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Police Chased the Wrong Man, Then Shot Him and Watched as He Bled Out

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Akela Lacy
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Police Chased the Wrong Man, Then Shot Him and Watched as He Bled Out


In the early hours of January 6, 2026, two 911 callers near Ypsilanti, Michigan, reported a white van driving erratically. 

Within an hour, police had found a white van, crashed into it twice on purpose, and fired 27 shots at the driver while the vehicle lay on its side, burning. At least eight cops watched as 34-year old Navy veteran John Andrew Jenuwine bled out and died inside.

Of several inconsistencies in the police response, one stood out: The only physical description provided to the dispatcher was that “two Black guys” were driving the van, and a caller said they’d brandished a handgun at his wife. Jenuwine was white, driving alone, and unarmed.

That’s not what police told Jenuwine’s parents when they contacted them the following evening, 17 hours after killing their son.

“We were told that there was an exchange of gunfire, and that John was killed,” John’s father, Larry Jenuwine, told The Intercept. “Call it naïveté or whatever you want to call it, but our first thoughts were, ‘Oh my God, what did he do, why did he cause this?’” 

On the phone with Larry and Kelly, John’s mother, a deputy with the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office claimed their recently deceased son had a gun. But Jenuwine, an industrial field engineer traveling to repair million-dollar lasers, just had his work equipment; no gun was ever found in his van. And the officers who caused two intentional collisions appear to have violated their own policies, which the department updated after the police killing of George Floyd — testing the limits of post-2020 police reforms.

“We were told that there was an exchange of gunfire, and that John was killed. Come to find out, he didn’t do anything to cause any of this.”

The Jenuwine family is now suing Washtenaw County and eight sheriff’s deputies who responded to the case for wrongful death; for violating John’s constitutional rights to protection under the law, and against unreasonable searches and seizures; and for gross negligence and willful misconduct, including improper use of deadly force. The suit seeks to hold the county responsible for what it calls the sheriff’s failures to train officers and enforce its policies.

“Come to find out, he didn’t do anything to cause any of this,” Larry said. “He was not the guy that they were supposed to be chasing.”

Less than 15 minutes elapsed between the time Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputies incorrectly identified Jenuwine’s van and when they started shooting. Officers fired their first shots seconds after causing Jenuwine’s vehicle to flip on its side and catch fire. 

Only seven out of the 27 shots fired hit Jenuwine. None of them alone was responsible for killing him, according to an independent autopsy obtained by Jenuwine’s family and described by their attorneys in a press conference last week, which found he bled out and died over time. While Jenuwine struggled and died, dashcam footage shared with The Intercept recorded officers outside discussing whether any of the shots had hit him. 

After several minutes had passed, one officer said over the radio, “He’s kicking around inside the vehicle right now.” None of them called for emergency services.

According to the footage, an edited version of which was viewed by The Intercept, Jenuwine lay dying in the van for at least five minutes. 

“The cruelty of it, I suppose, is what strikes me the most,” said Maura Battersby, one of the attorneys representing the family. “If aid had been rendered, he may have survived this.” 

Of the four deputies attorneys said fired shots, two names have been publicly released: Jacob Gombos and Jonathan Early. Both received awards in 2024 for distinguished service; Gombos got the department’s Life Saving Award. 

“If aid had been rendered, he may have survived this.” 

The sheriff’s office placed Gombos, Earley, and the other deputies involved on paid administrative leave pending an investigation by Michigan State Police, which was completed last month and is now pending review by the Michigan attorney general. The state AG will decide whether to bring criminal charges against any of the officers in the case. 

A spokesperson for the Michigan State Police confirmed that their investigation is closed and referred questions to the attorney general’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office and the Ypsilanti Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. 

One of the officers who shot at Jenuwine had received the department’s Life Saving Award.

The case has brought renewed scrutiny to the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office, which is currently facing dual lawsuits from whistleblowers who claimed the department hired unqualified officers and fired them in retaliation for reporting it. Both plaintiffs are former office staff who said they were fired after raising concerns that Sheriff Alyshia Dyer and other staff pushed them to hire candidates who had lied about their qualifications and in one case had an “extensive” criminal history. Another sheriff’s deputy resigned in March while under investigation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a subordinate officer. Dyer herself was also independently investigated last year after a partially burned cannabis cigarette was found in her county-issued vehicle. (She denied it was hers, and an independent report could not determine whether the joint belonged to Dyer.)

“It seems like every day we hear something about the Washtenaw Sheriff’s department,” Kelly Jenuwine told The Intercept. “They are in the news constantly, and it’s not for a good reason.”

Jenuwine’s killing raises a new round of questions about the efficacy of police reform. In 2024, Michigan implemented new statewide guidelines restricting vehicle pursuits to “protect the lives of innocent bystanders.” Following the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s office released a memo outlining how its policies aligned with a series of proposed reforms pushed by activists against police violence that grew out of 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri. And the sheriff’s office adopted a new use of force policy in 2022, which classifies intentional vehicle collisions — known as a “PIT” maneuver, a precision immobilization technique — as deadly force. 

“That’s something you’re trained not to do,” said Todd Flood, the lead attorney on the Jenuwines’ case.

