North Korea President Kim Jong Un was shown honouring coffins of soldiers killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine. The footage released Tuesday aired during a performance marking the one-year anniversary of a military pact signed by the two countries.
Published On 1 Jul 20251 Jul 2025
Thailand’s top court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra pending an ethics investigation over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen. She accepted the decision, after being accused of violating the constitution with remarks about a deadly May border clash that sparked protests in Bangkok.
Published On 1 Jul 20251 Jul 2025
A Thai court has accepted a petition from senators that accuse the PM of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards.
Thailand’s Constitutional Court has suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from office pending an ethics investigation over a leaked phone call with a senior Cambodian official, heaping pressure on Thailand’s governing political dynasty.
The court said in a statement that it had accepted a petition from 36 senators, which accuses Paetongtarn of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards, in violation of the constitution, over a leaked telephone conversation with Cambodia’s influential former leader, Hun Sen.
Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit will assume a caretaker role while the court decides the case against Paetongtarn, who has 15 days to respond.
Paetongtarn will remain in the cabinet as the new culture minister following a cabinet reshuffle.
The controversy stems from a June 15 phone call with Cambodia’s influential former leader Hun Sen that was intended to defuse escalating border tensions between the neighbours.
During the call, Paetongtarn, 38, referred to Hun Sen as “uncle” and criticised a Thai army commander, a red line in a country where the military has significant clout. She has apologised and said her remarks were a negotiating tactic.
The leaked call led to domestic outrage and has left Paetongtarn’s coalition with a razor-thin majority, with a key party abandoning the alliance and expected to soon seek a no-confidence vote in parliament, as protest groups demand the premier resign.
Paetongtarn’s battles after only 10 months in power underline the declining strength of the Pheu Thai Party, the populist juggernaut of the billionaire Shinawatra dynasty, which has dominated Thai elections since 2001, enduring military coups and court rulings that have toppled multiple governments and prime ministers.
It has been a baptism of fire for political novice Paetongtarn, who was thrust into power as Thailand’s youngest premier and replacement for Srettha Thavisin, who the Constitutional Court dismissed for violating ethics by appointing a minister who had once been jailed.
Paetongtarn’s government has also been struggling to revive a stuttering economy, and her popularity has declined sharply, with a June 19-25 opinion poll released at the weekend showing her approval rating sinking to 9.2 percent from 30.9 percent in March.
Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, the 75-year-old family patriarch and billionaire who was twice elected leader in the early 2000s, is also facing legal hurdles.
Divisive tycoon Thaksin, according to his lawyer, appeared at his first hearing at Bangkok’s Criminal Court on Tuesday on charges that he insulted Thailand’s powerful monarchy, a serious offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison if found guilty.
Thaksin denies the allegations and has repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.
The case stems from a 2015 media interview Thaksin gave while in self-imposed exile, from which he returned in 2023 after 15 years abroad to serve a prison sentence for conflicts of interest and abuse of power.
Thaksin dodged jail and spent six months in hospital detention on medical grounds before being released on parole in February last year.
The Supreme Court will this month scrutinise that hospital stay and could potentially send him back to jail.
Constitutional Court hears petition seeking premier’s dismissal as separate court hears defamation case against her father.
Thailand’s ruling political dynasty is facing legal peril, as the country’s Constitutional Court considers a petition seeking the dismissal of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, while a separate court hears a royal defamation suit against her father, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The petition filed by 36 senators and being heard on Tuesday accuses Paetongtarn of dishonesty and breaching ethical standards in violation of the constitution over a leaked telephone conversation with Cambodia’s influential former leader, Hun Sen. If the court accepts the case, it could decide to suspend the premier from duty with immediate effect.
Thaksin also has his first hearing at Bangkok’s Criminal Court on Tuesday in a case centred on allegations that he insulted Thailand’s powerful monarchy, a serious offence punishable by up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. He denies the charges and has repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.
The kingdom’s politics have for years been dominated by a battle between the conservative, pro-military, pro-royalist elite and the Shinawatra family, whom the elite consider a threat to Thailand’s traditional social order.
On Tuesday, Thailand’s Constitutional Court is due to meet for the first time since a group of conservative senators lodged a case against Paetongtarn, accusing her of breaching ministerial ethics during a diplomatic spat with Cambodia.
If the court decides to hear the case, they could suspend the prime minister as they enter months-long deliberations, plunging Thailand into chaos as it grapples with a spluttering economy and the threat of tariffs from the United States.
The controversy stems from a June 15 call intended to defuse escalating border tensions with Cambodia. During the call, Paetongtarn, 38, referred to Hun Sen as “uncle”, and criticised a Thai army commander, a red line in a country where the military has significant clout. She has apologised and said her remarks were a negotiating tactic.
The leaked conversation triggered outrage and has left Paetongtarn’s coalition with a razor-thin majority, with a key party abandoning the alliance and expected to soon seek a no-confidence vote in parliament, as thousands of demonstrators demand the premier resign.
“I will let the process take its course,” a downcast Paetongtarn told reporters on Monday. “If you are asking whether I am worried, I am.”
If Paetongtarn is suspended, power will pass to her deputy, Phumtham Wechayachai.
The 38-year-old Paetongtarn took office less than a year ago but has been badly weakened by the Cambodia controversy.
Thailand’s king on Tuesday approved Paetongtarn’s cabinet reshuffle after her allies quit. She has appointed herself as culture minister.
Meanwhile, Thaksin, the 75-year-old family patriarch and billionaire twice elected leader in the early 2000s, appeared at a Bangkok criminal court to face accusations of breaching strict lese-majeste laws used to shield Thailand’s king from criticism.
The allegations stem from a 2015 interview he gave to South Korean media and he faces up to 15 years in jail after the trial, which is set to last for weeks, with a verdict not expected for at least a month after that.
A court official confirmed to the AFP news agency that the trial had started but media would not be allowed in.
