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MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been in detention since a military coup in 2021 ousted Myanmar's government. (Reuters: Athit Perawongmetha/File)
In short:
The jail sentence of Myanmar's imprisoned ex-leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been reduced.
It comes as thousands of prisoners are released, including the country's former president, Win Myint.
What's next?
The UN has called for the immediate release of Suu Ky and others "detained unjustly" since the 2021 coup.
The
prison sentence of Myanmar's imprisoned ex-leader Aung San Suu Kyi has
been reduced as her ally, former president Win Myint, is released from
jail as part of a mass amnesty.
Suu
Kyi was serving a 27-year sentence for a range of politically-motivated
offences ranging from incitement and corruption to election fraud and
violating a state secrets law.
But, as part of a widespread pardon, the 80-year-old's sentence has been cut by at least four years.
It
is not clear whether the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be allowed to
serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest or when she may be
eligible for release.
Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since her trial ended and her whereabouts is unknown.
Released
prisoners, in a bus, are welcomed by family members and colleagues
after they left Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar, Friday, April 17,
2026, following Myanmar President's amnesty to mark the country's
traditional new year. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw) (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
All
people in Myanmar serving a jail term under 40 years had their sentence
reduced by one-sixth on Friday - in a move ordered by the country's
coup leader and newly-elected President Min Aung Hlaing.
He
also ordered the release of more than 4,500 prisoners including Suu
Kyi's ally, Win Myint, who served as Myanmar's president from 2018 until
the 2021 military coup.
Myint
was "granted a pardon and the reduction of his remaining sentences under
specified conditions", Myanmar's state broadcaster MRTV reported.
Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint (left) have both been in jail since the 2021 military coup. (AP: Aung Shine Oo/File)
While
Myint occupied the top spot, it functioned as a ceremonial role because
Suu Kyi was barred from holding the presidency under a military-drafted
constitution.
The 2021 coup plunged the southeast Asian country into civil war.
UN
rights chief Volker Turk was relieved by the "long overdue release" of
Win Myint but called for the immedate release of Suu Kyi.
"All
those detained unjustly since the coup -- including state counsellor
Aung San Suu Kyi -- need to be released immediately and
unconditionally," he said on X.
"There must be an end to the unrelenting violence against all of Myanmar's people."
Amnesties typically take place in Myanmar each year to mark Independence Day in January and New Year in April.
2025 deadliest year for Rohingya refugees
While
Suu Kyi remains a wildly popular figure, her reputation did suffer when
she defended Myanmar's militiary at the International Court of Justice
against allegations of ethnic cleansing towards Rohingya people.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people have fled war-torn Myanmar for Bangladesh and other countries.
New
figures released by the United Nations showed last year was the
deadliest on record for Rohingya refugees fleeing by sea, with deaths
continuing to soar in 2026.
"In
2025, nearly 900 Rohingya refugees were reported missing or dead in the
Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal," the United Nations refugee agency's
spokesman Babar Baloch said.
Mr
Baloch said that equated to one in seven Rohingya people trying to take
the journey ending up missing or dead which was "the highest mortality
rate worldwide of any major route for refugee and migrant sea journeys".
Rohingya
people mainly leave from huge camps in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar where
more than a million refugees have fled to from war-torn Myanmar.
The UN estimated 200,000 Rohingya refugees had taken that dangerous sea crossing since 2012.
Slowly, the issue of the state of Donald Trump's mind is becoming the subject of serious discussion. (Reuters: Jessica Koscielniak)
Malaysian
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is the master of the art of exactly
landing a savage point, while apparently saying something relatively
benign.
In Kuala Lumpur on
Thursday, when he and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese were asked about
the Pope's plea for peace in the world, the Malaysian PM became one of
the first world leaders to venture into the territory of US President
Donald Trump's mental faculties, while managing to stay on the safe side
of doing so.
"Well, Albanese
is a Catholic, I'm a Muslim, but we share something in common — we have
very high regard and respect for Pope Leo, the Vatican," Anwar began.
Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. (AP: Rafiq Maqbool)
"And
I think any reasonable, sane person, and I, as a Muslim and Malaysians
generally, certainly support the position taken by the Pope.
"And
I think we would certainly suggest that people, sane people across the
world, should support the call for peace against any form of injustice,
atrocities, whether he made reference specifically to Gaza or the
position in the Middle East, for that matter, after the aftermath of the
Israeli-American attack on Tehran and Iran."
Lest
you think that it is reading too much into his repeated references to
"sane people", remember that the veteran politician — jailed twice by a
vengeful former mentor to thwart his progress — knows exactly what he
wants to say and also likes to live on the edge.
"I was in prison but you almost got there," Anwar joked to Donald Trump last year in front of the media.
'A deranged autocrat mad with power'
Slowly,
the issue of the state of the US president's mind is becoming the
subject of serious discussion, rather than just the butt of the jokes of
late night talk show hosts.
As it should.
The New York Times chief White House correspondent Peter Baker wrote a lengthy piece this week about the mental capacities of the nation's commander-in-chief in a time of war.
"A
series of disjointed, hard-to-follow and sometimes-profane statements,
capped by his "a whole civilisation will die tonight" threat to wipe
Iran off the map last week, and his head-spinning attack on the "WEAK on
Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy" pope on Sunday night have left
many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power," Baker
wrote.
There has been a
hesitancy to discuss the state of Trump's mind in much of the media, let
alone on the international political stage, even as his behaviour has
become increasingly erratic, and as it has become dangerous for the
entire world.
Albanese has
spent much of the past week in south-east Asia, desperately trying to
lock in energy agreements with countries in the region and find extra
supplies of fuel and fertiliser.
He
is only there because of the fallout from Trump's decision to back
Israel's war on Iran and the global uncertainty about where that war is
going, partly fed by Trump's perpetually changing pronouncements and
actions.
The Australian government is much more alarmed about the unfolding global economic crisis than it will or can say publicly.
That
crisis is not just caused by the decision to launch a war on Iran but
by the erratic and unpredictable way Trump continues to opine on, and
run, US policy via social media in the middle of the night — a
circumstance which further confounds and undermines global economic
confidence.
In those circumstances, in an interview on Thursday I asked the prime minister
whether the time had come for world leaders to more directly call out
Trump's erratic behaviour, given the catastrophic ramifications it's
having around the globe.
"Well, we have an important relationship with the United States," Albanese said.
"I
act respectfully towards all leaders, and I continue to engage
constructively with President Trump and his administration. And I do so
in Australia's national interest."
Laura Tingle sits down with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to talk fuel security
But Trump hasn't necessarily been dealing respectfully with the rest of the world, though, has he, I asked.
"Well,
what I do is to engage respectfully. That's what Australians would
expect, and the relationship with the United States is a relationship
between leaders, but importantly, it's a relationship between
populations as well, based upon our values as two great democracies.
"And of course, our national security interests are very much linked with the United States as well."
Is Australia being protected?
The
view within the Albanese government is that there is little point
criticising the president or talking about his erratic behaviour.
Not
that this stops Trump launching random broadsides at Australia, as he
did in Washington a few hours after the ABC's interview, saying he was
"not happy with Australia" because Australia was "not there when we
asked them to be there".
There
would have been a time when such a comment was devastating for an
Australian government. But not now. And that's only partly because
Australia hasn't actually been asked to "be there" in the first place.
What
is more worrying than whether the government does comment on Trump's
capacities is whether it is doing enough to protect Australia from his
actions, as opposed to offsetting them as the prime minister has been
doing in the past week — and more broadly — in finding extra fuel
shipments and the like.
Like
other countries, Australia is rewiring all its trade relationships to
counter the breakdown in world trade arrangements that started in
earnest with Trump's Liberation Day tariffs last year.
But it seems paralysed to act to diversify its defence ties and strategy in the same way.
This week Defence Minister Richard Marles released the government's new defence strategy. Its tone has just a touch of the "ex-parrot" about it as it notes the rules-based order is not dead, but "in transition".
