for retaliatory attacks against Myanmar while the Afghan Taliban posted a statement on Facebook calling on Muslims to “use their abilities to help Myanmar’s oppressed Muslims.”
Defenders of Suu Kyi say she is severely limited in her ability to control Myanmar’s notoriously abusive military.
The Rohingya are also widely loathed by a huge section of Myanmar’s population, dismissed as Bangladeshi interlopers despite many tracing their lineage back generations.
That makes supporting them hugely unpopular.
But detractors say Suu Kyi is one of the few people in Myanmar with the mass appeal and moral authority to swim against the tide on the issue.
Suu Kyi and Myanmar face chorus of anger over Rohingya crisis
Suu Kyi and Myanmar face chorus of anger over Rohingya crisis
Saudi minister visits Delhi as tensions rise between India, Pakistan
- Adel Al-Jubeir holds ‘good’ talks with Indian counterpart
- India launched missile strikes on Pakistan on Wednesday following deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir last month
NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir made a surprise visit to India on Thursday to meet External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, amid escalating tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad.
Al-Jubeir’s trip comes a day after India launched Operation Sindoor, hitting nine locations in Pakistan’s densely populated Punjab province and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, from where Delhi said terrorist attacks against India had been planned and directed.
Jaishankar said on X that he had a “good meeting” with Al-Jubeir on Thursday morning, during which he “shared India’s perspectives on firmly countering terrorism.”
India said Wednesday’s missile strikes were in response to an attack on tourists near the resort town of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on April 22, in which 26 people — 25 Indians and one Nepali citizen — were killed.
At least 31 people were killed in the retaliatory strikes, Pakistani officials said. With the two militaries engaged in escalating exchanges, world leaders have urged both sides to exercise restraint and called for a de-escalation of hostilities.
Kashmir has been the subject of dispute since the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Both countries claim the Himalayan region in full and rule in part, and have fought two of their three wars over it.
Indian-administered Kashmir has for decades witnessed outbreaks of separatist insurgency to resist control from the government in Delhi, which accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants since 1989. Islamabad denies the allegations, saying it offers only moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination.
German spy agency pauses ‘extremist’ classification for AfD party
The extremist classification allows the Cologne-based spy agency to step up monitoring of the AfD
BERLIN: Germany’s domestic spy agency BfV has paused its classification of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as an extremist organization in what the AfD on Thursday called a partial victory for its challenge against the decision.
The agency would not publicly refer to the AfD as a “confirmed right-wing extremist movement” until an administrative court in the western city of Cologne has ruled on an AfD bid for an injunction, a court statement said.
The BfV’s move last week to classify the far-right AfD as extremist produced sharp reactions along the fault lines of German politics, with some lawmakers calling for the AfD to be banned and the AfD casting it as an attack on democracy.
It also sparked strong criticism from US President Donald Trump’s administration, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling on the German authorities to reverse their decision.
The extremist classification allows the Cologne-based spy agency to step up monitoring of the AfD, for example by recruiting informants and intercepting party communications.
“The measures associated with the classification will also be suspended,” a court spokesperson said without elaborating.
The agency’s 1,100-page experts’ report, which will not be released to the public, found the AfD to be a racist and anti-Muslim organization.
Founded in 2013, the AfD has surged to become Germany’s second biggest party but other parties have shunned it as toxic.
The AfD says its designation is a politically motivated attempt to discredit and criminalize it.
Its leadership welcomed the decision by the BfV, which the court said was not acknowledging any legal obligation.
“This is a first important step toward our actual exoneration and thus countering the accusation of right-wing extremism,” party leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel said in a joint statement.
The BfV did not immediately comment.
The agency’s decision to pause the AfD’s classification does not mean the BfV has revised its assessment of the party.
The AfD has previously lost a legal challenge when its now-defunct youth organization was classified as right-wing extremist.
On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the US Senate intelligence committee called for American spy agencies to “pause” intelligence sharing with the BfV, whose mission includes counter-terrorism.
Senator Tom Cotton called for the pause until Germany’s government “treats the AfD as a legitimate opposition party,” according to a letter to Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of National Intelligence.
Diners Club International® Announces $750,000 Donation for World Central Kitchen
- “Diners Club is proud to collaborate with World Central Kitchen as part of our 75th Anniversary celebration,” said Leite
- WCK halted on Wednesday its work in the Gaza Strip, saying it had run out of supplies as it had been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid
RIVERWOODS, USA: Diners Club International announced on Thursday a donation of $750,000 to World Central Kitchen to aid communities impacted by natural disasters and humanitarian crises worldwide.
For every purchase made with a Diners Club card globally on May 7, 2025, the company provided one meal, up to a total of $750,000.
Diners Club’s $750K donation to World Central Kitchen will provide approximately 150,000 meals to impacted communities worldwide.
This contribution is part of its 75th-anniversary celebrations that began in February. Through this collaboration, Club members will have a direct role in providing comforting meals to survivors of natural disasters and humanitarian causes.
“Diners Club is proud to collaborate with World Central Kitchen as part of our 75th Anniversary celebration,” said Ricardo Leite, president of Diners Club International.