Thaksin has denied the charges against him and repeatedly pledged allegiance to the crown.
Thaksin dodged jail and spent six months in hospital detention on medical grounds before being released on parole in February last year. The Supreme Court will this month scrutinise that hospital stay and could potentially send him back to jail.
Beijing’s remarks come after Ottawa announced it would cease all Canadian operations of the company.
Canada’s request for Chinese surveillance equipment firm Hikvision to close local operations will “damage” bilateral trade, complicating recent efforts to improve ties between the countries, China’s Ministry of Commerce has said.
Beijing’s remarks came on Monday after Canadian Industry Minister Melanie Joly announced last week on the social media platform X that Hikvision Canada Inc had been ordered to cease all operations due to concerns their continuation would be “injurious” to the country’s security.
Her statement on Friday did not provide details on the alleged threat posed by Hikvision products, but said departments and agencies would be prohibited from using them, and that the government is “conducting a review of existing properties to ensure that legacy Hikvision products are not used going forward”.
China’s Commerce Ministry responded by accusing Ottawa of “over-generalising national security”, stating: “China is strongly dissatisfied.”
“This not only undermines the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies and affects the confidence of companies from both countries in cooperation, but also disrupts and damages the normal economic and trade cooperation between China and Canada,” the statement read.
“China urges Canada to immediately correct its wrong practices,” it added.
Hangzhou-based Hikvision is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of security cameras and other surveillance products, but it has faced scrutiny abroad for its role in Beijing’s alleged rights abuses against the Muslim minority Uighur population.
The United States included Hikvision in a 2019 blacklist of Chinese entities it said were implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance against Uighurs and other Muslim minority groups in Xinjiang.
The latest disagreement represents an early test for China-Canada relations after Prime Minister Mark Carney surged to electoral victory in April.
China said in response to the election result that Beijing was willing to improve ties with Ottawa, a relationship rocked in recent years by a range of thorny issues.
The arrest of a senior Chinese telecom executive on a US warrant in Vancouver in December 2018 and Beijing’s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges plunged relations into a deep freeze.
Ties were further strained over allegations of Chinese interference in Canadian elections in 2019 and 2021, charges Beijing has denied.
Joly had said the decision to ban Hikvision had been reached following a “multi-step review” of information provided by the Canadian security and intelligence community.
At a minimalist matcha bar in Los Angeles, United States, powdered Japanese tea is prepared with precision, despite a global shortage driven by the bright green drink’s social media stardom.
Of the 25 types of matcha on the menu at Kettl Tea, which opened on Hollywood Boulevard this year, all but four were out of stock, according to the shop’s founder, Zach Mangan.
“One of the things we struggle with is telling customers that, unfortunately, we don’t have” what they want, he said.
With its deep grassy aroma, intense colour and pick-me-up effects, the popularity of matcha “has grown just exponentially over the last decade, but much more so in the last two to three years”, the 40-year-old explained.
It is now “a cultural touchpoint in the Western world” – found everywhere from ice-cream flavour boards to Starbucks.
This has caused matcha’s market to nearly double over a year, Mangan said.
“No matter what we try, there’s just not more to buy.”
In the Japanese city of Sayama, northwest of Tokyo, Masahiro Okutomi – the 15th generation to run his family’s tea production business – is overwhelmed by demand.
“I had to put on our website that we are not accepting any more matcha orders,” he said.
Producing the powder is an intensive process: the leaves, called “tencha”, are shaded for several weeks before harvest, to concentrate the taste and nutrients.
They are then carefully deveined by hand, dried and finely ground in a machine.
“It takes years of training” to make matcha properly, Okutomi said. “It’s a long-term endeavour requiring equipment, labour and investment.”
“I’m glad the world is taking an interest in our matcha … but in the short term, it’s almost a threat – we just can’t keep up,” he said.
The matcha boom has been propelled by online influencers like Andie Ella, who has more than 600,000 subscribers on YouTube and started her own brand of matcha products.
At the pastel-pink pop-up shop she opened in Tokyo’s hip Harajuku district, dozens of fans were excitedly waiting to take a photo with the 23-year-old Frenchwoman or buy her cans of strawberry or white chocolate-flavoured matcha.
“Matcha is visually very appealing,” said Ella.
To date, her matcha brand, produced in Japan’s rural Mie region, has sold 133,000 cans. Launched in November 2023, it now has eight employees.
“Demand has not stopped growing,” she said.
Last year, matcha accounted for more than half of the 8,798 tonnes of green tea exported from Japan, according to Japan’s Agriculture Ministry data – twice as much as 10 years ago.
Tokyo tea shop Jugetsudo, in the touristy former fish market area of Tsukiji, is trying to control its stock levels given the escalating demand.
“We don’t strictly impose purchase limits, but we sometimes refuse to sell large quantities to customers suspected of reselling,” said store manager Shigehito Nishikida.
“In the past two or three years, the craze has intensified. Customers now want to make matcha themselves, like they see on social media,” he added.
The global matcha market is estimated to be worth billions of dollars, but it could be hit by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Japanese products – currently 10 percent, with a rise to 24 percent in the cards.
Shortages and tariffs mean “we do have to raise prices. We don’t take it lightly”, said Mangan at Kettl Tea, though it has not dampened demand so far.
“Customers are saying, ‘I want matcha before it runs out’.”
Japan’s government is encouraging tea producers to farm on a larger scale to reduce costs.
But that risks sacrificing quality, and “in small rural areas, it’s almost impossible”, grower Okutomi said.
The number of tea plantations in Japan has fallen to a quarter of what it was 20 years ago, as farmers age and find it difficult to secure successors, he added.
“Training a new generation takes time… It can’t be improvised.”
Founded in 2006, LSD was the latest pro-democracy party to hold street protests amid a national security crackdown.
The League of Social Democrats (LSD), the last remaining active pro-democracy party in China-ruled Hong Kong, has announced its disbandment due to “immense political pressure”.
