The trailblazing female Cambodian tuk tuk group driving change

It’s about 7pm, and night-time has already fallen in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and Ms Kim is sitting in the back bench seat of her own tuk tuk, talking to me via video call on her phone, after a long day of working.

In 2013, she became one of Cambodia’s first few female tuk tuk drivers, among the country’s tens of thousands of male tuk tuk drivers. Motorbikes pull these motorised two-wheeled carriages with two bench seats – also known as auto rickshaws or “remorque” in Khmer – and fill the country’s streets, an easy and cheap way to traverse its busy traffic.

However, you’ll barely see any women driving them, that is, unless you go to Siem Reap. Known as the gateway to Angkor Wat – Cambodia’s Unesco-status complex of Hindu-Buddhist temples on the well-trodden backpacker path – there are plenty of tourists to drive around. That’s why Ms Kim started Tuk Tuk Lady here, Cambodia’s first non-profit organisation for female tuk tuk drivers.

It’s now a 50-strong group of women driving tuk tuks around the area’s historical sites and taking people to and from restaurants and hotels. The drivers are also easily recognisable thanks to their uniforms of bright blue T-shirts.

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Ms Kim says the community was created to “empower women and give them more confidence and independence, and to break stereotypes” in a very male-dominated society and industry. It also gives them access to the country’s growing tourism industry. Among them, there are single mothers, like herself, as well as widows, people with disabilities and young people who don’t have work. It gives people who are often disadvantaged the chance to work and contribute.

Tuk Tuk Lady started in 2021, but the idea for it has been brewing since 2013 when Ms Kim got her licence, and getting to where she is now certainly hasn’t come without its obstacles. Previously, she had been a street vendor, selling fish and vegetables on roadside markets. But it became a necessity to find other work, as her youngest son has problems with his sight and hearing, and both she and her ex-husband suffered bouts of illness followed by divorce. Worse yet, to pay for treatment, she was forced to sell her tuk tuk. To buy another, which cost $2,200 (£1,700), she had to borrow the money.

In 2013, there weren’t any women driving tuk tuks in Phnom Penh. When Ms Kim finally got her licence and went to pick it up, even the people issuing it were surprised that she was a woman and the owner of a tuk tuk. There also weren’t many tourists and so she had to rely on the business of locals, which also came with its problems. “Once I had my licence and started driving on the road, I quickly realised that no one knew I was a tuk tuk driver! There were no passengers waiting for me because the idea of a female tuk tuk driver was still new.”

She also says she was “looked down on, especially by local people” who didn’t think she could do the job. She would also often “be confused for the customer of the tuk tuk, rather than the driver”. Even after showing potential customers her licence, they still didn’t believe her, and so she struggled for work.

It was when she moved from the capital to Siem Reap in 2015 that the tables turned. “I met a lot of tourists who encouraged me, gave me advice, taught me English and made me feel confident and proud of myself,” she says.

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This newfound confidence pushed her to create Tuk Tuk Lady, and when other women saw what she was doing, many wanted to join the community she’d created. For Ms Kim, encouraging other women to believe that whatever men can do, women can do too, is the best part of her community.

Though she says despite having plenty of support from international tourists, disappointedly, “still, local people don’t really support us, we want them to use our service too”. They’re also in competition with Indian rickshaws – they’re much smaller and usually have green and yellow or black and yellow cabs, but aren’t as good for sightseeing as they’re more enclosed. “Local people prefer to use the rickshaw, as they’re cheaper, it’s one of the challenges for us,” she says. They’re also mostly booked on ride-hailing apps, which limit the price on the distance, making them cheaper.

Helping with her success, Ms Kim says social media has been key: “I’m recommended on TripAdvisor, so I get pre-bookings through this and I also get tourists who want to book me immediately too via WhatsApp.” She’s also on other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, where she promotes her business and is also recommended by the G Adventures tour operator, which connects her drivers to travellers. Her main customers are usually families, as they’ve heard about Ms Kim’s family and want to support her and “they know I will look after them properly”.