The new policy also guides officers to “seek voluntary compliance and operate with minimal reliance on the use of force,” using techniques in crisis intervention and “rapport-building communication,” and try to de-escalate, even after using force. It requires a mandatory medical evaluation when deadly force is applied, if an officer observes an injury, or if they believe one has occurred; and it ties the degree of appropriate force to how certain they are that the subject committed a crime. The policy states: “Sheriff’s Office employees shall never employ excessive force.”  

Officers did not verbally engage with Jenuwine a single time, Battersby told The Intercept.

“I would have expected them to be calling out over the loudspeaker,” Battersby said. “There were many instances in which they were in close proximity to him, and it doesn’t appear that they did that.” 

At a press conference after the shooting, the Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office played a dashcam video that showed Jenuwine reversing his van and driving on the wrong side of the road. Before the sheriffs hit Jenuwine’s van in the first PIT maneuver, the dashcam video cuts ahead, with the video timestamp jumping forward 30 seconds.

The Jenuwines said what they describe as John’s “execution” changed the way they look at law enforcement after having considered themselves generally supportive of police. “I want the people that executed my son to never have the opportunity to work in law enforcement again,” said Kelly. 

“They ran around with those guns like they were playing video games, guns held sideways,” Larry said, referring to the dashcam footage. “I’m still struggling with this and I anticipate that’s going to be a continuing struggle.”

Despite believing the vast majority of police were “good, honest, hard-working people,” he said, “I don’t believe these guys that were involved in this shooting were. And that’s the kind of people we need to get out of that system.”

“We want to make sure that the people involved in this, in John’s death, are held accountable,” Larry said. “We’re hoping that there will be criminal charges as well, but we can’t count on that.”

Jenuwine liked to spend his time outdoors fishing and hunting with his family, his parents told The Intercept. He was on his high school football team, spent six years in the Navy, and was a member of a Detroit motorcycle club. When he was growing up, he and Larry worked on cars and tractors together.

On what would have been Jenuwine’s 35th birthday last month, his parents said they spent the evening crying over a birthday cake. 

“Those officers get to go home to their families every night,” Kelly said. “What Larry and I get, we get a box of ashes and a lock of my son’s hair.”

How China’s ‘red lines’ are quietly shaping global news reporting

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IwPost
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How China’s ‘red lines’ are quietly shaping global news reporting

In late 2013, the then-editor in chief of Bloomberg News, Matthew Winkler, spiked an investigation into the hidden wealth of China’s elite. Publishing it, he warned reporters on a call, would “wipe out everything we have tried to build.”

More than a decade on, that trade-off, access versus accuracy, has hardened into habit. Reporters have learned where the lines are, and words quietly vanish from drafts.

This is not a distant problem for Canadians. In 2022, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation closed its Beijing bureau after more than 40 years, not through any expulsion, but because authorities simply stopped issuing visas to its correspondents. As editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon put it, “the effect is the same.”

The CBC did not trim its coverage to preserve access, as Bloomberg did; it was pushed out altogether. Yet the absence serves Beijing’s purpose all the same: whether a newsroom softens its own language or loses its correspondents entirely, the result is fewer independent eyes on China and a thinner, more cautious record of it.

Under Xi Jinping, the Communist Party has expanded its control over political language to the point where it challenges journalism’s most basic task: describing the world accurately.

The newsroom chill

Words like “authoritarian” and Xi’s name in anything but flattering contexts are charged enough to invite visa denials, expulsions or quiet exclusion from official access.

When German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, rightfully or wrongfully, called Xi a “dictator” in 2023, Beijing reacted furiously; in most newsrooms it barely registered. That muted reaction, from the institutions whose job is to describe political systems accurately, is itself the story.

The price of crossing Beijing’s lines is well documented. In 2020, China expelled at least 13 American journalists from the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, the largest expulsion since the Tiananmen era. The BBC’s John Sudworth left in 2021 amid pressure over his reporting in Xinjiang, an autonomous region in northwest China that’s home to many ethnic minority groups, including Uyghurs.

The more corrosive effect, though, comes before publication. As the Columbia Journalism Review documented, the Bloomberg decision became a template: Market access and editorial independence are at odds, and outlets now soften language or drop stories pre-emptively. US political scientist Perry Link likened Chinese censorship to an “anaconda in the chandelier” — the snake rarely strikes, because everyone below can feel it watching.

The result isn’t false reporting, but a slow narrowing of the words journalists will use.

When accuracy becomes provocation

I should declare an interest. I study authoritarian governance for a living, and “authoritarian” is not, in my field, a slur. It is shorthand for systems built on concentrated power, limited pluralism and tight constraints on civil liberties. By any standard academic definition, China qualifies.

Nonetheless, Beijing treats it as a slur, and some outlets step around it. When newsrooms reach for euphemisms, “one-party rule,” or official coinages like “whole-process democracy,” they take part in a kind of linguistic laundering, leaving the facts accurate but the frame shifted in China’s favour.

The problem runs beyond single words: reporters must decide whether Xinjiang’s facilities are “camps,” whether Hong Kong’s security law is a crackdown or a “restoration of order.” Each choice shapes how readers understand China.

