Myanmar, Somalia, Syria.

Today's three stories you should know.

Oct 12, 2022

Myanmar

Myanmar’s toppled leader Aung San Suu Kyi was today handed another three years in prison. It’s a relative drop in the ocean, though, because it brings to 26 years the total sentence for the Nobel Laureate with charges still pending against her. The country’s military overthrew a democratically-elected government in February 2021 and has since then jailed a whole slew of political opponents on what rights groups say are trumped-up charges. Protests against the coup, which were brutally suppressed, morphed into an insurgency in which more than 2,000 people have so far been killed.

Somalia

At least 20 al-Shabab rebels have been killed by the army in Somalia, according to the country’s information ministry. President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud came to power in August promising to step up government efforts to defeat the group and it appears the renewed campaign is having some success with troops reportedly recapturing several villages from Shabab. The armed group, which controls significant parts of rural Somalia, has been battling the government for more than a decade in an attempt to take over the country and impose its own interpretation of Islamic law.

Syria

An extraordinary investigation from the BBC today revealed that Syrian refugees who are using TikTok to appeal for financial help are having 70 percent of the proceeds taken by the social media company. The report found children were streaming on the app for hours asking for digital gifts with a cash value. Some of the streams were raking in about $1,000 an hour but the refugees were receiving only a fraction of that amount. TikTok declined to say exactly what percentage it takes from such streams but said it would take swift action against what it called "exploitative begging."