Foreign News

From behind bars, Aung San Suu Kyi casts a long shadow over Myanmar

Published

4 weeks ago

2026/01/15

Priyan

Aung San Suu Kyi was ousted from office and arrested in 2021, after the military sized power [BBC]

As of Wednesday the Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi will have spent a total of 20 years in detention in Myanmar, five of them since her government was overthrown by a military coup in February 2021.

Almost nothing is known about her state of health, or the conditions she is living in, although she is presumed to be held in a military prison in the capital Nay Pyi Taw. “For all I know she could be dead,” her son Kim Aris said last month, although a spokesman for the ruling military junta insisted she is in good health.

She has not seen her lawyers for at least two years, nor is she known to have seen anyone else except prison personnel. After the coup she was given jail sentences totaling 27 years on what are widely viewed as fabricated charges.

Yet despite her disappearance from public view, she still casts a long shadow over Myanmar.

There are repeated calls for her release, along with appeals to the generals to end their ruinous campaign against the armed opposition and negotiate an end to the civil war that has now dragged on for five years.

The military has tried to remove her once ubiquitous image, but you still see faded posters of “The Lady”, or “Amay Su”, Mother Su, as she is affectionately known, in tucked away corners. Could she still play a role in settling the conflict between the soldiers and the people of Myanmar?

After all, it has happened before. Back in 2010 the military had been in power for nearly 50 years, brutally crushed all opposition and run the economy into the ground. Just as it is doing now, it organised a general election which excluded Aung San Suu Kyi’s popular National League for Democracy, and which it ensured its own proxy party, the USDP, would win.

As with this election, which is still underway in phases, the one in 2010 was dismissed by most countries as a sham. Yet at the end of that year Aung San Suu Kyi was released, and within 18 months she had been elected an MP. By 2015 her party had won the first free election since 1960, and she was de facto leader of the country.

To the outside world it seemed an almost miraculous democratic transition, evidence perhaps that among the stony-faced generals there might be genuine reformers.

So could we see a re-run of that scenario once the junta has completed its three-stage election at the end of this month?

A lot has changed between then and now.

Getty Images Aung San Suu Kyi (C) smiles as she arrives at the National League for Democracy (NLD) headquarters in Yangon on November 15, 2010. She is surrounded by a crowd. — *Aung San Suu Kyi at her party’s headquarters in Yangon on November 15, 2010, days after she was released [BBC]*

Back then there had been many years of engagement between the generals and an assortment of UN envoys, exploring ways to end their pariah status and re-engage with the rest of the world. It was a more optimistic era; the generals could see their South East Asian neighbours prospering through trade with the Western world, and they wanted an end to crippling economic sanctions.

They also sought better relations with the US as a counterbalance to their dependence on China, at a time when the Obama administration was making its celebrated “pivot” to Asia.

The top generals were still hard-line and suspicious, but there was a group of less senior officers keen to explore a political compromise.

It is not clear what finally persuaded the military leadership to open the country up, but they clearly believed their 2008 constitution, which guaranteed the armed forces one-quarter of the seats in a future parliament, would be enough, with their well-funded party, to limit Aung San Suu Kyi’s influence once she was released.

They badly underestimated her massive star power, and they underestimated how much their decades of misrule had alienated most of the population.

In the 2015 election the USDP won just over 6% of the seats in both houses of parliament. In the next election in 2020 it expected to perform much better, after five years of an NLD administration which had started with impossibly high hopes, and had inevitably disappointed many of them. But the USDP fared even worse, winning just 5% of seats in the two houses.

Even many of those who were dissatisfied with Aung San Suu Kyi’s performance in government still chose hers over the military’s party. This raised the possibility that she might eventually win enough support to change the constitution, and end the military’s privileged position.

It also ruled out the armed forces commander Min Aung Hlaing’s hopes of becoming president after his retirement. He launched his coup on 1 February 2021, the day Aung San Suu Kyi was due to inaugurate her new government.