When I ask how her day has been, she says she’s happy she’s been able to help people today. When she’s not driving tourists, she also uses her tuk tuk to deliver books to young children, as well as food to older people, and she is almost brought to tears when she tells me how important this is to her. Her commitment to supporting and improving the lives of her community runs deep.

Ms Kim’s tuk tuk community provides far more than simply a service to tourists. Not only is it a way for travellers to connect to local people in Siem Reap and to financially support them, but it’s also giving women independence and confidence to be part of something much bigger – they’re on the road to equality.

Ms Kim can be pre-booked through her website tuktuklady.com, or is often found parked in front of the Shinta Mani Shack Boutique Resort hotel in Siem Reap

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Why China’s president hasn’t called Trump about US tariff trade war

When President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China this week, two leaders got on the phone to seek solutions.

But China’s president appears unlikely to make a similar call soon.

“As Washington escalates the tariff, Beijing doesn’t see other options but to retaliate,” said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Stimson Center, a Washington-based think tank. “It doesn’t mean Beijing doesn’t want to negotiate, but it cannot be seen as begging for talks or mercy.”

Beijing, which unlike America’s close partners and neighbors has been locked in a trade and tech war with the U.S. for years, is taking a different approach to Trump in his second term making it clear that any negotiations should be conducted on equal footing.

China’s leaders say they are open to talks, but they also made preparations for the higher U.S. tariffs, which have risen 20 percent since Trump took office seven weeks ago.

Intent on not being caught off guard as they were during Trump’s first term, the Chinese were ready with retaliatory measures — imposing their own taxes this past week on key U.S. farm imports and more.

As the world’s second-largest economy, China aspires to be a great power on both the regional and global stage, commanding respect from all countries, especially the United States, as proof that the Communist Party has made China prosperous and strong.

After the U.S. this past week imposed another 10 percent tariff, on top of the 10 percent imposed on February 4, the Chinese foreign ministry uttered its sharpest retort yet: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”

The harsh rhetoric echoed similar comments in 2018, when Trump launched his first trade war with China and it scrambled to line up tit-for-tat actions. Beijing’s leaders have since developed a toolkit of tariffs, import curbs, export controls, sanctions, regulatory reviews and measures to limit companies from doing business in China.

All are designed to inflict pain on the U.S. economy and businesses in response to the American measures.

That allowed the Chinese government to react swiftly to Trump’s recent across-the-board doubling of new tariffs on Chinese goods by rolling out a basket of retaliatory measures, including taxing many American farm goods at up to 15 percent, suspending U.S. lumber imports and blacklisting 15 U.S. companies.

Beijing showed restraint in its response to leave room for negotiation, analysts say.

Xi Jinping’s leadership of the ruling Communist Party spans both of Trump’s terms, giving Beijing more continuity in its planning. He is the one who decided it’s not yet time to speak with Trump, said Daniel Russel, vice president for international security and diplomacy at the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“That’s not a scheduling issue, it’s leverage for China,” said Russel, who previously served as the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. “Xi won’t walk into a call if there’s a chance he’ll be harassed or humiliated and for both political and strategic reasons, Xi won’t play the role of a supplicant.”

“Instead, China is hitting back promptly — but judiciously — to each set of tariffs,” Russel said.

At his annual press conference on Friday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that “no country should fantasize that it can suppress, contain China while developing good relations with China.”

“Such two-faced acts not only are bad for the stability of bilateral relations but also will not build mutual trust,” Wang said. He added that China welcomes cooperation with the U.S., but noted that “if you keep pressuring, China will firmly retaliate.”

Scott Kennedy, a trustee chair in Chinese business and economics at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Chinese this time are “not psychologically shocked” by Trump’s “shock-and-awe” tactics.

“They’ve seen this before,” Kennedy said. “These are the kind of things that they’ve anticipated.”