The access trap

The dilemma is real: Correspondents on the ground produce reporting nothing else can replace, and some editors argue that holding onto a bureau, even at some cost, is the least bad option. The trouble is the ratchet: Each accommodation sets a new baseline, and Beijing uses access as leverage across outlets at once.

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China’s latest report, New Red Lines, found that 86 per cent of correspondents surveyed had interview requests declined or canceled, and 38 per cent said Chinese colleagues had been harassed or intimidated.

Surveillance is pervasive: one Henan provincial system exposed in 2021 was built to sort journalists into “traffic-light” categories, with a “red” label flagging them for hostile treatment.

When one outlet softens its language to retain access, the rest feel pressure to follow.

What to do about it

A single newsroom that challenges Beijing’s terminology or pushes back on access restrictions can be isolated and punished at little cost to Beijing; when outlets act together, no one of them carries the risk alone.

News organizations should publish clear standards for political terminology, protecting classifications like “authoritarian” where the evidence warrants. Press freedom groups should track and publicize Beijing’s pressure on foreign media. And outlets should respond together: When one is punished, peers can echo its language in solidarity, since Beijing’s strategy depends on isolating individual targets.

Canada has particular reason to care: with the CBC’s bureau shut, one of its largest newsrooms now covers China from the outside, leaving the national conversation more exposed to compromises made elsewhere.

Journalism exists to describe the world as it is, not as the powerful would like. The question is not whether calling China authoritarian offends Beijing (it does), but whether that offense will be allowed to redraw the vocabulary that accurate reporting depends on.

For now, this is being decided one newsroom at a time at news organizations around the world. Newsrooms must establish these standards collectively and publicly – before the boundaries of acceptable speech are dictated to them.

Reza Hasmath is a professor in political science, University of Alberta.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Microsoft spots new self-propagating malware for stealing cryptocurrency

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IwPost
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Microsoft spots new self-propagating malware for stealing cryptocurrency

Microsoft says it has detected new self-propagating malware that spreads through USB drives in search of cryptocurrency credentials, which it then sends to attacker-controlled servers.

The company named the worm Crypto Clipper because it monitors the contents of device clipboards for patterns consistent with wallet addresses or seed phrases. When found, the malware also takes five screenshots over a 10-second period. Both the credentials and the screenshots are then sent to the attacker through Tor, a network protocol that provides anonymous routing by sending traffic through redundant nodes so logs can’t capture both the sending and receiving IP addresses. Crypto Clipper establishes the Tor connection by using a SOCKS5 proxy, a network protocol that sends traffic through a proxy server, which then forwards it to its final destination.

A lightweight backdoor

“The execution of this clipper is notable because it does not depend on a traditional installer or exposed IP-based C2 infrastructure,” Microsoft said Thursday. “Instead, it deploys a portable Tor client, routes traffic through a local SOCKS5 proxy, and blends data theft with remote code execution, turning a financially motivated stealer into a lightweight backdoor.”

Microsoft said it observed Crypto Clipper spreading through .lnk file on a USB drive. These files store executable code. When an infected USB drive is plugged into a device, the code checks whether it is already installed on the machine. If it isn’t, the malware downloads it through the Tor proxy. To better conceal evidence of the worm, the malware scans the infected USB drive and names the .lnk files with similar names.

High-level execution flow of Crypto Clipper.

Credit: Microsoft

High-level execution flow of Crypto Clipper. Credit: Microsoft

Crypto Clipper monitors clipboard contents for patterns that are consistent with standardized 12- or 24-word seed phrases. When found, it uploads them, along with the screenshots, to the attacker’s server. The stealer also replaces addresses it finds with ones belonging to attacker-controlled wallets. This allows the malware to divert payments to the attacker’s pockets. Microsoft believes the purpose of the screenshots is to provide context that may be useful.

“This malware family shows how lightweight, script-based stealers can deliver outsized impact when paired with anonymized communications and runtime tasking,” Microsoft said. “The combination of Tor-routed C2, clipboard targeting, screenshot capture, and remote code execution gives attackers both immediate monetization paths and continued control over compromised devices.”

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint detects Crypto Clipper components as Suspicious JavaScript processes and Possible data exfiltrations using Curl. Microsoft Defender Antivirus detects it as Trojan: Win32/CryptoBandits.A. More generically, the strongest indications of infection are script interpreters spawning suspicious child processes, proxy usage on localhost:9050, screen-capture commands in PowerShell, and signs of clipboard inspection or crypto-address replacement.

Under peace deal, US forces lift blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports

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IwPost
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Under peace deal, US forces lift blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports

Commercial vessels and oil tankers preparing to transit through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical strategic waterways for global trade flows, maintain their wait in the Gulf of Oman, on June 17, 2026. [Shady Alassar - Anadolu Agency]

Commercial vessels and oil tankers preparing to transit through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical strategic waterways for global trade flows, maintain their wait in the Gulf of Oman, on June 17, 2026. [Shady Alassar – Anadolu Agency]

US forces on Thursday lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, the US military’s Central Command (CENTCOM) said shortly after the US and Iran signed a deal to end the Mideast war, Anadolu Agency reports.

