Myanmar or Burma

India is considering trading power with Southeast Asian countries through Myanmar and Thailand, five sources briefed on the matter said, as New Delhi looks to use its growing renewables capacity to boost regional diplomatic engagement.

"Once we are able to connect India's national grid to Burma (Myanmar), we should be able to strengthen the grid there and further transmit to Thailand and even Asia's east," the industry official said.

At a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia on Tuesday, Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai told his counterparts that he recently met with Myanmar’s detained leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, in prison, as reported by Japanese media outlet Kyodo News.

According to the report, Don Pramudwinai had the meeting with Suu Kyi on Sunday, and said he might read out “a message from Suu Kyi” on Wednesday, the second day of the ASEAN ministerial meeting.

ASEAN foreign ministers will gather in Indonesia on Tuesday for talks set to be dominated by the crisis in Myanmar, with the regional bloc divided over how or whether to reengage with the coup-wracked country's ruling junta.

The two-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting will be followed by talks with Beijing, Washington and other powers where top US diplomat Antony Blinken will seek to push back on China's assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Amid a power vacuum and surging crime, Shan State’s varied armed groups are increasingly dispensing justice, but their judicial systems often violate human rights norms and are inspired by the Myanmar state that they claim to oppose.

People’s Defence Forces (PDF) staged a daring attack on a junta convoy near Naypyitaw where homes of the leaders of the junta are located. This calls into question the junta's ability to maintain order and control over an area where they allegedly have strong local support due to a large presence of military families in the area.

On July 5, KNDF B09 issued a statement revealing that 33 civilians lost their lives as a result of artillery shells, small arms fire, and airstrikes unleashed by the Military Council during their military operations in Shan State and Karenni State.

The Myanmar regime has established a fraudulent entity to replace the banking details of its oil and gas venture in an attempt to access sanctioned funds outside the country originally paid by foreign partners, according to an internal document leaked to Myanmar Now.

[Burmese junta leader Min Aung Hlaing collected $7.5m in donations from his cronies towards building of a massive Buddha statue in Naypyidaw. It is a tradition in Burma for the wealthy and powerful to build temples and religious edifices for merit-gathering purposes as atonement for the wrongs they do in pursuit of nirvana. - O.P.]