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Ethnic guerrillas in Myanmar look set to seize an important town on the Thai border from military

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Ethnic guerrillas in Myanmar look set to seize an important town on the Thai border from military
News

News

Ethnic guerrillas in Myanmar look set to seize an important town on the Thai border from military

2024-04-08 22:59 Last Updated At:23:00

BANGKOK (AP) — Guerrilla fighters from Myanmar’s Karen ethnic minority claimed Monday to be close to seizing control of a major trading town bordering Thailand, as soldiers and civil servants loyal to the military government appeared to be preparing to abandon their positions.

The occupation of Myawaddy town by the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, or KNU, appeared imminent as the guerrillas seized or besieged strategic army outposts on the town’s outskirts, a spokesperson and members of the KNU said Monday.

Myawaddy, in Kayin state, is Myanmar’s most active trading post with Thailand, and its fall would be the latest in a series of shock defeats suffered by the army since last October, when an alliance of three other ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country’s northeast. Over the past five months, the army has been routed in northern Shan state, where it conceded control of several border crossings, in Rakhine state in the west, and is under growing attack elsewhere.

The military government under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has acknowledged it is under pressure, and recently introduced conscription to boost its ranks.

The nationwide conflict in Myanmar began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

Three residents of Myawaddy town, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear being arrested by either warring side, told The Associated Press by phone that they had heard no sounds of the fighting outside since Sunday afternoon. They said most residents were working as usual, while others were preparing to flee to Mae Sot, just across the border in Thailand. Two of them said they had not seen any members of the government’s security forces since Sunday.

The situation was highlighted Sunday night when a Myanmar plane made an unscheduled flight to Mae Sot from Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. Thai media reported that the plane had received permission from Thai authorities to evacuate people fleeing Myawaddy. It was not clear if those fleeing, described as military and civil servants loyal to Myanmar's military government, had already crossed into Thailand over the river that marks the border.

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that approval was given for three flights on a Yangon-Mae Sot route to transport passengers and cargo, one each day on Sunday through Tuesday. Myanmar’s government later canceled its requests for the remaining two flights.

The Thai government was closely monitoring the situation along the border, and is ready to take all necessary measures to maintain peace and order, and to keep the people along the border safe, the Thai ministry said.

In times of fighting along the frontier, Thailand has generally granted temporary shelter to Myanmar villagers. There are also about 87,000 living in nine long-term refugee camps.

The KNU, which is the leading political body for the Karen minority, said in a statement posted on Facebook that its armed wing and allied pro-democracy forces on Friday had seized the army base on the road to Myawaddy at Thin Gan Nyi Naung. It had served for nearly six decades as the military’s regional headquarters.

It said that 617 members of the security forces and their family members had surrendered. The KNU posted photos of the weapons that it claimed to have seized and captured military personnel and their family members given shelter in a school.

Two Karen guerrillas involved in their group’s offensive told AP on Monday that they have surrounded an army garrison about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of Myawaddy that is in charge of the town’s security, and an artillery battalion to the south. Negotiations were underway for their surrenders, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information.

They also said the Karen have control of about 60% to 70% of Myawaddy township, and are almost certain to capture the town itself after the two bases surrender or are overrun.

The Karen, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

Fighting between the army and Karen armed groups intensified after the military seized power in 2021. Several ethnic rebel groups including the Karen have loose alliances with pro-democracy militias after the military takeover, and also offer refuge to the civilian opponents of the military government.

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Force collect weapons after they captured an army outpost, in the southern part of Myawaddy township in Kayin state, Myanmar, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/METRO)

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Force collect weapons after they captured an army outpost, in the southern part of Myawaddy township in Kayin state, Myanmar, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/METRO)

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Force collect weapons after they captured an army outpost, in the southern part of Myawaddy township in Kayin state, Myanmar, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/METRO)

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Force collect weapons after they captured an army outpost, in the southern part of Myawaddy township in Kayin state, Myanmar, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/METRO)

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Force examine two arrested soldiers after they captured an army outpost, in the southern part of Myawaddy township in Kayin state, Myanmar, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/METRO)

Members of the Karen National Liberation Army and People’s Defense Force examine two arrested soldiers after they captured an army outpost, in the southern part of Myawaddy township in Kayin state, Myanmar, March 11, 2024. (AP Photo/METRO)

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Stock market today: Wall Street drifts around its records after a solid jobs report

2024-12-07 02:56 Last Updated At:03:00

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are drifting around their records Friday after data suggested the job market remains solid enough to keep the economy going, but not so strong that it raises immediate worries about inflation.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and was just above its all-time high set on Wednesday. It’s rolling toward the close of a third straight winning week in what’s likely to be one of its best years since the 2000 dot-com bust. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 108 points, or 0.2%, as of 1:51 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.7%.