“Today, US forces lifted the blockade on all maritime traffic entering and exiting Iranian ports and coastal areas, in accordance with the President’s (Donald Trump) direction,” CENTCOM said in a statement on the US social media company X.

It said that American forces are “not impeding the transit of vessels to or from Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.”

“All US military blockade enforcement efforts have ceased. Our great Naval Ships will remain in the general area to make sure that all aspects of the agreement are adhered to, obeyed and in full force and effect.”

READ: Iran’s state television says Hormuz passage ‘still requires coordination’ with Tehran

Donald Trump’s Iran ceasefire deal prompts strong feelings and profane language

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IwPost
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Donald Trump’s Iran ceasefire deal prompts strong feelings and profane language

After dining lavishly on lobster, caviar and truffles in the opulent surrounds of the Palace of Versailles last night, Donald Trump affixed his signature to the much-anticipated memorandum of understanding that will, all being well, begin a 60-day ceasefire between the US, Israel and Iran.

The document was subsequently signed in Tehran by the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian.

“This was not easy,” the US president reportedly remarked as he wielded his trademark Sharpie marker pen – a statement that may go down as a huge understatement. The text of the deal reveals the Iranian negotiators drove a very hard bargain in return for opening the Strait of Hormuz, which the world now hopes will enable the global economy to recover from the considerable disruption of the past three and a half months.

This war has been an utter disaster for the US and Israel, writes Arshin Adib-Moghaddam of SOAS, University of London, who has been researching and writing about Iranian affairs for many years. Trump and his ally, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have failed to secure any of the outcomes they set out to achieve when they attacked Iran on February 28. In fact it has arguably left Iran, while battered, stronger strategically than it was before the war.

It’s not as if Iran-watchers haven’t warned of the danger of using blunt force against Iran. As Adib-Moghaddam notes here, he and fellow scholars and analysts have been stressing for years that the Islamic Republic was well prepared for the sort of asymmetrical conflict we have now seen it wage. And now, of course, it has demonstrated to itself – and the rest of the world – what a potent deterrent it has in its ability to shut down the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

Read more: Iran ceasefire deal confirms what we’ve been saying for years: military might doesn’t work

The state banquet at Versailles followed the 2026 summit of the Group of Seven (G7), which has been taking place this week in the French spa town of Évian-les-Bains. As Natasha Lindstaedt of the University of Essex notes, this was a clever move dreamed up by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, who was desperate to avoid a repeat of last year’s summit in Alberta, Canada, when the US president walked out a day early.

On that occasion he refused to sign the usual unified G7 statement, complaining that he didn’t like the language on Ukraine. There was no such reticence this year. Macron was cock-a-hoop at what he called a “very deep change in the US approach”. It was, he said, “re-synchronisation” for the G7 on the war in Ukraine, which released a statement pledging unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity, which Trump also signed after what the US president said was a “very good” meeting with Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky on the summit’s sidelines.

Key to achieving this unity, says Lindstaedt, was the approach of the other G7 leaders towards the US president: flattery. As we know, this is something that has proved highly effective in the past.

Read more: Macron plays ‘Trump whisperer’ as the US president signs Iran ceasefire deal after a successful G7 summit

Republicans unimpressed

If Trump’s dining companions at Versailles were effusive in their congratulations for the US president’s deal, the reaction from many prominent Republicans in the US has been less than positive. “Reagan is rolling over in his grave,” commented Senator Bill Cassidy, who added that the war had been “the worst foreign policy blunder in decades”. It’s a view shared by much of the party’s old guard, who see the deal as a capitulation.

Quite how Iran managed to gain the upper hand in a conflict against two of the world’s best-armed militaries will make for an important case study for students of war. Jim Lamson and Matthew Moran of King’s College London explain how Iran managed to turn the tables and emerge not only undefeated, but arguably stronger.

Read more: How Iran gained the strategic upper hand in the war with the US and Israel

Israelis livid

Meanwhile, if the US president’s critics in the US are unimpressed, Israelis – friend and foe alike – are positively livid. David Horovitz, the editor of The Times of Israel, called it “a catastrophic capitulation”. Others have been less polite.

Benjamin Netanyahu has made no public comment since the deal was signed. It has been reported that he wasn’t shown the finalised agreement before it was signed (Trump commented this week of their alliance that: “We are the big partner and he is the very small partner”, which will give him an idea of where he stands).

The fact is, writes Simon Mabon, a Middle East specialist at Lancaster University, that despite being close allies, the US and Israel – but particularly Trump and Netanyahu – are at loggerheads over what they want from the war from any peace agreement that ends it. Most Israelis see any bid by Iran to develop a nuclear weapon as an existential issue, for which there can be no compromise. The war, meanwhile, is deeply unpopular in the US, where rising fuel prices and inflation are really beginning to hit home.

The war has also hurt Trump’s popularity which is at a new low, just months before November’s midterm elections, at which the Republicans are likely to lose control of at least one chamber of Congress, if not both. Netanyahu also faces an election in October. So the idea of a ceasefire with no resolution of the nuclear issue is anathema.

