4.30am Kaipara, New ZealandJames Brady, farmer We’ve got a small dairy farm, north of Auckland. We milk 200 cows and have a small amount of beef cattle and young stock. We start about 4.30am in the morning – checking cows, feeding, milking and then we do it again in the afternoon. Most of the day is spent tending to stock, moving animals, and we’re busy renewing pastures at the moment. Diesel is our main fuel – we run two tractors and machinery. We have quad bikes that run on petrol.…
Tag: South and Central Asia
Pakistan and China propose five-part peace plan for Middle East
Pakistan and China have released a joint five-part proposal for peace in the Middle East, after Pakistan’s foreign minister flew to Beijing on Tuesday to seek Chinese support for the country’s faltering efforts to negotiate an end to end the war. The one-day meeting between Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, came as Pakistan continues to push for the role of peacemaker between the United States and Iran, even as the war shows little sign of relenting. According to a statement from China’s foreign ministry, the trip was…
The Guardian view on Myanmar’s forgotten war: the military cosplay democracy but people demand the real thing | Editorial
China promoted elections in Myanmar, while those fighting for democracy boycotted them. That tells you everything about the shift to a supposedly civilian administration in the coming days, five years after the military seized power in a coup. It appears likely that Min Aung Hlaing will swap his leadership of the army for the presidency. Whatever the details, the junta will still be running the show, and bombing civilians – just while cosplaying as democrats. Myanmar’s suffering has been overshadowed by higher-profile wars. But the conflict-monitoring organisation Acled estimates that…
Inside Myanmar’s five-year armed resistance – a photo essay
In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle. A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of the areas where the resistance challenges the military’s authority. For decades, the region has been home to an armed rebellion led by the Karen ethnic minority, which…
Myanmar is going to the polls. But it’s not the people who hold the power – it’s China
Myanmar’s military has managed to regain momentum in its battle against a determined patchwork of opposition groups, retaking some territory, and pushing ahead with a widely condemned election that begins on Sunday. It is a turnaround for the military, which had appeared so beleaguered that some dared to question if it could collapse. Analysts point to China, and its shifting support, as one of the most important factors that has changed the dynamics in a five-year conflict that first erupted after the 2021 coup. “This is really all China playing…
‘Not for the people’: Myanmar junta prepares for elections designed to legitimise grip on power
Myanmar is preparing to go to the polls for the first time since its military seized power in a coup in 2021, but with its former leader behind bars, its most successful political party disbanded and roughly a third of the country either disputed or in rebel hands, few believe claims by its military rulers that its 28 December election will be “free and fair”. “This is not for the people, this is for themselves,” says Pai, 25, who fled Myanmar after the military seized power. “They [the ruling junta]…
How three Uyghur brothers fled China – to spend 12 years in an Indian prison
On the evening of 12 June 2013, according to court documents, three “Chinese intruders” were arrested by the Indian army in Sultan Chusku, a remote and uninhabited desert area in the mountainous northern region of Ladakh. The three Thursun brothers – Adil, 23, Abdul Khaliq, 22 and Salamu, 20 – had found themselves in an area of unmarked and disputed borders after a 13-day journey by bus and foot over the rugged Himalayan terrain through China’s Xinjiang province, which borders Ladakh. The men told army officials that they had fled…
The Guardian view on the online scam industry: authorities must not forget that perpetrators are often victims too | Editorial
A Chinese court last month sentenced 11 people to death over their roles in a illegal scam empire along the border with Myanmar. But it won’t end a noxious multibillion-dollar industry that devastates the lives of two sets of victims. The first are those cheated out of money, often by people posing as potential romantic or business partners in what are known as “pig‑butchering” schemes. The second are those who are forced to cheat them, working in conditions amounting to modern slavery. The recent study, Scam: Inside Southeast Asia’s Cybercrime…
Mount Everest hikers describe ‘extreme’ conditions as huge rescue effort continues
Trekkers have described facing “extreme” conditions after an unseasonable snowstorm during one of China’s busiest holiday weekends stranded hundreds of people on Mount Everest, prompting a massive rescue effort. Chinese authorities said about 350 people had made their way down but at least 200 remained stranded at the Everest Scenic Area, to the east of the mountain, on the Tibetan side of the border. Crowds of tourists had travelled to the region for “Golden Week”, an eight-day holiday period in China. But Chinese authorities, which control the Tibetan Autonomous Region,…
Weather tracker: Typhoon Matmo batters southern China
Typhoon Matmo made landfall on the southern coast of China on Sunday afternoon, shortly after sweeping across the island province of Hainan. The powerful storm forced the evacuation of about 350,000 people, bringing torrential rain and damaging winds, especially between Wuchuan in Guangdong and Wenchang in Hainan. Ferry services were suspended and flights cancelled at Haikou Meilan airport. Matmo, the 21st typhoon of the year, had sustained wind speeds of 94mph (151km/h) and dumped more than 50mm of rainfall in six hours in Chongzou and Qinzhou. The city of Nanning…