China’s economy has slowed but is still growing at nearly a 5 percent annual pace, and under Xi, the party is investing heavily in advanced technology, education and other areas. It has stronger trade ties with many other countries than during Trump’s first term and has diversified where it gets key products, for example, buying most of its soybeans from Brazil and Argentina instead of the U.S.

In turn, the percentage of Chinese goods sold to the U.S. has fallen.

“They are better prepared to absorb the effect of the shocks, compared to several years ago,” Kennedy said.

Meanwhile, more than 80 percent of Mexico’s exports go to the U.S., and Canada sends 75 percent of its exports here.

China has learned from its previous dealings with Trump, Russel said. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum are facing a reversal of Trump’s previous trade policies, with tariffs imposed and then postponed twice on at least some goods.

“Beijing has seen enough to know that appeasing Trump doesn’t work,” Russel said. In the first go-around, Trudeau and Sheinbaum “bought a little time, but the pressure only came roaring back stronger.”

Trudeau flew to Mar-a-Lago to meet Trump in December after the president-elect threatened tariffs. But in announcing retaliatory tariffs on Tuesday, Trudeau sternly warned: “This is a time to hit back hard and to demonstrate that a fight with Canada will have no winners.”

Sheinbaum also has said that “no one wins with this decision.”

Myanmar junta chief announces election in next 10 months

Myanmar is set to hold its first election since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021, plunging the country into a brutal civil war.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup against Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, announced that elections would take place in December 2025 or January 2026 at the latest, according to the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.

Speaking in Belarus, one of Myanmar’s few remaining allies, he said 53 political parties had already submitted their lists to participate.

However, no exact date was given, and the junta has repeatedly pushed back election plans while facing growing battlefield losses.

The announcement comes as Myanmar’s military struggles to maintain control, with armed resistance from pro-democracy fighters and ethnic militias escalating across the country.

With the junta losing ground to resistance forces, opposition leaders jailed, and large parts of the country outside military control, the planned vote is already being dismissed as a farce.

Four years after overthrowing Ms Suu Kyi’s government, the military is on the defensive. It is believed to control less than half of Myanmar’s territory, with opposition forces seizing key towns and military bases. Holding a nationwide election in this environment seems nearly impossible.

The junta has already signalled that voting will only take place in areas it controls. In October, the military attempted a partial census to compile voter lists, but it only managed to collect data in 145 of 330 townships. The junta admitted in a report, that many areas controlled by ethnic militias and pro-democracy forces were inaccessible.

The plan for a general election is widely seen as an attempt to legitimise the military’s grip on power. Most of Myanmar’s opposition leaders, including Ms Suu Kyi, 79, remain in prison after what rights groups call politically motivated trials. The junta has also cracked down on independent media, making a fair election even more unlikely.

The National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow administration formed by ousted lawmakers and activists, has rejected the military’s election plans and vowed to block the vote through non-violent means.

How Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees feel about Aung San Suu Kyi

Sitting in a dimly-lit bamboo shelter in the world’s largest refugee camp, Rohingya Muslims like Azizur Rehman could be forgiven for hating Aung San Suu Kyi.

Five years ago, the then-leader of Myanmar appeared at the International Court of Justice to deny the Rohingya were victims of genocide by her country’s military, much to the shock of the rest of the world.

Yet Rehman, 34, speaks enthusiastically from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh about the now jailed Myanmar leader and her father General Aung San, Myanmar’s independence hero, who in 1946 declared that Myanmar’s citizens “will live together and die together” and assured full rights and privileges for the Rohingya. One year later, he was assassinated.

“I don’t think she (Suu Kyi) is the real enemy of the Rohingya,” he tells The Independent. “She was just a rag doll who never had absolute power.”

Instead he blames the army itself and the Mogh Baghi – a common term used by refugees for the Arakan Army, the most powerful Buddhist rebel group in Myanmar accused of forcefully displacing tens of thousands of Rohingya.

