Myanmar's fake president

This issue: I think I'm the definition of a party pooper this week because I took two news stories that, at first glance, read like good news, but they're actually not if you look a little bit closer.

Myanmar's new president has released more than 4,000 prisoners
It sounds like a breakthrough. It isn't. I'll explain why.

Japan's greenhouse emissions are going down
The fifth-largest CO₂ emitter in the world is trending in the right direction. You can celebrate. Just not too much.

Also this week: Sudan's war turns four and shows no sign of stopping. Surprising election results in Benin and Peru. The first time in 12 years the Modi government lost something that actually mattered. A lone wolf in South Korea that had the whole country holding its breath. Why March 10, 2016, still haunts China's Go players. A British-Nigerian film with the most extraordinary child actors I've ever seen. An ancient West Asian tattoo tradition. Another Puerto Rican music legend (but one you probably don't know as well as Bad Bunny). And so much more.

This issue has been edited by Jonathan Ramsay.

Myanmar pardoned over 4,000 prisoners, including its former president. How 'good' is this news story really?

Refresher: Myanmar had a democratically elected government led by a woman named Aung San Suu Kyi (very famous, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her work fighting for democracy in Myanmar; also not the "saint" the West thinks she is). In February 2021, the military took over the country by force. The leader of the military, a general named Min Aung Hlaing, arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as the president Win Myint, and put them in prison. He then ran the country himself.

What happened:
Min Aung Hlaing recently made himself the official president of Myanmar (many say it was a 'sham' election). One of his first acts as president was to pardon 4,335 prisoners, including Win Myint, the former president he had imprisoned. Min Aung Hlaing is doing this right after making himself president, and declared that "Myanmar has returned to the path of democracy."

Why this matters: Human rights groups and the UN strongly disagree with that claim. Under Hlaing's leadership in the last five years, nearly four million people have been internally displaced, more than 1.6 million have fled to neighbouring countries, and approximately one third of the population needs humanitarian assistance. Min Aung Hlaing was also the architect of the so-called "clearance operations" against the Rohingya people in 2017, that forcibly displaced at least 730,000 people. Many Rohingya call what happened a genocide. A UN Human Rights Council-mandated fact-finding mission from 2018 agreed and found sufficient grounds to prosecute Hlaing personally for genocide.

Since the coup, at least 8,000 people, including pro-democracy activists and civilians, have been killed by the junta and pro-military groups during the so-called Spring Revolution (Myanmar's pro-democracy resistance activists coined that term), and more than 30,000 people have been arrested for political reasons. These are 'only' the numbers verified by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). They say, the actual numbers are likely much higher.

Tell me more:
The military junta appears to be very concerned with its international image; so much so that in addition to the release of all the other prisoners, the sentence of the former 'West's favorite democratic leader' Aung San Suu Kyi (now 80; in prison since 2021) was also reduced by at least four years. Many remain unimpressed. Human rights groups say the charges against her were politically motivated and completely made up in the first place, so reducing the sentence is not justice; the sentence should not exist at all. The UN is (still) calling for her unconditional and immediate release.

According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar, fewer than 14% of those released since the coup have been political prisoners. It's not clear how many of those released last week were people imprisoned for opposing the military. The human rights advocacy group Burma Campaign UK said on Friday that the slow, staged release of political prisoners is designed to gain positive publicity while making no real reforms. "If the Burmese military regime were genuine about reform, they could release all 14,000 political prisoners today," said the group's advocacy and communications officer Minn Tent Bo.

Did you know? Myanmar's military reportedly hired a U.S. lobbying firm called DCI Group and paid them US$3 million to improve their image in the United States. DCI Group has close ties to the Trump administration.

Good to know: Did you also know that Norway might have something to do with anti-coup activists being imprisoned and disappeared in Myanmar? Apparently, the military had asked Telenor to share the data of activists. They complied with 93% of those requests. Now, a lawsuit has been filed in Norway arguing that the company failed to protect the victims or inform them of the requests made. There is going to be a parliamentary inquiry later this year that will look at the role of the Norwegian government a little bit closer.

(My personal) Side note / Historical context: I've observed a tendency in coverage surrounding Myanmar to either romanticize or vilify whoever is in charge in the country. Back then it was Aung San Suu Kyi, and now it is Min Aung Hlaing. However, many smart people argue that Myanmar's current situation did not start with the 2021 coup; rather, it began in 1948, the year Myanmar gained independence from Britain. Here is why: When the British left, they drew borders (surprise) around a collection of very different ethnic groups, including the Karen, Kachin, Shan, Chin, Rakhine, and others. They lumped them together into one country dominated by a single ethnic group: the Bamar. Many of those other groups never accepted that arrangement and immediately began fighting for autonomy or independence. The argument, then, is that while the 2021 coup certainly happened, it didn't start a new war; it simply escalated, in a dramatic way, a conflict that was already 73 years old at that point. This perspective places the responsibility on the military institution itself, rather than just on Min Aung Hlaing. I think it's a valid argument to pay attention to.

What about the Rohingya?
Thousands of Rohingya are still fleeing the country every year. It is a very dangerous migration journey. Oftentimes they travel by sea on makeshift boats. Last week, about 250 people went missing after a boat carrying Rohingya people and Bangladeshi nationals capsized in the Andaman Sea, according to the UN's refugee and migration agencies.

Last week, Newcastle upon Tyne became the first city in the UK and the world to install a permanent memorial dedicated to the Rohingya people. "Today we honour the lives lost, the resilience of survivors, and send a clear message that genocide must never be ignored or forgotten," said the city's first former Muslim and Black Lord Mayor, Independent Cllr Habib Rahman.

Any international calls for accountability?
Yes. There are several legal cases open.

• In November 2024, the International Criminal Court prosecutor requested an arrest warrant for President Min Aung Hlaing for crimes against humanity against the Rohingya.
• In February 2025, an Argentine court issued arrest warrants for 25 individuals from Myanmar under the principle of universal jurisdiction.
• Fittingly, as Hlaing took office, fresh charges of genocide and crimes against humanity were brought against him, this time in Indonesia. Under the country's new penal code, universal jurisdiction for genocide and crimes against humanity is expressly permitted. Yasmin Ullah, the co-founder of the...