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Global demand for rare earth elements fuels environmental destruction in Kachin State

In the remote mountains of Kachin State, rare earth elements used in everything from wind turbine generators to television screens are being mined illegally with seemingly toxic chemicals.

BY Ronja Pilgaard, Jauman Naw & Emily Fishbein

News Feed, News, Business, Features

Global demand for rare earth elements fuels environmental destruction in Kachin State

In the remote mountains of Kachin State, rare earth elements used in everything from wind turbine generators to television screens are being mined illegally with seemingly toxic chemicals.

BY Ronja Pilgaard, Jauman Naw & Emily Fishbein

News Feed, News, Business, Features

‘Weapons, power and money’: How rare earth mining in Kachin enriches a Tatmadaw ally

The leader of a Tatmadaw-controlled Border Guard Force in a remote region of Kachin State has emerged as a key player in the global rare earth trade, and has turned the territory under his de facto control into a mining hub at a high environmental cost.

BY Emily Fishbein, Ronja Pilgaard & Jauman Naw

News Feed, News, Features

‘We can’t help patients who are in need’: Deaths continue as regime tightens grip on oxygen

New restrictions on the sale and distribution of oxygen to the public have made it harder to treat COVID-19 patients at home and social welfare groups have warned the rules could result in more preventable deaths.

BY Frontier

Highlights

News Feed, News

Vitriol in cyberspace for celebrities who stayed silent

Members Only

Ko Kaung Htet, right, on a reporting trip with the Restoration Council of Shan State in 2016. (Sai Zaw Theik)

Missing in action: Stories of conflict

News Feed

ရန်ကုန်မြို့ တရုတ်နှစ်သစ်ကူးပွဲလသာမြို့နယ်၌ စတင်

ရန်ကုန်မြို့၊ လသာမြို့နယ်မှာ တရုတ်နှစ်သစ်ကူးပွဲကို ယနေ့ ဖေဖော်ဝါရီ ၅ ရက်နေ့ နံနက်ပိုင်းက စတင်ကျင်းပရာ ရန်ကုန်တိုင်းဒေသကြီးဝန်ကြီးချုပ် ဦးဖြိုးမင်းသိန်း တက်ရောက် ဖွင့်လှစ်ပေးခဲ့ပါတယ်။

BY Frontier

News Feed, News

Jolie demands Myanmar ‘commitment’ to end anti-Rohingya violence

Angelina Jolie said that Myanmar must "show genuine commitment" to end violence that has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh.

BY AFP

Bizfeed, Affairs, Business, Features

The wait’s nearly over for foreign insurers

After years of waiting, foreign insurers have been given the go-ahead to enter the domestic market, to the chagrin of their Myanmar competitors.

BY Kyaw Ye Lynn

News Feed, News

Myanmar's opium farmers cling on to lucrative crop

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BY AFP

News Feed, News

Angelina Jolie visits Rohingya camp in Bangladesh

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BY AFP

News Feed, News

Myanmar’s opium farmers cling on to lucrative crop

Fields of purple opium poppy stretch across the pastures and peaks of eastern Myanmar, with many farmers reluctant to give up the profitable cash crop.

BY AFP

Travel, Affairs, Features

From Venice to Inle Lake

In the first of a series profiling Myanmar’s leading responsible tourism businesses, Frontier meets enterprising tourist guide Myo Min Zaw, who went to Italy for professional development and returned with an altruistic idea.

BY Sha Miao

News Feed, News, Affairs, Features

Rogue yogi: a fortune-teller faces trial for fraud

A woman who affected religious piety and claimed to have friends in high places has faced court accused of involvement in a multi-billion-kyat investment scam.

BY Su Myat Mon

News Feed, Breaking News, News, Affairs

Hundreds jobless as Adidas supplier shuts down amid dispute

More than 700 workers have been left jobless after the closure of a Yangon shoe factory that had defied an order to reinstate a sacked workplace labour union member.

BY Kyaw Lin Htoon

Opinion

News Feed, Education, Opinion

The emerging alternatives to ‘military slave education’

News Feed, News, Features, Opinion

Tiananmen and the Tatmadaw: Killing their own people

Opinion

The NUG must commit to human rights for all Myanmar’s people

Business, Opinion

A crisis of confidence looms over Myanmar’s banks

Doh Athan

Podcast: COVID crisis in Kalay

Doh Athan

Video: Below the poverty line

Doh Athan

Podcast: Locals battle military for land compensation in Mon State

Doh Athan

Podcast: Water shortages hit Magway villages

Doh Athan

Podcast: COVID crisis in Kalay

Doh Athan

Video: Below the poverty line

Doh Athan

Podcast: Locals battle military for land compensation in Mon State

Doh Athan

Podcast: Water shortages hit Magway villages

Latest Issue

Volume 6, Issue 18

January 27, 2021

Stories in this issue

Editorial, Opinion

Myanmar enters 2021 with more friends than foes

The early delivery of vaccines is one of the many boons of the country’s geopolitics, but to really take advantage, Myanmar must bury the legacy of its isolationist past.

News Feed, News

Will the Kayin BGF go quietly?

The Kayin State Border Guard Force has come under intense pressure from the Tatmadaw over its extensive, controversial business interests and there’s concern the ultimatum could trigger fresh hostilities in one of the country’s most war-torn areas.

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Doh Athan

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Latest Issue

Myanmar enters 2021 with more friends than foes

Will the Kayin BGF go quietly?

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