Category World News

It was built on democracy, open markets and cooperation – with America at the helm.

But the rules-based global order created after World War II is now under strain. Conflicts are rising. International rules are being tested. Trade tensions are escalating. And alliances are shifting.

At the centre of it all is US President Donald Trump.

In just a few short weeks, he’s captured Venezuela’s president, vowed to take control of Greenland, and threatened to slap tariffs on those who oppose him.

Meanwhile, China is presenting itself as a stable partner.

Syria’s Ministry of Interior has ordered the immediate implementation of a new decree granting citizenship to Kurdish minorities, as government forces continue to consolidate control of the country after a rapid offensive against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the north of the country.

Interior Minister Anas Khattab issued the decision on Wednesday, mandating that the decree applies to all Kurds residing in Syria and explicitly includes those listed as stateless, the Anadolu news agency reported, citing the Syrian television station Alikhbariah.

The ministry has set a February 5 deadline for finalising the measures and their rollout, the report said.

Two weeks ago, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa had declared the recognition of Kurdish as one of the country’s national languages and the restoration of citizenship to all Kurdish Syrians, as he announced a ceasefire between Syrian and Kurdish forces.

The rapid advance of Syrian forces forced the SDF to withdraw from more cities, including Raqqa and Deir Az Zor, allowing the government in Damascus to unite the country after a nearly 14-year-long ruinous civil war.

The development has drawn praise from United States President Donald Trump, who told al-Sharaa that he was “very happy” about the Syrian army offensive despite the previous US backing of the SDF.

Still, there have been reports of Kurdish civilians facing a shortage of food and displacement as a standoff between Syrian forces and the SDF continues in the country’s northern region.

According to the Anadolu report, the authorities in charge of rolling out al-Sharaa’s order have been asked to draft instructions and guidelines for the decree’s implementation at once.

Under al-Sharaa’s decree, the state has also been instructed to safeguard the culture and language of Syrian Kurds, as well as the teaching of the Kurdish language in public and private schools in Kurdish-majority areas.

The decree has also designated March 21 as the date of the Newroz festival, a nationwide celebration welcoming spring that is widely observed, not just in Syria.

On Wednesday, al-Sharaa met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow to discuss the future of Syria and the presence of Russian troops in the country.

At the meeting, Putin praised his Syrian counterpart’s ongoing efforts to stabilise his country.

China has executed 11 people linked to online scam centres in Myanmar, according to state media, as Beijing toughens its crackdown on the illegal operations.

Those executed on Thursday were sentenced to death in September by a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou, Xinhua said, adding that the court also carried out the executions.

The crimes of those executed included “intentional homicide, intentional injury, unlawful detention, fraud and casino establishment”, Xinhua added.

Fraud compounds where scammers lure internet users into fake romantic relationships and cryptocurrency investments have flourished across Southeast Asia, including in Myanmar’s borderlands.

Largely targeting Chinese speakers at the outset, the criminal groups behind the compounds have expanded operations into multiple languages to steal from and defraud victims around the world.

Those conducting the scams are sometimes willing con artists, and other times trafficked foreign nationals forced to work.

In recent years, Beijing has stepped up cooperation with Thailand and Myanmar to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to face trial.

The death sentences for the 11 people executed were approved by the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing, which found that the evidence produced of crimes committed since 2015 was “conclusive and sufficient”, reported Xinhua.

Among the executed were members of the “Ming family criminal group”, whose activities had contributed to the deaths of 14 Chinese citizens and injuries to “many others”.

Fraud operations centred in Myanmar’s border regions have extracted billions of dollars from around the world through phone and internet scams.

Experts say most of the centres are run by Chinese-led crime syndicates working with Myanmar militias, who have been taking advantage of the country’s instability and ongoing war.

Myanmar’s military government has long been accused of turning a blind eye to the centres but has trumpeted a crackdown since February after being lobbied by key military backer China, experts say.

Some of its raids have been part of a propaganda effort, according to several monitors, choreographed to vent pressure from Beijing without badly denting profits that enrich the military government’s militia allies.

In October, the military arrested more than 2,000 people in a raid on KK Park, an infamous scam centre on the border with Thailand.

The September rulings that resulted in Thursday’s executions also included death sentences with two-year reprieves to five other individuals.

Another 23 suspects were given prison sentences ranging from five years to life.

In November, Chinese authorities sentenced five people to death for their involvement in scam operations in Myanmar’s Kokang region.

Their crimes had led to the deaths of six Chinese nationals, according to state media reports.

The United Nations estimates that as many as 120,000 people may be working in online scam centres in Myanmar.

Another 100,000 may be trapped in Cambodia, according to the UN, with thousands more in similar facilities across Southeast Asia.

Online scam operations have proliferated in Cambodia since the COVID-19 pandemic, when the global shutdown saw many Chinese-owned casinos and hotels in the country pivot to illicit operations.

Operating from industrial-scale scam centres, tens of thousands of workers perpetrate online romance scams known as “pig-butchering”, often targeting people in the West in a vastly lucrative industry responsible for the theft of tens of billions of dollars each year.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime warned in April that the cyberscam industry was spreading across the world, including to South America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and a number of Pacific Islands.

Dozens of people have been killed in a drone attack by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on a key town in war-torn Sudan’s South Kordofan state, according to local media reports.

Multiple areas of Dilling, including the headquarters of the Sudanese army’s 54th Brigade and the central market, were struck by suicide drones during Wednesday’s attack, the Sudan Tribune reported, citing local sources and medical groups.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the latest RSF attack, which came a day after the government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) announced that it had broken a nearly two-year-long RSF siege on Dilling, gaining control over key supply lines.

Dilling lies halfway between Kadugli – the besieged state capital – and el-Obeid, the capital of neighbouring North Kordofan province, which the RSF has sought to encircle.

The RSF and the SAF have been waging a brutal civil war for control of Sudan since April 2023, which has killed thousands of people and displaced millions.

Since the siege was lifted, Dilling has endured a wave of drone attacks that have destroyed service facilities and caused several casualties.

Military sources told the Sudan Tribune that the RSF was attempting to reinstate the blockade, though the SAF continues to hold the area and repel assaults near the strategic town of Habila in North Kordofan state.

Amid these clashes, the Sudan Doctors Network has called for an urgent humanitarian corridor to deliver life-saving food and medicine. Local sources said the situation on the ground remains desperate, with a severe lack of health services and a critical shortage of essential supplies, particularly intravenous fluids.

After being forced out of the capital, Khartoum, in March, the RSF has focused on the Kordofan region and el-Fasher city in North Darfur state, which was the military’s last stronghold in the sprawling Darfur region until the RSF seized it in October.

Reports of the paramilitary carrying out mass killings, rape, abductions and looting emerged after el-Fasher’s takeover, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) launched a formal investigation into “war crimes” by both sides.

Dilling has reportedly experienced severe hunger, but the world’s leading authority on food security, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, did not declare famine there in its November report because of a lack of data.

A United Nations-backed assessment last year confirmed famine in Kadugli, which has been under RSF siege for more than a year and a half.

More than 65,000 people have fled the Kordofan region since October, according to the latest UN figures.

The conflict has created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crisis, though some people have returned to their homes despite shattered infrastructure.

At its peak, the war has displaced about 14 million people, both internally and across borders.