Peace prospects look bleak in Myanmar as a civil war rages despite international pressure on the military four years after it seized power from an elected civilian government.

Myanmar’s military government has announced another six-month extension of its mandate to rule in preparation for elections it has said will be held this year, as the country enters its fifth year of crisis.

When the army overthrew Myanmar’s elected government in 2021, it looked like a walkover that could entrench the military in power indefinitely.

State media in Myanmar says the military-run Southeast Asian nation is holding its first joint naval exercise with Russia.

A new U.N. report says Myanmar’s military has imported at least $1 billion worth of weapons and related material from Russia, China and other countries since its February 2021 coup, which it has used to carry out atrocities against civilians.

Aggressive actions by security forces Wednesday night in a Mandalay city neighborhood where state railway workers are housed reflected the increased focus of the protests on businesses and government institutions that sustain the economy. The railway strike has received support from ordinary citizens who have placed themselves on railroad tracks to stop trains that the military has commandeered. Less than an hour after Wednesday’s 8 p.m. curfew started, gunshots were heard as more than two dozen men in police uniforms with shields and helmets marched past railway workers’ housing. Unconfirmed reports said several railway workers were arrested. “The military coup is illegal.

Demonstrators gather in an intersection close to Sule Pagoda to protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021. By Wednesday evening, there had been no reports of major violence at the protests. So we are back on the street again.”In Naypyitaw, thousands of people, including private bank employees and engineers, marched down the city's wide boulevards, chanting for the release of Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. Police filed a new charge against Suu Kyi, her lawyer said Tuesday, a move likely to keep her under house arrest and further fuel public anger. It was the second charge against Suu Kyi — the first for illegally possessing walkie-talkies, the second for an alleged violation of coronavirus restrictions — both apparent attempts to provide a legal veneer for her detention.

Anja Glassner and Tom Andrews, both of Hollywood, go out at the crack of dawn to pick up trash along Hollywood Beach. The two volunteers pick up the beach trash every morning four days a week. You can't even blame the garbage on tourists since it is primarily locals coming to the beach. “You see those things?” Glassner said. The behavior is confusing because no matter where you walk on Hollywood Beach, you are always within 10 steps of a trash can.