The Irrawaddy

Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing was in Minsk last week to woo Belarusian investment in his war-torn country. The new-minted president told business leaders at a forum there that setting up shop in Myanmar would give them access to ASEAN and wider Asian markets. Myanmar’s exports in turn would pass through Belarus to reach the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), creating what he called a “win‑win” situation.

After more than five years of war, repression, displacement, economic hardship and enormous personal sacrifice, it is hardly surprising that participants in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution are exhausted. The more important question is what that exhaustion means.

At the order of coup leader‑turned‑president Min Aung Hlaing, public schools across Myanmar have been told to roll out a “nutrition program” requiring every student to consume one egg, one cup of milk, and one banana each week. What was billed as a health initiative has quickly turned into a financial headache, as parents are forced to pay out of pocket to keep the scheme alive.

Successive regimes in Myanmar have long relied on selected mouthpieces to parrot state narratives to domestic and international media. Deploying disinformation campaigns to justify military rule and silence dissent, they have been tasked with projecting a false impression of a peaceful and prosperous country under the generals.

Myanmar’s Commander-in-Chief Gen. Ye Win Oo and his Thai counterpart Gen. Ukris Boontanondha convened the 9th Thailand-Myanmar High Level Committee (HLC) meeting in Bangkok on Thursday, focused on border stability, cybercrimes, counter-terrorism, and joint military training.

Myanmar junta airstrikes targeted a Buddhist holy day meditation session in Sagaing Region’s Myaung Township on Friday morning, killing at least 14 civilians and injuring more than 20, according to local residents.

BEIJING—China on Friday refuted a claim from Washington that it has improperly held a U.S. citizen since early June, saying the American was suspected of violating Chinese law. “China is a country governed by the rule of law, and there is no such thing as so-called wrongful detention,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian in response to a question about the U.S. State Department designating U Min Zin as “wrongfully detained” on Thursday.

Maneuvering at the UN in Geneva China’s permanent representative to the UN Office at Geneva, Jia Guide (right), meets with Chan Aye, the new acting chargé d’affaires at Myanmar’s mission in Switzerland on August 12, 2026. In a heavy hint to the United Nations, China’s permanent representative to the UN Office at Geneva, Jia Guide, met with Chan Aye, the new acting chargé d’affaires at Myanmar’s mission in Switzerland on Aug. 12.

The handshake in a Bangkok hotel on Thursday morning looked routine. Gen. Ye Win Oo, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief for less than five months, stood beside Gen. Ukris Boontanondha, Thailand’s chief of defense forces. On paper, Ye Win Oo was attending what was already the ninth meeting of an established body, the Myanmar–Thailand High-Level Committee. The agenda, too, was familiar: border security, narcotics, scam compounds and military cooperation. But there was little routine about the timing.

Tensions between the regime and its aligned ethnic Karen armed groups are running high after the military seized dozens of cargo trucks controlled by the groups in Karen State’s Hlaingbwe, knowledgeable sources told The Irrawaddy. Regime forces intercepted more than 70 trucks carrying Thai goods at the Salween River’s Thaik Taw jetty and another crossing in the second week of this month. The drivers were detained, according to merchants.