As part of Diners Club’s Together for Change program, this global initiative empowers Diners Club Issuers and Club members to support causes that matter most in their communities. For over 20 years, Diners Club has supported various causes, with a focus on sustainability, health care, education and disaster relief.
Meanwhile, US-based World Central Kitchen charity halted on Wednesday its work in the Gaza Strip, saying it had run out of supplies as it had been prevented by Israel from bringing in aid.
“After serving more than 130 million total meals and 26 million loaves of bread over the past 18 months, World Central Kitchen no longer has the supplies to cook meals or bake bread in Gaza,” it said in a post on X.
The charity said it would continue to support Palestinian families by distributing critically needed potable water where possible, but vital food distribution cannot resume until Israel allows aid back into the enclave.
Bill Gates to give away fortune by 2045, $200bn for world’s poorest
- Microsoft co-founder said It’s unclear whether world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for the poorest people amid widespread aid and development funding cuts
- Gates Foundation has given away $100 billion in its first 25 years, saving millions of lives
LONDON: Bill Gates pledged on Thursday to give away almost his entire personal wealth in the next two decades and said the world’s poorest would receive some $200 billion via his foundation at a time when governments worldwide are slashing international aid.
The 69-year-old billionaire Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist said he was speeding up plans to divest his fortune and close the Gates Foundation on Dec. 31, 2045.
“People will say a lot of things about me when I die, but I am determined that ‘he died rich’ will not be one of them,” Gates wrote in a post on his website.
“There are too many urgent problems to solve for me to hold onto resources that could be used to help people.”
In an implicit rebuke to President Donald Trump’s slashing of aid from the world’s biggest donor the United States, Gates’ statement said he wanted to help stop newborn babies, children and mothers dying of preventable causes, end diseases like polio, malaria and measles, and reduce poverty.
“It’s unclear whether the world’s richest countries will continue to stand up for its poorest people,” he added, noting cuts from major donors also including the UK and France.
Gates said that despite the foundation’s deep pockets, progress would not be possible without government support.
He praised the response to aid cuts in Africa, where some governments have reallocated budgets, but said that as an example polio would not be eradicated without US funding.
Gates made the announcement on the foundation’s 25th anniversary. He set up the organization with his then-wife Melinda French Gates in 2000, and they were later joined by investor Warren Buffett.
“I have come a long way since I was just a kid starting a software company with my friend from middle school,” he said.
Since inception, the foundation has given away $100 billion, helping to save millions of lives and backing initiatives like the vaccine group Gavi and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
It will close after it spends around 99 percent of his personal fortune, Gates said. The founders originally expected the foundation to wrap up in the decades after their deaths.
Gates, who is valued at around $108 billion today, expects the foundation to spend around $200 billion by 2045, with the final figure dependent on markets and inflation.
The foundation is already a huge player in global health, with an annual budget that will reach $9 billion by 2026.
It has faced criticism for its outsize power and influence in the field without the requisite accountability, including at the World Health Organization.
Gates himself was also subject to conspiracy theories, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Gates has also spoken to US President Donald Trump several times in recent months on the importance of continued investment in global health.
“I hope other wealthy people consider how much they can accelerate progress for the world’s poorest if they increased the pace and scale of their giving, because it is such a profoundly impactful way to give back to society,” Gates wrote.
Ambani’s Reliance pulls trademark application for codename of Pakistan strikes
- Ambani’s film studio withdraws application to trademark codename ‘Operation Sindhor’ against Pakistan after public and political uproar
- Reliance says phrase “Operation Sindoor” was “now a part of the national consciousness as an evocative symbol of Indian bravery“
NEW DELHI: Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani’s film studio has withdrawn an application to trademark the codename for India’s military strikes against Pakistan after a public and political uproar on social media against the move.
In a statement, billionaire Ambani’s conglomerate Reliance said the trademark application was filed inadvertently by a junior person at Jio Studios without authorization, adding that the phrase “Operation Sindoor” was “now a part of the national consciousness as an evocative symbol of Indian bravery.”
India said it hit “terrorist infrastructure” in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir earlier this week after militants killed 26 men, mostly Hindu, in Indian Kashmir. Sindoor, which refers to the red vermilion powder worn by married Hindu women, was an apparent reference to the widows left by the attack.
Reliance’s statement came hours after some social media users posted screenshots of the Indian government website showing some individuals and Reliance had filed applications for trademark registration.
“This isn’t branding, it’s blatant mockery ... It’s disturbing to see something so serious being reduced to a joke,” posted an X user who identified herself as Archana Pawar.
Aniruddh Sharma, a spokesperson for India’s main opposition Congress party, questioned why Ambani was trying to register the trademark for his business gains.
In its application, Reliance said it was for “provision of entertainment; production, presentation and distribution of audio, video.”
Bollywood films on India’s previous military operations have been huge hits. In 2019, “Uri,” based on India’s previous “surgical strikes” on alleged Islamist militant launchpads in Pakistani territory, was released in 16 countries including India.
Islamabad said at the time there had been no Indian incursion into its territory and there was no retaliation by Pakistani forces.
Reliance last year merged its Indian media assets with Walt Disney to create a $8.5 billion entertainment empire, which runs several channels and a streaming platform.