To further complicate the situation, the deal stipulates an end to the conflict being waged in southern Lebanon and makes the US responsible for guaranteeing that country’s territorial integrity. This would require Israel to withdraw, something the Israeli prime minister has firmly ruled out, setting the scene for some serious discord between the two leaders.

Read more: Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu have different war aims – can the Iran peace deal survive?

All of which means we may well be hearing some more fairly ripe language from Donald Trump, who has recently told the Israeli prime minister he is “fucking crazy” and that he has “no fucking judgement”.

Strong words. But not without precedent. As Andrew Gawthorpe, an expert in US politics at Leiden University notes here, Netanyahu has a long track record of moving US presidents to profanity.

Read more: Why US presidents end up cursing Benjamin Netanyahu

The unavoidable prisoner: Aung San Suu Kyi at 81

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IwPost
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The unavoidable prisoner: Aung San Suu Kyi at 81

On June 19, Aung San Suu Kyi turns 81 in military custody. Myanmar’s military says it moved her in late April to a “designated residence,” but her family remains cut off, with no independent confirmation of her condition or exact whereabouts.

More than five years after the coup, she is physically absent from Myanmar’s daily struggle. The resistance that rose after her arrest is younger, armed, and has moved far beyond her nonviolent politics. Yet she remains the one figure no outside power can entirely write out of Myanmar’s future.

How foreign governments speak about her now reveals more about their own priorities than about her actual condition. But while outside powers calculate her diplomatic utility, her captors are driven by an older logic.

The generals: enduring hatred

The military occasionally invokes Aung San Suu Kyi’s name, or hints at private meetings, to ease outside pressure. But the generals’ view of her has long been rooted in fear, resentment, and contempt.

They resent the public legitimacy they could never manufacture for themselves. They have never wanted only to detain her. They have wanted to break her politically.

Former UN envoy Razali Ismail, quoted in Benedict Rogers’ biography of former dictator Than Shwe, said Aung San Suu Kyi “frightened the hell out of the military.” Reuters reported in 2007 that Than Shwe’s personal dislike was so intense that he once walked out of a meeting after a foreign ambassador mentioned her name.  

Andrew Selth, a longtime Myanmar analyst, wrote that Than Shwe’s hatred of Aung San Suu Kyi greatly hindered political compromise, and that Min Aung Hlaing’s dislike and distrust of her appeared to be a major element in his thinking before the 2021 coup.

Observers have long described Min Aung Hlaing’s relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi as frosty, if not ice-cold. Min Aung Hlaing deeply resented how she bypassed the military’s constitutional traps to become the country’s de facto leader, blocking his long-held hope of becoming president. That bitter, personal resentment reached a breaking point in late 2020, when she refused to entertain his baseless claims of electoral fraud.

The military physical threat against her surfaced as early as April 1989 when soldiers aimed rifles at her campaign procession in Danubyu in the delta region. The captain later said he had written orders to open fire. She walked toward the raised guns and survived only because a senior officer intervened.

In November 1996, a pro-regime mob attacked her motorcade in Yangon with chains and clubs, smashing her car windows while security forces stood by.

Seven years later, on May 30, 2003, pro-junta attackers armed with iron rods and sharpened clubs ambushed her convoy near Depayin in Sagaing Region. She escaped with her life, but dozens of her followers were killed. The institution holding her today has long tried to destroy her politically, and at times, physically.

The West: symbol of many causes

Western nations still call publicly for her freedom. The United States has demanded her immediate and unconditional release, along with access to medical care.

Britain has pressed for family contact. The European Union continues to list her among Myanmar’s arbitrarily detained prisoners while rejecting the military’s planned elections as illegitimate.

But the era when Western policy toward Myanmar was filtered almost entirely through Aung San Suu Kyi’s story is over.

Her international standing was badly damaged by the Rohingya crisis. Since the 2021 coup, Western capitals have widened their focus: documenting military atrocities, supporting humanitarian relief, and engaging a broader anti-junta movement that includes the National Unity Government and ethnic armed groups.

The West has not abandoned her, but it no longer treats her freedom as the sole measure of Myanmar’s democratic future.

ASEAN: access test

For ASEAN, Aung San Suu Kyi represents a diplomatic test. The bloc rarely names her directly; its consensus language usually folds her into broader calls for all-party dialogue, access for envoys and the release of political prisoners.

The Philippines, as ASEAN chair, has gone further than the bloc’s usual cautious formula, calling for more prisoner releases, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and asking that ASEAN’s special envoy be allowed to meet her. It also said she should be allowed to communicate with her family as proof of a genuine commitment to national reconciliation.

Even Thailand, one of the ASEAN members most open to engaging Naypyitaw, raised her welfare with Min Aung Hlaing in April, saying many ASEAN countries remained worried about her condition.

That question now sits inside a wider regional opening. Malaysia’s foreign minister visited Naypyitaw in May, Indonesia’s followed on June 8, and Laos’ foreign minister visited on June 12-13.

The more ASEAN governments test engagement, the more access to Aung San Suu Kyi becomes a measure of whether Naypyitaw’s talk of dialogue has substance.

India: interests over ideals

India’s position is colder and shaped above all by its own agenda. Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s formative years in New Delhi, where she graduated from Lady Shri Ram College, and her family’s generational ties to India’s independence hero Jawaharlal Nehru, historical sentiment has yielded to strategic calculation.

