Ready Player One
NEED TO KNOW
Ready Player One
MYANMAR
In Myanmar, rebels play a video game called SpringBees to raise money for the civilian-led exiled National Unity Government that opposes the military junta which seized control of the Southeast Asian country in a 2021 coup.
“It provides support for our cause while offering a way to unwind,” a player in combat fatigues told Deutsche Welle. “That’s what keeps me coming back to it.”
Three ethnic-based armies have gained ground against the Myanmar central government’s forces. The People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), who are affiliated with the National Unity Government, are fighting intensely, too.
These gains have put pressure on the junta under President Min Aung Hlaing, Newsweek wrote. The country controls less than a quarter of the country now. Fighting has also displaced at least 3.4 million people. Corruption is rampant. The weak state is failing to uphold basic services, like sanitation that would prevent outbreaks of cholera, the Bangkok Post noted.
The rebels’ victory still appears to be a distant possibility, however. As World Politics Review explained, the two major rebel groups are only loosely coordinating with each other. The ethnic forces seek independence for their communities. The National Unity Government wants to restore the government ousted in the 2021 coup. The junta, meanwhile, has powerful patrons in China and Russia, two countries that have provided crucial aid in its times of trouble.
For example, as the Conversation noted, the Chinese government and Myanmar’s military junta are establishing a joint security company to protect Chinese projects and personnel from the civil war. “This development is extremely concerning and does not bode well for any of the players involved,” it said.
Min Aung Hlaing faces other issues, mainly because he oversaw a genocidal campaign against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority from 2016 through 2017. The International Criminal Court has issued a warrant for his arrest. At the same time, some Rohingya are slipping back into the country to fight the junta, Reuters noted.
Writing in a commentary for National Public Radio, the former American ambassador to Myanmar, Derek Mitchell, agreed that the junta was terrible. But he noted that Aung San Suu Kyi, the symbolic leader of the National Unity Government who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her opposition to the junta, also “underwent a reputational transformation” for defending the military’s actions.
Today Aung San Suu Kyi, who endured years of house arrest under the junta, is in solitary confinement in jail, the Independent wrote in an op-ed. She is one of an estimated 20,000 political prisoners in the country. Torture is common. One journalist said security forces had cut off his brother’s legs for liking an anti-junta Facebook post, reported Mint, an Indian newspaper.
The rebels might be routing the government, noted World Politics Review. But it will likely end in a stalemate, not regime change.
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Little Steps
LEBANON
Lebanese lawmakers elected Gen. Joseph Aoun as president Thursday, ending a two-year presidential vacuum that had paralyzed the government, stalled critical reforms, and heightened fears of a wider collapse amid ongoing economic and political crises, the Washington Post reported.
Aoun – who is the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces and a US-backed candidate – secured broad political support, including from rival blocs in parliament, signaling a rare moment of consensus in the deeply divided nation.
Thursday’s vote was the first parliamentary session to elect a president since June 2023 and the 13th attempt since 2022, when Aoun’s predecessor Michel Aoun – who is not related to the army chief – completed his six-year term.
The breakthrough came after Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful political and military faction, endorsed the army leader during the second round.
Hezbollah initially withheld its votes in the first round to signal its influence but ultimately backed Aoun to promote “national cohesion.”
Observers noted that the shift comes as the Iran-backed group is facing weakened military and political standing after its war with Israel and the downfall of Syrian President Bashar Assad, CNN wrote.
The election also comes amidst the implementation of a US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Under the agreement, Israeli forces must withdraw from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26, with the Lebanese military taking over to prevent a security vacuum.
Aoun will be overseeing this process and managing post-war reconstruction, which the World Bank estimates will cost around $8.5 billion.
In his acceptance speech, Aoun pledged to address Lebanon’s deep economic crisis, promising reforms to unlock foreign aid and declaring a “new era” for the nation.
He vowed to “monopolize weapons” under state control – a statement that indirectly challenges Hezbollah’s armed dominance.
Analysts view Aoun’s election as a step toward restoring functionality to Lebanon’s fragile system, but warned of obstacles ahead, including Hezbollah’s enduring influence and the challenge of forming a government capable of enacting reforms.
Lebanon’s confessional power-sharing system requires the president to be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister to be Sunni Muslim, and the speaker of parliament to be a Shiite Muslim.
While the presidency’s powers were diminished after the 1975-1990 civil war, the role remains critical for signing laws, ratifying treaties, and forming governments.
Drunken Siege
CHAD
Eighteen assailants and one presidential guard died during an attack on the presidential complex of Chad, amidst political turmoil in the central African nation, according to the Guardian.
