A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Myanmar’s military government in the country’s western state of Rakhine is claiming to have seized a town near the Bangladesh border, marking the latest victory for foes of the country’s military government. The state’s Muslim Rohingyas, targets of deadly army-directed violence in 2017, appear to have been the main victims of fighting in the town of Buthidaung, where the Arakan Army claims to have chased out forces of the military government. Information about the situation could not be verified independently, with access to the internet and mobile phone services in the area mostly cut off. The Arakan Army is the military wing of the Rakhine ethnic movement, which seeks autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has come under mounting pressure from his own War Cabinet and his country’s closest ally over postwar plans for Gaza. That's even as the war with Hamas shows no sign of ending anytime soon. On Saturday, Benny Gantz, a member of the War Cabinet and Netanyahu’s main political rival, said he would leave the government on June 8 if it did not formulate a new war plan including an international, Arab and Palestinian administration to handle civilian affairs in Gaza. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has said he would not agree to Israel governing Gaza itself. The United States wants a broader plan including a path to Palestinian statehood.

Former South African President Jacob Zuma has lamented the high levels of poverty among black South Africans and promised to create jobs and tackle crime as he launched his new political party’s manifesto ahead of the country’s much anticipated elections. He told thousands of supporters at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg Saturday that his party would build factories to provide employment to many South Africans and give free education to the country’s youth. Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe party, known as the MK Party, has emerged as a significant player in the upcoming elections after it was launched in December last year. Zuma said his party was aiming to get more than 65% of the national vote in the elections.

The first distribution of badly needed aid is expected to begin this weekend after rolling off a newly built U.S. pier off the coast of Gaza. But aid workers warn much more access is needed to the besieged territory where famine might be under way. United Nations officials have not said where the truckloads of food would be distributed. Israel's war with the Hamas militant group is now in its eighth month, and there is growing pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from multiple fronts. The U.S. national security adviser is expected to meet with Netanyahu this weekend.

Georgia’s president has vetoed the so-called “Russian law” targeting media that has sparked weeks of mass protests. The law would require media and NGOs to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” if they receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad. President Salome Zourabichvili, who is increasingly at odds with Georgia’s ruling party, said on Saturday that the law contradicts Georgia’s constitution and “all European standards,” and added that it “must be abolished.” The ruling party, Georgian Dream, has a majority sufficient to override Zourabichvili’s veto, and is widely expected to do so in the coming days.

It has been 15 years since the end of Sri Lanka's civil war, which pitted government forces against Tamil Tiger separatists. In the years since, many people are still searching for children or other family members who are missing, some presumed dead. Many people blame the United Nations for failing to step in to stop the bloodshed. They are asking that the U.N ensures accountability for the excesses committed by both sides.

A divisive mobilization law in Ukraine has come into force as Kyiv struggles to boost troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive that some fear could close in on Ukraine’s second-largest city. The legislation, which was watered down from its original draft, will make it easier to identify every conscript in the country. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also signed separate laws Friday that allow prisoners to join the army and increase fines for draft dodgers fivefold. Thousands of Ukrainians have fled the country to escape the draft, and some risked their lives as they tried to swim across a river to neighboring Romania and Hungary.