The “difficult” decision announced on Sunday in effect leaves the financial hub with no opposition force holding street protests after the imposition of sweeping national security laws in recent years.
In a statement, the relatively small left-wing party, which was founded in 2006, said it had reached its conclusion after “careful deliberation”, particularly with regards “to the consequences” for its members.
“Over these 19 years, we have endured hardships of internal disputes and the near-total imprisonment of our leadership, while witnessing the erosion of civil society, the fading of grassroots voices, the omnipresence of red lines, and the draconian suppression of dissent,” it added.
But “the road has narrowed beyond passage”, the LSD continued, warning that the “terrain ahead is even more treacherous”.
China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, punishing offences such as subversion with the possibility of life imprisonment following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. Under the legislation, many leading activists were prosecuted or jailed, dozens of civil society groups dissolved and media outlets critical of the government were shuttered.
A second set of laws, known as Article 23, was passed in 2024 by the city’s pro-Beijing legislature. They punish a range of offences, including treason, sabotage, sedition, the theft of state secrets, external interference and espionage. Sentences range from several years to life imprisonment.
The LSD was the only pro-democracy party that still staged small street protests from time to time and held street booth activities to carry on its advocacy despite the risks.
While never as popular as the more moderate Democratic Party and Civic Party, it won three seats in the 2008 legislative elections – its best showing.
The LSD is widely known for its more aggressive tactics when fighting for change. Its members have thrown bananas, eggs and luncheon meat at officials or pro-Beijing lawmakers as a protest gesture. Its party platform said the group advocated nonviolent resistance but would not avoid physical confrontations – a stance that set it apart from older, traditional pro-democracy groups.
On Sunday, party leader Chan Po-ying did not elaborate on the pressure the LSD received but said she was proud to say the party had still contributed to the city’s pro-democracy movement.
“We have stayed true to our original aspirations and haven’t let down the trust placed in us by those who went to prison,” she said. “While we are now forced to disband and feel an ache in our conscience, we have no other choice.”
The announcement comes just before Hong Kong, a former British colony, will mark the 28th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule on Tuesday.
The city used to witness annual pro-democracy protests on the anniversary and other demonstrations demanding better policies, but those ceased after most organising groups were disbanded and activists were jailed.
Critics said the drastic political changes under the security laws reflect Hong Kong’s shrinking freedoms despite Beijing’s promises to keep them intact after the 1997 handover. But the governments in Beijing and Hong Kong insist the measures are necessary for the city’s stability, saying they balance security with safeguarding the rights and freedoms of the city’s residents.
In April, Hong Kong’s biggest pro-democracy party, the Democratic Party, also voted to give its leadership the mandate to move towards a potential disbandment. A final vote is expected at a later date.
Thousands of protesters have gathered in Thailand’s capital to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra amid growing anger over a leaked phone call with former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
Demonstrators took to the streets on Saturday, outraged by a June 15 conversation in which Paetongtarn urged Hun Sen – the current Cambodian Senate president who still wields considerable influence in his country – not to listen to “the other side” in Thailand, including an outspoken Thai army general who she said “just wants to look cool”.
The army commander was in charge of an area where a border clash last month led to one Cambodian soldier being killed. The man was killed on May 28 following an armed confrontation in a contested area.
The leaked phone call with Hun Sen was at the heart of Saturday’s protest and has set off a string of investigations in Thailand that could lead to Paetongtarn’s removal.
Protesters held national flags and signs as they occupied parts of the streets around the Victory Monument in central Bangkok. At a huge stage set up at the monument, speakers expressed their love for Thailand following the intensified border dispute.
“It looks like this is going to be a pretty well-attended rally, certainly a loud voice … Lots of speeches, lots of whistles, lots of noise, all calling in full voice for Prime Minister Paetongtarn to resign,” said Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Bangkok. “They say this conversation has undermined Thailand, has undermined the military, and they are insisting that she step down – it does put her in a very tricky position.”
Many of the leading figures in the protest were familiar faces from a group popularly known as Yellow Shirts, whose clothing colour indicates loyalty to the Thai monarchy. They are longtime foes of Paetongtarn’s father, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who reportedly has a close relationship with Hun Sen.
“The political scientists we’ve been speaking to over the last couple of days think it is going to be very difficult for Paetongtarn to survive as prime minister, but the problem then is who would replace her,” Cheng said.
In Cambodia, Hun Sen on Saturday promised to protect his country’s territory from foreign invaders and condemned what he called an attack by Thai forces last month.
At a 74th anniversary celebration of the foundation of his long-ruling Cambodian People’s Party, Hun Sen claimed the action by the Thai army when it engaged Cambodian forces was illegal.
He said the skirmish inside Cambodian territory was a serious violation of country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, despite Cambodia’s goodwill in attempting to resolve the border issue.
“This poor Cambodia has suffered from foreign invasion, war, and genocide, been surrounded and isolated and insulted in the past but now Cambodia has risen on an equal face with other countries. We need peace, friendship, cooperation, and development the most, and we have no politics and no unfriendly stance with any nation,” Hun Sen said in an address to thousands of party members at the event in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
There is a long history of territorial disputes between the countries. Thailand is still rattled by a 1962 International Court of Justice ruling that awarded Cambodia the disputed territory where the historic Preah Vihear temple stands. There were sporadic though serious clashes there in 2011. The ruling from the UN court was reaffirmed in 2013, when Yingluck was prime minister.
The scandal has broken Paetongtarn’s fragile coalition government, costing her Pheu Thai Party the loss of its biggest partner, the Bhumjaithai Party.
The departure of Bhumjaithai left the 10-party coalition with 255 seats, just above the majority of the 500-seat house.
Paetongtarn also faces investigations by the Constitutional Court and the national anticorruption agency. Their decisions could lead to her removal from office.
Sarote Phuengrampan, secretary-general of the Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, said on Wednesday that his agency is investigating Paetongtarn for a serious breach of ethics over the Hun Sen phone call. He did not give a possible timeline for a decision.