“I don’t know if I, or the tens of thousands of people like me, will ever return to Burma. But I believe Aung San Suu Kyi’s release from detention could awaken her conscience and give her a chance to redeem herself for not speaking up for the Rohingya when she was in power.”

Rehman, who fled Rakhine State during the 2017 mass exodus, now works as a community leader in the camp, helping those who continue to flee war and destruction since General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup that overthrew Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in February 2021.

As Myanmar plunges deeper into civil war under military rule, Rohingya refugees like Rehman are reassessing their views on the jailed leader.

Desperate and frustrated with the ever-waning attention on one of the world’s most persecuted communities, many Rohingya in exile cling to the belief that the release of Suu Kyi will provide them some hope for repatriation to Myanmar.

Rehman’s perspective appears to be representative of many of the Rohingya who have fled across the border to Cox’s Bazar.

Now in her fourth year of solitary confinement in Myanmar, Suu Kyi, 79, was long celebrated as a global democratic icon for standing up to the Myanmar generals, but later fell from grace due to her silence and perceived complicity in the brutal military crackdown of 2017 – an operation that led to mass killings and displacement of over 700,000 Rohingya.

As the Myanmar military faced accusations of “widespread and systematic clearance operations,” including mass murder, rape, and destruction of Rohingya villages, Suu Kyi stood at The Hague in 2019 and dismissed the claims. She argued that the allegations against the military presented an “incomplete and misleading factual picture” and blamed the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) for triggering what she described as an “internal conflict”.

While Suu Kyi conceded that disproportionate military force may have been used and civilians killed, she said the acts did not constitute genocide. At Bangladesh’s refugee camp, some refugees at the time shouted “liar, liar, shame!” as they watched Suu Kyi on television.

Five years later, in November last year, the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan requested an arrest warrant against General Hlaing “for the crimes against humanity of deportation and persecution of the Rohingya, committed in Myanmar, and in part in Bangladesh”. This request is currently under review by ICC judges, who will determine whether to issue the warrant.

Umma Hanee, 75, remembers watching the ICJ hearing where Suu Kyi defended the army against accusations of genocide.

“It was due to the power of the general that she was unable to speak up for the Rohingyas at that time and General Min Aung Hlaing was actually the person in power, who used to direct violence against people in Rakhine state,” Hanee says.

“Rohingyas are the citizens of Myanmar and everyone, including Suu Kyi should raise their voice for us.”

Mohammad Shakir, 35, blames General Hlaing for pushing the Mogh Baghi into the Rakhine state, calling him the “main culprit” of the crisis in Myanmar.

“General Min Aung Hlaing has controlled the power in Myanmar,” he asserts.

Shakir believes that if “Rohingyas now stand with her (Suu Kyi) and demand her release, she might testify that Rohingya did not commit violence, but the junta did”.

The refugees in Bangladesh say they follow the happenings in Myanmar and updates on Suu Kyi through TV and online news on their phones despite bad reception in parts of the camps – once a forested area inhabited by wild animals, now home to nearly a million displaced people.

It is not the first time Suu Kyu has been under house arrest. Arrested three times before, she has spent more than 18 years of her life with little company and no connection with the outside world.

Once likened to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights in Myanmar in 1991. At the time, she was under house arrest imposed by the military junta for her role in leading the pro-democracy movement.

Her younger son Kim Aris, who lives in London, has raised concerns over his mother’s health in interviews with The Independent and made a direct appeal to the military-run government in Naypyidaw to release her on the fourth anniversary of the 2021 coup.

The Independent TV’s documentary Cancelled: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi shines a light on her continued imprisonment.

In Cox’s Bazaar, Sabikun Nahar, who has lived in a cramped 12ft by 12ft shelter for two years, tells how she once owned a large piece of land in Myanmar.

She alleges that the land is now occupied by the military and used for conducting activities against their people.

