World news briefs: China-backed militia seize Myanmar rare earth mines

A Chinese-backed militia is protecting new rare earth mines in eastern Myanmar, according to four people familiar with the matter, as Beijing moves to secure control of the minerals it is wielding as a bargaining chip in its trade war with Washington.

China has a near-monopoly over the processing of heavy rare earths into magnets that power critical goods like wind turbines, medical devices and electric vehicles.

But Beijing is heavily reliant on Myanmar for the rare earth metals and oxides needed to produce them: the war-torn country was the source of nearly half those imports in the first four months of this year, Chinese customs data show.

Beijing’s access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar’s north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country’s junta, which Beijing supports. Reuters

No end in sight to Iran, US rivalry

The US has pulled some diplomatic staff and military families out of the Middle East, citing unspecified regional security risks.

Its long-running rivalry with Iran may be part of the heightened tensions. This article shows what is behind the rivalry, how it has played out and why tensions are flaring again.

Iran and the US were friends for most of the 20th century. As the Cold War took hold in the 1950s, Washington relied on Iran's reigning Shah to help stem Soviet influence spreading in the oil-producing Middle East.

The Shah was growing unpopular at home and in 1953 the CIA helped topple a populist Iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, who had nationalised Iran’s British-owned oil company and wanted a more neutral Cold War stance.

When Iranians overthrew the Shah in 1979, the Islamic revolutionaries who took over accused the CIA of having trained the Shah’s secret police and vowed to battle Western imperialism in the region, branding America “the Great Satan”. Reuters

School mass killer lived in ‘virtual space’

The 21-year-old man who carried out Austria’s worst school shooting was an introverted fan of online shooting games, criminal investigators said on Thursday.

The Austrian man, identified by local media as Arthur A, killed 10 people on Tuesday before shooting himself at his former high school in the southern city of Graz, sending shock waves through Austria that led to it declaring three days of national mourning.

Police found discarded plans for a bomb attack and a non-functional pipe bomb during a search of his home after the shooting in Graz, capital of the state of Styria.

Police are still trying to establish a motive, but Michael Lohnegger, head of Styria’s criminal investigation office, said findings indicated the man was introverted and that his great passion was online first-person shooting games.

“He led an extremely withdrawn life, he didn’t want to take part in activities in normal life outside in the real world, he preferred to withdraw into the virtual space,” Lohnegger told reporters.

Police said the rampage at the school lasted about seven minutes and that the man shot himself in the head in a toilet about 10 minutes after beginning the attack. Reuters

Defence minister in Kyiv to offer support

German defence minister Boris Pistorius has arrived in Kyiv to discuss military support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, the DPA news agency reported on Thursday. Pistorius plans to hold talks with Ukrainian government representatives about further weapons aid from Berlin, according to the report.

“We are doing everything we can to support Ukraine so that it can defend itself and get into a position where Russia is prepared to enter into serious negotiations,” Pistorius said ahead of his departure.

The German defence ministry was not immediately available for comment. Germany is Ukraine’s second-biggest military backer after the US, whose commitment to Kyiv has been called into question, putting pressure on Europe to step up. Russia and Ukraine met for peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month in a renewed push to settle the conflict, which began with Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

However, fighting has raged on while the two sides disagree over a number of central issues, such as territorial concessions and the prospect of Ukraine’s future Nato membership. Reuters

US ambassador Tracy to vacate her post

Lynne Tracy, the US ambassador to Russia, will soon leave her post, her embassy said on Thursday, after serving through one of the most tense and difficult periods in relations between Moscow and Washington.

Tracy, a career diplomat, arrived in Moscow in January 2023 and was greeted by protesters chanting anti-US slogans when she went to the foreign ministry to present her credentials. Russia had questioned her suitability for the post, suggesting she might feel more at home in a hawkish think-tank.

Her term was dominated by the Ukraine war, which plunged US-Russia ties to a level described by the Kremlin last year as “below zero”.

She was notably involved in efforts to win the release of US citizens jailed in Russia, including journalist Evan Gershkovich and former marine Paul Whelan, who were eventually freed in August 2024 as part of a big East-West prisoner swap. Reuters