Myanmar’s deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from house arrest to solitary confinement in a prison in the capital Nay Pyi Taw. The Nobel laureate, 77, was arrested when the military overthrew her elected government in February 2021. For the past year she has been held at an undisclosed location in the capital. Ms Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to 11 years in jail and denies a host of charges which have been widely condemned as politically-motivated. Her move to solitary confinement makes her more isolated than ever – she became a global democracy icon during a previous period of military rule when she spent 15 years in detention, but almost all of it was under house arrest. It’s thought Ms Suu Kyi, who remains highly popular in the country, will attend trial hearings from a special court set up inside prison. Sources close to the court told BBC Burmese that she had been moved on Wednesday to separate, specially-built accommodation inside the jail. Her colleague, ousted President Win Myint, is in similar solitary confinement in the jail.(BBC)…[+]

Colleagues rifling through your underwear drawer. A boss demanding sex in exchange for promotion. Unsolicited nude photos, innuendo, and assaults. These are all experiences of women in Western Australia’s mining industry, as told to a state parliament inquiry. Its report was handed down Thursday, revealing sexual harassment is rife at sites run by large mining firms. The landmark report described the harassment as “appalling” and “generally accepted or overlooked”. Australia’s richest mining companies – including BHP and Rio Tinto – run large operations in the state’s remote Pilbara region, to unearth iron ore, copper and other minerals. Thousands of workers are flown in each season and housed in village camp-style accommodation.(BBC)…[+]

Germany has taken a step closer to gas rationing after a drop in supplies from Russia. The country has triggered the “alarm” stage of an emergency gas plan to deal with shortages, Germany’s economy ministry said. It is the latest part of a standoff between the European Union and Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. German economy minister Robert Habeck said Russia was using gas “as a weapon” in response to EU sanctions. “We must not fool ourselves. The cut in gas supplies is an economic attack on us by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Mr Habeck said, adding Germans would have to reduce consumption. Mr Habeck said there would “hopefully never” be a need to ration gas for German industry, but he added: “Of course, I can’t rule it out.” Germany has now moved to the second stage of its three-part emergency plan, which is triggered when there is disruption or very high demand for gas. The government will provide €15bn (£13bn) of loans to try to fill gas storage facilities, and will start auctioning gas to industry to encourage big businesses to use less. Moving to stage two of the plan puts more pressure on suppliers and network operators to balance out disruption by taking measures such as finding alternative sources for gas.(BBC)…[+]