The
grand AUKUS plans are seemingly non-negotiable, even as more signs
emerge of delays in the project, and the commitment to such massive
pieces of equipment — when the nature of warfare is morphing before our
eyes — should be raising more questions.
Richard Marles unveiled the latest National Defence Strategy in a speech to the National Press Club this week. (ABC News: Dan Sweetapple)
The United States' conflict with Iran — and its blockade — are now physically spreading into our part of the world.
This
week, US General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
said US Navy warships would enforce the blockade "inside Iran's
territorial seas" and "in international waters".
"The
joint force, through operations and activities in other areas of
responsibility, like the Pacific area of responsibility … will actively
pursue any Iranian-flagged vessel or any vessel attempting to provide
material support to Iran," he told a press conference at the Pentagon.
"This includes dark fleet vessels carrying Iranian oil."
The global economy is being rewired
Equally,
there are real world implications from the global rundown in defensive
weapons that have been used by the US and allies in the Middle East,
which are alarming both Europeans and countries like Japan and Taiwan.
Countries in our region are pragmatically doing what they feel they must to ensure their own supply lines.
Indonesia announced a deal with Russia for energy this week.
Malaysia
negotiated with Iran to get oil through the Strait of Hormuz, to the
ire of Singapore which thinks no-one should be negotiating with Iran.
China
keeps bobbing up in different guises, from reports it has provided spy
satellites to Iran to its elevation this year to being the world's
largest oil refiner — a role which could see its position transformed
significantly in coming months.
Trump's move to blockade Iranian ships saw a shift from a military campaign to an economic one. (Reuters: Jonathan Ernst)
The
war in Iran — and particularly the move by Iran to force shipping to
pay a toll to go through the Strait of Hormuz — has highlighted how
China is using the conflict as part of its push to establish the Chinese
renminbi as the dominant global reserve currency instead of the US
dollar.
Shippers are often asked to pay their Strait of Hormuz toll in RMB.
Indonesia
and Malaysia have always maintained wider economic and political
relations with countries like Russia and Iran than Australia has, and
that is their prerogative.
But
all these events once again highlight just how much rewiring is going on
in the global economy as a result of the current conflict.
Donald
Trump's move to blockade Iranian ships saw a shift from a military
campaign to an economic one that aimed to match Iran's own economic
tactics.
The blockade was
supposed to be targeting Iran's economy. But since it is also targeting
those who are prepared to pay Iranian tolls, it almost inevitably hurts
US allies who are desperate enough to pay them (even if they don't admit
it).
The 10-day deal
In
the meantime, Trump's pattern of trying to perpetually put back a
deadline for action in the Middle East — and or claim credit for
outcomes he has not actually landed — continues.
A
ceasefire in Lebanon had been part of the original proposal for the
ceasefire in Iran, according to the ceasefire's brokers, Pakistan.
But Trump had not initially been able to pull Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into line to stop bombing Lebanon.
The constraints of the deal quickly became clear.
For
starters, the "10 day deal" was between Israel and the government of
Lebanon — which doesn't control the militant group Hezbollah with which
Israel is actually at war.
While
Netanyahu agreed to "a temporary ceasefire of 10 days", he insisted
Israeli forces would remain in what Israel calls a "security zone" that
marks a 10-kilometre incursion into Lebanese territory by Israel.
Hezbollah
said any ceasefire "must be comprehensive across all Lebanese territory
and must not allow the Israeli enemy any freedom of movement".
Lebanon's state news agency reported Israeli shelling on several towns in southern Lebanon after the ceasefire came into effect.
So
in reality it is a deal imposed on Israel to give some more time to
Trump, and to give more space to do a deal with Iran, with which the US
is more than halfway through a ceasefire period and yet to show any
results from it.
The world is
stuck watching a perpetually performative series of announcements about
meetings that could, may, will happen, involving US negotiators with no
negotiating skills and a president not dealing with the reality that he
is in a weak, and confused, bargaining position.
The
possibility that Iran can arrange, via Yemen's Houthis, the blocking of
Saudi shipments currently bypassing the Strait via the Red Sea by
blockading the Strait Bab el-Mandab remains a real prospect.
