New research suggests that China may have undertaken large-scale destruction of Islamic sites in its western Xinjiang province, where Muslim minorities such as Uighurs live under severely repressive rule.

The Guardian and open-source journalism website Bellingcat used satellite imagery to examine 91 religious sites identified by people who used to live in the northwestern province, finding that 31 mosques and two major shrines showed significant structural damage between 2016 and 2018.

Of those, 15 structures were “completely or almost completely razed.” Others had defining features like domes or minarets removed. Nine other buildings used as mosques that did not have obvious mosque-like features were also destroyed, according to the Guardian.

The Imam Asim shrine, an important pilgrimage site for Uighurs, and the Kargilik Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the area, were among the buildings destroyed, according to the investigation. The Yutian Aitika mosque near Hotan, a large m..

(ROVANIEMI, Finland) — The Arctic is melting, but don’t ask U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to talk about climate change. Nor even to agree on a text that mentions it.

For the Trump administration, disappearing sea ice in the world’s “high north” appears to be first and foremost an economic opportunity to exploit rather than a crisis to mitigate.

That position was made clear by Pompeo over two days of meetings in the northern Finnish Arctic city of Rovaniemi involving the foreign ministers of the eight members of the Arctic Council — Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.

“Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new naval passageways and new opportunities for trade, potentially slashing the time it takes for ships to travel between Asia and the West by 20 days,” he said in a speech Monday, which was met with polite but muted applause.

“Arctic sea lanes could become the 21st century’s Suez and Panama canals.”

Finnish Foreign Minister T..

Two Reuters reporters jailed for their coverage of the Myanmar military’s violence against Rohingya Muslims were released Tuesday after spending 511 days in prison, bringing a long-awaited close to one of the world’s most high-profile press freedom cases.

Burmese journalists Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, smiled and waved as they were mobbed by reporters walking out of the Yangon’s infamous Insein Prison. Their release was part of a presidential pardon that saw more than 6,500 prisoners walk free.

Their case captured global attention and heaped international pressure upon the Myanmar government, led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. Thousands signed an online petition, changed their social media profile pictures to an iconic image of the pair, and shared constant updates with the hashtag #FreeWaLoneKyawSoeOo. Since their arrest in December 2017, they have won numerous awards — most recently co-winning the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting — and were recognized in TIME’s..