Reports said the Constitutional Court can suspend Paetongtarn from duty pending the investigation and could decide as early as next week whether it will take the case. The prime minister said on Tuesday she is not worried and is ready to give evidence to support her case.
“It was clear from the phone call that I had nothing to gain from it, and I also didn’t cause any damage to the country,” she said.
The court last year removed her predecessor from Pheu Thai over a breach of ethics.
Sameer tells Al Jazeera,“Scenes of those things which I witnessed had a very bad effect on me and still when I remember, it [makes] me upset.”
Research with refugee children finds the prevalence of emotional disorders to be generally higher than in non-refugee children.
According to one study, the overall prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 23 percent (one in four) in refugee children, that of anxiety disorders was 16 percent (one in six) and that of depression was 14 percent (one in seven).
“One of the things about trauma is it keeps you on this very high state of alert,” says Trickey. “And I think those without refugee status, they’re living this constant fear of being returned to the place they fled.”
But not all children experience trauma the same way, Trickey adds.
“A more important risk factor, a predictor of PTSD, is not how big the event was, but it’s what you make of it. Were you afraid? Did you think someone was gonna die?
“And different children will find different things frightening. There’ll be some people that actually experience the most awful things and seem pretty unaffected, and they do OK. There’ll be some people that seem to be doing OK, and then they have, we can sometimes call it, latent vulnerability. And later on in life, that’s when they develop difficulties.”
Ventevogel tells Al Jazeera that often, in younger children, there may be more issues with withdrawal, because they cannot verbalise how they feel, for example where “a child withdraws, stops playing with other children, or a child shows in play, in the way the child enacts issues, that there is something not OK.
“It’s not diagnostic, but this can be an indication that there is something deeper,” Ventevogel says.
Trickey explains that during a trauma-focused therapy session, a boy he was working with described what he was going through by comparing his brain to a wastepaper bin stuffed with “scrunched-up pieces of paper” that represent “all the bad things” he had been through.
“And as I walk to school, they fall in front of my eyes. And when I lie down and go to sleep, they fall into my dreams,” the boy told him. “But when I come and see you, we take them out of the bin, and we unscrunch them. Then we read them through carefully, then we fold them up neatly, and then we put them back in the bin. But because they’re folded up neatly, it means they don’t fall out the top, and I’ve got more room in my head to think about other things.”
For Sameer, his ability to cope came down to his mindset. “With the passage of time, I became used to the situation and I feel confident and fine now. And I hope, whatever problems or difficulties I face in the future, I will overcome and hopefully things will get normal.”
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – The sound of children at play echoes through the verdant lanes of one of the dozens of refugee camps on the outskirts of Cox’s Bazar, a densely populated coastal town in southeast Bangladesh.
Just for a moment, the sounds manage to soften the harsh living conditions faced by the more than one million people who live here in the world’s largest refugee camp.
Described as the most persecuted people on the planet, the Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh may now be one of the most forgotten populations in the world, eight years after being ethnically cleansed from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar by a predominantely Buddhist military regime.
“Cox’s Bazar is ground zero for the impact of budget cuts on people in desperate need,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to the sprawling camps in May.
The UN chief’s visit followed United States President Donald Trump’s gutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has stalled several key projects in the camps, and the United Kingdom announcing cuts to foreign aid in order to increase defence spending.
Healthcare in the camps has suffered as the severe blows to foreign aid bite.
Seated outside his makeshift bamboo hut, Jahid Alam told Al Jazeera how, before being forced to become a refugee, he had worked as a farmer and also fished for a living in the Napura region of his native Myanmar. It was back then, in 2016, that he first noticed his leg swell up for no apparent reason.
“I was farming and suddenly felt this intense urge to itch my left leg,” Alam said. “My leg soon turned red and began swelling up. I rushed home and tried to put some ice on it. But it didn’t help.”
A local doctor prescribed an ointment, but the itch continued, and so did the swelling.
He soon found it difficult to stand or walk and could no longer work, becoming dependent on his family members.
A year later, when Myanmar’s military began burning Rohingya homes in his village and torturing the women, he decided to send his family to Bangladesh.
Alam stayed behind to look after the cows on his land. But the military soon threatened him into leaving too and joining his family in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The 53-year-old has been treated by Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, in the Kutupalong region of Cox’s Bazar since arriving, but amputation of his leg seems likely. While some doctors have said he has Elephantiasis – an infection that causes enlargement and swelling of limbs – a final diagnosis is yet to be made.
Along with the disease, Alam has to also deal with stigma due to his disability.
“They call me ‘langhra’(lame) when they see I can’t walk properly,” he said.
But, he adds: “If God has given me this disease and disability, he also gave me the opportunity to come to this camp and try to recover. In the near future I know I can start a new and better life.”
Seated in a dimly lit room in a small hut about a 10-minute walk from Alam’s shelter, Jahena Begum hopes aid organisations will continue supporting the camps and particularly people with disabilities.
Her daughter Sumaiya Akter, 23, and sons, Harez, 19, and Ayas, 21, are blind and have a cognitive disability that prevents them from speaking clearly. They are largely unaware of their surroundings.
“Their vision slowly began fading as they became teenagers,” Begum says.
“It was very difficult to watch, and healthcare facilities in Myanmar could not help,” said the 50-year-old mother as she patted her daughter’s leg.
The young girl giggled, unaware of what was going on around her.
Begum’s family arrived in Cox’s Bazar about nine months ago after the military in Myanmar burned their house down.
“We made it to the camps with the help of relatives. But life has been very hard for me,” said Begum, telling how she had single-handedly brought up her children since her husband’s death eight years ago.
Doctors from MSF have given her children spectacles and have begun running scans to understand the root cause of their disability.
“Right now, they express everything by making sounds. But the one word they speak, which is ‘Amma’, meaning mother, shows me that they at least recognise me,” Begum said.