When Min Aung Hlaing visited New Delhi in early June, Indian officials claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised her case, urging dialogue and a return to democracy.

Yet New Delhi made no public call for her release. Instead, it received her jailer with the protocol accorded to a head of state. The talks focused on border security, insurgent activity, critical minerals, and stalled trade routes rather than solving Myanmar’s crisis.

India has made clear that engagement with the man who imprisoned her takes precedence over democratic principles. It is realpolitik, stated plainly.

China: useful ‘old friend’

China’s language on her is the most carefully calibrated. In late April, Beijing called Aung San Suu Kyi an “old friend” and said her circumstances had “always been on our minds.” It did not call for her release or acknowledge her 2020 election mandate.

Days earlier, Foreign Minister Wang Yi had met Min Aung Hlaing, whom Beijing was plainly prepared to deal with in his new formal role. In Chinese diplomacy, the phrase “old friend” is not sentimental.

It is a term of political convenience. Since the 2021 coup, Beijing has used similar old-friend diplomacy with veterans of Myanmar’s old military order, including Thein Sein and Than Shwe, to signal its preferred path: constitutional reconciliation and elections.

Beijing maintained a productive working relationship with Aung San Suu Kyi while she was in power, protecting routes and political cover for major strategic projects. When the military removed her government, China adjusted without much hesitation.

Invoking her name now serves a clear purpose: it signals limited concern without breaking with Min Aung Hlaing, softens public anger toward China and keeps Beijing’s options open.

At 81, Aung San Suu Kyi is physically isolated and held by a military that has spent decades trying to destroy her. Yet she remains politically unavoidable.

The West invokes her as a principle. ASEAN treats access to her as a diplomatic test. India raises her case while honoring her jailer. China calls her an old friend while backing the regime that keeps her locked away.

Everyone still finds a use for her name. None has turned it into her freedom.

Nyein Chan Aye is a Washington-based Burmese journalist who previously worked for the BBC and Voice of America and writes on Myanmar, China, the US and regional affairs.

As China looms, Taiwan makes more drones for defense and the US military

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IwPost
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As China looms, Taiwan makes more drones for defense and the US military

Taiwan’s existence as a self-governing democracy may depend heavily on having enough military drones to discourage any attempted invasion by China’s military. As the Taiwanese government aims to boost domestic production of military drones and Taiwanese citizens sign up for drone flight training, Taiwanese companies are forming international partnerships to sell more drones to the US military and other overseas buyers.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense proposed a special budget that would spend $6.6 billion over six years on buying drones made in Taiwan, according to the Central News Agency that represents the national news service of Taiwan. Presented on June 18, the budget proposal would allow the government to buy more than 208,000 coastal attack drones, along with more than 1,400 coastal reconnaissance drones and 1,320 uncrewed surface vessels, between 2026 and 2031.

That would be a significant boost to the Taiwanese military arsenal that currently includes just 5,000 US-made attack drones and domestically produced drones, according to Resilience Media. During military exercises in early June, Taiwanese soldiers fired Altius-600 loitering munition drones—made by a subsidiary of the US military technology company Anduril Industries—from towed flatbed launchers to strike offshore targets, according to USNI News. In another exercise earlier this year, Taiwanese Marines used Taiwan-made drones to similarly strike targets at sea.

Beyond bolstering Taiwan’s national defense, Taiwanese government spending on domestically produced drones could provide a critical boost to Taiwanese drone manufacturers. Some Taiwanese companies, notably Thunder Tiger, have pitched their drone technology and components to the US military and European buyers as alternatives to drones made in China, while also establishing international technology and manufacturing partnerships to pave the way for more exports.

Taiwan has already exported $115 million of fully assembled drones between January and March 2026, exceeding the $93 million in total drone exports for the entire year of 2025, according to Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai in an announcement on April 30. The premier is an appointed principal advisor to Taiwan’s president and leads the executive branch of the Taiwanese government.

The drone business boom

Last year, Thunder Tiger’s Overkill drones became the first from an Asian company to qualify for the Pentagon’s Blue Uncrewed Aircraft Systems Cleared List, which certifies commercial drones for use by the US military. The small, first-person view (FPV) drones cost between $3,000 and $5,000 each, according to reporting from Rest of World, and are similar to the many explosive FPV drones being used on the battlefields in Ukraine.

Thunder Tiger has also started producing larger kamikaze drones starting at $30,000 based on the US LUCAS one-way attack drones, Rest of World reported. The LUCAS drones are themselves reverse-engineered versions of Iran’s Shahed drones that have been used in large numbers by both Russia and Iran.

Another one-way attack drone modeled on Israel’s Harpy drone was developed by the National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology (NCSIST), a Taiwanese state-owned corporation, according to the Taiwanese think tank DSET.

Taiwanese companies also export plenty of drone components. For example, Thunder Tiger has been supplying drone components to three companies participating in the US Department of Defense’s $1 billion Drone Dominance Program, according to DSET. Taiwanese companies are also directly supplying flight controllers, batteries, motors, and other drone microelectronics to Ukrainian companies, while Czechia and Poland import tens of thousands of Taiwanese drones that may sometimes be passed on to Ukraine.

