China, Sudan, Myanmar.

Today's three stories you should know.

Mar 21, 2022

China

It’s been covered by several media organisations but I’m surprised this story has not been given more prominence today. All 132 people onboard a passenger jet in China are feared dead after it crashed into a remote and mountainous area in the south of the country. Data from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24 showed the China Eastern Airlines plane dropping from an altitude of 29,100 feet to 3,225 feet in just three minutes before it stopped transmitting information. China’s air safety record is among the best in the world and the last fatal crash involving a Chinese airliner happened in 2010. President Xi Jinping has ordered an investigation into the tragedy.

More from the South China Morning Post here.

Sudan

Longtime Proximities readers know that determined protests have continued in Sudan’s streets since a military coup last October, despite security forces shooting an estimated 87 demonstrators dead in the four-month period. Today, the US imposed sanctions on the country’s Central Reserve Police force, accusing it of being at the forefront of the crackdown. The heavily-armed and much-feared division of the police was formed during the early 2000s war in Darfur. October’s coup brought to an end a delicate power-sharing agreement between the army and civilian groups.

Myanmar

The rights group Global Witness today revealed it had deliberately sent eight paid ads for approval to Facebook, each one including hate speech against Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. Facebook approved all eight of the ads for publication. The revelation is particularly relevant given Facebook was in 2018 accused by a UN fact-finding mission of “playing a determining role” in a military onslaught against the Rohingya people that the UN said included “genocidal acts.” Separately, the US today formally recognised the campaign against the Rohingya, which drove at least 730,000 people across the border into neighboring Bangladesh, as a genocide.