Nahar believes that Suu Kyi’s downfall is intrinsically linked to the 2017 crisis.

“If the 2017 influx had not happened, she might not have been jailed. Even when she was in power, she was making efforts to repatriate us. But this angered Min Aung Hlaing, and he jailed her. That’s why we are still unable to return to Myanmar,” she says.

Many Rohingya had high hopes when Suu Kyi became Myanmar’s first civilian leader after decades of military rule—largely because of her father’s legacy. General Aung San had openly referred to the Rohingya as “our own people”, a recognition later erased by successive military regimes.

Rehman and others remember the “red identity cards” issued under Aung San’s leadership—proof of their Burmese citizenship—only to be replaced later with white cards, marking them as Bengalis and Muslims rather than Myanmar nationals.

“That was the only identity proof my family held for a short period of time. Since then, we are fighting for our identity and our homeland, facing systematic oppression at the hands of the junta,” Rehman says.

Abdul Karim, a 60-year-old refugee whose mother had a similar identity card, lamented that Suu Kyi did not fulfil her commitment to ensure peace in Rakhine state and remembered her father “who was more sympathetic to them.

“We voted for her in the election as she was our only hope. But she failed us and the world,” he says.

The influx of Rohingyas into the already overcrowded camps in neighbouring Bangladesh has never stopped since 2017. It has been exacerbated by the 2021 coup which has unleashed a civil war in parts of the country, especially in the Rakhine state. It is one of the poorest among the country’s seven states and has a vast majority of the population of Rohingya Muslims.

Human rights groups have raised concerns over the living conditions in the camps where the majority of the population solely relied on the UN’s funding for food and healthcare.

The United Nations’ food agency earlier this week said it was planning to slash food rations for Rohingya refugees by more than half from next month, a move that activists say would cause widespread malnutrition among the already vulnerable community.

The Independent spoke to those who have escaped violence, rapes and forced conscription in their country. The fighting in Myanmar has intensified between rebel groups and the military since the latter claimed power and overthrew the democratically elected government.

In the last year, the military has lost huge swaths of territory to the rebel groups, including in nearly all of Rakhine State, according to reports. It has also lost territory in the west and northern Shan State in the east of Myanmar and large parts of Kachin State in the north.

Hanee, a septuagenarian, says there are textbooks in Myanmar on General Aung San while Suu Kyi had her contribution written and erased with the multiple military coups the country has seen.

She says the only way to bring peace in Myanmar is after Suu Kyi is released and the Arakan Army is held accountable and taken over.

Noor Hashim, a refugee himself who works with trafficking victims at the camps, says Suu Kyi is one of them.

“Suu Kyi has been the victim of the military like us,” he explains, demanding that she should be released and allowed to spend the rest of the days with her family.

UN special rapporteur calls on UK to open up to more Afghan refugees

The United Nations special rapporteur for Afghanistan has called on Britain to take more refugees from the Asian country and show greater compassion towards people fleeing the Taliban.

Richard Bennett has made the plea nearly four years after the Taliban retook Kabul, when western forces, led by the US, left the country in 2021 after two decades of war. Since then, the Taliban has introduced a series of draconian restrictions on women in the country and banned them from many aspects of public life.

“Afghans are not coming to the UK because the streets are paved with gold,” he told The Independent. “They are coming because they are persecuted, and life is very hard for them. Nobody wants to be a refugee.”

Britain pledged to accept 20,000 refugees over five years under the Home Office’s scheme for vulnerable Afghans. By December 2024, it had seen 34,940 arrivals from Afghanistan and provided accommodation to nearly 26,000 of them.

Many vulnerable Afghans have resorted to taking boats across the Channel from continental Europe. But after reaching the UK, many have also found themselves separated from their families, leading to further mental anguish.

“They are refugees who have been persecuted in a war and now by an oppressive regime,” said Mr Bennett, who was banned by the Taliban last year from entering Afghanistan. “They are truly the classic definition of a refugee.”