In March 2026, Thunder Tiger even expanded its overseas supply chain by establishing a US facility in Ohio capable of producing more than 60,000 drone motors each year, said Gene Su, general manager of Thunder Tiger, in an IEEE Spectrum interview.

Given their focus on hardware manufacturing expertise, Taiwanese drone companies typically turn to US companies and others with more expertise in AI and software. Taiwan’s NCSIST has sought to boost the AI capabilities of its drones by partnering with Western companies such as Anduril, Auterion, and Shield AI, according to DSET. Meanwhile, Thunder Tiger has purchased AI software from Auterion to embed in its broader lineup of drones, ground robots, and sea drones.

The Taiwanese company Ubiqconn Technology also recently teamed up with the US drone company AeroVironment—best known for making Switchblade loitering munition drones—to embed AeroVironment’s software into a drone controller platform that would allow the Taiwanese military to operate multiple types of drone systems, Nikkei Asia reported.

Rough air ahead

However, Taiwan’s homegrown drone ambitions face plenty of challenges, including political disagreement. The special budget proposal for Taiwan’s military to purchase Taiwanese drones represents an attempt to break a political deadlock in Taiwan’s Legislature, where the majority consists of the opposition parties Kuomintang and the Taiwan People’s Party. That majority coalition vetoed funding for domestically produced drones before passing a reduced defense budget bill in May.

Despite having a drone supply chain bolstered by chipmaking and electronics expertise, Taiwan faces an uphill battle in matching the manufacturing output and market dominance of China’s drone industry. The Shenzhen-based drone company DJI alone has between 70 and 80 percent global market share for commercial drones and is known for producing high-quality drones at extremely competitive prices.

“For the international market, how do you persuade other foreign governments to use Taiwanese-made drones two or three times more expensive than DJI’s?” said Ting-Wei Lin, a non-resident fellow at DSET, in a Resilience Media interview.

Taiwanese drone manufacturers are still establishing supply chains completely free of Chinese-made components. Tiger Thunder recently defended its actions in supplying Taiwan’s military with drones that included chips manufactured by the French company STMicroelectronics but packaged in China.

Taiwan is also looking to increase its monthly drone production capacity that currently stands at 15,000 drones per month, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The ministry projects that the Taiwanese drone industry could exceed 100,000 drones per month by 2030.

Some inspiration may come from Ukraine’s example. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine could only produce several thousand FPV drones per year, according to Just Security. By 2025, Ukrainian government and industry efforts had boosted domestic FPV drone production to about 3 million drones—and Ukraine’s defense industry could produce more than 8 million such drones in 2026.

Meanwhile, Taiwanese civil defense groups are also taking a cue from Ukraine’s example and offering more lessons in flying drones, The Guardian reported. Because, despite the recent wartime demonstrations of AI-powered battlefield drones, most drones still rely heavily on human operators one way or another.

Italian government not planning social media ban for kids, says Meloni

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Italian government not planning social media ban for kids, says Meloni


Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday said her government would not take the initiative to introduce a social media ban on teens like those in the works in France, the U.K and other countries.

“I am not against a social media ban for under 16s, but I am not either convinced that this proposal alone can solve the problem because that type of ban can be easily circumvented,” Meloni told reporters at the end of a G7 summit.

Stating that a ban risks “to partially transfer the problem on families,” Meloni said restrictions can also be ineffective unless governments put more pressure on platforms to take action and to “take their responsibilities.”

While Meloni insisted she was not against a social media ban for under-16s in Italy, the prime minister said her government has decided not to present a government decree or bill to let lawmakers lead the discussions. Several Italian parties have presented bills to introduce a social media ban but none of those have so far been adopted.

Earlier this week, the U.K. announced it would introduce a social media ban for under-16s, a measure that France will also implement for under-15s later this year. The U.S. previously expressed concerns about the British ban, warning against one-size-fits-all measures.

On Wednesday the G7 leaders including U.S. President Donald Trump endorsed a declaration on protecting kids online that makes no mention of banning kids’ access to social media.

Source: Politico

Frank Sinatra’s Longtime Opening Act Dead at 86

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Frank Sinatra’s Longtime Opening Act Dead at 86


Showbiz is mourning the death of legendary comedian Tom Dreesen, the beloved funnyman who stood beside Frank Sinatra for years and entertained generations with his unforgettable stories.

Dreesen died Wednesday at 86, just days after making what would become his final TV appearance on Comics Unleashed With Byron Allen.

His sudden passing stunned fans who had watched him remain active in entertainment despite recent health struggles.

The heartbreaking news was announced by his family in an emotional message posted to his official Facebook page.

“He wanted you all to know how much joy you brought him through the years,” the family wrote. “He said to tell you that he loved you all. May he rest in peace.”

No cause of death was immediately revealed.

Dreesen was not just another comic. He was a showbiz survivor, a road warrior and one of the last great storytellers from a vanished era of Hollywood glamour.

Born in Chicago, Dreesen clawed his way into comedy in the late 1960s alongside actor and comedian Tim Reid. Together, the two made history as Tim and Tom, the first biracial stand-up comedy duo in the United States.