“The word ‘Amma’ gives me hope and strength to continue trying to treat them. I want a better future for my children.”
Clad in a blue and pink striped collared shirt and a striped brown longyi – the cloth woven around the waist and worn by men and women in Myanmar – Anowar Shah told of fleeing Myanmar to save his life, on top of losing a limb to a mine blast.
Shah said he was collecting firewood in his hometown Labada Prian Chey in Myanmar when his leg was blown off by the landmine last year.
Myanmar is among the world’s deadliest countries for landmine and unexploded ordnance casualties, according to a 2024 UN report, with more than 1,000 victims recorded in 2023 alone – a number that surpassed all other nations.
“Those were the longest, most painful days of my life,” said the 25-year-old Shah, who now needs crutches to get around.
“Losing my leg shattered everything. I went from being someone who provided and protected, to someone who depends on others just to get through the day. I can’t move freely, can’t work, can’t even perform simple tasks alone,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve become a burden to the people I love. The pain isn’t just physical – it’s emotional, it’s deep. I keep asking myself, ‘Why did this happen to me?’”
More than 30 refugees in the camps in Bangladesh have lost limbs in landmine explosions, leaving them disabled and dependent on others.
All parties to the armed conflict in Myanmar have used landmines in some capacity, said John Quinley, director of rights organisation Fortify Rights, in Myanmar.
“We know the Myanmar junta has used landmines over many years to bolster their bases. They also lay them in civilian areas around villages and towns that they have occupied and fled,” he told Al Jazeera.
Abdul Hashim, 25, who resides in Camp 21 in Cox’s Bazar, described how stepping on a landmine in February 2024 “drastically altered his life”.
“I have become dependent on others for even the simplest daily tasks. Once an active contributor to my family, I now feel like a burden,” he said.
Since arriving in the camp, Hashim has been in a rehabilitation programme at the Turkish Field Hospital where he receives medication and physical rehabilitation that involves balance exercises, stump care, and hygiene education.
He has also been assessed for a prosthetic limb which currently costs about 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka ($412). The cost for such limbs is borne by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“Despite the trauma and hardship, I hold onto some hope. I dream of receiving a prosthetic leg soon, which would allow me to regain some independence and find work to support my family,” Hashim said.
So far, a total of 14 prosthetic limbs have been distributed and fitted for camp inhabitants by the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, who have expertise in producing the limbs in orthotic workshops outside the refugee camps.
Both Hashim and Shah are a part of the organisation’s rehabilitation programme, which has been providing gait training to help them adapt to the future, regular use of prosthetic limbs.
Seeking to ensure refugees in the camps are well supported and can live better lives after fleeing persecution, aid workers are currently having to make tough decisions due to foreign aid cuts.
“We are having to decide between feeding people and providing education and healthcare due to aid cuts,” a Bangladeshi healthcare worker who requested anonymity, for fear his comment could jeopardise future aid from the US, told Al Jazeera.
Quinley of Fortify Rights pointed out that while there are huge funding gaps because of the aid cuts, the Rohingya refugee response should not fall on any one government and should be a collective regional responsibility.
“There needs to be a regional response, particularly for countries in Southeast Asia, to give funding,” he said.
“Countries connected to the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) in the Middle East could also give a lot more meaningful support,” he said.
He also recommended working with local humanitarian partners, “whether it’s Bangladeshi nationals or whether it’s Rohingya refugee groups themselves” since they know how to help their communities the best.
“Their ability to access people that need support is at the forefront, and they should be supported from governments worldwide,” he said.
For the estimated one million refugees in Cox’s Bazar, urgent support is needed at this time, when funds grow ever scarce.
According to a Joint Response Plan drawn up for the Rohingya, in 2024, just 30 percent of funding was received of a total $852.4m that was needed by the refugees.
As of May 2025, against an overall appeal for $934.5m for the refugees, just 15 percent received funding.
Cutting the aid budgets for the camps is a “short-sighted policy”, said Blandine Bouniol, deputy director of advocacy at Humanity & Inclusion humanitarian group.
It will, Bouniol said, “have a devastating impact on people”.
WHO chief Tedros says ‘all hypotheses must remain on the table’ after critical information not provided to investigators.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says efforts to uncover the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic are still ongoing and incomplete, as critical information has “not been provided”.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “all hypotheses must remain on the table” to determine the cause of the virus, also known as SARS-CoV-2, after an expert group investigating its origins reached an unsatisfying conclusion in its final report released on Friday.
“We continue to appeal to China and any other country that has information about the origins of COVID-19 to share that information openly, in the interests of protecting the world from future pandemics,” Tedros said.
The global pandemic, which began in 2020, killed millions worldwide, with countries enforcing lockdowns in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus. With the first cases detected in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, information from the country is seen as key to preventing future pandemics.
In 2021, Tedros launched the WHO Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), a panel of 27 independent international experts.
Marietjie Venter, the group’s chair, said on Friday that most scientific data supports the hypothesis that the new coronavirus jumped to humans from animals.
But she added that after more than three years of work, SAGO was unable to get the necessary data to evaluate whether or not COVID was the result of a lab accident, despite repeated requests for detailed information made to the Chinese government.
“Therefore, this hypothesis could not be investigated or excluded,” she said, however adding, “It was deemed to be very speculative, based on political opinions and not backed up by science.”
Venter also said there was no evidence to prove that COVID had been manipulated in a lab, nor was there any indication that the virus had been spreading before December 2019 anywhere outside of China.
In 2021, a group of experts from the WHO first travelled to Wuhan to examine the origins of the virus with their Chinese counterparts.
By March of that year, their joint report found that the most likely hypothesis was from bats to humans via an intermediate animal.
They said at the time that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely”.
However, that investigation faced backlash for lacking transparency and access, and not taking the lab-leak theory seriously.
After that, SAGO was launched.