This time there are no reformers in the ranks, and no hopes of the kind of compromise which restored democracy back in 2010. The shocking violence used to put down protests against the coup has driven many young Burmese to take up arms against the junta. Tens of thousands have been killed, tens of thousands of homes have been destroyed. Attitudes on both sides have hardened.

Getty Images Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar Commander In-Chief (L) and National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Aung San Suu Kyi (R) shake hands after their meeting at the Commander in-Chief's office in Naypyidaw on December 2, 2015. — *Aung San Suu Kyi and Min Aung Hlaing in December 2015, after her party won the first free election in decades [BBC]*

The 15 years Aung San Suu Kyi was detained after 1989, under conditions of house arrest in her lakeside family home in Yangon, were very different from the conditions she is being held in today. Her dignified, non-violent resistance won her admirers across Myanmar and around the world, and during the occasional spells of freedom the military gave her she was able to give rousing speeches from her front gate, or interviews to journalists.

Today she is invisible. Her long-held belief in non-violent struggle has been rejected by those who have joined the armed resistance, who argue that they must fight to end the military’s role in Myanmar’s political life. There is a lot more criticism of how Aung San Suu Kyi governed when she was in power than before.

Her decision to lead Myanmar’s defence against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice over the military’s atrocities against Muslim Rohingyas in 2017 badly tarnished her saint-like international image. It had much less resonance inside Myanmar, but many younger opposition activists are now willing to condemn how she handled the Rohingya crisis.

At the age of 80, with uncertain health, it is not clear how much influence she would have, were she to be released, even if she still wants to play a central role.

And yet her long struggle against military rule made her synonymous with all the hopes of a freer, more democratic future.

There is simply no-one else of her stature in Myanmar, and for that reason alone, many would argue, she is probably still needed if the country is to chart a path out of its current deadlock.

[BBC]

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Foreign News

Portugal elects Socialist Party’s Seguro as president in landslide

Published

16 hours ago

2026/02/9

Priyan

Presidential candidate Antonio Jose Seguro, of the centre-left Socialist Party, waves to the crowd during a campaign rally ahead of the February 8 presidential election, in Lisbon, on February 5, 2026 [Aljazeera]

Antonio Jose Seguro of the centre-left Socialist Party has secured a landslide victory and a five-year term as Portugal’s president in a run-off vote, beating his far-right, anti-establishment rival, Andre Ventura, according to partial results.

With 95 percent of votes counted, 63-year-old Seguro has garnered 66 percent. Ventura trailed at 34 percent, still likely to secure a much stronger result than the 22.8 percent his anti-immigration Chega party achieved in last year’s general election. Ballots in large cities such as Lisbon and Porto are counted towards the end.

Two exit polls have placed Seguro in the 67-73 percent range, and Ventura at 27-33 percent.

A succession of storms in recent days has failed to deter voters, with turnout at about the same level as in the first round on January 18, even though three municipal councils in southern and central Portugal had to postpone voting by a week due to floods. The postponement affected some 37,000 registered voters, or about 0.3 percent of the total, and is unlikely to influence the overall result.

Portugal’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role, but it holds some key powers, including the ability to dissolve parliament under certain circumstances.

Ventura, 43, who had trailed Seguro in opinion polls, had argued that the government’s response to the fierce gales and floods was “useless” and called for the entire election to be postponed.

However, the authorities rejected the demand.

Seguro, during his last campaign rally on Friday, accused Ventura of “doing everything to keep the Portuguese from turning out to vote”.

Despite his loss on Sunday, Ventura, a charismatic former television sports commentator, can now boast increased support, reflecting the growing influence of the far right in Portugal and much of Europe. He is also the first extreme-right candidate to make it through to a run-off vote in Portugal.

Meanwhile, Seguro has cast himself as the candidate of a “modern and moderate” left, who can actively mediate to avert political crises and defend democratic values. He received backing from prominent conservatives after the first round amid concerns over what many see as Ventura’s populist, hardline tendencies.

