Anyone ever see a tree be trimmed like this?!? This 100 year old mango tree next to my house looks like it’s in serous need of disaster relief after ‘a trimming’. At least my veggie garden will get sun now, that’s for sure!

Peaceful protest and civil society organizing pushes KIO to cancel planned rare earth mining in Mai Ja Yang on China border. Will be interesting to see if this has any cascading effects in all the other rare earth mining areas under KIO and NDA-K.

We are honored to have hosted the first US congressional delegation, led by Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, to the East-West Center post COVID-19. Governor Josh Green shared his insights on the vital role Hawai’i plays in bridging the Indo-Pacific region and the US.

#Myanmar junta reports 230 attacks on the power grid since their coup, with a marked increase since mid-2022. Thought I'd end the week with a #map of an aspect of the conflict that hasn't received much coverage.

Let's be absolutely clear: this is a corruption of science and research. The most important single mission on climate is to STOP BURNING FOSSIL FUELS. Not give fossil fuel companies propaganda cover by pretending green tech fairies will come along eventually to clean up the mess.

Frontier Myanmar has been nominated for eight (!!) SOPA Awards. Bursting with pride for this team. Everyone has worked tirelessly to continue producing high quality, professional journalism under enormous pressure and it's so nice to see that recognized sopawards.com/the-sopa-award…

What’s happening in western #myanmar with #cyclone_mocha is what it looks like when climate change and armed conflict join hands.

The hardest part of any work trip is to be repeatedly lectured how liberal economics is the only solution to Myanmar’s armed conflict.

Hey friends, my colleagues and I will be talking about BRI (aka Chinese investment) in SEAsia UH Mānoa CSEAS this Wednesday 15 Nov 12-1.30 pm HST. Hybrid, zoom registration below.

Friends, tune in on 31 Jan 3.00-4.30pm (HST) / 1 Feb 7.30-9.00am (Myanmar) with my Burmese colleagues here in Hawai’i for a discussion on resistance to Myanmar coup on this important anniversary!

Note that a main contributor to Myanmar having the world’s highest criminality score is from criminal networks involved in resource extractivism. It’s much more than rare earths, however. And I’m assuming the military is not even counted as a criminal network. So much to unpack

Just another day in my neighborhood where a 25-person police force with assault rifles stormed my neighbors house, pulling out an attempted murder suspect who my rough n ready neighbors had been apparently hiding. #Hawaii #Paradise

Here is needed coverage on the scourge of rare earth mining in Kachin state

New freely available article out at East-West Center Research on smallholder expansion and privatization of communal forestlands in southeast #myanmar. Findings raise questions on revolution and future decentralized federalism eastwestcenter.org/publications/s…

Myanmar Junta Charges Tycoon Serge Pun With Money Laundering, Other Financial Crimes irrawaddy.com/business/myanm… He should have been charged with plenty more going back to his land grabs and other suspicious financial undertakings since the 1990s.

Ukraine rejects Trump bid to take rights to half its mineral reserves via Financial Times This is such a tragic new turn in war and peace building, with Ukraine’s rare earth metals being weaponized for potential “peace” deals. on.ft.com/4jYx2xA