According to the SAGO report, “the weight of available evidence … suggests zoonotic [a disease spread between animals to humans] spillover … either directly from bats or through an intermediate host”.
“Until more scientific data becomes available, the origins of how SARS-CoV-2 entered human populations will remain inconclusive,” Venter said.
“Understanding the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it sparked a pandemic is needed to help prevent future pandemics, save lives and livelihoods, and reduce global suffering,” she added.
Tedros said it was a “moral imperative” to determine how COVID began, noting that the virus killed at least 20 million people, wiped at least $10tn from the global economy and upended the lives of billions.
Six US nationals were taken into custody in South Korea near a restricted border area with North Korea.
South Korean authorities have detained six United States citizens who were attempting to send an estimated 1,300 plastic bottles filled with rice, US dollar bills and Bibles to North Korea by sea, according to news reports.
The US suspects were apprehended in the early hours of Friday morning after they were caught trying to release the bottles into the sea from Gwanghwa island, near a restricted front-line border area with North Korea, South Korea’s official Yonhap news agency reports.
The six were taken into custody after a coastal military unit guarding the area reported them to the police. The area in question is restricted to the public after being designated a danger zone in November due to its proximity to the north.
Activists floating plastic bottles or flying balloons across South Korea’s border with the north have long caused tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
An administrative order banning the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda towards the north is already in effect for the area, according to Yonhap.
On June 14, police detained an activist for allegedly flying balloons towards North Korea from Gwanghwa Island.
Two South Korean police officers confirmed the detentions of the six with The Associated Press news agency but gave no further details.
In 2023, South Korea’s Constitutional Court struck down a 2020 law that criminalised the sending of leaflets and other items to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.
But since taking office in early June, the new liberal government of President Lee Jae-myung is pushing to crack down on such civilian campaigns with other safety-related laws to avoid a flare-up in tensions with North Korea and promote the safety of front-line South Korean residents.
Lee took office with a promise to restart long-dormant talks with North Korea and establish peace on the Korean Peninsula. His government has halted front-line anti-Pyongyang propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, and similar North Korean broadcasts have not been heard in South Korean front-line towns since then.
It remains unclear if North Korea will respond to Lee’s conciliatory gesture after it pledged last year to sever relations with South Korea and abandon the goal of peaceful Korean reunification.
Official talks between the Koreas have been stalled since 2019, when the US-led diplomacy on North Korean denuclearisation derailed.
Takahiro Shiraishi was hanged for the murders of eight women and one man whose body parts he concealed in his small apartment.
Japan has executed a man who was found guilty of killing and dismembering nine people he made contact with on social media, the first use of capital punishment in the country in nearly three years.
Takahiro Shiraishi was hanged on Friday after he was sentenced to death for the 2017 murders of eight women and one man in his apartment in Zama city in Kanagawa near Tokyo.
He was dubbed the “Twitter killer” as he had contacted his victims via the social media platform, now known as X.
Shiraishi admitted to committing the murders after reaching out and offering to help people – who were contemplating suicide – to die. He had stashed bits of the bodies of his nine victims in coolers around his small apartment, according to media reports.
Justice Minister Keisuke Suzuki, who authorised Shiraishi’s hanging, said he made the decision after careful examination of the case, taking into account the convict’s “extremely selfish” motive for crimes that “caused great shock and unrest to society”.
The execution on Friday was the first in Japan since July 2022 of a man sentenced to death for a stabbing rampage in Tokyo’s Akihabara shopping district in 2008.
It was also the first time the death penalty was carried out since Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s government was inaugurated last October.
Last September, a Japanese court acquitted Iwao Hakamada, who had spent the world’s longest time on death row. The court found he was wrongfully convicted of crimes committed nearly 60 years ago.
One of the highest-profile executions in Japan was carried out in 2018 of the guru Shoko Asahara and 12 former members of the Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult, which orchestrated the 1995 sarin gas attacks on Tokyo’s subway system that killed 14 people and made thousands ill.
Capital punishment is carried out by hanging in Japan, and prisoners are notified of their execution just hours before it is carried out, which has long been decried by human rights groups for the stress it puts on death-row prisoners.
Japan and the United States are the only two members of the Group of Seven industrialised economies to retain the death penalty.
There is strong public support for the practice in Japan. A government survey in 2024 of 1,800 respondents found that 83 percent viewed the death penalty as “unavoidable”.
Through the 12 days of the recent Israel-Iran conflict, China moved quickly to position itself as a potential mediator and voice of reason amid a spiralling regional crisis.
The day after Israel’s unprovoked attack on Iran on June 13, Beijing reached out to both sides to express its desire for a mediated solution even as the country’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Wang Yi, condemned Israel’s actions as a violation of international law.
Chinese President Xi Jinping soon followed with calls for de-escalation, while at the United Nations Security Council, China joined Russia and Pakistan in calling for an “immediate and unconditional ceasefire”.
When Iran threatened to blockade the strategically important Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil passes, Beijing was also quick to speak out.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs instead called for the “international community to step up efforts to de-escalate conflicts and prevent regional turmoil from having a greater impact on global economic development”.
Beijing’s stance throughout the conflict remained true to its longstanding noninterference approach to foreign hostilities. But experts say it did little to help shore up its ambition of becoming an influential player in the Middle East, and instead exposed the limitations of its clout in the region.
Unlike some countries, and the United States in particular, China traditionally approaches foreign policy “through a lens of strategic pragmatism rather than ideological solidarity”, said Evangeline Cheng, a research associate at the National University of Singapore’s Middle East Institute.
This approach means China will always focus on protecting its economic interests, of which it has many in the Middle East, Cheng told Al Jazeera.
China has investments in Israel’s burgeoning tech sector and its Belt and Road infrastructure project spans Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Iraq, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Critically, China relies on the Middle East for more than half of its crude oil imports, and it’s the top consumer of Iranian oil. A protracted war would have disrupted its oil supplies, as would an Iranian blockade of the strategically important Strait of Hormuz – something threatened by Tehran’s parliament during the conflict.
