International
Soldier-spies in Myanmar help pro-democracy rebels make crucial gains
The once formidable Myanmar military is cracking from within – riddled with spies secretly working for the pro-democracy rebels, the BBC has found.
The military only has full control of less than a quarter of Myanmar’s territory, a BBC World Service investigation reveals.
The junta still controls the major cities and remains “extremely dangerous” according to the UN special rapporteur on Myanmar. But it has lost significant territory over the past 12 months – see map below.
The soldier spies are known as “Watermelons” – green on the outside, rebel red within. Outwardly loyal to the military but secretly working for the pro-democracy rebels whose symbolic colour is red.
A major based in central Myanmar says it was the military’s brutality that prompted him to switch sides.
“I saw the bodies of tortured civilians. I shed tears,” says Kyaw [not his real name]. “How can they be so cruel against our own people? We are meant to protect civilians, but now we’re killing people. It’s no longer an army, it’s a force that terrorises.”
More than 20,000 people have been detained and thousands killed, the UN says, since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021 – triggering an uprising.
Kyaw initially thought about defecting from the army, but decided with his wife that becoming a spy was “the best way to serve the revolution”.
When he judges it safe to do so, he leaks internal military information to the People’s Defense Forces [PDF] – a network of civilian militia groups. The rebels use the intelligence to mount ambushes on the military or to avoid attacks. Kyaw also sends them some of his wage, so they can buy weapons.
Spies like him are helping the resistance achieve what was once unthinkable.
The BBC assessed the power balance in more than 14,000 village groups as of mid-November this year, and found the military only has full control of 21% of Myanmar’s territory, nearly four years on from the start of the conflict.
The investigation reveals that ethnic armies and a patchwork of resistance groups now control 42% of the country’s land mass. Much of the remaining area is contested.
Ryan Salame and Caroline Ellison, FTX executives convicted for their roles in the notorious crypto fraud led by their former boss Sam Bankman-Fried, have both shaved time off their lengthy prison sentences.
Salame, a former top executive of FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform, pleaded guilty to criminal fraud charges in September 2023, and was sentenced in May to 7 1/2 years in federal prison. He began his sentence in October. But the Federal Bureau of Prisons currently lists his release date as March 1, 2031, more than a year earlier than his initial release date in April 2032. Business Insider first reported Salame’s new release date.
Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former girlfriend and the former CEO of FTX’s hedge fund arm, Alameda Research, was sentenced to 2 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to seven federal counts of fraud and conspiracy and was a key witness against Bankman-Fried. Her current release date is listed as July 20, 2025, three months earlier than her initial release date.
Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, does not have a release date listed on the prisons website.
The Bureau of Prisons didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. However, in several past statements about early release dates, the bureau has told CNN that it does not comment on the conditions of any individual inmate, but inmates can earn good conduct time that is calculated into their projected release date.
Qualified inmates are currently eligible for up to 54 days of GCT time for each year of the sentence imposed by the court. Inmates have other ways of earning time credits while incarcerated, including participation in various prison programs.
FTX was a high-profile crypto startup that allowed people to buy and sell digital assets. It had its name emblazoned on an arena in Miami and on every Major League Baseball umpire’s jersey. The exchange had several celebrity endorsers and was widely believed to be a gold-standard for safety and security.
But FTX collapsed in November 2022 when customers pulled their funds as rumors spread about FTX’s unusually close ties to its founder’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda
This time last year, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in the doldrums.
“He started very low,” said Nadav Shtrauchler, a political strategist who has worked closely with Netanyahu. “The lowest point that he had.”
Many Israelis accused him of being asleep at the wheel on October 7, the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. Some even said he enabled it by funding Hamas.
His political support was dismal – even if the Gaza war let him brush aside calls for an election. Polls suggested support for his Likud Party was down 25% from just three months prior.
On its face, the year that followed was hardly uplifting. It brought tens of thousands of deaths, regional conflict, indictments, and accusations of ethnic cleansing and genocide. And yet, Netanyahu ends the year having transformed his standing in Israel.
“I am running a marathon,” he told a Tel Aviv courtroom earlier this month, facing charges – which he denies – of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. “I can run it with 20 kilos on my back, and I can run it with 10 kilos on my back.”
International
‘It’s a scary time’: US universities urge international students to return to campus before Trump inauguration
Fear and uncertainty are spreading across many US college campuses ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, with some schools advising international students to return early from winter break amid promises of another travel ban like the one that stranded students abroad at the start of Trump’s last term.
In a country where more than 1.1 million international students enrolled in US colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year, the former president has pledged more hardline immigration policies upon his return to the White House, including an expansion of his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and the revocation of student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners.”
International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the US but don’t provide a legal pathway to stay in the country.
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