Kachin Rare Earths & The House of Trump

What's Happening in Myanmar

This week in Myanmar: Air strikes kill dozens of civilians and combatants, the Kachin Independence Army and Organisation stand to negotiate with civil society and China on their recent rare earth acquisitions, and Trump's 2025 Secretary of State bucks the isolationist trend.

Email the show at: [e-mail] and visit http://www.frontiermyanmar.net/

Timecodes:

1m08s :: Weekly news digest3m41s :: Trump administration’s effects on Burmese13m06s :: The Lucky Men Hotel23m46s :: Kachin’s Special Region 1 & rare earths39m42s :: Correspondence

Our guests:

Michael Haack, activist and key organizer for passing the Burma Act in the United States, who wrote about it for Frontier:

How the BURMA Act passed congressWhat happened to the BURMA Act?

Emily Fishbein, independent journalist with over 50 articles published on Frontier, and many more elsewhere:

Emily’s list of Frontier articles.

Jaw Tu Hkawng, independent journalist and activist, who with Emily and others published the Lucky Men feature discussed in this podcast:

‘The negotiation failed’: Hpakant’s deadly standoffHe also writes with Al Jazeera.

In this episode, Jaw also referred to Global Witness reports on rare earths and Hpakant in Myanmar:

Myanmar's poisoned mountains Jade and Conflict: Myanmar’s Vicious Circle