But Prime Minister Luis Montenegro – whose minority centre-right government has to rely on support from either the Socialists or the far right to get legislation through parliament – declined to endorse either candidate in the second round.

While the role is largely ceremonial, the head of state has the power to dissolve parliament and call early elections.

The new president will succeed outgoing conservative Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in early March.

[Aljazeera]

Foreign News

Washington Post chief executive steps down after mass lay-offs

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

Will Lewis speaks to the staff and employees of the Washington Post in Washington, DC on November 06, 2023. [Cricinfo]

The chief executive of the Washington Post is stepping down, the newspaper has announced, days after overseeing mass lay-offs.

William Lewis said it was the right time to leave, saying in a message to staff that was shared online that “difficult decisions” had been made to ensure the paper’s future.

On Wednesday the newspaper announced it was cutting a third of its workforce, dramatically scaling back its coverage of sport and international news.

The decision was condemned by many journalists and prompted criticism of the Post’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos. Executive editor Matt Murray said the cuts would bring “stability”.

Jeff D’Onofrio, who joined as chief financial officer of the newspaper last year, will serve as acting publisher and CEO, the Post said as it announced Lewis’s departure.

A former Dow Jones chief executive and publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Lewis was appointed to the role at the Washington Post in 2023.

He has faced criticism from subscribers and employees as he tried to reverse financial losses at the daily.

Hundreds protested in front of the paper’s headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday after the mass lay offs, which included the paper’s entire Middle East staff and its Kyiv-based Ukraine correspondent.

Marty Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said the cuts ranked “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations”.

The departure of Lewis marks the latest upheaval for the leading US newspaper, which has seen a series of staff cuts and controversial editorial decisions in recent years.

Reuters Jeff Bezos speaks in front of a microphone — *Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, acquired the Washington Post in 2013. [BBC]*

Shortly before the 2024 US presidential election, Bezos, the founder of Amazon, broke with decades of tradition by deciding the newspaper would not endorse a presidential candidate.

The newspaper had endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s – all of whom had been Democrats.

The move caused widespread criticism and led to the loss of tens of thousands of subscribers.

Meanwhile, the opinion editor resigned in February last year when Bezos decided to focus the paper’s comment section on “personal liberties and free markets”.

Bezos, who acquired the newspaper in 2013, said pieces opposing those views would not be published.

***[BBC]***

Foreign News

King Charles to host Nigeria’s first UK state visit in 37 years

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/8

Priyan

King Charles (left) will host Nigerian President Bola Tinubu (right) in March [BBC]

King Charles III and Queen Camilla will host Nigeria’s president in the country’s first state visit to the UK in 37 years, Buckingham Palace has announced.

Bola Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu have accepted an invitation to be guests of the King at Windsor Castle from 18 to 19 March.

State visits are considered a form of soft-power diplomacy, using the pomp of royal hospitality to strengthen relations with important international partners.

The last Nigerian state visit to the UK took place in 1989, when military ruler Gen Ibrahim Babangida travelled to meet the late Queen Elizabeth II for a four-day trip.

Although this will be Tinubu’s first formal state visit to the UK, he has already met the King since taking office following Nigeria’s disputed election in 2023.

Tinubu and his wife were received at Buckingham Palace in September 2024 and also held a bilateral meeting with the King on the sidelines of the COP28 summit in Dubai.

But a state visit allows for ceremonial pageantry aimed at elevating the occasion and demonstrating the importance with which the UK views those visiting.

The visit comes at a time of improving diplomatic and economic links between the UK and Nigeria – with trade between the two worth more than £8bn in the year to October, government figures show. This makes the African nation one of the UK’s most important partners in the continent.

In 2024, the two countries signed a new trade and investment partnership designed to expand opportunities for business.

The agenda for the March visit has not been disclosed, nor details of the events planned for it – but state visits typically include carriage processions and a state banquet, and usually coincide with visiting leaders having political meetings.