“War and security instability not only undermines Chinese investment and trade and business… but also the oil price and gas energy security in general,” said Alam Saleh, a senior Lecturer in Iranian Studies at the Australian National University.
“Therefore, China seeks stability, and it disagrees and opposes any kind of military solution for any type of conflict and confrontations, no matter with whom,” he said.
John Gong, a professor of economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told Al Jazeera that China’s top concern through the conflict was to avoid “skyrocketing oil prices” that would threaten its energy security.
Aware of China’s friendly relations with Iran and Beijing’s economic fears, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Beijing to keep Tehran from closing the Strait of Hormuz as ceasefire negotiations stumbled forward this week.
It was a brief moment of acknowledgement of Beijing’s influence, but experts say China’s overall diplomatic influence remains limited.
“China’s offer to mediate highlights its desire to be seen as a responsible global player, but its actual leverage remains limited,” Cheng said. “Without military capabilities or deep political influence in the region, and with Israel wary of Beijing’s ties to Iran, China’s role is necessarily constrained.”
To be sure, Beijing has demonstrated its ability to broker major diplomatic deals in the region. In 2023, it mediated the normalisation of relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. While seen as a huge diplomatic win for China, experts say Beijing owed much of its success to fellow mediators, Oman and Iraq. China also mediated an agreement between Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Fatah, in July 2024, under which they committed to working together on Gaza’s governance after the end of Israel’s ongoing war on the enclave.
But William Yang, a senior analyst for Northeast Asia at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group, said the odds were stacked against China from the beginning of the latest conflict due to Israel’s wariness towards its relationship with Iran.
In 2021, China and Iran signed a 25-year “strategic partnership”, and Iran is an active participant in the Belt and Road project. Iran has also joined the Beijing-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and this year took part in China’s “Maritime Security Belt” naval exercises.
Iran’s “resolute opposition to American hegemony” also aligns well with China’s diplomatic interests more broadly, compared with Israel’s close ties to the US, Yang said.
It’s a scenario that could be repeated in the future, he said.
“This case also reinforces the dilemma that China faces: while it wants to be viewed as a great power that is capable of mediating in major global conflicts, its close relationship with specific parties in some of the ongoing conflicts diminishes Beijing’s ability to play such a role,” Yang said.
For now, Beijing will continue to rely on the US as a security guarantor in the region, he added.
“It’s clear that China will continue to focus on deepening economic engagement with countries in the Middle East while taking advantage of the US presence in the region, which remains the primary security guarantor for regional countries,” Yang said.
“On the other hand, the US involvement in the conflict, including changing the course of the war by bombing Iranian nuclear sites, creates the condition for China to take the moral high ground in the diplomatic sphere and present itself as the more restrained, calm and responsible major power,” he said.
Six people have died from floods in China’s Guizhou province, state media said, after more than 80,000 people were driven from their homes this week.
Towns and villages by a key river in China’s Guangxi lay half-submerged as floodwaters from a province upstream roared into the mountainous region, with the expected landfall of a tropical cyclone later on Thursday compounding disaster risk.
The flooding that overwhelmed the counties of Rongjiang and Congjiang in Guizhou province on Tuesday has spread downstream to other parts of southwest China, including rural settlements in Guangxi by the Liu River, which originates from Guizhou.
On Thursday, state broadcaster CCTV said “exceptionally large floods” had swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county since Tuesday.
China is enduring a summer of extreme weather.
This week, authorities issued the second-highest heat warning for the capital, Beijing, on one of its hottest days of the year so far.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last week in Hunan province – neighbouring Guizhou – due to heavy rain.
Seales and Joseph take nine wickets before Australia stage mini recovery by restricting West Indies to 57-4 at stumps.
In a performance reminiscent of West Indies’ fearsome bowling attacks of old, Jayden Seales and Shamar Joseph tore through the Australia batting lineup, toppling them for a meagre 180 on day one of the first Test at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Mitchell Starc, skipper Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood saved Australia’s blushes, taking four wickets between them to send the West Indies in at stumps at 57 for four, trailing the tourists by 123 runs to leave the match delicately poised on Wednesday.
With Seales claiming a magnificent five-wicket haul and Joseph unleashing thunderbolts that left Australia’s batsmen floundering, the visitors never recovered from a catastrophic start that saw them reeling at 22 for three on a lively pitch.
“This one was pretty special for me,” Seales said.
“I have played against [Australia] once, and was injured. To play against them and get five on the first day was pretty special.
“With the new ball, the plan was to bowl fuller. We knew the batters would come hard if we gave them width, and the plan was to bowl full and as much at the stumps as possible.
“A little slower than what the Australians would have expected, and that made them play a lot more.
“Shamar was special today … He has a love for Australia. He got through the top order and made it easy for us in the middle and at the end.”
Australia, already vulnerable with Steve Smith sidelined by injury and Marnus Labuschagne axed, watched in dismay as their re-jigged top order wilted under relentless pressure from the Caribbean quicks.
Joseph got the Bridgetown carnival started in the fourth over when he trapped teenage debutant Sam Konstas leg before wicket after a review.
The 25-year-old then delivered a scorching delivery that all-rounder Cameron Green could only edge to Justin Greaves at second slip.
Seales then joined the party, coaxing a thick top edge from Josh Inglis that sent him trudging back to the pavilion for five, completing Australia’s horror start.
Veteran Usman Khawaja and Travis Head briefly stemmed the tide with an 89-run partnership, but Joseph struck again at the perfect moment, removing Khawaja for 47 – agonisingly short of his half-century – and extinguishing Australian hopes of a recovery.
The middle order offered little resistance, with Beau Webster (11) and Alex Carey (8) falling cheaply before Greaves claimed the prize scalp of Head for 59, caught behind.
Captain Pat Cummins (28) provided the only lower-order resistance before Seales returned to sweep through the tail, completing his five-wicket masterclass and leaving Australia to contemplate the wreckage of their innings.