This is the reality facing the world at present, even if it may not be the reality existing in the mind of the US president.
The
Minns government on Friday announced it had signed a contract with
Snowy Energy to bring all public transport operations in the state under
a single renewable energy agreement for the first time. The seven-year
deal comes into effect from July 2027 and will last until 2034.
The NSW minister for transport, John Graham, said it would reduce costs at a time when fuel uncertainty was seeing more Australians cut back on driving in favour of public transport.
“Cost of living pressures are real for household and government budgets,” he said.
“This
contract reduces costs and moves us towards better environmental
outcomes while we deliver a reliable public transport network.”
The NSW government, which has rejected calls to
follow other states by making public transport free during the fuel
crisis, said savings of $130m on transport power bills would be
reinvested into services.
It
said Snowy Energy, the retail brand of the commonwealth-owed Snowy
Hydro, was awarded the contract after a competitive two-year process.
Prior to the deal, Transport for NSW was already Snowy Energy’s largest customer, contributing more than 10% of its energy sales.
The
Snowy Hydro CEO, Dennis Barnes, said the deal would see public
transport’s consumption of energy matched to wind, solar and
hydroelectric generators in its network through the issue of renewable
energy “certificates”.
“What this deal does is
match the consumption of [Transport for NSW] to the production of
renewable energy somewhere, but it isn’t a physical connection. It’s a
financially traceable connection through certificates.”
He
said in the future this would include assets such as the Snowy Uungala
wind farm, under construction near Dubbo. Snowy Hydro operates three
gas-fired power stations, with fossil fuels contributing 5%-10% of the
power it generates annually.
The state
government has said the deal will lead to “significant emissions
reductions”, avoiding the equivalent of more than 800,000 tonnes of CO2
annually compared with conventional power.
Transport
for NSW, which uses almost as much power as all other NSW public
agencies combined, has a target to reduce operational emissions by 65%
by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2035.
Fossil
fuels are still used on most of the state’s public buses, as well as on
diesel-powered ferries and intercity and regional trains.
The new regional rail fleet, which is bimodal and runs on diesel and electricity, due to replace diesel-powered XPT trains, is several years late. The state government has said electric ferries will fully replace diesel-powered vessels by 2035.
The
government has ordered more than 500 electric buses, of which hundreds
are already in operation, with 7,500 more expected to fully replace the
8,000-strong fleet of diesel-powered vehicles.
Last
month, the NSW Anti-Slavery Commissioner found Transport for NSW had
not taken reasonable steps to engage with groups affected by the
potential use of forced labor in Xinjiang in China and the Democratic
Republic of Congo in the supply chains for lithium-ion batteries.
Palestinians sheltering in tent cities in Gaza fear they have been forgotten. (ABC News)
Palestinians
in Gaza fear the world has forgotten them as the war between the US,
Israel and Iran engulfs the broader Middle East.
Six months after the ceasefire in Gaza began, many Palestinians are still living in incredibly difficult conditions.
Heavy
and unseasonably late rains have continued to batter the strip well
into April, inundating tent communities that are home to hundreds of
thousands of people.
Israeli
strikes against claimed Hamas targets have also continued in Gaza in
recent weeks, despite the ceasefire, as the country's military has
attacked Iran and the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Several strikes have hit tent camps in Gaza or their surroundings.
In
the Al-Sit Amira tent camp, south of Deir al-Balah city in central
Gaza, 46-year-old Rana Khdeir was trying to find a new place to stay
after her fragile shelter was all but destroyed in an Israeli bombing.
"This is the biggest proof that the war is not over,"
she said.
Rana Khdeir's fragile shelter was all but destroyed in an Israeli bombing. (ABC News)
Ms
Khdeir and her family were originally from Beit Lahiya in Gaza's north —
an area that was all but levelled as the IDF sought to create a buffer
zone along the border with Israel.
"We
don't know [what to do]. I will go and see a tent of one of my
neighbours, and spend there the night with my husband and children,
until God will make it easier," she said.