Stocks held relatively steady as the latest jobs report strengthened expectations among traders that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again at its next meeting in two weeks. While the report showed U.S. employers hired more workers than expected last month, it also said the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up to 4.2% from 4.1%.

“This print doesn’t kill the holiday spirit and the Fed remains on track to deliver a cut in December,” according to Lindsay Rosner, head of multi-sector investing within Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September to offer more help for the slowing job market, after bringing inflation nearly all the way down to its 2% target. Lower interest rates can ease the brakes off the economy, but they can also offer more fuel for inflation.

Expectations for a series of cuts from the Fed have been a major reason the S&P 500 has set an all-time high 56 times so far this year. And the Fed is part of a global surge: 62 central banks have lowered rates in the past three months, the most since 2020, according to Michael Hartnett and other strategists at Bank of America.

Still, the jobs report may have included some notes of caution for Fed officials underneath the surface.

Scott Wren, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, pointed to average wages for workers last month, which were a touch stronger than economists expected. While that’s good news for workers who would always like to make more, it could also keep upward pressure on inflation.

“This report tells the Fed that they still need to be careful as sticky housing/shelter/wage data shows that it won’t be easy to engineer meaningfully lower inflation from here in the nearer term,” Wren said.

So, while traders are betting on a nearly 90% probability the Fed will ease its main rate in two weeks, they’re much less certain about how many more cuts it will deliver next year, according to data from CME Group.

For now, the hope is that the job market can help U.S. shoppers continue to spend and keep the U.S. economy out of a recession that had earlier seemed inevitable after the Fed began hiking interest rates swiftly to crush inflation.

Several retailers offered encouragement after delivering better-than-expected results for the latest quarter.

Ulta Beauty rallied 10.4% after topping expectations for both profit and revenue. The opening of new stores helped it boost its revenue, and it raised the bottom end of its forecasted range for sales over this full year.

Lululemon stretched 17.9% higher following its own profit report. It said stronger sales outside the United States helped it in particular, and its earnings topped analysts’ expectations.

Retailers overall have been offering mixed signals on how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain amid the slowing job market and still-high prices. Target gave a dour forecast for the holiday shopping season, for example, while Walmart gave a much more encouraging outlook.

A report on Friday suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers may be improving more than economists expected. The preliminary reading from the University of Michigan's survey hit its highest level in seven months. The survey found a surge in buying for some products as consumers tried to get ahead of possible increases in price due to higher tariffs that President-elect Donald Trump has threatened.

In tech, Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped 10.8% for one of the S&P 500's larger gains after reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected. Tech stocks broadly were one of the main reasons the S&P 500 climbed this past week, as Salesforce and other big companies talked up how much of a boost they’re getting from the artificial-intelligence boom.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 4.16% from 4.18% late Thursday.

In stock markets abroad, France’s CAC 40 rose 1.3% after French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to stay in office until the end of his term and to name a new prime minister within days. Earlier this week, far-right and left-wing lawmakers approved a no-confidence motion due to budget disputes, forcing Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his cabinet to resign.

In Asia, stock indexes were mixed. They rallied 1.6% in Hong Kong and 1% in Shanghai ahead of an annual economic policy meeting scheduled for next week.

South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.6% as South Korea’s ruling party chief showed support for suspending the constitutional powers of President Yoon Suk Yeol after he declared martial law and then revoked that earlier this week. Yoon is facing calls to resign and may be impeached.

Bitcoin was sitting a little above $101,000 after briefly bursting above $103,000 to a record the day before.

AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.

FILE - A woman and dog cross Wall Street in New York's Financial District on Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

FILE - A woman and dog cross Wall Street in New York's Financial District on Nov. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

A person walks on Wall St. near the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

A person walks on Wall St. near the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

People stand near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People stand near an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

Holiday ornaments adorn the Wall Street side of the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

Holiday ornaments adorn the Wall Street side of the New York Stock Exchange in New York's Financial District on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

People walk in front of Tokyo Stock Exchange building Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

People walk in front of Tokyo Stock Exchange building Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

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