West Indies would have fancied their chances at that point, but Starc had other plans, snapping up the wickets of Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell in an action-packed opening spell.
Cummins then had Keacy Carty caught behind on 20 before Hazlewood bowled nightwatchman Jomel Warrican out for a duck, as the Barbadian sun set on an exhilarating day of Test cricket dominated by pace.
‘Exceptionally large floods’ swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county, forcing some 80,000 people to flee their homes.
At least six people have died and more than 80,000 people were evacuated from their homes after floods inundated China’s Guizhou province, state media reported, as a tropical depression made landfall in the island province.
State broadcaster CCTV reported on Thursday that “exceptionally large floods” had swept through Guizhou’s Rongjiang county since Tuesday.
Deluges in Guizhou – classified as a southwestern province by the Chinese government – have prompted authorities to activate the highest-level emergency flood response, evacuating about 80,900 people.
“As of 11am on Thursday… six people have unfortunately lost their lives,” the report said, citing the local flood control headquarters.
“Many low-lying areas in the county were flooded, and the infrastructure of some towns was seriously damaged, resulting in traffic obstruction, communications blackouts, and some people being trapped,” the broadcaster said.
“The water level in the county has now retreated below the warning level,” it added, saying “post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and investigation of trapped people are under way.”
State news agency Xinhua reported on Wednesday that a football field in Rongjiang was “submerged under three metres (10ft) of water”, and a resident said they were rescued from the third floor of their home.
Images published by Xinhua also showed rescue operations carried out by emergency services. Tents have been set up to serve as temporary shelters for those who were displaced.
In other parts of Guizhou, where the floods have subsided, people were also seen clearing up the debris and thick layers of mud that covered the lower sections of some business establishments and other buildings.
Meanwhile, a tropical depression made landfall in Hainan early on Thursday, according to the country’s National Meteorological Centre.
The tropical depression is expected to move from the city of Wenchang across the island’s northeast tip, before heading back into the South China Sea and making a second landfall in China’s southern Guangdong province and gradually weakening.
The storm will again test the flood defences of the densely populated Guangdong province, as well as Guangxi and Hunan further inland.
China is enduring a summer of extreme weather.
This week, authorities issued the second-highest heat warning for the capital, Beijing, on one of its hottest days of the year so far.
Tens of thousands of people were evacuated last week in Hunan province – neighbouring Guizhou – due to heavy rain brought about by Typhoon Wutip.
The order to restrict cannabis use for medical purposes only must pass another hurdle before becoming law.
The Thai government is moving to tighten rules around the sale of cannabis, just three years after the kingdom decriminalised recreational use of the popular substance.
Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday night ordered that cannabis use be restricted to medical use only, throwing the estimated $1bn industry into a state of uncertainty.
Government spokesperson Jirayu Houngsub said cannabis had created serious social problems for young people, and the industry, which has boomed in recent years, needed to be scaled back.
“The policy must return to its original goal of controlling cannabis for medical use only,” Jirayu said in a statement.
The order, however, is not law yet.
It will need to be published in the official Royal Gazette to come into force, and the government has not indicated when that will happen.
Thailand became the first country in Asia to fully decriminalise cannabis in 2022, in a move that has been wildly popular with tourists but less so among more conservative Thais.
Thousands of cannabis stores have opened across Thailand in the past three years, although it has remained relatively unregulated despite multiple attempts by the government.
The latest move to restrict cannabis use comes amid wider political turmoil in Thailand.
Last week the Bhumjaithai Party, previously a champion of decriminalising cannabis, withdrew from the government’s ruling coalition due to its mishandling of a border conflict with Cambodia.
The Thai Chamber of Commerce previously estimated that the cannabis trade could be worth $1.2bn by 2025, although experts say it has not reached its full potential due to the uncertainty that has plagued regulation around the industry since it was decriminalised.
In a political win for US President Donald Trump, NATO member states have endorsed a big new defence spending target.
In what marks a major shift for NATO, the bloc’s member states have agreed to raise defence spending to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
The move will inject billions more dollars into armies and weapons, raising questions over how governments will foot the bill.
With public budgets under strain, many European politicians dismissed the target as unachievable earlier this year, when US President Donald Trump demanded it.
Europe’s priorities now appear to be shifting to security, citing growing threats from Russia.
And Chinese goods are flooding markets from Southeast Asia to Europe.
Plus, top economists call for debt relief in developing nations.
The death sentence has been removed from eight criminal offences in Vietnamese law and replaced with life imprisonment for offenders.
Vietnam will end capital punishment for eight categories of serious crime – including embezzlement, attempts to overthrow the government and sabotaging state infrastructure, state media has reported.
The state-run Vietnam News Agency reported on Wednesday that the country’s National Assembly unanimously passed an amendment to the Criminal Code that abolished the death penalty for eight criminal offences.
Starting from next month, people will no longer face a death sentence for bribery, embezzlement, producing and trading counterfeit medicines, illegally transporting narcotics, espionage, “the crime of destroying peace and causing aggressive war”, as well as sabotage and trying to topple the government.
The maximum sentence for these crimes will now be life imprisonment, the news agency said.
Those who were sentenced to death for capital offences before July 1, but have not yet been executed, will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, the report said.
The death penalty will remain for 10 other criminal offences under Vietnamese law, including murder, treason, terrorism and the sexual abuse of children, according to the report.
During a National Assembly debate on the proposed criminal code amendment last month, the issue of dropping the death sentence for drug trafficking was the most contentious.
“Whether it’s a few grammes or a few tonnes, the harm caused by drug transport is immense,” one legislator said, while another said removing the death sentence for drugs would send the wrong signal at a time when drug cases were increasing in the country.
Capital punishment data is a state secret in Vietnam and it is not known how many people are currently on death row in the country.
Execution by firing squad in Vietnam was abolished in 2011 and replaced by the administration of a lethal injection.