"The most important thing we know is that they forgot us."
An Israeli strike hit a nearby area while the ABC was there filming, injuring residents and destroying temporary shelters.
An Israeli strike on a tent city south of Deir al-Balah.
Nearby,
Fatima Hamdona, 55, was mending her tent after the heavy rain. Her
family had been displaced from the Al Bureij camp in central Gaza.
"We
have been soaked in water, and our mattresses are soaked, our clothes
are soaked, our tent is soaked — we don't have a tent to protect us,"
she said.
Ms Hamdona's husband was killed in the war, and her son was injured. He is currently receiving medical treatment outside Gaza.
"This is not a life. As you see, it seems that Gaza has been forgotten. No-one cares about us,"
she said.
Fatima Hamdona's tent was damaged and inundated by heavy rain. (ABC News)
In
the six months since the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was agreed,
765 people have been killed in Israeli strikes and 2,140 injured.
Israel insists it is targeting Hamas militants, although many women, children and the elderly are among the dead.
Iran war worsens humanitarian conditions
Economist
Mohammad Abu-Jiyab, editor of the Gaza newspaper Al-Iqtisadiya, said 90
per cent of Gaza's population was living below the poverty line.
He
said the war had led to the "destruction or crippling" of much of the
strip's economy, including more than 75 per cent of the agricultural
sector.
"The Iranian war comes to add more complexity to this humanitarian reality in Gaza,"
he said.
"There
is a decline … in the level of humanitarian aid, and also in the levels
of commercial goods, and the rise in prices is noticeable in local
markets in Gaza."
Mohammad Abu-Jiyab says most of Gaza's population is poor. (ABC News)
The
Rafah crossing with Egypt, the only border crossing from Gaza that does
not open into Israel, was closed for a fortnight at the start of the
war with Iran.
It had been
closed for nearly two years during the Gaza war, and was only reopened
again a few weeks before the Iran war broke out.
Humanitarian
agencies and health authorities argued that closing the crossing again
put lives at risk, as people in need of medical evacuation from the
strip could not pass through.
"We
have in the Gaza Strip more than 20,000 sick and wounded that are in
need of medical treatment outside the Gaza Strip," said Khalil Dijran, a
spokesperson for the territory's health ministry.
"More
than 1,500 of the sick and wounded have already died because of two
years of waiting, and there are about 4,500 children that are in need
for treatment outside the Gaza Strip."
Khalil Dijran says the situation in the strip is dire. (ABC News)
While
Rafah was closed for a fortnight, some medical evacuations were allowed
through other crossings — specifically Kerem Shalom, which is
controlled by Israel — and medical cases have now recommenced crossing
through the border.
Dr Dijran
feared the situation would only continue to deteriorate, and the need
for medical treatment would increase — putting further pressure on a
crumbling health system.
"The
residents are living in poor conditions, especially as we are in the
winter … the rain has polluted these tents, and the environment has
become fertile for the spread of diseases and epidemics," he said.
"Hospitals are suffering from very bad conditions in light of [a] major lack of medication … medical supplies and equipment."
Israel denies aid difficulties
The
agency within the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) responsible for
coordinating services in Gaza, COGAT, has repeatedly rejected claims it
has restricted aid, insisting sufficient supplies are entering the
strip.
It said hundreds of
trucks carrying food and other supplies had been entering, even while
extra restrictions were put in place due to the war with Iran.
"It
should be emphasised that throughout the [Gaza] ceasefire, significant
quantities of humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip, including food in
volumes amounting to four times the estimated needs according to the
UN's methodology," COGAT posted on X on March 30.
Tent cities cover large parts of Gaza's coastline. (ABC News)
While
almost all the supplies entered through the Kerem Shalom crossing in
southern Gaza, COGAT said that deliveries were made through the Zikim
crossing in the north after the ceasefire with Iran.
US
President Donald Trump's Board of Peace, established as part of the
Gaza ceasefire process, has only met once since it was formed — and that
was before the Iran war began.