It was a bold and risky act at a time when the country was still bitterly divided, but Dreesen never shied away from the stage.

After striking out on his own in the mid-1970s, he quickly became a trusted opening act for some of the biggest names in music, including Liza Minnelli, Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight and Sammy Davis Jr.

Then came the call that changed his life.

In 1983, Dreesen began opening for Frank Sinatra, launching a 14-year run alongside one of the most iconic entertainers who ever lived.

Night after night, Dreesen walked out before Ol’ Blue Eyes and warmed up crowds packed with celebrities, power players and die-hard Sinatra fans.

Their bond grew far beyond the stage.

Dreesen later said Sinatra became like a father figure to him, giving him advice, guidance and friendship in a way he had never experienced growing up.

“In a lot of ways, he was like a father to me,” Dreesen once told The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t have a father that really cared that much where I was and what I did. But Frank would give me advice and counsel and then he was a buddy in a lot of ways. I thought the world of him.”

Dreesen remained by Sinatra’s side until the end of the music legend’s performing career, appearing at Sinatra’s final concert in 1995.

But Dreesen’s own career was massive in its own right.

The Spaceballs actor made more than 500 appearances on national television and became a regular presence on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He also guest-hosted The Late Show for his close friend David Letterman.

Letterman was among those devastated by Dreesen’s death.

The late-night icon posted a touching tribute on Instagram, recalling that Dreesen was the first comedian he met at the Comedy Store in 1975.

“We became friends immediately,” Letterman wrote. “He had wisdom and endless stories. Everyone admired him, looked up to him and wondered if he ever stopped talking. He never did, he never will. We love him for that. We’ll miss the stories. God bless you, Tom.”

The tribute painted a picture of a man who could command a room not just with jokes, but with a lifetime of memories from the wild world of entertainment.

Comics Unleashed also paid tribute to Dreesen after his death, calling him a cherished member of the show’s family.

“Despite his health struggles, he brought so much joy, life, and vitality to our set,” the show’s official Instagram account wrote.

The message also revealed that viewers would still get to see Dreesen one last time on the program.

“Stay tuned for Tom’s last appearance on our show,” the post added.

His death comes as fans were still processing his final television appearance, making the loss feel even more shocking.

Though full details about his survivors were not immediately available, Dreesen’s family remembered him as much more than a comedian.

They described him as “a devoted father, brother, grandfather, friend, mentor, storyteller, and motivator.”

They also praised his generosity, saying he gave his time freely, supported countless charities and inspired others through his motivational speaking, writing and personal example.

To fans, he was the man who opened for Sinatra. To fellow comics, he was a mentor. To Hollywood, he was a living bridge to a golden era that is quickly fading away.

Now, just days after stepping in front of the cameras one final time, Tom Dreesen’s voice has gone silent.

But the stories he told, and the legends he stood beside, will keep his name alive.

Israeli drones hit Lebanon soon after Trump, Iran sign peace deal

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Israeli drones hit Lebanon soon after Trump, Iran sign peace deal

Damage from an earlier attack. Photo: YouTube

The Israeli military carried out drone strikes in southern Lebanon on Thursday, just hours after the presidents of the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding that establishes a framework for negotiations to end the war launched by the Trump administration and Israel in late February.

Lebanese media reported that “an Israeli drone dropped a munition on Beit Yahoun, injuring two people.” A separate drone strike “on a vehicle at the roundabout between Kfartebnit and Arnoun killed one person and critically wounded another,” according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

The attacks underscored the threat that Israel’s ongoing military occupation of and assault on Lebanon poses to the prospects of a final peace agreement between the US and Iran. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Trump signed in France late Wednesday explicitly includes Lebanon and indicates that continued Israeli attacks would violate the deal.

“The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this MOU, declared the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon,” the document states.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of working to sabotage diplomatic progress, has voiced defiance in response to negotiations between the US and Iran, refusing to commit to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. Since March 2, Israeli attacks on Lebanon have killed around 3,800 people, including hundreds of children, according to Lebanese authorities.

Reuters reported Thursday that Israel is “holding negotiations with the US as it seeks to continue its deployment of troops in southern Lebanon.” An unnamed senior Israeli official, described as close to Netanyahu, told the news outlet that “Israel would not back down on its positions, including keeping troops deployed in the area south of Lebanon’s ⁠Litani River.”

“A second Israeli official told Reuters that the outcome of the talks would ultimately depend on whether US President Donald ⁠Trump ‘decides to force the issue’ by threatening repercussions if Israel does not abide by the interim Iran pact’s terms,” the outlet added.

Speaking during a press conference on Wednesday, Trump called Netanyahu “a very good man” and an “amazing prime minister.”

“We have a little dispute over Lebanon,” the president added. “I say, ‘You can do a little softer touch, Bibi. You don’t have to knock down a building every time somebody walks into it that’s from Hezbollah.’”

Esmaeil Baqaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said Thursday that the MOU signed Wednesday would be “nullified” in the absence of a full Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and an end to military attacks.

“It is the responsibility of the US,” said Baqaei, to “force” Israel to “respect the US commitments to Iran in this document.”

-Common Dreams

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