Officials said 24 assailants attempted to storm the presidential palace in Chad’s capital N’Djamena armed with knives and machetes Wednesday evening. The “destabilization attempt” happened while President Mahamat Déby Itno was inside, said Foreign Affairs Minister Abderaman Koulamallah.
The attackers arrived at the complex in a few vehicles and stabbed the four entrance guards, killing one and injuring two. Following, they then walked into the presidency where other guards shot at them, killing 18 and detaining six others, reported the Guardian.
Following the attack, rumors spread online that the attack could be traced back to the Islamic militant group Boko Haram which launched an insurgency against Western education more than a decade ago, according to the Associated Press.
The group has sought to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast, and the insurgency has spread to neighboring West African countries such as Chad.
Even so, Koulamallah said that the assault was probably not a terrorist attack, as the attackers were local youths from N’Djamena, reported the wire. He also referred to the attackers as drunk “Pieds Nickeles,” referring to a French comic featuring unlucky crooks.
The attack came a week after parliamentary elections that were boycotted by the main opposition party, Les Transformateurs.
Chad has been grappling with a period of political turmoil before and after the controversial May presidential elections that resulted in a win for Déby Itno, who led the country as interim president during a period of military rule that followed his father’s death.
His father, Idriss Déby Itno, had ruled Chad since a military coup in the early 1990s but was killed by rebels in 2021.
In November, Chad also ended a defense cooperation agreement with France, leading to the withdrawal of 1,000 French military personnel. The pact with France had made Chad an important actor in the fight against Islamic militants in the Sahel.
Neighborhood Watch
FINLAND
NATO will deploy around 10 ships to guard critical undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea this week, in response to recent damage to power and telecommunications cables that has heightened fears of sabotage in the strategically vital region, Newsweek reported.
The vessels will remain in the area until April and will be stationed near energy and data cables to deter potential sabotage.
The deployment comes after a series of incidents that saw a number of cables and pipelines damaged in recent months. These include disruptions to the Estlink 2 power cable between Finland and Estonia last month, as well as damage to two undersea cables – one linking Finland to Germany (C-Lion 1) and another connecting Lithuania to Sweden – in November.
Finnish authorities are investigating the Russian oil tanker “Eagle S,” which allegedly dragged its anchor over the cables, leaving visible marks on the seabed, Politico added. Police recovered an anchor from the Gulf of Finland this week and detained the vessel for further investigation.
The Baltic Sea, often referred to as a “NATO lake,” has become a focal point for geopolitical tension following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The region is known for its critical infrastructure and proximity to Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave.
Earlier disruptions targeted a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia in October, as well as the Nord Stream pipelines linking Russia and Germany in 2022.
Observers and NATO officials have warned that these undersea cables are vulnerable targets in hybrid warfare,
Around 99 percent of the world’s data flows through undersea cables, which are critical for Internet services, communications, and economic activity.
The British-led Joint Expeditionary Force, comprising Nordic and Baltic nations, will use artificial intelligence to monitor suspicious vessel activity, including Russia’s “shadow fleet.”
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte vowed to enhance military presence in the Baltic, calling the incidents “deeply concerning.”
Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen welcomed the strengthened NATO and regional collaboration, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding vital infrastructure.
DISCOVERIES
Becoming a Novelty
Today, twins account for about three percent of live births in the United States, with modern fertility treatments contributing to their rise.
While such births are still a novelty, tens of millions of years ago they were the norm for our primate ancestors, according to a new study.
Scientists from Western Washington University and Yale University found that some 60 million years ago prehistoric primates would regularly give birth to twins, a finding that challenges the long-held belief that singleton births were the standard among primates.
The research team studied litter size across nearly 1,000 mammal species, as well as used mathematical models and data from public databases to get a better picture of the evolutionary history of primate reproduction, Interesting Engineering noted.
Their findings showed that primates initially favored twin births but shifted to singletons around 50 million years ago, coinciding with a critical period in our evolutionary journey: Encephalization, or the expansion of brain size.
Researchers explained that this life history trait is “significantly correlated with gestation length.” They added that multifetal pregnancies – namely, twins or even triplets – were associated with “smaller brains and body sizes, short gestation, and rapid growth.”
“We propose that the switch from twins to singletons was critical for the evolution of large human babies with large brains that were capable of complex learning as infants and young children,” they wrote in the Conversation.
However, this evolutionary shift wasn’t a one-time event.
The team found that the transition from twins to singletons occurred multiple times across primate lineages, underscoring the adaptive advantage of birthing one larger, more developed baby over multiple smaller ones.
“Multifetal gestation requires more energy from the mother, and because the babies are born smaller, and often earlier, early primate ancestors who gave birth to just one large offspring may have been at a survival advantage,” the authors added.