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The court trying ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will hear its first testimony on Monday more than four months after a military coup that deposed her democratically elected government. The military junta that brought down the government February 1 has brought a raft of charges against the Nobel laureate who is the de-facto leader of Myanmar's democracy. The charges range from breaking a colonial-era secrecy law to illegally accepting 11 kilograms of gold. On Monday, her defense team will cross-examine witnesses over charges she improperly imported walkie-talkies and flouted coronavirus restrictions during last year's elections that her National League for Democracy won in a landslide. Her lawyers who have been allowed to meet with her just twice since she was placed under house arrest have said they expect the trial to wrap up by July 26 with the hearings every Monday. If convicted of all charges, Aung San Suu Kyi, who is 75, faces more than a decade in jail. Near daily protests have rocked Myanmar since the coup removed her government from power in February after 10 years of democratic rule. The pro-democracy demonstrations have been met with a brutal military crackdown that has killed some 850 people, according to a local monitoring group.
Israel swore a new government in on Sunday that ended the 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new government has Naftali Bennett, the head of a small, religious ultranationalist party, at the head. He is now the new leader of the Jewish state. Bennett will be the prime minister for two years under a power-sharing agreement among eight political parties. Those parties have very little in common other than wanting to end the leadership of Netanyahu. Bennett is a former Netanyahu ally who served as his defense minister in 2019 and 2020. After two years, Bennett will be replaced for two years by Yair Lapid. He is a one-time finance minister and former TV news anchor who brokered the deal to get rid of Netanyahu. Lapid won the second-biggest vote total behind Netanyahu's Likud party last March. It was the fourth indecisive Israeli election in the past two years. U.S. President Biden has congratulated the new Israeli leaders. He says he looks forward to strengthening "all aspects of the close and enduring relationship" between the two nations.
British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab criticized the European Union Sunday for treating Northern Ireland as if it were a separate country rather than part of the United Kingdom. He said that approach is causing damage to the British province. Britain's Telegraph newspaper reported French President Emmanuel Macron had suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the United Kingdom during his meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Via remote, I'm Marissa Melton, VOA News.
