The discussions are captured in official records seen by Reuters. At one meeting, commanders repeatedly used a racial slur for the Rohingya suggesting they are foreign interlopers: The "Bengalis," one said, had become "too daring." In another meeting, an officer said the Rohingya had grown too numerous.
The commanders agreed to carefully coordinate communications so the army could move "instantly during the crucial time." It was critical, they said, that operations be "unnoticeable" to protect the military's image in the
Net earnings at Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant and media owner, dropped by 50% to $3.40 billion (RMB22.7 billion) in the three months between April and June, the first quarter of its current financial year. Revenues were unchanged at $30.7 billion (RMB206 billion).
Using Alibaba’s preferred non-GAAP methodology for calculating profitability, the quarter’s net earnings still dropped by 30%, from RMB45.1 billion to RMB30.2 or $4.52 billion.
The figures, while not as awful as some analysts had predicted, added to a turbulent and uncomfortable period for an iconic company that was once one of China’s most widely admired enterprises.
“During the past quarter, we actively adapted to changes in the macro environment and remained focused on our long-term strategy by continuing to strengthen our capability for customer value creation,” said Daniel Zhang, Alibaba’s chairman and CEO in a statement on Thursday.
international community.
BANGKOK -- A Japanese video journalist detained in Myanmar while covering a brief pro-democracy march has been charged with violating a law against spreading false or alarming news, the Southeast Asian country’s military government announced Thursday.
Toru Kubota, a Tokyo-based documentary filmmaker, was arrested Saturday by plainclothes police after taking images of the protest.
The Bank of England has warned that the UK will be plunged into a long recession as it unveiled its biggest interest rate in 27 years.
The central bank said Britain will tumble into recession in the fourth quarter of year, with the downturn lasting through next year.
GDP is forecast to drop 2.1pc – that's the biggest contraction since the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.
It came as the Monetary Policy Committee raised interest rates by 50 basis points to 1.75pc, marking its sixth consecutive increase and the biggest since 1995.
The Bank also revised its forecasts for inflation to peak above 13pc later this year, with prices remaining elevated throughout 2023. That's an increase from previous forecasts of 11pc.
Here's a more detailed rundown of what's happened from our economics editor Szu Ping Chan, who's reporting now from the Bank of England:
British families face the longest recession since the financial crisis and soaring prices, the Bank of England has warned, as a surge in energy bills will leave households poorer and the economy smaller.
Policymakers raised interest rates by 0.5 percentage points on Thursday to 1.75pc to try to keep a lid on inflation, which is now forecast to climb above 13pc this Autumn.
The Bank's sixth rate rise in a row is the biggest in 27 years, and comes as it warned that price rises were likely to remain in double-digits for the best part of 12 months.
Its latest forecasts showed the UK is expected to start contracting at the end of this year and keep shrinking until the end of 2023.
TWO CHRISES WALK INTO A ROOM — To hear Chris Sununu tell it, the New Hampshire governor endorsed Chris Doughty for Massachusetts governor out of his own “self-interest.”
Sununu wants a Republican to remain in control of Massachusetts so that New Hampshire can keep benefiting from the region’s economic driver. And he definitely doesn’t want the “socialism” he claims Democratic Attorney General Maura Healey would bring to the Bay State.
“All that matters is winning in November,” Sununu told a few dozen Doughty supporters at a fundraiser in Peabody last night. “People say, ‘Well, I’m going to vote for [Geoff] Diehl because, you know, he’s the more, he’s the ultra-conservative and I agree with him on this point.’ Well what’s the frickin’ point if you’re not gonna win in November? Because that guy’s not gonna win.”
Sununu and his team insist that his support for Doughty has nothing to do with the fact that Donald Trump, with whom the New Hampshire governor has a complicated relationship, endorsed Diehl. Or that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who called for Sununu’s ouster, is advising Diehl’s campaign.
But by picking Doughty over Diehl, Sununu is making clear what he thinks the direction of the GOP should be at a time when the party is warring over whether Trumpism is its past or its future — and as a shrinking cast of Sununu-like characters try to keep the old flame of New England's moderate Republicans alive. The battle continues next week, when South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is expected to come to town to fundraise with Diehl.
This would represent the longest recession – defined as two or more straight quarters of economic decline - since the 2008 financial crisis. It is expected to leave the economy 2.1pc smaller
The moves come as Governor Andrew Bailey grapples with the highest inflation in 40 years – with soaring energy bills sparked by Russia’s war in Ukraine compounding the problem – as well as a looming economic slowdown.
He is the latest of about 140 journalists arrested since the military seized power last year from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. More than half have been released, but the media remains under tight restrictions.
A military information office, the Tatmadaw True News Information Team, said in a statement that Kubota was charged with incitement, specifically causing fear, spreading false news, or agitating against a government employee. It carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Most of Myanmar’s imprisoned journalists were charged under the same law.
Kubota is also charged with violating visa regulations The statement said Kubota arrived in Yangon from Thailand on July 1 with a tourist visa.
Weeks later, the Myanmar military began a brutal crackdown that sent more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh. Ever since, the military has insisted the operation was a legitimate counter-terrorism campaign sparked by attacks by Muslim militants, not a planned program of ethnic cleansing. The country's civilian leader at the time, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, dismissed much of the criticism of the military, saying refugees may have exaggerated abuses and condemnations of the security forces were based on "unsubstantiated narratives."
But official records from the period ahead of and during the expulsion of the Rohingya, like the ones in 2017, paint a different picture.
The records are part of a cache of documents, collected by war crimes investigators and reviewed by Reuters, that reveal discussions and planning around the purges of the Rohingya population and efforts to hide military operations from the international community. The documents show how the military systematically demonized the Muslim minority, created militias that would ultimately take part in operations against the Rohingya, and coordinated their actions with ultranationalist Buddhist monks.
For the past four years, these war crimes investigators have been working secretly to compile evidence they hope can be used to secure convictions in an international criminal court. Documents spanning the period 2013 to 2018 give unprecedented insight into the persecution and purge of the Rohingya from the perspective of the Burmese authorities, especially two "clearance operations" in 2016 and 2017 that expelled about 800,000 people.
The documents were collected by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA), a nonprofit founded by a veteran war crimes investigator and staffed by international criminal lawyers who have worked in Bosnia, Rwanda and Cambodia. Beginning work in 2018, CIJA amassed some 25,000 pages of official documents, many related to the expulsion of the Rohingya, who since fleeing their homes have been languishing in squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh with little hope of returning. Some of the documents relate to military actions against other ethnic groups in Myanmar's borderlands. The group's work has been funded by Western governments.
CIJA allowed Reuters to review many of the documents, which include internal military memos, chain-of-command lists, training manuals, policy papers and audiovisual materials. Some documents contained redactions, which the group said were necessary to protect sources. The organization also asked Reuters not to disclose the location of its office for security reasons.