He said there are some countries providing asylum to distressed Afghan women and that even the women escaping the Taliban lived with survivors’ guilt.

“The situation is so repressive that it meets the definition of persecution for every class of that gender,” he said. “I come from New Zealand, and we had a prime minister who asked people to be kind. So that’s what I would do too – to be kind to Afghan refugees, please.”

Since his appointment by the UN Human Rights Council in 2022, Mr Bennett has produced multiple reports highlighting the plight of Afghan women and minorities in particular under the hardline Islamist rule of the Taliban.

In September last year, the Taliban said that his reports were “based on prejudices and anecdotes detrimental to interests of Afghanistan and Afghans”.

The special rapporteur, though, has continued speaking for and with Afghans. “We’re trying to understand the scale and the gravity of the Taliban’s rule. There are women tortured in prison, sometimes sexually abused, beaten and threatened. The threats basically are orders to stop protesting and getting guarantees from male family members to ‘stay at home, keep your head down, don’t tell anybody about this, and don’t leave the country’. So, their women are being totally silenced,” he said.

Mr Bennett said he was aware of two cases where members of the Taliban allegedly made videos of women in compromising situations and threatened to release the footage if they spoke out.

“Well, actually, if you knew your history, this is predictable,” he said. “The Taliban spokesperson said the sight of women through a window is enough to lead to obscene acts. In the 21st century, it is pathetic that you have to cover the window up to not protect the woman but the man from losing control. It is bizarre,” he said, noting the Taliban’s edicts, including the latest one banning women from appearing near uncovered windows, mirrored rules from the group’s rule in the 1990s.

“It shows how women and girls are not considered the equal of men and boys but rather inferior human beings. This is not a situation that any country, any other country can accept in the 21st century.”

Speaking recently at the Herat Security Dialogue in Spain, the UN rapporteur described the situation of Afghan women and girls under the Taliban rule as “hell”.

In his latest report, Mr Bennett said the Taliban’s refusal to allow him into Afghanistan was sending out a negative signal about the group’s willingness to meet international obligations.

Almost four years after taking power, he pointed out, the Taliban was yet to gain international recognition and establish formal ties with any country.

Several countries have said the Taliban’s path to international recognition was stuck due to its position on women’s rights. The group has barred most girls over the age of 12 from formal education, banned women from parks and from travelling long distances without a male guardian.

Mr Bennett has also highlighted the plight of the LGBTI+ community in Afghanistan. He has been looking into reports about the Taliban sentencing a man in a same-sex relationship to death by burial under a wall. “We have been looking into it. It was a couple of years ago, but we have not verified it yet,” he said.

He has been in touch with members of the LGBTI+ community in Afghanistan to document their plight. Mr Bennett said: “I have had video calls from a safe house, where they have shown me wounds from being beaten up by the police,” he said, adding that the community’s situation wasn’t any easier under the previous government backed by the West.

“They are expected to meet gender norms and can be targeted for how they dress. If you are a man [you’re expected to] have a beard – which may not be what they want to do – and dress in a certain way or walk in a certain way, and they’ll draw attention to themselves by being themselves.”

Mr Bennett quoted a transgender woman telling him that her family members had been detained and beaten by people affiliated with the Taliban after she fled the country. “They do not see us as human,” she told him.

If the US or the UK wanted to engage with the Taliban, Mr Bennett said the first step should be to avoid normalising the Taliban rule “without any significant, verified and measurable improvements in the human rights situation of Afghans”.

“Use that leverage that the international community has – be it political or financial or sanctions – a range of actions can put pressure on the Taliban. And to be clear, I am not against dialogue,” he told The Independent.

“I have always been for dialogue, and the US and the UK need to consistently raise their concerns about human rights when they engage with the Taliban – not skirt around or avoid it. You could speak to them about water quality or airspace or trade or anything under the sun, but human rights have to be central to it.”