In
the middle of that conflict, the board's representative for Gaza,
Nickolay Mladenov, told the United Nations Security Council a plan had
been laid out for how the ceasefire could progress — particularly the
disarmament of Hamas.
But he warned the world must not be distracted.
"As
tensions in the region escalate with Israeli and US operations against
the regime in Iran and Israel's operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon,
with continuing drone and rocket attacks by Iran and Gulf countries and
global shipping and energy threatened by Iran's closure of the Strait
of Hormuz, we should not lose sight of the situation in Gaza," he said
in late March.
Pope Leo XIV in Bamenda, Cameroon. (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)
In short:
Pope Leo has blasted the "handful of tyrants" spending billions on war during his visit to Cameroon.
The
pontiff did not name any individual but the comments come days after US
President Donald Trump attacked the pope over his stance on the war in
Iran.
What's next?
Experts say Donald Trump's repeated attacks on the pope are losing him favour with Catholics in Italy and around the world.
Pope
Leo XIV has blasted the "tyrants" spending billions on war and
condemned "an endless cycle of destabilisation and death" after his
public spat with US President Donald Trump over the war in Iran.
The
US-born pope made his latest comments during a visit to the African
nation of Cameroon, where he praised peace movements and warned against
allowing religion to enter conflicts.
"Blessed are the peacemakers," he said to crowds who had gathered to meet him.
"But
woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their
own military, economic and political gain, dragging that which is
sacred into darkness and filth.
"The world is being ravaged by a handful of tyrants, yet it is held together by a multitude of supportive brothers and sisters."
The pontiff did not name any individual as he called for a "decisive change of course" that led away from conflict.
Mr
Trump has hit out at the pope several times this week for opposing the
war on Iran, most recently on Thursday afternoon, local time, when he
told reporters he wanted the pontiff to understand the threat posed by
the Islamic regime.
Earlier this week, the US president wrote on Truth Social that: "Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy."
He later said "Leo should get his act together as Pope" and that he was "very much against what I'm doing with regard to Iran".
Australian
Catholic University's Rome campus director, Dr Claudio Betti, told
ABC's The World the US president had lost favour among Italian Catholics
for this attack.
"Everybody is against what this President Trump has said on the pope,"
he said.
"The pope still counts in Italy, he's still an important figure."
A
recent survey conducted in Italy by the group YouTrend found that 79
per cent of Italians disapproved of Mr Trump's handling of the Iran war.
Ahead
of the temporary ceasefire with Iran implemented last week, Mr Trump
posted on Truth Social that a "whole civilisation would die tonight" if
Iran did not agree to a deal with the United States and open the Strait
of Hormuz.
Dr Betti said that comment was what "sparked the whole issue" with the pope.
"The wording is very bad," he said.
Pope Leo XIV leads a meeting for peace at Saint Joseph's Cathedral in Bamenda, Cameroon. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
But he said the pontiff's comments were merely "part of the Catholic doctrine".
"He just repeated what many others have said before him and, of course, that's what we should have expected," Dr Betti said.
"My feeling is the pope is trying to downplay the issue, he will continue to speak the truth and to speak against war.
"I think that's part of his legacy.
"Now the ball is not in the Pope's field, it's in President Trump's field."
The Archbishop of Canterbury has also come out in solidarity with the pope, calling for peace in the Middle East.
Archbishop
Sarah Mullally, who assumed her role as head of the Church of England
in January, said she stood with the pope in his "courageous call for
peace".
"As innocent people are
killed and displaced, families torn apart, and futures destroyed, the
human cost of war is incalculable," she said in a statement.
"It is the calling of every Christian — and of all people of faith and goodwill — to work and pray for peace."
Though
she didn't mention Mr Trump by name, the Archbishop said that
Christians must "urge all those entrusted with political authority to
pursue every possible peaceful and just means of resolving conflict''.
Earlier
this week, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was one of Mr
Trump's closest allies, also came out in support of the pope.
"I find President Trump's words towards the Holy Father unacceptable," she said.
"The
pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and normal for
him to call for peace and to condemn every form of war."
