April
Pope Francis, promoter of more compassionate church, dies
The first Latin American pope worked to make the Catholic Church more inclusive with a focus on poverty and human suffering.
October 2024
A year later, for many Australian Jews it’s still October 7
A year after the Hamas massacre in Israel, many Australian Jews feel they are still there, as they navigate a world that often seems upside-down.
February 2024
No detention orders sought for freed immigration detainees
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said applications were under way by the government, but any orders had to meet a high legal threshold.
November 2023
Dozens of immigration detainees to be freed after High Court ruling
The judgment on the case of a Rohingya man originally jailed for child sex offences ends the government’s ability to indefinitely hold immigration detainees.
July 2022
Torturous Burmese days for Mallee Resources
The Myanmarese buyer of the ASX-listed miner’s assets has some colourful links.
January 2022
Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to another four years in prison
Monday’s guilty verdict on three counts comes on top of her December 5 conviction on charges of inciting public unrest and a separate count of breaching COVID-19 protocols.
October 2021
US urges investigation of Myanmar military torture
Security forces are alleged to have killed more than 1200 people since February, including at least 131 detainees tortured to death.
April 2021
Myanmar’s bloodshed reveals a world that has changed, and hasn’t
How the country became primed for a sort of violence, and a sort of dictatorship, that had grown rare.
UN envoy: Myanmar faces possibility of major civil war
Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener painted a dire picture of the military crackdown and told the council in a closed briefing that Myanmar ‘is on the verge of spiralling into a failed state’.
March 2021
Australia steps up pressure on Myanmar as protests continue
A day after suspending defence co-operation and redirecting aid away from leaders of a the bloody coup five weeks ago, Foreign Minister Marise Payne said officials in Canberra and Yangon were working to free Professor Turnell.
February 2021
Facebook bans Myanmar’s military, citing threat of fresh violence
The move, which also affects Facebook subsidiary Instagram, extends a series of actions in recent years to sharply limit the ability of the nation’s military.
Myanmar protests resume, West condemns security response
In Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, hundreds of government workers marched in support of a growing civil disobedience campaign.
UN Security Council calls for release of Suu Kyi
Language in the UN statement was softer than the original draft by Britain and made no mention of a coup – apparently to gain the support of China and Russia.
Myanmar doctors stop work to protest coup as UN considers response
A statement from the group said the army had put its own interests above a vulnerable population facing hardships during the coronavirus pandemic.
Generals know they can rely on Chinese backing
Myanmar’s decade-long experiment with a version of democracy has ended in a return to military rule and repression – with the West able to do little and China happy to support its neighbour.
Democracy hero? Military foil? Myanmar’s leader ends up as neither
By ignoring the army, Aung San Suu Kyi lost her domestic power base, and by defending the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, she lost global respect.
Myanmar coup blindsides the West
The coup caught most observers by surprise and cast Aung San Suu Kyi back into the role she was known for in her years in opposition.
Myanmar’s tainted torch-bearer for democracy detained again
Beloved in Myanmar as ‘the Lady’, fulfilled the dreams of millions when her party won a landslide election in 2015 that established the south-east Asian nation’s first civilian government in half a century.
Australia joins global condemnation of Myanmar generals
As diplomats scrambled to see if any Australians had been affected by the country’s military reasserting its control, Prime Minister Scott Morrison labelled the coup a ‘rather disturbing’ development.
November 2020
Myanmar's Suu Kyi favoured to win as election gets under way
The National League for Democracy is expected to win a second term in the second general election since the end of decades of military-backed rule.